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Parallax Scroll posted:I'm slowly getting better at real pinball. Been playing a bunch at a local bar recently. After a few years of playing video pinball exclusively I have to unlearn a few things. I practiced live catching today. Occasionally it works, but usually I end up popping the ball back up onto the playfield. Also lost a few balls to failed drop catch attempts. I wanted to try some drop catches on the X-Men they have there since I often have the ball come to the left flipper at a good angle for it, but the machine barely works at the moment. Every real pinball machine is a special snowflake. In virtual pinball every thing responds the same way every time. With real pinball every table has a different pitch, different flipper strengths, different levels of crud on the playfields. You get better at adapting to different real tables the more you play them, but right from the start you have to learn the nuances of whatever real table you are playing in whatever location it is at.
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Jun 9, 2014 00:04
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cosmicjim posted:Every real pinball machine is a special snowflake. In virtual pinball every thing responds the same way every time. With real pinball every table has a different pitch, different flipper strengths, different levels of crud on the playfields. You get better at adapting to different real tables the more you play them, but right from the start you have to learn the nuances of whatever real table you are playing in whatever location it is at. Yeah, that's why I wanted to try drop catches on that X-Men machine, since that's the one I've been playing the most. That and because I'm trying to eliminate a bad habit on that machine where I keep the left flipper raised to catch an incoming ball and it goes up the inlane and over the divider to the outlane. I think that's a good time to drop catch if I can figure out the timing. Beatnik-Filmstar posted:Tried some simple post passes when I was at the Pacific Pinball Museum and didn't care if I failed horribly since the games were on free play. drat it's a lot easier with a gamepad. Never even bothered attempting drop or live catches. God help my ego if anyone was watching. I can post pass on some machines, but there's a lot where I can't find a way to do it reliably.
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Jun 9, 2014 00:17
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Beatnik-Filmstar posted:drat it's a lot easier with a gamepad. Never even bothered attempting drop or live catches. God help my ego if anyone was watching. I find the opposite, it's much easier for me to be consistent on loops, do cradle separations, etc etc on an actual table.
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Jun 9, 2014 00:59
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Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha YES
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Jun 9, 2014 02:03
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Beatnik-Filmstar posted:Tried some simple post passes when I was at the Pacific Pinball Museum and didn't care if I failed horribly since the games were on free play. drat it's a lot easier with a gamepad. Never even bothered attempting drop or live catches. God help my ego if anyone was watching. This was the whole reason I wanted to buy a game for the home. I watched Pinball 101, and wanted to practice without blowing through quarters.
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Jun 9, 2014 02:54
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Beatnik-Filmstar posted:Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha YES I've sold cards in there for 30 cents before (including some PA ones)... but THAT. Sweet Jesus people are dumb.
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Jun 9, 2014 02:55
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TPA cards seem to be weirdly expensive.
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Jun 9, 2014 02:56
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Fag Boy Jim posted:TPA cards seem to be weirdly expensive. Not that many people play, and you only get 3 cards for a $30 season, since it falls under the free to play game category. Makes the foils considerably more rare. I had the only one of that card listed for $35 for a while just for the Hell of it but nobody bit. Another goon happened to list another for less, so I pulled my listing for a while. No idea if theirs sold or not. Saw that none were listed again and threw it up there for $22 about 2-3 weeks ago. Someone else listed a 2nd one but at a higher price so I just left it there and forgot about it. Quite a nice surprise.
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Jun 9, 2014 03:01
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I've been playing more Zen than Pinball Arcade lately, and I swear it's had an effect on my IRL skills. Played at a tournament this weekend and found that I was doing a lot better with the flippers, from catches to juggles, and tip and drop passes. I'm really not crazy about the Zen table designs, but the flipper physics, while imperfect, are so much better than Pinball Arcade's.
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Jun 9, 2014 03:20
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Beatnik-Filmstar posted:Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha YES Wow I feel super stupid now. I sold that card for 8€ like two weeks ago. I kind of thought that'd be the absolute cap. Although I take some small enjoyment out of the fact that the buyer's steam name was Captain Picard. e: Also zen flipper and all other physics are total garbage.
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Jun 9, 2014 03:21
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PA's ball physics are better than Zen's, but PA's flipper physics are pretty trash. The flipper in PA just teleports between raised and lowered positions. That's why stuff like drop catches is impossible.roffels posted:This was the whole reason I wanted to buy a game for the home. I watched Pinball 101, and wanted to practice without blowing through quarters. I've just accepted that I'm going to spend a lot of quarters to get good. The main place I go charges 50 cents a game and I drop $5 there a few times a week. I spend more than that on beer while I'm there anyway.
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Jun 9, 2014 03:52
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Beatnik-Filmstar posted:Ahhhh ha ha ha ha ha YES WELP, sounds like I should invest in TPA on steam 
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Jun 9, 2014 03:52
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Odds of getting a foil are low.
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Jun 9, 2014 07:55
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More progress! Back box done. Filled all the screw holes and touched up the corners a bit with wood filler and will sand all that back down this week. Need to drill all the button holes and other misc holes still as well. Ordering back box brackets today too.
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Jun 9, 2014 12:33
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mattfl posted:More progress! Back box done. Filled all the screw holes and touched up the corners a bit with wood filler and will sand all that back down this week. Need to drill all the button holes and other misc holes still as well. Ordering back box brackets today too. This is sweet, are you following a plan in particular or just engineering as you go? I dunno if this has been posted, but this looks sorta interesting: http://www.atlus.com/rollers/
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Jun 9, 2014 17:02
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Rollers of the Realm kind of reminds me of Pinball Quest for the NES, at least in concept. I'm watching the Joystiq stream now, and it's looking pretty good. It has a nice blend of regular pinball physics and fine control of the ball to navigate the level space. Apparently there's no "tilt", you can just nudge to control your character/ball.
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Jun 9, 2014 17:17
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Lockback posted:I dunno if this has been posted, but this looks sorta interesting: Definitely interesting. I wonder how I would like it -- I got the soccer table for FX2, and I generally find it frustrating, because it expects me to have better aim than I do. (My standard gameplay approach is to hit the ball when it's within range of a flipper, with some adjustments for aiming. I don't do nearly enough catching and holding.)
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Jun 9, 2014 17:25
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King Vidiot posted:Rollers of the Realm kind of reminds me of Pinball Quest for the NES, at least in concept. I'm watching the Joystiq stream now, and it's looking pretty good. It has a nice blend of regular pinball physics and fine control of the ball to navigate the level space. Apparently there's no "tilt", you can just nudge to control your character/ball. Can I get a link to this stream? I had pinball quest when I was a kid and this sounds fun.
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Jun 9, 2014 17:36
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Beatnik-Filmstar posted:Welcome to the wonderful world of TPA's buggy as poo poo version of TZ. What you're describing. or some variation of it, happens each and every time I get to Lost in the Zone. More or less, it seems to have something to do with the table not reloading the gumball machine. (Where you're launching the balls one at a time for a while after LitZ ends.) What always ends up happening for me is that it then loads three balls into the plunger. If you end up with more than one in play, you lose the ball if either drain. Or occasionally things seem OK for a second (You may or may not have more balls just sitting there in the plunger.) and suddenly the game will kill your ball when you hit the player piano or slot machine, or drat near any shot. And of course begin able to control the camera angles is a crap shoot with any form of multiball. I know this is a page back but I wanted to add that this seems to be hardware specific. My desktop at home can play a dozen games in a row without a single issue in TZ but if I load up on my friend's newer & nicer desktop it glitches out pretty regularly, including the exact problem the guy you quoted was having. Scared Stiff is similar, fine at home but the ball will regularly get stuck on nothing on my friend's computer. Luckily calling the attendant fixes that one, TZ just freaks out until it eventually decides that the ball is over.
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Jun 9, 2014 17:56
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Squinky v2.0 posted:I know this is a page back but I wanted to add that this seems to be hardware specific. My desktop at home can play a dozen games in a row without a single issue in TZ but if I load up on my friend's newer & nicer desktop it glitches out pretty regularly, including the exact problem the guy you quoted was having. That's.... odd? Like I said - it seemed to be fine for me (On the same PC) when I first played it on TPA, but I also wasn't getting to LitZ as regularly, so I can't say for sure. I just have no idea what the Hell when it comes to farsight. I like TZ enough to try it now and then and see if it's working, but it's just really frustrating as it is now for me. Nice to know that it works for some people though. Kinda?
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Jun 9, 2014 18:06
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Lockback posted:This is sweet, are you following a plan in particular or just engineering as you go? The actual cabinet plans are for a standard williams wide body cabinet. As far as what I'm putting it in, I'll following a few peoples plans who have already gotten their together and mix and matching what they did.
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Jun 9, 2014 18:17
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Domus posted:It isn't ever caused by a bad transistor. It's caused by a bad bridge rectifier, voltage regulator, capacitor, or solder joint or pin on the power board. It can also be caused by a bad Z connector in games that use them, a broken diode or miswired flipper solonoid, a loose fuse, or a bad thermistor. I got my board on Saturday and installed it in my ST:TNG and it works like a champ now where before it would reboot itself when the gun would or both flippers were pressed.
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Jun 9, 2014 21:18
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Just a heads up but if you have an older machine and want to put LEDs in it because they look much cooler, I'd pick up one of these. http://ledocd.com/ LEDs cause a strobe effect which I guess for some (like me) are annoying. This fixes that problem. It also lets you adjust the brightness for each bulb. So you can have it brighter in the back on certain inserts and tone it down in front if it comes across as too blinding. Just a really cool tool if you're into messing around with lighting which I've started to do. They also supposedly have one for the GI coming later which allows for dimming of those lights. LEDs currently can't dim like incandescent which eliminate some of the lighting effects on a game. I'm passing on the GI one but I think the insert one is a must if you're going the LED route.
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Jun 10, 2014 02:33
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mattfl posted:More progress! Back box done. Filled all the screw holes and touched up the corners a bit with wood filler and will sand all that back down this week. Need to drill all the button holes and other misc holes still as well. Ordering back box brackets today too. This looks great. How much do you think it will cost after everything is done?
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Jun 10, 2014 02:36
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Bob Loblaw posted:I got my board on Saturday and installed it in my ST:TNG and it works like a champ now where before it would reboot itself when the gun would or both flippers were pressed. Thanks for letting me know. I ordered 3 for a friend but have yet to try them, and they have a ST:TNG too. That game and TZ are huge voltage hogs, and also have hugely heavy playfields. If you manage to get to the final frontier, I will be jealous.
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Jun 10, 2014 03:25
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mattfl posted:More progress! Back box done. Filled all the screw holes and touched up the corners a bit with wood filler and will sand all that back down this week. Need to drill all the button holes and other misc holes still as well. Ordering back box brackets today too. That is awesome and is something I have always wanted to do.
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Jun 10, 2014 08:57
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I'll hold off on asking dumb questions until the end and just see how this all comes together. Please keep us posted on your project. Looks great so far! 
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Jun 10, 2014 09:51
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Niwrad posted:This looks great. How much do you think it will cost after everything is done? My two biggest expenses will be the playfield tv and the control board for the LEDS/Contactors. The TV should run me about $300-400 and the control board is also around $300. I had the PC from my old build plus a few other misc parts and pieces. I'm estimating between $1000-1500 right now, could be a little less. So far my only out of pocket money has been $100 for the wood.
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Jun 10, 2014 11:03
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I got a sharp pain in my wrist today when I hit the flipper button and had to stop playing.  It's still a little numb.It's probably from a combination of bad typing habits and pinball. Gotta be more careful with how I type.
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Jun 12, 2014 02:34
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I'm gonna be in Chicago for a few days coming up. Where can I hit up to play way too many pinball tables?
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Jun 12, 2014 03:46
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http://www.pinballchicago.org has a great list headquarters beercade has a great (free) selection, and Logan Arcade is supposed to be pretty great too
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Jun 12, 2014 03:56
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The Pinball Chicago list is a bit out of date, but essentially there's three large beercades and all three of them have different qualities to recommend. The best one for pinball nerds is Logan, since it has the most as well as a few really neat deep cuts you can't find everywhere (play Radical!)
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Jun 12, 2014 04:40
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Any new TPA tables on PS3 recently? Been out of the loop for a while.
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Jun 12, 2014 04:45
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iastudent posted:Any new TPA tables on PS3 recently? Been out of the loop for a while. 
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Jun 12, 2014 05:03
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They seem to drop two table packs every two months. I forget when the first season 3 packs dropped precisely, but it feels like April.
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Jun 12, 2014 06:22
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Stern is doing a rerelease of Iron Man all LED'd out. From my understanding, Iron Man didn't have that large of a run, and wasn't well received at the time. In the last couple years folks have come around to it though. I love Iron Man, and I hope I find it out on more locations. It doesn't look like it has a lot going on, but it's fast as hell and the rules are simple, but a ton of fun.
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Jun 12, 2014 17:32
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Clouseau posted:Stern is doing a rerelease of Iron Man all LED'd out. From my understanding, Iron Man didn't have that large of a run, and wasn't well received at the time. In the last couple years folks have come around to it though. I love Iron Man, and I hope I find it out on more locations. It doesn't look like it has a lot going on, but it's fast as hell and the rules are simple, but a ton of fun. I never liked Iron Man, every location I played it at shots are really tough to make. Ramps are way too steep and while the reject roll back isn't brutal, it's never fun to deal with.
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Jun 12, 2014 17:46
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I played it at a restaurant in the suburbs and didn't really like it much. Shots were incredibly hard and the table didn't do much for me. It does seem popular among advanced players though. Then again the table I played wasn't leveled well and I think the pitch was off because I struggled to make it up the ramp.
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Jun 13, 2014 16:46
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As a rule I hate any game with a central, drain-bait bash toy.
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Jun 13, 2014 18:16
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Collateral Damage posted:As a rule I hate any game with a central, drain-bait bash toy. Well that castle isn't going to destroy itself, you know. Edit : My own personal Hell. What if you were really good at pinball, but only on Gottlieb tables?  KamikazeJim posted:I must be missing something in the PC version. How do you change the interface to that one? That's from their website actually. http://www.pinballarcade.com/ Tony Phillips fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Jun 14, 2014 |
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Jun 13, 2014 20:43
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