At the Flippers near the currency exchange, Friday March 14th.
"Elvis" in need of a major shop. Sling rubbers near breaking point. Flippers very sluggish. Extremely dirty overall, burnt lamps, etc. This one's ready for the sales floor at SML. Put $1 in, 2 credits, played one and left it alone.

Simpsons Pinball Party. "searching for balls, five missing" error displayed. Some sucker plugged a dollar in anyway, nothing happened. This one is also ready for a shop and/or the sales floor at SML.

The big surprise..."Attack From Mars" on location! This was the first time I'd seen this one in a great number of years. It played quite well with snappy flippers and half decent rubbers. The monsters/Martians were all missing, but the saucers were there. Pretty clean overall and the best of the three there, it looked like this one came out of someones' basement, not typical of an SML machine, that's for sure. Played 2CRs, won a third but ran out of time.

If anyone has checked out the other Flippers at the airport, I'd like to hear what's there. I'll be out there again in about 2 weeks and will have lots of time to waste on pins!!

Was just there a few weeks ago and the Attack from Mars sounds about in the same condition; No Aliens whatsoever. However, Southern Music DOES have a pretty nice Attack from Mars at their NE store (as well as a Class of 1812 (!), Sopranos, World Poker Tour, South Park, Gomez' basketball game - Fastbreak?, Grand Lizard, Wheel of Fortune and Monopoly. There was a non working pin that looked nice at least - an old Eight Ball Deluxe!). Airport hasn't changed much since your report, but LOTR is there now.

(Stern's) Elvis appears to be in a little better shape then when you saw it.
Sopranos was at the airport to, but set to the family mode so no cursing... strippers still danced around though.

I've moaned and groaned about the condition of the pins at that airport a couple years ago. They pretty much have the same machines in there and mostly they're hurtin.

Two, or maybe more like four or five years ago, they were new looking, nice and clean. I must have got to them when they were just put in. And they have gone downhill ever since.
I'll say this much...theres no excuse for that condition. I have a couple machines out there working for me...know what I do? I service them regularly...keeps people wanting to play them. Its just that simple. I cant believe how stupid some ops really are. I mean, you'd HAVE to be stupid to have the product of your business in that kind of condition.

Think about...who else gets away with that?

You cant drive a taxi with only 3 tires. You cant fly a plane with no wings. You cant watch TV with no power, you cant make pizza in an oven that only goes to 35F. etc

So, if you're gonna run pinball machines and expect to make any money off of it....CLEAN YOUR DAMN MACHINES OR GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS

Quoted from Pinballed

So, if you're gonna run pinball machines and expect to make any money off of it....CLEAN YOUR DAMN MACHINES OR GET OUT OF THE BUSINESS

Good point, and they don't really hide the fact they're the ones supplying the machines either, a great big sticker right under the glass and one on the backglass as well. I bought a machines recently from them, found it in a billiard hall after talking with them. They did a pretty good job cleaning it up for sale, but I must admit I was nervous. I'm sure they'd sell more active machines if they serviced them on a regular basis. The Attack from Mars sans aliens was a little silly, the posts were there "attacking" me with nary a bobbing alien in sight.

Same happened to me in Edmonton when I found an Elvira & the Party Monsters without the Boogie Men. Some fun THAT was  

Where would the aliens go? Do people smash the playfield glass and steal them?!

Quoted from jonny_eh

Where would the aliens go? Do people smash the playfield glass and steal them?!

, your guess is as good as mine. Defected to Pinball 2000?

Quoted from jonny_eh

Where would the aliens go? Do people smash the playfield glass and steal them?!

No that is the invisible Martian mod ... very popular among some ops

, was there again today, found a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" machine in the Flippers by Tim Hortons, nice shape and a lot of fun. Never had a chance to play it before and certainly appreciated the time with it. One of the Simpsons games wasn't powered on but there's another one by the currency exchange on floor 2 which worked well. Still no aliens on AFM so it would seem that the invisible martian mod is still in place. Stern's Elvis & Indiana Jones still playable as is LOTR machine.

I was at this airport 2 nights ago, very tired around midnight and had to check out the pins based on previous reports and boost my energy levels with a good game of pinball. I eagerly anticipated the moment but I can sum up the moment in one word "ARGGGH!!!!"

The pins in concourse "A" were in terrible shape, rubbers missing off of posts (Elvis), flippers that were weak and working only some times, some did not even work at all. The South Park pin was still missing all balls but someone had put a loonie in and must have walked away. That is just stealing coins in my point of view. The Roller Coaster pin looked good but flippers did not work ackk!

I did not even try the Junkyard because I was so disenchanted. This pin setup is a black eye to all of us because the public will look at these machines and think that pinball is useless. They would have been better off putting a backgammon board there.

Does the operator even care? Surely they can't be that bad of a business owner, can they?

End of rant.

Quoted from Ricker

Does the operator even care? Surely they can't be that bad of a business owner, can they?

End of rant.

Nope, they really don't seem to care, which answers the second part of the question...

It is pretty sad how bad the condition of some of the games are at the airport.  I feel like a sucker for putting coins in them.