Game you like, game you hate (that you played at Pinburgh)

Shaq Attaq is a “Set the Table” kind of rule set. Players should use their first two balls to qualify the Modes and Multiball. Avoid starting any modes since you want them to run simultaneous, along with Multiball. If you can qualify all (4) modes and Multiball then you will find a hidden feature at mode start. Plunge a ball for “Alley Oop” when you want to save the mode start. Each Alley Oop shot also awards 1 Game Ball.

If you can get to that point (all 4 modes and Multiball qualified) before ball 3, go ahead and shoot the ramp to start the modes. On last ball, I would also go ahead and start the modes if they any waiting. During the mode(s), try to relock all balls into the ramp. Doing so (any Regular Multiball) awards Jackpot and lights Super Jackpot. Concentrate on the Vari Target for “Game Balls” and when the Mode Timer gets low, shoot the spinner (HORSE) to restart the mode timer. The only value in the HORSE mode is to keep all of the other modes going. When a ball gets to the top flippers, always try for the Drop Target.

Once you have played the four main modes, the “Finals” will light. Make sure that you have at least 5 Game Balls before starting this mode. You can earn Game Balls by completing the 1-2-3-4-5 feature and always say “NO” to a trade. When you start the finals, the game will prompt you to whether you want to take a risk. If you say “No”, then the mode will be worth 100M. However, if you say “Yes”, then you have the option to spend 5 Game Balls to play for 300M or spend 10 Game Balls to play for 500M.

If you get this far, then you need to change your strategy and try to complete the 5 hidden features, and at the same time, try to accumulate Game Balls. When you get “5”, always say “NO” to the trade prompt until you have EXACTLY 14 Game Balls. The award for 14 Game Balls is “Double Your Score”. Regarding the Hidden Features, since this is an End of Game bonus, it’s too risky for tournament play as a main strategy, however after you have played through the modes, it becomes important, since qualifying the modes the second time through gets harder. You can also play for "Slammin Jammin by spelling “SHAQUILLE” then going into Tip Off hole. This starts a three ball wizard mode where each switch scores 5M (3M Hard/10M Easy).

The Hidden Features are:
1- Take 5000 twice in Tip Off (Tournament Mode always has this as the first Tip Off each ball)(Take 3 times when set to “Hard”)
2- Get 1 Rebound (Drop Targets after 5X)
3- Playing Multimode level 5 (Start all 4 regular modes and Multiball at same time)
4- Relocking all active Multiballs in ramp during regular Multiball.
5- Get a ball into Hole during Drop Target MVP mode.

Finding 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 hidden features awards 10M, 30M, 100M, 300M, 1B respectively at End of Game.

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We hadn’t invented the “Tournament” game setting yet (1989). Tournament directors should try to avoid all games made that have “Mystery” features and no way to set game for tournament/competition. With a game like LCA, you could get “5,000” and the other player get “1,000,000”, then lose by 300,000 points.

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When set to the tournament setting, Shaq Attaq eliminates all random features. You always are offered 5,000 (LEFT) or 5 Basket Points (RIGHT) the first time each ball, then 5M the second time, etc. All players get the same sequence. If the tournament director forgot to set the game to “Tournament”, please don’t blame the game. As mentioned above, the real failure on Shaq was forgetting to address the automatic Multiball on last ball when in Tournament mode if you haven’t played regular Multiball yet.

Maybe someone can fix this and also add a setting to eliminate the “Nag” coach all together. )I wanted a game setting to eliminate the nagging coach, but was overruled by Marketing).

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Like: Dirty Harry.
I know it’s old news, but I’d never competed on it. After seeing DH in various streams over the last few years, I knew exactly what to do. Collected my first round of badges so quickly that another guy in my group asked if there was some kind of shortcut to multiball. Still only finished second, but I was happy to have a plan and execute it well.

Hate: Scuba
I’m not the kind of player who dreads short flipper games and/or thinks all EMs are luck. I mean, Snow Derby was the reason I chose a certain bank in C finals. Anyway, back to Scuba… ugh, what a crapshoot. If the bumpers complete a couple sets of bullseye targets for you on ball one, congrats! You win. Or if you get no bumper love until ball four, you’re drawing dead.

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Ahh, that’s very good to know, thanks for the info!

Do you have any insight into Mario Andretti? I played that in local league and got crushed by someone getting billion+ … still not sure where the points are in that game…

That was me. Haha. And I think it was 2 bills. It’s all about getting the last mode. Basically gets you a bill for getting there. Just keep playing all the modes.

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Yes, there was automatic minimum ball/game time, but this should be disabled when in tournament setting. If the feature is still active when in Tournament, then it was a bug that was never found and the tournament director will have to go into game settings and turn that feature off. It’s easy to test. Put game into tournament mode, then plunge three balls without flipping and see if the feature returns any balls without going to next ball in play.

Try to advance Super Jackpot before getting to World Championship. The easiest way to advance Super Jackpot is to play for Stop Watch and get a time less than 3 seconds.Super Jackpot is the third award offered on the left flipper when completing a race “Checkered Flag”. You can also collect during regular Multiball (Difficult), but during World Championship, each lap completed collects it. This is where the big points are!

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Liked: HRC
:-1:t5:: Big Guns

Big guns?!? Blasphemy!! Haha

Liked: Cyclopes (primarily because we had one in league for years and I know the rules)

Hated: Road Kings!
A hard plunge causes the ball to rebound down the right side of the playfield into the outlane! F! Also locking a ball in the left interior orbit causes a game tilt. I discovered that after the tourney when I went around and exorcised all my bad scores.

If someone gave me a Road Kings I’d probably get all Todd Tuckey on it and throw it off a roof.

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Liked - Lost in Space
Hated with a passion - Star Wars (Stern)

Road Kings is a cool game. The things you describe were happening because the game was not working as intended and needs a little help from the tech staff.

It was giving BS tilts all day, one with a tournament director directly watching as it happened while someone was scoring a jackpot, " YOU WIN … TILT"

I tried to convince the TD that the game should be looked at and fixed because in my opinion it was not in tournament condition. The TD’s response was “I disagree I think it’s functioning fine and properly”.

Crabtowne has one for a bit still I think :slight_smile:

I was the TD watching a game on it, immediately after a tilt I opened the door and showed the players how much the tilt bob was swinging. I also tested it between rounds activating every switch with a ball and could not trigger a tilt. No evidence of malfunction = game is functioning fine.

I played four full games of it in playtesting, then played it again between rounds on Thursday and on Saturday night. It seemed tough but fair.

Like: Faces. I’m a sucker for Sonic games.

Hate: Cactus Jack’s. Everything about that game is bad, and it got worse when after I had finished my ball 3, the player behind me figured out that if you just keep shooting the left ramp, you’ll eventually get 3,000,000 points. He hit 26 of 29 in a row and crushed the group (since he was P3, Ball 3).

I probably hate all games with the pointy, steep Gottlieb flippers…with the exception of Title Fight (in the free play area, not in a bank), which I thought had a unique enough layout to overcome.

I like Sonic games too, but this and Butterfly are just horrible. Faces acts like the gate being open is this awesome thing, like the entire point of the game, but all it does is make the ball never go into the top saucer again, so it just sucks. Bonus winds up being difficult to build up, so it’s almost never maxed, meaning the spinners are never fun to hit. It just falls flat in every possible way AFAIC.

That’s just blasphemy! Once you get the multiball gag and you’re shooting 500K watermelons everywhere, it shouldn’t be too difficult to overcome someone doing a Jack’s Pot strat. I mean, if you can shoot the ramp 8 times in a row or whatever it is, then great! That’s a pretty difficult feat in general, though, compared to spamming the left orbit.

Just don’t shoot the multiball start or the kickback and you’re golden :slight_smile:

Seriously though, don’t want to get into it much more here but would love to continue discussion privately or in another thread as I (and presumably others) have different opinions on what is “fair”.