PC tourney 2015-07-31: SC, SpSh, WWind, Firepwr, Vctry, HH, Fl2000, JY

[invitro]

I'm inclined to agree, but the thing is the general TPA offness hits Junkyard right where it hurts. Mostly how TPA's flippers are anemically weak up the middle on any kind of rolling shot. You can't have fun whacking on the wrecking ball like you're supposed to, and the jackpot shot is a lot harder than it should be. Especially during the super jackpot phase where you need accurate fast shots to knock the crane out of the way and sneak in.

The other part is that all the shots besides the wrecking ball are naturally narrow, which isn't a problem in itself, but is in TPA. What tends to happen is that those shots are hittable ONLY via the preordained railroad from a cradle and almost always miss from any other setup. High Roller Casino has this same problem, as does Theatre of Magic from the early days.

All the shots in TPA Junkyard are possible from a cradle, and not particularly tough, but that's not how the game is supposed to be played. It's one of those games (like STTNG) that feeds everything you do to a flipper inlane, so it's meant to have decent flow, which the TPA version sorely misses. You can't shoot the wrecking ball or Dog ramp from a rolling feed, and those are half the game.

All great points; thanks as always; I agree, with just minor difference... I don't have a problem hitting the right ramp in ToM running (i.e. looping) as much as I expect to (this shot is much easier in ToM than on the real one). I can hit the left ramps in JY running pretty similarly to the real one. Caveat: I haven't played a real ToM or JY in many years.

I played a real Junkyard too, when it first came out. Seemed decent, but once you saw and got the wrecking ball jackpot, no real reason to play it over the AFM and TOTAN and Jack*Bot that were in the same arcade. Same goes in TPA.

The JY I played was the only pinball machine in the arcade where I played it, and it was an extremely rare case of getting to play a brand-new machine regularly while it was new. I wouldn't have chosen it over AFM, TotAN, or J*B either, otherwise. And I needed to practice it for PAPA... I thought since it was new, that learning it would give me an edge (and it did). I actually don't think I played it at all after that PAPA.

I only favorite it over WD in TPA because I think the TPA WD has horrific physics.

 

[suffocater]

Thanks Firepower for f****** my game up.
Multiball starts at ball one, after first ball drains it counts to ball two, gives ball to plunger, sceond drain, count to ball three, gives ball to plunger, next drain registers drain of ball three, end of game. Big THX and F*** YOU Firepower.

There was my last chance of getting to silver. I've got no nerves left for the ****ty physics and bugs on most of the tables (and stupid rules for getting some of the wizard goals etc.). I will play my beloved MM with all of its faults and any other day a game on big shot in the near future, nothing else, except f-14 gets released.

 

[Leviathan]

Well that's frustrating. Got a 3.7M on Haunted House, but it was recorded as just .7M. The rollover should work fine since my posted score is over a mil already. Anybody else have this problem?

 

[invitro]

Thanks Firepower for f****** my game up.
Multiball starts at ball one, after first ball drains it counts to ball two, gives ball to plunger, sceond drain, count to ball three, gives ball to plunger, next drain registers drain of ball three, end of game. Big THX and F*** YOU Firepower.

There was my last chance of getting to silver. I've got no nerves left for the ****ty physics and bugs on most of the tables (and stupid rules for getting some of the wizard goals etc.). I will play my beloved MM with all of its faults and any other day a game on big shot in the near future, nothing else, except f-14 gets released.

 

[invitro]

Well that's frustrating. Got a 3.7M on Haunted House, but it was recorded as just .7M. The rollover should work fine since my posted score is over a mil already. Anybody else have this problem?

There are many mentions in this thread and in the thread for last month...

 

[switch3flip]

I played JY extensively when it was new, including a great game (the best that year, I think) on it at a PAPA. I don't think the TPA version is off at all, any more than the general TPA offness. My memory of the real thing may have decayed, but I don't think so. It seems to feel very much like the real thing.

What shots do you think are impossible from cradle?

The main problem with the real table is that the video mode dominates everything else (which is how I blasted it at PAPA). This problem is gone with the 20-minute limit, or I think it is... my strategy could be bad as is often the case!

I'm feeling a bit kindly toward JY right now. I'd put it in the middle of Season 3, ahead of WD, LCA, BK2K, and HRC, and maybe HS.

Well then it might seem TPA version is pretty true to original pin, but with the issues Vikingerik brought up it seems it just doesn't get along well with TPA.
I'm not even trying to shoot mode start or DOG from left trap or free roll anymore, for mode start it seems like it's tailored to be shot from the feed after you shoot the toilet, and variances in speed mess it up, also like the magic bus becomes so much easier from fed ball and repeated looping. Otherwise it's much harder. DOG is very easy to backhand from right trap though so no point trying anything else. And of course the issues with hitting the crane. I just feel cramped when playing JY, like Vikingerik said, it's made for flow ply but TPA issues don't make it justice. As for s3, the only more boring for me is LCA. I love HRC even though it sure has its quirks in how you definitely can't shoot some shots from traps, and maybe some are hard on fast balls as well, but it's not a free flower so it doesn't hurt that much that shots have to be set up in certain ways, and I guess that's where JY crashes with TPA style. IMHO

 

[switch3flip]

Did you run out of time, or balls? Did you roll over 3M, 2M, or just 1M? Did you lose a ball after the rollover?

Two games over 2M and rest over 1M. If I had balls left in game I made sure to end them before time ran out so I got the bonus.

 

[invitro]

Two games over 2M and rest over 1M. If I had balls left in game I made sure to end them before time ran out so I got the bonus.

Well if rollovers aren't counting even if you run out of time, that's bad. I thought running out of time made rollovers work. I haven't gotten above 2M yet (this month) but all my 1M rollovers have counted. (I had one >3M game last month that didn't count. There are some reports from v.e. and JPelter and maybe others in last month's thread about HH & rollovers.)

Farsight probably shouldn't be beaten up too much for not implementing something the ROM doesn't, but they probably should be for repeating HH in the tourney.

 

[invitro]

I love HRC even though it sure has its quirks in how you definitely can't shoot some shots from traps, and maybe some are hard on fast balls as well, but it's not a free flower so it doesn't hurt that much that shots have to be set up in certain ways, and I guess that's where JY crashes with TPA style. IMHO

Funny you should mention HRC... that's the game where the unmakeable shot (R orbit) bugs me the most (though they all bug me A LOT )... because it's so important and I have trouble making its running version. (I would've thought the AFM R ramp would bug me the most, but I seem to set it up and make it from the L ramp pretty easily.)

Sorry if I seem too questioning (?)... I asked about which cradle shots you find unmakeable in JY because I know about the running DOG, but not of any others, and if there are others, I want to know. So I will ask: are there cradle shots in HRC other than the R orbit that are impossible? v.e. says that the Slot Machine lane (when the ramp is all the way down) may be impossible from a R flipper trap.

(Fwiw, pbw45b has put in my list of unmakeables, taken from v.e.'s posts, to his PC issues list, in the PC forum, if someone wants to see it.)

 

[switch3flip]

Funny you should mention HRC... that's the game where the unmakeable shot (R orbit) bugs me the most (though they all bug me A LOT )... because it's so important and I have trouble making its running version. (I would've thought the AFM R ramp would bug me the most, but I seem to set it up and make it from the L ramp pretty easily.)

Sorry if I seem too questioning (?)... I asked about which cradle shots you find unmakeable in JY because I know about the running DOG, but not of any others, and if there are others, I want to know. So I will ask: are there cradle shots in HRC other than the R orbit that are impossible? v.e. says that the Slot Machine lane (when the ramp is all the way down) may be impossible from a R flipper trap.

(Fwiw, pbw45b has put in my list of unmakeables, taken from v.e.'s posts, to his PC issues list, in the PC forum, if someone wants to see it.)

Regarding JY, I read a post saying the mode start on JY is impossible from left trap, like the HRC and ToM right loop so I actually just assumed this was correct info. it might just be hard for me, I just shoot the toilet for a feed for that shot which I find much easier anyway. HRC has the infamous right orbit of course (I post pass from right flipper to a slightly bouncy ball on left flipper and then shoot) and then you have some metal thing blocking inside the slot machine which you hit from right flipper. It's some kind of bug with that shot. I just backhand it from left cradle mostly. It's good that you're detailed, but I can't say I have any bona fide confirmed bug shots other than what's known.

 

[Extork]

Starship Troopers has plenty of bug shots ...couldn't resist

 

[invitro]

Regarding JY, I read a post saying the mode start on JY is impossible from left trap, like the HRC and ToM right loop so I actually just assumed this was correct info. it might just be hard for me, I just shoot the toilet for a feed for that shot which I find much easier anyway.

I just tried 20 of these shots (JY, L trap to scoop/mode start), and made 6 of them, for 30%. I prefer to shoot this running from inlane, too, or just "live" or whatever word for untrapped works. Or backhand, I may do more backhands than running L.

Now I want to gather data on more shots...

 

[invitro]

Here is the final top 10 for Silver.

pinballwiz45b had a couple of great final-evening scores: 2.8M on Firepower and 9.5M on Flight2k, both #1's.

Hopefully we get to play HH, SpSh, and Victory again next month!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Well at least there will be more than 48 players in Silver next time.

I'll say no more.

 

[Extork]

Hopefully we get to play HH, SpSh, and Victory again next month!

Don't give them any ideas. If that happens I'll eat my shoe

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Here is the final top 10 for Silver.

pinballwiz45b had a couple of great final-evening scores: 2.8M on Firepower and 9.5M on Flight2k, both #1's.

Hopefully we get to play HH, SpSh, and Victory again next month!

I was actually robbed of my #1 spot. He robbed [MENTION=4106]EldarOfSuburbia[/MENTION]'s spot for Gold as well.

He had 190M on Victory and a score ending in 8 in Space Shuttle, both of which are not possible to get. Cheaters never prosper. (Also 3.8M in HH, but not sure how feasible that is.)

 

[invitro]

I was actually robbed of my #1 spot. He robbed @EldarOfSuburbia's spot for Gold as well.

He had 190M on Victory and a score ending in 8 in Space Shuttle, both of which are not possible to get.

Yes, you were, and yes, he was. I sent an email last month to no response... I would try something else if I knew what .

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Yes, you were, and yes, he was. I sent an email last month to no response... I would try something else if I knew what .

Fortunately tournaments like these aren't as bad as before. During the Portal Pinball tournament, a different hacker tried to rob me of my #1 spot as well as my Portal gun replica. Zen didn't allow that to happen.

 

[Shulk]

So I guess this is the final top 10 for Bronze:

Can't wait to see how the competition in Silver will be. If Taxi and Funhouse are part of it, I may have a shot.

 

[shutyertrap]

So I limited my play to one day, no more than 5 plays per table...and bombed at 61st in bronze. Ouch. Good news is I'm not sick of the tourney this go around! I actually thought I had one more day and had planned on knocking out some scores on Whirlwind, Victory, and Flight 2000 but oh well. Considering HH, JY, and Space Shuttle were just going to be boat anchors to any good scores I posted, it probably wouldn't have made a difference.