I see a lot of Lord of the Rings around too, and they don’t seem to get nearly as much abuse as The Simpsons Pinball Party.
And yeah, I keep a bundle of Post-It Notes in my car partially to stick onto pinball machines where I’ve found some problems. Of course, it’s another thing if the operator does not know how to fix it, which seems to take up the lion’s share of what happens afterwards. There was a drain switch problem with an Avatar at Mission Hills Bowl, for instance, which got fixed by the following week–but something destabilized the machine fierce, and it kept having problems until it was replaced with a Shrek. That had its own problems too, though it stayed up until the bowling alley went out of business a couple of months ago.
The Family Arcade (also known as the Family Amusement Corporation) has the pinball repair guy as the general maintenance guy. He has a limited knowledge of the inner workings of pinball machines, and he does not play them at anything more than a basic level. (He is very good at fixing issues with the building itself, however, which I’m guessing he was hired for.) For instance, I’ve been going there for two years, and the whole time, their World Poker Tour has a nonfunctioning Ace in the Hole. It’s been reported to him, but he doesn’t know what it’s supposed to do under normal circumstances (even if you explain it to him, he won’t understand it, as he is not a pinball player). He can fix things that are obvious to everyone, like broken flippers (there is a Simpsons Pinball Party there with broken flippers, which he fixes, but they keep getting broken again), shrapnel on the playfield, broken lights, and even faulty DMDs, but if it’s rules-related, or it doesn’t look obvious from five seconds of playing, it’s beyond him. Balrog’s switch in Lord of the Rings remained broken for months.
He’s a very sweet man, and I feel bad for bashing on him like that, but Family Arcade really needs to have someone on-hand with a background in pinball maintenance. And they sell and rent these machines!
I’ve also had cases where the Post-It Note was removed with the pinball machine not really in any better condition. I don’t know who removed them though. For most Simpsons Pinball Parties, it’s impractical to notify the operator directly, as they’re not present on the premises. It’s like with vending machines and redemption machines: If it’s not at an arcade, then the operator gets permission to put the machine there and return every now and then to collect money put into it, sharing it with the owner of the business. Sometimes, I see contact information. Sometimes, I don’t. Rarely, I see the operator actually there, and they will attempt to fix the machine (with varying levels of success).
But I almost never see long ball times with The Simpsons Pinball Party. I people-watch sometimes to see how non-pinball-people play. When I see non-players at Lord of the Rings or Shrek or Star Trek (Stern), they’re there for usually between 60 seconds and 150 seconds. At The Simpsons Pinball Party, it’s usually more between 30 seconds and 60 seconds. I’m guessing it’s due to the faulty flippers and the complete lack of ball saver. A lot of them have the outlanes at maximum width or the posts removed. I’ve seen a few machines that don’t even have the three-switch rule. I’ve plunged a ball and had it land straight in the center drain, and it ended my ball. (I’m still not sure what it is that has people say The Simpsons Pinball Party has long ball times. Do you need to be of a certain skill level to do that? Are the upper flippers that important to extending the length of a game? Or am I just really, really bad at The Simpsons Pinball Party compared to pretty much any other pinball game I’ve played?) The game has a lot of center shots, so I get a lot of rapid center drains. I also get a lot of outlane drains via the slingshots and the nuclear cooling towers.)
Should this be a discussion for another topic? You could probably tell I’m pretty frustrated with some local operators leaving their machines busted and broken, so I have a lot more to say than this. I think it hurts pinball as a whole if someone’s first impression is of a broken machine that they might not even realize is broken.