I’m reasonably confident that you have enough time to get in all three needed hits to the Recognizer during the grace period if you did it perfectly. I’ve pulled off two hits on many occasions.
Relatedly, if you’re trying not to stack multiballs, each one has an audio clue that plays as the MB total is displayed. Listen for that. It’s a longer wait than you were probably expecting. 
Oddly enough, Good Ol Boys didn’t pause the timer when performed in the same order.
Good Ol Boys can be worth a lot more than Chicken fight, especially when stacked with Crazy Chris, so maybe there was some thought put into pausing timers.
FGY is an awesome stacking game. Stack Stewie MB, Crazy Chris and Good Ol Boys (or Ipecac) for huge points. Of all the games I’ve sold over the years, I miss that game the most.
I don’t think the mode itself pauses it, more likely you were putting the ball into the pops more during chicken fight (switch frenzy) and shooting the ramp and lanes during GoB. I’ve found the pops tend to pause the FGY timer. Start a mode and immediately get Stewie going, keep putting balls in the pops and the mode will last forever.
I didn’t change up the strategy at all, which makes this odd - I was trying to cash out the last few seconds of Chris by alternating loop to ramp as I was before. I didn’t hit the mystery, either.
It seems like the mode froze the timer and started it back up after the Fight was over.
That’s strange because FG doesn’t stop the timer during a trap up. If you don’t want to chicken fight you can let the chicken kick your butt on a single trap up.
Chicken Fight started life as a video mode, so it’s extremely possible a couple things fell through the cracks when it got emergency-changed into a real mode.
(The emergency was that it wasn’t any fun.)
Came here to say just that… I know I’ve had other modes last forever during a Stewie MB, but seems like CF pauses more than most?
BTW how did anyone get Pat Lawlor to even entertain the idea of a video mode? I thought he hated them…
What about safecracker that had the big board game?
It plays as a board game, not a video mode. If you set the knob spins to sequential (recommended), there’s skill in stopping the dial on the number you want, and you have to make ‘random’ selections at times, but otherwise it plays out like a board game. Roll a number, move spaces and deal with whatever you land on. Try to move your man to the middle for multiball. No mini-videogames on the display, but still the closest PL ever got to a video mode.
NGG teases with video mode in the Gofer Choice sequence, but it’s a fake award that’s never chosen.
Hahaha. Nice. Was this the first example of pin developers trolling the player with a fake mystery/choice award?
Several examples before this:
Not exactly a video mode.
Remember, Safe Cracker was an experiment. To gain some interest in Euro markets where slot machines were gaining popurarity (*). Slot machines have these top games light sequences that players build up (good old “keep them playing” trick). I guess the SC board game was to intrique people in a similar fashion.
*) Several Lawlor interviews. Actually he name these game “Trail games”. Which to this day is a mystery to me. Eventhough being European, I have no idea what these are. If not “classic” slots. Sound like covert money games. I once suggested Jonathan Joosten to look into it.
Road show too at the souvenier shop. Cute how Lawlor decided, no, video game gimmicks do not belong here. And stuck with this.
Phantom Haus is a better example of Wms trying to make a game like the European trail games. In the end, a lot of those ideas got baked into their successful Monopoly slot machines (among other games).
I heard that Safecracker was originally going to be Monopoly? I don’t have any confirmation but it makes some sense.
Consider it confirmed, but I don’t know much more than that either.
I think Cftbl had a new car as one.
Tommy had enable free play as one.
DCoS-UPK request: On Getaway, what determines how many 1M loops a lit Supercharger shot will give you? I’ve seen some weird cargo cult like behavior on that shot, with people repeatedly pushing the gear lever, thinking they coud control the loop magnet that way.
And here’s something I just learned watching the NWPC: A backhand to the Supercharger ramp will probably not make all the way up, but if you’re in the qualify jackpot phase in multiball, with one ball already looping in the Supercharger, just making it halfway up will add 10 loops.
123 Target hits. Every hit adds 1m. Still need to complete 123 before it times out to actually light. Caps at 10m.
It’s different on l1 but better left unsaid.
And getting high enough to trigger opto and come back down adds 20 (e.g. During super qualifying)
Cheers, here’s another DCoS-UPK request for Getaway: I hear this all the time, but I’ve never actually seen it, is there actually a pixel you can place your car on that will get you through the video mode without steering?