As far as I know, there is no ROM which allows you to disable the “Sudden Death” mode which is awarded randomly at some point during the game. This mode turns the magnet on and allows a player to repeatedly hit the left ramp for a million. I think the mode ends after either timer runs out or about 10 million points are scored. There is no way to ensure that each player has the ability to play this mode. That’s the part that, more than lock stealing, really makes the game unbalanced.
If you’re still keen on using it: Turn on tournament mode, Set williams letters to reset on every player and not factory settings (where they carry over between players and games) and turn off extra balls. Disable saving locks between games. If you want to make a physical modification which will make Sudden Death more difficult, physically disable the magnet.
Adding difficulty: start with kickback off, start with mystery award off (tournament settings may make this less of an issue), remove rubber from right outlane post, remove rubber from center post.
It’s funny, I don’t think I’ve ever played a competitive game of RG where Sudden Death was an issue.
There are 3 ways it ends, you touched on the “normal” way (time out) and the “way almost no one knows about” (enough ramp shots - but I still have NFI how many). The 3rd way is to complete all of the standup and drop targets (“SKATE + WAR”) which awards you 2M and ends the mode.
I suppose it’s at least conceivable that each ramp shot spots SKATE WAR, so it ends after 8 ramp shots. Never really noticed that, though. When you make enough ramp shots, it will in fact give you the SKATE WAR bonus (so it says on the display), so it would kind of make sense.
One of the coolest things I ever did was magnet-up my first shot, then make every shot warp-ramp style until it ended. That may also have been the first time I ever knew it was possible to end the mode from ramps because it took me completely by surprise. Never came close to doing that again.
The ONLY thing tournament/contest (whatever it’s called on this game) mode does is keep the jackpot at a flat 1.5M every ramp shot. Nothing else is affected. OK I take that back, I just looked it up in the manual. Contest mode turns “save locks” off, which you should do anyway, and sets special and eb % to 0/off.
I have. To my benefit. I had gotten unlucky/unskillful with having two ball locks stolen not just once, but twice in a head to head game. I was player two. On ball 3, my opponent hadn’t left me with any ball locks. In the process of trying again to get to multiball, I had sudden death started. I don’t recall how many million I scored, but it was enough to walk away while sudden death was still active (the timer resets after every ramp, correct?).
Agreed. I was fortunate he didn’t use good multiball control skills to take advantage of my gift. My point was that a competitive game had indeed been affected by one player getting a Wall sudden death where the other did not.
@soren is working on a tournament rom for this I believe. If I had one I would be too but they’re starting to go for more $$$ than I’m willing to put into it.
What about the flashing random target in viking? Could it be removed entirely from the game and not change things appreciably (i.e. does it ever light non-randomly?) Is it different from Space Invaders when that one lights (although no one shoots for it…)
What if you disconnected the magnet from rollergames? I know that sudden death is a random award from mystery but maybe set the mystery rules hard (if they exist), then turn the magnet off to make the shot harder?
Sudden Death can just start for no reason. There is a thread here from soren about how that occurs.
And for the people that say you can’t lose a match because of it, you sure can because 2 players passed me at Stomp 2 this year because they had a really good sudden death and I didn’t get it at all.
Any random/psuedo random feature should be removed from games used in tournaments.
I agree with the sentiments above: Rollergames is not a good tourney game (particularly match play) due to Sudden Death. The first time I experienced it, I was the benefactor in a heads-up match where my opponent had stolen my locked balls to take a sizable lead on me via his multiball play. I then drowned my sorrows in a completely unfair, but well-played Sudden Death. My opponent did not receive a Sudden Death mode.