Probably a stupid question.

How do tilt warnings work?

From real tables, I was led to believe that the warnings were on a per-ball basis. Meaning, the warnings will reset on every new ball that is launched, including extra-balls.

On TPA, the warnings seem to carry over until you actually Tilt out, regardless of which ball you're on.

What's the scoop on the poop?

Is it my imagination or my aged misperceptions?

On Pinball Machines a tilt sensor is used. The sensor consists of a metal ring with a cone-shaped pendulum bob hanging through the center of it. Normally, the bob hangs so that none of it is touching the ring.

The tilt mechanism keeps you from shaking the machine excessively. As the machine is shaken, the bob comes closer to the edges of the conductive ring. Once the bob touches the ring, a current is transferred and a tilt is registered.
Depending on the machine, you might immediately lose your ball, or you might only get warned. Most newer machines give you two warnings before all the flippers stop working and your ball goes down the drain.
There are also devices that look for slam tilts. A slam tilt is a heavy abuse of the game, usually in the form of someone picking the machine up or kicking the front end very hard. Registering one of these immediately

So the longer you wait and the pendulum stops moving, the warnings reset. Mostly after about 10-15 seconds, the warnings resets, if there is no more pendulum movement. On TPA is made the same way. Soft Nudges are ok and you
will get no warning. Also on some machines you can adjust how many times you get a warning.

Greetz

Groni

Groni said:

So the longer you wait and the pendulum stops moving, the warnings reset. Mostly after about 10-15 seconds, the warnings resets, if there is no more pendulum movement. On TPA is made the same way.

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Tilt warnings reset when the ball drains or when an actual tilt occurs. They don't expire after a given time. You can get a double danger early in your ball, and then 10 minutes later (but still on the same ball) nudge slightly too hard and register an immediate tilt.

Also, the tilt bob can take over a minute to fully settle down after hitting the ring. Exactly how long it takes depends on how much force was used and how tight the tilt bob is set.

I've been told that some tables have a game tilt. You don't just lose the ball, but you lose the entire game even if it is on ball one. I can't confirm this, as I have never bumped into this personally. But a friend of mine swares it's true.

Of course they reset on the same ball. I can bump a hundret times with warnings on one ball on my Space Station Machine. I bump the machine, the warning comes up. Then I wait 15-20 Seconds before I bump again, and again a first warning. For sure there are pinball machines that saves warnings through rom control to make gameplay harder. But most machines I know resets the warning after the pendulum is standing still for a couple of time.

The situation that led to my question is as follows. On ball 1, I recieved 2 tilt warnings. Nothing for ball 2. On ball 3, I get one more to finally tilt out the machine. It seemed that the 2 original tilt warnings got carried over to ball 3. I always thought that the warnings were reset after you drain a ball.

Kolchak357 said:

I've been told that some tables have a game tilt. You don't just lose the ball, but you lose the entire game even if it is on ball one. I can't confirm this, as I have never bumped into this personally. But a friend of mine swares it's true.

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Some older EM tables have a tilt penalty of loss of game. I'm not aware of any SS tables that do.

Groni said:

Of course they reset on the same ball. I can bump a hundret times with warnings on one ball on my Space Station Machine. I bump the machine, the warning comes up. Then I wait 15-20 Seconds before I bump again, and again a first warning. For sure there are pinball machines that saves warnings through rom control to make gameplay harder. But most machines I know resets the warning after the pendulum is standing still for a couple of time.

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I'm almost 100% certain that is not standard behavior. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to make a save and instead insta-tilted because I forgot about the two warnings I took ten minutes prior. But I'll have access to about 70 real tables on Friday and would be delighted to test. Any particular tables I should try this on? I don't have a Space Station nearby. Most of the tables here are from 1992 and later.

Squid said:

The situation that led to my question is as follows. On ball 1, I recieved 2 tilt warnings. Nothing for ball 2. On ball 3, I get one more to finally tilt out the machine. It seemed that the 2 original tilt warnings got carried over to ball 3. I always thought that the warnings were reset after you drain a ball.

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You can also Tilt without a warning, you sure this isnt what happened on ball 3?

Serenseven said:

I'm almost 100% certain that is not standard behavior. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to make a save and instead insta-tilted because I forgot about the two warnings I took ten minutes prior. But I'll have access to about 70 real tables on Friday and would be delighted to test. Any particular tables I should try this on? I don't have a Space Station nearby. Most of the tables here are from 1992 and later.

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To be true, i didn´t kept attention to it in detail when i am playing Attack from Mars for example comes to my Mind. My last tournament play on this table was a oneball game with 3 Universe Rules. I don´t know how much times i get an Warning on that game. 10 or 20 Times for sure. So this means the warnings resets after a couple of time. So if there is an AFM, then try it Also possible that it is point dependend. If you get a warning and played some points, maybe it gets resetted.

Groni said:

To be true, i didn´t kept attention to it in detail when i am playing Attack from Mars for example comes to my Mind. My last tournament play on this table was a oneball game with 3 Universe Rules. I don´t know how much times i get an Warning on that game. 10 or 20 Times for sure. So this means the warnings resets after a couple of time. So if there is an AFM, then try it Also possible that it is point dependend. If you get a warning and played some points, maybe it gets resetted.

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The operations manual for Attack from Mars specifies that the machine has an operator adjustment of from 1 to 10 for how many times the tilt mechanism registers before it really DOES tilt.
So... an individual machine can tilt on the first hard nudge... or on the 10th. This means a maximum of 9 warnings first.

Groni said:

To be true, i didn´t kept attention to it in detail when i am playing Attack from Mars for example comes to my Mind. My last tournament play on this table was a oneball game with 3 Universe Rules. I don´t know how much times i get an Warning on that game. 10 or 20 Times for sure. So this means the warnings resets after a couple of time. So if there is an AFM, then try it Also possible that it is point dependend. If you get a warning and played some points, maybe it gets resetted.

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Groni!!! Good to see you over here

Yes older EM games usually have this.

bossyman15 said:

Yes older EM games usually have this.

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Generally it's those games that have manual ball serve mechanism in them.

Groni said:

To be true, i didn´t kept attention to it in detail when i am playing Attack from Mars for example comes to my Mind. My last tournament play on this table was a oneball game with 3 Universe Rules. I don´t know how much times i get an Warning on that game. 10 or 20 Times for sure. So this means the warnings resets after a couple of time. So if there is an AFM, then try it Also possible that it is point dependend. If you get a warning and played some points, maybe it gets resetted.

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OK, the results are in: AC/DC, Addams Family, Attack from Mars, Bride of Pinbot, CFTBL, Fish Tales, FunHouse, Monster Bash, RBION, Scared Stiff, Terminator 2 and Twilight Zone all remember their tilt warnings indefinitely, until drain or actual tilt.