HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: king_p@helios.cs.odu.edu (Paul King)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Trouble reporting (was: Re: LW3 and Super Mario Brothers)
Date: 15 Aug 92 17:36:32 GMT
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA

In article <i44iPB6w164w@jwt.UUCP> bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP (David Eison) writes:
   overturf@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Dallas Overturf) writes:

   > Any place should refund your money.  Course those that put up
   > 
 [stuff deleted]
   > And I most certainly have no problem in telling them to cough
   > up or chance losing the machine!!!  picking up the front a couple
 [more stuff zapped]
   So THAT'S how to get them to listen.. I've asked a couple times what to 
   do when operators are stupid idiots who've never played pinball in their 
   LIFE... Guess I've gotta start ruining ruined machines.. <G>  But where I 
   play, not only would the machine tilt 15 times, but I *WOULD* get kicked 
   out.. with no chance of getting my credits back.. <G>
-----------------------------

   Another option is to call or write your better business board.
Or any local consumer protection organization. Some local TV stations
do a 'help the consumer' segment. Also encourage other patrons of the arcade
to call the same place you do. Everyone loves negative publicity.

  That's the nice guy option. The easier option that I have used is to slowly
wander around turning off machines. Or just switch 'em all off if management 
doesn't see you. Worked in that one lousy bowling place. They stayed off for
the time we spent bowling. One guy walked up and turned it on, got the "missing
pinball" alert, looked at it a while (all the balls were jammed in the playfield,
one on top of the instruction card) and turned it back off.

   
Ha ha ha ha,
  No way.....


            -Paul

 
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: wesselak@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu (Erik Wesselak)
Subject: Re: Anyone get PINBALL FLASHBACKS?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 00:27:11 GMT

kak1@cypress31.cray.com (Kevin Kramer) writes:


>This has never happened to me with pinball, but when I became a
>hopeless Tetris addict I couldn't sleep because I would be playing
>tetris in my mind all night.  It was horrible, I thought I was nuts
>until my friend said the same. (just as in your case, good thing
>we have friends that are as screwed up as we are :-)  I must
>has played over a million games of tetris that year, either real
>or imagined.

Yes, I get them from both video and pinball games, although mostly from video.
I call it having the game "on the brain" at night but it seems to me to be the
same thing:  those hours at night before you get to sleep but not totally con-
cious and you're just playing the game of your preference like a madman (and I,
personally never do any better on the brain than in real life).  I get it from
playing a lot of Whirlwind, and from various video games; computer D&D type
games seem to be the worst...I've gone through entire adventures in my head.  I
have yet to find a working remedy for this disease, although I have found a few
things that seem to help:

	1)  Don't play to much of a game that has a history of getting on your
	    brain (obviously)

	2)  If you do play too much, try to play some other games before you go
	    to bed.  You'll still have games on your brain at night, but the
	    sensation will be of an unreal conglomeration of the games you have
	    played that is so ridiculous that your subconcious might just dis-
	    miss it a little sooner.

Once you have a game in your head at night, you're pretty much screwed.  If I
avoid said game from then on, I sometimes have minor flashbacks the next night,
but they are always gone by the third.

Note:  I've found MUD's to have a very low tendency to get on your brain (and
believe me, I've played all-nighter's), probably because there's no graphics,
and your mechanical input is typing, which doesn't seem to stick in your head
like hitting flipper buttons or moving a joystick.  Could be because typing is
a much more complex motor operation.  Many's the night I've been smacking but-
tons and moving tetris tiles in my head, but after a night of mudding I rarely
type mud commands in my brain.  

Any psych majors out there have any thoughts on this?

Erik

PS  Take it from uncle Erik...just say no to MUD's  And if you're a MUDaddict,
email me.  I've been there.
-- 
"She looked at the man talking on a car  __| /  |__"I knew a Bates in Liverpool
phone in the Porsche beside her, decided __|<  /|__ who said that you were 
that he should die, and felt good all over"| \/ |   going to bring him back"
--Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children       Erik:   wesselak@suna0.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: gleeson@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (The Red Avenger)
Subject: Re: I give up (was: Re: Party Zone, was - Re: TAF multiple jackpot record?)
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 23:17:20 GMT

In <LFS.92Aug10192014@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu> lfs@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu (Lyman F Sheats Jr.) writes:

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

>>Has anyone actually gotten the Big Bang with 10X lit? I know it's within
>>the realm of possibility, but I've never even come close.

>I give up.

So what do you mean by this Lyman? I'm sure it can't be done on our
local machine because I shot the Big Bang last night with 7 seconds
left of 10x playfield scores, and only got 32 mil, not 320 mil...
Perhaps it is yet another operator settable feature? Let us in on the
secret, Lyman... Why do you "give up"???  :-)

Marty.
----------------------=============***O***=============-------------------------
Martin J. Gleeson   | Computer Science, Melbourne Uni, Oz |    ...  __o    Outta
gleeson@cs.mu.oz.au |  E Pluribus Unix  |  BIKE  IT   !!  |  ...   -\<,       my
" We gladly feast on those who would subdue us." - Addams |  ....(_)/(_)..  way!
 "I can't give you brains, but I can give you a diploma." - The Wizard of Oz
----------------------=============***O***=============-------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: drew@ophelia.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: Trouble reporting (was: Re: LW3 and Super Mario Brothers)
Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 09:46:06 GMT

In article <i44iPB6w164w@jwt.UUCP> bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP writes:
>overturf@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Dallas Overturf) writes:
>
>> Any place should refund your money.  Course those that put up
>> 
>How about the STUPID places that only give you one credit on a machine, 
>even if they can SEE that you put $1.00 into the broken one.. That 
>happened to me on a broken TAF... And they refused to shut it off... and 

Power switch on most pinball machines is right underneath, on the front right.
Do you fellow players a favor, and turn off broken machines.  You can also
unplug it, the net effect is the same.
-- 
Microsoft is responsible for propogating the evils it calls DOS and Windows, 
IBM for AIX (appropriately called Aches by those having to administer it), but neither is as bad as AT&T.  Boycott AT&T, and let them know how you feel.
From: josh@cqs.washington.edu (Josh Hayes)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Posting pix of pins?
Date: 14 Aug 92 23:37:58 GMT
Organization: University of Washington

Russell_Owsianski@mindlink.bc.ca (Russell Owsianski) writes:

>What does the rest of r.g.p. think about the idea of posting scanned pictures
>of pins?  I've noticed that every now and then someone will mention a machine
>that
>I've never seen, and I'd like to know what they look like.

Hmmm...I kinda like this idea, but there are probably three kinds
of pictures one could get.

I bet that 1) there are cheesy promo pix that the manufacturers
distribute with scantily-clad women wrapping their long limbs
around the cabinet; these are pretty useless from our point of
view (we = readers of r.g.p.).

On the other hand, owners might be happy to produce 2) pix of
the backglasses of their machines; I know there are plenty of
people out there who find these interesting (I don't, at least,
not very).

And what is of MOST interest to me, 3) pix of the playfields.
There is often interesting art on this section as well, and of
course, that's where the play is. I can just see it now...advice
on shots from Phaedrus, complete with glossy JPEGs, with circles
and arrows explaining what they are.....again, hmmm.....

Josh

--
Josh Hayes, Quantitative Sciences HR-20 U of Washington
josh@mowgli.cqs.washington.edu             206 685-2793
Exclaimer: Hey!           Plan: Birth School Work Death
From: pj@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Paul Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Funhouse steps
Date: 12 Aug 92 12:21:17 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing at Lancaster University, UK.


OOPS,

Sorry about the last article ( no text ) I cann't work out what went wrong.

Anyway this is the first time I've tried to post so I suppose you get used
to it.

I hunted out a FUNHOUSE when I saw how everyone thought is was great. It is.
but something happens on this particular FUNHOUSE and I don't know if its
supposed to, and if it is supposed to how to get around it.

When in multi-ball (mini or normal) and the Steps have been lit, shooting a
ball up the ramp to the steps, send the ball round to the left plunger, but
when it gets there the steps are closed and so the ball drains :-(.

I'm not very good and have only managed multi-ball a few times before today
but I'd never noticed that. Unfortunaly this machine is in a common room here
on campus so nobody is incharge of it, occasionally it seems to get cleaned 
and fixed (and is infact in very good order). I want to 
phone up the company who look after it because I'm sure they won't know about 
this fault, but I'll look a right wally if there is no problem.

Hope that makes sense to sombody.
Thanks
Paul.
---------------------------
From: sbm@cs.adelaide.edu.au (John!)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Pinball Flyers...
Date: 13 Aug 92 12:28:07 GMT
Reply-To: sbm@cs.adelaide.edu.au (John!)
Organization: Guest Account - Dept of Comp Sci, Uni of Adelaide

Howdy guys (and gals)... 

I was just wondering if it would be a good idea to get some people
to SCAN pinball flyers(info sheets) and have them available on
a FTP somewhere for download..  I think it'd be a good idea so
those of us who dont get the machine for a few months after its
been released in the US have some idea on what to expect (and to
get there orders in)

What do you think??


John!		Internet:  sbm@cs.adelaide.edu.au
-------------------------------------------------
LOST: 1 signature, if found, please return to the
      above Internet address. REWARD.
From: gkwan@balboa.eng.uci.edu (Greg Kwan)
Subject: Re: Rape, arcade style
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 20 Aug 92 21:38:40 GMT

In article <920817362@tiny.com> sjsobol@tiny.com (Steven J. Sobol) writes:
>Someone pointed me to Power Play in downtown Cleveland for a TAF. Power Play
>charges seventy five cents for a *SINGLE* credit on any of their games. Anyone
>else charge this much?

An arcade near my parent's house (in the San Fernando Valley [CA])
takes three tokens <=> $0.75 for their `new' games. The games are
all five balls, though. Older games are 2 tokens.

greg
gkwan@balboa.eng.uci.edu
From: coutinho_b@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Subject: TAF - Weird Shots
Reply-To: coutinho_b@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz
Organization: Wellington City Council, Wgtn, NZ
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 00:24:18 GMT

I've so far managed twice (not deliberatly) to hit the ball, hit a target or
something else for that matter and send the ball on to the rail that passes
over to the right hand flipper.

I have also had the "stopper" near the swamp stay open (the opening where the
ball will get diverted if a skill shot is too weak) and get another chance at
taking the skill shot.

Has anyone else had funny or weird shots while playign TAF (or any other 
common Pinball)


-------------- / / /-----------------------  /~~~\  -----------  O      |~|  T
   \ \ \      / / / "Simply the BEST!.."    |  n  |             /\_     |_|  I
Brian Coutinho / /           - Tina Turner  |  U  | U E E N    /\ ;====== |  L
coutinho_b@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz                \___,\           / / |~~~~~~~l  T
===== \ \ \/ / /  ============================================================
From: ec@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Edgar Circenis)
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 16:12:49 GMT
Subject: Re: Paragon phantom switch
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

In rec.games.pinball, dpettit@javelin.sim.es.com (Daina Pettit) writes:

> However I found that the
> diodes on two of the three target switches due to the improper assembly of
> the switch stacks were not included in the circuit.  The problem was that
> an insulation piece in the stack was in the wrong order so that the diode
> was shorted out of the circuit!
> 
> I find it hard to believe that anyone would have pulled the switch stacks
> apart and shuffled the insulation pieces.  When the screws are pulled out
> of the stack the stack does not fall apart--it takes some working to get
> the stack to come apart.  I wonder if the machine had been incorrectly
> assembled at the factory.  Since the problem was intermittent it could have
> existed all along.

I was messing around with my Williams Flash last night when I realized that
the two of the three super-flash drop targets in the center of the playfield
produced no sound effect when hit.  I don't know why I never noticed this
before, I've had the machine for a long time.

It turned out that two of the targets were not scoring at all because the
common (ground, or hot, I never checked) lead to the switch assembly had
only been routed to one drop target and to the series switch (which detects
that all targets are down).  It had been incorrectly wired to a diode instead
of to the other switches.  Thus, two of the targets didn't register at all
when dropped.  I re-writed the drop target bank and now everything works
the way it is supposed to.

Anyone else experience incorrectly wired drop target banks?

To be fair, I cannot be sure that this was done at the factory, and not as
part of a botched repair job.  However, all of the solder joints on the
assembly looked the same, so.....

Edgar
From: grover@vulcan1.edsg.hac.com (Dean Grover)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: ROM revs
Keywords: TAF
Date: 19 Aug 92 20:51:15 GMT
Reply-To: grover@vulcan1.edsg.hac.com
Organization: Hughes Aircraft Co., El Segundo, CA

Now that the newest pins all mention their ROM Rev's, is there any way to 
upgrade if you bought the game new ??  My TAF is only at L-2, and I usually
hear others mention L-3.  I have never had a problem, but was wondering about the
upgrade policy of Williams and/or their distributors on this matter.

Dean
---
//////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Dean Grover                            Mappy - The ultimate game of cat
Hughes Aircraft Company                        and mouse
adgrover@hac2arpa.hac.com or grover@vulcan1.edsg.hac.com

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP (David Eison)
Subject: Re: Protecting silkscreened playfield lightshields
Reply-To: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP
Organization: The Matrix
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 20:43:55 GMT

crywalt@vaxc.stevens-tech.edu (Christopher Rywalt, maladjusted cartoonist) writes:

> 	Also, you can always find a clear coat, like they use on model cars 
> 	(and many times on real cars).  However, they're oil based and may eat 
> 	your plastic.

Why not use a spray, like Testor's Dull Cote or Testor's Gloss Cote (I 
think they spell it that way..) which is DESIGNED for models and such?  
It's intended to be used on Plastic, so it SHOULDN'T damage it... But 
you should probably try ANYTHING you use b4 you use it, like test it out 
on the old pieces that were replaced...

---
David Eison - Garfield           bbs-garfield@jwt.uucp
<><  I'm not as think as you stoned I am! ><>
From: sao@athena.mit.edu (Andy Oakland)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: "Mini" Pinball Machine
Date: 12 Aug 92 15:08:49 GMT
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In article <1992Aug10.214331.17540@pei.com> fred_s@earwax.pei.com (Fred Scott) writes:
>Hi,
>
>Does anyone know where a small table-top pinball machine might be obtained?

(I've sent the posting below to Fred via email, as well, and removed the
"ba.*" newsgroups from the header)

There are some small octagonal machines, maybe 2ft X 2ft, which would
probably suit your purposes.  I think this is called a "cocktail" cabinet...
It's the same height as a coffee table.  But these are very rare,
and apt to be expensive as well as hard to maintain (due to difficulty of
finding replacement parts)  I've got the names of some of these machines,
as well as their manufacturers, somewhere around here.  Let me know if
you're interested, and I can look them up.

Alternately, you might look into one of the pinball/video hybrids such as
"Granny and the Gators."  Personally, I _hate_ these machines, but they do
serve the purpose of getting you a small-size pinball machine.  You just
have to suffer through the video portion to make it down to the pinball
field!

	:Andy Oakland
	sao@athena.mit.edu
From: remy@sun450a.ccs.northeastern.edu (Remy Evard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Posting pix of pins?
Date: 18 Aug 92 02:58:31 GMT
Organization: /u4/systems/remy/.organization

Bill Ung writes:
>|It would probably be more appropriate to post them to alt.binaries.pictures
>|(and then post a list of them to r.g.p.), but I've heard that some sites do
>|not receive a.b.p.
>
>Right, mine being one of them.  r.g.p is low-volume, why not keep it here?

Because r.g.p is low-volume.  A lot of people/sites get it because it's
low volume, and if it goes up, they'll drop it.  One poster already mentioned
that.  (Some people have to pay for this.)

Posting pics in general it the wrong way to go about it.  Someone will
post TAF's backglass (or better yet, Barracora), and it'll circulate
on whatever group for a few days, but someone will miss it because
they were on vacation, so it'll get reposted... and so on.

An ftp site, with possible email-service for non-internet people, is
the best solution.  We'll have one up soon (are my posts getting out
to the rest of the world? (guess I'll have to go check)).  When we
do, r.g.p will know about it.  In fact, if anyone has suggestions
about what else should be in the pinball ftp archive, post!

As for format, I say we go with whatever the people with scanners can
get it to.  As long as the JPEG scanners aren't too lossy, it's probably 
the best way.  The other option is GIF.  There are GIF and JPEG viewers
for every hardware/software platform in existence (at least ones that
male adolescents have access to... :-) so that really shouldn't be an
issue.  There are also gif->jpeg and jpeg->gif converters.

 -r'm
.... .  .   .    .     .      .                                   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: oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov (Orin Day)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Dr. Who (First Look) (SPOILERS)
Date: 22 Aug 92 17:40:06 GMT
Reply-To: oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day)
Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center

In article <1992Aug20.152618.12239@rtsg.mot.com> iott@rtsg.mot.com (Joel K.  
Iott) writes:
> Animation:   3  the "2001" space tunnel effects are cool

Actually, Who did it before 2001 came out, but not to nitpick.

The game sounds horrible, but overheard at my distributor last week:

"(talking to Williams)  So Black Rose is hot?  Yeah?  Well, double
our order!"

--
*** "If they're moderates, then I'm a champion speller!" - JDQ ***
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: remy@sun450a.ccs.northeastern.edu (Remy Evard)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: programming pins
Date: 18 Aug 92 03:08:31 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: /u4/systems/remy/.organization

Does anyone know how are the current crop of pinball machines is programmed?  
What CPUs are they using?  What languages are they programmed in?

Heck - how do they do it?  Hook up some computer to the pinball machine,
program that, debug it, then burn ROMs, I'd guess.  In that case, I'd
love a card for my PC (or better, my NeXT) that would turn a pinball
machine into a big peripheral...

Seriously, I've got some programming/pinball projects in mind.  What
era/series of machines would be the easiest to replace the ROMs in
so that I can do exactly that - control one or more via computer?  
I don't need to duplicate the actual game play (at first), I just
want access to all the sensors and controls.  Or would there be a
better way to do it than replacing the ROMs?

  -r'm (not a hardware hacker...yet)
.... .  .   .    .     .      .                                   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
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: bovine@engin.umich.edu (Mitchell Rohde)
Subject: System 1 pinballs
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 10:14:55 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

  I have a troubleshooting manual for the newer Bally MPU games..
 like the one used in the BABY PACMAN dual video/pin,,,

  it talks about an AID test/troubleshooting module...

  I don't have onem and right now, dont need one..

 BUT BUT BUT... I was wondering if there were similar
 animals for the Gottleib system 1's.

  I know there is a white jack that is unused on the cpu board
 to my cleopatra...
.

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: bcasper@eos.ncsu.edu (Brian Casper)
Subject: Re: Playfield Repairs
Originator: bcasper@c00477-224wi.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: bcasper@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 00:03:28 GMT


In article <Bt7Iww.CFE@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>, ijr@canard.uwaterloo.ca (Ilana Jayne Rosenshein) writes:
|>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?

Get a can of Plastic Wood (tm) at a hardware store.  As far as I can tell,
it's liquified cellulose in a can.  I use it to fill in the holes when those
long post screws strip out.  I also used it to fill in a 3/8" deep chip at the
bottom of the ramp on my Space Shuttle.  It dries pretty quickly, but I leave
it for a few hours to be sure that it has cured completely.  Then I use an
Xacto to shape it if necessary.  For the post holes, I then drill a pilot
hole.  Judging by how difficult it is to scrape from my fingers after I've
prodded it into shape and the remnants have dried, I'd say you needn't worry
about it breaking loose ;-)
-- 
-- 
Brian Casper                |   "I like to study psychologists.  It gives
bcasper@eos.ncsu.edu        |    good insight into what rats are thinking."
  Pinball Consultant        |     -  Dr. Oscar Wesler