Ari [APz] Sovijärvi1d ago

In a lot of older games the playfield just slides on wooden frames when it's lifted. Then in the 80s they switched to a model that hinged at around 2/3 of the playfield's length, which may sound good in theory, but since the end of the playfield now sinks all the way to the cabinet bottom, just imagine how nice it is to work on something there. Hint: it sucks.

In 1992 Williams released this model. You can pull the playfield out for a quick work on the flippers, or you can just push it upwards and it'd end up like in the old days. The mechanism runs on metal rails, so it's really smooth too. I miss this model every time I open a modern game.

#pinball #arcade #mildlyinteresting

Show threadAlex 1d ago

@apzpins This is fascinating!

Was there anything special with the Pinball 2000 platform with regard to lifting the playfield and accessing the underside? After all, it had the monstrous CRT screen near the backbox.

Show threadAri [APz] Sovijärvi1d ago

@AncTreat5358 It's a whole different beast. The playfield has rails, but it's optimised to be removed from the whole machine fast. You can work on it in situ, but the original design idea was that you'd have an extra playfield that you'd take to the shop and you'd just bring a fresh playfield onto the cabinet on location. They were also intended to be converted to other games this way.

Here's an old video I had demonstrating how the playfield goes back in place once it's been removed.

#pinball #repair

https://video.apz.fi/w/18F1eXbiavBLsqzmuNjtnM

Installing a Pinball 2000 playfield back into the cabinet

PeerTube
Show threadAlex 1d ago
@apzpins Thanks for sharing this. That was very forward-thinking of Williams in optimizing for uptime in arcades.
Show threadAri [APz] Sovijärvi1d ago
@AncTreat5358 A shame it didn't save the Williams pinball department. They did nothing wrong and still got all axed because slots made more money.
Show threadAlex 1d ago
@apzpins Very true! It would have been interesting to see concepts like that evolve if it only had the chance. The market probably would have looked very different from the modern Sterns/JJPs/etc.
Show threadAri [APz] Sovijärvi

@AncTreat5358 P2K had so much potential, it took them couple of years to even start churning out games that really used the potential of their previous generation pinball hardware, here they just managed to make two, both of which were done in a hurry.

I would've loved to see how P2K gamed would've been at the end of their generation and how insane the next generation could've been.

Right now Stern, JJP and friends have just rehashed the old pinball form factor with slight updates, P2K went somewhere else with the vision while still keeping it pinball.

Mar 28 at 12:08amWeb
Show threadAlex 1d ago

@apzpins This is so insightful, Ari! 🤗

Oh yes, to have had the chance to see P2K evolve from inception to handing off to the next generation would undoubtedly have been monumental.