I can make a lot of stuff myself these days when the official spares aren't available any more, but these roll over membrane switches used in Sega and Stern pins are bit of a problematic item. They're very game-specific and a niche part of an already niche market. For my Apollo 13 I found someone's reproduction version of this thing, but Striker Xtreme doesn't get that much love.

Messing with a completely destroyed one (seen in this video being taken apart), I noticed the glue actually softens quite a bit when heated a bit. This allows pulling the membrane switch layers apart, which again exposes the contact area. These often don't wear through, but instead gather some kind of grime around the area where the ball rests, causing intermittent contact in the long run. When it turns into a problem, the game no longer sees the locked ball and instead goes into a ball search mode, often ruining the game as it releases the balls from the lock as well.

A q-tip soaked in contact cleaner is all there is to breath more life into these things. They also seal up really nice afterwards and often last over 5 years between cleanings.

#pinball #arcade #repair #retrotech #mildlyintersting

Tilt. Tilt never changes.

The plumb bob tilt is something that has been around since 1930s, with the first game documented with this feature being American Beauty.

https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2873

This is the tilt that reacts to players nudging the game. The other types are typically just a tiny weight welded onto a leaf switch, that typically detect sharper impacts such as kicks or punches to the coin door.

#pinball #history #arcade #mildlyintersting