From: lfs@mitre.org (Lyman F. Sheats Jr.)
Subject: Re: Pinball Expo
Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA.
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 16:24:59 GMT

bradam@twobits.Eng.Sun.COM (Brad Martinson) writes:

>	Next came the only hands-on seminar of the weekend, a "How To Play 
>Pinball" taught by five of the best player around today. Many techniques were
>taught, such as trapping the ball and learning to aim for targets. The best
>advice was also the most ridiculous - One guy claimed that the only way to
>really learn a machine well enough to place in tournaments is to own one, so
>you can play it with the top glass off and see exactly what shots are worth
>the most points. Right.

You know, Brad, could you tell me who this was (via e-mail), beacuse I'm
having a hard time figuring out who it was.  I know it wasn't me, and I'm
not even going to take an educated guess as to who it was in an attempt to
keep false rumors from running rampant.  But I would like to know.

Whoever it was (one of the reasons I'm posting is because I want everyone
to know it *wasn't* me), no matter how good the player is, I think the advice
is really lame.  Good players don't have the last word, and people run into
the trap of blindly believing the ideas of experienced players rather than
using their mind to think about something, and it just isn't right.  I'm
glad some people think about what others say and have the courage to say
"you're incorrect," or "I don't agree with that," or "that's ridiculous."

So hopefully at this point, everyone is thinking: "Whatever I'm about to
read, this guy doesn't care if I agree with him or not, so I can tell him
how stupid he is beacuse I've thought about what he's said and I simply
don't agree with him; I have a better way."  At least, I hope that's where
people are at right now.

So, here are my ideas on the subject, and I invite any comments others
may have.  Hey, I'm always looking for better ways to do things.

Preparing for a tournament is really no different from preparing for say,
an exam.  If you've done your homework and you've got half your brain cells
functioning at the time, you're going to do well.  Preparation is the key.

If you know what game(s) you're going to have to play ahead of time, you
may have an advantage over your opponent(s) if you can learn the rules to
the game (and thus develop a good scoring strategy) ahead of time.  One of
the usual routines I go through in preparing for a tournament is to head
down to my local BLY/WMS and NON-BLY/WMS distributors and "borrow" copies
of manuals that describe rules to games I haven't played or seen or am
unfamiliar with.  By going over the rules to the game before I actually
play the game, I've a better chance of scoring more points on the game
because I know where all of the points are coming from and how to get them.

For example, in preparing for pinball Expo, I drove down to my NON-BLY/WMS
distributor and "borrowed" the Cue Ball Wizard manual (along with a couple
of flyers) a week before the tournament.  I read through the "game play"
section and discovered that there was a 1/2 billion shot on the game, and
knew exactly what I had to do to score it.  I also learned that there's a
mode where all points, jackpots, and awards are doubled, so that 1/2 billion
shot could be worth as much as 1 billion.  Obviously, I knew how I wanted to
play the game before I even stepped up to the machine for the first time to
press the start button.

Now it was just a matter of playing the game and determining the "drain"
shots and the "safe" shots.  These vary from game to game, but for the most
part a drain shot on one game is pretty much going to be a drain shot on
another game.  I always try to find the shots in a game that are "low drain
percentage shots" because there are times, like during multiball, when I
may want to get a ball out of the way real fast, and not have it drain.

Also, some other high scoring features may make themselves apparent after
a few plays.  I noticed one game I had "multiball" and "rowdy ramp round"
at the same time and realized I could add between 200-500M points to my
score by continuously sending both balls up the ramp, over and over again.

I also noticed that since I could enter wagon wheel rounds while playing
multiball, one of the best times to be working on the "spell double" round
was during multiball, preferably with one ball trapped on the right flipper,
set up for a quick shot into the left kickout hole.  Then the ball coming
off the ramp could get shot back up the ramp again, and then the ball that
got shot into the kickout hole could bounce off the right flipper, over to
the left, for another shot up the ramp.  With both balls cycling the ramp,
double letters start coming your way fast and furious.

These are a couple of examples of strategies that reveal themselves once
you know the basic rules to a game.  Good strategies can often times give
you an advantage over other players.

Speaking of advantages, I also noticed during play that if you have the
cue ball shot lit to launch the 8-ball to light the ramp for multiball,
and have pool ball mania lit on the ramp at the same time, if you forego
the cue ball/8-ball combination and shoot the ramp for pool ball mania
instead, when you come out of pool ball mania and shoot the ramp for 9-
ball, when the ball comes down the left return lane, the 8-ball will be
lit, and if you hit the cue ball into the upper green spot targets and
score the 8-ball, the 1/2 billion shot will light up immediately, so you
don't have to get the 1-7 ball targets in sequence before making the 8-
ball shot.  Maybe Mark Phaedrus could allocate me a cheap gamesmanship
ploy number for what I just described.

So you learn things by playing the game that you may never be able to learn
from a manual.  But the manual gets you to step 1, and playing the game after
reading the manual gets you to step 2.

Reading the manual does take a lot of the fun out of discovering game
features on your own, but if you're a busy person (I work full time, go
to graduate school, have a girlfriend, travel a lot, and spend way too
much of my free time posting to this newsgroup) it may be the only way
to learn a new game.  I really enjoy learning a game on my own, but if
I don't have the time and a tournament is rapidly approaching, well, um,
I guess I go and get the rules out of the manual.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a combination of knowing
the rules to the game and developing one or more good scoring strategies
to do well on a game.  This nonsense about owning a machine so you can take
the glass off and figure out which shots score the most points is just that,
nonsense.  You can do it, it will work (hey, I'd be lying if I said I didn't
play Dr. Who after the "lessons" were over with the glass off, but that was
*after* I had gotten inside the machine and thoroughly read the rules in the
manual), but my feeling is that it's overkill to own a game just to figure
out where all of the high scoring features are on a game.  That method is
just too out of reach for the average competitor.  Just get the rules, play
the game, develop strategies, and come tournament time, everything should
magically fall into place.

BTW, I will mention at this point, for those people who don't know, Jim
Schelberg, editor of the pinGame journal, listed in the FAQ, publishes the
rules to most of the new games in his magazine.  He also makes available
the rules to the tournament games, along with the tournament settings that
will be in effect.  He did so at the IFPA and Expo this year.  The "rules"
he usually publishes are often in the form of conversations with those who
designed the games(s) being reviewed, and most are very well done and cover
almost everything.  Nice job, Jim, I know you can't hear me, but maybe Jack
can pass the word along that your reviews are greatly appreciated.

--
Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
The MITRE Corporation
202 Burlington Road, Bedford MA 01730
email: lfs@mitre.org
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball