I have a 2006 Stern World Poker Tour and then a bunch of Bally/Williams games from the 90s like Getaway, Funhouse and Diner. I love the Bally/Williams machines and they just feel right to me. Part of that is the default height of the flipper buttons. It comes to something like 33" from the floor to the centre of the flipper buttons. My WPT is lower than that by about two inches and I wondered why?

Was there a conscious decision at some point to change what seemed like an industry accepted height? I have a Data East Lethal Weapon 3 and it is also the same height as the Bally / Williams ones. Not WPT though, it feels like you have to hunch over some. To me it does anyway.

A few others I have played on location from Stern of that vintage seem to be the same. Austin Powers for example seems even lower, like you need to be in grade school to be the right height for it.

Is there anything to this? Or others that have noticed? When you get a bunch of games from different manufacturers and eras lined up, you can really see the differences in the design and physical size of the cabinets. The height of the flipper buttons though really has an effect on gameplay. Just wondered how that came to be?

From the pics and info you've shared, I think it is mostly changes to the shape and size of the cabinet that made the flipper button height change.

The buttons are definitely not lower as compared to being farther down the side from the glass. That's consistent for them all.

The leg lengths are also pretty much the same and I don't think they elected to use shorter legs to save costs. One interesting thing I noticed reading a Stern manual was about how the intention when setting up and levelling is that you are to install all four legs with the levelers dialed all the way in and in theory, on a flat floor, this is supposed to be exactly the right pitch of the playfield. Unlike some of the other games (like Lethal Weapon), where the back leg levelers are jacked way up.

I also noticed on my own games right now that the angle of the Stern cabinets are different. While the playfield angle is still this 6 or 7 degrees we shoot for, the whole cabinet is pitched forward more than the others. I assume this is by design, but maybe it isn't and mine just went that way. You know how they say not to set the playfield angle by using the top of the glass? I think because the glass angle is not only different than the playfield angle, but it's different across games.

I don't have my WPT beside any of the Ball/Williams games at the moment, but it is right beside my LW3. Also right beside a 1976 Gottlieb Sure Shot... and that thing is tall and beefy too when you look at the height of things. There's almost no angle at all to the playfield in those old ones, but the height of the flipper buttons is way up there.

(I need to take some better pics of the WPT, LW3 and Sure Shot with the room lights on and the game lights off. It's hard to see them at the moment.)

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