Sorta… for shot #X, you get (X * 1000) + (10% of points earned in the Xth tent mode you played), all that times the number of balls currently in play. Scoop lights for add-a-ball after the 2nd, 5th, 9th, and 14th shots (14 conveniently being the number of tents). If you make enough shots to collect all the tents, there are no more add-a-balls, but you get Victory Laps with shot values based on the points earned during Flipper Meister.
And of course one of the steins belongs to Flipper Meister: Pin Wiz Pale Ale will boost Flipper Meister scoring. It’s not a very strong stein for general play (boosts pop bumper scoring) but if you can bring one or more of them into Flipper Meister, can be immensely lucrative.
So you’re the JMH that’s been cluttering up my high score tables. If you ever find any issues with the games at Stariite let me know. FYI - Alice Cooper coming soon
Since the American Pinball games are not suffering under a ridiculous point inflation, it allows for a greater balance and is a more consistent challenge, less likely to breaking under an exploit.
I’m no longer in town (was visiting my dad for the summer; back in IL now) but really enjoyed playing your machines. All games were in wonderful shape. I guess the suggestion is that you update Oktoberfest with the new software version!
Thanks for always keeping up on maintainace. One of the best locations I’ve ever been to in my trip. - JMH
Good question (and welcome)! Maybe a generic carnival theme could “fit” in the existing layout and rules, but I personally can’t see this game ad anything other than Oktoberfest.
I thought that perhaps attaching the game to a beer license (having the Oktoberfest event “sponsored” by a beer company in artwork) could attract more adults, but API is going for a family-friendly approach so I don’t think that’d work. It’s like a balancing act of catering to all sorts of audiences.
I think the big issue with this specific theme is that Octoberfest is seasonal. That being said, the game is performing very well for us at our brewery location(which makes sense being a beer theme)
Is that really an issue? At least it is seasonal: the origin of the theme is refreshed annually for several weeks a year. So many other pinball themes are based on things like movies that are 10, 20, 30 or more years old, and haven’t been refreshed since then. Doesn’t seem to bother people too much.
@multibrawlr hit it on the head… we tried to balance the implementation of the theme to appeal to as wide of an audience as we can. Do you love the Oktoberfest festival itself, whether the traditional Munich event, or any of the thousands of knock-offs? Great! If not… perhaps you enjoy other festivals/carnivals/amusement parks. We’ve gotcha covered. If not… maybe you like beer. One way or another, we hope everyone finds elements that they love in the game.
Hey Joe! The seasonality doesn’t bug me at all. I am just trying to figure out why other locations aren’t jumping on this game in my area and the theme is really the only thing I can put my finger on. The game is absolutely loaded and a blast to play. But you are absolutely correct there are always themes that don’t Jive for certain groups. I want to see this game do well and am a huge advocate for it.
Any suggestions for a nice, easy Pingolf goal on this game? Looked at the Rulesheet and the only thing that jumps out at me is: light & collect Mystery.
(Generally I’m going for goals that can be done in 5 or 6 shots…with progress that carries between balls).
Mystery can actually be pretty tricky to light. I’d say start a Food mode is the best pingolf goal. You do that by hitting the spinner and drop target then the center hole. Spelling OKTOBERFEST would also be a good goal.
@ShootTheOutlane1 has a couple great suggestions. Could also do: win any tent mode (easy to tell; the confetti starts flying on-screen). Most tent modes retain progress toward winning even if you time out / drain out of them.
Or: accumulate X MagNabs.
Or: collect X Ducks. There are a few ways to approach this one… taking the Abby Nirmal Cider stein definitely helps, but for an X somewhere around 10, you can do reasonably do this through target completions in normal play and/or winning a tent (gives 5 Ducks for the first win of a ball, 10 Ducks for the second win of a ball, etc) and/or playing Duck Hunt skillfully.
I played a little bit on new code at Pac Man Entertainment recently. I might’ve triggered a bug where somehow I had Juggling and Duck Hunt running at once?
Other than that, super solid. Appreciate the added callouts in numerous places.
All I remember is that the two tent inserts were flashing together on the playfield. I think Juggling animations took priority on the display. Got the confetti for beating a mode, but because there was two I couldn’t tell which one was beaten.
Wacky. Never seen or heard of that before. Certainly not intended. If you (or anyone) see that happen again, please let me know any details you can of what was going on when the problem occurred.
Here’s something weird that happened to me at a tournament a while ago: I entered my initials, then the results screen showed a certain score (13 something M), but the highscore table showed my initials with a higher score (14 something M). I was aiming for 14M, since that was what I had to beat, and while playing I thought I already had it, but I can’t be sure now.
Nobody really knew how that score discrepancy was possible or how to handle it. Any ideas?
