More and more I see players on-the-fly-shatzing balls into the opposite inlane when the ball nearly would go down the middle. I wonder whats the benefit of aiming into the inlane vs slapping it into a trap on the opposite flipper. With a perfect shatz the ball often shoots up the inlane fast right into chaos or its coming back down again at high speed, making it hard to get back in control or making a safe shot.
Can you tell me why you prefer on-fly-shatzes vs other teniques like single hand slap saves or nudge passes? All three techniques puts the ball onto the opposite side so the “pass” can’t be the reason here.
i do like single flipper slap save into the inlane, not a perfect Shatz for the reason you mentioned below so sometime that is what happens I often end up doing a slow 2 flippers slap save, raising the opposite flipper the same way i do when i Shatz in case i hit the bottom of the sling shot and it rebounds dangerously.
As I’m working on the upcoming tutorial a question comes up and pinside is not able to help and I don’t want to get this wrong.
ALIGNMENT HOLES on Bally/Williams machines.
Ignore the holes, align the flippers with the inlane guides?
Align the flipper with rubbers on with the help of a toothpick at the hole?
Align the flipper without rubbers with the help of a toothpick at the hole?
I KNOW that on Stern machines the holes are key to best alignment (tip of the flipper pointing at hole), since i heard an interview where Keith was stating this.
I also know that the alignment affects how strong the flippers are on certain shots etc, and that there should- if possible- be no flipper hop.
Anyone knows what’s right on Bally/Williams machines?
Please don’t tell me what works for you, I’ve had enough of those
Maybe someone who worked on those games can explain it to me?
Are you sure that all sterns are supposed to point at the holes? I’d talk to every designer to be sure their intent. I seem to remember Ritchie saying he adjusts his flippers with the lane guides.
The most important thing about adjusting flipper position, imo, is explaining how the power moves to a different part of the flipper depending on the position of the flipper.
But, other interviews with Stern designers have specifically said ignore the holes. I think Gomez with aligning deadpool, and certainly he who shall not be named on GB.
I don’t know the answer to the BW question, but one description I read said said you put the metal alignment rod between the rubber and flipper (so the touching the flipper bat version) and the rubber will hold it in place while you tighten the set screws. It seemed clever, although I don’t know if it is true.
I believe there are also setup instructions on some games (SAM era sterns) that say to use a straight edge to align with the lane guide.
Thanks for that, however this is from 2015. Maybe Keith has changed his view these days, at least for his own games. As he was stating- these points took him the longest to get right out of the whole PF-design process.
@chuckwurt
You are right, I have no idea about the Stern alignment holes other than Keiths interview.
However, I`m quite sure the last 3 years releases where pretty much all aligned at the holes, at least for the titles I have owned so far.
I wanted to give some advice on how to align the flippers in the tutorial. Instead I think I will only explain how to deal with different alinged flippers, regarding gameplay.
Tempted to throw in my 2 cents, but it sounds like you already decided. One thing many Pinsiders get wrong is leveling a game properly. Any thoughts on doing a video about that Abe? I’m sure there would be some disagreement on that too, but I suspect we could come to a consensus.
New info is always welcome! Regarding leveling and other machine adjustments, I think it would be nice to do some tech tutorials on youtube too. As you stated there a different opinions, thats also a reason I tried to avoid some of those topics in the past. Leveling (pitch, not side to side), doesn’t affect the gameplay too much imo. Flipper alignment has a greater impact, if the game isn’t totally jacked up or floaty, thats why i think im not getting into it regarding gameplay.
Align with the lane guides on Bally Williams. Games play like butt if you don’t imo.
Deffinitly, never, absolutely do not make the flipper higher than the guides at rest.
Some people will argue some games are supposed to be “flopped” / lower/ droopy-er than the guides, but I don’t see it. They feel correct to me aligned to the guides.
Also, no one likes flippers that are at different angles in the up position.
Pro tip.
To really dial in the flippers when you rebuild them, and get a perfect mirror match in the down and up position for both flippers:
Align the flipper of your choice to the ball guide, and fully tighten it down with the proper up down play.
Take the flipper you just tightened down and rotate it so it is at the top of its full stroke in the “cradle” position.
Take the other flipper, make it semi-tight in the pawl with still some ability to adjust - now rotate that 2nd flipper into the cradle position and make it perfectly match that first flipper so they have the same mirror angled cradle. (they now both look the same when both flipper buttons would be held and pressed).
Fully tighten the second flipper.
Now, at rest that second flipper may not be quite aligned with the ball guide. This is because of small variations in the flipper base plates. Take a pair of channel-lock pliers and very gently adjust/bend the stop-plate of the flipper baseplate until the flipper is in line with the ball guide.
Voila - you now have flippers that are mirror aligned in both the down and up-stroke position.
I often end up doing a slow 2 flippers slap save, raising the opposite flipper the same way i do when i Shatz in case i hit the bottom of the sling shot and it rebounds dangerously.