The Pinball Thread

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Sumez
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Sumez »

Damn, trying to find the source of errors in a pinball table never gets boring.

Recently I've been fixing up my WhiteWater, getting it ready to be shipped to a public location. And just as everything seemed to be in working order, one of my test games suddenly went nuts - all music stopped playing, the display bugged up with vertical lines all over the place, and completely wrong sound effects started to play for everything! (and no, it wasn't just me getting the vacation bonus)

This is what going through the menu sounded like:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNczxUdlGnu/

Of course, in the end, it was just a question of identifying the correct ribbon cable that needed to be pulled out and reattached, and everything's fine again :3
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by boagman »

Sumez wrote:(and no, it wasn't just me getting the vacation bonus)
Oh, and I was *totally* going to be suggesting that it was just this! Good job diagnosing the ribbon cable issue. You may need to use a bit of sandpaper on the pins on the board where that connector attaches if the problem continues to recur.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by boagman »

Ixmucane2 wrote:An enlightening discussion. I've been motivated to set my goal for The Sopranos to reaching Underboss and Boss, rather than merely winning replays.
This is a laudable goal, as sometimes the Wizard Mode(s) in games can be some of the most fun/exciting parts to play. Not always (see Grand Finale in Theatre of Magic for a prime example of "not always"), but many times they can. As well, you'll find that playing to progress toward these further-in-the-distance goals will *also* usually provide the replays/credits opportunities that you're wanting as well. There's more than just replays available: there's high score credits, earned specials, and of course matches. The higher/further you climb in terms of a machine's "journey" or points, the more availability you'll usually find from these other sources of free games.

Many times Wizard Modes can be pretty rewarding, though, and often they can be some of the most fun-to-play in a game. The Simpsons Pinball Party is a *fantastic* game with many, many very fun and rewarding Wizard Modes that provide a ton of different and interesting-to-play experiences from a variety of sources in the game. It works on many levels for many different reasons.
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Sumez
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Sumez »

Not a fan of ToM style wizard modes either, where you just get a multiball and everything gives points.

I absolutely loved TOTAN's final showdown with the Genie, a somewhat easy wizard mode to reach, too (it must be, considering I did it first time I ever had the chance to play with the table :)), but feels like an exciting way to top things off!
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by boagman »

Sumez wrote:Not a fan of ToM style wizard modes either, where you just get a multiball and everything gives points.

I absolutely loved TOTAN's final showdown with the Genie, a somewhat easy wizard mode to reach, too (it must be, considering I did it first time I ever had the chance to play with the table :)), but feels like an exciting way to top things off!
Actually, ToM's Wizard Mode isn't a multiball at all. It's just a timed, single-ball play mode where you earn 50 million points per shot while trying to fill in the letters of "MAGIC" and "THEATRE" before the clock expires. If you do so, you get an additional 500 million. And that's it. Thus, 12 shots repeated up the center ramp, and it's over, not that it was much to begin with. It couldn't be much easier to complete or anticlimactic.

In such a great game as ToM, it's just *such* an underwhelming experience to have such a horrible Wizard Mode in the game. It hurts it immeasurably. One of the few things I can criticize that game for, but it's certainly a doozie.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Ruldra »

boagman wrote:This is a laudable goal, as sometimes the Wizard Mode(s) in games can be some of the most fun/exciting parts to play. Not always (see Grand Finale in Theatre of Magic for a prime example of "not always"), but many times they can. As well, you'll find that playing to progress toward these further-in-the-distance goals will *also* usually provide the replays/credits opportunities that you're wanting as well. There's more than just replays available: there's high score credits, earned specials, and of course matches. The higher/further you climb in terms of a machine's "journey" or points, the more availability you'll usually find from these other sources of free games.

Many times Wizard Modes can be pretty rewarding, though, and often they can be some of the most fun-to-play in a game. The Simpsons Pinball Party is a *fantastic* game with many, many very fun and rewarding Wizard Modes that provide a ton of different and interesting-to-play experiences from a variety of sources in the game. It works on many levels for many different reasons.
For me pinball is all about the wizard mode, I see it as beating the table as you beat a regular game. I don't consider a table done until I beat the wizard mode.

And indeed they're super fun. Battle for the Kingdom in Medieval Madness is one of the coolest wizard modes I've played.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Austin »

Ixmucane2 wrote:An enlightening discussion. I've been motivated to set my goal for The Sopranos to reaching Underboss and Boss, rather than merely winning replays.
Definitely try it. The more you find yourself getting close (or actually getting to) the wizard mode, the more you will be showered with replays. Basically, the better you get, the less it costs to play longer on location machines.

The fun thing about going for wizard modes, at least in the case of late Bally/Williams games and modern Sterns, is they often require you to tackle the game in a thoughtful manner.
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Sinful
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Sinful »

There's a Pinball Done Quick event on Twitch; https://www.twitch.tv/pinballjoe
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Re: The Pinball Thread

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Sinful wrote:There's a Pinball Done Quick event on Twitch; https://www.twitch.tv/pinballjoe
I came here to post about that. Thanks man!

I'll be manning the stream all night all this week. Stream is 24/7 but feel free to pop in overnight and hang out. Game of Thrones is on tonight.
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Stevens
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Stevens »

Stern is doing an Aerosmith machine.

https://www.google.com/search?q=aerosmith+pinball
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davyK
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by davyK »

Haven't played a real pinball in years which is a crying shame. I was never seriously into them but I did play them regularly and found them interesting but video games in the early 80s were the thing.

I'd love to own a machine myself now but I'll probably get a cabinet videogame before I do that (am in a queue for a reconditioned Asteroids Deluxe) I'm into videogame pinball. I like the high score nature of the gameplay and the idea of learning a table. It's not unlike playing STGs. The 360 Zen tables are nice but I seem to prefer the older stuff such as Necronimocon and Last Gladiators for Saturn and Pro Pinball Trilogy for Dreamcast.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story pinball table was released recently on the PS4 & PS Vita platforms courtesy of Zen through it's Zen Pinball 2 series. Tis a shame that a real physical Rogue One pinball machine hasn't been released though -- how about doing one, Stern?

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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by davyK »

Forgot - Dragon's Fury on Megadrive (aka Devil's Crush on PCE). One of the best pinball video games ever. Superb.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by wgogh »

davyK wrote:Forgot - Dragon's Fury on Megadrive (aka Devil's Crush on PCE). One of the best pinball video games ever. Superb.
The Crush series is great. I'm into Dragon's Revenge now. Very unlike a pinball, actually...

Also, I'm finally playing Black Knight again, on Pinball Arcade.
In Brazil we had it named Cavaleiro Negro, and had completly different rules. More like a very popular bootleg by brazilian Taito, since we couldnt have the original (Same thing with other popular tables, like Gorgar, named Drakor)
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by PowerofElsydeon »

I was wondering what do you think of Pinball Revenge of the Gator?
Even if you don't think it's a big deal I wanted to start up a classic scoreboard competition about this bad boy
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by kitten »

PowerofElsydeon wrote:I was wondering what do you think of Pinball Revenge of the Gator?
i wrote some words about it last year. it's a childhood favorite

http://ettugamer.com/2016/05/21/a-trip- ... the-gator/
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Aliquantic »

Bumping this to ask if anybody is using Visual Pinball for PC pinball? It's a bit of a pain to set up (not much worse than regular MAME though), but it works pretty well after that compared to Pinball Arcade I think.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Cee »

Aliquantic wrote:Bumping this to ask if anybody is using Visual Pinball for PC pinball? It's a bit of a pain to set up (not much worse than regular MAME though), but it works pretty well after that compared to Pinball Arcade I think.
Of course and i think pretty well is an understatement... Pinball arcade is and always has been total shit, farsight lucked out on a niche and lack competition so everyone accepts the abysmally low graphical and physics standard. Pro pinball is the king of realistic play (go get pro pinball timeshock ultra on steam) with VPX right behind.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Sumez »

FarSight had their issues, but I think it got better over time. While I haven't played their latest tables I stopped following them around when Whitewater came out, and considering I actually own that table I feel confident saying it' a really superb representation of how it plays, including quirks where I can tell they have reproduced minor physical differences in the table they had compared to mine. It still suffers from the same consistency issues you find in ANY digital pinball games that makes the game much, much easier to play than in real life, but I've never played any where this wasn't the case, including Visual Pinball, Pro Pinball, Zen Pinball, etc.

It would have been nice with a more realistic representation of the tables, but I don't think I've ever played a Visual Pinball table that managed to do it better than Pinball Arcade. To me, VP was always a "try it out to learn the rules and get a feeling for the game" thing before playing the real deal.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Cee »

Well you're wrong, they haven't got better and maybe you haven't tried the latest builds of VP but it's not even fucking close. VP like pro pinball now has a full spin model and everything can be done with the flippers, post passes, live catches etc whilst pin arc has no spin model and the ball has constant speeds as well as full predictability (you can make things happen with flawless consistency). As someone who owns a table these things should be obvious to you so i'll assume you're a beginner. You're also wrong about pro pinball, timeshock ultra is easily as hard as a real life table and plays like one to.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Sumez »

Flawless consistency is a huge problem in Pinball Arcade, but it's worse in the older tables (they still retain the issues despite updates). However I haven't played a single VP table where it wasn't even worse. But if it's gotten better with newer builds, that's good news I guess.

What makes you assume I'm a "beginner"?
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by wgogh »

I actually use an old build for Pinball Arcade. The new one got some annoying changes, like distracting achivements.
Dont like that the Who cover either, but thats details.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by wgogh »

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Has been some time since I posted on the forum. I've been busy if music and college final's. I can thank the shmups and arcade games in general for my current musical dedication, since they made me enjoy working hard. Anyway, recently I had the oportunity to play some old tables on Rio Prinball Clube. Some of the table are alternative versions by Taito from Brazil like Drakor (Gorgar) and Vortex (Blackout with totally different artwork). Good to see that theyre in great condition. They even had a eletromechanic, but i forgot what was called.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by BrianC »

wgogh wrote:They even had a eletromechanic, but i forgot what was called.
It was called "Mac". :D
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Xyga »

Yesterday we had our big annual meet/party at work and some dude brought a Theatre of Magic in excellent condition.
While we were talking about the value he said it's worth about 6500 bucks now, another dude thought rather 3500.
Like arcade boards it's an insane market now it seems, if people are able to quote vastly different prices like that I mean.
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Sumez
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Sumez »

Yeah pinball has been going up like crazy the past 10 year. Arcade got nothing on it. I'm gotta keep on to my White Water for a while I think. I'm gonna make a fortune on it some day :3

I'm not even a big fan of Theatre, don't know what it's doing #2 on the Top 300, but it's a beautiful machine for sure!
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Mrhide »

SHOOT FOR THE TRUNK!
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Sumez
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Sumez »

:D

As far as I can recall though it's the center ramp that wins you the game though? :P
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Ruldra »

Speaking of pinball, last month I started playing the Williams Collection on my PS3 again. Managed to complete most of the wizard goals, including Battle for the Kingdom in Medieval Madness and reaching the Sun in Pinbot. Collecting the special in Taxi also proved to be more troublesome than I expected.

Right now there's only one left: collecting 4 extra balls from the West Gate in Jive Time. Did anyone EVER complete that goal? It relies way too much on luck.

In the Wii version, simply collecting 4 extra balls will count the goal as completed, but in this version they all have to come from the West Gate.
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Re: The Pinball Thread

Post by Mrhide »

Sumez wrote::D

As far as I can recall though it's the center ramp that wins you the game though? :P
bha ... the "Grand finale" really ain't that grand ...

Twilight and STTNG are much better machines...although ToM sure is pretty!
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