Safe Cracker: Comments

[Gary Ransom]

I am one of the 4 Dallas area collectors that recently un-boxed
Safe Cracker's and set them up for home use.

I was wondering why this pin did not do well in the industry. Thanks
to that I was able to affort a new one though.

Over the last few years I have had pins in the house and not once did
my kids (less than 8 yrs. old) ever turn on a pin and want to play a
game. They have had choices of Silverball Mania, Time Warp, Space
Shuttle, High Speed, Comet, Arena, Taxi, Earthshaker, and ST:TNG.

But that changed with Safe Cracker. I come home from work now and
the kids are playing Safe Cracker. The token concept has won them
over on pinball. They have learned the rules and are using good
flipper techniques. They enjoy the 'board game'. Of coarse, the
ST:TNG still just sits there. I enjoy the game also.

So, what is it about Safe Cracker that kept operators away?

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Ransom Internet: gra...@ti.com
Texas Instruments, Inc. TI-MSG: GAR2
PO Box 655474 MS 292 PHONE: (972) 995-8313
Dallas, TX 75265 FAX: (972) 995-2277

[Brad Nelson]

Gary Ransom wrote:
>
> I am one of the 4 Dallas area collectors that recently un-boxed
> Safe Cracker's and set them up for home use.
>
> I was wondering why this pin did not do well in the industry. Thanks
> to that I was able to affort a new one though.
>
> Over the last few years I have had pins in the house and not once did
> my kids (less than 8 yrs. old) ever turn on a pin and want to play a
> game. They have had choices of Silverball Mania, Time Warp, Space
> Shuttle, High Speed, Comet, Arena, Taxi, Earthshaker, and ST:TNG.
>
> But that changed with Safe Cracker. I come home from work now and
> the kids are playing Safe Cracker. The token concept has won them
> over on pinball. They have learned the rules and are using good
> flipper techniques. They enjoy the 'board game'. Of coarse, the
> ST:TNG still just sits there. I enjoy the game also.
>
> So, what is it about Safe Cracker that kept operators away?

Being another of those four Dallas area collectors, I would add my
curiosity as well. I have had several folks over who basically had
never really given pins a second look, who just went bonkers over
Safecracker. It is a challenging game for everyone, and the timed
game concept allows people of all skill levels to at least have a
couple of minutes of fun!

Unfortunately, I think the timed game concept also scared away
operators. I admit, I was pretty skeptical at first. And of course,
there are the other factors that have previously been noted: the
smaller machine size (yet still high cost), non-standard flipper
sizes, playfield glass size etc. Then of course, tokens that the
operator must either keep purchasing as they are won (if not played
back, and if you are a kid like me when I was 10 years old, they
would have to pry the token from my cold dead fingers), or simply
not offer tokens.

Sigh. At least, as you said, some of us benefitted from this bad
news and now have a truly enjoyable pin in the home!

--
Bradley Nelson Dallas, TX
http://web2.airmail.net/bsnelson
To e-mail me, hit reply and remove ".edu" from my
address. Die spambots, die!

[Michelle Bottorff]

Gary Ransom <ran...@hpicc.dseg.ti.com> wrote:

> I was wondering why this pin did not do well in the industry. Thanks
> to that I was able to affort a new one though.

The shape wasn't "true" pinball shape, and the flippers were smaller
than is the current standard. Until you learned how to get more time,
regular pinball players would end up with much shorter games than normal
(1-2 balls), so they lost the regular pinball players.

However, because it was shaped like a pin and was fairly difficult for a
non-pin player to win tokens, it didn't catch on too fast with the
redemption crowd.

[Rocky Willson]

In <5mn4ag$l...@sf18.dseg.ti.com> ran...@hpicc.dseg.ti.com (Gary Ransom)
writes:

>
>I am one of the 4 Dallas area collectors that recently un-boxed
>Safe Cracker's and set them up for home use.
>

>I was wondering why this pin did not do well in the industry. Thanks
>to that I was able to affort a new one though.
>

>Over the last few years I have had pins in the house and not once did
>my kids (less than 8 yrs. old) ever turn on a pin and want to play a
>game. They have had choices of Silverball Mania, Time Warp, Space
>Shuttle, High Speed, Comet, Arena, Taxi, Earthshaker, and ST:TNG.
>
>But that changed with Safe Cracker. I come home from work now and
>the kids are playing Safe Cracker. The token concept has won them
>over on pinball. They have learned the rules and are using good
>flipper techniques. They enjoy the 'board game'. Of coarse, the
>ST:TNG still just sits there. I enjoy the game also.
>
>So, what is it about Safe Cracker that kept operators away?
>

>--
>----------------------------------------------------------------------

---
>Gary Ransom Internet: gra...@ti.com
>Texas Instruments, Inc. TI-MSG: GAR2
>PO Box 655474 MS 292 PHONE: (972) 995-8313
>Dallas, TX 75265 FAX: (972) 995-2277

It is illegal to operate the game in the state of Washington. That
kept a lot of them away here.

.............................Rocky Willson

[Count Zero]

On 30 May 1997 17:55:28 GMT, ran...@hpicc.dseg.ti.com (Gary Ransom)
wrote:

>I am one of the 4 Dallas area collectors that recently un-boxed
>Safe Cracker's and set them up for home use.
>
>I was wondering why this pin did not do well in the industry. Thanks
>to that I was able to affort a new one though.
>

>So, what is it about Safe Cracker that kept operators away?
>

There are at least two machines on routes in Des Moines, Iowa. I
personally love the machine. A friend of mine has one in his kitchen.
A local rec shop sold 8 or 10 of them to home users.

I suppose the operators didn't like re-stocking the tokens. It;s the
only think I can think of. Except that a lot of pinball players did
not like the timed-play concept initially, and maybe they didn't get
played much. That's probably what the kids like most. It's not
usually a big deal if you lose the ball.

/ ze...@nospam.netins.net
/ http://www.netins.net/showcase/zero/
/
/ (remove nospam from address to reply)
/
/ "Misinformation is more appealing than Misterinformation"

[Paul Duprey]

Count Zero wrote:
>
> On 30 May 1997 17:55:28 GMT, ran...@hpicc.dseg.ti.com (Gary Ransom)
> wrote:
>
> >I am one of the 4 Dallas area collectors that recently un-boxed
> >Safe Cracker's and set them up for home use.
> >
> >I was wondering why this pin did not do well in the industry. Thanks
> >to that I was able to affort a new one though.

How much are they going for? It is a fantastic game.

> >
> >So, what is it about Safe Cracker that kept operators away?
> >
>
> There are at least two machines on routes in Des Moines, Iowa. I
> personally love the machine. A friend of mine has one in his kitchen.
> A local rec shop sold 8 or 10 of them to home users.

Part of the fun for me was trying to catch and gather the tokens being
spit out, while in multiball, in a busy arcade. I suppose having one in
your kitchen would eliminate that factor (just let 'em drop). Not that I
wouldn't *want* one in my kitchen, mind you!

>
> I suppose the operators didn't like re-stocking the tokens. It;s the
> only think I can think of. Except that a lot of pinball players did
> not like the timed-play concept initially, and maybe they didn't get
> played much. That's probably what the kids like most. It's not
> usually a big deal if you lose the ball.

What initially kept me away the game was the fact that it had such a
small playfield, and didn't look like there was really much to it.
Looked kind of mickey-mouse. Fortunately, curiosity refused to let me
ignore a "new" machine, and I was well on my way into dumping dollar
after dollar into this thing. It's not a rehashed licensed machine
(bonus! ... HELLO SEGA?!!), and actually presents some original(at least
in recent memory) ideas: the board game aspect, extendable time limit(as
opposed to a finite number of balls), and of course the tokens. It's too
bad the game never took off. Is it at least popular with people who were
lucky enough to find one?

--
-Paul

When replying, remember to remove the 'goawayspam.' from my address.

[Bob Herbison]

Count Zero wrote:
>
> On 30 May 1997 17:55:28 GMT, ran...@hpicc.dseg.ti.com (Gary Ransom)
> wrote:
>
> >I am one of the 4 Dallas area collectors that recently un-boxed
> >Safe Cracker's and set them up for home use.
> >
> >I was wondering why this pin did not do well in the industry. Thanks
> >to that I was able to affort a new one though.
> >

> >So, what is it about Safe Cracker that kept operators away?
> >
>
> There are at least two machines on routes in Des Moines, Iowa. I
> personally love the machine. A friend of mine has one in his kitchen.
> A local rec shop sold 8 or 10 of them to home users.
>

> I suppose the operators didn't like re-stocking the tokens. It;s the
> only think I can think of. Except that a lot of pinball players did
> not like the timed-play concept initially, and maybe they didn't get
> played much. That's probably what the kids like most. It's not
> usually a big deal if you lose the ball.
>

> / ze...@nospam.netins.net
> / http://www.netins.net/showcase/zero/
> /
> / (remove nospam from address to reply)
> /
> / "Misinformation is more appealing than Misterinformation"

All previous reponders make good points.

I think that the non-standard nature of several components (playfield
glass, lower flippers, lower
flipper coils) was a factor. Operators may have shied away from the
game because they did not want to stock 'custom' parts for the game.
Although if convinced that it would be a strong money maker this concern
would probably fade into the background.

Another issue that may have been a killer....a standard pinball dolly
won't fit under the game. No biggy for home use, but how does an
operator move one around??

It is a great pinball, however. I love mine!!!
--

[Alan Whittle]

Gary Ransom <ran...@hpicc.dseg.ti.com> wrote in article
<5mn4ag$l...@sf18.dseg.ti.com>...

> I am one of the 4 Dallas area collectors that recently un-boxed
> Safe Cracker's and set them up for home use.

At the risk of sounding like an AOL'er; Me too!

<Rest snipped>

> So, what is it about Safe Cracker that kept operators away?

Released with too early a software version.
Released at about the same time as Attack From Mars.
Initially cost about $300 MORE than AFM.
Timed theme and boardgame confusing to the casual
player.
Tokens cost roughly $.35 each.
Looked strange. (you laugh, Operators can be a
cynical bunch)

Just my cyberdog tokens worth.
/Alan

>
> --
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------