I had a thought today, after another tournament with yet another Harlem Globetrotters that was very prone to punish you with a SDTM drain after hitting a drop target. We sometimes take steps to alter machines to make them harder, reduce game times, etc. Should we also take steps to reduce unfair situations? I can handle losing my ball to just about anything, but it really rankles me to successfully make a shot, especially one that you really want to do to score well, and get punished for it.
Before anyone says āuse the upper left flipper instead,ā yes, I know about that one. I still think itās unfair to do the right thing and still die from it.
Other examples:
Paragonās waterfall, if the game isnāt set up correctly, can eject SDTM. You are punished for making a good left spinner -> waterfall combo.
Star Trek/X-Men/similar: Making the Vengeance/center lock/whatever where the ball is trapped is death if the machine leans the wrong way. You are punished for collecting anything on that shot.
Mata Hari, with that saucer kickout. Too often Iāve seen it just kick SDTM. You are punished for trying to build your bonus multipliers, which is huge in that game.
I feel itās too easy to just conclude āthatās pinballā or āitās the same for everyone,ā etc. Thatās a cop-out. Shouldnāt we be making the games hard, but fair?
This is one I donāt get either. Whenever I walk up to one with the outlane wide open, no rubbers, Iām like, āwell I guess Iām going to have zero fun today.ā
If the game doesnāt play long, donāt do much to it. Maybe tighten the tilt a bit. Leave the rest.
At PAPA a few years back they totally bastardized T2 in C qualifying. A Hit the Skull lock target = Instant drain. If you tried to save the ball or make it rattle in the lock target area you got a tilt due to it being ultra sensitive. Didnāt matter if you hit target from the left or right flipper you were getting a SDTM from a successful shot.
I do agree, but in your examples these are all due to bad set-ups.
Paragonās Waterfall - Should catch the tip of the right flipper
Star Trek/X-men - Should always catch the right flipper and X-Men usually the tip.
Mata Hari - Most Iāve played either go to the right flipper or into the pops. Iāve never had a Mata Hari throw it down the center.
I have seen examples of TDās trying to improve inherent nasty feeds. One that comes to mind is the fatter post rubber on the exit from the pops on TWD. Iāll say this. If I ever use The Beatles in a tourney itās getting rubbers put on the outlane posts!
Bah! Beatles is an easy pin with posts out in the inlanes. All about the loops/spinners and getting modes played. Going after the targets with no posts/rubbers is asking for a well deserved drain.
But how do you get modes lit other than the one at the beginning of the ball? You must shoot FAB and FOUR targets. And yes, they are some dangerous shiznit!
Thatās fair. I was struggling to come up with examples. I guess Harlem is in a special class that way, More often than not Iām risking draining if I go for those drops.
Maybe also a setup issue, but the Tyrell standups on GoT seem to be in a unique orientation where hitting them from a trap sends the ball screaming to the left outlane.
Maybe the problem is just bad physics on some games, like how later versions of KISS give a small ball saver coming out of the head, to compensate you getting screwed by that.
For sure, the hardest part of competition pinball is play disciplined, executing the correct shot, and being punished by a drain. Then of course a player who doesnāt play strategically whacks the flippers defensively and somehow lucks into a huge score.
Specifically for Iron Man; in a high score qualifying scenario I think it should be outlane rubbers/posts removed; but for match play I think leaving them in leads to more exciting competitive scenarios. If you leave them in during high score type qualifiers you end up with people chasing ridiculous scores and way too long playing time.
