On location with replays enabled, the replay score usually gets jacked up after the first replay is claimed and then drops after a bit. Obviously this is operator-configurable, but many operators use the default settings.
Many Sterns I’ve encountered in the wild are set to do a thing where the replay will double when earned and then reset to the original or near the original score after the first “loss”. So on Metallica, say, the replay will go 25-50-75-(lose)28-56 etc. Other modern titles will have a little variation, but most games post-1993 or so seem to default to the replay score not getting bumped until the multiplayer game has been completed.
This has led to me starting two- or four-player games when I see a low replay score so I can pick up four free games. Then play single player games until the replay drops again and put on another multiplayer game. In the process you’re usually getting a special or match every couple games. Repeat until you’re bored, hit a string of bad balls, or someone else wants to play.
I used to do this a long time ago and thought it was really clever. Now there are a variety of reasons I’d rather not, which include being “that guy” hogging a location game and the annoyance of having 4 games in progress.
Yeah I did this as a street rat sometimes myself when I was younger and… more street-ratty. I wouldn’t these days as I’d value the continuity of play a lot more.
I actually started doing this when trying to practice for normal competitive play, breaking up turns and re-setting every ball is a lot more like the usual competitive flow. I don’t do as well as the singleplayer games in general, but I think it helps consistency.
Well hell yeah! It also quadruples your chances of matching! Game hogging on location around here is a non-issue. There’s hardly ever anybody waiting to play.
The risk of doing this is if you’re not familiar with the specific machine, and it turns out to have significant malfunctions that make it not fun or impossible to play. Now you’ve thrown away a few dollars instead of $1 or less.
I have totally done this. Place was dead and I put ina bunch of money to get the bonus credits and just cause I knew I was gonna be playing alone for like 2 hours or more. Played one game and the game was unplayable due to issues. Haha. One game at a time from then on.
If practicing for competition is the objective of playing a game on location, I find myself taking the game more seriously when focused on only one game at a time as opposed to trying to “Bobby Fischer” 4 games simultaneously all at different states of play.
“On P1 game I only go for multiball!
On P2 game I only play out modes!
On P3 game, shatz all day! That’s when you shoot the ball into the opposing inlane on purpose!
On P4 game, I just combo ramps!”
-Street rat talking to annoyed casuals who are waiting to play
I don’t do it, as I lose track of the progress of each of those games if I have more than one game going at a time. By the time the next score’s ball comes back, I’ve forgotten what I’ve done with that “player.”
Also, I’m so sick of people having 4-player games who mash the start button or don’t understand you don’t have to push it after each drain and I watch them play all 12 balls that I don’t want to ever do it myself.
@SunsetShimmer Button-mashing is usually only a problem when games are on freeplay, if the games are on freeplay then there’s no point in getting replays so no need to do this.
As for “forgetting where you are” - that’s another reason to do it, in my opinion. It’s good practice for when you sometimes have to wait fifteen minutes between balls in league or a tournament. You get more used to checking your visual cues, checking the game status, etc.
That’s a good point–it makes sense to become good at keeping track of four games’ worth of progress at once on the same machine. As for mashing the start button, yeah, I mostly see it when machines are set to free play, but I go to enough of these places that it becomes annoying.
