The rec.games.pinball Dyna-FAQ
Archive-name: games/pinball/general
Last-modified: 1995/2/15
Version: 3.5
Frequency: monthly
The rec.games.pinball Dyna-FAQ
==============================
Originated by Keith Johnson <keefer@rahul.net>
and Kevin Martin <sigma@rahul.net>
Maintained by: Keith Johnson <keefer@rahul.net>
Version 3.5 - 15-Feb-95
[ObLegalStuff]
This guide is Copyright (c) 1995 by Keith P. Johnson. Permission is granted
to freely distribute this guide in any manner. You may also make any changes
you wish, provided credit to those whose names appear in the DFAQ "Hallowed
List of Contributors" as well as this notice are included in the new
distribution and the new distribution remains FREE OF CHARGE. Use of this
guide in any other manner without my permission is strictly prohibited.
What does this mean for you, the consumer? Well, it basically means that you
can't go off and write a book and include this DFAQ in it without asking me
first. Not that you'd do that anyway... :)
Any changes, suggestions, flames, or comments are welcomed. Mail them to the
address given above for the maintainer. Any information that is sent to me
by email or by posting on rgp or elsewhere becomes my property and fair game
for inclusion in the DynaFAQ unless you explicitly state otherwise at the
time the information is released. All contributions are of course noted at
appropiate places and at the end of the document.
Finding the DFAQ
----------------
If for some reason you possess a copy of the DFAQ that is more than one month
old, you may get the latest version from a variety of sources. You should
try (in this order):
1. Posted in rec.games.pinball, rec.answers, or news.answers (posting date
is the 15th of the month, usually).
2. Via FTP from the Pinball Archive (see question 1.1).
3. Via WWW from the Pinball Pasture (see question 1.9).
4. Via FTP from the news.answers archive at rtfm.mit.edu.
And, as a final, FINAL resort:
5. Email me (nicely).
General Guidelines for rec.games.pinball
----------------------------------------
rgp is meant for, well, pinball, so discussion of video games is highly
discouraged! However, comparisons of pinball to video games are inevitable,
and do come up fairly often. This is generally accepted. Every post to rgp
should have *something* to do with pinball, though, be it real pinball,
pinball vs. video games, or video pinball "simulations". (See question 1.7
for ObPinballs.)
I think you'll find that in general rgp is one of the friendliest groups on
Usenet. Flame wars rarely break out, and when they do, it's generally
because one person was either flame baiting, obviously wrong, or generally
making a spectacle of him/herself. Therefore, before you reach out and flame
someone, sit back, think about it a little bit, and question whether the
original post really deserves a response or whether you really need to flame
the person to get your point across.
"Netiquette" is very important, no matter how stupid the name sounds. If you
are new to Usenet in general, then you should check out groups such as
news.announce.newusers which often get helpful hints and guides and FAQs for
posting to newsgroups and treating others on Usenet posted to it. Most of
this stuff is common sense and courtesy, so if you can exercise that, you'll
be in good shape. Among the finer points:
A) Treat the people in the newsgroup as if you were talking to them in front
of their face. The computer screen provides a nice shield from reality,
but tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of other people are reading your
words. You are essentially standing up in a crowded auditorium and giving
a speech to them.
B) If you are disagreeing with someone, try to keep it civil. (Refer to
point A.) It is very frowned upon to pick on someone's spelling or
grammer because generally people are moving along pretty quickly and not
picking up every little thing that might be wrong. If people spent 30
minutes carefully thinking about every post they wrote, nothing would ever
get done. :) Also, there are a lot of people around that didn't take
English as a first language.
C) Don't ask a question that's covered in this DFAQ. If you have a question
about the answer or the info in the DFAQ, then you can ask about it.
D) Make sure your post is somewhat worthwhile. Posting messages where all
you say is "me too" makes you look really bad, and gains nothing for
anyone. The same goes for quoting entire articles then adding like 1 line
to it.
E) NEVER post private email that someone has mailed you. Aside from being
incredibly bad manners, thanks to Lawyermania it could potentially get you
in trouble. It's OK if you get permission first, but otherwise, don't do
it.
Introduction
------------
The purpose of this DFAQ is to provide an up-to-date list of questions and
their answers for the rec.games.pinball newsgroup. The current official FAQ
for the newsgroup deals primarily with maintaining and finding/buying your
own pinball machines. The FAQ is a valuable guide for this kind of
information, and if that is the kind of information you really need, read
that. Its maintainer is Andy Oakland <sao@athena.mit.edu>. This DFAQ tries
to reflect the current goings-on and trends of the newsgroup and pinball in
general, as well as the interesting past. Finally, and perhaps most
important, we hope to provide some factual and interesting reading for anyone
who enjoys pinball or wants to learn more about it.
This DFAQ is set up so that if you want the answer to a specific question in
the Index of Questions, you can use your favorite editor or pager to locate
the question quickly by searching for:
>>(section #).(question #)
So if you want the answer to question 4 in section 0, you'd search for:
>>0.4
You can also just search for >> to find the next question in line. If you
want to go to a specific section, just search for >># (where # is the section
you want) and you'll go to the first question in that section. Neat, huh? :)
When referring to files in the pinball archive, just the directory from the
base pinball directory and the filename are used. For example, if you FTP to
the ftp.rahul.net archive, all references to files will assume you are
already in the directory /pub/sigma/pinball.
Abbreviations
-------------
This is a list of abbreviations commonly used in this DFAQ (as well as the
newsgroup in general). "Learn it, know it, live it." :)
rgp - rec.games.pinball
FAQ - Frequently Asked Question(s)
DFAQ - the Dyna-FAQ (this guide!)
BTW - by the way
K - thousand (usually points)
M - million
B - billion
SDTM - straight down the middle
MHO - My Humble Opinion
PAPA - Professional and Amateur Pinball Association
IFPA - International Flipper Pinball Association
AMOA - Amusement & Music Operators Association
TZ - Twilight Zone
TAF - The Addams Family
IJ - Indiana Jones
JD - Judge Dredd
JP - Jurassic Park
LAH - Last Action Hero
SF2 - Street Fighter II
SMB - Super Mario Bros.
ST:TNG - Star Trek: The Next Generation
CFTBL - Creature From the Black Lagoon
BK - Black Knight
BK2K - Black Knight 2000
LW3 - Lethal Weapon 3
HS2 - High Speed II: The Getaway
VUK - Vertical Up-Kicker
EM - Electro-Mechanical
SS - Solid State
There is an entire file in the archive dedicated to abbreviations used in
rgp. It is called /Misc/abbreviations.
Index of Questions
------------------
* = change in answer to question + = new question
SECTION 1.............................................................On-Line
1. Did someone say "pinball archive?"
2. I don't have FTP access. Can I get stuff by e-mail?
3. Can I read rgp by mail?
4. Can I post to rgp by mail?
5. Where are the archive mirrors?
6. What are brag posts?
7. What's an ObPinball?
8. Do the manufacturers read rgp?
9. Is there any pinball stuff on the World Wide Web?
10. Wouldn't it be a great idea to keep binaries of pinball games?
11. How about getting together on IRC?
12. Why do people put asterisks in game names?
SECTION 2.............................................................General
1. Who are the manufacturers?
2. What is that loud cracking noise?
3. What is a special?
4. What is a match?
5. Do pinball machines have magnets in them?
6. Then what causes weird ball movement?
7. So the electro-magnetic field...
8. What is a beta machine?
9. Did I just see a cow in that game?
10. Are there cows in _____?
11. How much does a machine weigh?
12. How much does a machine cost?
13. What is the size of a pinball?
14. What is the Powerball?
15. What is the Power?
16. Are there any pinball-related or pinball-specific publications?
17. What is the Broadway Arcade?
18* What games are current and coming?
SECTION 3.....................................................Playing Pinball
1. Is there a good source of information for improving my play?
2. How does tilt work, anyway?
3. What is a slam tilt?
4. What is a death save?
5. What is a bang back?
6. What are combos?
7. What are "Wizard Awards?"
8. Is _____ a good score on _____?
9. What is "rolling a game over?"
10. Why is the replay different from the other day?
11. How does the game know when a ball is stuck?
12. What does "Press start to adjust replay" mean?
SECTION 4.....................................................Tournament Play
1. What are the major leagues?
2. What are the major tournaments?
3. What are common settings for tournament play?
4. What is a "tournament mode?"
5. How do tournaments work?
6. How can I find out about tournaments?
7. Can I start my own league?
8* Who are the past tournament winners?
SECTION 5.............................................................History
1. What was the first pinball game?
2. OK, then, what was the first game with FLIPPERS in it?
3. What are Electro-Mechanical games?
4. What are Solid State games?
5. What was the first Data East game?
6. What was the first Alvin G. & Co. game?
7. Aren't Tri-Ball and M-Ball really stupid names for Multiball?
8. So why do Gottlieb and Alvin G. machines say Multiball?
9. Is there a list of all the pinball games that have been made?
10. What manufacturers have died off over the years?
11. Do manufacturers from other countries exist?
12. Was pinball really banned in New York City?
13. Are replays still illegal in New York City?
14. What are the most popular games ever?
SECTION 6................................................Technically Speaking
1. Can the rules change on the same game?
2. So how do I see what ROMs are on my machine?
3. What kind of sensors are used in games?
4. What happens when the switches break?
5. What are those wiry paths called?
6. How can the game get harder physically?
7. How can the game get harder otherwise?
8. How do flippers work?
9. Can I tell if anything is wrong with the game BEFORE I play it?
SECTION 7..................................................Specific Game FAQs
1. What is the 4-way combo in TAF?
2. Why is/isn't there a rubber band in my TZ?
3. What are the songs used in CFTBL?
4. What is the Vacation Jackpot in Whitewater?
5. I just got the flipper bonus in TZ. How did I do it?
6. What is the proper way to go in STTNG's Shuttle Simulation?
7. What is the Secret Mission in STTNG?
8. Why in God's name are there 3 High Score tables in STTNG?
9. Are there really secret flipper combinations in games?
SECTION 8.......................................................Video Pinball
1. Video pinball???
2. How accepted is video pinball?
3. So what's available?
SECTION 9.............................................Pinball and Your Health
1. Can I really get injured just by playing pinball?
2. How can I avoid pinball-related injuries?
3. So how do I know if I'm getting CTS?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Section 1 - On-Line **
-------------------------
>>1.1 - Did someone say "pinball archive?"
Sure enough. We have our own dedicated rgp pinball archive. It is located
at:
Host: ftp.rahul.net
IP address: 192.160.13.5
Directory: /pub/sigma/pinball
Maintainer: Kevin Martin <sigma@rahul.net>
It would be nice for everyone if you would check here first to see if what you
need is here before posting "Does anyone have rules for _____" messages to the
Net. If what you want isn't here, then make a request and more than likely
someone will be able to provide you with something. And in the process, it
makes the archive even bigger, which makes Kevin happy for a couple of days.
:)
Simply FTP to this site, login as anonymous and send your e-mail address as
your password, same as any other anon-FTP site.
If you're unfamiliar with FTP, basically what you would type is this:
% ftp ftp.rahul.net
username: anonymous
password: (type your email address)
[some welcome messages appear here]
ftp>cd /pub/sigma/pinball
When here, you should grab the README file which describes the archive and
its mirrors and provides some helpful information for getting files from the
archive. Also, the Listing file provides a description of every single file
currently in the archive. Also, you can get the Latest file if you've been
here before to get the list of recent changes/additions to the archive. Both
of these are in the pinball archive root directory. From there, there are a
lot of other directories such as Rules (which contains all the rules sheets
written so far). Visit it, it's worth it!
-- Thanks to Dave Stewart <dstewart@eng.umd.edu> for suggestions.
>>1.2 - I don't have FTP access. Can I get stuff by e-mail?
Yes, you can. You can use the FTPmail server provided by DEC. It is not the
place of the DFAQ to explain how to do it, but I will explain how to get help
from them. Mail the following message:
To: ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: help
reply keefer@rahul.net [of course, you'd put YOUR address here]
help
quit
That's it! You should get a response within a couple minutes. When you
get around to requesting stuff by ftpmail, though, it'll take considerably
longer (at least overnight). Maybe someone will get around to writing a
guide on getting stuff from the pinball archive via ftpmail. <hint, hint>
As of November 1993, there is a pinball archive mailserver. You can access
it by mailing the following message:
To: parchive@vt.edu
Subject: help
Nothing else in your message matters with a subject of "help." Using the
mailserver would be a better idea because it deals ONLY with the pinball
archive and thus you wouldn't be clogging up FTPmail. Plus, it's just a hell
of a lot faster. :)
>>1.3 - Can I read rgp by mail?
A kind soul (Bill Ung, see address below) has offered to mail off the day's
articles to anyone who wants them. Basically what you'll get is a
compressed, uuencoded file of every article posted that day. You can then
save the mail message, uudecode it, decompress it, then do with it whatever
you want. Keep in mind, though, that the number of messages per day probably
averages around 20-30, and during peak periods has hit 60-70 per day. That's
a lot of disk space!
-- Thanks to Bill Ung <ung@filenet.com>!
>>1.4 - Can I post to rgp by mail?
Yep. Use the University of Texas mail-to-news gateway. Post the subject of
your article as the subject of your letter and mail the article to
<rec-games-pinball@cs.utexas.edu>. Bill Ung <ung@filenet.com> does this all
the time, so we know it works. :) There are other gateways as well, but
they are doubtlessly covered in some news.answers list.
>>1.5 - Where are the archive mirrors (or, what to do if rahul.net is down)?
genesis.mcs.com <192.160.127.65>: /mcsnet.users/sigma/pinball
ftp.eu.net <192.16.202.2>: /games/pinball
ns.nl.net <193.78.240.1>: /pub/games/pinball
ftp.funet.fi <128.214.6.100>: /pub/doc/games/pinball
Generally speaking, the mirrors will not lag behind the original archive by
more than a day. If you have net access from Europe (or Asia, I guess :) ),
then more than likely the European mirrors will be a lot faster for you.
>>1.6 - What are brag posts?
Just someone telling how well they've done on a game or something they've
accomplished. Depending on who you ask, they're generally not discouraged.
They are never flamed, though. Often interesting reading.
>>1.7 - What's an ObPinball?
An ObPinball (or ObPinRef or anything similar) stands for Obligatory Pinball.
Every post made to rgp should have *something* to do with pinball or close to
it. When something has strayed way off subject, someone will generally
include some kind of ObPinball. Otherwise we start getting a lot of "What
does THIS have to do with pinball??" posts...
>>1.8 - Do the manufacturers read rgp?
You bet they do! Some people who work for them even post on occasion. Most
of them that do post will do so from chinet.chinet.com or mcs.com. There are
a few other places, too, but those are the main ones. Don't let this deter
you from posting a truly objective, honest opinion, though! Both us and them
will benefit more if people can constructively criticize a game and they can
get the problems fixed in future games. Don't expect to hear from them
publically too often, though. And almost never about a current game or
upcoming ones.
If you do recognize one, try to act nicely towards them... We don't want to
scare them off. :) Ed Boon (who as you may or may not know is the main
programmer of Mortal Kombat and the voice of Rudy the dummy in FunHouse)
posted to rec.games.video.arcade Spring 1993 and was accused of everything
from being a phony to being a jerk for not giving out secrets about the game,
etc. etc. Little did they know... Anyway, Ed does not post to rgva anymore
(can you blame him??). I'd say they lost out on a potentially very valuable
source of information. We just don't want to see the same thing happen to
rgp, that's all.
>>1.9 - Is there any pinball stuff on the World Wide Web?
There is now, thanks to David Byers <byers@lysator.liu.se>. It is located
at:
http://www.lysator.liu.se/pinball/
(or) http://130.236.254.151/pinball/
In honor of the Williams cow, it is called the Pinball Pasture. To access
it, you'll need a WWW client. The main ones are Mosaic (for X) and Lynx (for
regular terminals). Of course, it's much cooler with Mosaic, because with
Lynx you can't see the pictures or animations (yes, there are animations
there too...).
Once there, you can search through all of the text files in the Archive, look
through a comprehensive list of machines since the 70s, and view some
pinball-related images.
>>1.10 - Wouldn't it be a great idea to keep binaries of pinball games?
Yep. Unfortunately, we can't. The reason is, quite simply, our old friend
the Copyright. The manufacturers' lawyers won't allow any storage for public
access of anything having to do with their games. This includes scans of
playfields and the promotional flyers they give out to advertise their games!
So why is this the case? Basically, we have too many lawyers in the USA.
Seriously, the reason that has been regurgitated by the manufacturers is that
they don't want any distribution of their copyrighted material that isn't
under their control. So why don't they start something that IS under their
control? Good question.
This has been brought up a number of times, so you really shouldn't consider
bringing it up again. We are serious. There ARE some available pinball-
related binaries stored in ftp.rahul.net in my directory,
/pub/keefer/pinball. If you ask nicely, I may store YOUR pinball-related
binary file(s) for a fairly random amount of time provided it's not very big
(over 500K would *really* be pushing it). Do *NOT* ever post binaries to
rgp. It's a bad, *bad*, BAD, *BAD* idea. The main reason is because it is
not a binaries group and many people who get their newsfeeds via modems,
UUCP, and all that other good stuff rely on this fact so that they don't get
bogged down with a sudden 750K of stuff on a group that rarely gets over 40K
a day. If you really *must* post something because not even I will keep it
for public FTP for awhile, post it to alt.binaries.misc or something like
that and post a pointer of it in rgp.
>>1.11 - How about getting together on IRC?
We already thought it was a good idea, so we do now. :) The "official"
scheduled times are Sunday and Wednesday nights at 9PM Eastern [Daylight/
Standard] Time. That roughly translates to around 2AM in England like 5AM in
Sweden. Check a table or something to be sure, though.
If you don't know what IRC is, or don't know how to access it, then check out
the alt.irc FAQ. If you don't get alt.irc, then hopefully they also have
gotten it on rtfm.mit.edu by now (the news.answers holding-place). Also, if
that fails, try alt.answers and news.answers.
>>1.12 - Why do people put asterisks in game names?
This process (which has become coined as "disemvowelment" or a couple other
catchy phrases) is used for a game that someone thinks is just plain
amazingly bad. Any vowel in the game's name is taken out and replaced with a
"*". It was started with Dr*c*l* and has become a regular part of rgp ever
since.
The rationale behind the system is this: When people want to swear but don't
want to be harsh or offend people, they generally write those words with a
"*" in the word (e.g. sh*t). This procedure was adopted because the game is
so bad, it is sometimes considered an offense to acknowledge its existence or
to say it out loud, hence the "*"s in the name. :) OK, it's not really
offensive, but you get the idea.
** Section 2 - General **
-------------------------
>>2.1 - Who are the pinball manufacturers?
Currently, there are Williams (who owns Bally/Midway and also uses this name
to manufacture pins, effectively giving the same company 2 pins on the
assembly line at once), Gottlieb (owned by Premier), and Sega (who recently
bought Data East). If for some reason you'd like to contact one of these
companies, their addresses are given in the FAQ.
>>2.2 - What is that loud cracking noise?
That is the sound of a solenoid banging the side of the pinball cabinet.
Well, not always the side of the cabinet, but usually. Some newer Williams/
Bally games have the thwacker (technical term) in the backbox. Weird. In
most cases, it signals the award of a free game, a chance to play the machine
again at no cost! Along with being a real-life physical entity that you can
manipulate, free games are what sets pinball machines apart from video games.
>>2.3 - What is a special?
Usually a special is a free game. However, the reason that it's called a
special is because it doesn't HAVE to be a free game. It could also be an
extra ball or some number of points.
>>2.4 - What is a match?
At the end of your game (unless your operator has disabled it), you will be
given a chance to randomly win a free game. If the selected digits match the
last 2 digits of your score, you get it. Note, though, that on modern games,
you do not have a 1:10 chance of getting a game. The percentage of matches
awarded is operator settable, and often defaults to 7%. Supposedly Gottlieb
machines default to a paltry 1%! And Data East uses a newbie-catcher trick:
When the game matches, it plays some sounds, some animations, and gives you
the credit after about 3-5 seconds. If you hit start before then (because
you still have credits left), you won't get your match credit!
Back when scores didn't have dummy 0's (or 2 or 3 or 6... :) ), matches were
only on the last digit of your score...
>>2.5 - Do pinball machines have magnets in them?
NO! Well, usually not. Some games have visible, purposeful magnets in them,
but they are usually pointed out to you somehow. Some examples are the
spiral magnets in TZ, the power in TAF (LAH also uses the same technique as
TAF), and the "Don't shoot!" ball-trapping magnet in Rollergames. In TZ,
there is also the Magna-Flip in the Powerfield, where you activate the
magnets in an attempt to sling the ball up to the top. And, in some games of
the past (most notably BK and BK2K), there was Magna-Save. Hit the button,
and your ball would be caught from the outlane, and generally fall back into
the inlane (assuming you were fast enough, of course...).
>>2.6 - Then what causes weird ball movement?
Strange things happen because the ball will develop spin. When the ball
bounces off of something, several things can happen. If the ball hits metal,
it'll have a tendency to have its velocity absorbed for the most part and the
spin will carry it in a new direction. This is most often observed with
metal outlane posts. If the ball hits rubber, then it'll generally bounce
off it, but not at the angle you might expect.
Another cause of weird movement is when the playfield covering (mylar, or the
new Williams Diamond-Plate (tm)) starts to bubble up from underneath. This
can rise high enough to cause a miniture hill of sorts for the ball to roll
over. Not only that, but under-playfield gizmos that have something on top
of them to protect them from the regular playfield (like that hologram in
CFTBL) sometimes sink down a little bit further than the playfield level, and
balls can get caught on the lip or have their velocity otherwise altered.
-- Thanks to Dave Stewart <dstweart+@cmu.edu> for suggestions.
>>2.7 - So the electro-magnetic field from underneath the playfield that is
generated by the lights and all the wiring doesn't affect the
movement of the ball in any way?
No.
>>2.8 - What is a beta machine?
Beta machines are pins that show up a while before their production run.
Most often, they appear in areas around Chicago (since that's where all the
manufacturers are located) so that people can try them out and give their
initial impressions and feelings about the game. Betas generally are quite a
bit different from their later production counterparts in the way the rules
are set up. However, the artwork and playfield layout almost never changes,
though other things like rubber posts may be added and/or removed.
There are also even earlier prototype machines that may wind up being
radically different from the later betas and production machines.
** See also question 6.2 for information on prototype ROMs.
** See also question 2.18 for machines currently being produced.
>>2.9 - Did I just see a cow in that game?
Yep. Lots of recent Bally/Williams games have cows in them. The reason is
unbeknownst to the pinball public, though. Data East caught on to this, and
a cow is featured in one of their games (LW3). It pops up during video mode
and is considered an enemy. :) Shoot it, quick!
>>2.10 - Are there cows in _____?
If you really want to know, there is a guide to cows in pinball machines in
the archive. It is called Misc/cows.
>>2.11 - How much does a machine weigh?
Around 250-350 pounds, depending on the number of toys in it, whether it's a
widebody or not, etc.
>>2.12 - How much does a machine cost?
New machines fresh from the factory retail for $3000-$3500. Data East and
Gottlieb machines tend to be on the less expensive end of the scale;
Williams/Bally tend to be more expensive.
>>2.13 - What is the size of a pinball?
1 1/16" diameter, weight 80 grams for a regular steel ball.
1 1/16" diameter, weight 65 grams for the Powerball.
Apparently, a pure ceramic Powerball would only weigh 40 grams. Therefore,
there must be something else inside it (like a steel middle). What we need
is to have someone cut open their Powerball to tell us for sure how it is
made. :)
By comparison, if the Powerball was phenolic (the stuff used to make pool
balls), it would weigh 13.6 grams or maybe 17.7 with a steel middle.
-- Thanks to Brent Earl <earl@rtsg.mot.com> for the answer to this question.
>>2.14 - What is the Powerball?
The Powerball is found in TZ. It is ceramic, and thus immune to the magnets.
It is also lighter and moves much faster around the playfield. It seems to
be just slightly larger than a normal pinball, supposedly verified by a
caliper by someone. (Anyone know who or for sure?) It's awfully close to
1 1/16", though.
>>2.15 - What is the Power?
The Power is a somewhat recurring theme found in Williams' games. It has
been featured as early as Big Guns, with "Feel the power" written on the
promo flyer. Pat Lawlor's games have used it the most, as a rule. First, in
Whirlwind, where you "Feel the power of the wind." Then it shows up in TAF
(a trio of cycling magnets that can throw the ball off into weird places).
Finally, TZ features the mini-playfield to defeat the power. It doesn't seem
to have any kind of deep inner-meaning significance..
>>2.16 - Are there any pinball-related or pinball-specific publications?
Yes. There is a list of books and magazines (some dedicated to pinball,
others to the entertainment industry in general) in the FAQ, along with
addresses to contact the publishers.
>>2.17 - What is the Broadway Arcade?
Quite possibly one of the finest arcades in the US for playing pinball. It
is located at 52nd & Broadway in New York City. Its owner is Steve Epstein,
who has been an incredible force in advancing the world of pinball. He is the
founder of PAPA and is responsible for numerous tournaments held nowadays.
Truly a great man dedicated to a great cause! :)
-- Thanks to Steve Baumgarten <sbb@panix.com> for corrections.
>>2.18 - What games are current and coming?
Williams/Bally: Producing: Shadow and Dirty Harry
Next up: Theatre of Magic and ?
Sega: Producing: Frankenstein
Next up: Bay Watch
Gottlieb: Producing: Stargate
Next up: ?
** Section 3 - Playing Pinball **
---------------------------------
>>3.1 - Is there a good source of information for improving my play?
In the archive, there is a file called Info/playingtips. It is maintained by
Dave Hollinsworth <hlsw_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu>. It is an invaluable
guide to getting better and explaining techniques. If you are at all serious
about improving your skill, you should not be without this guide. There is a
LOT of information in it, but some questions are asked so often, I felt they
also deserved a spot in the DFAQ...
>>3.2 - How does tilt work, anyway?
The main tilt sensor that you are probably familiar with (the one that gives
you warnings and ends your ball if you move the game too much to the side or
back and forth) is a ring on the side of the cabinet. In the middle of the
ring is a rod that hangs above. Attached to the bottom of the rod is a
weight (which can be adjusted in height). The end result is a pendulum that
swings about as the machine gets moved. When the bob (or the rod if the bob
is missing for some reason) touches the ring, you set off the tilt sensor for
a warning or a tilt. Most games give you 2 warnings before actually tilting
(which basically means you lose your ball - the flippers go dead, nothing
else registers a hit, and you lose any bonus you had). Data East games only
default to 1 warning at the moment. There are other tilt switches, too. One
is a ball on a shallow rail to detect if the game is being picked up at the
front end or not. This may or may not immediately tilt your ball, or worse
slam tilt your game.
*** ROUGH ASCII DRAWING ALERT! ***
|
|
|
|
| <-------- metal rod
|
|
|
-
/ \
| |
/ \
---+-----+--- <- ring
/ \
| | <---- pendulum bob
/ \
---------
|
|
"Side view of a tilt mechanism"
The lower the bob is on the rod, the less sensitive the game is. The higher
up, the more sensitive, since the edge of the bob will getting closer and
closer to the ring (due to the slope of the bob).
>>3.3 - What is a slam tilt?
A slam tilt is used to discourage heavy abuse of a game. If a machine slam
tilts for whatever reason, your game (and any other players' games) is OVER.
Bam. No questions asked. The two most typical places for a slam tilt switch
are on the coin door and on the bottom of the machine. There's one on the
coin door to prevent "slamming" credits on the machine. The one on the
bottom is to try and detect a drop. And some machines (though recent ones
don't seem to have these) have a sensor just under the lockdown bar to detect
slamming the top of the glass near the front of the machine. These are
simply leaf switches that signal a slam to the game when they come into
contact (though older Gottliebs had slam switches that were normally CLOSED -
this must have been weird).
Sometimes your coin door may be a bit loose for some reason. When this is
true, it will make the game a lot easier to slam tilt because of the extra
pressure provided by your fist moving forward and the door moving then
stopping and having no where else to go. A great way of reducing accidental
slams (I've brought my knee up into a loose coin door just by using body-
english before and the game slammed, even though I just grazed it) is to take
a penny (or other coin or semi-thick metal object) and wedge it into the gap
between the coin door and the frame outside it. This will effectively keep
the coin door from moving at all because of the pressure the penny provides
against it.
>>3.4 - What is a death save?
A death save is a way to get the ball back into play after it has gone down
an outlane. For it to work, you need to have a machine that is not very
sensitive tilt-wise. These are easiest on any Data East machine, followed
closely by Williams/Bally and Alvin G. machines. They are very hard to do on
Gottlieb machines.
You can do a death save if the ball has gone down the right outlane (or down
the left on a Gottlieb, since they have that rubber pin there to bounce the
ball off of). When it has gone down the outlane, hold up the LEFT flipper.
Then, as soon as the ball hits the metal plate on the left side, give the
machine a sharp quick shove to the right (and perhaps back a little bit).
For a Gottlieb machine, you should reverse the process, since you'll be
trying to save a left drain off the post. Right outlane saves are very hard.
When you try these, please make sure there's enough room for the machine to
move around, or else you'll wind up damaging the machine, machines around it,
walls, etc. The operator will be less than pleased at you if any of this
should happen. However, if you do it right, the ball should now be just
above the right flipper. Lower the left and flip away! Warning: Be sure
you have your weight sufficiently behind you when you try this! Otherwise,
you could wind up hurting your elbow or arm.
In the archive, you should check out the Misc/deathsave.gif picture (or the
compressed PostScript counterpart, Misc/deathsave.ps.Z). It gives you the
general idea of how a death save is supposed to work. I think there's a bang
back picture in that file, too. Also see the file referenced in the next
question.
>>3.5 - What is a bang back?
Bang backs are extremely useful for getting the ball back from EITHER outlane
when you have a very sensitive machine. They work best on all but the most
recent Williams/Bally games (like IJ and JD). They work on Data East
machines as well, but they're somewhat harder to do. I've never gotten a
bang back on a Gottlieb machine for some reason. Basically, hold up the
flipper on the side that the ball is draining. Then, when the ball is under
the "swiveling part" of the flipper, hit the front of the machine at the
lockdown bar or a little below HARD and in the direction you want the ball to
go (i.e. up-left). The ball should pop right off the drain plate and back
onto the playfield.
These 2 terms (bang backs and death saves) get mixed up all the time for some
reason. A good way to remember is that bang backs involve BANGing the
machine.
In the archive, Dave Stewart <dstewart@cmu.edu> has written an entire guide
to saving outlane drains. It provides an excellent description of how to do
a bang back. Not only that, but death saves are described in there too.
What more could you ask for? The file is Info/bangbacks. It is the main
reason why I'm not describing how to do them in extreme detail in the DFAQ.
>>3.6 - What are combos?
Combos are usually defined as a sequence of shots made in rapid succession
without missing. More often than not, they involve use of a different
flipper for each shot. The first game to my knowledge that had a "hidden
combo award" in it was Whirlwind. It also had the coolest sound effect for
getting it. Since then, many games have had combo awards in them, and some
have even made the combo an integral part of the game (e.g. Dr. Who's W-H-O
shots and Dr. Dude's Reflex 1-2-3 shots). A couple of the most recent even
have the combos laid out for you (Bally's Black Rose and Gottlieb's
Gladiators).
>>3.7 - What are "Wizard Awards?"
This is the general term given to an objective in a game that is pretty
difficult to reach and can be worth a lot of points once you finally get it.
In mode-based games, the Wizard Award tends to be something that happens once
you have completed all of the modes. In other non-mode-intensive games (like
Whitewater) the Wizard Award is completing several objectives, each of which
can be a difficult task. Some games may have a couple of Wizard Awards. JP,
for example, has the complete-all-modes System Failure as well as the
multiball super jackpots. Another recent example is the Lost In the Zone
mode in TZ.
>>3.8 - Is _____ a good score on _____?
This is, in general, a pretty difficult question to answer. Games vary
widely in terms of setup (both physically and in the software settings - more
on this in the Technical Section), how much tilt they have, the condition
they're in (e.g. clean and fast or dirty and slow). A fairly crude
estimation of a good game is whether or not you got a replay. Usually, a
replay means you've had one of the best 10% games recently. Now, maybe
everyone else who plays there is a terrible player, but like I said, it's
crude. If you get a high score, then you've done extremely well. Of course,
you could always post and ask, and someone will probably tell you they've
gotten 5x your score at one point. :)
>>3.9 - What is "rolling a game over?"
Quite simply, this is what happens when your score becomes more digits than
the machine can handle. On todays machines, this commonly happens at 10B
points. However, ST:TNG and all machines after it (from Williams/Bally)
handle 10B+ scores, so rolling over the game will become quite a bit more
difficult. The upper limit is currently not known, though, since 100B scores
have been reported.
Starting with Corvette, games (at least in single-player mode, don't know
about others) will actually display 10B+ scores during the game.
>>3.10 - Why is the replay score different from the other day?
All modern games use reflexing to adjust the replay value of a game every so
often to a desired target percentage of replays. Generally, this is set to
about 10%. This means that the game looks at the last x number of games
played, determines the percentage of those games that replays were awarded,
then makes the new replay value higher or lower depending on what the actual
percentage of games won is compared to the desired percentage.
Williams/Bally and Gottlieb games reset their replay scores every 50 or so
games. Data East games ask you to hit start after power-cycling the machine
in order to adjust the replay (or they do it right away if you are using the
menus). Lots of recent Gottlieb games have a bug in them that sets the
replay well out of reach for pretty much anyone. No one knows why for sure,
but there are quite a few machines (SF2s and SMBs, especially) that have
replays in the 9 BILLIONS! Ouch.
Different from the base replay score is the replay boost: Most games will
start raising the current replay score until you run out of credits (so that
it isn't easy to constantly keep getting replays at a set score). Williams
games nowadays typically raise the replay by 50M points until you run out of
credits or someone else puts more money into the game. Either of those
actions will put the replay score back to its base (usually). Data East
games boost their replays by about 25M after a replay *OR* a match! Running
out of credits or putting more money in should reset the replay back to
normal here, too. For Gottlieb games, you can get a few replays in a row at
the base score, but after that, the score starts to skyrocket. And the boost
gets higher and higher after each game played until there are no credits
left.
Also note that the replay score isn't the only thing that can reflex on a
game. Number of ramp shots needed to light extra ball is a good example of
other reflexing features. Beware of Data East "reflexing," though! Their
games have a tendency to reflex either on or off, not just harder or easier!
(This is a Bad Thing, of course.)
-- Thanks to Dave Stewart <dstewart@eng.umd.edu> for suggestions.
>>3.11 - How does the game know when a ball is stuck?
Well, the true answer is that it doesn't know, really... at least not at
first. When the game has been idle for a little while during play (no
sensors have been tripped, and you're not holding a flipper up), it goes into
"ball search mode." This basically involves kicking every solenoid in the
game in an effort to lodge the ball free from wherever it might be. Usually
this is sufficient because a ball will be resting against a fairly
unsensitive jet bumper or perhaps accidently trapped by a diverter (seems to
happen in IJ a lot, at least to me, on the right ramp during or just after
multiball). However, sometimes airballs (or "glassies") will cause the ball
to land in a place that it shouldn't have been able to get to. :) In a lot
of these cases, no amount of solenoid kicking is likely to get the ball free.
Now, at this point you have a few options: Try to shake the ball lose,
risking a tilt; wait for a few ball searches, and the machine will either
kick out any locked balls (if there are any) or (very rarely) give you a new
ball at the plunger; turn the machine off or slam tilt it to make the machine
give up on the ball for good. Option 1 will at least let you continue your
game if you get the ball unstuck. Option 2 will let you continue your game,
but often relocking a ball that got kicked out from a lock will just make the
game sit there again until it kicks the locked ball out again. Draining the
newly given ball will usually mean you have to resort to 1 or 3. Option 3
should be a last resort, obviously. When the machine comes back on, hitting
start will give you a "pinball missing" message for 30-60 seconds, then let
you start a game with the ball missing. This means that multiballs will have
1 less ball if applicable. If there are 3 balls installed, and there's a 2
ball multiball, you'll still get 2 balls. But with 3 installed and a 3 ball
multiball, then you'll only have 2 and it'll end when 1 of them drains. If
there are 6 balls, then 3 ball multiballs will work OK, but obviously only 5
will be available during the 6 ball round.
The (rather alarming) trend in games these days is that if a ball should
somehow get unstuck during a game after the machine has flagged it as
missing, draining one of the (now two) balls will usually end your ball no
matter how many targets you hit after it starts counting your bonus.
Hopefully, the other ball will drain while your bonus is counting and the
game will realize that it now has all the balls again. If it doesn't,
though, and the ball winds up in the drain while the other one is at the
plunger, you may wind up with 2 balls in the plunger lane! This is bad,
because the game will still end your ball after one of them drains. The
trick here is to just get one into play. This is impossible, though, if the
game has an autoplunger. You're in real trouble if this is the case...
** Section 4 - Tournament Play **
---------------------------------
>>4.1 - What are the major pinball leagues?
Currently, there is 1 national pinball league - PAPA (Professional and
Amateur Pinball Association).
In July, 1994, the IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association) ceased
operation. IFPA used to be supported by the manufacturers themselves (at a
supposed US$20,000/year/manufacturer), but they pulled out, effectively
killing the IFPA. This has not been much of a surprise, really. More than
likely, the reason is the manufacturers just didn't see any results in the
popularity of pinball as a result of the operations of the IFPA...
>>4.2 - What are the major tournaments?
There are 2 very major tournaments during the course of the year. The first
one is the PAPA tournament, held in New York City early to mid February. The
next one is the IFPA tournament, held generally around the Chicago vicinity
(or fairly close). It is usually held late April or May. The other 2
tournaments are the Pinball Show in Arizona (held mid to late summer) and the
tournament at Pinball Expo (held in Chicago in early September). The PAPA
tournament usually has 6 divisions: Open A, B, & C, doubles, womens, and
juniors (under 16). They only pay out the top 4 in each division, but the
money is pretty good, at least as far as tournaments go. The purse in Feb.
1993 was $15K and is said to be $20K for 1994. The winner of A division in
1994 (who was Bowen Kerins) won $4000. The IFPA tournament has divisions for
open and masters in both singles and doubles, as well as a womens, juniors,
and mixed doubles (a total of 7 divisions). The major problem with IFPA,
though, is that they try to pay a LOT of people (top 16 open singles(!), top
8 masters, top 4 masters teams, top 8 (I think) open teams, etc.). This
means, obviously, that the prize money tends to be pretty low. Dan Wilson
won the 1994 IFPA tournament and about $800 (maybe). Whee. The other 2
tournaments give away games, I believe, for winning them.
Presumably, now that the IFPA is defunct, there'll not be an IFPA tournament
this year...
>>4.3 - What are common settings for tournament play?
This depends on the tournament. All of them will set the tournament mode
option on (if the game has one). Since the tournament only lasts for a
weekend and there are a LOT of matches that have to be played, games are
usually set so that the average game time is pretty low. Extra balls are
off, specials score points, and there are no replays or other credits. The
IFPA machines are left at their default rules and rubber post settings (see
technical section for more information), but PAPA and Expo (and probably the
Arizona show, but I don't know for sure) are set for hard rules and *very*
hard outlanes.
>>4.4 - What is a "tournament mode?"
The purpose of tournament modes is to take the "randomness" of a game as much
as possible. What this mainly means is that any random awards given out by a
game will be made non-random. Examples: The Fish Finder on Fish Tales and
the Burn Rubber award on HS2 give out the same awards in the same order each
time.
>>4.5 - How do the tournaments work?
Well, this depends on the tournament, too. Here is a brief overview of the
major tournaments:
IFPA (at least, how it used to work)
----
The IFPA tournament features the game currently on the production line or
very close to it for each manufacturer that is a member of the IFPA (this is
all 3 (4 if you separate Williams/Bally, which are really the same) of the
major manufacturers at the moment). The tournament is a double-elimination
tournament, each match being the best 2 out of 3 games, each one played on a
different machine. If you get to next day's competition, you start all over
again (i.e. you have to lose twice again to be eliminated). All the machines
(typically, 100 of them - 25 of each) are always available for play, but for
a price. You also have to pay for each game that you play for actual
competition.
In its effort to pay out to as many people as possible, the IFPA has
succeeded in making its prize money pretty much a joke. The winner of the
highest division this year made slightly over $800. Yay. Generally
speaking, though, most people aren't in it for the money (probably, quite
frankly, because it just isn't there - you can't make a living playing
pinball).
The IFPA has come under question after each of the last 2 tournaments they've
put on. It seems that the prize money given out doesn't seem to quite equate
to the amount gained for entry fees and coin drops (since you always have to
pay to play). This amount has generally been fairly substantial. For IFPA
3, the total purse advertised was $20,000, when the actual payouts were
closer to $10,000. For IFPA 4, the advertised amount was $25,000, with the
payouts being closer to $15,000...
PAPA
----
This is by far the premiere tournament for pinball players. It is generally
held in New York City (at least, the first 4 were). The PAPA tournament
features the qualifying round and the finals round. To qualify, you need to
have one of the 20 or so top scores in the division. Your total is the sum
of all scores on (usually) 8 machines. These tend to be the 2 machines in
production from each manufacturer right before the current machine (which is
used for finals/doubles), though it also has a great deal to do with the
availability of certain games.
In the quarters, there are about 5 4-player games played. Each person scores
points on each game based on where he/she finished (10 for 1st, then 5, 1,
0). There are a certain number of people that move on to the next round
based on the number of "PAPA Points" they have. In the case of a tie, total
score is used to break it. Then around 12 people move to the semis, then 4
to the finals using the same format.
Prize money is very good here, but then they only pay out the first 4 places
in each division. The divisions are: A, B, C, Women's, Doubles, and
Juniors.
Other
-----
At the Arizona show, there is a qualifying round, then the top scorers
compete on one machine (a surprise until finals, could be *anything*,
including old EMs!), top score wins. What do they win, you ask? A new
pinball machine (current).
At Expo, there is a qualifying round, then later rounds on different machines
for each round. The qualifying machine tends to be the latest machine from
the manufacturer giving the factory tour that year. Winner here also gets a
new machine.
>>4.6 - How can I find out about tournaments?
Obviously, the best way is to read rgp! :) Other than that, most of them do
some advertising in the trade magazines and pinball magazines that are listed
in the regular FAQ. After these two choices, though, you're on your own!
Perhaps your local friendly operator would let you skim through their
magazine to check (any half-decent operator will subscribe to something like
Replay, even a lot of the ones that AREN'T half-decent :) ).
>>4.7 - Can I start my own league?
Sure, why not? If you want it to be sanctioned by PAPA, then you'll need to
contact Steve Epstein. If you just want to start small, and perhaps become
sanctioned later, then you can run it pretty much any way you want. A good
source of information are the Misc/league* files provided by Dave Stewart
<dstewart@cmu.edu>. It's a really good idea to have the help and approval of
a local operator when trying to start one up, if not essential.
>>4.8 - Who are the past tournament winners?
As of February, 1995...
1991 - PAPA 1 - Joey Cartegena IFPA 1 - Rick Stetta
1992 - PAPA 2 - Rick Stetta IFPA 2 - Dave Hegge
1993 - PAPA 3 - Lyman Sheats, Jr. IFPA 3 - Rick Stetta
1994 - PAPA 4 - Bowen Kerins IFPA 4 - Dan Wilson
1995 - PAPA 5 - Paul Madison
** Section 5 - History **
-------------------------
>>5.1 - What was the first pinball game?
This depends on what exactly you're asking. Before pinball as we know it
today, there were machines that just had pins in them and balls would fall
down from the top (like a Pachinko machine, except they weren't upright).
This is probably why it was called pin-ball. This coin operated pinball
industry as we know it today came into being around 1931. The term "pinball"
wasn't coined until 1936.
-- Thanks to Terry Cumming <terry.cumming@canrem.com> for information.
>>5.2 - OK, then, what was the first game with FLIPPERS in it?
That would be Humpty Dumpty by Gottlieb. The flippers still weren't as we
know it today, though. They were really small mini-flippers, and there were
six of them. Not only that, they were in the middle at different levels and
faced like this: \ /. However, the pivot point was on the *bottom* of the
flipper, so you worked your way up. It wasn't until much later that the
flippers migrated down to where they are now. The first game to feature
flippers at the bottom of the layout was Triple Action (Genco, January 1948,
which was designed by Williams' Steve Kordek). However, the flippers were
facing outward here. The first game with "normal" flippers was probably Spot
Bowler (Gottlieb, 1950). The really small flippers used on these games
(about the size of the "Thing" flipper on TAF) were used almost exclusively
on games until around 1970.
Here's a brief timeline of other events:
1929 - John J. Sloan, an American advertising representative, starts mass-
producing bagatelle (an early 19th century game) tables
1931 - Raymond T. Maloney builds Ballyhoo, with sales of 50,000 at $16 each,
marking the beginning of the pinball era (Maloney goes on to found the
Bally Manufacturing Company)
1934 - Tilt device introduced (dag-nabbed contraption! ;) )
1946 - Harry Williams founds Williams Manufacturing with his first machine,
Suspense
1950 - Rotating dials are used to show scores, as opposed to lights for
numbers in the various places
1954 - Gottlieb produces the first 4-person table, Super Jumbo
1960 - Gottlieb's flipper introduces the idea of an extra ball
1962 - Williams' Vagabond introduces drop targets
1970 - Big Flipper produced (by who?) which had the largest flippers to date
(at 5 inches!)
???? - Micro Games produces first non-relay based game, Spirit of 76 (and
supposedly, only 100 were produced due to an unattractive playfield)
???? - Williams produces first talking game, Gorgar
-- Thanks to Terry Cumming <terry.cumming@canrem.com> for information.
-- Thanks to Paul Fernquist <pfern@technix.technix.mn.org> for information.
-- Thanks to Jarod Nash <j.nash@ukc.ac.uk> for information.
>>5.3 - What are Electro-Mechanical games?
EMs, as they are affectionately called, are basically games that have lots of
wires, bells, whistles, and (perhaps their most distinctive feature) scoring
reels. I would say the name refers to their basic nature of electricity
signalling certain gears to move and change your score or ring bells.
>>5.4 - What are Solid State games?
Basically, anything that came out after EMs died out. The first solid state
game came out around 1978. The most obvious changes in these new machines
were the use of 7-segment displays for score, and more electronical-sounding
noises (computer-generated beeps and boops).
>>5.5 - What was the first Data East game?
Data East Pinball released their first pin in 1987, called Laser War. They
have since become a fairly major force in the industry.
>>5.6 - What was the first Alvin G. & Co. game?
I believe their first machine was Head-To-Head Soccer, which was released in
1991. This was basically a regular-sized pinball machine with flipper
buttons on both ends and a playfield that was crowned in the middle towards
either end. If you don't play against a friend, then the game will itself
provide somewhat of an opponent using its patented Switch Flippers.
Basically, each flipper has a switch on it that detects when the ball hits
it, then it flips. It has been seen doing slap saves!
Their first "real" pin was World Tour, released in late 1992. (Its full name
is "Al's Garage Band Goes On a World Tour" I think.) The big "feature" of
this game was a spinning disk as a ramp. Not a very big deal, really.
Another "feature" of the game was the fact that every time the ball hit a jet
bumper, you'd feel it in the flipper buttons! This was a pretty strange
sensation, to say the least.
>>5.7 - Aren't Tri-Ball and M-Ball really stupid names for Multiball?
Multiball is a registered trademark (R) of Williams. As such, they are the
ones with the rights to use it and can forbid other people to use it. They
actually sued Data East for using it (because they were starting to provide
some decent competition, and wanted to thwart them in any way they could),
and so Data East started using the infamous Tri-Ball in the middle of the
production run for LW3. That's why some LW3s say Multiball and some say
Tri-Ball. Everything since has been Tri-Ball or something other than
Multiball.
Late breaking news: Starting with Tales From the Crypt, Data East can now
use Multiball to their heart's content.
>>5.8 - So why do Gottlieb and Alvin G. machines say Multiball?
Because Williams has chosen "selective enforcement" for Multiball. Since
these two companies aren't perceived as much of a threat, Williams hasn't
bothered with them.
>>5.9 - Is there a list of all the pinball games that have been made?
Well, most of the solid state games that have been produced are in a list in
the archive. It is called Lists/pinball. It is maintained by Rob Rosenhouse
<rob_rosenhouse@hq-bbs.wisdom.bubble.org>.
There is also a more comprehensive list covering games in a bit more detail
from 1947 on up. You can get information on the guide itself or order it
~from: Daina Pettit, 4805 Marabow Circle, Salt Lake City, UT 84117. Phone
number is (801)277-6296. Email: daina@xmission.com. Web page:
"http://www.xmission.com/~daina". Contains nearly all you'd want to know
about 1,600 games. I haven't seen it myself, this is what Daina has told me.
>>5.10 - What manufacturers have died off over the years?
There was Chicago Coin (which later became Stern) which put out a good number
of pins, Game Plan, Zaccaria (an Italian manufacturer), Atari (who also put
out the biggest pin, called Hercules, with the pinball being roughly the size
of a cue ball!), and supposedly even Sega had a brief pinball stint.
On March 5, 1994, Alvin G. and Co., which had been in business for probably a
little less than 2 or 3 years, closed its doors as well.
A few companies also produced 1 or 2 games that I haven't bothered to list
here. If you really want to know, check out the list mentioned in 5.9.
Capcom (of the Street Fighter II video game series fame) is supposedly
starting up a pinball division. Nothing from them yet, though.
-- Thanks to Lyman Sheats, Jr. <lyman@chinet.com> for information.
>>5.11 - Do manufacturers from other countries exist?
Well, after Zaccaria from Italy died out, no. At least, not that I'm aware
of.
>>5.12 - Was pinball really banned in New York City?
Yes, for quite a long time: January 21st, 1942 up until 1976. The mayor at
the time (Fiorello Henry LaGuardia, as in LaGuardia airport) made a big
spectacle by smashing up a large number of pinball machines in front of a
fairly supportive crowd! Anyway, the ban was put into place because the
machines were seen more as a game of luck than of skill. (And games of luck
== gambling, apparently!) However, in 1976, one Mr. Roger Sharpe went up to
the NYC City Council when they were having hearings on the ban. He said
something to the effect of: "I can pull back this plunger and make the ball
go into the lane I want at the top of the machine." He proceeded to plunge,
make the lane, and right away they voted to end the ban. Neat story, huh?
If you didn't know, Roger Sharpe is the Major Marketing Dude at Williams now.
-- Thanks to Scott Piehler <rosco29@mindspring.com> for information.
>>5.13 - Are replays still illegal in New York City?
Well, replays were a major reason why pinball was banned in the first place,
as far as I know. They are still illegal in NYC, apparently. However, it
turns out most places blissfully ignore this law and let their games give out
replays anyway.
-- Thanks to Steve Baumgarten <sbb@panix.com> for information.
>>5.14 - What are the most popular games ever?
Here is what has been pieced together from various sources:
Units Year Manu. Game
1. 22,000 1991 Bally The Addams Family
2. 20,230 1977 Bally Eight Ball
3. 19,000 1978 Wms. Flash
4. 18,250 1978 Bally Playboy
5. 17,000 1991 Wms. Terminator 2
6. 17,000 1976 Bally Kiss
7. 16,000 1976 Wms. Space Mission
8. 16,155 1976 Bally Captain Fantastic
9. 14,550 1978 Bally Harlem Globetrotters
9. 14,000 1993 Bally Twilight Zone
10. 12,000 1985 Wms. High Speed
11. 11,400 1979 Bally Space Invaders
However, supposedly the sum total of all Eight Ball Deluxes is around
140,000!(?!)
-- Thanks to Ted Piknis <bure@wam.umd.edu> for contributions.
-- Thanks to Matt Walsh <mtmr@walsh.dme.battelle.org> for contributions.
-- Thanks to Federico Croci <pinball@wiz.nervous.com> for contributions.
** Section 6 - Technically Speaking **
--------------------------------------
>>6.1 - Can the rules change on the same game?
Yep, and they usually do quite a few times. One reason is because most of
the rules and timers can be adjusted with the operator menus. (See the later
questions on how games get easier or harder.) The other major reason is
because the rules in general go through several revisions. In order to do
this, though, they have to make new ROMs for the game.
Generally speaking, the later the ROMs the better, because that means they
have the rules refined a bit more and the bugs worked out for the most part.
However, as games get more and more complex, the likeliness of bugs showing
up gets higher and higher. IJ and JP are 2 good examples of games that still
have a large number of bugs in them despite having gone through a large
number of ROM changes.
>>6.2 - So how do I see what the ROMs are on my machine?
Usually the only way is to power-cycle the machine. On Williams/Bally games,
the ROMs are labeled like this: P-?? means prototype (pre-production run)
ROMs, where the ?? is a number of some sort. The higher the number, the
later the ROMs. L-?? means production ROMs (again the higher the number the
later they are), and H-?? is used for custom ROMs. You have to have some
pretty good connections to get these kind. :) Data East games use actual
?.??-type numbers for their ROMs, as well as the date of release. Gottlieb
games don't give any indication of ROMs whatsoever. It just tells you how
many balls should be in the game and the ROM checksum. Not very helpful,
really. I don't know what Alvin G. games do yet.
>>6.3 - What kind of sensors are used in games?
The main kinds are microswitches (the wires that ball rolls over), leaf
switches (the kind that hang down for the ball to trip, like the ones on the
ramps of TAF), optical sensors (lovingly called "optos," these are just a
light sender and receiver and are tripped when the ball interrupts the
light), VUKs and saucers (probably triggered by the weight of the ball), and
lastly, star rollovers (like buttons on the playfield in a asterisk-type
shape) which recently made a comeback in the Gottlieb game Gladiators. Most
recently, we have seen the development of proximity sensors. They can hide
under the playfield or ramps or something and detect a ball going over it
(with the electrical conducting properties of pinballs I guess). They were
used in TZ to distinguish between regular balls and the Powerball. Now they
are being used as inlane sensors on ST:TNG. A variation of the proximity
sensor was used by Atari way back when. They didn't work very well. Lastly,
but surely not least, there is the spinner. The ball runs into the spinner
causing it to rotate. The game registers each rotation and awards points
depending on the number of spins.
-- Thanks to Bill Ung <ung@filenet.com> for suggestions.
>>6.4 - What happens when the switches break?
Well, unless it is a Williams/Bally game, probably nothing. Gottlieb games
can do some compensation (SF2, for example, will give you credit for hitting
a ramp if you shoot the shot underneath the ramp because the game thinks that
the ramp is stuck up; also, vice versa), but supposedly the general concept
of compensating for bad switches is patented by Williams. That is why when
your Control Room or Power Shed break on JP, nothing happens, and the game
becomes utterly useless.
>>6.5 - What are those wiry paths called?
Well, we in rgp have taken to calling them "habitrails." I've heard them
called different things as well, like "wireforms" (in an interview with Mark
Ritchie in the Flipside).
>>6.6 - How can the game get harder physically?
On most games, things like rubber posts near the outlanes can be set in one
of several different postitions. Obviously, the further apart the posts are
in the outlane, the harder it'll be to save a ball. Also, there may not be
any rubber on the outlanes at all, which can be downright rude. (See
question 2.6.) Also, unethical things such as increasing the playfield angle
can be done. And, of course, making the tilt more sensitive. Nice, clean,
recently waxed playfields will tend to be really fast, adding another element
of challenge altogether (called, "getting control of the 150 MPH ball").
>>6.7 - How can the game get harder otherwise?
Most games nowadays allow you to adjust almost everything about the game you
could possibly think of. For example: extra ball % (target value for number
of games with an extra ball in it), replay % (discussed in question 3.10),
number of tilt warnings given before the game actually tilts, number of extra
balls you can get per game or per ball, number of extra balls in reserve at
once, and practically every single timer or difficulty of each individual
award possible in the game.
There are also usually 5 settings that each game will come with to make it
easier for the operator to select the general difficulty he wants for the
game: extra-easy, easy, medium, hard, and extra-hard. With Data East games,
sometimes changing the overall difficulty level will change things that you
couldn't normally change from menus. Why? I don't know. Also, there is an
"install 5 ball rules" option that will set the game to 5 balls per play and
install harder rules, usually hard or extra-hard. This is to make up for the
extra 2 balls you will get during the game.
>>6.8 - How do flippers work?
The flipper mechanisms differ from company to company - that's one of the
reasons why games from different manufacturers tend to have different "feels"
to them, and probably the biggest one.
Williams/Bally - On an older machine (pre-Addams Family), when you press the
flipper button, the current flows through only a portion of the flipper coil,
generating a high magnetic field that forces the flipper up with a lot of
power. When the flipper is all the way up, the end of stroke switch (EOSS)
opens, and the current now much flow through the entire coil. This creates a
lower magnetic field, which holds the flipper up without burning out the coil
(the high current would do this very quickly). A newer Williams/Bally
machine uses two coils, one for high power and the other for low power, and
uses the EOSS to switch off the high-power coil. If the EOSS breaks, the
flipper will operate on a timing setup similar to the Data East one (see
below). Williams calls this setup "FlipTronic II".
Data East - On a pre-Jurassic Park DE, there are two current inputs, one at
50 volts DC and the other at 8VDC, and no EOSS. When you press the flipper
button, the higher current activates to fire the flipper, and then a timer
will switch to the lower current to hold the flipper up. This setup is
called a "Solid State Flipper." A newer DE appears to use a setup similar to
the "old" Willaims/Bally flippers (any new info appreciated!).
Gottlieb - Gottlieb's use a single coil with an EOSS. There are three inputs
to the coil, with a diode across the outside two. The diode is there to help
the magnetic field that the coil produces collapse more quickly when the coil
is de-energized, thus saving wear and tear and decreasing the flipper reset
time.
Alvin G. - No one seems to know too much about their flippers yet... Any
info would be most appreciated.
-- Info originally appeared in Dave Hollinsworth's <ad836@osfn.rhilinet.gov>
Playingtips guide.
>>6.9 - Can I tell if anything is wrong with the game BEFORE I play it?
Currently, the only company which signals game problems publically is
Williams/Bally. If the game detects something wrong (such as a missing ball
or a stuck/nonregistering switch), then the credits display will change to
something like "Credits 0." The period after the number of credits is the
indicator of some kind of malfunction. DE games use to have a couple of
blinking lights on the front of their games but not any more. Gottlieb games
are a total mystery, and I don't know anything about Alvin G. games.
** Section 7 - Specific Game FAQs **
------------------------------------
NOTE: All of these questions are covered in their respective rules sheets (I
think!). However, they still come up so often that we think they warrant a
space in the DFAQ...
>>7.1 - What is the 4-way combo in TAF?
Shoot the Bear Kick ramp, then the "Advance X" shot to the upper right
flipper, then the left ramp, then the 5x Graveyard (swamp) shot. Doing
either the first 3 or last 3 of these gets you a 3-way combo.
>>7.2 - Why is/isn't there a rubber band in my TZ?
The rubber band in the jet bumpers was removed during the production run.
Starting at the IFPA '93 tournament (== L3 ROMs), games no longer had the
rubber band in there. Though it protected the ball from left drains very
nicely, balls coming from the Powerfield would tend to bounce of the band
into the center drain! The latter was deemed worse than the former, so out
it came. Any game that shipped with L-3 roms and later does not have the
rubber band in it. Some prototype machines may have newer ROMs in it, which
would explain why your machine (with, say, L-4 ROMs) has the rubber band.
For those of you that haven't seen the rubber band, it looks approximately
like this:
O O (The O's represent the jet bumpers.)
\
O
>>7.3 - What are the songs used in CFTBL?
The game plays 3 out of a possible 5 every day. The 5 songs it has are:
Get a Job (Silhouettes)
Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran)
Rock Around the Clock (Bill Haley and the Comets)
Hand Jive (Johnny Otis)
Red River Rock (Johnny and the Hurricanes)
-- Thanks to the readers of alt.rock-n-roll.oldies for a couple of groups.
>>7.4 - What is the Vacation Jackpot in Whitewater?
If you get all 4 parts of the Vacation Planner some time during the game
(though the locks must be last), you get the 200M+change. That means that
you must get a Class 6 River some time during the game, get to Wet Willies,
and have done all of the Boulder Rounds at least once. After you've done
these 3 things, when you lock your third ball for your next multiball, you'll
get the Jackpot. It goes up 10K for each game played, BTW.
>>7.5 - I just got the flipper bonus in TZ. How did I do it?
If your end-of-ball bonus (NOT from the Camera award "collect bonus") gives
you enough points to get a replay, then during the replay animation, hit both
flipper buttons for the flipper bonus.
>>7.6 - What is the proper way to go in STTNG's Shuttle Simulation?
At each split in the path, you can go left or right (you HAVE to do one or
the other). If you go L-L-R-R-L-L-R-L-L-L then you can get an easy 149M or
159M (depending on whether or not you were offered the extra ball after going
right the 3rd time) and an artifact.
>>7.7 - What is the Secret Mission in STTNG?
When you shoot the Shuttle Ramp, you are told the Holodeck is ready after 3
ramps, then 9 ramps, then 18, 24, ... If nothing else important is being
displayed (like Explosive Millions or Rescue animations, etc.) then the
screen will tell you that "Holodeck X is ready" where X is a number 1, 2, 3,
or 4. If the number is 3, then pull the gun trigger *3* times, and you'll
start the Secret Mission. It's basically a frenzy where each target is worth
1M+(some weird number)+. The spinner doesn't count for multiple hits.
>>7.8 - Why in God's name are there 3 High Score tables in STTNG?
Which table you get on is based on your score and how many buy-ins you used.
If you used 0 or 1 buy-ins, then your score is eligible for the Honor Roll or
Grand Champion positions. If you used 2 or more buy-ins, then your score
will go in the Officer's Club (thus, the reason it comes after the Honor
Roll). HOWEVER: If your score is over 10B and is NOT the Grand Champion
score, then it goes into the Q Continuum. An unfortunate side effect is that
if your score is over 10B, but not higher than the LOWEST score on the Q
Continuum, then you do NOT get a high score (and thus no credit reward).
Bleah. If you get a Grand Champion score that pushed off a score that was
also above 10B, it'll still get pushed into the first place of the Honor
Roll, but only the last 10 digits will be displayed (i.e. no 10B digit). It
looks mighty weird having a score of 2.9B over a score of 9.9B...
>>7.9 - Are there really secret flipper combinations in games?
Yep. We currently only know of ones in Williams/Bally games. The following
steps describe what you can try to do. Most of them work only in attract
mode with no credits since you have to use the start button (therefore, free
play is also out of the question). Also, it is best to do them right after a
game, slam tilt, or power-cycle.
L = left flipper, R = right flipper, S = start button, B = both flippers.
A number in front indicates hit the button that many times.
TAF - 7L S 14R S 20L S = cows
13L S 1R S 2L S = credits
TAFG - same as above, PLUS
12L S 5R S 4L S = new cows
Whitewater - 3L S 15R S 23L S = cows
STTNG - B 8L R 5L R 5L R 6L 2R = Steve Ritchie games
(works during normal play as well)
Dr*c*l* - When he crosses his eyes, hit the start (or launch) button.
** Section 8 - Video Pinball **
-------------------------------
>>8.1 - Video pinball???
Pinball is in fact becoming more and more popular these days with video games
becoming more tests of how much money you have rather than how much skill you
have (especially games like NBA Jam). It only follows, then, that more and
more home pinball games come out.
>>8.2 - How accepted is video pinball?
There are some 100% pinball purists out there that absolutely refuse to
accept any implementation of video pinball, and it's not too hard to
understand their positions. I think the vast majority of people accept it as
long as the implementation is good (I know I do).
>>8.3 - So what's available?
Here is a brief product list of what I know is available. If you have more
information about any of these products or wish to counter any opinions, feel
free to write me. Ratings are MHO out of 10.
*** ROUGH ASCII TABLE ALERT! ***
Game |Overall|Physics|Rules|Programming|Graphics|Sound|Notes
| | | | | | |
Amiga | | | | | | |
----- | | | | | | |
Pinball Dreams | 7 | 7 | 6.5 | 8.5 | 7 | 6 | 1
Pinball Fantasies | 7.5 | 8 | 7.5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 1
| | | | | | |
IBM | | | | | | |
--- | | | | | | |
Tristan | 3.5 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
Eight Ball Deluxe | 4.5 | 5.5 | 4 | 6 | 4.5 | 4 | 2
Take a Break Pinball| 0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Epic Pinball | 5.5 | 5 | 5.5 | 4.5 | 7.5 | 7 | 1,4
Pinball Dreams | 4 | 3.5 | 6 | 3 | 5.5 | 6 | 1,5
Pinball Fantasies | 8 | 8 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 3
Pinball Arcade CDROM| | | | | | | 5
Royal Flush | | | | | | | 0
Crystal Caliburn | 7 | 7 | 7.5 | 7 | 7.5 | 8 |
| | | | | | |
Mac | | | | | | |
--- | | | | | | |
Tristan | | | | | | | 0
Eight Ball Deluxe | 6 | 5.5 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 5 |
Crystal Caliburn | | | | | | | 0
Notes
-----
0 - Haven't played it personally and no one else has rated it compared to
these other games mentioned.
1 - Screen scrolls to reveal other parts of playfield.
2 - Screen scrolls, but may be set to higher resolution to avoid scrolling.
3 - Screen scrolls, but may be set to higher resolution to lessen scrolling.
4 - All 3 shareware packs taken into consideration.
5 - Haven't played it personally, but someone reviewed it.
(Very) brief descriptions:
Pinball Dreams (Amiga) - Really the first game to start the current crop of
video pinball games. This game has 4 different tables (all variations of
recognizable games). A good start.
Pinball Fantasies (Amiga) - This game is VERY buggy. It was a Christmas '92
rush job, and it shows. 3 tables feature 3 flippers. Other than the
bugs, a very nice game indeed.
Tristan (IBM) - Technically it's a pinball game. You can see the whole table
at once, which is a good thing. However, the ball is approximately 3/4
the size of the flippers, making aiming impossible. The jackpot shot is
pure luck, anyway. There IS multiball. "Nudging" mostly useless.
Eight Ball Deluxe (IBM) - A decent remake of the original. The screen is WAY
small (unless you get the SuperVGA upgrade). The game more or less
faithfully reguritates the original sounds (even the "in-game music"), but
some of the rules have thrashed (like the 8-ball saucer ALWAYS resets the
drop targets?!?). OK ball movement, nothing spectacular. Tilt is random.
Take A Break Pinball (Windows) - Tables are confusing, and ball seems to be
optimized such that it'll go from point A to point B, but all in-between
animation is eliminated, no matter HOW fast your machine is. (And I have
a 486-66 with a local-bus video card. Windows FLIES on my machine.) Just
Say No. Ball movement lame.
Epic Pinball (IBM) (shareware) - 12 original tables in all, including a
couple of EM-type games (neat) and a futuristic table (surprisingly kind
of fun). Ball movement is OK, but there is a major bug that sends the ball
*through* your flippers quite a bit. There is multiball, but a little
peeve of mine is that if something doesn't score decent points, then it's
worth nothing at all (like slingshots). Rules obscure or buggy in a
couple of places. The new 4 tables just released are minor improvements
rule-wise, but ball seems to go through flippers even MORE often now. :|
Pinball Dreams (IBM) - Conversion-wise this game is a MAJOR disappointment.
Ball movement is bad (gravity seems pretty heavy for some reason), and all
of the tables seem to have been changed in major ways from the original.
The guys who wrote the Amiga version don't like this game either. If
you've never played the Amiga one, then you might like it, but probably
not.
Pinball Fantasies (IBM) - This game is *better* than the Amiga version.
Quite a bit better, actually. There are some fairly major bugs in the
game, not crash-wise, but rules-wise. At least the ball doesn't go
through the flippers...
Pinball Arcade CD-ROM (IBM) - Made by the same people who did Pinball
Fantasies. Can't really be considered a sequel, though. Still no
multiball. Still not really SVGA. It is geared towards the history of
pinball with 50 boards (it shows the flyer (ad) for a board, maker, year,
notable features, etc.). There are playable boards, of course, but none
are very interesting. No more than the 2 flippers on the bottom. Some
weird ball physics. In general, a pretty major disappointment.
Crystal Caliburn (Windows) - Pretty good rules, but the ball is still about
1/3 the size of the flippers, making aiming fairly difficult and to a
decent extent random. Tilting hardly affects the ball, though it can do
just enough to save it sometimes. Great sound on my SB16. However, for
only getting one table, I hardly consider this game a good value for the
money (like US$38).
Tristan (Mac) - Never played it.
Eight Ball Deluxe (Mac) - A little better than the PC version. Same rules
problems, though. Sound and graphics very good (whole thing fits on the
screen). Ball movement a little weird.
Crystal Caliburn (Mac) - Haven't played it (yet).
-- Thanks to Frank Wang <fwang@sbcs.sunysb.edu> for Pin. Arcade CDROM review.
** Section 9 - Pinball and Your Health **
-----------------------------------------
>>9.1 - Can I really get injured just by playing pinball?
It's possible. If you play for long periods of time often, then you can
develop RSIs (repetitive strain injuries) and even CTS (Carpal Tunnel
Syndrome). It is not unlike conditions developed by typists and chicken
cutters. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry...)
-- Thanks to Michael Field <field@cae.wisc.edu> for suggesting this section.
>>9.2 - How can I avoid pinball-related injuries?
Well, the obvious answer is to cut back on your playing for awhile. However,
this is not always possible. :) You can take drugs (like Ibuprofen, the
stuff in Advil) to reduce pain an inflamation, but this is certainly not
something that should be done constantly for obvious medical reasons. If it
is only your wrists (i.e. tendonitis), then you could probably get away with
using wristbands. However, you should also be aware of the possibility of
CTS, which if left untreated, can be extremely serious. So far, a number of
people (including myself and Dave Stewart) have had great success with padded
gloves, such as the kind used by bikers and weightlifters.
-- Thanks to Michael Field and Dave Stewart for information.
>>9.3 - So how do I know if I'm getting CTS?
From a simple test you can do by yourself (or with a friend's help). With
the suspect hand, hold your thumb and pinky together as tightly as you can.
With your other hand (or have your friend do it), use the index finger to try
and break the hold of your thumb and pinky. When your hands are healthy, it
will be extremely difficult to break the hold. One of the first signs of
CTS, though, is that this hold is extremely weak (so much so that a small
child could probably break the hold as well).
This doesn't mean that you have CTS. What it does mean is that if you
continue the activity causing the pain (and sometimes numbness) in your hand,
you are at high risk of getting CTS, and should immediately take steps to
avoid it. As noted above, using padded gloves while you play seems to do the
trick. People may laugh or make comments to you, but hey - they're your
hands, and you'd probably like to keep the use of them, right?
-- Thanks to Dave Stewart <dstewart@eng.umd.edu> for information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
** Related Documents **
-----------------------
The following documents are referred to in the DFAQ. This is simply a
summary of them for your convenience. The authors/maintainers of these
documents appear in the question their reference comes from.
Q # File Description
----- -------------------- ------------------------------------------------
Intro Misc/abbreviations "All" the abbreviations used in rgp
3.1: Info/playingtips General pinball playing tips
3.4: Misc/deathsave.ps.Z Rough diagram for death saves and bang backs
Misc/deathsave.gif GIF of the above file
3.5: Info/bangbacks How to save outlane drains
4.7: Misc/league* Information for forming pinball leagues
5.9: Lists/pinball List of every recent game made
** The Hallowed List of Contributors **
---------------------------------------
Keith Johnson <keefer@rahul.net>
Kevin Martin <sigma@rahul.net>
Steve Baumgarten <sbb@panix.com>
David Byers <byers@lysator.liu.se>
Federico Croci <pinball@wiz.nervous.com>
Terry Cumming <terry.cumming@canrem.com>
Brent Earl <earl@rtsg.mot.com>
Paul Fernquist <pfern@technix.technix.mn.org>
Michael Field <field@cae.wisc.edu>
Dave Hollinsworth <ad836@osfn.rhilinet.gov>
Jarod Nash <j.nash@ukc.ac.uk>
Scott Piehler <rosco29@mindspring.com>
Ted Piknis <bure@wam.umd.edu>
Lyman Sheats, Jr. <lyman@chinet.com>
Dave Stewart <dstewart@eng.umd.edu>
Bill Ung <ung@filenet.com>
Matt Walsh <mtmr@walsh.dme.battelle.org>
Frank Wang <fwang@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Minor corrections/additions:
Todd McCarty <astjm@acad3.alaska.edu>, Johannes Gronvall
<joha@nic.funet.edu>, Chris Hehman <heheman@csugrad.cs.vt.edu>, David Smith
<maa036@lancaster.ac.uk>.
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