Not surprised to see the updated ROM haters making an appearance in this thread, I totally disagree however. For Demo Man, modified ROM is the way to go, especially if you’re comfortable that your claw will be reliable. Having only ever played it in tournaments, I found the game underwhelming despite the cool flowing layout. The soren rom fixes that and adds a few very simple strategic choices that make the game far more entertaining and IMO, more compelling for both tournament and non-tournament play.
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Disabling the claw lends itself to a lot of extra in-game decision making and strat adjusting on the fly.
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Aren’t the claw awards given in a specific order when the claw is disabled?
Yes. And you need to decide when you’re going to use the Award Freeze one, based on whether you’ll need to blow up the game, play for a safe score, use it in conjunction with the first Computer award, etc.
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Thanks for all the replies! You guys definitely aren’t making this an easy decision, lol
I believe the game shines when you get full strategic control over when to pull the Quick freeze. And while still being able to gain on mode pety points, have Demo time as a long term goal and have the right ramp as an in-the-flow ball transfer left to right. On some games the Start multiball lane is just a brick.
Some pretty day a mod v2 will arise with a “Claw millions” DMD page and x millions awarded. When choosing awards already lit. The v1 of lit Quick freese goes Super jets was the avalable nails.
Either modifications mentioned here for this game needs to be addressed to players. As any modification should. Personally I disable shaker motors for competitions. And even that I make players aware of. It is a game feedback not there. Super jackpot made, for instance.
The mods now have ready to print info sheets. The one for Demo man looks like this.
Get it here.
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One other factor is time. The claw will likely statistically significantly increase average game time.
Now if one could get the car crash to act like the bell from AC/DC and be a global playfield multiplier… that’s a ROM I’d be interesting in playing.
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That could be an interesting strategy addition - take a place on the playfield no one ever shoots on purpose and give it a purpose.
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Ha. Now we are talking creativite changes.
However, you will now also see next the challange when doing things like this. Which is something I hold in high regard. How should the game communicate this to the player? ACDC have playfield lights for this. This is a fixed playfield. So, how?
Is it Indy500 that makes a border on the DMD indicating that 3x scoring is active?
3 seashell decal set for those yellow circle inserts … I know a guy 
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Check.
I’ve always thought all you had to do to make Demo Man perfect is to make Lock Freeze only give you ONE freeze, instead of maximize them.
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I’d rather you could never use it for freezes, but could always use it to start MB, since that left orbit can be such a pain.
I feel like I’m making those exact same decisions with the claw enabled, but now also adding in a decision as to which claw award to choose. Is the difference that the game stops the flow momentarily for the player to choose an award/mode? I don’t really understand why having the claw disabled would be different in the way you describe.
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Award Freeze is such an overpowering award that there’s really no choice to be made, at least in competition. It’s so overpowering, in fact, that the tournament strat with the claw enabled is to get the claw lit and get this award over and over.
This is why Soren’s updated ROM prevents one from choosing freeze more than once, until all the other claw awards have been taken. Choosing freeze a second time (or over and over) will award super pops instead. As he described above, this is the only change he made to the game. Otherwise, I completely agree that disabling the claw with the unmodified ROM is preferable.
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I didn’t realize you were talking about enabling the claw but using the modified ROM in your previous post. Now I get it.
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i’m not a TD, but i would very much prefer the ROM. A lot of the fun and appeal of pinball is all the unique mechanical doodads under the glass. disabling this game’s PRIMARY DOODAD when there is a viable solution available to keep using it, just seems like a tragedy to me. Plus, this particular doodad gives the player a series of strategic choices to make, and with the updated ROM, none of those choices are so overpowered that any one of them are the only viable one.
i bet a lot of newer players walk up to that game and see the claw with those five different wireform paths, and are curious / excited to get to use it, only to be disappointed in most tournaments to find that it’s completely disabled.
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Those newer players must really enjoy Guardians (Groot disabled), Walking Dead (Prison doors disabled), Metallica Premium (hammer disabled) … just to name a few