School me on The Simpsons Pinball Party

Games
21

Give me a little credit guys! If I tell you you can use the start button you can use the start button!

It is literally impossible to start a new game or add a player during ai.

12 Likes
22

Too funny! Reminds me of something I heard just the other day. “If I tell you a rooster dips snuff, check under his wing!”.

23

Haha, credit given! I actually had to make use of it multiple times in the same AI today. First, two balls stuck in the I&S hole again, and then two balls stuck in the Otto. The start button eject really came in handy both times.

24

I lowered the sensitivity of my slings a bit and with studying the rulesheets and talking here, everything just “clicked” today. My biggest issue is collecting the Tree House modes and the Comic Book Guy hurry-ups on the left ramp, but I seem to be hitting the shot more consistently when I throw the ball around the left orbit through the pops (which in itself probably isn’t bad to get used to, since I’ll be progressing Cletus–haven’t come anywhere close to collecting all the kids yet).

25

You shouldn’t have two balls stuck in Otto. There’s a second switch back there; sometimes it’s broken and you’d never know it, because the only time it ever gets used is during Invasion.

26

Really? That’s interesting, I figured with how it was acting that there was only one switch up there. I’ll have to fire up the switch test the next time I play to see if both are working properly.

27

Following up on the Otto shot, am I missing something, or is there the chance that certain builds only had one switch up there? I took the right ramp off and I can only find a single switch (the Otto hole/saucer itself). Maybe I’m not looking hard enough. I played a friend’s machine over the weekend and popped two balls up into Otto–I heard to sound effects triggered for sure, before the first ball even kicked out.

28

All right, so I figured I’d follow up on this since I’ve had the game for a little while now. The first week was a little rough because it was hard to figure out what everything was doing. Second week was better, then by the third week everything just “clicked” and I “got” it. Understanding the progression of shots, where you need to hit for modes, and knowing the sound triggers and callouts are all very important. Simpsons isn’t really so much about doing one thing, as it is about keeping tabs on 15+ different things at once. It’s a workout for the brain, not just your hands, haha. Good stuff.

Question about Mystery Spot multiball–what’s the goal in it? I’m usually too busy trying to juggle the balls and progress towards other modes to understand what’s going on in the multiball itself. I’ve had some fun Mystery Spot stacks, like getting Scratchy’s Revenge and the couch Multiball on top of it at the same time with a bunch of TV modes and Daredevil Mania running with them.

One more question, actually–the later Treehouse awards, are they generally worth anything decent? I got to the Captain one, then the one after that… but I couldn’t really tell what I was doing in them (I think I stacked the couch at the same time, so that multiball’s animations and sounds took priority).

29

Mystery Spot: make all ten Otto shots, then the super jackpot is to put a ball through the Garage, which is closed and will only open for a few seconds. You can score this during the grace period, too, similar to Junkyard. Mystery Spot is also full 2x playfield, which might be its best value.

(Read the rule sheet, sucka!)

Treehouse: There’s no “final” mode for Treehouse, just a random order of the awards, so you could get the best ones first or last. In tournament mode there is a set ordering, but I don’t know it.

1 Like
30
  • Treehouse of Horror awards given in the following order:
    • 10x Nuclear Plant
    • Nuclear Disaster
    • Apu’s Giveaway
    • Krusty’s Nightmare
    • Max Everything
    • Captain’s Bounty
    • Crazy Extra Ball
    • Big Points

(Read the readme, sucka! :wink: )

Begin Geek-Out Time

The goal was to keep the relative value of the modes close to each other. The success of that goal can potentially vary extremely wildly depending on how well you use the timer, make shots (especially during mb), etc.

  • Nuclear Value will always be 1M-5M, one shot that’s it no multipliers.
  • Nuclear Disaster is often worth nothing, but has the potential for huge points in the long run. You’ll have 2M after 50 hits, and after that each bumper is 100K until the timer is gone. That has the potential to be ridiculous, but I’ve never heard of anyone really exploiting it really well. Added aside: Start Invasion or SDMEWM while this is running and it’ll win the mode for you.
  • Apu’s Giveaway is all about timing. It’s possible to start this during AI if you set it up right, and at that point you are potentially better served plunging Apu skill shots for the duration of the mode than playing AI. You’ll get your bonus up to max (99x) REALLY quickly, and then start plunging 1M-2.5M Apu loops IIRC. And those loop values will stay until your bonus x goes back down to 1 (meaning hold bonus x is immeasurably huge here). Most of the time, though, Giveaway won’t be horribly useful since you’re not shooting Apu enough anyway.
  • Krusty’s Nightmare can vary wildly depending on your spinner. The average SPIN value will be between 50 and 123,450 depending on how close to 5 spins you get every time. Speaking completely randomly, the spin EV is probably around 15,500/spin so there is value to be had there, especially with a right orbit doubler.
  • Max Everything just augments all your increasing values to the stop, so r ramp is 75,000, drops are 125K, l ramp is 150K(?), Otto loop is whatever it tops out at. Value here for a long ball, and makes finish the chalkboard worth quite a bit more with most of the values maxed for you already.
  • Captain’s Bounty can be worth huge points as well if you shoot the left ramp 8 times. At that point, every ramp is 911K-999K and will be quite the bounty indeed. Easier said than done, though. Again, long ball/timer = big points.
  • Crazy Extra Ball is largely useless in single ball play, but every lit rollover will score 2M (or eb the first time), and it’s much worse about screwing you over in multiball than monoball. CEB + multiball is definitely a big win.
  • Big points is 2M. It’s last in tourney mode because it sucks the most. :slight_smile:

BTW in SMS grace period the garage is forced up, so you get a totally free shot to finish the mode if you’ve made the shots. The more you know…

20 Likes
31

Whoa. Love it. Mind blown.

4 Likes
32

I was going to say the exact same thing. :smiley:

33

The only thing I know about Nuclear Disaster is that I fail it about 50% of the time with 0 points.

2 Likes
34

Yeah, you showed me how to fail at it a few weeks back. Thanks man. :stuck_out_tongue:

35

I checked for the second switch on the Otto shot once again, and apparently I wasn’t looking hard enough the first time–there is indeed a second switch. The arm appears to be broken off (and missing), so I will have to order a new switch. Having two switches on Otto will definitely help with Alien Invasion. I actually completed it for the first time yesterday, but it will definitely be a little bit easier being able to pop two balls into the Otto shot.

36

Yeah, get that fixed. Being able to stash the last ball of a level into Otto is very helpful.

1 Like
37

Just seeing this now but once while playing at home I had the two ball situation, pressed the start button and it started a new game. Drained the air right from me.

38

Well it wasn’t until a certain version, 3.0 or something like that. If you see it in the instructions before the mode start, it’ll work.

39

Could’ve sworn it was in the directions, I held the button though so maybe that was an issue.

40

So close to SDMEWM… arrrgh. Had everything necessary competed except for winning Springfield Mystery Spot by ball 2. Was able to play SMS two more times, but sadly choked on both of them. On the second SMS, I had only the L ramp jackpot left, and an I&S multiball start ready… during the grace period of SMS draining down to one ball, I nailed the I&S saucer, only to have it lip out. :sob:

At least had a sweet sweet stack going:
I&S Revenge +
Couch MB +
Doh Frenzy +
Daredevil Mania +
Secret Stash +
Pretzel MB +
Victory Laps. Points everywhere!

And by that time, nearly everything on the table was doubled. Since I’d already completed Stash, Couch SJP’s, and AI, I was focused on lighting and starting more Otto’s. Got to hear a lot of I&S saying “Double Jackpot.”

7 Likes