Play Meter

(Contillu edfrom page 4 7)
turers could pay attention to those
details because he thinks they
would result in sturdier, more
sttractive games and less service
calls, saving money for all involved
in the industry.
His boss, Calfin , thinks manufac-
turers should strive to install a
compact unit in all games that
would totalize the money taken in
by the machine and also keep count
of the number of games played on
the machine . " Something with a
dual counter and display system
would probably work, " Calfin said,
but it would have to be more reliable
than currently used play meters .
" Total play meters always screw
up rapidly ," he said . A new,
dual -totalizing system would help
Michigan operators in particular, he
noted, because a new state law
requires that any money stolen from
coin -op machines will not be cover-
ed by theft insurance unless the
machine has a merering system to
keep track of coin intake.
" As a standard item, " Calfin said,
" I' d be willing to pay for it ."
Repeated manufacturer defect
problems caused Calfin and Beley to
comment that increased testing and
quality control be exercised by
games manufacturers. Calfin had
special words for new video and
electronic games makers . " The new
companies are putting out a lot of
new equipment, but the quality
control factor seems to be way
down, " he said. "I really hope the
time will come when the manufac-
turers realize that it is very important
to step up their quality control and
everyone will profit from it . Instead
of them having hundreds of boards
returned for service, they can go
ahead to distribute games that will
have higher resale value . The opera-
tor won 't have the down time and
he won't mind paying the high
rental for his equipment because he
will know that it is a good product ."
But beginning coin machine me-
chanics might take heed of Mike
Hall's advice about pinballs--and it
seems it holds true for other games
as well : " To be able to use the
instructions sent with the games
and to know how to use the
schematics when you need them is
the key to working on games.
" If you try to remember all those
individual problems and causes,
you ' d go crazy," he added . " One
problem could have 85 different
causes. "
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