Play Meter

of nice and probably you can talk him into taking
care of the table, cleaning it up for maybe five bucks
a week. He'll keep that table a lot better than
anyone else could. And when business is slack if he
wants to, let him come in and shoot all he wants on
the table free. Set it up free for him to practice
shots. I do this quite often in a lot of my locations
for one player . I tell him, "Dont't bring in a whole
crew and be banging around on the table," but if he
just wants to practice shots, I let hem do that.
PLA Y METER: Do they vandalize your tables
much, intentionally try to damage them?
HOINES: Not if it's a table that they respect, that's
kept clean. It's just like anything else, like a new
car: when it's new and looks nice, you treat it with
respect; when it gets old and broken down and
rusted, then you don't treat it as well.
PLAY METER: Which goes back to the main -
tenance program you were talking about earlier
where you spend lot of time keeping them clean
and looking good.
HOINES: If you keep the table looking nice and it's
got the player appeal that the guys like, that's the
main thing. If they treated it with respect when it
was new, they'll treat it with respect when it's a
year old, too. If you put a new table in and they
mistreat, it is probably because they don't like the
table or they don't like the bar owner or something,
but generally that doesn't happen.
PLAY METER: Have you had any problems with
bar owners wanting to buy their own tables?
HOINES: This happens once in a while when one
sees all the money that comes in on a table
especially through the promotions, he figures he
(continued from page 41)
action an extra amount of precision .
The two thumper bumpers feature
Playmatic's own square top and
offer a great deal of rebound and
action possibilities . In fact, this
whole top section can be a point
bonanza for players if they can light
up the bumpers and hit the roll-overs
(at top left and top right) often
enough .
When we get to mid-field, two
targets at the left and an additional
one at right (A, B and C) offer the
player double bonus opportunities .
The drop targets at mid-field next to
the spinners are different from the
usual rectangular or square shapes
most players are used to, and may
offer some momentary surprises for
beginning players. A right turn-
about lane offers 50,000 points when
lit and is an elongated version of the
Space Mission horse-shoe feature ,
although this one has a middle area
for entrance or exit. On the left, a
return lane can mean triple bonus
and a new life at the top, if the right
targets and values have been achiev-
ed. Finally the Gottlieb bottom aids
in somewhat slowing down the
can do it himself. But generally you can convince
him - if you're already in the place and a good
operator- you can prove to him that it is kind of a
hassle. Show him that you are promoting the table;
how him other locations that were taking in say
$25.00 and then when you moved in the take
doubled and tripled. Also you can keep a location in
foosball by certain little tricks like moving into a
place every five or six months, pulling all the
bearings off-they really aren't worn out but
they're dirty-and putting all new bearings on,
throwing the old ones in your tool box. When you
get home, you clean those bearings, move to the
next location and put those same bearings on the
next table, after they're clean of course. Bearings
hould be cleaned every so often anyway. And of
course the location owner, when he gets to watch
you do all this and sees the effort and time (and
parts) you put into keeping these tables up, he
realizes that he's not ready for that extra work, not
just for the few extra dollars that he's going to
make.
The important thing is you've got to be selling
yourself. You've got to be selling your service a
little bit and showing him that this is what you're
doing for this table.
PLA Y METER: Has this been successful in
deterring locations from buying their own tables in
so far as you've been able to tell.
HOINES: Yes, I've never had any problem, never
had a location buy its own table. As a matter of fact,
I've moved into locations that owned their own
tables and shown them that I could do better for
them than they were doing for themselves.
action for a breather if one can 'save'
the ball.
All in all there's a helluva lot of
stuff to shoot for on this game. It
plays well, offers six-digit scoring
that will mean high scores . (My
fourteen year old assistant got
998,000 once; although the blow to
the ego for not 'turning the machine'
stayed with him the rest of the day.)
Graphically, this Spanish rendition
of American history is colorful and
dramatically different . Why show
only the moon and a space ship,
when you can show wagon trains,
mountains and a cowboy, let alone
an old locomotive . Obviously, no
stone was left unturned (although
an Edsel was not in evidence!. There
were bright, almost day-glo uses of
yellows, greens, oranges, blues and
reds. For a Bi-Centennial treat,
Playmatic has done well with this
foray , that almost gives too much.
Rating : NN# "h (the half was
added by my assistants)
Well there you have it . Rather
painless I'm sure for most of you . As
a closing though for this edition of
Merry Pinball, Merry Pinball let me
add a word to those I gather are my
sterner critics, the distributors . If
you ' re trying to sell a game, or a
particular line, don't let my mere
words detract from your capable
salesmanship talents. Rather, re-
member that I have always maintain-
ed that every game can be successful
for any given location, if an operator
keeps the games in shape, and
knows his playing audience.
So if you can use it to your
advantage do so; if you find it to be a
minor stumbling block, then remem-
ber that it's one man's opinion (with
occasional help from teen -age 'ex-
perts'), and that the games are not
"pitted" against each other . Each is
judged on individual playing and
graphic merits; but then what do I
know - I liked Udall, thought Reagan
would beat Ford, still think there's
life on Mars, felt the $2 bill would
never return, haven't gotten used to
the idea of microwave cooking,
probably had the shortest Bar Mitz-
vah on record and on a Labor Day
weekend, and still feel that they l
don't make'em like they used to : cars ~
that is!
~~
My best to you all. See you at the
convention in Chicago, God willing .
:11:1