A common method of
cheating in pinball where the person "tilts" (lifts) the machine to
one side in order to force the ball to move somewhere else, potentially stopping it from going
right between the flippers, or into a bonus.
Unfortunately, most machines are programmed specifically to combat this; if the machine detects that it is being tilted, a message saying "TILT"
will appear. "TILT" causes the machine to become unresponsive until the ball falls out, causing the player to lose it. This is done to prevent cheating, as well as to avoid the machine being damaged.
Person 1: You hear about the guy who
got the record high score on one of the pinball machines at the
local arcade?
Person 2: Yeah, what about him?
Person 1: He was disqualified after someone ratted on him for tilting.
Person 2: Well, good on them. Cheaters never prosper. But how did he get away with it for so long? Normally the machine can detect that.
Person 1: Well...he was careful about it to make sure that the machine didn't notice, and
people were too focused on the score.
Person 2: So how did they figure it out?
Person 1: The machine broke, and the guy playing it at the
time happened to be an expert who suggested that someone was tilting. So they replayed
that guy's high score and discovered it. He's now banned from the arcade.