HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Longevity of games
Date: 5 Jan 93 01:48:21 GMT
	<SBB.93Jan3183652@sun.panix.com> <josh.726170329@pogo>
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

Josh makes some good points, and his observations are similar to mine.
I think as Williams' games have become more complex, they've become
more prone breakdowns of various severities; but that's going to be
true for nearly any manufacturer.

(However, Premier/Gottlieb should get some credit for making optical
switches standard equipment on their ramps and in other useful
locations on the playfield; their pop bumpers also seem less likely to
stop popping than either Williams' or Data East's, though that's only
my impression -- I haven't any hard evidence to back it up.)

On a related front: I like flashing lights a lot, but the more a light
flashes, the sooner it's going to burn out.  The pop bumpers in LW3
look great when their lights flash in sequence, but those same lights
sure seem to burn out fast.  Lights inside of pop bumpers seem to burn
out faster than other lights anyways because of the vibration; but to
add insult to injury, Data East's pop bumpers pop up and down as a
unit, which really shakes the bulbs around.

The STAR WARS games that Data East had at the Expo both suffered at
least one or two pop bumper bulb burnouts each by the end of the show
(I think one bulb blew the first or second day).  Didn't notice any of
the techs running to change bulbs, either -- though they were probably
all software guys, not hardware...  :-)

So on the one hand you have the manufacturers chiding the operators
for letting their games get all run-down looking, with dozens of bulbs
burned out.  But on the other you have the designers who seem to be
working on more and more ways to burn those bulbs out sooner than
ever.  And boy are they a bitch to change!  Instead of having a
convenient hinge on them, so you could just flip up the pop bumper cap
and change the bulb, you have to go to all kinds of trouble to get the
old bulb out and the new bulb in.

Sometimes I think the designers are the operators' worst enemies...

--
    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: f90pegu@fy.chalmers.se (Peter Gustafsson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Dr Who
Date: 4 Jan 93 14:24:45 GMT
Organization: Chalmers Univ. of Technology, G|teborg, Sweden

Hi.

Is there a set of 'rules' of how to play Dr Who? I mean how to get a big score? I've played it quite a lot
and made some 800M. What I did was to go directly for multiball, increase the playfield multiplier, and
activate the multiball. Doing a lot of loops on the upper ramp is nice too. When do you get the 'dalek
wave' or something like that? It happens once in a while but I can't figure out when beforehand.

It's a fun game, a little unbalanced though, as several others already have pointed out.
The best part is during multiball when that crazy voice starts,
'The doctor is back! Exterminate the doctor!'

If anyone knows, please reply or mail me.

/Peter.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: schieb@shark.gsfc.nasa.gov (Brian D. Schieber)
Subject: UNIX/X pinball?
Organization: Lab for Hydrospheric Processes
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 21:07:20 GMT


Silly question perhaps but is there a X pinball game? 

Just thought I'd check. The FAQ doesn't seem to talk about it.
XARCHIE doesn't have a good listing either....
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: iott@rtsg.mot.com (Joel K. Iott)
Subject: Did Capt. B. Zarre have a moving mouth?
Organization: Motorola, Inc.
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 17:07:37 GMT

In article <SBB.92Dec30184603@panix.com> sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten) writes:

>.. consider that the amazing Capt. B.
>Zarre followed the action by turning his head in PARTY ZONE.  That was
>kind of neat, though the Captain was no Rudy.  I wonder if they'll
>*ever* top Rudy...
>
>    Steve Baumgarten

Party Zone was the feature game at Expo '91, and I seem to remember that his
mouth also moved, not just his head.  I thought that it appeared that he
"talked", like Rudy.

I've played two different PZ machines recently, and they had a turning head,
but a fixed mouth.

Do I have a faulty memory, or did they change the Capt's mouth from the Expo to
production?   Anybody remember?

--
Joel Iott
From: jrt@gap.Eng.Sun.COM (Joel Tornatore)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: FISH TALES & DR. WHO for sale
Date: 12 Jan 1993 23:44:40 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: jrt@gap.Eng.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: gap.eng.sun.com



The local arcade has a price list of all the games it is selling.
It seems they do this every month or so. They always list all
their games, including the latest ones. The price for Fish Tales and
Dr. Who is $3195 each. I don't know what they cost new, but
I thougth it was about $3000. I played Fish Tales and Dr. Who
today, and both seem to be in excellent shape. (Well, they better
be in excellent shape!) Price does not include delivery or sales
tax, but does include a 30 day warrenty. I am not affiliated with
this arcade in any way....

Other machines they have for sale are:
	Cue Ball Wizard
	Bad Cats ($995 I think)
	The Adam's Family

The list has about 20 games on it, although they only have
Fish Tales, Dr. Who, Cue Ball Wizard and Bad Cats at this particular
arcade.

The name of the place is Keystone, located in Moutain View. I don't
have the phone number handy, but can get it if you'd like.

joel

By the way, they also sell all of their vide games as well. They have
the latest of those, too.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: ceej@shell.portal.com (Chris Johnson)
Subject: Fishtales flipper strength
Organization: Portal Communications Company -- 408/973-9111 (voice) 408/973-8091 (data)
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 19:20:52 GMT

Our local Fishtales machine has developed weak flippers.  When trying to 
finish up the Jackpot sequence by landing the ball in the top hole, it is
nearly impossible to get the ball to go fast enough to get all the way up
there.  I thought the "new" solid state flippers weren't supposed to get
weak like this...

Limited fun when you can't get Jackpots OR Super Jackpots!  Some of the 
problem could be the lack of maintenence (the flipper rubbers are nearly
worn straight through at the end of the flippers).

You can get around it to some extent by shoving it when you make the shot.
Also I must admit that "turnaround" shots on the center ramps are more 
frequent too...

--
c. e. johnson / ceej@shell.portal.com  <-- this works, ignore above
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: A funny thing happened on the way to the fault
Date: 8 Jan 93 22:01:03 GMT
Organization: VA Tech CS Dept., Blacksburg, VA, USA

I broke Earthshaker!

I'm not kidding, I found a *very serious* bug in this game, though it WAS quite
amusing and fun to mess around with...  Here's what happened (to the best of my
knowledge - this was before break, and I didn't post it then because I knew I
wouldn't be able to see the reaction):

I got multiball on my third ball and lit and got the jackpot...  (Oh yeah, I
was playing 2-player with a friend, and I was player 2.)  I already had 2 extra
balls at that point.  Anyway, time passed and I lit another building and I
locked a ball in the shelter.  As I was working on the next one, I lit quick
multiball somehow (can't remember if it was the captive ball or the match-up
from the shelter, probably from the shelter).  So I shot the 5, got quick-
multiball, and got the million right away.  After that, the lock was lit for
3-ball multiball (*BOTH* of them), and one of the balls went into the shelter.

Well, at that point, strange things started happening:  The lights came back
on the 2 ramps, indicating I had already shot and lit and gotten the jackpot,
I still only had one ball out, each fault shot scored a quake trip (which
usually happens after getting the jackpot), and I could *NEVER* lose the ball!
Yes folks, EVERY TIME THE BALL DRAINED, I GOT IT BACK.  Very, very weird.  I
soon got tired (and my friend got tired!) of shooting ramps and fault trips 
and what not, so I tilted the ball and that stopped the frenzy.  :)

But there was still the matter of the 2 extra balls...  So I just launched it
and let it go (the arcade was going to close soon), and when it started 
counting for the bonus, Big Surprise #3 came up:  After 6x bonus, it KEPT
GOING.  After 9x, it starting showing really weird symbols in the display and
probably went through every sound effect the game had on it.  So we waited and
watched some more and wondered if it would EVER stop, but it finally did.
After carefully watching the score, it seems that every mile was multiplied by
253,000.  So my bonus was ~ 25,047,000, plus fault trips which was correct at
around 40 or 50 or so.  And the same thing happened on my next extra ball, so 
my final score was around 93M.  Not bad for an Earthshaker! :)

Anyone else ever experienced anything like this?  This even tops DE software,
though I admit the circumstances were quite rare and extreme...  Can anyone
top a software crash like that??  :)

later,
keith
-- 
| Keith Johnson ("Keefer") |> SUPPORT <|My power is beyond your understanding!|
|VA Tech. Dept. of Computer|>SHAREWARE<|        - Skeletor                    |
|  Science  Undergraduate  | Help keep |Understand MY power!                  |
|kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu|prices down|        - Jake Johansen               |
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: iott@rtsg.mot.com (Joel K. Iott)
Subject: Re: FishTales Super Jackpot
Organization: Motorola, Inc.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:29:21 GMT

In article <C0K116.1tv@csugrad.cs.vt.edu> kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer) writes:
>
>Believe it or not, I actually found a Fish Tales..

>
>And MAN are those some dinky flippers!  Wow!  No gaping chasm kickback, 
>thankfully.  The game, not surprisingly, quite resembles T2 IMHO.
>

Nitpick...

MARK Ritchie designed Fish Tales.  So you could compare the design of Fish
Tales to Road Kings, Taxi, and Diner, other games he designed.

STEVE Ritchie designed T2 (and HSII:The Getaway, Black Knight, Firepower, etc). 
Steve does tend to favor the left-side "gaping chasm" kickback on his games. 

Now it could be that Steve Ritchie has influenced Mark Ritchie...

--
Joel Iott
From: broberts@uafhp.uark.edu (ghunwi')
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: price on chicago coin "Kicker"
Date: 11 Jan 1993 17:23:56 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Howdy folks,
        Found an old machine at a flea market. Kicker by Chicago coin. Add a 
        ball type single player game. It seems to be in very good condition.
        I fired it up and played a few games on it (dime a play). When I first 
        plugged it in, the backglass animation was running and when I dropped in
        a dime, it kept going along with the score increasing on its own.
        after a few min. this stopped and the play was normal, but I never saw
        any more of the backglass animation. There are only a few very small 
        bubbles in the artwork on the backglass and the playfield is in 
        excellent condition with very little wear and no bare spots at all.
        Great rubbers, no broken plastic, only a couple of bulbs burned out.
        The flippers are a little weak tho.

        Can anyone out there give me what would be a decent price to offer for
        this machine. I am not saying for now what price is currently on it,
        but it has been there a while & I might want to buy it for a first 
        machine based on comments received from the group. Thanks in advance
--
|========================================================|
|     Bruce F Roberts           |                        |
|        ( ghunwI' )            |      > vIta'pu'be'     |
|     broberts@uafhp.uark.edu   |                        |
|========================================================|
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: will@wa4phy.async.com (Will Wilson)
Subject: Need Rubbers!
Summary: Need pinball flipper rubbers
Keywords: Pinball, Flipper Rubbers
Organization: none
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 00:24:27 GMT

I have a Williams FLASH machine (circa 1978).  I have tried to find
flipper rubbers for this machine locally, but to no avail.  The local
places only have the ones which are roughly 3/8 inch wide, I need the
wider ones (around 1/2 inch or so).  Anyone out there know where I could
get a few of these to put this machine back in working order.  

-- 
Will Wilson         Amateur Radio KC4GSS  *  uucp: gatech!dogwood!wa4phy.will
3823 Wright Reese Rd Warrenton, Ga 30828  *  internet:  will@wa4phy.async.com
"The stars might lie, but the numbers     ***********************************   
                             never do...I FEEL LUCKY!"  Mary-Chapin Carpenter
From: hassinen@front.se
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Manual requests for Black Knight (Williams 1980)
Date: 4 Jan 93 17:06:13 MET
Distribution: world
Organization: Front Capital Systems AB, Sweden


        Hello,
          I have a pinball machine, Black Knight (Williams 1980), and I
        have experienced some problems with it. But, I have no Owners
        Manual, or that like. If somebody out there have a copy of this
        manual. I would be very happy if you could fax or mail me a copy.
        What I miss right now is however the definitions of the game settings,
        so I'd like to have them the most.

          Please reply by e-mail if you would prefer to reply electronically,
        since we currently do not receive this newsgroup.

        Vaino Hassinen.

        Fax:     +46-8-665 34 02
        Mail:    Vaino Hassinen, Stinsgrand 2, 191 70 Sollentuna, Sweden
        e-mail:  hassinen@front.se

        P.S I will gladly replace your expenses, if reasonable.
From: roy@ecgcurly.UUCP (ecghub   Roy Kern)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Longevity of games
Summary: Batteries?
Date: 6 Jan 93 16:34:01 GMT
Organization: Motorola Cellular Cad Group

> The FISH TALES near my house doesn't like power-cycling.  Shut it
> off, then turn it back on and it comes up flashing "FACTORY SETTINGS
> RESTORED", "BOOKEEPING TOTALS CLEARED", "FACTORY...", etc, etc, etc,
> until oblivion.  It NEVER breaks out of the loop and allows you to
> deposit a quarter to play.  I suspect something inside the coin box
> allows you to exit the loop, but the operator didn't have the key.
> Anyone know why the game did that?

I would suspect the batteries on the CPU board are bad (or the battery
holder - these are known to fail/corrode).  This would clear all the
settings and display the stuff above upon a reboot.  I've seen this on
some of the games I've bought.  The fact it doesn't break out of the loop
puzzles me, though.

Roy (puzzled).
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Fish Tales question
Date: 9 Jan 93 19:19:27 GMT
Organization: VA Tech CS Dept., Blacksburg, VA, USA

Naw, it should only go all the way around when the Long Cast is lit or
when you first launch the ball.  Actually, Long Cast IS lit when you first
launch the ball, so the gate at the top (if you look at it closely, the 
game can control when the gate is open or closed going right-to-left; it
can always go left-to-right) is ONLY open during Long Cast.  If the ball
makes its way to the plunger in the middle of a ball (seems to happen
pretty often), it won't go all the way if Long Cast isn't lit.  Even from
Autocast it won't go if you had the ball out long enough.

Having the ball always go all the way around indicates that your gate was
probably stuck open.  No biggie, but makes LIE much harder to get.  So your
repairman actually knew what he was doing!  %)

keith
-- 
| Keith Johnson ("Keefer") |> SUPPORT <|  "Sometimes you get to be the bird   |
|VA Tech. Dept. of Computer|>SHAREWARE<|                And                   |
|  Science  Undergraduate  | Help keep |     Sometimes you get to be the      |
|kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu|prices down|             windshield."             |
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: dstewart+@cs.cmu.edu (David B Stewart)
Subject: Re: FishTales Super Jackpot
Organization: The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 06:11:26 GMT

In article <1993Jan6.004531.1198@quorum.com> hempling@quorum.com (David B. Hempling) writes:
>Could someone please explain how to activate the FishTales
>Super Jackpot?

You must get three jackpots during Multiball via the caster-club/upper-
eject-hole combination.  Each one lights one of your tackle boxes.  After
that, the super jackpot is lit.  Each hit is worth 100Mil.  However,
after you get the super jackpot once, if you lose 2 of your 3 balls,
the super jacpot ends, and you must start over and get 3 more jackpots.

Here is another question.  When the jacpots reset after the super jackpot and
end-of-multiball, the jackpots seem to be worth double there original value;
i.e. 40M,60M, 80M.  (I only got up to the 40M, so I can't confirm the other,
and nobody was there to watch the backglass if it gave any info about it!)  Is
the super jackpot also up to 200,000,000 by that time?  Can anyone confirm
that this is in the FT rule sheets?  What happens the 3rd time (if anybody
has ever gotten that far!)

~dave

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David B. Stewart  - email: <dstewart@cmu.edu>            The Robotics Institute
snail mail:       - ECE Dept., Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Current Projects: - Chimera 3.0 Real-Time Operating System
		  - Reconfigurable Sensor-Based Control Systems

Posted-Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 13:00:43 GMT
Received-Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 07:07:25 CST
Via: uk.ac.sussex.syma; Mon, 11 Jan 1993 13:04:42 +0000
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 13:00:43 GMT
From: johny@cogs.sussex.ac.uk (Lord Yak Da Hairy)
To: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: FishTales Super Jackpot
Summary: 
Followup-To: 
Distribution: world
Organization: Order Of The Holy Spleen
Keywords:
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

In article <C0K116.1tv@csugrad.cs.vt.edu> kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer) writes:
>Oh - my $.02 on the extra ball shot - also the hardest extra ball to date.
>Sheesh!  I've never gotten it from the left flipper, could only backhand it
>from the right.

Quite - one of the Fish Tales around here keeps lighting the fault dot;
there's nothing WRONG with the machine, but the EB target gets hit so
infrequently that the dot lights...

-- John Yeates (Lord Yak Da Hairy) --------------- johny@cogs.susx.ac.uk --
-- "Be a geezer - put grasshoppers in your freezer!" - The Mystery Chefs --
From: holland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Rich Holland)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: FishTales Super Jackpot
Date: 10 Jan 1993 23:47:28 -0600
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

bowen@leland.Stanford.EDU (Bowen P Kerins) writes:

>	From what I saw, yup, the jackpots are all double, including the Super
>Jackpot.  Strange that one simple little shot is worth 2OO million points...
>though I suppose the same could be said about the 9 ball in Cue Ball Wizard.

Where's the 9ball in CBW?  Also, how do you make the 8 ball shoot up to the
targets?

-- 
Rich Holland              | INTERNET: holland@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
100 Jardine Terr., Apt A7 | BITNET  : holland@ksuvm
Manhattan, KS  66502-3357 | UUCP    : ...!rutgers!matt.ksu.ksu.edu!holland
char*p="char*p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: gary@bilbo.inmos.co.uk (Gary Morton)
Subject: Re: Data East stole my replay :-)
Reply-To: gary@inmos.co.uk (Gary Morton)
Organization: INMOS Limited, Bristol, UK.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 13:01:33 GMT


In article <Rob_Rosenhouse.02wi@hq-bbs.wisdom.bubble.org> Rob_Rosenhouse@hq-bbs.wisdom.bubble.org (Rob Rosenhouse) writes:
>
>What seems to have happed is that the power somehow cycled to the game. 
>
I never took my eyes of the machine at the end of the game, there was no
obvious indication that a power cycle had taken place, or that the machine
had reset itself in any way.

>This would explain losing the ball while trapped on the flipper.  When the
>
No that was definitely caused by a faulty flipper button/switch. I was extra
careful after that and all was OK.

Thanks for your comments.

-- Gary
+---------------------------( Gary Morton )-----------------------------+
|Disclaimer: The opinions above are my own personal views etc.          |
|Inmos Ltd, 1000 Aztec West, Bristol, UK         Email : gary@inmos.com |
+-----------------------( +44 454 616616 X526 )-------------------------+
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: FishTales Super Jackpot
Date: 12 Jan 93 14:01:09 GMT
Organization: VA Tech CS Dept., Blacksburg, VA, USA

iott@rtsg.mot.com (Joel K. Iott) writes:
> Nitpick...
> 
> MARK Ritchie designed Fish Tales.  So you could compare the design of Fish
> Tales to Road Kings, Taxi, and Diner, other games he designed.
> 
> STEVE Ritchie designed T2 (and HSII:The Getaway, Black Knight, Firepower, etc). 
> Steve does tend to favor the left-side "gaping chasm" kickback on his games. 
> 
> Now it could be that Steve Ritchie has influenced Mark Ritchie...

Whoops!  Guess I wasn't paying enough attention.  Just that the name Ritchie
stood out.  There are enough similarities between the 2 games that I kinda
assumed that they were the same person.  Oh well.  Thanks.

later,
keith
-- 
|//----------------------\\|  Do your  |"The players tried to take the field; |
|/     Keith  Johnson     \|  eyes  a  | The marching band refused to yield.  |
|\CS Major--Pinball addict/|favor- PLAY| Do you recall what was revealed      |
|\\----------------------//| PINBALL!! | The day the music died?" - Don McLean|
From: sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Did Capt. B. Zarre have a moving mouth?
Date: 5 Jan 93 01:31:06 GMT
	<SBB.92Dec30184603@panix.com> <1993Jan4.170737.4128@rtsg.mot.com>
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

In article <1993Jan4.170737.4128@rtsg.mot.com> iott@rtsg.mot.com (Joel K. Iott) writes:

   Party Zone was the feature game at Expo '91, and I seem to remember
   that his mouth also moved, not just his head.  I thought that it
   appeared that he "talked", like Rudy.

   I've played two different PZ machines recently, and they had a
   turning head, but a fixed mouth.

   Do I have a faulty memory, or did they change the Capt's mouth from
   the Expo to production?  Anybody remember?

When it works, the mouth moves, just like Rudy's.  I think the problem
was three-fold: the Captain was prone to breakdowns; it's not obvious
to the casual tech that Captain's mouth should be moving in the first
place; and it was a bitch to fix (mostly, take apart and put back
together).

(Note to DE bashers: the broken Captain stars in a Bally game.)

While you have to go through that trouble when Rudy breaks down (or
when the Jungle Run on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND stops running), those
mechanical contraptions are the focal point of game play.  The Captain
is amusing, but he doesn't affect actual game play at all.  So in most
arcades, I suspect that once he breaks, he stays broken for a long,
long while.

--
    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
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball