HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten)
Subject: Re: Posting pix of pins?
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 00:46:27 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

In article <y0wmPB1w165w@ssc60.sbwk.nj.us> tonyd@ssc60.sbwk.nj.us (Tony DeBari) writes:

   What does the charter for this group say about posting uuencoded binary
   files?  A uuencoded JPEG may be smaller than a uuencoded GIF, but either
   one is going to be much larger than the typical article in this group.  I
   don't know about the rest of you, but I'll have serious disk space problems
   if this group becomes loaded with picture files (not to mention what it
   will do to my monthly UUNET bill).

I don't think anyone was considering posting the scans to this group;
I assume that we can find a file server for anonymous FTP, and then
perhaps set up a mail server for those who don't have FTP access.

Of course, the scans could certainly be posted to one of the pictures
newsgroups as well, but there's a lot to be said for maintaining a
library of them in one place and allowing people to pick and choose at
their leisure.  And as you said, many sites no longer get the pictures
newsgroups due to space and connect-time concerns.

Now a brief update:

I spoke today with Roger Sharpe, VP of Marketing at Williams, and he
seemed to think there would be no problem going ahead with the idea.
He's going to check with the legal eagles at Williams though and get
us written permission to proceed.  I believe that some folks are
already getting started on the technical end, awaiting word from
Williams and the other manufacturers before going ahead with it
officially.

I'll post an update as things progress.

--
    Steve Baumgarten       |  "New York... when civilization falls apart,
    PANIX, New York, NY    |   remember, we were way ahead of you."
                           |  
    Email: sbb@panix.com   |                            - David Letterman
From: granatelli@novax.llnl.gov
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: re: Houston
Date: 19 Aug 92 01:43:32 GMT

UH has the best selection that I found in Houston!!!!
From: bergman@panix.com (Mark Bergman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Jensen's "PB Troubleshooting Guide" info and review
Date: 17 Aug 92 17:13:33 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC


Contact:
	Russ Jensen
	1652 Euclid Ave
	Camarillo, CA 93010

Price:
	$19.95 personal check made to Russ Jensen
	He paid postage.

Review:

	I was not very impressed with the 49pg spiral bound book. The
	reverse side of every page (1/2 of the book) contains (b/w)
	reporductions of photos of machines, schematics, etc. In sum,
	there is about 22pg of information, in an anecdotal, somewhat
	rambling style.  The book is concerned exclusively with EM
	machines, and spends too much time on historical trivia for a
	book of this short length. In a 100pg guide, Jensen's
	observations and trivial would be interesting diversions, here
	they detract. A good technical writer would have been an
	invaluable editor.

	Not to sound too negative--there is some good information, but
	not a great deal, and it is somewhat obscured.  The book should
	be helpful, but is a bit pricey. It could have been distributed
	as a 25pg Xerox or 55K file with almost no loss of
	information.

Your Mileage May Vary.

Please let me know what you think if you have seen the book.
--
Mark Bergman
718-855-9148

bergman@panix.com
{cmcl2,psi,uunet,apple}!panix!bergman
From: dan@rat.csc.calpoly.edu (Dan Delany)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: A Hardware Question
Date: 22 Aug 92 22:37:25 GMT
Organization: Shinola Industries: We know the difference.

Looking through _Lure Of The Silver Ball_, I noticed that many old pins had
what looks like a second plunger handle, located just below the main
plunger.  Can anybody shed some light on what this was?

-- 
dan@rat.csc.calpoly.edu                                             Dan Delany
   "Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."
     -- Charlie Brown
From: crywalt@vaxc.stevens-tech.edu (Christopher Rywalt, maladjusted cartoonist)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: TAF - Weird Shots
Date: 17 Aug 92 14:24:46 GMT
Organization: Fairleigh Dickinson University

In article <1992Aug17.002418.14408@peponi.wcc.govt.nz>, coutinho_b@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz writes:
> 
> Has anyone else had funny or weird shots while playign TAF (or any other 
> common Pinball)
> 
	Well, just the other night I had what could be called a weird shot;
	I was on my last ball, playing pretty well (not wizard well, but
	Rywalt well, which is much worse), got multiball, held them pretty
	long, didn't get the jackpot, lost two balls in succession, and locked
	the last ball in the electric chair.  Extra ball is lit, Thing
	Multiball is lit (of course), and the ball pops out of the chair
	and straight drains.

	I would have been very upset, except that on an earlier game I had
	gotten a 49 million Cousin It Bonus, and was flying too high to care
	much.  But I promised that I would post it in r.p.


-- Chris

%SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation, reason mask=00, virtual address=00000000, PC
=0000BFEF, PSL=03C00009
%TRACE-F-TRACEBACK, symbolic stack dump follows
module name     routine name                     line       rel PC    abs PC
                                                                                
SIGNATURE	main				 2226      00000107  0000BFEF
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: joelll@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Joel Herda)
Subject: Re: Hightest Thing Multiball score.
Organization: /etc/organization
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 17:02:21 GMT

In article <1992Aug17.213939.27266@peponi.wcc.govt.nz> coutinho_b@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz writes:
>I want to know what the highest score possible is from "thing" multiball
>when the mansion room is collected from the Electric Chair. I managed
>to get the ball straight to thing from the EC kickout--->left flipper---->
>skill shot hole (off the top right skirting) and score a 14,0XX,XXX 
>multiball. Is this the highest possible in normal play ?

I've hit it for over 14,850,000 by being fast and lucky, and by having 
the "dead flipper bounce" tactic work (letting the ball bounce off
an "unflipped" left flipper over to the right hand raised flipper
after being ejected from the chair [warning: this probably won't work
on most TAF's, and doesn't work all the time for me, this was on
a "last token" game] and zapping it into Thing's ramp).

I have collected the full 15 million points by collecting "Get ball to
Thing" with Bear Kicks, and then shooting the ball into the Thing Ramp
just as the machine was starting the trumpets to award the window.

>Brian Coutinho

Joelll Herda
joelll@cs.umb.edu

"The only thing that separates mortal humans and the Great Pinball is gravity"

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: blowfish@carina.unm.edu (rON.)
Subject: Black Rose, found one in Alb.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 04:16:57 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque


Dunno about this game. Its rules are tough to learn, and I'm not a big
fan of that. The ramp down the middle was annoying, but not overly so.
Not having any clue as to what I was supposed to be shooting at, that
was annoying....

I'm not a big fan of games where you can flap the ball around for 10 
minutes and get 3 million, but then whack a couple of ramp shots and
*poof* you've got an extra 15 million or something.

Oh- Black Rose is at MP's gameroom- Montgomery and San Mateo. (they also
have a Hurricane, Star Trek, and HS II).

Question: I only know 2 places for TAF- the Golden Cue on Menaul and the
San Mateo 8 (dollar theater) on San Mateo. Any others out there?

r.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: flee@cs.psu.edu (Felix Lee)
Subject: Re: Black Rose
	<SBB.92Aug18205653@panix.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 01:22:18 GMT

Steve Baumgarten:
> I'm not sure under what circumstances you're supposed to get the 1M
> point "Secret Attack"; then again, I don't know why I see fencing cows
> every so often...

1M Secret Attack looks like it's supposed to be: shoot up the left
ramp at medium speed so the ball falls down the side ramp instead of
looping around to the side flipper.

A curious shot I once made accidentally: three bank ricochet.  If you
shoot the ball so that it bounces off each of the target banks in
succession, you score X million.  I forget the number.  And I can't
make the shot deliberately.
--
From: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP (David Eison)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Hightest Thing Multiball score.
Date: 21 Aug 92 05:03:40 GMT
Reply-To: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP
Organization: The Matrix

gleeson@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Red Mountain) writes:

> You can get the full 15 mil if you have the bookcase open and shoot it
> straight in, then get the skill shot (of course, you shouldn't have
> a swamp kickout, but then, you did turn the machine off & on before you
> started, didn't you :-).

What does turning the machine off and on b4 you play do???  I'm ALWAYS 
looking for new ways to help my game.. <G>

---
David Eison - Garfield           bbs-garfield@jwt.uucp
I'm not writing a message.  These words are just here to take up space.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: ijr@canard.uwaterloo.ca (Ilana Jayne Rosenshein)
Subject: Playfield Repairs
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 01:31:43 GMT

Hi folx,  

I have a Black Knight whose upper playfield is in bad shape...
The painting part isn't too bad, but I need suggestions on
what to use to fill in the gouges by the kickout.  I managed to
fill a few spots with multiple coats of paint, but these
are about 1/4" deep in spots... I am afraid that whatever I 
fill the gouges with will break loose when the ball hits it.
Does anyone have any suggestions for fixing this sort of damage?

Thanks in advance.

SMiles!

Ilana
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: walshm@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Matt 'MTM' Walsh)
Subject: Multimeter Designed for Pin Repair
Organization: Clarkson University
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 16:19:10 GMT

At Radio Shack, they have a very neat new meter.  Instead of a box with
two leads, this is a small pen-like meter with one probe where the point of 
the pen would be and the other lead on a wire.  If you're like me and
trying to do continuity checks or voltage measurements, you get tired of
having to find a ledge for your meter to sit on where you can see it.  This
simple meter solves this problem.  It's on sale for $24.  

Word of caution:  the one I bought was slightly off callibration - but the
next one I tried was ok.  So pull a 10 ohm resistor off the wall and 
test it before you leave.

Matt

--
Matt Walsh  walshm@craft.camp.clarkson.edu
How can you have your pudding if you don't eat your meat? You! Yes You!
From: jchamber@ecst.csuchico.edu (John William Chamberlain)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Looking for schematic for 1963 Gottlieb Swing-A-Long.
Date: 14 Aug 92 01:15:17 GMT
Organization: California State University, Chico

Hello,
  IF you have the above schematic please let me know, as I am in despirate need
for one.
  Thanks,
  John
From: jrt@gap.EBay.Sun.COM (Joel Tornatore)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: "Travel Time"
Date: 12 Aug 1992 19:31:40 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc.
Distribution: usa
Reply-To: jrt@Eng.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: gap
Keywords: Travel Time, The Good Old days

I have seen two versions of this game. The first is from
sometime around 1974, and the name was TimeZone. It had
a "clock" in the lower center of the playfield that could
only run for 60 seconds. You could stop/start the clock
and add time. Playing while the clock was stopped was
free. If the ball drained and there was no time left
on the clock, game over. I liked this game very much,
but it really took a different style of play. I believe
Williams made this version.

I also remember a later variation on the same theme done
in the early 1980's, but I do not remember by whom. As
I recall, it was not as playable as the original (only
my opinion.)

joel

In article <12AUG199208220825@rigel.tamu.edu>, phoenix@rigel.tamu.edu (Fred Montgomery - Small Computer Operations Supervisor) writes:
|> Hello.
|> 
|> I'm new to this group, so please bear with me. :-)
|> 
|> I was wondering if anyone out there remembers a machine called "Travel Time".
|> I'm afraid I don't know the make of the machine, though I believe the time
|> period would have been pre-1982. It didn't have a set number of balls, it had a
|> clock and as long as you had time on the clock you could shoot another ball. I
|> have fond memories of playing it as a kid, and was wondering if anyone could
|> tell me more about it, so I can decide if it's worth trying to track down one.
|> Memories are usually a lot more kind than the reality. 
|> 
|> Thanks!
|> 
|> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|> |  Fred Montgomery                              F1m9940@summa.tamu.edu       |
From: overturf@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Dallas Overturf)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Sound Problems on my Nitro Groundshaker
Date: 12 Aug 92 15:31:17 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering

In article <1992Aug11.233952.5172@cbfsb.cb.att.com> yyz@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (donald.w.coons) writes:
>Recently my Nitro Groundshaker has developed some strange problems. I starts
>up fine and the displays seem to work fine, but the sound quits in the 
>middle of playing. This is usually proceed by a sound that sounds like a 
>beep. Once the sound dies it usually restarts on the next ball and dies
>again, or it may make the wrong sound. A exaample of this is the spinner
>sound when draining down the outlane. The only other sympton I have noticed
>is that all the lights on the machine dim, like there is a loss of power.
>Other than this the machine seems to run fine. I have run diagnostics on
>the machine and nothing is getting flagged as a problem. I have also looked
>at most of the wire connections which seem to be fine. Anybody out there have
>any more ideas on what I could do, or have any experience on similiar 
>problems. Any help is appreciated, post or email is fine. Thanks in 
>advance.
>
>               Don Coons
>               dwc@wnb3b2.att.com


Yup:  pull out the sound board and check out the main connector.
It tends to develop solder cracks around the solder pins just
exactly like the displays and the Solenoid Driver.
That can easily cause your symptom.

Another thing to check:  If that game uses the 2nd generation
sound board  (has a seperate processor on it) check that
the pins on socketed chips are not real black; if they are
then; remove them and clean them up with a flat blade screw driver
an or some sandpaper.  Take Standard Static Precautions
while doing this.

			Regards,	Dallas...
From: buzz@apple.com (Steve Bollinger)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Promo Stuff in new machines
Date: 17 Aug 92 17:07:44 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.pinball
Organization: Apple Computer Inc.

In article <46465@shamash.cdc.com>, sjc@hare.udev.cdc.com (Steven J Craig)
wrote:
> 
> Hey,  can some of you who have recently puchased some of the
> newer machines let us in on what the promo piece was in the
> box (if any)?
> 
> An example would be the keychain with Gilligans Island.
> Sounds like HSII is a drink coaster?

I would assume this HSII promo was actually one of those funny round
plastic
"stickers" that Williams often makes. Jokerz had one, and TAF, too (Some
"THING"
new in pinball + a picture of a hand with a pinball on top of it).

-Steve
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: Jarrod.Miller@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Jarrod Miller)
Subject: Re: Some Questions and Comments
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 03:40:29 GMT

In article <1_9m7#+.juggler@netcom.com> juggler@netcom.com (Chris Calande) writes:
>
>Hi, as a recently created pinball addict I wanted to greet this most excellent
>newsgroup.
Uh, that's super excellent.  :)

>pop out by the door.  I havn't given up on vids, but pinball is so refreshing.
Well, for the most part, I have.  I'd say 99%.  I won't play a video
game unless all the pins are taken and I'm not quite sure anything will
open up soon.  Just today I played Fire! instead of a video game while
Rob Chesnavich finished his SF2.  And the video games I do play are all
sports related.

>but only got one sticking replay.  Well actually I got 2 because I got to be a
>family member :).
Congratulations! 


>hand on the start button.  I reach down like lightning to grab his hand away,
>to no avail he hits it and wastes my game.  Again, I get the evil grin.  I
>just walked away feeling violated.
Well, if this was me, I'd let my old temper take over.  I'd grab the kid
by the throat and give him a good squeeze and kindly say, "Please don't
do that again."  Either that or a nerve pinch.  Take that kid.  Don't
get me wrong, I love little kids, but kids and pinball just usually
don't mix.

>Happy flippin'
Thank you, and welcome to the wonderful world of pinball.

Rob C's fodder no more,
Jarrod



--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
From: sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Pinball Flyers...
Date: 16 Aug 92 04:57:49 GMT
	<1992Aug14.202550.14788@engage.pko.dec.com>
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

In article <1992Aug14.202550.14788@engage.pko.dec.com> adoerfer@lndrfr.enet.dec.com () writes:

   Actually, if you look at flyers, you will see copyrights (as well
   as trademarks) on them.  Also, if it's a "theme" pinball, you'll
   probably see copyrights to the original owner(s) of the theme, too.

The flyers themselves are promotional material, intended to be
distributed to the public as advertising.  I doubt that anyone at any
of the manufacturers would care if we scanned these in -- after all,
Williams made thousands of them freely available to anyone and
everyone at the last Pinball Expo.

Sounds and schematics are a different story, though again, there's the
question of who's actually being hurt by being able to listen to
pinball sounds digitized somewhere by someone who owns the game.  But
let's put that issue aside for a moment.

Has someone gotten in touch with any of the manufacturers about this?
Because if not, I'll try to give Williams a call this week and see if
someone will officially OK it.

Considering that the people on the Internet are the manufacturers'
precise target market (young, male, predominantly college students)
and that people all over the world read this newsgroup, I can't
imagine why they *wouldn't* want their flyers made available to the
widest possible audience.

It seems to me that the same folks who try so hard to get any good
mention of pinball into newspapers and magazines should be eager to
see us help do their work for them -- for free.

--
    Steve Baumgarten       |  "New York... when civilization falls apart,
    PANIX, New York, NY    |   remember, we were way ahead of you."
                           |  
    Email: sbb@panix.com   |                            - David Letterman
From: remy@sun475a.ccs.northeastern.edu (Remy Evard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: inflated scores hit the mainstream
Date: 19 Aug 92 04:26:20 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: /u4/systems/remy/.organization

You know how we're always (periodically) complaining about how all
those games out there have amazingly inflated scores, and we wonder
why designers even bother putting the right-most 6 digits on the 
score display?  (Well, all of us except Lyman, who gave up... :-)

I always wondered if we were missing the point.  Who knows - maybe 
we're just a bunch of computer/pinball geeks who got lost in enjoying 
the game and missed out on the goal, which is *putting more digits in 
your score*. 

Well, turns out I was right - getting bizarrely huge scores *is*
the goal, after all.  I offer as proof the contents of an advertisement
I saw in "Video Games and Computer Entertainment" (which I, ahem,
read while waiting for my wife at the grocery store).  The ad was for
Dragon's Fury, a video pinball game made by Tengen.  Of the three 
hilighted points about this game (and therefore most important
things about it), the second was:  
  Score *hundreds* *of* *millions* of points!

And this was for a video game system, where, as everyone knows,
points are scarce.  (choke)  Clearly, this marks a trend in 
mainstream gaming.  We should quit complaining and get with it.
Good thing our pinball designers are aware of the trend, or we'd 
be missing out on a lot of action...

(Insert random smileys in the above paragraphs - anyplace will do.)

  -r'm, professional cynic, currently working on the r.g.p ftp site
.... .  .   .    .     .      .                                   dravE ym`eR
Re'my Evard                          .                      vog.lna.scm@drave
remy@corwin.ccs.northeastern.edu       .                          eineeW xinU
Systems Wrangler                              .      .     .    .   .  . ....
15 CN  College of CS  Northeastern University  Boston MA 02115   617 437 3787
From: sjsobol@tiny.com (Steven J. Sobol)
Reply-To: sjsobol@tiny.com (Steven J. Sobol)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Distribution: world
Subject: Re: Jerry's sound system
Organization: The Tiny Software Company, Main Office, Cleveland, Ohio
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 92 01:26:17 

jerryc@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM (Jerry C Carathers) writes:


>P.S. I had this terrible dream about waking up and finding LFS in the Grand
>     Champion spot on all my games. What could this mean...

It means Lyman Sheats has broken into your house.   :-)

*--TechnoGeek--*

-- 
***  **  ** | The Tiny Software Co.  23707 Glenhill  Cleveland OH 44122
 *  *   *   | Steve Sobol * President * sjsobol@tiny.com or tiny!sjsobol 
 *   *  *   | Alternate addresses: sjsobol@wariat.org or ag510@po.cwru.edu
 *    * *   | Disclaimer: I *AM* the Tiny Software Company. 
 *  **   ** | **Welcome to Ohio, the Land of the Orange Construction Barrel**
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: jthorp@cix.compulink.co.uk (John Thorp)
Subject: Re: SPECTRUM--I'm in love with it!
Cc: jthorp@cix.compulink.co.uk
Reply-To: jthorp@cix.compulink.co.uk
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 14:46:32 +0000



Used to play the machine a bit way back. It was based on the same
idea as the board game MASTERMIND, you had to guess what sequence of
lights the machine had thought off. After a while the game became
very boring and not one I would want to go back to. One good point
about it was the fact that it had no outlanes due to the ball being
fed in from the center.

JAT
From: bethell@fang.cray.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Pinball dealers in SE England?
Date: 14 Aug 92 15:48:55 GMT
Reply-To: bethell@fang.cray.com ()
Organization: Cray Research (UK) Ltd

Having packed in the dreaded weed my "CASH NOT ASH" fund is now at nearly 200 notes.  Can anyone tell me where can I convert this into a pinball somewhere in south-east England?  Also, what can I expect to get for that amount?
Thanks,
AndyB
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: SPECTRUM--I'm in love with it!
From: matthew@oread.cc.ukans.edu
Date: 13 Aug 92 23:27:54 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Serces

Hi guys--
	Over the summer, I found a copy of _Lure of the Silver Ball_
and fell in love with a machine made by Bally (I think) in 1982 called
SPECTRUM.  Does anybody know about this machine?  I thought I was
looking at something just coming off the production line of Bally or
Williams this year!  The backglass just looked so...well, '90s.
Anyway, if anyone can tell me about it, I'd really appreciate it!  
					--Matt
-- 
Matt Chatterly             | "How'd you get hand lotion all the way up there?"
(A blatant pseudonym...)   | "I told you I spilled it...."
Matthew@oread.cc.ukans.edu |		--from _Young Lady Chatterly_
				      					
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball