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Comment by shanebellone | Hacker News Reader

This is very cool.

I wonder if niche arcades could make a comeback with something like this. Imagine global competitions between clubs competing for rank, recognition, and reward.

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TBH I'm not a fan of comparing scores on different physical machines. Every pin is different. It is still fun to see scoreboards on local machines or to find the really out-there scores some people put up, but it's not like a video game where everyone is on equal footing.

To me that is part of the appeal of pinball. It is a local, physical, tangible thing.

Heck, even with video games we're not on "equal footing." When I play my little self-contained version of "The Oregon Trail," I am at a disadvantage when I have to hunt for food using those clunky controls. :-)

You can speed run on equal footing with any NES game and a stock console. That's not possible with pinball. The only comparable scores are on the same physical machine at the same time.

To be clear, do you mean different physical machines of the same type?

Yes. The rules are the same (although there are often many versions of the rules, and settings within each version) but the physical machine is always going to vary, both physically in construction and in setup. The tilt sensitivity, type of rubber used, condition of parts, level of the playfield, type of feet, tightness of legs, flooring, strength of the coils, angle of the flippers, size of the flippers, cleanliness of the playfield, presence of wax, position of posts, and the strength of springs all contribute to variation.

That's fascinating. Thanks for the context.

Wear and tear can greatly affect game play. Sometimes for the better!

Stern tried this a long time ago to compete with Golden Tee Golf tournaments, since those games were paying people cash and killing pinball in street locations like bars.

The problem was stopping nefarious players from taking the glass off and rigging the score. It's an impossible thing to prevent.

They already have, for pinball in particular. Stern Pinball implemented a connectivity system for new machines (it reads your QR code), and there are many arcade locations that use that to track and display scores and achievements and leaderboards. Most mid-sized cities in the US now have at least one brewery or arcade with this running now. It's mostly particular to each location, but some organizers use it for global competitions as well.

https://insider.sternpinball.com/

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