I have just read through an interesting article on the Cheep talk blog .

In 1986, Williams High Speed changed the economics of pinball forever.  Pinball developers began to see how they could take advantage of programmable software to monitor, incentivize, and ultimately exploit the players.

Although I don’t think the Manufacturers “exploited” the players any more than change eating levels in video arcades do now, the post has some interesting points about how the manufacturers had to juggle difficulty and accessibility.

To anyone who started playing in the early 90’s, the ever increasing replay score was the norm and actually made sense. After you get used to a pin you are bound to score higher on average and the operator still has to make a profit.

Anyway, go and check out the article, it has some interesting info.