130 replies to this topic

[Theguyoverthere]

well I'm great on the older ones (the e.m. ones I grew up playing, I'm 49 and remember the OLD flipperless ones too) but these new ones are mostly luck and are usually too busy on the playfields to actually let my tired old eyes adjust to the ball thru all the lights and flashing things and moving parts! So, on older machines (pre '80's) I'm great, but on the newer ones I'm mediocre. But I haven't played any real pins in years, due to no arcades anywhere near me. i hope to enter that p3 tourney coming up in Allentown in May (I think). will keep you informed on how that goes. (and I'm bringing a camera to take shots of the various pins they'll have there, since it's also a swap meet.

WARNING: Typical 16 year old punk post ahead:

Just the opposite with me. The older ones seem to be MUCH more luck based as the gap between the flippers was ridiculous, and the flippers were a good inch shorter than the modern ones. And there weren't any shots that brought the ball back to your flipper, it was all targets and roll overs. You could nail your target and get punished by a bad bounce down the middle. Plus, there wasn't very much strategy to scoring. You couldn't stack modes, (because there weren't any...), you could get double triple super jackpots, and also the objectives usually revolved around winning free games. Winning free games is great on location, but on a home game, I want a game with objectives to keep me coming back for more.

[TheMcD]

WARNING: Typical 16 year old punk post ahead:

Just the opposite with me. The older ones seem to be MUCH more luck based as the gap between teh flippers was ridiculous, and the flippers were a good inch shorter than the modern ones. And there weren't any shots that brought the ball back to your flipper, it was all targets and roll overs. You could nail your target and get punished by a bad bounce down the middle. Plus, there wasn't very much strategy to scoring. You couldn't stack modes, (because there weren't any...), you could get double triple super jackpots, and also the objectives usually revolved around winning free games. Winning free games is great on location, but on a home game, I want a game with objectives to keep me coming back for more.

>16 year old punk post
>teh flippers

Heh. Anyhoo, I'm in the same boat. Kinda like a generation rift. I love sitting down, reading the rules and calculating the best way of scoring by stacking, raping multiballs etc. I prefer that over the older, simpler pins.

The McD

[templarjh]

Sorta good generational discussion. I'm just adding some since I don't quite seem to fit the typical "you prefer the pins you grew up with" idea, at least not completely.

I'm 37; the first pins I remember playing were Firepower and Black Knight. My favorites include Firepower, Taxi, F14 Tomcat, and others of that 1980-1990 era. I'm just barely too young to have played any EMs when I was a kid (I probably could have if I hadn't grown up in BFE).

VP introduced me to EMs and I like them way more than DMD games. (Obviously this is all opinion.) The thing is that to me when it boils down to it you're in control of the EM, while the DMD is in control of you. I completely agree that EMs are more luck-based than newer games, but less so than you might think. Even if it might not seem like it at first, every shot and nudge you make is all on you, and more often than not when that ball drains you know there's something different you could have done to prevent it. Even though it's not an EM I can use Taxi as an example. On the one I used to play in the dorm, if you hit the rightmost Lola target with the left flipper it was an almost certain drain down the right slot. EMs really make you learn little nuances like that all over the place.

DMD games put on a great show but I really prefer the playability of the older ones. Yeah the rules are deeper but I usually don't give a crap anyway - I wanna play! Don't give me some animation every 5 seconds of some mode where I don't know what's going on anyway.

Aaaanyway, back on topic somewhat, I'm pretty decent especially on Taxi (high score 14 mil on the one in the dorm iirc), but I don't really think I'm competition level. I voted in this a while ago and don't remember, I think the 2nd one down.

[Practicedummy]

I would have to say that I am really good at pinball (real machines). The most challenging machine that I played that I got the highest score on was Dungeons and Dragons, somewhere over 6.6 million. The first machine I mastered was Mata Hari, I couldn't stop racking up the credits on that machine! And my most hated machine(s) that I played are Mystic, Simpsons and Star Wars, simply because they were major drain-o-matics, mostly because of the vendor's post locations and in the case of Star Wars, the flippers were a little too far apart, balls drained down the center way too easily.
Overall I grew up in the 80's and have the most appreciation for pinball during that era and also in the late 70's. The newer stuff is great overall but if I am putting money down for a pinball machine or 100, I will be investing in 70's and 80's pinball machines. As long as a pinball machine has flippers I will play it!

Edited by Practicedummy, 14 October 2009 - 05:10 AM.

[RipleYYY]

the right topic, cause this morning just got 2X "round the clock", and thats the first time i made this !

on my SORCERER pinball, with 5 balls settings (not 3) :



and me again, few ago, doing some "trick" (as the pros players - lol)



(already posted here i think)

than, how good i'm !? i dont know, im 42 now, and was playing since +/- 15 ... and already was good at that era (was regulary on the hi-score list, and get lots of free games)

next year, and for the first time, i will be playing in the BELGIAN PINBALL CHAMPIONSHIP > than i will have a real idea of my skill... quite sure its not as "cool" as playing home without any stress

Edited by RipleYYY, 14 October 2009 - 09:19 AM.

[computerfrk1]

HEY TOMCAT HOW ABOUT A CHALLENGE!!! THAT'S RIGHT I'M CALLING YOU OUT...LOL

[Centaur Machine]

I don't like the old tables with bells.

I like the pins from the late 80's, like Centaur and Defender, with killer 80's sound effects, some nice gameplay ideas and pretty sweet artwork. They also had cool sounding speech and nice work with the lights.

Centaur is hard. I've played it on occasion for 20 years and I didn't even know it had multiball until recently. It's too bad that PinMAME isn't able to correctly emulate Centaur's speech yet.

I don't like new tables -so much- because of all the ramps. I don't like railed ramps at all. The ball spends too much time on them and you spend lots of time waiting, with no control over the game anymore. The ball is literally on rails. I also think the game spends too much time adding up the score after a ball is lost. It feels like an eternity. I completely loose the zone I'm in waiting for the DMD to finish the scoring.

Well that's just me, to each their own. I can see the appeal in all of them.

Edited by Centaur Machine, 16 October 2009 - 09:26 PM.

[ValamirCleaver]

I also think the game spends too much time adding up the score after a ball is lost. It feels like an eternity.

Hold down both flipper buttons...

[Centaur Machine]

I also think the game spends too much time adding up the score after a ball is lost. It feels like an eternity.

Hold down both flipper buttons...

really? Sweet, can't wait to try that, thanks!

I'm glad I mentioned it!

Oh, I totally screwed up the vote. I thought it was for VP. I need glasses! Well, mentally move my highly skilled ones vote over to absolutely terrible.

I can't wait to see if VP has improved my skill on real tables as I never played pinball very much on a real table. Something about owning a table makes you like pinball so much more, and VP has made me the virtual owner of many tables.

Edited by Centaur Machine, 17 October 2009 - 02:06 AM.

[computerfrk1]

Well I guess after a couple of days Tomacat leader does not want to rise to the challenge...sounds like someone is talking too much and can't back it up.

[Theguyoverthere]

Well I guess after a couple of days Tomacat leader does not want to rise to the challenge...sounds like someone is talking too much and can't back it up.

I'll challenge you.

But only on certain machines, and only if I get re-do's, and only if I do well.

[computerfrk1]

Sorry that is something my oldest would say...LOL. Like I tell him you want to challenge then you'd better be able to back it up otherwise you can't play by the rules then don't play

[tubravens]

I grew up around the older machines like fireball and wizard.
I was a decent player could not really beat anybody.
On the newer machines like High speed and F14 Tomcat I could beat people.
I have played some of the older tables on vp and I still suck.

[TheMcD]

Well, gotta say that since I've been practicing on the TAF at my local bowling alley I've moved up to mediocre as a minimum. My current high score ranks in at about 275 mil, and I've toured the mansion in two games so far. That score would be in my sig, if it wasn't so that somebody put up a 500 mil high score and disappeared again.

The McD

[Theguyoverthere]

There's a TAF at our local bowling alley also, how odd! My highest on it is 1.2 Billion. Unfortunately, there's this pinball wizard initials LWL who lives nearby, so he has the Grand Champion score of just over 2 billion.

My other proudest achievements would be my 600 million on Elvis, a 500 million on a Terminator 2, and my 155 million on a Simpsons Pinball Party with a partly-working upper left flipper.

[LaughingOtter]

Definitely not the absolute best, but I like to think I'm pretty good. Consistency is my problem. I can get high scores, sure, but not without low ones...

Don't let this guy fool you. He nuked EVERYBODY in the Seattle Pinball League.
This kid is the Crown Prince of pinball!
I genuinely hope I am around when he turns 21. I'll give him his first roll of quarters and get the beer while he makes his long-awaited entrance into Shorty's Pinball Grotto.

[Tomcat Leader]

Which table would you like to challenge me at, computerfrk1? I'm game.

[Theguyoverthere]

Who keeps posting replies and then deleting them to bump this topic up?

[StevOz]

Who keeps posting replies and then deleting them to bump this topic up?

It's the poll, whenever anyone votes, the thread gets bumped.

[KEG]

Ahh SteveOz beat me to it.

I don't think they are. I think it happens every time someone votes.

Edited by KEG, 10 January 2010 - 11:37 PM.