HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tyager@maxx.UUCP (Tom Yager)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball,misc.forsale,ne.forsale
Subject: Re: Terminator 2 pinball machine for sale
Date: 29 Aug 92 17:22:00 GMT
Organization: New Hampshire Public Access UNIX

In article <D2150025.bvmue3@wtgdir.UUCP>, Harry_Noel@wtgdir.UUCP (Harry Noel) writes:
> > I'm sorry if all this sounds harsh, but I've opened my house to too many
> > dabblers who just want to play several hours of free pinball and then go
> > home to dream about it. 
> 
> Hmm... I guess you bought the pinball machine because no one else
> would play with you because of your personality???
> 
> I offer 50 bucks but I was wondering if I could take a look at it
> first.  :-)
> 
> Have a nice day Tom, but I doubt you will.

Lots of people play with me, Harry; I'm a real friendly (but evil) guy. Despite
my tendency to bash them over their heads with heavy, blunt things and to
then proceed to munch on their livers, I get along with my friends very well.
I just can't seem to keep them for long. I even had three people come over
to look at my machine, but I learned (too late) that dead people can't write
checks. I must remember to have the next one write the check FIRST...

I'm having a glorious day, Harry, despite your efforts. You know, as genuinely
ornery and nasty as I am, I always considered insulting strangers in public
beneath me. I do realize that you were trying to goad me into a shouting
match, but even though I am the embodiment of incivility and cruelty, I'll
sit this one out. Besides, in half an hour I'm scheduled to twist the heads
off some kittens. How could you compete with that?
(ty)

-- 
Tom Yager, BYTE Multimedia Lab Director
           Author, Addison-Wesley UNIX programming book (Summer, 1991)
           Author, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich multimedia book (Fall, 1992)
           decvax!maxx!tyager, maxx!tyager@bytepb.byte.com
From: sjsobol@tiny.com (Steven J. Sobol)
Reply-To: sjsobol@tiny.com (Steven J. Sobol)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Distribution: world
Subject: Correction to words of Pinball Wizard
Organization: The Tiny Software Company, Main Office, Cleveland, Ohio
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 22:16:35 

Several people mentioned that it's not

"From SoHo down to Bryden" as I wrote, but
"From SoHo down to Brighton". 

Well, I couldn't remember what that word was, and Bryden is the name of
a street (and a public school) in my hometown, and it sounded the same,
so... :)

Nuts! Wrong twice on the same subject. Well, there's a first 
time for everything. :) :) :) :) :)

Thanks to the people who wrote.

*--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**
From: intruder@cats.ucsc.edu (Isaac Truder)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Pinball getting more difficult as you play
Date: 4 Sep 92 11:10:20 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu


> Nice posting.  Made me realize a WEIRD thing about pinball --
> --unlike a vid game, there is nothing that makes it progressively
> harder to keep a ball on the playfield.

Well, there ARE ways of doing this, but they're more subtle than in vid
games.

For instance, in WHIRLWIND, once you get your multiball done with once,
the targets you need to hit to light lock get to be more difficult.  For
instance, there's one where you have to shoot the ball right up in
between the lower bumpers, and past them to trip the target.  If you hit
one of the bumpers (i.e. you miss the shot) the ball gets knocked around
in all kinds of ways you hadn't intended.  The idea is that you'll keep
trying for these more difficult shots (though there aren't that many
combinations, really), failing, and eventually you'll lose the ball
without accomplishing much of anything.

Now, if you get good enough at the game (or, I suppose, pinball in
general) that you can get the ball to fly off at any angle you want,
then this isn't too great of a problem.  But I know I'm not that good! :-)

And even more subtle are distractions -- things that don't really get you
the big point scores but are tempting enough that you try for them.  Again
in WHIRLWIND, once you sink the ball into the yellow cellar door enough
(eight?) times, you can hit it again for the "Mega Door Bonus" which 
lights everything the other Super Cellar Door shots lit before, plus it
gives you some extra bonus.  While you're trying to do that, obviously
you're not doing much more locking of balls, hitting of Million Pluses,
etc.
From: marston@coos.dartmouth.edu (David Marston)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: replay percentaging
Keywords: reflex vs. auto-percentage
Date: 4 Sep 92 04:12:39 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

In article <1992Sep3.1549.6251@dosgate> "luc theriault"
<luc.theriault@canrem.com> writes:
>...I've been playing FUNHOUSE
>and this is what happens: I put in my quarter and start my game, I'll
>win a game, play for a couple hours on this one quarter winning maybe a
>dozen games (on score, high score, special, match) or so. The base
>score was say 4,100,000 at the start and 12,100,000 at the end. If I
>return the next day the base score is at something like 5,300,000. If I
>repeat the performance the next day the base score is something like
>7,300,000.
>
There are two different forms of score adjustment on modern machines, and
the factory setting is to have both in effect, though they are separately
controlled.
(1) Auto-percentaging has been with us for about seven years. After a
certain number of games, like every 100th game, the replay score is
adjusted up or down based on the achieved percentage compared to the
target percentage. This changes what you are calling the "base" score.
(2) Reflexive adjustment has re-appeared on pinball in the past couple
years. It existed on the old bingo pinballs of yore, and was called
"reflex" back then, so I'm perpetuating that term. It refers to the
raising of the difficulty on the game immediately following a win. It
can be accomplished by raising the replay score, or by making a feature
more difficult. (SURF 'N' SAFARI will cease to begin a game with the
bottom row of the grid lit after a sufficiently-long winning streak.)
Typically, the replay score will revert to the "base" score when credits
go to 0, giving you the power to buy a lower replay score by wasting
credits.
.................David Marston          uunet!dartvax!coos!marston
                                        marston@coos.dartmouth.EDU
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keith Johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: TAF bug
Date: 2 Sep 92 01:16:26 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

Well, I have never played an Addam's Family with this problem, but the
Funhouse that was at Tech for a long time would often reset or go into
slam tilt mode or whatever during multiball.  Constantly pissed me off.

keith

-- 
|kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu|\\\XXXXX///|"The players tried to take the field, |
|.....Keith P. Johnson.....| \XXXXXXX/ | The marching band refused to yield.  |
|.1711 Whipple Dr. Apt. 11.| /XXXXXXX\ | Do you recall what was revealed      |
|...Blacksburg, VA 24060...|///XXXXX\\\| The day the music died?" -Don MacLean|
From: overturf@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Dallas Overturf)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Solid-State Flippers (was: Re: Williams flippers)
Date: 3 Sep 92 18:59:46 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering

In article <1992Sep3.142934.19114@cbfsb.cb.att.com> yyz@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (donald.w.coons) writes:
>In article <SBB.92Sep2200955@panix.com> sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug26.152825.1685@rtsg.mot.com> iott@rtsg.mot.com
>>(Joel K. Iott) writes:
>>
>>   I believe "solid-state" flippers can still become weak over time
>>   since what wears out is the flipper coil(s).
>>
>>T2 didn't have them -- I think TAF was the first.  Since then, every
>>Williams/Bally game has had the new style solid state flippers.
>>
>
>I think HS2 is the first Williams/Bally with Solid State flippers. From what I
>have seen they still seem to working out problems with them.>not a treat.
>
>   Don Coons
>   dwc@wnb3b2.att.com

Nope:  The first production game with SS flippers was indeed TAF.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: jjhoxsey@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Major Lee Obvious)
Subject: *** High Speed II ***  Supercharger
Organization: ACME Acres Looniversity Public Relations.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 13:42:42 GMT

	Greetings.  Out of curiosity, what kicks the ball around the
supercharger on this game?  Where I play it, it is very difficult to
see because all the machines are rammed up against each other.  To me,
it almost looks like a magnet "sucks" the ball into the housing, since
it always gets kicked around the loop before it gets into that
housing.  (The housing being where the three lights are on the
supercharger loop).
	Great game.  I love Red Line Mania.  %)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Even I must take a break from | jjhoxsey@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Kuros)
 wackiness occasionally."      |
               Gogo Dodo       | The IRC Silly Knight (w/rubber chicken)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: moody@brahms.udel.edu (John David Moody)
Subject: TAF High Scores
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 00:53:53 GMT

If anyone wants some easy pickings for some high scores, come to southern
Pennsylvania.  One arcade in the Capitol City Mall (Harrisburg) had a
high score of only 480 million.  Other arcades ranged from that to 620 million,
which is not really a problem.  All the machines were in very good to excellent
working condition.  The lowest high was seen at Fun City along the boardwalk
in Ocean City, MD, with a high score of only 375 million (approx)!!!!


*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
*                                                                            *
*  John David Moody - PhD candidate - Physical/Theoretical Chemistry         *
*  University of Delaware - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry         *
*                                                                            *
*       E-mail:  moody@brahms.udel.edu or moody@chopin.udel.edu              * 
*                                                                            *
*  "Are you in good spirits, or are good spirits in you?" - John D. Moody    *
*                                                                            *
*  The opinions expressed here are those of John David Moody, and are        *
*  for the private use and entertainment of the viewers of the internet.     *
*  Any other use of these opinions without the express written consent of    *
*  John David Moody is prohibited.                                           *
*                                                                            *
*----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: jimh@pacdata.uucp (Jim Harkins)
Subject: Re: DE origin
Organization: Pacific Data Products
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 22:50:37 GMT

In article <248@maxx.UUCP> tyager@maxx.UUCP (Tom Yager) writes:
>. As it was, Hook still
>had problems when it went out (although the most serious ones, those that
>affected game play the most, were fixed).

They neglected to fix the most serious bug of all.  The plunger put the ball
on the playfield :-)

>I have a lot of respect for Data East. They have managed, in the few short
>years they've been in business, to grow to be a fierce competitor in what
>is rightly regarded as a closed market. I wish them continued success.

ditto.  The more people making pins the better off we all are.  Even if we
only play Williams.  I've got a friend who's just getting into pinball and
I've noticed one thing.  I head for Williams, she heads for DE.  She loves
Star Trek and Batman.  But there is hope for her, she loathes Hook.  She
hasn't seen Black Rose yet.

She also won't play doubles with me.  Something about being bored in those
5 minute breaks between her turns, and the 10:1 scoring discrepency.....

jim

-- 
Lawyers Creed:  What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Harkins                         [ucsd|uunet]!pacdata!jim
Pacific Data Products               jim@pacdata.com
--------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP (David Eison)
Subject: Re: Williams flippers
Reply-To: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP
Organization: The Matrix
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 01:35:49 GMT

sigma@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Kevin Martin) writes:

> I've seen a TAF which, one evening, the lower left flipper didn't work at
> all, and the next evening it could barely get the ball up to the Bookcase.
> Hilarious.  Almost as bad as the T2 next to it, which also had a completely
> non-working left flipper, and its right flipper would flip even when there
> was no game in progress.  Almost as bad as the Black Knight 2000 next to
> that, which had all flippers so weak they could barely move the ball about
> six inches up the playfield.
> Only three games this place had.  Sad, sad, sad.

Sounds like someone there liked to abuse games... I sure hope you turned 
them all off... Or used some of the other techniques that have been 
discussed on here.. <G>
BTW: What did the operator of the arcade have to say about the SORRY 
condition of his machines??  And are you exaggerating?  I find it kinda 
hard to believe; besides, I thought I'D played the worst TAF in 
existance... (The one at Universal Studios... it's HORRIBLE.  Too bad I 
didn't know where the power switch was at the time.)

---
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: larry@chinet.chi.il.us (Larry DeMar)
Subject: Re: DE origin
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 18:27:57 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.003443.5419@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> KAMCHAR@ibm.cl.msu.edu writes:

>     My Question:  in Time Machine, thanks are given to both a Mr. Stern and a
>Mr. Williams.  Did they go into the business together, and what precipitated
>their falling out, if any?
>>

Sam Stern was Harry Williams partner at Williams.  They sold the
company sometime in the 60's.
 
After Sam (and son Gary) started up Stern Electronics in the 70's,
Harry did several pinball designs for this company (the most
prominant being Flight 2000).  He didn't work for Stern, but
designed these from his California Home.
 
Both Sam and Harry died in the 80's.
 
Gary Stern works at Data East Pinball in Chicago.
-- 
------------------------------------------
Email:  chinet!larry@clout.uchicago.edu
From: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP (David Eison)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Orlando Area Pinball list????
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:48:34 GMT
Reply-To: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP
Organization: The Matrix

Does anyone out there have a list of places to play pinball in Orlando, 
with what machines they have (and condition they're in??)  There are a 
LOT of places to play here, so a partial list would be fine, I'd just 
like to know where the best games can be found...

---
David Eison - Garfield           bbs-garfield@jwt.uucp
I'm not writing a message.  These words are just here to take up space.
From: sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: A Hardware Question
Date: 3 Sep 92 02:01:50 GMT
	<1992Aug23.154138.13347@cbfsb.cb.att.com>
	<1992Aug31.203552.746@cbnewsd.cb.att.com>
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

In article <1992Aug31.203552.746@cbnewsd.cb.att.com> knudsen@cbnewsd.cb.att.com (michael.j.knudsen) writes:

   I remember watching pinball addicts with a smooth single motion of
   putting up a ball with their fingers and shooting it with the
   thumb.  (So much for skill shots :-) I first learned pinball in the
   late '50s, from a classmate whose favorite saying was "I put up a
   ball and the %^&*$#@ tilted!".  The some auto lifts slam that ball
   up it's a wonder the pin doesn't tilt.

Must be something to have grown up with the games in the fifties and
still be an active player today, when any game that doesn't show you
movies, play 3 different soundtracks and have talking dummies or AI
flippers built-in are considered ho-hum.

I still can't get over talking to my grandfather about things like
this.  He was born in 1898 and just turned 94 this year.  He now owns
a microwave oven and a VCR, though he doesn't have Nintendo or a
computer yet.

How he can make sense of this, growing up as he did before electricity
was generally available, I don't know.  But he sure wouldn't go back
to the "good old days" -- though neither of us would mind turning the
clock back 60 years and heading down to Coney Island for a day...

--
    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: pazar@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com (Steve Pazar)
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 22:25:22 GMT
Subject: Re: Captain Fantastic: Classic or junk?
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Santa Rosa, CA
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

Al,
   Just as a reference point one sold in this area a few months ago
   for $400. Similar condition as what you've described. I've heard
   of these sucker going for as much as $1,000 though. Also beware...
   there is the arcade version and the "home" version. The home version
   IS junk. If your unit has a coin slot, its the real thing. Hope
   this helps some.

			    Steve Pazar
			    pazar@hpnmdla.sr.hp.com
From: dyke@oxford.DAB.GE.COM (Erick Dyke)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Pinball Music (was Re: Lethal Cows)
Keywords: more music more music more music
Date: 27 Aug 92 14:07:40 GMT
Organization: GE Simulation & Control Systems

While on the subject of Pinball and Music, I seem to remember
(Could be a dream) that there was a pinball machine themed
to the band The Who?

Am I creating false memories?  I can visualize the backglass
and the slingshot bumpers perfectly.

If I am not crazy, how much for one of these machines?
Any one have one for sale?

-- 
-------
Erick S. Dyke -- GE Simulation & Control Systems -- Daytona Beach, FL
EMail : dyke@sunny.dab.ge.com
"GE Aerospace -- We make the BEST video games in the world"
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day)
Subject: Re: LW3 - Just a note
Reply-To: oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day)
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 13:20:06 GMT

In article <chupchup.715597895@piggy> chupchup@ferkel.ucsb.edu (Robert Earl)  
writes:
> Hmm, you were lucky.  I was playing LW3 just tonight, and what
> happened to me was, the ball jumped up onto the scenery and nestled
> above the saucer on the left side.  The game sat around waiting to
> find the ball, did ball checks a few times, but the ball stayed put.
> Then it told me "Missing 1 Pinball" and shot me a new ball.  Well,
> that's fine, but when I got multiball, and knocked that ball clear
> back into play, then lost two balls, guess what happened.  The
> flippers went dead and I watched helplessly as my third ball sail past
> them.
> 
> Well, guess Data East still makes stupid software.  Why do they shut
> down the flippers when you lose a ball?  It doesn't make sense.

Actually, it sort of does make sense (from an operators perspective,
unfortunately).

We used to have a similar problem on the evil "Batman" machine on campus.
The middle of the top three lanes had a sticky switch that the ball could
get hung up on.  After searching for a while, it would send out another
ball, but it would assume only one was in play.  Why?  Well, if the ball
had gotten dropped down into the cabinet or was hung up off the playfield,
it would prevent the game from being played again.  This way, the player
gets screwed, but the machine is "OK" once the ball returned.  I guess
it would be pretty shi**y to play Batman with two balls instead of three,
but Batmas was a kinda shi**y game to start with anyway.

Playing multiplayer games really messed it up, since if you had two
balls going with the machine thinking just one is out there, you could
drain one and still be playing the other while the bonus racked up and
it went on to the next player!!  So when playing this machine, the
rule was that if you hung up, you had to tilt and lose your turn.
This led to the famous saying, "You know the rule!"

> robert earl
> rearl@ucsd.edu
> rearl@piggy.ucsb.edu

--
******** "And what they found was just a statue..." - TMBG *******
Orin Day, Code 664.1                    oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov
Hughes STX/NASA       GSFC Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
*******"Think that this is NASA's opinion?   NO, NO, NO!!!" ******
From: intruder@cats.ucsc.edu (Isaac Truder)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: TAF again
Date: 26 Aug 92 10:45:16 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu


> Well, after the fanatical posts of Addams Family addicts, I decided
> to find a TAF machine in Cleveland. As it turns out, there is one
> right near my house, played quite regularly by a new female friend of
> mine who is a  pinball fan. (I think I'm in love! :) Anyhow, it seems
> like quite a good game, although I couldn't hear the sound effects
> because it was in a bar and the jukebox was playing constantly. I'm
> sure I will have questions for  everyone soon....

I, too, have just recently finally gotten around to playing TAF.  A friend
of mine works at an arcade, and he went over to the machine and opened it
up to screw around with it (preventing other people from getting to it
before I did).  He turned up the volume for me and let me have a couple of
free credits.

My observations?  BOY, whay a fun, though loopy, machine!  The first ball
I ever played on the machine, I scored 32 Million points.  It boggles the
mind.  Iremember the days when a million was something!  With a little
advice about where to shoot the ball, I managed to get three-ball multiball,
then two-ball multiball, again all on that first ball.  When it was finally
over, I thought I was done with the game -- I looked up and saw that I was
only on the first ball of the second game on the machine.  Craziness.
Needless to say, I'll have to give a couple more cracks at the machine!