I had to play around a bit to understand the Streak rules. To clarify:
Once you lower the center bank, if you finish CHEESE using only the center ramp, then you earn the streak bonus of up to 600k, 100k * number of letters earned on the center ramp. This is only earned when CHEESE is completed. It’s not timed. If the center ramp is open and you earn a CHEESE letter elsewhere (left ramp, right ramp, or right target), you forfeit the Streak Bonus.
The one change I would make from the Hard install is to change Ad.35 BUILD MILLION from HARD to MEDIUM. The HARD setting makes the Million arrows unlight when you hit them, and this isn’t fun when combined with the Streak/Cheese motor bank settings, IMHO. INDISC had this set to Medium too. BTW, the manual lists the options for this as “Easy, Medium, Hard, Ex. Hard”, but it’s actually “Ex. Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard”.
The reference for Streak run is when the bank is lowered (not the first center ramp shot).
WIth CHEESE already, the ramp may be opened. But it will close at first shot.
The train of thoughts was like this.
Lets make the center ramp looping limited.
CHEESE completion is the only realistic rule possible for this.
Ok, but center targets are dangerous, so this will knock center ramp from one extreme to the other.
Good, then lets make a treat for those who can pull if off and indeed loop the ramp.
Great, but light kickback is too mean now the ramp may close before three shots are made.
Fair point, lets give it on center ramp shot to close even at “1” or “2”.
I see the point of having MILLION on medium for - next objective after Streak bonus. So, TD’s may set this if they like to.
Used this ROM for the Ohio SCS this weekend, and encountered what may be a bug in the ROM. I was able to reproduce it with the glass off using these steps:
Motor Bank Adjustment set to CHEESE
I had also set the 2x playfield duration to 20 seconds (may not be relevant)
Start multiball
Open center ramp
Spell cheese using only center ramp shots
Shoot both traps to light jackpot
Hit jackpot shot
Result: Instead of awarding a jackpot, the right ramp awarded a “Cheesy Bonus” and the diverter closed. The jackpot light continued to flash and the traps did not re-open. Re-spelling cheese allows you to re-open the diverter, but a shot to the JP hole still only awards a cheesy bonus and closes the diverter once again.
Two players managed to trigger this same issue in practice, so luckily I was aware of it and able to troubleshoot a bit before putting it back in the tournament. After some experimenting, I found that setting the motor bank adjustment to STREAK seemed to fix the problem (not 100% sure though; luckily none of the players managed to hit a JP in the actual tournament )
I’m not 100% confident in these steps; I only had a limited amount of time to play around with the machine on the day of the event and I no longer have access to it.
Thanks for the thorough analysis and description of the problem you have experienced. I really appreciate that you chose to use this software. And that you took the time to investigate and report when things went fishy.
Preliminary forensics show that this is a problem with your mouse hole enter switch (32) being flacky. That it is mandatory for this switch to register in order for the jackpot to be awarded, when the ball reaches the mouse hole exit release mech. I will investigate further when I get around to my game (it is operated in town).
Unrelated to the modded software. Unrelated to feature adjustments.
I understand that this may sound like a doubtful explaination. Why would it be made like this?
Pinball logic is more than core game rules. Sometimes it is to counter failing switches and ghost switch hits. Sometimes it is timing and choreography (this was source to the Diner bug discovered last week). Sometimes it is to counter “bad” players.
Mousin Around has a three ball positions trough there in the back panel. Originally planned to lock balls. It is wise to make games totally immune to players shoving it around. In terms of making stationary balls wiggle on their switch and re-trigger them. I guess this is why.
The reason for the behaviour BonusLord reported is confirmed. It is all important that the Mouse hole entry switch registeres. Otherwise the game will not award jackpot and instead end up in a bad state. Verified for factory L-4 software.
Thanks for the info! I figured that it may turn out to be a mechanical issue, although I had no idea that there were multiple switches within the mouse hole.
It was obviously planned for something that was scrapped for one reason or another. If somebody can get hold of Ward Pemberton or Jim Strompolis, please salute them for a great game and ask for the story.
It looks like this. Switch numbers are incorrect on the playfield diagram in the manual, by the way.
Having slept on it, I now lean towards the idea that this layout was all balls had to “escape to the mouse hole” before the jackpot would be awarded. Very neat game rule that fit the theme and storyline.
However, it has its problems. Like, what will happen if you play two balls instead of three. And what when draining down to two balls, both sitting in the mouse hole. If untimed, you will basically have a single ball play situation in multiball. If timed, well, might just be too damn difficult.
Hello, I just purchased a Mousin’ around and I am missing the entire “3 switch PCB” located in the back “Mouse Hole” trough. Part # C-13061 (seen in the attached images). I am looking for images of this board in order to re-create it from scratch as it seems this part is not available anywhere.
Also - what do these switches exactly do? I know they were put there for a lock system that was scrapped before the game was released… but not sure what of the 3 switches do now - if anything? would 1 switch suffice? BTW, my mouse hole entry switch IS working.
I would appreciate any sort of help, thanks
Paul
If I remember right you do need the 3 switches for the Jackpot to register. The switches are really there as a fail safe. If the traps don’t work to lock balls the software compensates by using the ramp and those switches as ball locks so you can still start multiball.
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