From: drew@ophelia.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: Anyone get PINBALL FLASHBACKS?
Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 11:11:17 GMT

In article <1992Aug14.093529.4548@hemlock.cray.com> 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.
>
>Kevin

Yes.  I just got Serious (TM) about HSII, managed 
Grand Champion, and it looked like Game Of The Week (Free tokens
to support my habbit!  Unfortunately, some one had come in earlier
and scored 490M (Five ball games, this is important).  Obviously,
I had to regain my position!

So, I got warmed up, and was playing some OK but not 
impressive games, hitting the tunnel enough off all three flippers and 
scoring well enough to get 8 credits between replay and outlane special, 
but mostly in the 2-300M range, out of contention.  (BTW,
the thing is set for five ball, this is important)

So, I'm playing, and the lower right flipper gets stuck up on ball 1.  I had to 
find an attendant, he had to get the right key, open the machine, and 
fix it.  Very, very, very bad for blood pressure and concentration. 

After that, I drained one multiball, tilted the next one.  Crashed after 
~3M on video mode. Drained during the Super Charger bonus from 4th gear redline.
IT LOOKED EXTREMELY BAD.  

The final ball just felt "right", it was on.  With snow boarding, pinball, 
certain video games, etc you can get so focused that it no longer requires
a concious effort.  Conciously you just direct what should 
happen (ie, backhand the tunnel shot from the lower right flipper) and it 
just works.  You don't need to see balls two and three during multiball, you 
just know where they and when you can deal with  ball number one.

On the last ball, I ran the 11 tunnel shots to light outlane special,
freeway looped enough to get the extra ball lit, and got 
Redline Mania lit.  I hit the extra ball, then Redline mania, got a second 
extra ball, hit jackpot, and three 100M super jackpots.  I got three
balls back in the supercharger to start on Super Jackpot #4 
Ball number three bounced out and down the drain.  

I started thinking "I need that high score."   Bad.  Very bad.  Never
think about score, because it ruins your concentration during 
these critical moments.  I still managed to light the ramp for 
Super Jackpot #4 (50 loops?), and missed the ramp shot quite a few times.
Finally, I parked the ball on the right flipper, made the shot (It 
was perfect!  The pinball just went through the left half of the 
freeway loop, up the lowered ramp, into the cage, and nothing happened.

The other ball had drained, and unlike Jackpot, Superjackpot doesn't
give you X seconds after you are out of multiball.  Less than two
balls in play, and no dice.

The remaining ball drained Real Soon, and I didn't manage more 
than ~20M on either of the remaining balls.  Ended up with 420M, 
missing the top score by a measly 70M.

That game is still really on my mind.  The most Incredible single 
ball, yet overall the game was absolute crap.  Argh.

-- 
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. 

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball