Liberty Bell rollover tilt

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

I recently acquired a Liberty Bell, and like most new LB and Grand Prix
owners, I was baffled by the rollover tilt switch in the upper left
lane of the playfield. This switch activates tilt if no points have
been scored. I googled this group and found half a dozen threads that
applied, and every one of them agreed that the switch was designed to
do this, but no one knew "why".

Watching a baseball game on TV the other night, I came up with a theory
to explain "why". Watching Randy Johnson throw a 95 mph fastball to a
good fastball hitter results in the ball being hit with incredible
force. I would think the same thing would happen if the left
one-way-gate on the LB was out of commission, allowing the ball to
travel from the ball shooter, around the upper arch, and directly to
the flipper without slowing down.

The force of the flipper hitting a ball going as fast as possible would
allow a player to do a lot of damage to a playfield (intentionally or
not) in a very few games. If this is the case, are there other games
with a similar protection scheme? If not, why not? Is the angle
different enough on these games to justify the expense and trouble of
adding this switch?

MikeR