HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jonke@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Stephen Jonke)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: What makes a game...
Date: 13 Oct 92 22:16:27 GMT
Organization: NASA GSFC

In article <81338@ut-emx.uucp>, aodn307@bongo.cc.utexas.edu (Joshua Henry Geurink) writes:
> 
> 
> 	With all this talk about "solid state flippers" and the whatnot, I
> just wished to toss in my $.02.  The true, deciding factor in whether a 
> game is really enjoyable, really GOOD is not the flipper type, or how many
> ways someone can earn multiball, but SOUND.  Drop me in an arcade filled to
> capacity with T2 and TAF machines and I'll make a beeline for the Black
> Knight 2000 machine in the back-left corner.

What ever happened to games being fun to play -- now we just listen to them?
I would think that if a game is fun to play then it is a good game,
regardless of sound.  Sound doesn't hurt, but hopefully pinball players will
lose this attraction to fancy sounds soon, else pinball will go the way of
video games -- a low cost, poorly designed machine with flashy graphics and
sound to attract players and their money long enough to make a profit and
then by the time they're completely bored with it (not long), you throw
another low cost flashy machine at them and so on.  Wait a minute --
isn't that what Data East is doing now?

Besides that, the music in BK2000 was REALLY annoying.  The main theme was
one of those "songs" that you can't get out of your head even if you
intensly dislike it.  Talk about agony!

Steve
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keith Johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Fun with HSII
Date: 7 Oct 92 06:21:59 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

Well, I played HSII tonight for the first time in awhile, and got 719 M.

This may seem like an amazing task (well, it probably still is somewhat
impressive), but there is a flook reason why I got so high.  I got Red Line
Mania, and started multiball.  Within about 5 seconds of all three balls being
out, a couple smashed into each other at a really weird angle, and darn the
luck, one of the balls got lodged on the little piece of plastic near where the
balls lock on the right side (if you look at it, you should see where I'm
talking about...  there's a little piece of metal sticking up there too which
helped catch the ball).  Needless to say, I was pretty golden to have an only-
one-ball-to-worry-about-red-line-mania.  I had a really hard time getting it up
the supercharger, but eventually got my 1st 100 M.  I lit it again, but lost the
ball right before I could get it.  Oh well, in the process, I got the Stoplight
extra ball twice (I always wondered what happened the SECOND time you get all
the lights during a multiball), and hit the freeways many many times, and got
a 16 M Helicopter bonus and a 20 M Helicopter bonus.

One thing I noticed near the end of the game...  After going through 2
"regular" multiballs and 2 red-line manias, it said the super jackpot was worth
75 M in the status.  Anyone know why??  Does it just go up after a certain # of
multiballs?  Or did failing to get the jackpot a couple of times have something
to do with it?  Would it be "naturally" worth 100 M after 4 multiballs?

keith
-- 
|kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu|  / Amiga! |"'Relax,' said the nightman,          |
|.....Keith P. Johnson.....|\/ Not bad!| 'We are programmed to receive.       |
|.1711 Whipple Dr. Apt. 11.|           | You can check out any time you like, |
|...Blacksburg, VA 24060...|Pinball KEF| But you can never leave.'"  - Eagles |
From: absurd@applelink.apple.com (Tim Dierks, software saboteur)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Various
Date: 16 Oct 92 17:33:35 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.pinball
Organization: MacDTS Marauders

In article <1992Oct15.230626.17589@kth.se>, d91-jal@musta.nada.kth.se
(Johan Almen) wrote:
> I still haven't played a bug-free FT. The most common fault is that if
> the ball drains in the centre, it doesn't find out until it has made
> the automatic switch/solenoid test for stuck balls (a "Gazonk" :) ). 
> And this has happened on four different machines, so I think it's a 
> software bug and not a mechanical error. If the plunger is weak, 
> balls frequently drop directly between the flippers, but the machine
> doesn't notice until after the gazonk, thus not giving you an autocast.
> 
> 			* S I G H *

I've seen a similar problem on both of the two Fish Tales (one a beta)
I've played, and it's not a software bug; it's definitely a hardware
problem.  When you have two balls locked or in play, and the third
ball drains, the lower switch in the trough won't get depressed
because the ball sits above it in the trough.  (When balls drain,
they go to a trough which uses gravity to keep one in position for
the ball server; this trough has three switches which are used
to determine if there are any balls in the trough.  In all the
Williams games I'm familiar with, this is the only mechanism for
determining if a ball has drained; if it's in the trough, it's
not in play.)  In Fish Tales, the lowest switch's wire is shaped
in such a way that the ball can get stuck on it and not roll
into the correct position.  Because of this, the machine will not
notice that the ball has drained.  You can sometimes get the ball
to roll down onto the switch by jiggling the machine a little.
(Of course, if you just drained ball 3 and you've got two balls 
locked, and you're not real concerned about where your score
comes from, just wait; if the ball isn't knocked loose by the
initial part of the search mode, eventually the game will serve
the two locked balls out of the reel for you to play, extending
your game somewhat).

Enjoy;
Tim Dierks
MacDTS, Apple Computer, which really has very little to do with pinball.
From: ceej@cup.portal.com (Chris - Johnson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: GIN by Chicago Coin
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 19:38:55 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: na

Hello pinball gurus... I recently purchased a Chicago Coin pin called
"GIN", and I was wondering if anyone can fill me in on any details
concerning its history, popularity, etc... I'm a pinball player on a 
regular basis, but have never seen this game before-- since it appears 
to be about early 70's or so, it's probably a bit before my pinball-
playing years (I would have been about 6 or so...).

I paid $150 for it.  It's a rather simple game, the main idea is knocking
down some center targets to (you guessed it) get "gin".  I guess I'm mainly
interested in the game because it's a "reel" game-- all electromagnetic/
no digital scoring, etc.  It's a gas to hear the thing rack up your bonus
at the end of a ball!  Brings back some memories...

Also, one other thing; the flippers are pretty weak.  Is it safe to assume
that I can get new solenoid(s) for this pin?  Would this one have the 
standard 2 solenoids, one for "push" and the other for "hold"?  I guess I
can wait until I can take a look at the schematics, but just thought I'd
ask.

Thanks  
cej (JAZ)
From: overturf@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Dallas Overturf)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Data East Tilt
Date: 12 Oct 92 21:18:01 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering

In article <Bvx6p4.8BE@csugrad.cs.vt.edu> kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer) writes:
>Data East is just out of control on their tilt!
>
>I was sitting there, playing the Simpsons (TAF was busy and HSII was out of
>order and there's no gate on the Juggler on Hurricane (all the shots bounce
>straight back), so give me a break, OK?!?), and I tried to death-save the ball
>after it went down the right outlane (for a change), but it tilted.  But, it
>also happened to be the 3rd ball (no extras), and it went straight to game
>over.
>
>Now, this wouldn't usually be a problem with me, because it didn't go through
>the match sequence.  Like I would've matched anyway.  BUT, I also had a score
>of 7.1 M which would've gotten me 3rd on the high-scores, but it didn't even
>let me put my initials in!
>
>Maybe Data East did this on purpose (it sounds like some screwed-up logic
>they'd use), but I suspect it's a [major] bug (which also wouldn't surprise
>me).
>
>Any ideas/comments??
>
>keith

	Well you can set a WMS game to be game over on a tilt,
	probably can on a DE game as well.  Try tilting on
	ball one or ball two next time you have a spare credit
	and if the game goes to game over you'll know.

	That is the way the older games used to be; tilt it
	and you lose!  I kinda liked it, but with the price
	of a single credit at $0.50, I think it is a bit much;
	and I have not seen one set that way yet.

	Also are you sure you did not slam tilt it vs. tilt it????

	That would cause what you describe also.  Whatch the display

	When it occurs and see if slam or anything comes up.


				Regards,	Dallas...
From: terryt@trsvax.tandy.com
Date: 07 Oct 92 09:22 CDT
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Stern games (was Re: Strange Pi
Message-ID: <1205467298@trsvax>
Nf-ID: #R:c00313-11pa.eos.ncsu.edu:-1408664110:trsvax:1205467298:000:833
Nf-From: trsvax.tandy.com!terryt    Oct  7 09:22:00 1992


>Stern made some great, great games, both video and pinball.  BERZERK
>remains one of my all-time favorites -- I'd love to play it again.
>
>Who needs stereo sound, 32-bit graphics, real-time polygon shading,
>and digitized Ninjas when you can have running stick figures, a
>bouncing smiley face, and that famous cry: "Intruder Alert!  Intruder
>Alert!"  (Not to mention my favorite: "Chicken!  Fight like a robot!")
>
>I have found memories of nearly every Stern game I ever played; it's
>such a shame they got out fo the business.

I have not thought about that game in a long time.  It was one of my favorites.
Along with Williams' Robotron.  With the double joysticks, one for movement and
one for shooting direction.

Terry "Award 1 Credit" Taylor
terryt@trsvax.tandy.com
The views expressed above are not those of my employer.

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP (David Eison)
Subject: Re: Fish Tales: Insert Coin to Continue?
Reply-To: bbs-garfield@jwt.UUCP
Organization: The Matrix
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:55:19 GMT

koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us (Louis Koziarz) writes:

>                 1 COIN / 1 PLAY
>  
>                     10 SEC
> 
> ...and starts counting down.  Considering this game was set to 50/75/1.00,
> I jumped at the chance.  
> 
> Is this a new feature?  I cycled the power and the ROM rev was P-5.  I love
> it, even though it only saved me one token during my run.  Why would operator
> want a feature like this, considering you don't keep the previous player's
> score or settings?  Any ideas?

I have no idea why they would want it, but I've seen it in a local arcade 
on two TAF's.  So it's not really totally new, I guess.  I love it.  That 
and the fact that both TAF's have no tilt, LOOOOOW replay scores (around 
60 mil, at the start), and the arcade gives 25 tokens for $5.... Great 
place to play... <G>  (Plus they have two BK2K's and lots of other great 
stuff.)

---
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: Bugs Bunny
Date: 15 Oct 92 16:39:15 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

In article <Bw4IJs.58L@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu> dglow@lambert.uwaterloo.ca (Dave Low) writes:

   Today in Waterloo, Ont, Canada at Flynns there was
   a new machine put in called Bugs Bunny...

   Is this a new game or an old one... I couldn't really
   tell,,,

The game's already a couple of years old, but I'll bet the one you
played had that "fresh out of the crate" look.  Play it a few times
and find out why...   :-)

(There was a theory around for a while that after the Williams/Bally
merge, the Bally name was used as a dumping ground for really bad
games.  BUGS and HARLEY DAVIDSON helped convince people of this,
regardless of whether or not Williams ever had such a policy.  On the
other hand, TAF is a Bally game, right?  So much for *that* rumor...)

--
    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: bradam@twobits.Eng.Sun.COM (Brad Martinson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Data East Tilt
Date: 10 Oct 92 20:58:07 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: twobits

speaking of Tilt and Data East, the Checkpoint I used to play occasionally
had the most irritating "feature" - when the shaker started vibrarting the
table the game would tilt!   If I ever get one, that'll be the first thing
that gets fixed...  I'm sure it's operator settable, but it seems to be on
by default.  They don't get any tokens from me anymore...


-- 
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 | Brad Martinson, XWindows janitor   SunSoft,Inc   brad.martinson@sun.com |
 |    Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc   #include <std/disclaimers.h>  |
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
From: ec@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Edgar Circenis)
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 13:55:01 GMT
Subject: Board edge connectors
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

I recently acquired a Gottleib Black Hole in very good condition, except
electrically.  I'll be packing up the boards for repair work soon, but
was wondering what I should do about the card edge connectors.

Many of the connector fingers seem to have become permanently compressed
in the last ten years and others look to have slight greenish corrosion.

Are there any cleaners I can use to remove the corrosion from the fingers
or am I stuck with replacing bad fingers?

Edgar (I'll take a pin without card edge connectors any day....)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: d91-jal@musta.nada.kth.se (Johan Almen)
Subject: Various
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 23:06:26 GMT

Just a few comments;
	
After a week's stay in London and frequently visiting FunLand in the
Trocadero centre I guess pinball isn't very big in the UK yet. I mean,
the place has three floors, and it's LOADED with the latest in videos
and Virtuality and still they only have 12 pinball games. (2 Fish Tales,
2 TAFs, 2 HSII, 2 LW3s, 1 Hook, 1 Batman, 1 FunHouse and 1 BoP). Actually,
most billiard/bowling halls in Stockholm beats that (at least when it
comes to quality).  
And only the TAFs and one of the Getaways worked flawlessly. (Oh, I didn't 
play Batman, Hook, LW3 or BoP). They had NO Black Rose. And I think BR 
beats FT by a million miles. (Oh shit, here come the flamethrowers...).

I still haven't played a bug-free FT. The most common fault is that if
the ball drains in the centre, it doesn't find out until it has made
the automatic switch/solenoid test for stuck balls (a "Gazonk" :) ). 
And this has happened on four different machines, so I think it's a 
software bug and not a mechanical error. If the plunger is weak, 
balls frequently drop directly between the flippers, but the machine
doesn't notice until after the gazonk, thus not giving you an autocast.

			* S I G H *





-- 
_____________________________________________________________________
Johan Almen			  I 	       
Royal Institute of Technology     I "Jeremy spoke in class today..."
Stockholm, Sweden                 I  
email: d91-jal@dront.nada.kth.se  I		   - Pearl Jam -
From: ps2i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Paul Leonard Sonier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Pinball Expo Info
Date: 16 Oct 92 14:35:36 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

I know this has been requested before, but I haven't seen the info yet, so I'll
request it again:  can someone please post info on the Pinball Expo?  Like,
when is it (the dates, please), where is it (I know in Chicago, but WHERE?),
how much it costs, any past experiences, etc.  If it coincides with my
Fall break, I might just hop in the car and go for a day or two (if I can
afford it).

Thanks in advance,
Paul
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: robert@monster.apd.saic.com (Robert W Mangum II)
Subject: Re: TAF 
Reply-To: robert@monster.apd.saic.com (Robert W Mangum II)
Organization: SAIC, McLean, VA
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 16:27:49 GMT

In article <4lzzzlq@rpi.edu> sigma@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Kevin Martin) writes:
>cavers@menudo.uh.edu (Chris M. Cavers) writes:
>>Someone here should pass this along to the taf makers to see if they can
>>figure out some way to protect the machine from such abuse.
>Believe me, they know.  That's why machines Slam Tilt in the first place!

This is something I never understood.  Older video games had slam tilts which
reset the machine, causing all credits to be lost.  So if you are somehow able
to gain a credit by hitting the machine, you will lose it due to the slam
tilt.  Current pins also reset when the slam tilt is activited, but reseting
the machine only ends the game in progress, it does not take away any credits.
How does this prevent someone from getting credits by hitting the coin door?
Is the counting of paid credits delayed long enough so that a coin followed
by a slam tilt does not add a credit?
 __________________________________     ____________________________________
(                                  )   (                                    \
 \   Robert W Mangum II           (_____)    Email:  robert@monster.saic.com \
  )  1005 Hertford Street          _____     Work:   (703) 318-4548           )
 /   Herndon, VA  22070           (     )    Home:   (703) 709-8022          /
(__________________________________)   (____________________________________/

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: sigma@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Kevin Martin)
Subject: Re: TAF 
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 01:46:26 GMT

cavers@menudo.uh.edu (Chris M. Cavers) writes:
>Someone here should pass this along to the taf makers to see if they can
>figure out some way to protect the machine from such abuse.

Believe me, they know.  That's why machines Slam Tilt in the first place!
The reason the guy can pull this trick is the Slam Tilt isn't sensitive
enough, at least not for how loose the coin door is.  TIghten up the coin
door, increase the Slam Tilt sensitivity, and you'll have a machine where
you can beat your hands bloody without getting credits, and it won't Slam
Tilt accidentally during your games either.

Too bad most operators don't understand.  They either get ripped off, or
players get ripped off by a super-sensitive Slam Tilt.

-- 
Kevin Martin
sigma@ipl.rpi.edu
"We're gonna need another Timmy!"
From: XK00@polytec1.polymtl.ca (Pierre Ferland)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: RE: Leathal Weapon 3/hints/tips please
Date: 6 Oct 92 21:40:27 GMT
Organization: Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal

In article <1992Oct1.135724.489@dct.ac.uk> mcsbc3ktp@dct.ac.uk writes:
>Has anyone played Leathal Weapon 3 pinball game, if so any hints or tips
>
>for playing it.
>--
>################################################################################
># Kirk P at D.I.T. (Dundee Institute of Technology, Dundee, Scotland, U.K.)    #
>#                                                                              #
># Janet : mcsbc3ktp@dct.ac.uk                                                  #
>#      or mcsbc3ktp@dct.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk                               #
>#                                                                              #
>#                   K E E P    G R O O V Y !                                   #
>################################################################################
>.
>.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: mike@kingpin.demon.co.uk (Mike Parkins)
ReplyTo: mike@kingpin.demon.co.uk
Subject: Re: What are Solid State Flippers
Distribution: world
X-Mailer: cppnews $Revision: 1.17 $
Organization: Reading, UK
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 19:40:40 +0000


In article <1992Oct5.191817.11986@cbfsb.cb.att.com> yyz@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (donald.w.coons) writes:

> 
> Add Star Wars and Rocky And Bullwinkle to this list those are the next 2
> Data East machines.
> 
> Don Coons
> dwc@wnb3b2.att.com

What about "Tales From the Crypt", as trailed in the attract mode of LW3?


Mike --- mike@kingpin.demon.co.uk --- Save paper, restrict your .sig to one
line...oh shi 

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: patenaude@nhtima.enet.dec.com (Roger Patenaude)
Subject: Re: Board edge connectors
Reply-To: patenaude@nhtima.enet.dec.com (Roger Patenaude)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 13:52:36 GMT


>Many of the connector fingers seem to have become permanently compressed
>in the last ten years and others look to have slight greenish corrosion.
>
>Are there any cleaners I can use to remove the corrosion from the fingers
>or am I stuck with replacing bad fingers?

Replace the pins in the connector and use a soft scouring pad on the fingers.
Then use some gold-wipes(tm) or equivalent cleaner/protector.

Roger
--
__

    |\/\/\/|                        Roger Patenaude
    |      |                        Pinball Pathologist
    |      |                        "Specializing in Autopsies  
    | (.)(.)                         of Dead Pinball Machines"
    C      _)      /------------\  
    |  ,___|    ---| Don't Have |    make sure all replies go to;
    |    /         | A Cow Man! |       "patenaude@nhtima.enet.dec.com"
    /---\          \____________/ 
 
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us (Louis Koziarz)
Subject: Fish Tales: Insert Coin to Continue?
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 02:42:56 GMT

I'm waiting for a guy to finish a really bad game of Fish Tales.  He drains
his last ball and walks away.  The 'game over' music starts, but this appears
on the screen:

                1 COIN / 1 PLAY
 
                    10 SEC

...and starts counting down.  Considering this game was set to 50/75/1.00,
I jumped at the chance.  

Is this a new feature?  I cycled the power and the ROM rev was P-5.  I love
it, even though it only saved me one token during my run.  Why would operators
want a feature like this, considering you don't keep the previous player's
score or settings?  Any ideas?
-- 
Louis Koziarz
koziarz@chinet.chi.il.us
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: lfs@mitre.org (Lyman F. Sheats Jr.)
Subject: would like e-mail address for dean grover
Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA.
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 14:03:38 GMT

Many apologies for my abuse of this service, BUT:

Could someone please send me Dean Grover's e-mail address?  Thanks in advance.

--
Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
The MITRE Corporation
202 Burlington Road, Bedford MA 01730
email: lfs@mitre.org
From: kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Fish Tales: Insert Coin to Continue?
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:35:22 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech Computer Science Dept, Blacksburg, VA

Well, I've triple matched probably around 2-3 times myself.  As for a 4-credit
match - well, I don't think I've ever even SEEN the last digits the same for
all 4 players!

Sometimes I think that if you have 2 players matching digits or 3 players, that
the game will jack up the percentage a little bit so that the match at the end
everyone can go "Yeah!  Triple match!" and get obnoxious and have cool stories
to post on r.g.p.  I think that if 4 people have the same last 2 digits, then
the game will be close to 100% chance of matching.  Anyone else think/know
better?

keith
-- 
|kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu|  / Amiga! |"'Relax,' said the nightman,          |
|.....Keith P. Johnson.....|\/ Not bad!| 'We are programmed to receive.       |
|.1711 Whipple Dr. Apt. 11.|           | You can check out any time you like, |
|...Blacksburg, VA 24060...|Pinball KEF| But you can never leave.'"  - Eagles |