The New Pinball Dictionary

Might have been addressed in the latest code. I’ll add it to my list of things to check tomorrow night.

At Pinburgh, ACDC Prem went into autolaunch when I was feeling out the soft plunge. I don’t think I went over the second shooter lane switch but I can’t say for certain. After avoiding the autolaunch a few times I got the ball on the playfield just in time for a full ball search! Great way to totally lose control and drain on ball 3 when the whole idea was to safely get it on a flipper with multiball lit.

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Meat and Two Veg;

When a second ball is kicked out into the plunger lane when one is already there, leaving you with a plunger and two balls - and sometimes meaning your game is ended because you can’t plunge two balls out of the plunger lane!

The solution to Crank it F’d Up: our official “no extra balls” procedure is to not touch the machine after the plunge (with the only exception being a need to manually replunge). Since you have to manually select the 5,000,000+ bailout, you can’t. So you get to start FWTBT and basically accomplish nothing (except hearing the sweet opening riff). At least Fade to Black would offer pity spinner points on a premium/LE.

@FunWithBonus Could you use straitjacket to describe a tournament setting where everybody is so packed in you feel like you are in a straitjacket? I know at the 8 on the break tournament, there were several times where you simply couldn’t walk through the main pinball room because it was too tight. Especially if you are trying to be considerate to the people playing and not step on their heels or bump into them. I guess the player playing the machine may feel like they are in a straitjacket due to the inability to move around while playing. Just a thought?

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Conceptually, I have no problem with a player tilting out her/his unplayable extra ball while it’s in the shooter lane. I can see how that could be interpreted under the rule cited as a DQ violation, but that doesn’t seem right to me.

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The commentary on Doodle Bug in finals “Getting Doodle B’d” lol

Just got back from repair night at the clubhouse. First order of business for me was Mustang glass-off testing to see if the short plunging auto-plunger thing was still happening. It still does it consistently on my machine. I didn’t see a setting that would be related, and all of the switches are working in switch test and gameplay (i.e., it plays a sound effect when the ball leaves the bottom shooter lane switch).

I also set up a Gear 4 MB and played it out letting all balls auto plunge and picking up no jackpots. Once it was over, the Multiball light was not lit at the scoop. If Steve B. ran into a bug, it wasn’t a straightforward one where simply starting the MB and not flipping is necessarily going to get it to happen.

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I don’t understand how tilting out an extra ball which shouldn’t be played could be a “benefit”.

Because you don’t want it to start modes or any progress for that matter you cannot play.

Think, sling → start fast scoring on Iron Man. Super pops, hold bonus-x, double bonus on Spider-Man etc. etc.

The don’t play extra balls rule is just crap. Unless we are talking the casual’st of events where the fun of it all is just fun.

But after a tilt no mode can be started so if you tilt quickly enough there is no mode start.

Exactly, that is how tilting could be viewed as a benefit. My point in quoting the rule from the IFPA/PAPA rules was to point out to TDs to think about consequences of having EB. I agree with others that if you can’t turn them off, you should play them. But if you add a rule that says plunge, or plunge and one flip, consider also adding a rule that allows tilting of EBs. Note that this could add 2 minutes due to letting the bob settle and may not buy much time over just playing.

So, question to Josh / Mark / Doug / Bowen / whomever controls the IFPA/PAPA ruleset. Can you change the rule on playing EBs to address the “plunged EB might screw the player by triggering a high value feature they then can’t play” situation? Like tilt is OK or play the EB but plunge your next regular ball or if you can’t shut EBs off, you DO get to play them or whatever?

I have certainly felt the “Straitjacket” and it has stopped me from making some saves. It’s like a momentary paralysis that’s all mental, but I would swear that I can feel constriction. You want to be considerate and not graze the person next to you, but you gotta do something because here comes the ball SDTM.

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Two different podcasts I’ve listened to very recently have covered the following in the same pinball news cycle. Therefore, as I go back to listen them again for the sake of clarification and #Journalism, I would like to ask for a concise yet somehow comprehensive definition for the term …

Ghosting.

Clearcoat that separates from an insert causing an air pocket between the clear and the insert.

LEDs that become faintly illuminated when they are supposed to be off.

Oh, dear. I have seen the pictures that I cannot un-see. Now I’ll have to try to not notice it when I play. It’s like telling someone what “vocal fry” is.

“ghosting” is also a form of chemical warfare in tournament play. It’s when you’re playing on a machine, let one rip just as you’re draining, and then someone steps up to a machine afterwards to a stinky surprise.

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I hate that ghosting means this. It actively irritates me.

This has been the meaning forever as far as I’m concerned.

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It leads to a lot of confusion that’s for sure.