I hear ya.
I hear ya.
Don't know much about the balls but that's what happens when you try to do something brand new, you stumble like a toddler walking. The pinball industry should have stuck to the balls they made for Viper Night Drivin made by Sega in 98/99. They don't rust, they still stick to magnets and coating them in different colours of rubber would be more appealing & easier on any play field than shitty rusty pinballs that have the clock ticking from day one cause wood, metal & metal don't make a good threesome.
I say fark the metal silver balls off and do glow ball style pinballs like my Viper Night Drivin has.
Lighter & faster & kind to everything they touch.
I quick wipe with some tisdues or a baby bum wipe & they are clean in 5 seconds.
Did the ball failure get fixed ?
I never heard what the problem was or what it supposedly did or didn't do ?
I know someone will educate me please on the ball failure or issues ?
Basically that they stuck together due to get magnetised and one Aussie had them in a few games and they started to flake metal flakes throughout the game - with the risk or damaging the playfield.
apparently some places are still selling regardless of being retracted from being for sale and they are on AA and aware of the issues.
Homepin sent a message to dealers to not sell anymore but it was only shared on Aussie Arcade and no other forum as all hush hush - go figure. So now he only goes to AA and bailed on AP and pretty much Pinside because he hates the US - not the best marketing plan. So now he currently does not sell the balls, imagine the baby steps with a full pinball - he needs to hire someone to look after manufacturing issues and the public relations.
As for the glow balls there are new types of glow balls but not the cheapest and they chip.
I have enquired with a US company and they claim they can make ceramic covered pin balls and also add multiple colours but the minimum runs are too much at $15 a ball but they reckon they would last 10x longer than a regular steel ball and cause less scratch damage to a playfield.
The original rubber coated balls from Sega days have not been copied successfully because my two sets of original balls do not break down or chip etc etc and they are bulletproof.
$15 a ball is too expensive of course but to be honest, if it costs $60 to mod a game with balls that glow in the dark properly like my Viper Balls and they are just as awesome, a few machines here & there at $60 for the balls required total would be OK for a few machines only until someone can copy successfully what Sega did some 17 years ago.
It cost be $800 to buy a original set of four glow in the dark pinballs on a ebay auction 4 plus years ago because 20 people from many countries were bidding & the guy selling was the original designer of the game & he had 1 x set only in his office desk & he knew no one on the planet had any.
The real Viper car club on the USA had a Viper Night Drivin pinball machine at their car worship clubhouse & the machine did not have the glow balls in it.
All the members of the club chipped in & were bidding against me so the prices went high but I knew many people had offered the original designer $500 plus dollars for the balls privately & he said NO, it will sell higher on a E Bay auction & he was correct.
There were 20 plus bidders from several countries so it was expected.
I was rich at the time & wanted the set badly so I happily paid.
He wouldn't send them overseas & only to a USA address so I had him send them to a trusted pinball designer at Stern, then that designer happily sent them on to me out here cause he was on the original design team of Viper & he put me onto the seller who he designed with.
I got the balls & am still happy to have a NOS set of glow balls spare.
I have tested them in many pinballs & they are just excellent.
So when I think about the new ones which I have tried, and they didn't glow for me, or weigh the same as the original balls, I now know the original sets from 99 are better.
But someone should do something about the balls cause steel balls are just a play field killer.
Maybe Mike will release new ones to fix the issue. Time will tell.
