6.9 - Can I tell if anything is wrong with the game BEFORE I play it? (Pinball Technically Speaking)
Description
This article is from the General Pinball FAQ, by Keith Johnson keefer@access.digex.net with numerous contributions by others.
6.9 - Can I tell if anything is wrong with the game BEFORE I play it? (Pinball Technically Speaking)
Currently, the only company which signals game problems publically is
Williams/Bally. If the game detects something wrong (such as a missing ball
or a stuck/nonregistering switch), then the credits display will change to
something like "Credits 0." The period after the number of credits is the
indicator of some kind of malfunction. DE games use to have a couple of
blinking lights on the front of their games but not any more. Starting with
Stargate, on Gottlieb games (in attract mode) you can hold down the start
button the press the right flipper button to cycle through switches the game
suspects are bad. Prior to this, you couldn't do anything. Alvin G. games
implement a strategy similar to Williams called SmartDots(tm). On the
credits screen, a dot will appear on the lower left if the game thinks a
pinball is missing. A dot will appear on the lower right if the game detects
some kind of switch problem. Alvin G. games DO compensate for these
problems.
-- Thanks to John Gantert <gantertj@vitro.com> for information.
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