From: koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us (Louis Koziarz)
Subject: New Data East: ROCKY & BULLWINKLE
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 04:21:33 GMT

hiya, it's me again.  Visited the aracde near me today, found a new beta
test machine from DE: The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show!  It's 'show' because
all the other character from the show are included; Aesop's Fables,
Fractured Fairy Tales, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and Dudley Do-Right & Co.
Might as well buy the whole Jay Ward licensing package in one shot, right?

This machine looks GREAT.  There's a real backglass here (is this a trend?)
with the whole cast.  There's an open spot in the middle for a cute little
backglass animation of Bullwinkle pulling Rocky out of his hat, Rocky has
rabbit ears on.  You have to recall the 'watch me pulla rabbit out of my hat'
sequence from the cartoon, getting the 'Hat Trick' shot activates this show.

The playfield looks just about done, I could spot a few places where some
inserts were put in and lights scraped clean at the last minute, some of
the lights above the ramps looked soldered in by hand.  There is a little
mini sawmill located above the plunger ramp that moves a little Penelope
toward a spinning sawblade.  You have a timed shot to save the girl. Neat idea!
There's a 'waback' machine ramp that somehow ties into the jackpot, most
of the other stuff I couldn't figure out.  There is a 'skill shot' where
each of the three lanes on top above the pop bumpers awards something, but
you can choose which lane is special by using the flipper buttons.  So what's
the skill, being able to flip fast enough to light the correct inlane?  This
was kind of confusing.

The sound has been improved (same BSMT2K Hi Brian! but it sounded like a better
woofer ala Williams was put in the bottom of the cabinet.  Is this new?)
There are tons of very clear samples from the show, especially R & B.

Software is _excellent_, I couldn't spot any flaws or hiccups, though it's
not entirely done (one shot kept triggering a blank display with the words
'Effect 7D'.  Is this how s/w is prototyped and eventually fleshed out?)
The ROM dates on startup were 12/15 for display and 12/23 for software.

There are lots of great animations, very much in the Jay Ward style, and
even has an amusing match sequence at the end before the animated 'The End'
sequence ala Fractured Fairy Tales.

The only problem I had with the machine is RAMPS.  There are two steep
ramps located on the left middle and right rear of the playfield, these
shots need a great deal of speed to climb.  That doesn't bother me.  Failing
to clear the ramps, though, put the ball right into the direct center of the
flippers.  All the slap saves in the world didn't help.  Nudging the machine
while the ball was still descending the ramp helped a little.  This specific
machine was jacked up a bit high, so maybe a fairer angle works better.
Talk about short play time... :(  I hope this is fixed.

Anyway, keep an eye out for this machine.  I wonder how many will actually 
get built, considering DE looks really jacked up for Jurassic Park.  There's
a teaser animation during attract mode, and in the far far upper right
corner in the middle of the 'rhino ramp' there a little storybook with the
words "Once upon a time in a dinosaur park there was a dinosaur named Stephen".
I wonder if there have been problems between DE and Amblin in making JP.

This machine is a great improvement, it was sitting next to Hook and I had
to laugh.  I can't say much about Star Wars because I played it only once at
Expo.  It's good to see DE improving their design work.  Now if they could
only put rubbers on the posts between the inlanes and outlanes...

Oh yeah the machine I played was a Just for Fun at Rt 12 and Palatine in
Arlington Heights (IL).  Midway is also beta testing 'NBA Jam' here as well.
Kinda neat looking.  Give it a try.  Gotta run!

-- 
Louis Koziarz
koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us

Caught a SIGSEGV - .newsrc trashed