Happiness is....

laughing_lunatic

New member
Jun 6, 2012
359
0
...realizing that the game we have doesn't behave like a real table, there's always going to be WTF moments, coming to peace with that, and enjoying it for what it is: a damn good pinball game.
 

Jeff Strong

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 19, 2012
8,144
2
Draining when you have the upper ball locked on Black Hole....and watching it bounce helplessly into the abyss...
 

Sean DonCarlos

Moderator
Staff member
Mar 17, 2012
4,293
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Happiness is that half a second as the Powerball leaves the lower left flipper on a real Twilight Zone, with a completed door, with a flashing "?" door handle, and you just know it's headed for the slot machine and it's going to go in and you're going to play your first Lost in the Zone in almost 10 years and that all the times you got the "?" lit and then choked don't matter anymore.

It is for moments like this that we play pinball.
 

Squid

Senior Creature
Mar 22, 2012
591
0
...finding some like-minded fools to discuss a great game with. I also agree with Mr. mmMagnetic. I'll never get tired of hearing Usain Bolt(?) yelling out "Super Jackpot" in the middle of a thunderstorm.
 

Jan Duin

New member
Feb 20, 2012
545
0
Having 3 crap games in a row on Black Hole, come back an hour later and score over a million on lower table bonus.. :)
 

mmmagnetic

New member
May 29, 2012
601
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Or how about this -

I was going on a nice, relaxing, lazy summer vacation at Texel, Holland, and greeted with these two beauties:

TG6Bn.jpg


Nice! Dropped quite a lot of quarters into these. Wasn´t quite feeling RFM (I drained like crazy and it seemed to have almost zero ball saver time), but GNR was solid fun, even if the machine was a bit beaten up. I even got the backhanded shot into the "add band member" shot working a couple of times, had quite some trouble hitting ramps, but it felt good and was just overall a very fun game.

Keep in mind that up to this point I haven´t played a real pinball machine since about 1993, when I was a little kid with no cash and no idea what I was doing. So obviously, I was determined to have fun with whatever machine was standing there anyways.

So, I was staying there for a whole week. The room those two machines were standing was next to a bigger hall with some pool tables and remote controlled car tracks set up, which I never even bothered to enter - I mean, I got my two tables right here! My days were usually filled with hanging around on the beach with my girlfriend, lots of riding bikes, eating delicious, fatty dutch snacks and sweets, and the daily visit to this little arcade at the evening for half an hour or so.

Until, on my second to last day there, I run out of euro pieces, and saw that they have a counter in that other room, so I casually walk to the desk, change some bills to coins, turn around, and suddenly the room is filled with the sound of my jaw hitting the floor with the weight of an imploding sun as I see this:

Y8tLC.jpg



...
This machine has been there the whole time, within spitting distance, only blocked by a wall.

I never even heard any attract mode music or anything, the Outrunners and F355 Challenge cabinets must have drowned it out, and that side hall was closed in the evening, which was the main time I was frequenting this tiny arcade.

I spend the rest of the two days dropping what felt like 30, 40 euro into this baby. I liked RFM and GNR, but man, I was so incredibly hyped to discover this. The only thing missing was some sort of angelic choir starting to sing. I even told the guy working there how pumped I was to see this, he quite obviously had no interest in pinball at all. The machine was also in a quite good condition, I even got my girlfriend to film some silly video of me desperately trying to get the multiball to work, and after 2 lost balls I announced "This time I´m going to hit that dumb electric chair", and boom! SHOWTIME.

And to think that I could very easily have missed that TAF machine completely... I wrote the contact lady of this vacation park before we went there, because I remembered they used to have some old Gottlieb tables the last time I went, and she said "we have 2 machines left".

Probably one of the coolest vacations I ever had. The end.


Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing...

I guess I was the one who turned the intent of this thread on its head ;)
 
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BonzoGonzo

New member
Jun 12, 2012
458
0
good stuff :) seeing the pics makes me remember one of the reasons i dislike rfm.. it feels like some kind of a migdet pinball machine, lol :D
 

mmmagnetic

New member
May 29, 2012
601
0
Yes! That´s the first thing I thought as well, it felt so small. I guess I had that impression because the GNR right next to it is a widebody, and the size difference between normal cabs and widebody is much bigger than I thought.

On the other hand, part of the playfield on the Pinball 2000 machines disappears behind that screen reflection, while some parts, like the bonus multiplier lane lights shine through, which makes it seem even smaller.

Maybe in 1999 they thought that this was just incredibly cool, but it just ended up annoying me. The place was also brightly lit, which seemed to take away some of the contrast of the screen reflection.

I guess it´s kinda ironic that they tried to save pinball by making pinball more like a videogame, and today we´re having videogames emulating pinball (with even Pat Lawlor joining the party).

Both GNR and RFM absolutely pale in comparison to TAF, though. The place where it was standing was a bit darker, so the lights really impressed me, and the loud showtime multiball start, along with the brilliant lightshow is just out of this world, and something that´s just impossible to replicate in virtual pinball, sadly.

By the way, I didn´t have the guts to nudge the machines at all. GNR and RFM just seemed to heavy, and I just had too much respect for TAF to try to shake it ;)
 
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