Ah, yes. The drain magnets. The mysterious cheating devices by the game makers that suck the ball from the sides or straight down the middle while the helpless player just gets to watch.

But seriously, the magnets actually used to manipulate ball are huge. The ball weights 80 grams and can move quite fast. To catch it we need quite a lot of stopping power. Plenty of magnets are used to mess with the ball, ranging from magnetic diverters to harassing the player with middle of the playfield magnets in games such as The Addams family or Guardians of the Galaxy. Some do really funny tricks, like Godzilla's gravity defying return from the building shot or Dracula's hovering ball.

Any memories of games with surprising magnet tricks?

#pinball #questionswelcome #arcade #magnet

@apzpins yes, I remember the magic swirl in Tales of the Arabian Nights!

Quite annoying 🤣

But the bar cage, and the carousel with the Magic Lamp on top were nice

(probably not the right terms, sorry)

@Ketakater Tales of the Arabian Nights has couple of really neat ones. There's the magnet that pulls the ball through it between the ramps and the one just before the genie.
@apzpins the big ring of fire that stopped the ball in its center was impressive
@apzpins Twilight Zone. Not the two regular ones, but the third that did a disappearing act. There in art but not (or well, rarely) in flesh.
@letoram I've seen a modded game once in my life that put the 3rd magnet back. It's fully supported in the 9.4H software, but naturally requires drilling the playfield and ball guides to install the missing hardware. I didn't dare to drill mine.
@apzpins I am doing a PF swap on a rescued TZ with the mirco reproduction that has the third magnet. It is almost alive. Almost meaning a bunch of troubleshooting, currently clock not reversing and a bunch of switches not responding. The original had been on a ferry between Helsingborg and Oslo, an early version with the green lock, white clock etc. several pints of beers had been poured into the thing, shoe imprints on the cabinet, every cap had leaked and corroded, etc. spent probably 12 hours just scrubbing the wiring harness clean.
@letoram Wow, sounds like a fun project! I have couple of ferry games too and they experiences probably above the normal amount of violence when drunken people played them.
@apzpins It was for a while. When I started it was in a small apartment with limited tools. During that time it managed to rip my forearm open needing stitches (lifting the playfield off, low ceiling clearance, holding it arms stretched to the side when lifting, it hit the ceiling, my grip slipped and all the little sharp solder joints and solenoid pads tore into flesh when it came crashing down). Now I have more space but less time.
@letoram I hope you get the thing up and running one day. I bought mine in 2000 and could never part of it!
@apzpins I have to. It is the game that got me into the hobby. Now my collection is alien limited, godzilla pro, family guy, jurassic park limited, tmnt pro and twilight zone. Used to have a Fish Tales and a Champion Pub. Sold them, though do actually miss FT. Might swap a few around, but next pin is going to be a DIY from scratch.
@apzpins among the abuse it suffered in a previous life there is this that I haven't seen before. Some kind of anti-theft device?
@letoram Most likely it's from some kind of a security device intended to hold the coin box in place?
@apzpins it had the usual lockdown bar drill holes, but cutting that kind of hole (which looks like drill and skillsaw) on only the one side seems .. odd. Quite a few better ways of making sure nobody runs away with than abusing the cabinet box. With a modifier coat-hanger it was actually possible to unhook the tilt plunger through it though :D
@letoram Fortunately this one is going to be really easy to patch up and paint over!
@apzpins I overdid it and made a mold of the hole and then bandsawed a piece that snaps in place, just need to bring out the acrylics when the other parts are done with.
@letoram Wow, that's a pretty solid lineup. Out of those, I have Godzilla, TZ and FT. While it's a simple game, I have always loved FT. It hit me hard back in the 1992 and I've owned two of them. A the start of my hobby I got one with very crappy playfield and as I was acquiring new games, I ended up selling it before getting a new playfield. I regretted it almost immediately and got a new one with better playfield, which I have to this day.
@apzpins I have not played it myself but the “force” ball save magnet in between flippers in the ‘Star Wars: Fall of the Empire’ game made me go “damn, that’s really clever” when I saw it.
@tuomas_h Haven't played it myself either, but I swear I've seen the middle of the flippers magnet being used as a ball save on something else too. Can't save my life to name the thing. Can think of several that do the same move in outlanes, such as Black Knights.
@apzpins More magnets videos please! 😊
Explained: It's gotta be a magnet!

PeerTube
@apzpins Thanks! Now I understand one of the comments on your post about Dracula 😊

@OlivierGuinart In case you're wondering, here's how they implemented it in Dracula:

https://video.apz.fi/w/8Fpn5LPgnCgd6TBWytNBTq

#pinball

Bram Stoker's Dracula still has the coolest magnet trick in pinball

PeerTube
@apzpins I love the way the Sanctum magnet in The Shadow drops the ball a little before zipping it away
@apzpins Twilight Zone, battle the power.