(Topic ID: 330125)

Why I'm done with location pinball.

By Beechwood

1 year ago


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  • 114 posts
  • 64 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 1 year ago by mostater
  • Topic is favorited by 3 Pinsiders

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    There are 114 posts in this topic. You are on page 3 of 3.
    #101 1 year ago
    Quoted from MrVern:

    dammit Beechwood, I went to location on Saturday and their new 007 had a missing mount, leaving a gate switch to hang by a wire.
    I stepped back, chuckled as I jokingly blamed you, then moved on to a dirty Munsters. (note to self: inspect playfield before depositing $2)
    I wish more operators put contact info on their equipment so they can be notified.. I imagine this switch is not going to last long getting bashed around by customers who don't care. The bartender didn't know/care who the operator was or how to notify them.

    I'll take the blame lol.

    I had the same, bartender said it was an outside operator who owned the machines and didn't seen to care. At least the beer was good!

    2 weeks later
    #102 1 year ago
    Quoted from The_Pump_House:

    This right here. 99.9% of issues on our pins are reported by one guy (and thank god for “pinball Mike”)
    People will scroll right past the info to notify me on pinball map about an issue to complain about an issue on a pin.
    The info section states who the pin key holders are and someone complained that the “bar says they don’t have a key”. Well of course the random server you stopped doesn’t know anything about pinball let alone have a key to them

    I wish my customers/regulars would report issues. They just leave shit broken and if I don’t test them every night then I won’t know! We’ve got one local guy that’s a pinball beast who won FORTY-SEVEN REPLAYS on Party Animal. He sometimes lets me know of issues but usually I get “Hey, I just played Party Animal for 4 hours and I only paid $2!! Bring a new game I’m bored. Oh also a flipper snapped off but I kept playing, now it won’t turn on anymore and it smells like smoke. I’ll be back next week”

    #103 1 year ago

    One guy bragged to me about how he used to fix pinballs and arcades for a major operator locally, and then 5 minutes after I left Sorcerer locked on. He said it started acting weird and he saw some smoke so he just left it on but wanted to let me know.
    Moron.
    Just flick the power switch, that’s common courtesy!!!

    #104 1 year ago
    Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:

    I wish my customers/regulars would report issues.

    I encourage it. When people get change I always tell them if they have any problems or questions please let me know.

    My main concern is if they lose a quarter, or more. If they are good enough to come to my business, I want them to get value for their money.

    And a lot don't say anything. My old Space Shuttle would occasionally get a quarter hung up. By the time someone did say something, there'd be a few bucks jammed in there. I always felt bad when I ran into that. Some customers lost money. I value my customers.

    LTG : )

    #105 1 year ago

    Keeping pinballs on route isn't an easy thing to do, and there's absolutely no way to guarantee EVERY game at ANY time is going to play perfectly or at all. Everyone knows how much maintenance it can take to keep a small collection in a home environment running properly. Now, imagine having a large collection that is open for the general public to play and what can (and does) go wrong. It's sometimes really apparent when there's a problem when fixing, but they may not be apparent, and it's truly impossible to go through every single game and identify every possible problem. Even something as simple as keeping games level can be difficult depending on how the floor is situated underneath.

    I've been maintaining games for close to 9 years now, and it's not easy. We clean and repair games at least twice weekly to make sure they play well, and always do what we can to address everything we've been notified about or discover through routine maintenance. What's the best thing people can do if they play and something's not working? Text / call / email the operator of the game and let them know!! If the operator knows something's wrong they can usually fix it quickly. What really sucks is when someone just turns off games without letting anyone know why, or puts comments on <whatever pinball location platform> saying what's broken without notifying the owner.

    Bottom line: location pinball is great, and customer feedback is needed to keep it that way.

    #106 1 year ago

    It is very frustrating when the pinball machines are not level. I have adjusted the feet on my own before. Lol.

    #107 1 year ago

    I've been playing on location for more than 50 years and operated games in multiple locations for more than 10 years. I serviced my machines once a week whether they needed it or not. Still play several times a week on location. Location maintenance has never been better. More and more operators are also hobbyist. Playing on location is the absolute best way to support the hobby. If you choose to no longer play on location, thanks for nothing.

    #108 1 year ago

    I've got a few operators on speed dial. Counter help usually says "call the operator" anyways, so I do. It's probably better that I can give an explicit description of why the game needs a service call than to just say "white smoke came out of the backbox so we're getting a new pope" anyways.

    #109 1 year ago

    We always tell our players to give us a call or shoot us a message when they find anything wrong with one of our machines!
    Mostly it’s even fixed within a few hours!

    Sometimes it’s difficult as casual players don’t know and don’t care so every now and then we find a fault in a machine that has been there for a small time.

    Funniest was when we still had our Shrek and the upper left flipper broke, I noticed this while playing it.
    After talking to the location and players this was already for 2 weeks.

    #110 1 year ago

    If there were contact info, I would have told them about the EHOH reboot problem, and the TS4 flipper problems.

    Bartender didn't seen interested.

    #111 1 year ago
    Quoted from Beechwood:

    Bartender didn't seen interested.

    Nor should they unless the bar owns the games.

    But they should at least be trained to know who to contact for game issues.

    #112 1 year ago
    Quoted from Zablon:

    I find playing old games on location (if kept up) is fun.
    Playing NEWER games on location tends to suck because the audio is pretty key to know what is going on and you generally can't hear anything.

    THIS! I have a friend that runs a very reputable place, work of passion for him. Games VERY well maintained. But volumes are kept to low. Finally had a chance to play Aliens there, and even while standing by the speaker while my friend took their turn, I still couldn't hear the callouts.

    #113 1 year ago

    Location pinball makes me appreciate having my own games set up to my preferences. The smallest things can drive me crazy when playing on location(never can hear them #1). On the other hand there is something magical about older games with lots of milage. You place your palm on that worn out lockdown bar and it feels like silk on your palms. Or the flippers feel softer and play different-spongy fun. I will always support location pinball but it does make me appreciate things more.

    #114 1 year ago

    I view location pinball just like going bowling. In bowling, lane conditions are rarely the same from one establishment to another...heck, even from one lane to another at the same place. And you have to adjust your approach, the ball you use, etc... depending on what factors are different. I see location pinball in a similar way and the need to change an approach may be necessary depending on the condition of the game, settings, ambient noise, etc... With that said, I'm not that great of a player so a small difference a better player may notice is probably lost on me. I enjoy location games and will continue to support those operators. In fact, I'm heading out tomorrow to play at one of my favorite local spots.

    There are 114 posts in this topic. You are on page 3 of 3.

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