most trouble free pins/high maintenance pins

mrgone

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which ss/dmd pins are the most trouble free and which are the most troublesome/high maintenance?
 
A lot of it depends on how much stuff is going on with the game. Take Twilight Zone or Star Trek Next Gen, they have tons of toys, gadgets, tunnels, optos, switches all over the place and are both known to be trouble. Not to mention when something does go wrong, errors for example - they are hard to get at.

On the flip side, games that are easier to get at and maintain like Attack from Mars or T2 have most things within reach without pulling the thing apart.

Generally, games from the 90's to present are pretty reliable, and have MANY parts readily accessible - Bally, Williams, Gottlieb, Stern

80's bally and williams games are pretty solid too and usually easier to get at stuff, but parts are harder to find.

earlier than that and you might have trouble finding a tech to work on anything
 
Classic Bally SS pins tend to be pretty bulletproof once you get them up an running. The Gottlieb system 1, 80, 80a and 80b are problem children until you fix all the bugs the engineers left in them.
 
Much like a car, I guess it depends on the amount of use, how it's maintained, and how hard you use it.

If all things are equal, System 80 Gottliebs are the beign of many people's existance. I have trouble with older Bally machines, but my Williams stuff (especially the newer stuff) has been really good. Black Knight has issues every now and again, and I am inagining Hyperball will be problematic, but that is the nature of the beast :)

Chris
 
All of the early SS systems have their problems and all are pretty reliable when ALL of the necessary work to make them reliable has been done. I find the classic Bally/Stern to be the easiest to work on and everything else is about the same with the exception of Gottlieb System 80B. If I had to point to one system being the most difficult to understand and fix that would be my vote.

EDIT: I might have to vote Atari instead with 80B being a close second.
 
Classic Bally SS pins tend to be pretty bulletproof once you get them up an running. The Gottlieb system 1, 80, 80a and 80b are problem children until you fix all the bugs the engineers left in them.

Tim Arnold (from the Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas) was asked which games in his experience were the most reliable. He said, without hesitating, Gottlieb System 1s.

I assume that's after he did the ground mods.
 
I've been told that old Atari's are the hardest to work on, the playfield doesn't lift up. You have to open and work from the bottom of the machine for any playfield work.

-Hans
 
All of the early SS systems have their problems and all are pretty reliable when ALL of the necessary work to make them reliable has been done. I find the classic Bally/Stern to be the easiest to work on and everything else is about the same with the exception of Gottlieb System 80B. If I had to point to one system being the most difficult to understand and fix that would be my vote.

EDIT: I might have to vote Atari instead with 80B being a close second.

Lindsey, what makes 80b harder then Sytem 80 or A or even 3 by chance?
 
80A's have to be modded before they're reliable. The fact that they make entirely redesigned PCB's to replace the crud in the back box should tell you something.
 
80A's have to be modded before they're reliable. The fact that they make entirely redesigned PCB's to replace the crud in the back box should tell you something.

Actually all of the System 80's machines have to be modded before they're reliable... Trust me I have 6 of them from all different eras sans System 3.....
 
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Actually all of the Sytem 80's machines have to be modded before they're reliable... Trust me I have 6 of them from all different eras sans System 3.....

I'm only speaking from personal experience, but pinrepair seems to have an extra large section devoted to all the 80's- so I guess you're right. Replacing or getting those PCB's repaired starts to add up quick, considering just about every board inside the backbox has design flaws.
 
There aren't a lot of great games - but in my experience Gottlieb System 3's are practically tanks.

Had a couple of them for about 6 years - nothing ever went wrong with them apart from general waxing/etc.

system 80s are a nightmare - and pretty much any of the older stuff (coctail tables, etc) that aren't williams/bally/gottlieb are a pain in the ass due to lack of documentation/etc.
 
Lindsey, what makes 80b harder then Sytem 80 or A or even 3 by chance?

I can only speak from my experience but I find the lack of information online and difficulty getting manuals to be part of the problem with System 80B. This is true of Atari as well.

As far as the hardware is concerned it really feels like they just kept tacking crap onto System 80 with weird little boards and hacks and ultimately ended up with 80B which can be pretty convoluted. To me it's pretty much all the same crap but someone new to pinball repair is likely to have a lot easier time with most other pinball systems. Of course, it depends on the game, etc...

System 3 is quite reliable.
 
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