Pinball Tips For Newbies

Hi. I'm a newbie. Everything else aside, I'd like some general tips from people at large about becoming a better pinball player. As is, I don't flipper-mash, I tend to suck at tilting (over-tilt), and my scores vary wildly from, 10k to 350k on Black Hole (for example). I'd like to get good at a lot of different tables because, really, who likes the same noise over and over.

Also, I figure it'd be a good repository since this IS a pinball forum and I can't be the only newb.

edit: Terms may have to be explained... In fact, it's probably a good idea.

best thing is to learn some basic techniques at first like passing the ball, etc.

Checkout this page here for some tips for people of all abilities.....

http://www.ipdb.org/playing/skills.html

Also you tube clip.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlLjhoarx9c

Or search "niel shatz: skills" on you tube if above link is dodgy. (Really good clip showing all basic skills in 3mins)

Both these got my scores up!

Wouldn't mind some more tips or links if anyone's got any.

I've been talking to some pros for quite awhile now, as I'm actually venturing to Austin to pursue competitive pinball (flying to PAPA, etc.) The best thing I've ever been told was by Bowen Kerins, and the thing I try to pass on to everyone else, is this: Have a reason behind every shot you make. If you don't have a reason, don't make a shot. Every press of the flipper is a potential drain. Kind of pointless to risk draining the ball without a reason, right?

Also, never, ever have both flippers up at the same time...

Thanks for creating this thread RCade! I've already learned so much from it! Please, pros keep posting your tips (or links to tips)

EbortionXsrk said:

Also, never, ever have both flippers up at the same time...

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Unless you have traps going on both sides in multiball, of course.

While I'm no Bowen Kerins, one thing that will also help is to identify a safe area of the table where you can temporarily dispose of a ball in case of emergency. Say a ball comes screaming down on your flippers unexpectedly and you have no time to make a positive shot or attempt a catch; being able to quickly reflex the ball to a place where it's not likely to drain immediately is very helpful while you regain your composure. If you have a favorite ramp shot that you can hit in your sleep, now's the time to make it; otherwise, a big open area somewhat off-center usually works well.

Only other tip I can offer is patience. Watch the tutorial videos on the pinball.org site and you'll often see Bowen very patiently re-attempt a cradle separation or some other maneuver until he gets exactly what he wants. No need to hurry, lose control and risk a drain. Even when a hurry-up or something timed and important is running (like ToM's Grand Finale), take a second or two, make a trap or whatever, get control, aim, and only then take your shot. You'll be amazed how many fewer shots you need to achieve an objective - and fewer shots means more points, faster, with less chance of a drain.

Thanks 50cents. I knew I wasn't the only newb

Serenseven, those are two very high level skills to have! Keeping the ball occupied in multiball or even single ball play can sometimes be the deciding factor in a good set. Any shot with a habitrail is generally a good one to go for as the ball slows down quite a bit. Even pop bumpers, jets if you will, (at the end of a scoop for example) can keep the ball occupied for long enough to get things back together, like you said.

Also, a good tip in multiball is to not let yourself get overwhelmed. Generally in multiball you'll have crazy fast-paced music and lights going off. This is to give you a sense of urgency. Don't be fooled and take your time! In multiball do your best to maintain control and always try to have at least one of the balls cradled. You'll find that if you don't do this, there is a good chance you'll get scatter brained and drain both balls instead of just the one to return you to normal play. Also, depending on the machine, don't be afraid to let the balls drain a few times in order to let yourself get some easy jackpots by focusing on a single ball.

BEWARE, some machines don't give you a ball-saver right off and the timer for such will vary from machine to machine.

Also, try to find if the machine has an add-a-ball feature and always keep it in mind. If it's an easy shot you can save it for when you see a drain coming. Usually if it's going STDM you might not have the time but if you drain on an outlane that should give you plenty of time to make the shot (given you have a ball cradled! wink wink, nudge nudge, knowhatimean)

The final tip that comes to mind is know the machine's rulesets. I believe ipdb has a good chunk of the rule sheets and if not, always feel free to ask around. You'll find that the pinball community is probably the kindest as opposed to the new generation of gamers who run a muck with elitism. You'll find that some machines get the highest points from modes and with others you'll want to focus on relighting multiball or something along those lines. For example, Wizard mode on a newer machine might not always be the quickest way to points. I suggest, like Serenseven said, watch the tutorial videos on the papa blog. That and practice, practice, practice. I can't stress that enough, practice, practice, practice.

I hate to say this, but despite what I read at ipdb, I'm still a bit confused about which way to nudge.

Yeah, I screw that up all the time. My biggest problem is getting the ball away from the gutter. I HATE those gutters... especially in Pin*Bot.

Nudging is one area I really need to improve on, too.

I'm somewhere in between scoring consistently low, and rocking a machine all night. Sometimes I score well, sometimes I suck, and sometimes I do decent.

Every single time I play any table, I will ALWAYS gutter a ball and no matter how hard I try to nudge, it still goes into the gutter. One in ten times, though, I'll score so high that it makes me feel like I might be getting this pinball thing.

Some videos of various pinball skills - I can't vouch for the quality of the tips, but seems like it has a good range of skill advice.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MungoBBQ?feature=watch

Thanks for the kind words, Ebortion...but those are very high level skills I only wish I had! My knowledge of what to do with a pinball often far exceeds my ability to consistently actually do those things on a real table! Still, hopefully someone here will profit from what advice I can offer.

RKade8583 said:

Every single time I play any table, I will ALWAYS gutter a ball and no matter how hard I try to nudge, it still goes into the gutter. One in ten times, though, I'll score so high that it makes me feel like I might be getting this pinball thing.

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It's not a matter of how hard you nudge, it's a matter of when and in what direction. One of my very minor gripes with TPA and its predecessors is that the tilt is so liberal it encourages lots of random nudging. This often works, but it's not something you can transfer to a real table where the tilt is probably not so forgiving (and it doesn't make you feel skillful, either). On a real table, you're probably going to get one slight nudge, maybe two, before the warnings start. So what can you do with this one slight nudge?

Suppose a ball is arcing in at a moderate speed from left field somewhere and it looks like it's heading for the right outlane. What you want to do is right before it gets there (and before it starts falling in), nudge the table once to the right. What you're doing when you nudge is essentially moving the table under the ball, so what's happening is you're still letting the ball drop...but you're actually moving the inlane for a brief moment so it's under the ball instead of the outlane, or at least far enough under that the ball strikes the left side of the post and rolls back to the inlane.

Now suppose the ball is instead screaming in from left field to the right outlane. Now what will happen if you nudge right? The ball will have so much momentum rightward that it will still likely find the outlane and drain. So instead you nudge left and slightly upward when the ball is right above the outlane! Why? Basically you want to smack the right outlane wall into the ball in an attempt to get it to reverse direction, and if the ball is moving fast enough it will not have time to descend into the outlane before it does. The slightly upward part encourages the ball to bounce away from the outlane, and not hit the right side of the outlane post and go straight down.

In either case, once the bottom third of the ball has crossed the level of the outlane entrance, it's probably too late to save it. (Still, try. Sometimes the laws of physics are violated and you get a lucky bounce out.)

Of course, all this is modified somewhat by the shape of the outlanes in question, the amount of rubber in the area (more rubber = more bouncing = better chance of a save), how sensitive the tilt is, how many warnings you've taken, how important the end-of-ball bonus is, whether you can even see the outlane area (you'll understand when Cirqus Voltaire comes out), etc...in short, a bunch of table-specific things! And of course you don't have time to carefully consider the physics of the incoming ball in actual play. So practice will be essential, and you'll eventually develop intuition that will tell you what you need to do when as you get experienced with each of the tables. I'm much better at saving balls on ToM (assuming the Hocus Pocus magnets aren't saving them for me, of course!) than I am at Ripley's, simply because I've played a lot of real ToM and never touched a Ripley's before TPA. And of course there will always be house balls and weird ricochets that just can't be saved. That's pinball!

Great tips, Serenseven.