I'm refurbishing a Flash which lived its life in a university arcade. It's obviously been played a zillion times, but the game count drained out when the batteries drained their solution.
What's the highest count you've seen? In what game? Where was it installed?
Quoted from clodpole:I'm refurbishing a Flash which lived its life in a university arcade. It's obviously been played a zillion times, but the game count drained out when the batteries drained their solution.
What's the highest count you've seen? In what game? Where was it installed?
My Gottlieb Drop-A-Card has over 300k plays. I was foolish when I bought it thinking “that must not be a lot for a pinball machine!” Oh how naïve I was...
Quoted from chuckwurt:I think my Grand Prix says over 100k games on it. It’s a manual counter.
EMs aren't always accurate. The meters may have been spun up to make it harder for route guys to mess with them and take money for themselves.
LTG : )
Quoted from Yoko2una:Though I can't access the audits, I'll submit ST Pro at Islands of Adventure for being pretty high up there.
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This didn’t have a ton of plays just a bad playfield.
About 7 years ago I picked up a Spider-Man that the playfield/ramps were SOLID BLACK from crap all over it. It had the factory original code and had 180,000 plays on it. It took hours to clean that thing and besides a cracked left ramp, replaced magnet (didn't damage the playfield!), tons of burnt bulbs, and 2 cracked plastics it played incredibly well. That was the day I stopped being a B/W snob and gave Stern my respect.
Either way, 180K on a SAM system.
By far, the highest most used and abused game room machines out there would be the old Chicago coin big ball bowlers. These things are tanks.
I know some that have been on route for 50 plus years getting played hard every night and still going.
There is no counter on these but if you run the numbers many of these would be well over 1 million plays and still going strong.
United bowlers would never last this long with the butterfly pin mechanism. But the CC games are rock solid games
Hey Lloyd, what's your opinion on the scratched balls killing playfields? I don't see much evidence for this. I know that scientifically a scratched ball will wear a playfield more than a smooth one, but is it worth worrying about? I've seen old games with absolute shit balls still being played on then and the pfs are perfectly fine. Being a seasoned router, do you change balls on a schedule?
I have a bunch of extras, but a rarely change them, especially with modern clears. The damage just isn't there...
Hopefully Lloyd will chime in.
Meanwhile, my experience is that not all playfields were created equal. Early 80s Williams playfields (like Barracora) seem to have been printed with fragile ink, and are usually worn down to wood. To the contrary, I have a friend with a Recel Icarus, whose ball looks like Mars - pitted and rusty. Yet, that playfield is pristine and still shiny.
Quoted from clodpole:Hopefully Lloyd will chime in.
Meanwhile, my experience is that not all playfields were created equal. Early 80s Williams playfields (like Barracora) seem to have been printed with fragile ink, and are usually worn down to wood. To the contrary, I have a friend with a Recel Icarus, whose ball looks like Mars - pitted and rusty. Yet, that playfield is pristine and still shiny.
Wasn’t Recel one of the companies experimenting with clears and plexi/plastic covers over the wood playfields?
Quoted from Tranquilize:scratched balls killing playfields
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My friend bought a mata hari that did not have the rubber on the launch pin. The pin was peened over from years of use. The ball was hammered. The playfield was scoured down to the wood in many places.
A used ball is probably detrimental to a playfield but the degree of damage is dictated by how bad the ball is, how much the machine is played and what playfield it is on.
No matter how much use my games see, I change the balls each year. Even a coating of oxidation is abrasive. YMMV
Quoted from Tranquilize:Hey Lloyd, what's your opinion on the scratched balls killing playfields?
Scratched balls are like rolling sand paper. The worse the scratches, the worse the sanding. I keep an eye on them, when they look more satin finish than shiny, out they go.
dodpole has a good point. Playfields like the Bally Kiss were more like a layer of ink rather than paint and wear a lot more quicker than a playfield painted and or clear coated.
LTG : )
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Hopkins, MN