its time to change back to 5 balls a game.

[neglectoid]

prices for new machines are 75 cents+ for one credit. i would think 5 balls per game would attract/keep new and old players alike. sounds great to me.

 

[dtown8532]

Last year's Pinfest in Allentown, Pa had two machines on quarter play, LOTR and Tron. They were a dollar for three balls and people were still playing them. Especially the Tron since no one else had one there for free play. It was in great shape and wicked fast but a dollar? People complain about paying a couple bucks for an app that they might get a couple hours of play out of. I sank a couple bucks into Tron and played for only about five minutes.

 

[neglectoid]

would you have had more fun if TRON had 5 balls instead of 3? u coulda earned some goals.

perhapsy im i a diff wavelenghth.

 

[Kolchak357]

I read that a few Wizard of Oz machines are in the wild at $2 per play and people are lined up for it. Another WOZ was $1 for 2 balls. Could be excitement over a new pin but people seem to be paying it.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

5 balls more wear and tear on the machine.

 

[SpiffyRob]

With current levels of depth, five balls would be way too much, and would cheapen the experience of reaching late stages/wizard modes of games.

Now, if the challenge of new tables were raised proportionately, so that you needed to play a new table's five balls as well as you would a current table's three to reach the wizard mode... bring it on!

 

[Heretic]

Lets keep tradtional ruleset lol
If it had a five ball so be it

Tweaking art is awful

 

[DrainoBraino]

People complain about paying a couple bucks for an app that they might get a couple hours of play out of. I sank a couple bucks into Tron and played for only about five minutes.

Truth. I remember when Mortal Kombat first came out in the arcade, I probably put $50 in that machine just to figure out one fatality. LOL :O

 

[Matt McIrvin]

As I've said before, you'd be surprised how much people paid to play pinball back in its glory days. I tried to figure this out a while back using a simple inflation calculator, and the amounts typically charged by pinball machines for most of the last half of the 20th century usually translated to somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.75-$1.00 in today's money.

Before the late 1970s, they usually gave you 5 balls, but on the other hand, those balls often didn't last long; the old electromechanical machines were usually real drain monsters unless you were supremely skilled.

Charging a buck a play on a modern pin is really not unreasonable. And if people find it unreasonable, well, that's why pinball isn't such a great money-making proposition these days. Too many other forms of cheap entertainment are competing for the player's money and attention.

 

[Heretic]

Like dance dance retardedly!

 

[Carl Spiby]

Here we have some tables set up at £1 for 5 balls, that's $1.50 in your money.

 

[Jutter]

http://pinside.com/pinball/map/where-to-play
may the map be with you.

 

[Clawhammer]

While I may complain about games that are $1 per play as much as the next guy, at the end of the day operators need to compensate in some way for inflation and price increases for NIB pins. A local CO pin location has a BIBLE for a buck a play and considering its price tag, its understandable. I don't think games should be put to 5 balls per play... unless the replays were unreasonably high for new players to achieve (a bad idea), experienced players would play all day for no money/lose interest and operators would be out of luck.