They don't like strangers touching them.

LTG : )

Wait till you think about selling one. Woof...

I provide those services. I must be installed for two hours on the possessed machine, with no one in the room and no recording devices active.

Well...resurfaced is a matter of perspective. I've been locked away in a smelly basement for some time...all I can hear is daft punk music constantly playing in the distant background...

I take it you have not made a sacrifice to the pinball gods lately. It needs to be a blood sacrifice. Pick any machine, lift the playfield, stick your head under like your looking at a switch way in the back and knock the prop bar loose. It hurts like hell bet your machines with work like a champ for 3-6 months depending on the number of stitches you need. Works every time.

I don't know what you are talking about. My machines work fine. And if they don't I fix them.

i really need to know the answer to this!!

Why are you telling them ahead of time? Or are they psychic?

See my NGG tech thread...30 minutes before my son had his friends over for a big sleepover, and the day I was planning on starting to shop out my Hi-Deal--which had stopped working the day *I* had a party.

Its a remarkable skill these damn pins have for knowing when to break!!

My new WoZ had the upper right flipper break just 4 days after I got it when my friends came to check it out. Luckily it was just the spring that pulls the flipper back into place. One end of that spring snapped off. I was able to "adjust" what remained of the spring and it's playable until the replacement spring comes.

They're always listening...

"You're invited, but your friend can't come"

If you have them set to take coins, they are more likely to be up for the occasion.

Never met a coin operated machine that likes to be abused for nothing.

Actually in my house about a week before we entertain my wife threatens me if I say I'm going to "adjust" something or do some "small repair" because she's well aware of the saying "the enemy of good is..."

I learned a long time ago if you are going on a road trip or vacation NEVER change the oil or do anything to your vehicle. All you have to do is look at a bolt and it will snap or strip or something bad WILL happen. Whatever goes wrong will take 4 days to get the part when you are leaving in 3.

That is so funny and true.

When you play them they break. When its just me I play one machine and fix any problems that happen. If I turn them all on and have a bunch of people over, the play count goes way up, so more things break or act up. Law of averages.

Wow. The curse of company is real. Had two friends over to see my new game (mentioned above, I've had it 10 days now) today. Game was fine this afternoon. Then... Castle Doors suddenly started sticking open, the crystal ball went out for one game, the flying monkey started dropping the ball too early, and then the game RESTARTED when I had 258,000 on ball 1. Two EBs too. Best game I ever lined up, with witnesses, and the game takes it away.

Don't let friends come check out your NIB games. They'll be cursed.

Because pinball!

Aaron
FAST Pinball

I'm going to try that one for sure. Just leave it in the box under them for a day or two before an event.

Hmm, if I didn't have an RFM I'd say the PDI glass would work. But RFM would see it and know it was for him and the CPU would crash immediately.

I find it so funny that EVERYONE has had the same issue! IT NEVER FAILS! Over the years the machines that are "bullet proof" are the worst...No issue forever but as soon as company comes over the most bizarre thing breaks! I spent half my day on a fourth of July one year trying to get the machines back up and running. tHEY WERE ALL SET READY TO PLAY.. had NO ISSUES NO CREDIT DOTS and BAM the minute people start showing up no JOKE two machines go down. There has to be a Curse !!! WHO DID THIS!!!!

Perfectly logical, although my experience in a home use environment suggests an additional factor besides play count. When my pins are played regularly, they hold up reasonably well and you fix things as you go, just as you described. However, when a pin stays powered off for a long time, then gets played, it's not unusual for something to go haywire right out of the gate. I've seen it again and again, usually in the first one or two games after an extended period of inactivity. And, of course, it's never the same thing twice. A capacitor leaked, shorted, and smoked on Indiana Jones, a somewhat hard-to-get-to whirlpool LED failed on WH2O, the LL flipper died on TZ, lower backbox GI went dead on FT (burnt connector), etc. Apparently, pins like to be played

So funny and so true. Happens all the time. It's annoying and embarrassing. Sure play the games, oh what's that? It's kicking two balls out instead of one? What's that? Some crap fell in the hole in the middle and got lodged in the ball trough? I swear this never happens!!