A typical pinball machine has two tilt sensors, the plumb bob tilt that is just a weight hanging from a wire and a metal ring around it. Nudging the machine causes it to move and eventually make contact to the ring and thus tilt the game on older machines or give you a warning on newer ones.

The other common one is the slam tilt sensor in the coin door. It discourages the player from kicking the coin door by ending the game immediately.

The early Ballys were however loaded with even more sensors. One unique is the drop sensor, which detects if the player lifts and drops the machine.

Another curious one is the ball roll tilt. There's a small steel ball on a track and if you try to carefully raise the machine to make the ball roll upwards, this one will detect it. The old Ballys also often have the sideways tilt sensor, which detect if you do too hard slap save on it or otherwise move it sideways.

This thing is just itching to go TILT on you!

#pinball #arcade #didyouknow #mildlyinteresting #tilt