It seems that @Snotty128 has won Feb’s table. I will likely have to get used to writing this.
Unless there are objections, March’s table will be:
Mars
2 Likes
I think @univac posted a higher score, though I don’t know if that was a historical high score or one produced for this competition.
I really like the Mars table by the way, it easily my most played table, so I’m looking forward to this one
Mars 407 million. Nice theme. Easy to light kickbacks. Missions are fun but sometimes the toys (space shuttle/satellite) obscure the table which is a little annoying. The hardest mission is pyramid. The cross ramp shot is a little hard to shoot to start the mission. Then the multiball starts and the M A R S spot targets on the left side of the machine are a bit hard to hit. Was able to complete the wizard mode on my second try. Overall a pretty easy table. Was able to secure 13th place on the leaderboard (ios).
1 Like
Wow! Ok, that score is something else. Looks like Ive got some work to do. I love it.
I got 139mil on my first play and I was pretty happy with that. Gonna make an effort to target the extra ball now I know where it’s hiding.
Also I failed sun storm every time. The timer seems super tight. If you can’t get the ball to the correct flipper in one flip, the modes over.
Yikes! I’m only in the 50m range, though I do have an excuse - I’m playing Mars on my PS4 and it really feels different than playing on my iPad. I need to adjust a bit.
Do you know how to do nudge, bounce, and slingshot passes? They are techniques for quickly transferring the ball from one flipper to another. These help when trying to make specific shots with a timer ticking away.
1 Like
If anyone cares at all about achievements, the Captain America table actually has one for nudging the ball away from a drain.
Pretty comfortable with my bounce pass, my post pass is pretty sketchy and would need more practice. I can’t really reach to nudge the table at all on my iPad though, my thumbs are so far away from the nudge zone.
Good tips though, thanks! I’ll be thinking about using this stuff more
About half the turn out for a local pinball competition in covid free New Zealand. Now watch me crash out at the earliest possible opportunity. Looks like 39 people all in. Positively illegal in some places right now
2 Likes
That looks awesome! I’m sure a little Google search could find me an arcade, but I honestly don’t know of anything like that around me.
I ended up 16th which I’m ecstatic about considering the level of the competition. I ended up playing:
Dr who (1st)
Addams family (2nd)
Getaway (1st)
Scared stiff (3rd, never played before)
Bram stokers Dracula (3rd, never played before)
Addams family (3rd, just beaten to 2nd place in the other players bonus points phase)
Super tight finish for me, and it was awesome to meet some of the pinball hardcore from my city. I even got to meet a couple of the guys who dominate the local high score boards. The “hardco” of my city, a guy who I had previously only known from high score boards as RU, was super friendly, and exceptionally skilled. He is of course a small Asian gentleman (which is a stereotype, but a good one).
All in all a great day out
2 Likes
I think it has been 25 to 30 years since I’ve seen a Hercules (the world’s largest pinball machine), and it was tuned so poorly, the flippers couldn’t even get the ball halfway up the table. Did they compete on that, or is it just there for the novelty?
Thankfully Hercules wasn’t in the rotation, along with one other particularly old table. I think sea witch (1980) was the oldest one in the competition.
You’re right about Hercules being there for the novelty. I had a go on it a couple of months ago, when you see something like that then you’ve got to really. I thought the machine was a joke as the massive unnudgeable pinball just went straight down the middle for the first 4 balls, but I had a good run on the 5th ball and managed to get it everywhere on the table.
Sorry for letting this die. Again…. I think I’m not fit out for running anything persistent.
Anyways, my kids have been playing Inks and I decided to try it out. It is pretty great for what it is, which is a puzzle game with pinball mechanics. Sometimes the flipper doesn’t register, which is frustrating, but since the game is about 30 second runs at most, I can live with the occasional issue.
Have any of you tried any non-traditional pinball games on iOS that have gone over well with you? There is a zombie one on Apple Arcade but I have yet to try it.
I wish there were a mobile version of Rollers of the Realm.
PinOut and Pinball Cadet are decent. Nearly all of the non-traditional pinball games out there have bad physics so they aren’t worth my time (i.e. floaty ball physics or weird flipper physics which makes aiming nearly impossible).
I just saw that there is a game coming out next month called World Flipper that is supposedly a mash up of JRPGs and Pinball. It will be free to play and will likely have all the trappings of the myriad other character-collecting “RPGs” that are a cancer on gaming, but it does look to have actual pinball mechanics. At least, I see a drain and two flippers. The game could be an abominable mess and so much will depend on the physics, but my interest is piqued at least.
August the 1st marks the restart of the ifpa sanctioned pinball tournament scene. Players compete across a variety of formats to earn ranking points. My group was hoping to be the first on the board due to timezones, but the Swedes beat us to it by starting their competition at midnight.
I ended up 11th out of 30, managing to personally win my matches against the 17th and 24th ranked players in New Zealand when I was drawn against them.
I got to play
Bride of Pinbot
Deadpool (Premium)
Earthshaker
Game Of Thrones (Pro)
Indianapolis 500
Monster Bash
Revenge from Mars
Scared Stiff
Star Trek (LE)
Star Wars (Premium)
The Sopranos
Twilight Zone
Who Dunnit
World Cup
I’m looking forward to the next tourney in 3 weeks! If you’re interested, it’s probably worth checking your local area as I’m sure there will be many many tournaments starting up after the 15 month hiatus due to covid
2 Likes
That is awesome! Well done!
It had been so long since I’ve played a physical table that I would be a disaster. I also don’t know of any in my area, though I haven’t searched too hard.
I just got a new phone and when I tried to restore my Zen tables the server just timed out. App reviews say this is a common issue. The app hasn’t been updated in close to 3 years now and it looks like I may have lost 75 tables. The Williams app is an absolute abomination of currencies. Zen had such a good thing on their hands. I wish they had transitioned to their Pinball FX model on iOS as well with the tournament and challenge support.