What's the point of bumpers?

[Pavlov Pinball]

Do we need them these days? I know they look nice and sexy and every pinball machine has them, but am I the only one who finds them tedious?

Some thoughts on why its time to say goodbye to them here: http://pavlovpinball.com/whats-the-point-of-pop-bumbers/

[Pop Bumper Pete]

Ahhhh, you are giving Stern bad ideas

Removing bumpers would lower a games BOM

And what would you suggest be put in there instead?

[Retropin]

Stern have a habit of placing 3 bumpers at top RHS for when ball enters the PF... it then does its thing bouncing the ball around a bit and often has some kind of controlled release, through a gate system etc. Sterns use of bumpers is such a non event and it always struck me that they didn't really know what to do with them as the randomness they provide to game play is lost.
I would say that Stern could quite easily do away with the bumper, but.. I would also say that the most boring games ive ever played have had no bumpers. After owning one, I swore an oath that I would never own a machine that didn't have bumpers again...

..Guess I need to go read the article now eh?

[oldskool1969]

You need bumpers as they help shit players score points. 

[goodolddays]

You need bumpers as they help shit players score points. 

+ 1 

[Strangeways]

If there is a universal symbol for Pinball, it would be a Pop Bumper.

Junkyard is the only game I can recall off the top of my head that does not have a pop bumper AND the game is still fantastic.

[pinball god]

If there is a universal symbol for Pinball, it would be a Pop Bumper.

Junkyard is the only game I can recall off the top of my head that does not have a pop bumper AND the game is still fantastic.

I think No Fear is another. But seeing they are iconic they still need to do what they were designed for, and that was to ensure some sort of randomness, so you cannot anticipate what is going to happen next. As retropin said, what's random about bouncing around for a minute and then being forced out in a controlled way where you then will know what happens next.

[Freiherr]

A faulty bumper on a machine was as disasterous as a sluggish flipper or sling for an operator. I remember an operator collecting the coins in an arcade where there were 2 Firepowers side by side and we avoided one of them like a plague because 2 of the 4 bumpers were nearly dead. The coins in the box was about one quarter of the FP that had 4 super fast bumpers. I avoided any machine that had poor bumpers or flippers. These days there are too many other things on playfield like ramps and toys which restricts to what designers can do with bumpers.

[GORGAR 1]

Bumpers have really become null and void these days as there's so much other cool stuff going on-I think there only there to keep the old blokes happy  I'd much prefer a toy or super fast ramps on a game.

Peter

[spacejam0]

If there is a universal symbol for Pinball, it would be a Pop Bumper.

Junkyard is the only game I can recall off the top of my head that does not have a pop bumper AND the game is still fantastic.

I don't think The Shadow has them either

[Greg]

I like Pop bumpers
but how they are used on  Stern's these days can make them a bit boring,  one way in and  1 or 2 ways out
its almost a captured area which I'm not a fan of…. unless they include the game code to  give me Super Pops as a time feature
and that makes them a great shot to go after.  Super Pops was also used on some Wms games like Fishtales as a feature.

I'd rather keep pops than get rid of them I love the 6 pop bumpers on Whirlwind
yet I enjoy playing No Fear and JunkYard and they work great without pop bumpers
 

[swinks]

Pinball Zombies From Beyond The Grave has them spread out in different sections of the playfield to vary the game play(which is cool) instead of the predictable 2 ways in one way out scenario of stern games

[Boots]

I like pop bumpers, they add a bit of random kaos to the game

[GORGAR 1]

Sterns Star Trek has a super pops feature that works well.

[pinsanity]

On TOTAN, 90% of the time you won't even get near the pop bumpers as they are located up in the top right corner almost as if they were thrown in as an afterthought.

Like Gorgar said, in this case the ramps and toys maketh the game anyway so the bumpers become redundant to gameplay.