Correct.
An INDISC satellite event this Thurs thru Sun!
https://www.facebook.com/731127043616618/posts/4975179142544699/?sfnsn=mo
Don’t miss it!
INDISC scorekeeping volunteering signups are now available! Each 2 hour shift earns $20 in credit towards entries and, as always, the eternal gratitude of the INDISC team. Signups can be found here - INDISC 2022 Volunteer Schedule - Google Sheets
Some additional help is also needed to staff our check-in and help desks. Please email iepinball@gmail.com if you are interested in helping out in those positions!
We’re also very pleased to announce the 2022 INDISC Challenges, sponsored by the Capitol Corridor Pinball League! All challenge winners will receive a limited edition commemorative challenge coin to celebrate their victory (or defeat!) - INDISC Challenges 2022 – INDISC & The Open IFPA World Championship
4 Likes
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this tournament a reality. I had an exhausting weekend just playing in it, I am incredibly grateful for the sheer effort that went into getting everything out together.
It was super fun to get to share the stream with friends and family and have them see that pinball isn’t just some weird hobby played in dive bars and basements (not that there’s anything wrong with either).
The venue was fantastic, the games played great and the tech work both video wise and physically on the games was top notch.
6 Likes
As someone who wasn’t able to make the trip, I still thoroughly enjoyed it through the extensive streaming that took place. What a well run production from a viewer’s perspective with very little downtime between games and a bunch of excellent people working the commentary booth. Every single person I saw do commentary brought something different to the table and kept the stream fresh while I basically had it running non-stop all weekend.
I have yet to watch any of the Olympics but I watched at least a dozen hours of INDISC this weekend. Really, I think that says it all.
3 Likes
Dear @pinwizj and @Adam. Thanks for the mostly kind and fairly accurate talk and modified software.
Though I have to say. Pinball machines of all makes and all ages are well known to break down left, right and center. Let alone in a multiday high level event. Yet, on games with custom software, I hear that gets blamed for each and every mishab. Amazing. Gentlemen, you are far far off. The changes in these mod-roms are a lot more isolated than you think. No way that VUK on DM was affected. And btw that mod was later superceeded by a far superior one.
On the topic of motivation to change rules for older games, you left out removal of lock stealing on games with physical locks. With locks progression reinstated as lock lit(s). As a change to make a game tourney worthy. And that is by far the hardest thing to do. By miles the toughest to pull of. And to test. Testing possible means of balls moving in and out of the lock trough from player to player. Including tilt and airballs. Nightmare.
There were talk on scoring adjustment on TOM and TAF. Those are misunderstandings and incorrect. In fact, I have done very little scoring adjustment in my work. It has mostly been in cases where display and actual would differ. Ironically, changing scoring is the easiest thing to do. One could roll around changing scores in games all day and call that a fix, if so desired.
No crap, Josh. Only good stuff!
Jurassic Park and other mods of DE games is not me. Hey, Chad.
I would love to fix T2 but have no evidence of the 255 hits to multiball bug. The route to provoke it. Help needed.
Sorcerer, @kdeangelo. Pretty sure, that is me as well. Delivered to Jim quite some time ago, as a beta(!!), with request to assist on testing sessions, if he chose to use it. I guess it is tested now alright. If there is footage of this in action, I would like to study it. Thanks.
Thanks Jim. And team INDISC.
PS
Rollergames “mystery” would award Sudden death on third visit. And already second visit if all lock are lit. Otherwise second is Light lock.
3 Likes
Congratulations to the INDISC crew for pulling off a SPECTACULAR event. As a fellow organizer/TD, I was in awe of the production and attention to detail. The level of expense, planning, and execution required to pull that off is just mind boggling. I hope y’all have a vacation planned after this!
6 Likes
I don’t know if there was footage, but I played the modded Sorcerer a number of times during qualifying, and it seemed to work flawlessly. It’s a very good rules/software mod, in my opinion – opening up the game for more use of the entire playfield, as well as added decision-making. The latter instance: you drop out of multiball with SORCERER completed and spinners lit. So you’re left with the choice of just ripping the juicy lit spinner for the normal lit value, or taking your chances with getting to the drops area to complete them for lit lock(s). Again, really great rules mod. Still preserved the “heart” of the game, if that wording makes sense.
5 Likes
Hey Soren,
You’re right that it’s completely unfair to always blame modified ROMs for any and all physical and/or software problems with a game in a tournament and I pledge to do a better job in the future to not jump to any conclusions! I will also try and remember that indeed the greatest benefit of the modified ROMs is the work you (and others) do to correct lock stealing (and Jackpot values), which is arguably the most unfair aspect of many unmodified games used in tournaments. In our defense, it was late on Saturday night of a VERY long week and trying to just sound coherent at all on stream is a challenge. I’ll take this moment to personally thank you for your hard work on Radical!, which is one of my favorite tournament games and has gone from begin completely unusable with lock stealing AND random jackpot awards to an awesome, challenging work of art!
On Theatre of Magic, I meant that changing the bonus multiplier to advance by 1x instead of 2x didn’t change anyone’s behavior on the game and just encouraged even more shooting the left orbit all day, but I won’t indict any of your changes without full understanding of what they are, and honestly that’s the crux for me on any rule changes beyond JP values and lock stealing. I get incredibly frustrated as a player when decades of experience playing a certain title suddenly has to be thrown away because of some “new” change… but I guess you should take it as a compliment that your name has become the “Xerox” of modified ROMs, lol… That is, “Does the game have a Soren ROM ?” is a generic question for “Does the game have any modified software from its production ?” - even if you had nothing to do with it, :-).
I care mostly about playing pinball competitively, so a change like: you no longer get a “free” multi-ball start lit on ball 3" for a Data East game where I’ve gotten a free multi-ball start lit on ball 3 for the last 25 years are the ones that drive me insane, especially if they aren’t clearly listed as such on the backglass. (Side note, INDISC always does an awesome job of posting all the software changes for each game, but not every tournament does as well.)
In closing, I pledge to praise the blessings of “Soren” ROMS more often and only blame them for issues that are proven to be true!
Zach McCarthy’s Chaperone
PS
Thanks for that explanation!! I saw Sudden Death awarded on 4th, 3rd, and 2nd mystery, and could NOT figure out what the hell was going on, but that makes sense… I just wish we understood that nuance going into the World Championships, lol…
1 Like
Sorcerer was not done by @Soren. I’m not sure if the person who created the mod would like to be outed so I won’t do that before asking. But it’s really great, IMO. Really.
Demo Man, I’m not sure TBH. The problem disappeared after power cycling it all day sunday. Could it be related to heat bothering the 12V line and bugging out the optos? Perhaps. But I tend to think there’s some sort of data leak causing the game to become confused after X number of plays. I could never find fault with the optos testing them, and I was able to duplicate this problem (after a lot of ball in hand work trying a variety of stuff) as occurring when scoring a super jackpot once the first multiball started. I feel like I saw the claw bug out maybe once or twice using it at league and having it on location for a solid year but league players are not as good obviously, so it never really presented itself until it was being played enough and hit enough.
Also, whatever this potential software problem might be, may very well be present in the original rom. Didn’t mean to imply a problem specifically with the modifications.
All cool, Adam. And yes it is clearly heard in the voices of commentators (and Karl) that it was the conclusion of hard three days of pinball. It was great to enjoy you commentating again and see junior rock a game or two. Hope to meet you some day.
We all know the frustration of features in a tough competition game to not becoming available as assumed. The thing where you invest in an all or nothing strat to reach a mode/MB. And then it turns out to require more work than expected. Modded ROM can be guilty of this. But surprise adjustements to factory ROMs as well.
I tell myself that an organiser must be allowed to design the event. To be in charge and decide. Including game choice and their setup. But I urge awareness on game settings. Know what you have. And do not assume it plays as “standard”. Check up on it. If I as an attendee is made aware of non-standard configuration, I am happy. I can even accept games with defects to some extend. As long as I am in the know.
After a little investigation I can say, that Sorcerer at INDISC was zero percent modded by me. Sorry for assuming some credit to it. Yes, I did one and presented it to Jim who chose not to use that game (for INDISC 2020). And I shelved it, as I had no access to a game for testing myself. Good work Jay et al.
1 Like
A record grand total of 9,521.52 WPPRs were awarded to 259 players across the 6 events at Indisc. Totals by event were:
Event WPPRs
Classics Target Match Play 1052.70 - Winner - Adam McKinnie
Classics 1 1573.26 - Winner - Robert Byers
Classics 2 1540.75 - Winner - Escher Lefkoff
High Stakes 1809.97 - Winner - Keith Elwin
The Open 3297.66 - Winner - Zach McCarthy
Womens 247.18 - Winner - Keri Wing
The highest regular event point totals by player, through #11 to include all winners, were:
Rank Player WPPRs
1 Keith Elwin 299.55
2 Zach McCarthy 266.76
3 Raymond Davidson 264.74
4 Escher Lefkoff 259.19
5 Cayle George 220.82
6 Colin Urban 191.78
7 Robert Byers 175.78
8 Zach Sharpe 167.86
9 Travis Murie 157.54
10 Germain Mariolle 155.89
11 Adam McKinnie 153.95
Congratulations to our winners and to EVERYONE who participated.
Bob Matthews for the Indisc Team
10 Likes
So did Keith with the Ruler of the Universe Challenge or is it different since it is for “best combined performance in The Open, High Stakes and Classics (I or II, whichever is better).”?
That does seem like a good indication but until it’s made official (probably in the next week or two) your educated guess is as good as mine.
Here’s what I have; I’ll wait for Karl to make it official.
| ROTU Challenge Player | WPPRs |
|---|---|
| Keith Elwin | 265.68 |
| Raymond Davidson | 253.30 |
| Zach McCarthy | 225.15 |
| Escher Lefkoff | 208.81 |
| Cayle George | 206.27 |
BTW, my estimated WPPRs for Zach winning The Open when we spoke Sunday night was about 145; actual was 146.37, the most ever for a single event. Zach was ranked 88th before Indisc; he’s now 18th. That’s what I call a Major move.
ohhh close one! i guess 5/2/1 on Main/Classic/High stake compare to Ray 4/3/2 made the difference!
amazing event - so well run - been on a high all week! thanks to all involved.
3 Likes