Pinball Machines, Are They Harder?

I played one today for the first time in a while, and it appears the gap between the paddles is larger than once was. My game was over very quickly and I was feeling annoyed and helpless

Or maybe I just lost whatever skills I once had. Can anyone confirm my suspicions that evil game designers have gotten greedy and altered one of the fundamental constants of nature?

[2+2 wannabe]

seemingly, you would be correct

they rape you and laugh now

[kenberman]

back in school, I was the "Master Magician" in Theatre of Magic.

that game rules.

[pokerdirty]

who the [censored] still plays pinball?

[ghostface]

pinball is rigged!!!

[touchfaith]

[ QUOTE ]
pinball is rigged!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

I loved rigging pinball machines.

[Ringo]

My dad is a magician, and has this hugely powerful magnet he uses for psychokinetic type effects. It will fit nicely inside a cigarette packet, and is frighteningly powerful - it's neodynium or something, and comes with all sorts of warnings. If you have two of them and catch your finger between them, you're looking at a broken finger. Anyway..

By putting this magnet inside a cigarette packet and placing the cigarette packet over the middle lane of the pinball machine, it was possible to play for ever. When the ball went to fall down the lane, it would stick to the magnet, and could be dragged back up to anywhere you liked on the board. It's amazing how boring pinball can be when you play it for this long, but I'm sure some of you pinball fanatics could have fun with it.

Ringo

[Phoenix1010]

The arcade companies stopped producing new pinball machines almost a decade ago... Unless you're comparing it to 70's machines, it's probably just your mind playing tricks on you.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
I played one today for the first time in a while, and it appears the gap between the paddles is larger than once was. My game was over very quickly and I was feeling annoyed and helpless

[/ QUOTE ]

My parents used to own an arcade, and I would fix the machines. I've actually seen a few where things like this were adjustable. I think it was rare for flippers, but most common was that the rail separating the side channels could be adjusted up or down.

I think that there is less profit margin on pinball games these days so game design suffers and that is what you are noticing.