This Week in Pinball: Iron Maiden Stream, MGC Preview, Pinball Expo, Trudeau, More

@MET can do these without the button!

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I can also Tap Pass (see my other YouTube videos), but most players can’t.

The feature is really an aide for play, much like a Guitar Capo. Tapping on modern games is difficult when the cabinet switch gets out of adjustment or the game has a single wound coil (rather than a double wound coil), and the game has a “Minimum On Time”, so the perfect tap results with a full-powered hit.

This feature brings tapping to all players of all abilities. If you watch tournament games, you will see tipping a lot, since this move is easier and risk-free but you will rarely ever see tapping, since this move involves some risk as well as depending on issues mentioned above.

It’s not for all players (Like Capos aren’t for all Guitar players), but there are a good amount of players who would like the feature. That is why I suggest only adding the feature to a small amount of the production games in a “Finesse” edition.

Die-hard pinball players say that this is cheating, so I would see the need for disabling this feature during league/tournament play.

The feature will be used on my pinball project- Wizard’s Arcade. I am proud of this feature and hope that it shows people that I am still actively involved in pinball discourse.

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Which era of games can you tap pass on? I would like to figure out if I can do it on dual-wound coil games, but I do not understand how the flipper could let me do that.

I don’t think I’ve seen an era of game where tap passing wasn’t possible. IMHO it’s easier on EM’s, but it’s definitely doable on modern games. We’ve got some league players who are stunningly good at tapping on WPC and modern Stern machines.

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All eras!

You will have to look at the schematic to see. Double wound coils use two drivers, so the transistor for the initial stroke, and a higher resistance winding to hold the coil. So the game turns on the high power coil for a set maximum, such as 250 milliseconds, then switches to the other winding. If I can press the button for only 80 milliseconds, this is how long the coil remains energized. To save money and drivers, some modern games use only one coil winding, so they use Pulse Code Modulation to keep the flipper up. They give an initial stroke, then switch over to PCM. These games seem to ignore the short flipper button hit and simply turn on the coil for the total initial stroke. I may be wrong technically in this assessment, but. For example, I can tap all day long on a KISS pro (Double Wound Coil), but even the most perfect tap on Ghostbusters Pro (Single Wound) results with a full-power flipper hit.

The Finesse feature totally eliminates any concerns regarding flipper coil type/minimum “On” time and having the operator maintain the game properly.

As I mentioned in the RGP thread, the extra buttons would kill it for me. I know some guys do fine with extra buttons. I don’t.

Also, whatever you create, make it so it is desirable during competitive play. I believe a tournament game should be as close to factory as possible, but if there was a reliable and fun mod for the flippers that folks got familiar with, I might use it.

Vari-target style flipper switches that replace factory switches? Flipper fires for 50ms longer the farther you push it in?

Getting slightly back on topic, shouldn’t it be Last week in Pinball?
d;^)

Oh crap you’re totally right!! Well I just gotta go with it at this point :blush:

Disabling the Flipper Finesse Feature for tournament mode would be an option. The tournament director can leave the feature intact.

I only mention the option of disabling because so many pinball players were worried about the feature being “Cheating” on the Pinside thread.

We need to get the feature into a game and actually see what pinball players think before jumping to conclusions.

For anyone interested:

THIS WEEK IN PINBALL – Thunderbirds Coming, Stern Marketing, Buffalo Pinball Summer Open, more pinball

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Here are some of the highlights from the Dead Flip stream of The Jetsons and Total Nuclear Annihilation if anyone is interested:

For anyone interested:

THIS WEEK IN PINBALL: Dead Flip’s TNA & Jetsons stream, Thunderbirds Sneak Peek, Buffalo Pinball Summer Open, more pinball

Lots of good content this week.

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For anyone interested:

THIS WEEK IN PINBALL: Houdini Gameplay Videos, Electroluminescent Decals, Trudeau Arrest, More Pinball

For anyone interested:

THIS WEEK IN PINBALL - New Tournament, Bro is Back, The Big Lebowski, Trudeau Updates, More Pinball

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thisweekinpinball
Twitter: https://twitter.com/twip
Email: thisweekinpinball@gmail.com

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Wholly crap! Thanks for these weekly reports. That Trudeau news was news to me.

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THIS WEEK IN PINBALL: Kosmic Khaos Pinball?, Blurry Thunderbirds Playfield, New Bowen Tutorials, More #Pinball

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thisweekinpinball
Twitter: https://twitter.com/twip
Email: thisweekinpinball@gmail.com

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BTW, my goal is to start posting new content (almost) daily during the week. I won’t spam this thread for each one, will only update this thread for the Monday “main” post, but this week we’ll also have:

Tues: Pin of the week
Wed: Name the game monthly giveaway
Thurs: Game Room of the week (really cool/unique game room!)
Fri: Pinball website of the week

THIS WEEK IN PINBALL: JPop is Back - A Conversation with Deeproot Pinball EXCLUSIVE

Plus a new IFPA metric, an intriguing Steve Ritchie Facebook comment and Dead Flip and friends deliver the first TNA to Ed Robertson of The Barenaked Ladies

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THIS WEEK IN PINBALL: Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle Side Art Reveal, CGC’s Timeline for Game #3, more pinball

Sweet, I am so going to bookmark this on my computer at home. It’s great to have a single location to turn to, though I will still check Pinball News, listen to podcasts, and scour Pinside (every now and then, but certain things on Pinside will raise my blood pressure), but this will be pretty quick and convenient too.

I also like the list of recent and upcoming games, including rumors at the bottom.

And while I can’t speak for the mods and admins, I don’t mind if you multiple-post this page. The comments are closed there, so i’ll probably give my feedback and questions here.

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Heading to Vegas this morning, and I’m going to post my Monday pinball update like I normally would because pinball is a very small thing in life that brings people together from different races, religions, countries, and backgrounds.

This Week in Pinball: Expo Preview

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