Episode 58 - DEATHSAVES

Death saves debate: skill move or cheating that hurts operators and score integrity?

Synopsis

Alan, Alex, and Jeff from the Wedgehead A Pinball Podcast discuss death saves and bang backs: pinball techniques that extend play by redirecting balls from outlanes back into play. The conversation explores the tension between treating them as legitimate skill moves (especially on modern Stern machines where they occur almost automatically) versus viewing them as cheating that harms operator revenue and invalidates high scores. Manufacturers could easily prevent them through software or hardware changes but choose not to, leading to debate about responsibility.

Highlights

• 70% of Stern games go to homes, 30% go on location (per Gary Stern at Dutch Pinball Museum)
• Modern Stern games perform death saves automatically with minimal player input due to bouncy trough geometry
• Manufacturers could prevent death saves with one line of code (killing flippers when right outlane switch triggers)
• Death saves are banned in tournament play and result in automatic disqualification
• Some games intentionally designed with death saves in mind (Rick and Morty, Data East games like Rocky and Bullwinkle, Last Action Hero)
• Data East apron design from the 1990s enabled death saves and Stern inherited/continued this design without modification
• Rubber feet cups on games can prevent death saves but location players remove them
• Death saves reduce operator revenue by extending play without additional payment on pay-per-play machines

Entities

• Data East· company
• Stern Pinball· company
• Black Knight· game
• Godzilla· game
• Hook· game
• James Bond 007· game
• Last Action Hero· game
• Lethal Weapon· game
• Rick and Morty· game
• Rocky and Bullwinkle· game
• Sword of Rage· game
• Dutch Pinball Museum· organization
• Next Level· organization
• Wedgehead· organization
• Alan· person
• Alex· person
• Gary Stern· person
• Jack Danger· person
• Jeff· person
• Roadsy· person
• Scott Denise· person