A pinball machine can be made harder or easier in a matter of moments without even removing the playfield glass. You may be finding the chaotic nature of pinball game play difficult to adapt to, and be looking for a way to get more out of your machine. Equally, you may have beaten the game several times over, and are looking for a way to truly test your skills.
There are two different ways of modifying the game’s difficulty easily: Changing the game’s tilt setting, or modifying software options.
How to make a pinball machine easier in software settings
Software settings are a great way to adjust the game by changing the way the game operates. Because they operate at a software level, this method of changing the difficulty is good for players of all skill levels for making the game’s set up easier or harder.
All of these settings are accessed using the game’s service menu (which you can learn how to use here), and can be found under the “Adjustments” menu. The adjustments menu has two submenus that are of use for changing difficulty settings: “Standard Adjustments” and “Feature Adjustments”
Standard adjustments
On a pinball machine, standard adjustments will modify aspects of the game that can apply to almost any pinball machine. For example, standard adjustments allows you to change the following (and more) types of options:
- The number of balls per game
- The number of warnings before a tilt
- The penalty for tilting
- The score needed to earn an extra ball
Feature adjustments
On a pinball machine, feature adjustments will modify settings tied to individual modes and features within the game itself. For example, in the feature settings you will find settings for:
- Mode start difficulty
- Mode difficulty
Save your settings, then exit out of the menu to see how the game has changed.
How to change the tilt settings of a pinball machine
Changing the tilt settings on a pinball machine is more useful for more advanced pinball players who are used to the practice of nudging and bumping the machine to better control the game. For those unfamiliar, the tilt function in pinball is to discourage players from externally manipulating or moving the machine in a way that affects the game, often ending a player’s current ball if the player moves the machine around too much.
This tilt functionality can be made more or less sensitive. If the tilt setting is more sensitive, then it will take less force and movement for the game to detect and register a tilt. If the tilt is made less sensitive, then the machine can be moved more without registering any kind of warnings, to the level that it can be deactivated entirely.
The tilt’s sensitivity is controlled with the machine’s tilt bob. The tilt bob is a hanging, conical weight that’s suspended inside a metal ring, and can be found inside a pinball machine’s coin door on the left hand side.
To change the sensitivity, then unscrew the small wing nut at the bottom of the weight, then slide the weight up or down. Sliding the weight up makes the tilt more sensitive, whilst sliding it down makes it less sensitive.
