So I made a profit of $8 dollars playing pinball yesterday...

[ER777]

I was playing AFM in a bar and doing pretty well on the $2 I put in the machine for 5 credits. While I was playing a group of people in business attire walked by and sat down in a lounge area near the back of the bar not far away from me. Then one woman was standing giving some sort of speech when I broke the high score for the machine. She was clearly startled by the double "Twack!" sound as it gave me the two replay credits for setting the high score.

Shortly after that a grey-haired gentlemen came over from the group and politely asked me if I'd stop playing for $10 because the noise from the machine was distracting the woman from her "dictation". I thought it was odd that they would be looking for quiet in a bar, but since he asked nicely (and I had been playing for quite a while already anyway) I took the money and left with an $8 profit.

Weird right?

 

[Mark W**a]

Dude women are like, frightened of that sound. It's like a freaking dog whistle for chicks...

I'm not kidding I had two different girlfriends watch me play and every time the machine cracked they jump.

I even told her it was coming and she still jumped lol.

My sister does too.

I mean sheesh it's not that loud. Maybe there's something about digital music versus psychical sounds... For instance, if there's a dog on tv barking my cat doesn't move, but if there's a dog barking outside he gets freaked out.

 

[Munky]

Me being how I am, I'd have politely told him to pound sand. lol

 

[TomL]

I wonder what the woman would have thought if you had hit a few left orbits in AFM...

"MuHaHaHA! WOMEN!!!"

 

[Jeff Strong]

Man, at that rate, I'd be there everynight

 

[ER777]

Dude women are like, frightened of that sound. It's like a freaking dog whistle for chicks...

I'm not kidding I had two different girlfriends watch me play and every time the machine cracked they jump.

I even told her it was coming and she still jumped lol.

My sister does too.

I mean sheesh it's not that loud. Maybe there's something about digital music versus psychical sounds... For instance, if there's a dog on tv barking my cat doesn't move, but if there's a dog barking outside he gets freaked out.

Yeah, I have to admit that sometimes if I'm not expecting the sound it does startle me a bit too. But the people around that don't play pinball really jump.. and often give dirty looks lol. I find it very satisfying for some reason, when I am expecting it, to stand there like I didn't even hear it as people jerk their heads to look what's going on. I think that woman the other day might have thought they were gunshots at first lol.

Man, at that rate, I'd be there everynight

Well, even if the potential $8 profit wouldn't keep me coming back the well-maintained AFM would (and its only 4 blocks from my parking garage at work). The bartender said the owner is a pinball fan so he has a vendor always keep a good table there (unfortunately I missed the AC/DC Pro they had before), and always gets them fixed or replaced right away when they break. The right flipper was malfunctioning on this AFM a couple weeks ago but its fixed now, so all those things bode well for this being a good pinball location for me.

 

[Worf]

It's hard to believe that such a tiny knocker can make such a loud sound.

Of course, before Sega left the scene, they eliminated the mechanical knocker for a audio one that made them much... lamer.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

What I usually do is close my ears during the match sequence; if I get a Special, it's unavoidable, and that's why I play 90s Williams more.

 

[bavelb]

I was playing AFM in a bar and doing pretty well on the $2 I put in the machine for 5 credits. While I was playing a group of people in business attire walked by and sat down in a lounge area near the back of the bar not far away from me. Then one woman was standing giving some sort of speech when I broke the high score for the machine. She was clearly startled by the double "Twack!" sound as it gave me the two replay credits for setting the high score.

Shortly after that a grey-haired gentlemen came over from the group and politely asked me if I'd stop playing for $10 because the noise from the machine was distracting the woman from her "dictation". I thought it was odd that they would be looking for quiet in a bar, but since he asked nicely (and I had been playing for quite a while already anyway) I took the money and left with an $8 profit.

Weird right?

Id stop if he'd ask nicely, but the fact he'd offer 10 bucks to do so I find weirdly condescending and personally Id feel offended by that gesture (but much less so when I was say, still in college or something). But good on you

 

[Worf]

Well, one reason would be to repay you for the game, and perhaps get you to buy something else so you'd be distracted for a little while.

Bonus points for recovering the game later.

 

[norbert26]

i would not have expected this in a bar. I am not sure how i would have reacted but i would hope the game being played was expendable meaning not a game where i was hitting a record high or something. all that said the $10 more then covered the $2 put in the machine .

 

[ER777]

It's hard to believe that such a tiny knocker can make such a loud sound.

Of course, before Sega left the scene, they eliminated the mechanical knocker for a audio one that made them much... lamer.

There are a couple newer Sterns around here (Family Guy for sure and Batman iirc) that have the worst sound imaginable from the speaker instead of the mechanic knocker. I don't even know how to describe it, its just awful, and ridiculously loud.

Id stop if he'd ask nicely, but the fact he'd offer 10 bucks to do so I find weirdly condescending and personally Id feel offended by that gesture (but much less so when I was say, still in college or something). But good on you

That thought did cross my mind but I don't think it was meant that way. I was actually dressed a little nicer than him since I was coming from work, and he asked very politely, so I took it as more of a plea.. like here's enough to cover your money and buy a drink or two, please help me out here.

But I know what you mean - If someone had come over acting like here's ten bucks now take a hike I might of done something like take the ten and hand it right back to them saying here's 10 bucks to not interrupt me again. I make good money so the 10 bucks wasn't really the important part.

My friend at work the next day had a funny idea. He said that as I walked out I should have told people there were free credits on the machine if they wanted to play lol.

 

[Worf]

There are a couple newer Sterns around here (Family Guy for sure and Batman iirc) that have the worst sound imaginable from the speaker instead of the mechanic knocker. I don't even know how to describe it, its just awful, and ridiculously loud.

Well, considering Stern got Sega's assets, it's no big surprise.

The "lame" I implied was Sega getting rid of the mechanical knocker for a sound played through the single speaker. Which was something they did a little earlier - changing from two speakers to just one. They had the grill, but you could definitely tell sound was coming on one side.

The knock sound was loud from the speaker, but definitely not as loud as a mechanical one, nor as authentic sounding - you could tell it was sampled.

 

[alop]

I don t sale my highscore at any price. Maybe a normal game but not a good game like that. Bad move

 

[ER777]

I don t sale my highscore at any price. Maybe a normal game but not a good game like that. Bad move

Perhaps you misunderstood. The high score game was over, the replay credits for the top score are given at initials entry. So the game I walked away from was the next game after the high score.