New Radical software mod

Thanks, John. The spot letter on inlane (when sub 4M) is factory in LA-1, on medium pre-set. And not something added by the patch.

The reason I mentioned it in the release note, is because it is something that has been taking my local players by surprise. Players who are used to the hard (Euro) pre-set, where the feature is off all the time.

The reason I mentioned it here, is because the broadcast commentators were unsure of it. I believe someone said on first multiball only.

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@soren, thanks so much for your work. Itā€™s fantastic to see high-level play breathed into these games that would otherwise be avoided. And it seems like Free Play Florida had the entire changelist posted directly on the cabinet, which is perfect.

This was your beefiest changeset yet, so Iā€™d be a little nervous seeing it used so quickly in a big tournament. It seemed like it worked perfectly! Ideally someone can use these ROMs in some smaller weekly or monthly tournaments. I think thatā€™s the best way to get proper testing (both code-wise and gameplay-fun-wise).

Yep, Soren was kind enough to include a PDF of the changes for display on the machine in the zip file. Made it easy to print and post on the backglass.

Well, it was used in three tournaments before the release :wink: Amongst these a mini Pinburgh gig in Sweden as far back as April. Of course, in a less perfected state.

A multi-day event with reattempts allowed in qualifing is the perfect environment for introducing mods or custom configurations. The way I see it.

Games will take a beatdown and players have the opportunity to get acquainted with the game. If disaster strikes reasonably early on, players may get their entries refunded without much harm done. Just as any other game that needs to be pulled for one reason or another.

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I really enjoyed watching the new software on stream and it definitely seems improves the game. Nicely done!

I was pretty surprised with the speed of the locked ball kickout when an upper ramp shot is heading toward the lock lane. Is that part of the mod, or just how that particular machine was playing? That combined with the odd feed to the tip of the right flipper looked like it was causing trouble for some players.

The lock on Radical is a release all type. Cannot make a slow paced release one ball at a time thing. So, the game requires players on their toes in this respect. And this is the same for the unmodded ROM.

You know, this is funny. All the Radicals I have ever played, and all the ones on gameplay footage I have seen, have had a reasonably steady kickout to the left flipper. So, overlooking that some might have a kickout to the right.

I thought, that now that the exploit have been removed, and because the timing stuff have been tightened. Only a busted flip catch directly back into the lock lane would realisticly cause this two-balls-on-playfield scenario. I guess not.

A bit of a clinic on challenges of these mechanical wonders.

I guess the odd kickout to the right was making me think it was happening earlier than usual, but apparently not! Iā€™ve had the same experience you mentioned with always having a reliable kickout to the left flipper from the lock, so this variable looked pretty weird to me. Oh and it looked especially challenging to keep a ball from draining on multiball start.

Once during qualifying, I started a new game on Radical and on the ball 1 plunge, my ā€œtail winderā€ was lit and diverted the plunge to the upper-right flipper. This was annoying because I didnā€™t get my free letter spotted and safe feed to the bottom right flipper. It was unexpected and I brick-drained the shot and the ā€œtail winderā€ was still lit for the ball 2 plunge. I have no idea what lites this ā€œmodeā€, but it seemed weird that I was at the mercy of the game before plunging my first ball ? I also have no idea what builds the bonus multiplier, but it seemed like I rarely, if ever, got any bonus multipliers even with very long ball time, where in the past when I played I would get to 5x without actively trying to. Did anything change related to bonus multiplier ? I could read the README, I guess, lol. Iā€™m generally not a fan of changing game rules beyond egregious bug fixes, but I played Radical the same way I always do and nothing about the new ROM caused my any pause except the ball 1 tail winder thing, so cheers!

Escherā€™s Dad

Just to be sure. The game with the tail slider issue, it was a 1 player game started from game over (attract) state, correct.

Normally, Tail slider is lit once the ā€œAā€ of the ramp shot is spotted. And after played, relit on a spinner shot. I like to see it work this way 100%.

This particular Radical had the ball screaming through the whirlpool. And when this is this fast, it is possible to have the diverter fail to make the ball go left on last shot of the mode. Again a delicacy of a safety feature. However, all point are awarded.

Adv. bonus-x is top drops completion. To a max of 5x 400K.

Cheers.

yep

me too

That always seemed to work the way it is supposed to for me, but itā€™s good to know that the Tail Slider at the start of ball 1 should not have happened.

good to know. Thanks.

cheers

The footage of this weekend revealed something fishy with the kickback. I recommend that Radical, for the time being, is used having Adjustment 38 Easy kickback set to Yes.

I would like to say that it is inherited from, and present in, the factory LA-1 ROM.

I had a sneaking suspicion there were more skeletons inside. Despite quite the effort already. That damn game.

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Was it an issue of an unlit kickback firing? I swear Iā€™ve seen that happen multiple times on the original software.

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Indeed. Never notised this until now. Gameplay footage - what a great idea.

I canā€™t decide if I should just sell mine or keep it based on this thread :slight_smile:

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Skateā€¦ Or DIE! I wish there were more options for you, Adam, but those are apparently the only two options available for this gameā€¦

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This happened last night on MN_Pinball Twitch Stream on a Radical without your code. I donā€™t know the code version.

Link to Video - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/335193965 - unlit kickback is shortly after 2:08:30.

What is the expected behavior on Radicalā€™s kickback:
Lit at beginning of each ball?
And what relights the kickback?

Spelling Radical relights the kickback.

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I just got a mint Police Force. That seems like it could be a good tournament game aside from the progressive Jackpot. Iā€™ll have to look for other rules that could be concerns as I learn to play it. Any chance there is a mod in the works for that game?

Also on Police Force there is the ā€œsteal highest scoreā€ award on ball 3. I donā€™t think you can turn this off but you can set it to a max of 9 ramps from the default of 2. Do that and put some really fat rubbers on the center ramp and you have a somewhat playable game.

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