Star Tech Journal

Issue: 1993-December - Vol 15 Issue 10

December 1993
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STAR*TECH Joumal
Is IT V1RTUA FIGHTERS,
SUPER SF2 OR
MORTAL KOMBAT II?
BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD's
WHAT SUCKS DEPARTMENT
all winner in the video space cat-
egory, although Thunder Dragon
2/American Sammy was my
daughter Molly's (15) favored
space shooter.
BABES
Kaneko's Gal's Panic II, with its
change-into-a-monster and quiz,
earns best stripper Qi,x award ...
it's not just the on-screen babes
who make this game fun, al-
though we're not sure how well
~,he drinkers can play this game
in your tavern account.
• Best Video Game Name: Punky
Doodle: (but the game~. al-
though my son Scott (11) caught
on to the game's enjoyment im-
mediately and the booth crew
was extremely nice).
• AMOA registration sucks ... and
it's not just this trade show this
time ... some international visi-
tors and USA visitors have asked:
If you've taken the time, money,
and trouble to travel to a trade
show, shouldn't the show staff
kiss you on the lips and pin on
your badge when you get there?
CRANES
Candy Crane (play till you win)
from Smart Industries will have
other crane makers wisely
scrambling for conversion cir-
cuitry to update their cranes for a
winner everytime (five cents
wholesale) in candy on quarter
play... similar crane from
Gray hound.
CAR VIDEOS
Ridge Racer/Namco driver excel-
lent, but watch Driver's Edge/
Strata for a better price ... Strata
suite is where you meet the nicest
people in the business.
ATARI
'~t's sad to see only the game they
--1.icensed, World Rally with its OK
graphics and no other cars to
race, at Atari booth, but it's doing
well.
,._t-J'"c:,,..'
011;"~
"11..~0 -.,
~-~
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£~•0•~-:;1 ... --
/
REGISTRATION
Why can't registration simply be
your business card stapled onto a
name tag? If no business card,
have a quick printing outfit ready
to print up a hundred or two hun-
dred cards for you on the spot -
you'll want them anyway to give
to your exhibitor/suppliers in-
stead of that dumb Galaxy Expo
chip-on-a-charge card that doz-
ens of people left behind at each
booth card-reading printer.
While I took 45 minutes to com-
plete my "pre-regi,stered" regis-
tration, I counted up to 150 an-
noyed registrants in the pre-reg-
istration lines. Registration
should be available on-site for 72
hours in advance around the
clock, and should be a speedy
welcome to our national trade
shows, not a barrier.
Is it wrong to think that the ad-
vertisers/exhibitors have already
paid for operators badges? Regis-
tration staff should have a badge
hanging on an attendee in 30 sec-
onds, whether they traveled for 5
minutes or 5 days to get there.
That's right, I said BUSINESS
CARDS to be stapled below your
name in large print... probably
too easy a concept to appear at
ACME '94, although I spoke per-
sonally to Bill Glasgow (Show
Management) about this revolu-
tionary -but old-fashioned idea.
See you in Rosemont, Bill!
IN APPRECIATION
Maximum thanks to Leon, Ninfa,
and Nicole Cauchois of Palisades
Amusements/Las Vegas for their
outstanding hospitality through-
out our 9-night, multi-state trek
from Buffalo to Las Vegas for 3
nights, then a suburban drive
with them to Anaheim for our 6-
night visit including a great day
at Universal Studios followed by
a relaxing day and a great dinner
at Knott's Berry Farm. So, until
the next Expo, be well & prosper.
December 7 993
STAR*TECH Journal
REDUCING
PINBALL SERVICE CALLS ...
Todd Erickson
Summit Amusement
St. Paul, Minnesota
SERVICE = $$
The new Williams Bally
pinballs will take in a lot of
money and have a high resale
but they won't necessarily
have a bottom line correspond-
ing to the income derived. The
problem? We all know the an-
swer to this one: Service.
The modem pinball requires
much more maintenance than
a video game. What is really
needed is to reduce the total
maintenance/service on the
machine.
How's a 50% reduction in ser-
vice sound? Think then your
game would be more profit-
able? Sound impossible? Well,
it's not.
With the assistance of Dan
Galarde, Director of Quality at
Williams, we discovered some
interesting things ...
STEEL BALLS
First was that the most com-
mon dirt on the playfi.eld was
iron! This had to come from
somewhere. Where? The steel
ball has been damaged since
the first plunger hit on day
one. The surface damage turns
the ball into a small file caus-
ing even more dirt on the
playfield. One solution: Re-
place the ball with a chromium
steel one. This helps. They are
1-1/16" steel bearings.
STEEL GUIDES
11
The bottom line is
that your game
will take in more
money and your
The piece of stainless that re-
ceived the most damage was
the flipper return guides (the
guides that are located left of
the left flipper and right of the
right flipper). On older games~
these stainless steel pieces
had a lot of damage. I have
replaced these guides with
custom Lexan. I've tested this
set-up for over 90 days and
have cut the cleaning in less
than halfl
REPLACE IT
profit margin will
be larger too ...
A win-win
situation.
11
I feel that the ball should be
replaced every year on the new
hot games today. While we will
get some ball damage in that
time, it's cheaper to replace
the ball that to perform the
cleaning (and prevent the ex-
treme playfield damage). I
also feel that the game will
earn more money if it is clean.
Note that a real high earning'
game can get real dirty in 2
weeks. Incorporating these
improvements will increase

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