The glo balls provide an opportunity to easily fix an issue with a machine, that would otherwise make the game either unusable or not very fun. They are not inserted in order to screw the player.
As a tourney director not living in the city, there’s no opportunity to play test every machine used in the tourney. In fact, I could not play-test a single one of the machines until they were already installed in the tournament room. The machines were believed by the people familiar with the machines as some of the best condition machines available. However, there were still issues.
Here’s a run-down of why we added glo-balls to five of the machines (out of 20):
Street Fighter II: The machine is in impeccable condition. Perhaps it’s the most beautiful SF2 you’ll find in the world. Yet, the flippers could barely shoot the ball up the left ramp, and not at all up the right ramp. So do we disqualify the machine? There was no time to do a flipper rebuild … or the power is what it is if this was a power issue. But by swapping the silver ball for the glo balls, every shot was makable, including easily making both ramps. Most people I spoke to really enjoyed playing that game over the weekend.
Bounty Hunter. It’s a rare find, in very good condition, recommended to be in the tournament as something rarely found elsewhere. So we said yes. Then with machine installed, the flippers were not strong enough to get the ball up the right orbit to ABC lanes, or to the loop at back left. Glo balls to the rescue, turning this into a playable game.
Magic City. When the silver ball went between the flippers to the pop bumper, it was so sluggish that it was a guaranteed drain. Using the Glo Ball made the game exciting because a ball below the flipper was still savable with the right nudging.
Space Invaders. This game is generally not used in tourneys because it’s a one-shot game, just shoot the horseshoe forever. But following the mentorship of Jim Belsito who likes to take a good or unique game with an unfortunate exploit as something different to play in the tourney, we chose to include it. We thickened up the rubber on that horseshoe shot, and added the glo ball so that missed shots were much more risky. By increasing the risk of that show relative to the reward, there became no obvious strategy to winning that game. Some players went for spinner; others still dared horseshoe. Some focus on the red targets to get the super bonus then collect bonus, and yet others went for blue guys then lots of center top lanes. I saw all these strategies used. We succeeded in balancing the scoring on the game.
Countdown: With silver ball, the flippers could barely knock down the drop targets at the top of the playfield, and that’s when the machine was cold. What would happen when it heats up? Again, glo balls to the rescue. Instead of a flipper rebuild, we changed the ball, and the game was now very playable.
As a tournament player, to me there’s nothing more frustrating than weak flippers that cannot make every shot in the game, or play that is so sluggish that you get bored of the game, or just isn’t fun. It’s a tool in the toolbox to address machine issues, after a particular machine has already been committed to in a tournament.
I’m all for constructive criticism. Our goal is to create a positive tournament experience, but we have to make do with the hand that we’re dealt. While the use of glo balls might have been a negative for you to start, hopefully you had one or more experiences with them that showed not just that they aren’t so bad, but that you enjoyed playing with them, and actually went back to play those same games, choosing the ones with glo balls even though you had the ability to avoid them 100%. But if you have even better ideas for addressing issues like weak flippers and exploits when replacing the machine is not an option, then great; please do share!
