Probably if the pin caught fire

“Something breaks”

Like the playfield glass on my brother’s BF!

There I was “in the zone” killing it and making great stuff happen under the glass, when that last fateful nudge knocked the makeshift die-cast Batmobile “topper” off the the backbox...

Of course I felt terrible; both of us were inexperienced at the time, but I was less so than he and I felt like I should have recognized the danger (even in my 40s I still go into “protective big brother” mode).

On the plus side, he got a pristine new piece of glass and we both got a crash course in shopping a fairly difficult playfield (I don’t know about you guys, but I learn and retain most effectively when under pressure). In the end the game turned out great, played better, and was sold a couple of years later for quite a bit more than he originally paid.

On more than one occasion, it would never fail that I would have a huge game going, and my kids (when they were younger) would run up to the machine and press the start button, restarting the game. I used to have that feature enabled on a game, because they enjoyed hearing the start sounds of a lot of different games.

Well, historically, for me, my nemesis has always been Scared Stiff... Last ball and you get Stiff-O-Meter to the top needing one last shot to the crate... and you shank your shot into a leaper post and rebound SDTM... I have done this more times than any other wizard mode. However, at the last Expo, where everyone was huddled around EHoH, I walked up to the SS sitting next to Elvira's signing table and proceeded to GC it and taking it all the way to Monster Madness. A younger woman player was the only one watching me and after putting in my initials I said, "well I haven't done that in a long time" since it had been years since I had done it, and even then, only in the wild while paying to play it. The young lady just looked at me in awe and said "I have never done it, that was fun... good game", and this left me a little speechless. Even though I consider SS's wizard mode to be one of the easiest, sometimes it takes a humbling remark like that to remind you that yeah, in the grand scheme of things, I guess I should not take for granted all the wizard modes I have seen and completed as something everyone else has too. We all can't be Tommy, but if you can't, its nice to be at least a close cousin.

You don't want to be Cousin Kevin, though!

Or Uncle Ernie... fiddle about...

That’s why getting Scared Stiff never gets old. Try getting spider mania, that’s a lot more difficult. I’ve yet to do it.

Oddly specific. Hmmm

Also I’ve ended a game, more than once, tilting (losing my bonus of course) while aggressively nudging while the ball save is on. Duh.

What I hate is when you're having a decent (or better than decent) game and suddenly one flipper completely quits on you because the wire broke off the flipper coil lug underneath.

I've had that happen at least three times over the years. Even happened on my Aerosmith less than a month after bringing it home.

I got it last week, on a 50m game. It was a rush!

so.... did you keep playing?

Sudden WPC resetting . Not only game played but possibility many differing issues .

Shane

The worst is definitely when something outside of your control happens that ends a good game. Software crashing, an important solenoid failing, a switch error ending a ball, etc. Ending with an EB lit or a shot away from a wizard mode is rough, but at least those things can be chalked up to player error and those moments make it so much more satisfying when you finally do reach that wizard mode.

I'd say the worst way to end a game caused by player error would be tilting on the last ball though. There's just something super lame about a game ending without getting a final bonus sequence, especially in games with music or sounds specifically for the last one like Whitewater.

This happened to me in the semi-finals of PAPA 2 - while playing against Rick Stetta, Dallas Overturf, and Roger Sharpe.

Fortunately, I was able to trap the ball on the other flipper and they were able to repair the flipper without having to re-start the game. But it sure did induce a panic in me when I went to hit the ball and the flipper did nothing...

100% player fault here