Why would they do that when they can charge $999 for a Spike 2 MPU board (cost likely <$50), or 100s for node boards (cost likely <$10 for most)?

SAM is robust, fully documented and an easily repairable system.

Spike/2 fails quickly & often, is very difficult or impossible to repair, completely undocumented, and likely much cheaper to make.

The obscene cost of replacements is only partly price gouging, in my view.

The main thing is built in obsolescence. The boards are going to fail after a while, given how both delicate and unreliable they are. What better way to encourage people to buy new machines than your 'old' ones be discouragingly expensive to repair, with little guarantee of reliability?

It's very common with consumer products, most notably Apple.

Stern now describe themselves as a "global lifestyles brand". Which should tell you something about their aspirations. They also told us that Spike was more serviceable and reliable - which I have difficulty believing that they didn't know otherwise about from the beginning.

You mean like fuses? Oh, wait ...

I doubt some software protection that they've either been sitting on for ages, or only just started writing will be as effective as fuses. Also, what have they been doing since Spike became available nearly 3 and a half years ago?

Same for the Spike 2 MPU board. It's an almost stock off-the-shelf design, with a couple of minor alterations, that definitely could be reproduced at a fraction of the cost that Stern sells them. But whether it's possible to extract what ever firmware or OS they have on it initially before the game code is installed is another matter entirely. I suspect it isn't. At least, not easily. Given the amount they're charging, I'd be surprised if someone hasn't already tried. As nothing's popped up yet ... draw your own conclusions.

Supposedly up to 40% of Stern's market is overseas atm. Guarantee you that less than 10% of that is games on route or public locations.

So for Stern to have 50:50 operator / home is virtually impossible.

Way more ...

Oh, come on ...

This is becoming like the people who claimed there was no issue with Stern's playfields / cabinets / etc, and then that it was all fixed & replacements had gone out when they hadn't.

Trying to pretend that a problem does not exist and that the issues are not widespread when they clearly are just makes it look worse, as people will assume you're associated with Stern.

Do you need to be severely injured in a crash for you to acknowledge that your car's airbags are faulty and won't deploy, after seeing that the problem was happening?

Fuses are unnecessary. Clearly.

Looks like it actually caught fire.

They design around lead free solder, or should be, and have for years. That's no excuse.

Surely there must be some kind of counter measure against this? Thought it was a standard from at least the beginning of the 90s on, on everything.

Presumably, like the rest of the system, it's there but is either badly designed or prone to failure, and not working in your case.

If indeed they've removed that (it's present in SAM), that would tend to suggest they *want* stuff to fail catastrophically.

I was under the impression this was not only to prevent costly damage to the game, but a safety feature to stop potential fires. Something, it could be argued, that are made significantly more likely in a system that is not fused.

What you're suggesting - if Spike really does lack this, or lack a reliable counter measure - is that someone (with keys) should always be in attendance, babysitting Spike/2 games, and capable of carrying out maintenance, when they're switched on.

Assuming that wouldn't be a very obvious problem and safety issue in a home environment, how on earth would your advice tally for locations or operators?

Edit: If it lacks this feature, or the feature is unreliable, how on earth does it conform to CE certification, a requirement in Europe, as this is a clear fire hazard?

I'm assuming it would be a formality to roll a new system image with drivers for later Intel, or AMD, or even VIA chipsets?

I assume it's about the maker of USB bus chipsets that causes issues? Are they Intel, Via, NEC, Highpoint etc etc in the boards you've used?

Had no idea you were involved with AP, too. Interesting.

Because it's a knock-off / counterfeit of Lepai, the famous Japanese audio brand. Amazon have been purging stuff like that recently.

The Lepai LP-168AH tends to be what they're copying / emulating. That's widely available, and of guaranteed quality. Buy that.

Edit: Maybe they're not Japanese. Forget what they are.