Open letter to the Pinball 2000 designers

Silverunicorn

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Donor 2011-2012
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To all who were involved in ANY aspect of the Pinball 2000 platform.

THANK YOU!

Thank you for your time, knowledge, energy, and expertise! I find new aspects of this platform all the time, and I am amazed. The thought that was put into almost every detail of this system is just incredible.

The board is a work of art. The fact that you can do game swaps in 20 minutes is amazing. The fact that there are only 5 connectors to remove the playfield still makes me giddy! The though of adding a tiny metal flap that cover the ball eject hole when the playfield is lifted so the balls to fall out is just one of so many small things that make this platform amazing to me. Don't even get me started on the diagnostics :)

I have had this machine for years now and still I am in awe of the design of it. Though some may question the 2 titles that were produced on this platform, I want to thank you for designing and building such a quality product.

I think it is a shame that Williams did not allow this to continue, as it did exctly what it set out to do, but that is something for another day.

I will continue to enjoy this machine for (hopefully) many many more years, and will ALWAYS admire the product you created.

Thank you,
Chris McKinley
 
With Nucore the PB2000 platform is even better.

Nucore eliminates the Prism card issue and makes playfield swaps go even faster.

Williams had a few more PB2000 titles planned (Wizard Blocks & Playboy) but since the Williams slot machine business was making lots of money and pinball was not they decided to close their pinball part of the company.

PB2000 was actually a money maker for Williams unlike the several years before.

The good thing about PB2000 (SWEP1 and RFM) is you can still get them for good prices compared to the several games before PB2000 (like: CC, MB, MM, SS, CV).
 
With Nucore the PB2000 platform is even better.

Would say that is a statement of personal opinion.

My philosophy is: If its not broken I do not feel the need to pay 1,000 dollars
for a Nucore with a free MP3 Jukebox built in and that
does not cover the cost of the LCD conversion for the
monitor if so desired :)
 
I have 2 Prism cards so the swaps aren't bad at all :)

I agree Nucore is a good program, and a great resource, I just can not justify the cost when the original equipmet I have works great. Down the road if that changes, I amy re-visit Nucore.

I was just saying that the original design was VERY well done.

Chris
 
The though of adding a tiny metal flap that cover the ball eject hole when the playfield is lifted so the balls to fall out is just one of so many small things that make this platform amazing to me.

Actually, many of the Data East games had a similar arrangement, with a coil-activated gate opening the path from the trough to the ball feeder. The balls stay in place when the playfield is lifted/tilted. SOunds like the Pin2k implementation is simpler!
 
this is a long shot i know,is there any chance that someone might produce some new pin2k titles?or some more conversion kits? here is to hoping.
 
Would say that is a statement of personal opinion.

My philosophy is: If its not broken I do not feel the need to pay 1,000 dollars
for a Nucore with a free MP3 Jukebox built in and that
does not cover the cost of the LCD conversion for the
monitor if so desired :)

Before Nucore: The problem with PB2000 was the prism cards. Over the years the price of replacement prism cards were getting rather high ($800-1000). I got my extra prism card when Williams was still in business and the list price in 1999 was $180.

With the introduction of Nucore people are selling the original hardware so people like you can buy extra original parts at a reasonable price. Prism cards are no longer worth $800+.

So everyone wins. The people who upgrade to Nucore get a prism-free system using modern computer hardware and the others who don't want Nucore get replacement parts cheaper than what they were going for in the past.

The other thing Nucore did was to drive up the price on PB2000 machines and playfield kits. I bought three NIB SWEP1 playfield kits (NOS wired playfield, roms and sideart) for $500 before Nucore. Now kits are getting more money. I no longer find operators selling broken RFM/SWEP1 with bad prism cards for sub $1000 price. In the old days before Nucore buying a dead PB2000 machine was risky with the lack of parts to get them up and running.

Rottendog did the same thing for us pinball people. They offer new boardsets for those who need boards or want more reliable hardware.

WIN - WIN
 
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