Pinball Action in general

[Namco]

I'm just discovering the rich history of Pinballs through participation in California Extreme over the last couple years, and in emulators like Virtual Pinball and Future Pinball. I've played many of the Williams tables and have dabbled in a few other manufacturers and have made a few observations about them. Let me know if I'm close to the truth or a nutjob.

Old Pinballs: I played Paul Bunyon on Saturday.  There's about 3 pairs of small flippers all over the board. Back then flippers were smaller. Playfields were slanted less. The idea was to try and keep the ball high in the playfield and/or try to keep the ball contained in a small area to rack up points without letting pass to lower parts. I like this idea. Each part of the table was like a different mini pinball table.

Williams: Looking at the 80s & 90s Williams boards, I really love them. Great themes, great art, very fast action, and a few fun skill shots. Not too complicated, not many cheap losses of your ball. Many have a pin in between the flippers to prevent an unlucky loss of ball.

Bally: Great themes, many innovations. But, many ramps and loops point the ball right at the gap between flippers causing many cheap deaths. Quarter munchers.

Stern: Not as cheap as Bally tables, but not as fun either. Hard skill shots and low ball action. But they make some beautiful tables.

[Namco]

Wow, I'm learning more and more about pins by the day. Today I picked up Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection on the Wii and am loving it. I knew Firepower was awesome, but I discovered Sorcerer and Space Shuttle and how great they are. Great compilation on the disc, a real deal for $19.

On the arcade cab, I've been adding more and more pins. I have my favorites like Cyclone and Earthshaker of course, and I've added several others to practice on. The version of Bad Cats on VP is imply amazing. That pin is a blast to play, and I hope I run into it at caextreme.

I also spent the last hour reading up on Bally, Midway, and Williams. Very complex set of mergers and acquisitions there that tells me that the generalizations I made in the last post hold no validity. Gottlieb is a complex one too, and I'll read Stern's next.

[RayB]

Did you encounter the bug on Space Shuttle?  I ended up with the game being stuck on "Ball 2" forever, no matter how many times I lost the ball. I made it up to 10 million points and gave up.

[Namco]

Did you encounter the bug on Space Shuttle?  I ended up with the game being stuck on "Ball 2" forever, no matter how many times I lost the ball. I made it up to 10 million points and gave up.

No, but on one of them (Taxi I think), I shot the ball up toward the middle Gorby pickup loop and the ball hit a target, jumped up toward a wire ramp and disappeared. The game said that a ball was lost and a new one was added to the table. I scratched my head for a minute there. Probably some computer created physics anomaly where the the ball hit a crack between textures and went in the x-axis direction at -2782837384293473^2 meters per second. Once in World of Warcraft, I charged towards a gorilla on a small hill and a physics bug shot me up a million feet in the air where I eventually died before I ever landed. I resurrected at a spirit healer because the body was unrecoverable!

I like Space Shuttle, but that right ramp seems like such a waste. All it leads to is a target, that's it, just a target at the top of the ramp. They could have done something more with all that space and wide ramp, like a kicker hole, or firing your rockets, or closing the bay doors or something.

The game really makes me want to spend some time on Jive Time.  Seems like an interesting EM.

I was surprised how much I liked Jive Time. I read a review that poopooed the collection because it had a couple bad/unkonwn pins in it, but I really liked them all. However, for lunch after playing 12 games of Indiana Jones, I played a few games of Paul Bunyon and enjoyed myself... so maybe I'm not the guy to critique pins .  But the goals for Jive Time are pretty easy. You should be able to get them all on a couple plays.

[Cameronj]

Man where can I get a HUO Space Shuttle for $600. That is a total bargain!

I agree on the wasted SS ramp. It is probably my only complaint about Space Shuttle though. I think it is a great pin! I own one that works 100% but has some significant cosmetic issues on the playfield.

[Namco]

A Taxi just popped up in my area, but they want $1500 OBO with some tons of wear rings around the pop (jet) bumpers and some wear near the inlanes. However it's apparently a rare one with Marilyn Monroe instead of Lola, which may justify the increased price.

Space shuttle is a lot of fun, but just needs one more toy or ramp or something. I like Pinbot just a bit better for the cool visor mechanic.

[Namco]

But the goals for Jive Time are pretty easy. You should be able to get them all on a couple plays.

Man, what a stupid, stupid thing to say. The goals in Jive time suck. I posted that before actually trying to get all the goals. It's extremely difficult to get the bonus up to 10,000 by the 5th ball, and then it's nearly impossible to collect it. Will take a billion plays to get this stupid goal accomplished. Then for all my effort, I get to do it again for a Wizard goal, except I'll have collect the double bonus. Greeaat.

[Namco]

A Taxi just popped up in my area, but they want $1500 OBO with some tons of wear rings around the pop (jet) bumpers and some wear near the inlanes. However it's apparently a rare one with Marilyn Monroe instead of Lola, which may justify the increased price.

Marilyn Taxi's aren't rare at all, don't get suckered into paying more for one.

Thanks Jim! I wouldn't have known otherwise. Would $1000 be a good offer with this kind of wear:
http://sisson-son.com/auctions/pb_taxi07.jpg
http://sisson-son.com/auctions/pb_taxi08.jpg
http://sisson-son.com/auctions/pb_taxi10.jpg
http://sisson-son.com/auctions/pb_taxi09.jpg

This is the California SF Bay Area mind you, where prices for vids and pins are triple anywhere else
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/clt/723223791.html