3 or 5 balls?

[Richyrich]

I always prefer to set my pins to 5 ball games
As a kid,all the machines I played were 5 balls
I'd be interested to know what other members set their pins to: 3 or 5
balls?
Why?

[Olivia_jason]

Im crap at pinball, so for me to get a good game and get a chance at a few features i need 5 balls. so my machines are set at 5 balls.
if i was to have a guess most people set them at 3 balls, from what i have seen from the pinball high scores page

[TUF-427]

anything SS and later prob 3,earlier than that 5.....

[GORGAR 1]

Was always 5 balls but have since changed to 3 and love the challenge now

Peter

[Replicas]

Here in the U.K. the pinball league has there machines set to 4 ball which I think works pretty well.

[Cow Corner]

3 balls all day...5 make a lot of games far too easy.

[Strangeways]

Depends. EMs and SS are 5 ball games. DMD are 3 ball.

[TSPP]

Depends. EMs and SS are 5 ball games. DMD are 3 ball.

+1

[pinnies4me]

Depends. EMs and SS are 5 ball games. DMD are 3 ball.

I tend to think there's a divide in the SS era though - while FH is a WPC game, its not DMD and seems right with three balls. The five ball rules don't feel right to me.

Games up to the early 1980's I found were mostly five ball, but starting to appear in three ball versions. I recall a Firepower on site somewhere in the early days of its release on three ball and nearly causing a riot..... I'm thinking through the 80's there was a choice made by operators and a progression to 3 ball by the end of the 80's. I recall noting that older SS games would get set to five ball when they were no longer the new kid on the block, to attract the players with the additional ball count.

[spacejam0]

5 balls for me anyday...only problem with 5 is if your having a really bad start to the game it's more tempting to do a restart..I always like a strong first & second ball to start the game and if I get a drain early I cant be botherd going through the motions of finishing the last balls when I know it's not going to be a high score. The whole fun or challange with pinball for me is always trying to get a new high score.

[indazone gav]

3 for sure. I like the challenge of getting to wizard modes but that would be too often with 5 balls. On most games that is, some I wouldn't get wizard mode with 10 balls

[mickthepin]

3 for sure. Its the magic number

[Replay]

3 for me on the DMD's (factory reset)

5 on the old EM

[punter]

All of mine inc EM,SS,and DMD games are set on 5 balls,why because none are easy and if i have a couple of crap balls i still have a few more to try and get a decent score.

[ajlaird]

5 balls for me anyday...only problem with 5 is if your having a really bad start to the game it's more tempting to do a restart..I always like a strong first & second ball to start the game and if I get a drain early I cant be botherd going through the motions of finishing the last balls when I know it's not going to be a high score. The whole fun or challange with pinball for me is always trying to get a new high score.

Interesting, I tend to find one really good ball will generate a high score for me! So I never give up.