*
* No, I'm not talking about the app.
* (Cue the sitar music...)
* I'm talking about playing half of a table, controlling a flipper, with another person playing the other side. This style, this method, really illustrates just how well we not only play the game, but how we interact with others.
* We think ourselves to be skilled at all aspects of a table, but that's not necessarily true. Not only are people left and right handed, we have a dominate eye. There are several different tests on the Web, if you would like to find your dominate eye. Pinball is physics, motion, energy, force, angles. And your eye helps establish where the ball is at a particular moment in time, by triangulation. Your eye helps you gauge when to hit the ball toward a drop target or thru a spinner.
* But playing half a table puts an entirely different perspective on the game. You'll see a ramp in a different light. The resulting angle from hitting a drop target becomes more clear. * And you must rely on your partner's response to your shot as well as reacting to any shot he takes. A normal save made by one person playing is multiplied almost exponentially when two fingers not connected to the same brain push a button causing each flipper to react at just the right moment, preventing that silver ball from draining, instead returning it to the playing field to add to point totals and bonus multipliers.
* My friends and I played this way back in the late 1970's on Bally's "Eight Ball". The communication, the language and words we used between each side was so much fun. And it was constant. It had to be, in order to beat the game. We each developed an individual shot that determined which side was played by which person. I learned how to backhand with the left flipper that helps me to this day. Vince learned to pass with the right. Greg had a killer shot on the spinner. Mike had the bonus-multiplying shot in the upper-right corner we called "the candy cane" down pat. Now, we only played that way when we got too low on games for everyone to play. *But amazingly, we would always win several games playing this way, enough to where we each had our own game to play for a while. We were like Chik-Fil-A, we didn't invent Zen pinball, we just perfected it (or so we thought at the time, we were just teenagers).*
**
* I've never seen anyone else play this way, but I'm sure many of my fellow pinball enthusiasts have played this way. So, did you? Do you remember who you played with best? How about your favorite machine?
* * * * * * * * * * * * Updated High Score List
Bride of Pin*Bot 2,122,409,230
Star Trek: TNG 2,126,429,310*
White Water 437,564,340
WhirlWind 12,282,650
Cactus Canyon * 51,760,440
Flight 2000 3,216,710
Black Rose 110,233,970
Firepower 1,343,490 (another rollover, however the true high score is reflected)
Harley Davidson (3rd Edition) 294,219,200
Elvira and The Party Monsters 20,799,710
Theatre Of Magic 2,199,786,190
Taxi 7,811,950
Terminator 2: Judgement Day 211,831,170
Attack From Mars 34,081,616,210 (and I "Rule The Universe", too)
Genie 631,530
Gottlieb and Stern Challenge II (completed 3/29/2014) Total points: 144.5
Bally's Challenge II (completed 4/1/2014) Total points: 164.2
Williams Challenge II (completed 4/4/2014) Total points: 131.6
Current rank-still a "Tommy" wannabe
*Total points: 961.9
* * * * * * * * * * * * *Hall of Fame points: 8718
* No, I'm not talking about the app.
* (Cue the sitar music...)
* I'm talking about playing half of a table, controlling a flipper, with another person playing the other side. This style, this method, really illustrates just how well we not only play the game, but how we interact with others.
* We think ourselves to be skilled at all aspects of a table, but that's not necessarily true. Not only are people left and right handed, we have a dominate eye. There are several different tests on the Web, if you would like to find your dominate eye. Pinball is physics, motion, energy, force, angles. And your eye helps establish where the ball is at a particular moment in time, by triangulation. Your eye helps you gauge when to hit the ball toward a drop target or thru a spinner.
* But playing half a table puts an entirely different perspective on the game. You'll see a ramp in a different light. The resulting angle from hitting a drop target becomes more clear. * And you must rely on your partner's response to your shot as well as reacting to any shot he takes. A normal save made by one person playing is multiplied almost exponentially when two fingers not connected to the same brain push a button causing each flipper to react at just the right moment, preventing that silver ball from draining, instead returning it to the playing field to add to point totals and bonus multipliers.
* My friends and I played this way back in the late 1970's on Bally's "Eight Ball". The communication, the language and words we used between each side was so much fun. And it was constant. It had to be, in order to beat the game. We each developed an individual shot that determined which side was played by which person. I learned how to backhand with the left flipper that helps me to this day. Vince learned to pass with the right. Greg had a killer shot on the spinner. Mike had the bonus-multiplying shot in the upper-right corner we called "the candy cane" down pat. Now, we only played that way when we got too low on games for everyone to play. *But amazingly, we would always win several games playing this way, enough to where we each had our own game to play for a while. We were like Chik-Fil-A, we didn't invent Zen pinball, we just perfected it (or so we thought at the time, we were just teenagers).*
**
* I've never seen anyone else play this way, but I'm sure many of my fellow pinball enthusiasts have played this way. So, did you? Do you remember who you played with best? How about your favorite machine?
* * * * * * * * * * * * Updated High Score List
Bride of Pin*Bot 2,122,409,230
Star Trek: TNG 2,126,429,310*
White Water 437,564,340
WhirlWind 12,282,650
Cactus Canyon * 51,760,440
Flight 2000 3,216,710
Black Rose 110,233,970
Firepower 1,343,490 (another rollover, however the true high score is reflected)
Harley Davidson (3rd Edition) 294,219,200
Elvira and The Party Monsters 20,799,710
Theatre Of Magic 2,199,786,190
Taxi 7,811,950
Terminator 2: Judgement Day 211,831,170
Attack From Mars 34,081,616,210 (and I "Rule The Universe", too)
Genie 631,530
Gottlieb and Stern Challenge II (completed 3/29/2014) Total points: 144.5
Bally's Challenge II (completed 4/1/2014) Total points: 164.2
Williams Challenge II (completed 4/4/2014) Total points: 131.6
Current rank-still a "Tommy" wannabe
*Total points: 961.9
* * * * * * * * * * * * *Hall of Fame points: 8718
