Yes I understand. It’s probably better to focus on more common skills for the moment.
I tried to loop pass on Black Knight SOR yesterday on location and failed miserably. (lack of skill probably being the issue here) Too afraid to try it again.
It’s a very good skill to have, for example on AFM super skill shot to get the shield down you loop pass to the right and get an easy shot. Metallica is another game where I think (it’s been a while) the first super skill shot is the left orbit and a loop pass will help you set up the shot. On Medieval Madness imo loop pass is the best way to deal with those fast orbits. You should practice until you are not afraid of doing it. Great video as usual @ABE_FLIPS !
Very true. They seem to be very useful in situations that are time sensitive. Where you could live catch and post-pass to the other flipper but by then you have wasted some of that hurryup. (depending on which flipper you need the ball).
Thanks for the encouragement!
Purely anecdotal but my experience has been that while live catches are great, the timing becomes more difficult to nail as the ball speed gets bigger. Sometimes it has also felt like you can get more leeway in this case by simultaneously slapping the machine so that the relative speed between ball and flipper is momentarily decreased. A loop pass on the other hand feels easier with a faster ball, in fact it doesn’t really work if it’s too slow.
Hey there,
I`m just writing the 2nd part of the nudging video and I would need some help with the Wicked shimmy aka shaking the outlane.
It is VERY hard to do this on my machines (LOTR, AIQ, MANDO and JP).
I know the material of the outlanes has a great impact on this technique but I saw @deadflip doing this all the time on most machines.
Since I am a small person I feel like i have not enough muscle power to shake that 100kg machine.
I appreciate any advice. Here are some recorded set up situations, let me know what you think.
Thanks
A friend of mine at Pincinatti had a beautiful one caught on stream. Not sure if you could use it but it’s a great example.
https://m.twitch.tv/sdtmpinball/clip/BrightRenownedPorpoiseJonCarnage-u2-smDxG0H62Gpyq
So lucky I got to see this live. Amazing.
I’m no expert, but from what I’ve seen it looks like smaller, quicker shakes are more effective, and less likely to tilt, than throwing the machine around and hoping something good happens (my current method). I’d love if someone who does this brilliantly (like @DEADFLIP !) could chime in with a method to the madness
And oh my goodness that Twitch clip @Zeus posted is nuts.
Smaller quicker ones, almost like a vibration is what it is. That’s been the most effective, I’ve seen him do it before with that same method. I have a similar light nudging style and have had great success with smaller over bigger moves.
Depends. If a modern stern with stock debounce settings is set really tight, you’re better served with big moves than little moves. Take advantage of the debounce.
But in the case of a wicked shimmy, those vibration moves are best as it essentially keeps the bob in the same spot.
But that is really only effective for shimmys.
I’m skinny and old, but on the right game, I can easily wicked shimmy. Your video looks fine, but I would suggest looking for another game that allow for easier WS’s to make it look more smooth. Seems like it’s easier on many 80’s games and EM’s. I’m wracking my brain to come up with titles, but the only one that comes to mind is Genie. It’s a wide body, but both outlanes are shimmyable.
On the right game, they’re very easy. That’s what you want to show.
It’s worth mentioning that if you want to pull these off consistently you need solid footing. I see people try them off balance and their momentum takes them away from the game like a normal strong nudge does. Try to keep your feet stationary and make all the effort with your arms and upper back to keep the side to side movement tight and consistent for as long as it takes for the ball to come out.
Stephen Prusas Save was great and it looks similar to what I am m doing. However, with less success.
Since noone beside jdelz was commenting on my clip I guess it`s ok for demonstration purposes.
@jdelz Thanks, my stance is nicely ballanced, but i found myself lowering and even shifting my stance like Stephen Prusas did for better grounding.
I thought this technique is done preferably on older machines which i dont have, but since I saw people using it on modern machines too, i thought there is more to it.
@Snailman including that 101 workout link is a good idea!
Anyone could check out the following clip and let me know if I could have done anything to save those balls?
From my knowing there was little to no chance to do so and I want to show some legit drains too in the tutorial.
thanks and cheers
Yeah, rocket sling drains on many Moderns are unsavable AFTER the ball has left the guilty sling. The only thing that can save that is to have reflexes and forethought to upward nudge the pin WHILE the ball is in contact with the guilty sling, thus altering the balls deadly trajectory. The problem with this is: you don’t know the exact trajectory coming off the sling, particularly at high speed. So the well-intentioned upward nudge might change the resulting trajectory from a safe one Into a now deadly one.
“The Guilty Slings”
Sounds like a name of an arcade or a lounge band
Band name: Superband and The Guilty Slings.
Thanks, thats what i thought. Nice to have a confirmation on this.
I really love all the effort you’re putting into all these videos. Keep up the great work!!
Something Bowen and I often mention when we are giving talks about how to play pinball better is making very preemptive nudges on a game before the ball appears to be in some sort of slingshot/ outlane/ center danger. This would often be a nudge when the ball is higher up the playfield and needs a nudge to avoid getting into danger later closer to the flippers or the outlanes.
The example of this I always give in my talks is the strip of surface to the left of the TZ slot machine. A ball rolling down/hugging this surface slowly tends to always feed a center drain on TZs I’ve played on, and a little slap or nudge from right to left is enough to put the ball on a path more towards the left flipper.
This is not an easy skill to master. I think very skilled players can instinctively do this on a specific specimen (as opposed to a specific game title) of a game they have never been on. Anyone can also do this on a specific machine (again not game title, except in rarer cases like my TZ example that seems universal to TZs I’ve played) that they know very well at a regular location or at home. A personal example of such specific game knowledge is my F-14 at home that if I hit a right loop that doesn’t make it to the saucer, if it is returning back through the loop at a certain speed, if I don’t nudge/slap it from right to left, it will bounce off a post towards a center drain. Some specimens of games with central spinners (like HG or Prospector) that can have consistent feeds to the center drain when coming from behind the spinners a certain way are another example of the value of preemptive nudging like this.
So to answer your JP question, maybe some of those balls could have possibly been saved earlier than your video shows by an anticipatory preemptive nudge higher up on the playfield that would have kept the balls from hitting the slingshots or outlanes. Some of the drains in the video come straight off missed shots, but I do see one spot in the video where the opportunity for such a preemptive nudge is present: at the 5-second mark when the ball hits below the helicopter then goes out the outlane. A knowledgeable nudge, if a player knew this particular JP very well, could prevent that outlane drain.
I’m not sure if this sort of information would work in your video, but it’s worth addressing this idea if you want to and can demonstrate it visually. It’s a real skill, and it can be a powerful one sometimes!
Adding an edit here: another such example is a game where a right loop (sometimes from a set of jet bumpers) might possibly feed to the top of a right slingshot. A slap or nudge from right to left might make the ball feed the right flipper instead.
Hey Andrei, thanks for taking the time and the detailed reply!
I know you have the most watched nudging video on youtube and you put a lot of effort into explaining pinball on other events too
As I was just getting into pinball I remember watching your nudging clip in slow motion over and over again and I wasnt able to understand anything. Its hard for rookies to see what`s going on and I hope to make that a little bit more clear for newcomers.
As I understood, you are referring to nudges more at the upper playfield and slow balls returning from an orbit. Some orbits have a rubber post on the entrance to bounce the ball to the opposite flipper.
However, if the returning ball from such an orbit is too slow it wont make it to the flipper but drains down the middle. To avoid that you can support the rebound of the rubber post with a nudge. If you do not want the ball to bounce to the opposite flipper you can avoid the rubber by hitting the machine earlier so that the ball doesnt touch the rubber post at all, followed up by a live catch.
Here is an example for a supportive nudge I will include in the video, even though it`s not from an orbit feed. I hope I understood what you wanted to explain. Since I only have played about 15 different Pinball machines I am not very experienced in this regard.
Another method Robert Sutter explained to me was for slow balls rolling SDTM. He slides the machine very early and slowly to the side, without the ball even touching anything on the playfield. It doesn`t matter in which side you slide to affect the balls trajectory. As a secret move, he uses one foot to push against a leg to support the hands during the slide on sticky floors.
Do you have any hints on nudging for free rolling balls?
cheers