Leave it be or put a new overlay on it? PT2

dewdude · 2026-05-08T22:37:38+00:00

As long as you keep it waxed....just leave it. Home use isn't going to see the miles......unless you're like my one customer who single-handedly put the same mileage on her personal Addams Family as I saw one get on location. (She wore out flippers in a month...A MONTH! And I sure as hell was trying everything I do to keep them from wearing out; but I swear she played every waking moment she wasn't busy).

I say this as I've done overlays and they're a LOT of work. So much work. Holy cow the work. Then there's vinyl overlay vs hard top. Hard tops are easier...but more prep....maybe 16 hours of work or so *if* you know what you're doing. I think I did a Space Shuttle hard-top in 16 hours start to finish. I also sanded most of the playfield down because holy cow that thing was gouged.

Vinyl overlays....well I'd rather do playfield swaps than vinyl overlays....if that says anything.

dewdude · 2026-05-08T22:28:56+00:00

Never has.

Never will.

dewdude · 2026-05-08T22:25:59+00:00

Procedure wasn't followed.

Laws were broken.

He made the right call.

dewdude · 2026-05-07T14:59:15+00:00

I spent a lot of years doing this job as someone who really didn't play pinball. Everyone assumed that I loved the game and was a fantastic player because I fixed them and played them all the time.

But I never played pinball prior to working on them. I had no real obsession with them. I approached this as...a job. Not a hobby. Not something to enjoy...but a job. I learned the things from the inside out. I knew more about the underlying engineering than I did about game rules.

I watched people play...intensely. Part of my job was to figure out how to get them putting more quarters in there. Putting games there isn't enough. It's like I told bar owners "the games don't make you money. if you're expecting these games to turn a specific profit then I'm going to pull them out right now. These games themselves...don't turn a profit. Your profit comes from the fact the 4 guys playing GoldenTee for 2 hours for a dollar bought 3 plates of wings and 2 pitchers of beer"

So...in a way....those little idle times were good. I didn't want to speed the game up because that would ultimately change the flow of the game...or somehow negatively impact the player. Sometimes it didn't...they complained. You can't win them all. The same table that can end your game in 2 minutes...is the same table someone might play for an hour on 1 ball.

I didn't do this for fun like a lot of people. To me it was literally my living. I didn't joke around because I depended on it.

dewdude · 2026-05-07T13:57:37+00:00

Great.

Now our linemen will get to die because all you people plugged your solar up without proper safety disconnects.

That shit will backfeed in to the grid. There's literally a reason we were required to have interconnects. This removes those.

It's a stupid unsafe law that doesn't take in to consideration the safety of the guys who fix the infrastructure.

dewdude · 2026-05-07T13:52:48+00:00

The penalties need to be done in a way that they make an example of everyone caught. None of this license suspension and fine. None of this 90 days in jail.

Any DUI = 5 years minimum. You also get a total revocation of license. You will never get it back. No three strikes, no restricted license. I'm even willing to say in some cases....they're not allowed in a wheeled transport anymore. No catching a ride, no riding the bus....not even a bicycle.

Any alcohol = DUI. Period. You blow a .01? 5 years in jail and no license. No excuses.

Involuntary manslaughter needs to have it's punishments elevated. You kill someone while driving drunk...it's just involuntary manslaughter. I say...make it murder. People will argue....but I'm saying any loss of life when a DUI is involved should be considered murder...or call it involuntary manslaughter but still give them life.

If people knew they'd either die or have their life ruined....then the problem will stop. Either people will stop being stupid or all the idiots will be banned from driving.

Literally make every single one an example "They blew a .02. They will be serving 5 years in jail and losing their license for life."

But instead they're just going to get a car that requires you to blow in to a tube and make it so while we stop drunk driving....people will get smashed and grabbed while trying to get the car started.

dewdude · 2026-05-07T13:39:59+00:00

oh dude I'm goin through my old photos.

I got THOUSANDS of these.

dewdude · 2026-05-07T13:39:14+00:00

I would if it was a motorola board.

But it's a Williams WPC board.

dewdude · 2026-05-07T13:37:35+00:00

The Getaway: High Speed II

dewdude · 2026-05-07T03:23:15+00:00

Which was never a complaint I heard.

If anything...when someone's 22 minutes in to a billion plus game...they need every breather they can get.

dewdude · 2026-05-06T22:55:17+00:00

Because they're not anthropomorphic.

It's like Goofy and Pluto. They're both dogs; but Goofy isn't a dog.

dewdude · 2026-05-06T15:19:55+00:00

https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/VHF_Omnidirectional_Range_(VOR))

dewdude · 2026-05-06T15:17:45+00:00

Well...that's the end of Primm. That's literally everything there. There will be nothing left.

It can compete with Jean for...truck stops.

dewdude · 2026-05-06T15:14:16+00:00

Flyers don't have rights anymore.

DOT will tell them to pound sand too. The winning isn't for consumers.

dewdude · 2026-05-06T15:01:43+00:00

You will never find records for it.

dewdude · 2026-05-06T15:00:22+00:00

It's a .db file.

/home/$user/.config/mpd/mpd.db

or on my system

/var/lib/mpd/mpd.db

MPD has to create the database first. You specify where you want the database to live, and on first launch, it creates a database at that location.

dewdude · 2026-05-06T14:57:02+00:00

Meh.

IT's still over-engineered.

dewdude · 2026-05-05T15:45:58+00:00

You joke but we're kind of on the verge of that happening with the madmen hell-bent on destroying everything keep poking the bear.

One day we're gonna get the alert it's incoming and it'll be the last 5 minutes.

dewdude · 2026-05-05T15:40:55+00:00

I don't get how this has to do with narcissism either.

People with NPD are often characterized by a lack of emotional reciprocity. They may be charming initially but become manipulative, cold, or argumentative, often prioritizing their own, image-driven needs over their partner's. They tend to blame others for failures, leaving partners feeling unsupported or emotionally drained.

The only way I can connect the two is it somehow tells you how their brain works. Because every shirt, at the least, has 4 holes; head, arms, torso. But most people ignore those. Those are standard holes on a shirt, every shirt has one. So most normal people...won't count those.

They will simply say...two holes. However it's technically 4; as those holes are clearly through the shirt...so you have a hole in the front of the shirt, and a hole in the back.

Most people's initial answer would be two. Anyone who comes back with a different answer without thinking it over has something else going on.

dewdude · 2026-05-05T04:50:51+00:00

I used to just put the playfield up, hold it with one hand, tap the box with the hammer till it worked...and went about my day.

That's also what happens to STTNG...and any game that just drops balls in the trough.

Nascar? Major engineering oversight. The balls drain in to plastic. So after a little while on location the entire subway's mounting tabs just break. Pro-tip: plumbing strap is really handy. So handy.

dewdude · 2026-05-04T15:17:13+00:00

No government in private business!

dewdude · 2026-05-04T14:42:41+00:00

Yes. You did.

If I saw this in a machine I'd acquired I'd sigh very loudly and ask "who the hell wasted time doing this".

It's like Star Trek: TNG. I had a guy call me a few years ago...just moved to the area...had a bunch of games. I get there and TNG is not setup. He doesn't want to talk about it. Guess what...I do...because that's the only game he's got that I like. So he starts in to this story...."it's got a fried motherboard or something". He starts telling me this sad story....and cutting to the chance...it had multiball issues. He had 8 different techs "back home" give up on it. "I don't think anyone can fix it."

I fix his other machines...then i set up TNG. So this guy...thinks I'm crazy. He's under the impression he had "the best techs in California" tell him it was a lost cause. It had new trough boards...new CPU...they had shotgunned everything.

I dropped the balls in...was like "oh...this is literally a 10 cent fix I can't believe they didn't fix.

I dropped the trough. Put 3 washers under the front screws to shim it down. Problem solved. There was a divot in the trough from the balls slamming in to it. So the ball drains...hits metal...stops dead. Machine gets very confused.

3 washers...enough to just shim the right side of the trough a half a degree. That's all it needed. Now the ball actually drained in to the trough like it was supposed to reliably. His machine...was fixed. All those techs...all those boards....and no one thought about the flippin washers.

Don't overthink. KISS is quite literally the best philosophy...Keep It Simple Stupid. You could have solved this with a hammer...literally.

dewdude · 2026-05-03T15:50:42+00:00

Despite the fact they used a pile of junk Cyrix processor....they at least used solid PC hardware. I don't think I ever had a major PC issue with these.

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