Curious to learn how the ruling was determined in this situation, which occurred during the final (of course) game on Godzilla at Pinball on the Lake. Sounds like they consulted with @pinwizj?
I don’t personally have a strong opinion, partly because I’m only vaguely familiar with this particular machine. The ruling was that @kdeangelo would receive a compensation ball. My gut reaction as a TD would have been “no compensation, game is working properly”.
Would like to know why this would have been a bad call so I don’t make this mistake in the future!
The only Godzilla I’ve ever played regularly would ALWAYS end your ball and go to bonus when finishing New York, so I’d usually avoid completing it. Figured it was just a bug with that particular machine, but it looked exactly like what happened in that video.
I couldn’t see Jim finishing NY as he drained with the shot lit in the tie breaker but going back to the INDISC, the video has @Smack847 finishing NY which clearly see game going dark, flipper dying, ball draining and then giving a ball back.
Saving NY after your last MB balls hit the through is not a good idea, somehow give you mercy on the shot but confuse the software on the end of the mode ball save
I agree with the ruling. Godzilla is supposed to give the ball back when you Save New York after the flippers go dead. The ball didn’t return back and went straight to bonus count. Could this be a bug from a grace period shot while the 2nd ball is draining? In any case, the IFPA rules clearly state:
A major malfunction is a gameplay problem with a machine that results in the premature loss of ball in play in a fashion that is not a normal feature of the machine’s gameplay. These may be unusual one-time events, or they may indicate a recurring problem that will need to be addressed by technicians.
He should be getting a compensation ball because of this malfunction. I think the timing of this ruling was not ideal. I think it should have been ruled on when it happened and not after Jim blew up his next ball. But I don’t think the IFPA has any wording in place that says that a ruling should take place immediately after the incident.
There have been several documented cases of games that will go straight to bonus instead of multiball when a mutiball start shot is lit, the shot is made, and for some reason the ball drains before the first ball of multiball is kicked out. ST:TNG, RCT, and JM are all known examples of this. Would this also qualify as a bonus ball scenario? I know this happened at NWPC on JM at some point but I don’t remember what the ruling was.
I own a Godzilla, have saved NY more times than I can count, and have never seen this bug/malfunction. Amazing. Seems like the correct call to me also.
I e totally had this happen to me. We had one for awhile at The Sanctum. Most of the time it would serve a ball back after but on occasion it would end your ball entirely like this. Has to be a bug or possibly timing issue with how it oooks at trough switches at that moment.