HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sigma@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Kevin Martin)
Subject: Re: Matches (was Re: New games)
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 03:44:00 GMT

kjohnson@csugrad.cs.vt.edu (Keefer) writes:
>It's true that it could've been entirely coincidental, but I really think
>that the game was glad to have the database actually light up so it could
>give away a special.  Any thoughts?

I'm pretty sure there IS some sort of "reflexing" based on how often
certain things are awarded.  I've had the same thing happen on other T2
machines, and there's an Elvira in the area which ALWAYS awards Special on
the Barbeque Bonus.  (I think it gets played by six year olds, since it's
at an indoor minigolf place.)

-- 
Kevin Martin
sigma@ipl.rpi.edu
"I told you I'd shoot, but you didn't believe me! WHY didn't you BELIEVE me?!"
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: Stephen Jonke <jonke@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Xtra ball in Dr. Who
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A72707653C035C5D@joe.gsfc.nasa.gov>
X-Xxdate: Wed, 11 Nov 92 23:54:29 GMT
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 23:54:31 GMT

Real basic question here -- After "lighting" the extra ball shot
with the "WHO" letters, how do you collect it?  In spite of the
claim that the WHO letters "light" the extra ball, I can't find
anything that even remotely looks like an extra ball light on the
playfield!

Steve
------------------------
jonke@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov
------------------------
From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: High Scores
Date: 10 Nov 92 22:16:13 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <5583@sumax.seattleu.edu> kahlerm@sumax.seattleu.edu (Michael Kahler) writes:
||In article <1992Oct30.060810.11609@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> csilver@nyx.cs.du.edu (Cameron Silver) writes:
|||Are the high scors 'remembered' by the machine when the poewer is off? ..
|[deleted]
||One thing I appreciate:  The default high scores on High Speed are held
||by the designers of the machine!  This is a nice way of giving credit
||where credit's due...I've finally knocked "SSR" down to position #4!
||	:Andy Oakland
||	sao@athena.mit.edu
|
|Are those defualt high scores really the designers? The initials
|always look that way (atleast on williams games), but the scores are
|so _perfect_, that is, 4,000,000  or 3,000,000, etc.  Its not very often I
|get a score on the exact million! (probably never) Am I off track? or
|does your machine have default scores that are more realistic?

Nah, default scores aren't real scores, they just provide a minimum
score to achieve before claiming a High Score position (as well as
the appropriate credits that go with them).  HIGH SPEED (as well as
most other pins, I assume) allows the operator to set the default
high scores.  You could set them for 400,000, 300,000, 200,000 and
100,000 (maybe even all 100,000) if you wanted to, but I'm not sure
if you can set them as high as 9,900,000 ... they're always in
increments of 100,000 (on HS anyway).

|Mike Kahler
|kahlerm@sumax.seattleu.edu

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com
From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Question on HS2
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:24:24 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <1992Nov11.192113.3628@tandem.com> Brady_David@Tandem.Com (David Brady) writes:
|During multiball, everytime I drained a ball the machine would give it back to
|me.  Fun (or course), but I'd like to know what I did to deserve such a
|courtesy.  Evetually I lost two of the balls and it didn't give 'em back.
|What was the difference?

How long was the game doing this for?  I know some games will keep the
Auto-Fire on for a while, so when it starts tossing balls out for auto-
multiball, if it drains one or two in a short period of time, it will
just spit the ball back out and continue your multiball.  This usually
only lasts for about 5-10 seconds, then you're on your own.  If the
game did this for 1 minute and fifty seconds out of your 2-minute
multiball, then consider yourself VERY lucky.

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com
From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Flipper Wear: Very odd...
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:20:28 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <1992Nov10.192252.2245@cnsvax.uwec.edu> mahalkdp@cnsvax.uwec.edu writes:
|I was wondering if the gap between the flippers on pinball games is spaced
|in a certain way. I am just an average guy who is starting to take some
|interest in pinballs, and I noticed that on the Addams' Family game, the
|little rubber band around the flipper is completely worn off at the pointed
|end of the flipper. I don't really see how this could have been worn off so
|quickly..

How long has the game been around?  TAF has been out for quite some time,
and considering its popularity, I'd say it's very possible that the flipper
rubbers got that worn-out that quickly.  The answer is to bug the operator
to replace those rubbers.  Until then, spend your money on another game
(or a TAF at a different site).

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com

Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: dstewart+@cs.cmu.edu (David B Stewart)
Subject: Re: Matches (was Re: New games)
Organization: The Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 05:58:24 GMT

In article <1992Nov10.031641.4407@u.washington.edu> phaedrus@carson.u.washington.edu (Mark Phaedrus) writes:
>     By the way, on the subject of matches, what would you all say to an
>operator setting that allows matches, but only if you didn't score a free game
>during play?  (So if player 1 made the replay score and player 2 didn't, only
>player 2 would get a chance to match.)  It seems to me that this would be a 
>pretty reasonable compromise between the interests of owners and players; it

I get the feeling that some machines already do something like this to
encourage novice players.  I'm thinking of Star Trek in particular.  Last week
I played this only because TAF was busy, and the people playing had about $10
in quarters on the machine.

Looking at the scores on the previous game, none of the 4 were over 5 Million,
and the 4th highest score to date was only 80 Million.  The first two games I
played, the first time I hit the scanner, it lit up the special, and the second
time it lit the extra ball ramp; so I got easy free games and easy
extra balls.  However, after those 2 games, where I got easy high scores and
the even easier replay (35 Million) the scanner did not lite the special
anymore, and only once did it light the extra ball ramp (it did light up
the EB ice planet).  So it seems like the machine had adjusted itself for
a novice player when scores were very low; but after 2 consecutive games 
with decent scores, it stopped giving away freebies.

I haven't noticed this kind of behavior on any other machines.  Has anyone else
noticed?

~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
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: yyz@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (donald.w.coons)
Subject: Re: Black Rose Multiball
Organization: AT&T
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1992 20:48:35 GMT

In article <1992Nov8.191111.23124@fy.chalmers.se> f90pegu@fy.chalmers.se (Peter Gustafsson) writes:
>Hi.
>
>Bally's Black Rose finally made it to Sweden. Kindda fun, but there's one thing that troubles me.
>During multiball, as far as I have understood, you're supposed to lock them again in the same place
>that you did earlier(to the left).
>
>So, in you go with the first ball and yes, the second is locked too!
>Here something funny happens: nothing happens.
>The timer counts down to zero as I stand there frowning and then the machine spits the balls out.
>
>Is there something wrong with our machine? The company that maintains pinballs suck,
>they seldom show up and when they do they never do anything sensible.
>Or do I do it wrong?
>
You did nothing wrong, what is wrong is there is a pinball missing. I bet
there is a period after the credits display. If the game was working correctly
a third ball would be released to the plunger and you would start 3 ball 
multiball. Since the ball is missing the game has no other choice but to
kick out the locked ball. What was your Star Wars question?

Don Coons
dwc@wnb3b2.att.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: phaedrus@carson.u.washington.edu (Mark Phaedrus)
Subject: Re: High Speed II: Helicopter Bonus?
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 17:35:11 GMT

     The Helicopter Bonus is easy to get, once you know what to shoot for;
during Multiball, once you score the Jackpot, just hit the Tunnel lockhole, 
and you'll get the bonus.  Then, every time you score a Super Jackpot, you can
hit the tunnel for the bonus once again.  (The game does give you a *small*
hint as to how the Helicopter Bonus is scored; when a ball goes down the left
inlane at the right time to hit the bonus shot, the game will usually display
an animation of the chopper following the car down the road that leads to the
tunnel.  And we *all* look at the scoreboard during multiball with a ball
screaming down the inlane towards the flippers, right? :) )
-- 
Internet: phaedrus@u.washington.edu        (University of Washington, Seattle)
 "If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs,
    consider an exciting career as a guillotine operator!"
From: nin15b0b@merrimack.edu (David E. Sheafer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: High Speed II The Getaway
Date: 8 Nov 92 10:06:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: merrimac.1992Nov8.100648.2389
Distribution: na
Organization: Merrimack College, No. Andover, MA, USA

In article <BxB2uA.1B8@cs.dal.ca>, ronan@ug.cs.dal.ca (brian c ronan) writes:
> Has anybody got any reviews on High Speed II The Getaway.
> I don't know how old it is but here at school it's the most popular
> game...I would like to know about similar games like this.
> 
> 				Brian


This machine came out around early spring 92, I believe.  When I first played it
I thought it was terrible,  Once I began to play for a while though I got hooked
on it, one of the nice features on this machine, is if its properly maintained &
waxed, the play is very fast.  My high score on this machine is 412 million,
unfortunately where I play, the operator resets the high scores every month.

-- 
David E. Sheafer

internet:  nin15b0b@merrimack.edu   or  uucp:      samsung!hubdub!nin15b0b

GEnie:     D.SHEAFER             Cleveland Freenet:    ap345
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: jimh@pacdata.uucp (Jim Harkins)
Subject: Re: Fish Tales - bleah
Organization: Pacific Data Products
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 18:17:42 GMT

In article <LFS.92Nov10105106@arcadia.mitre.org> lfs@mitre.org (Lyman F. Sheats Jr.) writes:
-I never made it past stage 1.  I can't tell you people how many times I've
-wanted to kick this ball sucking PIG of a machine through the wall for auto-
-casting my ball right down the center drain *every* single time.
-
-And I REALLY don't want to hear it from all those people who say silly
-things like: "Well, if the machine was set up properly, you wouldn't be
-having this problem."  PLEASE.  Give me a break.  What percentage of all
-operators set their games up properly?  I haven't been able to find ONE.
-That's life in the real world.

I agree 100%.  What's even worse is this game is $0.50/game, not 50/75/1.00.
I've sunk about $3 into it and I doubt I'll ever play it again.  Gotta admit
tho, it's fun watching someone else play it.  Both the backglass when the
player hits something, and the player when he gets screwed :-)

Lyman also spent time bitching about Getaway II.  I've got to agree with him
there too, I knew of 4 games around town and none of them worked properly.

jim

-- 
So many women, so little charisma.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Harkins                         [ucsd|uunet]!pacdata!jim
Pacific Data Products               jim@pacdata.com
--------------------------------------------------------------
From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: High Speed Attract mode (was Re: Loud pinball games...)
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:27:39 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <1992Nov12.060038.28326@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day) writes:
|In article <8lq1d7g@rpi.edu> sigma@picasso.ipl.rpi.edu (Kevin Martin) writes:
|| Has anyone noticed that TAF flashes the coin door slots during the start of
|| Multiball?  And a few other times, I believe.
|
|Yes, I noticed this feature.  It also occurs on Williams new games,
|and, strangely enough, on Haunted House as part of it's visual 
|attract mode.  About all that works on my table, in fact ;(

Well, on the original HIGH SPEED, the coin door slots are part of the
General Illumination (G.I.).  During attract mode (the first few cycles),
HS would flash the G.I. (along with a few other things) ... the coin
slots would flash accordingly.  If TAF is built the same way, and the
G.I. is played with at the beginning of multi-ball, then perhaps that
is what you are seeing.

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com


Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: yyz@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (donald.w.coons)
Subject: Pinball Outing
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 00:09:19 GMT

For those coming to Chicago for expo or those in the area currently.
Any one interested in getting together Wednesday night to play pinball.
Gala North in Carol Stream, Il has the three beta's I posted about a 
couple of days ago as well as Dr. who, Fish Tales, TAF, T2, etc. In all
about 20 games. If you are interested in meeting some other people from
this group as well as playing the latest games, drop me some email. I'll
try to give you directions and let you know if there is any interest from
others.

Don Coons
dwc@wnb3b2.att.com
From: overturf@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Dallas Overturf)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Pinball Heaven?
Date: 10 Nov 92 21:46:14 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigbootay.sw.stratus.com

In article <BxI3r4.87G@apollo.hp.com> hay_g@apollo.hp.com (George E. Hay) writes:
>
>       Recently, a friend of mine came back from the Laconia, NH
>    area raving about the Funspot arcade at Weirs Beach.  Of course,
>    I had to go check it out.  I was told that there was only one
>    'new' machine, but a large number of well maintained older games.
>    So I went.  I was amazed.  I intended to play at least all the
>    games at least once each.  After four hours, I still hadn't
>    made it to all the machines.  It was the longest row of pins
>    I've ever seen.  Along one wall, from left to right the list
>    is as follows:  (R= replay score(s), H= High Score)
>
.....Stuff deleted.
>    George


FYI:  As a note of interest to anyone in the area.
This arcade has been as good as what George describes
since I've known it (20+years).

The owner/manager (Bob Lawton) does an incredible
job of keeping the place neat and clean.  And the staff
is very curtious.  They may not all be able to fix a problem
on the spot always but they will see you, as a customer are well
taken care of in the event of a problem and they won't gripe about it.

If you're ever in the vicinity of weirs beach it is only about 10
minutes away and I recommend you go see the place.
You'll come back wanting to hang most of your local operators,
and rightly so.

Note:  I'm in no way affiliated with Funspot.  But I've always
enjoyed it there.

			Regards,	Dallas...
From: overturf@bigbootay.sw.stratus.com (Dallas Overturf)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: taf in toronto
Date: 7 Nov 92 04:46:51 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering

In article <19926.4950.7088@dosgate> "luc theriault" <luc.theriault@canrem.com> writes:
>Hello
>
>A little anecdote and a request for information
>
>A couple of weeks ago I found a functional TAF at a take-out pizza store
>near the place where I work. It was great, I started dropping in
>semi-regularly after work for a couple of hours. I managed to get the
>high score (971 million). On the down side since I usually win 3-4 games
>for every one I pay for the replay "base" score went from something like
>60 million to 150 million and the Bear Kicks for extra ball from 5 to
>14.
>
>In the time I have been playing, I have never refused other players
>joining in. I have purchased the occasional soft drink and submarine
>sandwich from this store. I have not abused the machine (aside from an
>occasional slap on the side of the cabinet - the ball frequently goes
>into the vault and just sits there). Yet, tonight, the clerk at the
>desk, came up to me and gave me dollar and told me that they did not
>want to see me there anymore!
>
>Obviously, this TAF is only for use by marginal players. Wizards are not
>welcome. I discussed this with this clerk who unable to give a clear
>answer to why he wanted me out simply told me that "It's none of your
>business". Words were exchanged and I gave him the one finger salute.
>(It nearly came to blows).
>
>His store is private property, I suppose he can do wath he wants, my
>recourse is limited to writing a letter to head office of the chain to
>mention the incident.


Tis a shame you flipped him the bird!  That kinda cuts your options
down a bit.  Prior to that he at least owed you a civil explanation.
If that had happened to me here I would written in the paper about it.
See How he'd like that :).  You could have also requested a meeting with
the owner.  Clerks can be over-ruled and you might have if nothing else
gotten an answer to your question.

I suspect however that either they got complaints of too much noise or
more likely there intake from the game dropped way down because of you.
You said it yourself that the score was now 150M up from 60M.
If they have a regular crowd that likes to play (or maybe the employees
even??) they may have found it too hard to beat when you were done with
it.  (Try playing one after Lyman has been playing on it for a few weeks.
It ain't fun :)  Who knows; Maybe you just were not buying enough subs!


                            Dallas...
From: u2606@craysea.cray.com (Kurt Peterschmidt)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Question on HS2
Date: 12 Nov 92 17:10:52 GMT
Organization: Cray Research, Inc. - Americas West

In article <1992Nov11.192113.3628@tandem.com> David Brady <Brady_David@Tandem.Com> writes:
>
>And a question...
>
>I played it today and had a wonderful first ball - 232 million.  I started with
>a 'burn rubber' bonus of multiball and kept it going for about 2 minutes.  It
>felt like forever.  :-)
>
>During multiball, everytime I drained a ball the machine would give it back to
>me.  Fun (or course), but I'd like to know what I did to deserve such a
>courtesy.  Evetually I lost two of the balls and it didn't give 'em back.  What
>was the difference?
>
>Thanks.
>--

AHA!!  Someone else has seen this bug, too!  On our local HSII it has
(albeit rarely) done the exact same thing, where it will initiate
Multiball and have an apparent unlimited Free Ride, until you hit either
Jackpot or SuperJackpot, I'm not sure which (it's only happened to me
once, and I've played the game a LOT).  

I know some of the netters own a HSII, so I would have thought that they
would've seen the same thing... Anybody?

Kurt P.
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
From: mark stephens <stephens@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Re: Pinball problems and lazy repairmen
X-Xxmessage-Id: <A7291B496101EC3D@mstephens.gsfc.nasa.gov>
X-Xxdate: Fri, 13 Nov 92 08:43:53 GMT
Organization: NASA/GSFC
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d12
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 13:42:32 GMT

I know this may not work at all but why not try to tell your fellow
players that these games have problems?  Try some of those yellow message
stickums.  They will probably get torn down but operators must hate to
see their business decrease even for a day.  Persestance!

      mark

Subject: Pinball problems and lazy repairmen
From: mahalkdp
Date: 12 Nov 92 20:04:49 GMT
In article <1992Nov12.140449.2306@cnsvax.uwec.edu> ,
mahalkdp@cnsvax.uwec.edu writes:
>Argh. I called the guy who owns the pinballs at our university two days
ago
>about the problems with them, and he STILL hasn't showed up..
>
>Hey, are all the locks the same on pinball games? Mail me a Data East
"Hook"
>and a Bally/Midway "The Addams' Family" key so I can open the darn
things up
>and rotate the flipper rubber bands, remove stuck balls, etc. :)
>
>The guy who maintains these things sure doesn't seem to want repeat
customers
>too much.
>
>And now yesterday, the lower left flipper on the Addams' Family quit
>completely! ARGH!! The upper one still works, but the bottom one doesn't
do
>a darn thing.
>
>I'd like to kick the owners of these machines in the butt and get them
to fix
>the darn things already.....
From: ung@felix.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: Loud pinball games...
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:15:16 GMT
Reply-To: ung@fritz.filenet.com (Bill Ung)
Organization: FileNet Corp., Costa Mesa, CA

In article <1992Nov10.192053.16926@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> oday@lobster.gsfc.nasa.gov  (Orin Day) writes:
|In article <BxID27.I6x@fc.hp.com> ec@fc.hp.com (Edgar_Circenis) writes:
|| Bill Ung (ung@felix.filenet.com) wrote:
|| | In article <SBB.92Nov4215646@panix.com> sbb@panix.com (Steve Baumgarten)  
|writes:
|| ||In article <LFS.92Nov3162312@arcadia.mitre.org> lfs@mitre.org (Lyman F.  
|Sheats Jr.) writes:
|
|| | |One problem that's relatively new, I think: games these days tend to
|| | |make all sorts of noise when they're in "attract" mode.
|
|| | Hmmm, my HIGH SPEED (1986) has an option to make noise during attract
|| | mode.
|
|| Hmmm, My Black Hole (1981) has an operator settable option to have the
|| machine speak during attract mode (up to once every ten seconds).  It
|| says things like "Do you dare to enter the Black Hole" and "No one
|| escapes the Black Hole".  Unfortunately, I cannot do justice to the
|| incredibly goofy sounding speech that the old Gottleib sound board
|| produces. :-)
|
|Ye olde Haunted House is the same way.  However, I know of no pinball
|that has reached the level of annoyance of the talking video game
|"Super Basketball".  People used to put quarters in it and not press
|start - just to shut it up!

Ya know, that reminds me now.  Back in the old days of wall-to-wall vids,
I remember playing Galaga with a GORF game next to it.  It would make
LOTS of noise in attract mode.  I didn't have quarters to drop into it
(actually, that never really crossed my mind), but I did get fed up
enough to nail the on/off switch on top of the cabinet.  That shut it
up.  :-)

Bill Ung
  ung@filenet.com