Blacklisted Games - please share

[JSwain]

It’s incredibly long playing despite being a non multiball heavy stern. Some crazy scoring strategies but nothing game breaking I’ve seen right now.

[chuckwurt]

I didn’t really care for the clunky nature of it. Tons of airballs. Everything seems to send the ball flying.

[ryanwanger]

@chesh

Lots and lots and lots of folks hate DE Simpsons, and while I’ve only played it at shows, I need to know why. Tell me why?

Many things:

1. Lots of airballs (mostly off the bowling pin targets). I probably need to get in there and see if I can bend the wire backstop behind them. After I’ve done that, I’m sure it will just rebend itself within a few games.
2. No ball save (it’s the only game at the location that doesn’t have one)
3. Massive outlanes. Mine has little holes in the playfield, as though someone at one point put some nails in there.
4. Something exciting happening? LET’S TURN THE GI ON AND OFF A DOZEN TIMES. I put LEDs in mine, and then had to redo it with dimmer bulbs, but it’s still too bright.
   4a) This game has 47 flashers in it. FORTY SEVEN. I left them as incandescent but it’s still a seizure inducing nightmare.
5. The only thing worth doing is shooting the left ramp over and over and over and over. Once you’ve spelled MILLIONS, then it’s a million points a shot for 15ish seconds. Since it returns back to the right flipper, this shot can be looped.
6. Not applicable to league players: sure, I haven’t worked on every game ever made, but one crucial thing makes it the most difficult game I’ve taken apart. The ramp goes through the backpanel and comes back out to the other side…but the game doesn’t have service rails. It pivots up (like say, Addams Family), but it doesn’t slide out at all. When you pivot it up, the ramp doesn’t quite scrape the bottom of the cabinet, but usually it pins the wiring harness…and even if you’ve moved it out of the way, the ramp is so close to the bottom of the cabinet that you can’t access any part of it. Need to work on anything back there (like: the ramp cover has fallen off, a ball is stuck, it needs cleaning, or you want to replace one of the 10ish bulbs behind the backpanel)? You’ll need to remove the entire playfield from the cabinet! And since the GI bulbs are stapled into place, instead of sockets with hex screws, you essentially have to remove the ramp to access many of the GI bulbs, which, surprise, also involves removing the entire playfield from the cabinet. Once you remove the ramp from the game, it’s constructed as one continuous 5ish? foot long piece, which you have to try and evenly support while trying to place it on a surface large enough. It’s like wrestling with a transparent, flasher bearing, octopus.
7. It has a real mirrored backglass. So that’s nice.

[travam]

1. There should be a metal protector under the plastic above the drop targets. Remove the plastic, remove the metal protector, reverse the metal protector so it over hangs the drops. Re-instal plastic. Drop target airballs are now eliminated.

2. The playfield seems to be drilled this way from the factory. Likely for the option to install woodscrew style outlane mini posts.

While I agree the with left ramp all day monotany can get boring for sure. On the one I op the ramp isn’t in the sweet spot of the flipper so repeat looping is significantly more difficult. Possibly slightly steeper aligned flippers? The airball fix above also makes multiball a much easier reached goal. The one I have plays more like other DE’s of the era where multiball is the real strategy. It still sucks for a high level tournament with the mystery awards and million letter carryovers but I think there are some built in software adjustments for them. I haven’t heard any complaints during weekly tournaments other than that the outlanes are brutal. All in all a pretty fun single player game but without some further digging probably not a good high level tournament game.

Edit: Tilt turns my point 3. Reply into a 2. on it’s own for some reason.

[WWJ]

@ryanwanger

No ball save (it’s the only game at the location that doesn’t have one)

Neither does TAF, does that make it unsuitable for tournaments, Would you not want it on location?

@ryanwanger

The only thing worth doing is shooting the left ramp over and over and over and over. Once you’ve spelled MILLIONS, then it’s a million points a shot for 15ish seconds. Since it returns back to the right flipper, this shot can be looped.

There are so many games around that have a similar, safe, loop the ramp strategy. EarthShaker, Elvira ATPM, Hurricane, Bad Cats & Surf ‘n’ Safari spring to mind instantly.

There’s definitely things to dislike about Simpsons, but no more than most other games of a similar era

[unsmith]

@nudgey

As mentioned already, Data East Simpsons for the “catch-up” feature which literally catches your score up to another player.

Can you explain this one in a bit more detail please? I tried to do some research but couldn’t come up with much. Does this actually make your score the same as your opponent? Can it be turned off?

A location near me has one that’s regularly used for classics tournaments, but I can’t say I’ve ever come across this feature. It seems like something quite undesirable to have in a competitive setting.

[chesh]

@ryanwanger

Not applicable to league players: sure, I haven’t worked on every game ever made, but one crucial thing makes it the most difficult game I’ve taken apart. The ramp goes through the backpanel and comes back out to the other side…but the game doesn’t have service rails. It pivots up (like say, Addams Family), but it doesn’t slide out at all. When you pivot it up, the ramp doesn’t quite scrape the bottom of the cabinet, but usually it pins the wiring harness…and even if you’ve moved it out of the way, the ramp is so close to the bottom of the cabinet that you can’t access any part of it. Need to work on anything back there (like: the ramp cover has fallen off, a ball is stuck, it needs cleaning, or you want to replace one of the 10ish bulbs behind the backpanel)? You’ll need to remove the entire playfield from the cabinet! And since the GI bulbs are stapled into place, instead of sockets with hex screws, you essentially have to remove the ramp to access many of the GI bulbs, which, surprise, also involves removing the entire playfield from the cabinet. Once you remove the ramp from the game, it’s constructed as one continuous 5ish? foot long piece, which you have to try and evenly support while trying to place it on a surface large enough. It’s like wrestling with a transparent, flasher bearing, octopus.

Holy. Crap. That sounds like absolute torture! So now of course I want one because I really, really like torturing our techs.

[jeff_rivera]

@chesh

Holy. Crap. That sounds like absolute torture! So now of course I want one because I really, really like torturing our techs.

I owned one for years and it was quite a hassle to shop the game out. Any time it starts to look a little dirty, you start to get the sweats just thinking about dealing with it.

[ryanwanger]

@WWJ

Neither does TAF, does that make it unsuitable for tournaments, Would you not want it on location?

My reply was to @chesh, who asked why people hate it. I wasn’t making any claims about whether or not it is appropriate for tournaments. Though it makes sense to interpret that, since this convo is happening in a “blacklisted games” thread.

Also, don’t be ridiculous in comparing one of the most beloved games of all time to Simpsons “AMOA award winner for Best Pinball Game of 1990” Data East just because they share a lack of ball saver.

@travam

There should be a metal protector under the plastic above the drop targets. Remove the plastic, remove the metal protector, reverse the metal protector so it over hangs the drops. Re-instal plastic. Drop target airballs are now eliminated.

Mine doesn’t have this plastic at all.

@travam

The playfield seems to be drilled this way from the factory. Likely for the option to install woodscrew style outlane mini posts.

Where do I get these?

[travam]

Marco has them probably others as well. This is what I was referring to.

Mini post wood screw

[JSwain]

Hey I’m one of those this year!

[ScoutPilgrim]

@jeff_rivera

Any time it starts to look a little dirty, you start to get the sweats just thinking about dealing with it.

I’ve WATCHED one get shopped. That is suffering to even watch. @chesh, do this only at your own risk. The techs may rebel.

[chuckwurt]

Just got the T2 bug two days ago. It happened when I was trapped on the left flipper and playing with the right.

Shot the head, collected one super, then before the game could even finish with the animation for the super I shot the ball back up there and collected a second one. But the second one didn’t give me points.

Then the game was acting all kinds of goofy and was doing random call outs for no reason. Seemed fine after I drained though.

[soren]

Stop press. @chuckwurt.

The shot for the second, was it two shots? One for the drop target first. Or was the drop target already down.

Is your drop target working? Solenoid and sense switch.

Was there an extra ball awarded in the mix?

[chuckwurt]

Drop target works. However, sometimes you can get the ball with some top spin and it will hit the drop, and the top spin will carry it through to the VUK.

In this situation this is what happened:

Collected SJP #1, hit the ball back up to the head, knocked the drop down, drop catch on the right flipper and right back into the head. collected SJP #2. No points awarded. I got an extra ball during that ball, but it was before I started the MB that awarded me (or should have awarded me) the two SJPs.

[Snailman]

@chuckwurt

collected SJP #2. No points awarded.

That kind of T2 SJP is called a Super JoshPot, right @pinwizj?

[pinwizj]

@Snailman

That kind of T2 SJP is called a Super JoshPot, right @pinwizj?

Can’t remember . . . I totally blocked out PAPA 14 from my mind. Something about finishing 2nd . . .

[PressStart]

Guess I shouldn’t tell you that I actually have 48 T2’s now then???

[scochar]

@ChubbyGoomba

I kept Orbitor 1 out of the playoffs in my tournament on Sunday for this very reason. I just didn’t wanna hear it, even though I think it’s a perfectly valid game, as long as you set minimum game time to 90 seconds.

There is a no minimum game time required set of roms in existence, available from ipdb.

[scochar]

@stevevt

@ScoutPilgrim

Start Multiball, drain to 2 balls, lock a ball, ball is plunged into shooter lane.

I used to have a Firepower and I never saw this behavior. Is it consistent or random?

It happens because the game will reward you during multiball with a relock if you complete the 1-6 standups again, and then lock the ball with a ball already drained, it will put a ball in the shooter lane, IIRC it will eject the locked ball as well.

I haven’t played stock firepower code for years on mine though, and mine certainly doesn’t behave like that. The locks during multiball are cached (you see them flash a couple times when you earn them) and then after the multiball is over, they will light.