How long where pinball Machines Designed to last ?

[PinPal]

A thought crossed my mind today, How long where pinball Machines Designed to last ?
Say the early solid state Bally and Williams games to the present.
As the home market was not thought of back in the 70s.

When the first solid state games came out where they only designed to last a certain time back then?
Say if the machine made a certain amount of money or was overtaken by games that where more advanced than the game before. And not to mention the dreaded Video games.
Still amazes' me that my Flash and Black Knight is still alive and working 30 years later!!

I hope that makes sense?  

[Homepin]

4 to 5 years MAX - this is pretty easy to tell fom the RUBBISH connectors and shoddy wiring that was used.

[Olivia_jason]

it is amazing really how these old machines still keep going, the one i have dodgied up enough to put back in to service as a little money maker in my shop, it has made me wonder how much cash this thing has turned over since new in 1986, when i got my one for the shop, you can see it spent a long time in service in arcades, and was shut down and stuck in storage for along time collecting dust, till the guy i bought it off firede it up and sold it to me. I guess maintence now will be more regular to keep it going, i look at under the playfield and see how many times things have been fixed on the fly to keep it in service. im hoping to do the same in my cafe lol. wonders how many times the ball has been fired up the shoot, and how much coin it has made. i doubt they thought in 2011 this thing would be out making coin again, lol, id say most of reason for it lasting so long is arcades trying to dodgy things up good enough to keep it going a little longer and milk as much work out of it as possible. i doubt a modern day computer will last this long.

[Caveoftreasures]

Great question.  
To me its like a modern day movie, its put out there and played and played at the movie theatres till its not worth putting it on anymore because interest dies after a while and there are no more bums on seats collecting money.

I guess with pinnies it was the same. See how the coin comes in month by month til the interest dies, then shuv a new pin in next to it to see if the new title starts to get alot of interest and coin. Both pinnies and movies probably made the most in the first 12 months, then it was all down hill from there. So, I reckon 3 to 5 yrs would have been a goal and if used after that, it was a bonus !

I reckon Pinball 2000 models like Revenge from Mars and Star Wars Episode 1 would make good coin if re-introduced today to teenagers at the right locations because its both going to give out pinball and arcade interest at the same time. The fact that alot of machines of all different manufacturer types are still going strong, the design teams did a dam good job. They should be proud seeing games all over the world still being played and enjoyed.  

[Strangeways]

4 to 5 years MAX - this is pretty easy to tell fom the RUBBISH connectors and shoddy wiring that was used.

I agree - 5 years maximum.

Looking at connectors - Jones plugs in EMs have no estimated life span, yet IDC connectors in DMDs have a rated life of 5 - 6 removal and insertions. Williams System 4/6 interconnectors are the same - if not longer.

I'm not suprised that EMs have lasted this long, but if you asked the designers back in the 60's and 70's they were interested in turning games over, and their earning capacity - not if they would last 30 years +

[Olivia_jason]

4 to 5 years MAX - this is pretty easy to tell fom the RUBBISH connectors and shoddy wiring that was used.

I agree - 5 years maximum.

Looking at connectors - Jones plugs in EMs have no estimated life span, yet IDC connectors in DMDs have a rated life of 5 - 6 removal and insertions. Williams System 4/6 interconnectors are the same - if not longer.

I'm not suprised that EMs have lasted this long, but if you asked the designers back in the 60's and 70's they were interested in turning games over, and their earning capacity - not if they would last 30 years +

what has been my worry is the board side of things, especially being the age these things are getting. i am so amazed how long they last, especially these days when we are so used to things being desposible, when they break we just bin it and buy a new item. i am really interested to know how long these things can last, as this pinny i have put in our cafe has been there for 3 days now, and today being Sunday it got it arse kicked, rediculas amount of use today, every time i looked up from cooking something, the machine was being used, and it was from a mix of kids and adults. id hate to think how much punishment they had been given when these things were in arcades. so ive gone and put an already punished machine 20 years later back in for more punishment, so how much it will take i have no idea, i love this question because i am so interested to see. lol, ps good thing about this day and age, it seems to be it doesnt matter what the title is as long as its pinball they will play it, as they are so rare to find in a shop to play, and every arcade that was on the coast here is no longer around, they are playing this old crapper of mine, and what is so amazing is, most people under the age of 20 know about pinball machine but never seen one. the most common thing i have heard over the last 3 days is, them asking their parents what this machine is, and when the parent reply's with pinball, the kid replys with "oh i played that on my compter" lol so funny

[Homepin]

This is one reason all Homepin replacement boards use easy to get - through hole parts that will ensure long life for the boards.

[beaky]

This is one reason all Homepin replacement boards use easy to get - through hole parts that will ensure long life for the boards.

some one here with a little common sense  

when I replace the headers, housings and crimp pins on my own machines I use the gold plated type, they have a life of 100 removal / insertions (well that's what the spec sheet says)
I replace both pins and headers with gold or else there will be oxidisation problems if you mix tin and gold.

when it comes to some of the replacement boards (not homepin boards, these boards are great and there are no short cuts taken) there are so many short cuts taken.

I am in the process of repairing a rotten dog board for an early bally. some of the inputs for the solenoids have no pull up resistors so as soon as you have a problem with the connector from the mpu board it causes all kinds of problems (locked on coils or shuddering coils (turning on and off very quickly)

so the message here is if you need a new board and homepin makes them, then buy it from homepin