Table of the Week Club...week 3: ATTACK FROM MARS

[Slam23]

Aiming for the letters, especially M and N is quite dangerous I think. Those two don't get lit easily by random ricochets and if that happens, the ball is dangerously close to the outlanes. I also think that the letters don't get lit while in other MB (regulare MB, TA or even Strobe), otherwise you could stop shooting Martian letters on purpose and just wait for them to get accidentally lit while in other modes.

Another thing is that AFM makes my wrists hurt more than other games and I think that comes almost solely from trying to keep those frenetic MB's alive. I also tend to push harder when things get busier around my flippers, or when I want to "will" that ball up one of those ramps. It's a lot worse with this table than with Firepower or Genie in any case.

 

[masterthes]

Well, at least I enjoy playing AFM. I'm still stuck on those three wizard goals that everybody else is having trouble with. High score atm is a paltry 17.8B

 

[Xanija]

And I've now Ruled the Universe!

Cool, congratulations!

Final score, 76.6 billion which puts me on top for the week and month of those on my friends list on Steam. Now I just need wizards for Video and that damn billion bonus.

I managed to get the billion bonus on Sunday, but I can't win the video mode.

76.6 billion is a nice score. Lets see if I can beat that. Just had a game of 59 billion.

 

[Kratos3]

Need tips for the video mode. It's my last goal, and I just can't get a rhythm going on it.

 

[Slam23]

Strafe from side to side and try to not go beyond the point where you shoot at the upper left and right corners. Don't try to hit individual saucers and use the bomb when one threatens to land. Wait until it almost lands because then you use the full effect of the bomb on the rest of the saucers in view. I make it through this initial phase about 1 in 2 times, so a bit of luck is also involved. I actually played the original game on the apple II on which this video mode was based, so I had some early practice The mothership phase is less difficult in my opinion. It moves randomly as far as I can tell and I try to lead my shots a bit and get a continous volley going, adjusting when the ship moves out of the line of fire but not making a lot of wild movements. It gets a bit easier when it nears the bottom because of a better angle. Can't remember ever not making it to the end when I reach the mothership phase. Good luck!

 

[Xanija]

use the bomb when one threatens to land.

Bomb? Wait... what? Where? How?

Argh... Manual reading is for the weak...

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Bomb? Wait... what? Where? How?

Argh... Manual reading is for the weak...

During video mode, you have one opportunity to press the launch button and wipe the screen clear of ships.

 

[Xanija]

Yeah, I found out after reading the manual. There was also mentioned a cow mode. Has anyone been able to enable this yet? Would it count for the wizard goal as well, when winning the video mode?

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Yeah, I found out after reading the manual. There was also mentioned a cow mode. Has anyone been able to enable this yet? Would it count for the wizard goal as well, when winning the video mode?

Press the launch button during a Big-O-Beam and Tractor Beam animation involving a cow. This should enable the secret Cow Attack video mode.

 

[Fungi]

I could never watch that animation since the ball is still active at that point.

 

[Reagan Dow]

Oh man. So my high is only 16.5 billion, and I've got 3 wizards to get...

-Billion point bonus
-Video mode
-Rule the Universe

I don't think I ever even did Rule the Universe when I was playing on the PS3.

Just out of curiosity. Do you play on your iPad now? That's still an impressive score btw.

 

[Reagan Dow]

If you want them to sync, you have to manually do a remote backup on the device that's "in front" and do a remote restore on the device that's catching up, this offcourse providing that you use the same account. This is how I use my pair of iPads and keep them in sync. I wouldn't do that by the way if there weren't troubles with version 4.4 of TPA on my newest device, iPad Air 2, I don't like taking chances that this cross-device backup/restore thing backfires and deletes of otherwise messes up all my goals, scores and HOF points....

Not that I'm aware of. My iPhone has a lot fewer HOF points and completions then my iPad or PowerBook.

 

[Reagan Dow]

Hi everyone,
I am relatively new to TPA and the forums here, really enjoy the game so far. I play on iOS sometimes, but mostly PS3 (the nudging is so much easier on console) so I am awaiting the challenges on console. In the meantime, I have been enjoying this thread. I was initially not big into the older tables, but the last two weeks gave me a new appreciation for them...thank you.
As for this weeks table...I am currently at about 48 billion, and have the billion point hurry up left to complete wizard goals. I have been 1 or 2 shots from getting this a few times, so hopefully soon.

Welcome Wylde One!!

 

[Xanija]

Final score, 76.6 billion which puts me on top for the week and month of those on my friends list on Steam.

Time to check this again - just got 83 billion

Now I just need wizards for Video and that damn billion bonus.

Still haven't got that Video game wizard goal either.

 

[Slam23]

Not that I'm aware of. My iPhone has a lot fewer HOF points and completions then my iPad or PowerBook.

I get what you are saying, my iPhone is behind too, and this is not a problem because I rarely play on it. The issue I'm referring to is that I now play both on my iPad 2 and Air 2 and when changing devices want them to be both in sync.

 

[Reagan Dow]

I get what you are saying, my iPhone is behind too, and this is not a problem because I rarely play on it. The issue I'm referring to is that I now play both on my iPad 2 and Air 2 and when changing devices want them to be both in sync.

Sorry dude. I don't think it's possible since I'm synced w my iPhone and iPad. One would have to assume any iOS devise would sync w another. Ask that question on the FS FB page and see if anyone can help. If you find a way please let me know. R

 

[Locksley]

Well; I've played it 1 time this week (to much work and not enough panache to play pinball eh...)
Got all wizard goals left, some billions... hundred of them EDIT: maybe not hundreds... too many numbers, ha! (wouldn't it be nice to see a pinball with 1p bumper scoring and highscores of a couple of hundreds )

I was ordering some blurays when I say a Wheel control that was build with accelerators instead of being mounted. Price on Amazon 65$ from 130 (I bought it for 13$.... must have been a pricing mistake).
Gonna try that as a controller where nudging is affected by me moving the controller, we'll see how it works out.

Keep it up!

 

[Slam23]

Sorry dude. I don't think it's possible since I'm synced w my iPhone and iPad. One would have to assume any iOS devise would sync w another. Ask that question on the FS FB page and see if anyone can help. If you find a way please let me know. R

We keep having trouble understanding each other Maybe my English is not up to par, it's not my native language in any case. Anyway, I don't have a problem other than that my iPad Air 2 has broken tables since the latest updates (there are some bug threads already around). So I switched back to my older iPad 2 and keep them both in sync for when the issues on my Air 2 are solved. TPA doesn't sync automatically between devices, it has to be done by remote restore. I'm actually glad that TPA doesn't synch automatically because this could potentially wipe out all your scores, goals and HOF points if you have issues on any device that then transfer over to the others.

 

[Slam23]

Well; I've played it 1 time this week (to much work and not enough panache to play pinball eh...)
Got all wizard goals left, some billions... hundred of them EDIT: maybe not hundreds... too many numbers, ha! (wouldn't it be nice to see a pinball with 1p bumper scoring and highscores of a couple of hundreds )

I was ordering some blurays when I say a Wheel control that was build with accelerators instead of being mounted. Price on Amazon 65$ from 130 (I bought it for 13$.... must have been a pricing mistake).
Gonna try that as a controller where nudging is affected by me moving the controller, we'll see how it works out.

Keep it up!

There is a fairly modern pinball that kind of uses single points for scoring and that is NBA Fastbreak. Although it also has the option to activate the usual scoring that goes up in the millions, the fun with the single point scoring is offcourse the idea that you score baskets. A good game would be if you score 100-150 points, my best up until now (I own one) is around 275. Another nice feature is that you have a highscore list that keeps seperate scores for all 29 teams that you can choose to play (only difference being audio commentary callouts for player actions on those teams and different player portraits on the DMD). No chance of seeing this one in TPA, because of serious license troubles. And I think it's not popular enough to warrant inclusion, especially with that kind of license costs. Would like to see it offcourse.
Love the pinball-adapted Boromir speech btw in your signature!

 

[shutyertrap]

No chance of seeing this one in TPA, because of serious license troubles. And I think it's not popular enough to warrant inclusion, especially with that kind of license costs. Would like to see it offcourse.
Love the pinball-adapted Boromir speech btw in your signature!

I talked about this in our last BlahCade Podcast. I don't think the license would actually be as crazy as I initially thought. There are no licensed items on the play field itself other than the NBA logo and trophy. The back glass could be easily altered to make the players wear generic jerseys (and then good luck identifying who's who). The NBA owns all the team names, so that's who you'd get the license from. The announcer is just a voice actor, no one of fame. Yes, he calls out player names, but I don't think that means you need to enter into agreement with each of them. As for the DMD images that pop up, not exactly photo reproductions! All this is to say, I think the only license to get is that of the NBA, not even the Player's Association.

As for the popularity of the machine, I don't think very many people have experience on it. I didn't see it in many arcades back in the day, as tables were definitely on their way out by the time of its arrival. I love it to death though.

I just played Wizard of Oz over the weekend, and that has really low scoring, as in a good game is still sub 100k.