I had a quick look on the Xbox pinball fx 3 and I could only see how to buy the Jurassic pack at NZ$15, which is 5 times the price of a single Jurassic Park Table on iOS.
I’m most likely going to be playing on iOS anyway so it doesn’t bother me about the Xbox price
I’m good with either. If the table of choice looks more expensive than I care for on one device, I’ll pick it up on another … I’m just in it to participate for fun, not to compete for top score. 
Okay, which Jurassic Park table are we going to be using? Looks like there are 2 JP tables (normal and “mayhem”) and one Jurassic world table.
Let me know which of the three I should begin being terrible at…
For theme alone, I think we are playing Jurassic Park for the next two weeks (not the Mayhem one). After that will be Black Knight on Pinball Arcade.
Congrats to @Snotty128 for destroying us on Sorcerer’s Lair!
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I don’t think there’s much chance of me having a 2 hour game on this table, I’m struggling to make a ball last a minute. I feel like the Magna save is probably the answer to the constant drains in the outlanes, but even when the tick is up I just can’t hit it fast enough to save the ball.
When you add the centre table ball returns being quite dangerous too, then I think this table is going to be short and sweet. Quite the difference from the sorcerers lair.
Many, many years ago when screen savers were still a thing and flying toasters were all the rage I bought myself a Jurassic Park screensaver and it constantly chirped at me with those dilophosaurus sounds. Now every time I hit the bumper I am transported back to those glorious days.
I do like this table, so far. It is a bit of a mess design-wise as everything seems to get a bit jumbled in the top half of the screen, but I’m ok with that. I hate the sink hole directly up the middle as it breaks up the flow a bit too often. I haven’t learnt the table at all yet and have no idea how to start certain modes, or even what some do (why are the raptors stalking my flippers and why did one just steal my ball). There seem to be some very generous scores thrown out here and there but like @Snotty128 said, the drains are fairly frequent and I’ve yet to get a long game going. So far, so good, though.
I went ahead and picked up the JP tables on my Xbox One. Again, I started a 14-day tournament in case there are any others who pick the tables up on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Windows 10, or Steam and want to record their scores there.
Tournament Name: Airborne Gator
Table: Jurassic Park
Length: 14 days
Password: StatelyBoS
Normal Rules
Wizard Power: Disabled
Upgrade Slot 1: Disabled
Upgrade Slot 2: DisabledAfter starting 45 games, fighting the T. rex 21 times (winning 0 times!) I have managed a score of 74 million. I can score well off of the triceratops, although getting the ball in the video hole in time is still uncertain.
Magna save management was the key there as I’m only really losing balls that drain quickly down the centre, which is still quite often. I figured out you need to press and hold the tick to slow the ball, then keep holding to drag it back to safety.
Is Zen Pinball not a universal app? I bought it on my phone, but it can’t find anything to restore on my iPad. And playing pinball on the phone sucks…
It is universal.
By fighting the T-Rex are you referring to the Grant/Malcolm modes? I’ve completed one. On my high score game I hit a skill shot up the ramp with the park gates (I’m not sure why it was open) and scored 1M for each spin of the spinner for a total of 11M. I don’t know if I’ve sunk the ball in the moving nest yet but the secret skill shots can net you good points; the sink hole has given me up to 3M before.
Yup, I was talking about the tour mode that moves the car along the top of the table. Interestingly that mode bugs out my Magna save by hiding the button to activate it, and that button doesn’t come back after the mode is over. I’m now avoiding triggering that mode as it screws up my run. It’s a shame because the triceratops mode is easy and gives a lot of points, 20 million was my best there.
I’ve managed to finish the kitchen mode, and activating it plays very well with my desire to get as many Magna saves as I can. I learnt to hit the skill shot as that gives 1 step towards the Magna save when the ball hits the inlane, and the kitchen ramp returns the ball to the inlane for another Magna save step.
There’s a ramp you can only get to from the mid table flipper, and it’s worth it to learn how to hit it. You’ll often get 3-4 mil combo bonus for simply hitting it during the passage of play, then the ramp will give random bonuses like chaos mode (got that for 20 mil), crazy spinners (I suspect that’s mirefoxs 11mil from above) or an extra ball.
I don’t think I’m ever going to make it to wizard mode on this table, but I’d be happy if I can manage to finish at least a few more modes before we are done.
Is there a table guide for this table anywhere? I don’t really know what is triggering what, and it just ends up with the game feeling very streaky. I’ve scored 20M in the first 30 seconds just hitting ramps one game, and the next I spend a minute hitting the 500 point kick out hole over and over again. Is it bad design to have such a hard to miss target do so little in a game?
It’s hard to miss until you’ve only got a few seconds to hit it for video mode. I think it’s also the hole for extra ball, hunted mode, chaos mode, and amber mode. Maybe stampede mode but there’s so much going on I’m not sure. But I agree, it’s an odd spot that’s too easy to hit, and the 500 points from it is almost insulting.
I’ve not found an out of game table guide, only a couple of YouTube videos that know about as much as we do. There is an in game table guide which briefly covers most things. You get to it by loading the table then hitting pause.
I’ve activated most of the modes, with the exception of the wizard mode obviously, and the multiball from trapping balls on the left hand plunger. I’m still avoiding either of the tour modes because of the Magna save bug. I’ve found if the ball drains with a ball saver activate then I actually get my Magna save button back.
Just a personal preference, but I’ve gone into the menu and removed all score pop ups below 100,000. I find that this helps me identify good shots better and, I suppose, I get less frustrated at shots that would net me 500.
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That was what I was looking for actually! I remembered seeing it on Sorcerer’s Lair, but I forgot you had to pause in game…
Alright, I’ve had a change of heart on the 500 point kick out hole. Once I figured you could use it to transfer to the right flipper it totally changed up my strategy. It hasn’t improved my scores yet, but it has potential.
Basically, you can transfer to the right flipper over and over to hit the Tour ramp (the easiest ramp in my opinion). I’ve triggered multiple Malcolm’s Paths in one ball, and even finished it on occasion. Whenever you miss the ramp and end up on the left flipper, you just hit the kick out and set up the shot on the right flipper again. The only problem is you end up draining out more often off of the door…
I tried something similar. I’d fire the ball up the left stampede loop then use the top flipper to hit the ball up the chaotician ramp. I didn’t get any extra balls for some reason. You also get a chaos hurry up mode for every 5 hits up the ramp, but that was a unreliable way to score points. I then tried hitting the stampede loop and locking 4 balls for the stampede multiball. This showed a lot more potential but I couldn’t reliably chain a couple of those modes together without running out of balls.
I’ve also noticed the game feels quite different when playing in landscape and portrait mode. I had exclusively been playing in portrait mode, but am finding landscape mode easier for reliably hitting the wide shots up the stampede loop. Perhaps if a table had a lot going on in the top half (like epic quest) then portrait mode would be better.
Yeah, the right flipper plan scores all its points off video mode, spinner millions and Malcolm’s path. It seemed like a good idea because those are my strongest shots, but it ends up being high variance because there’s a lot of timed shots, and if you whiff on them there’s really no other points generated.
Other questions:
What’s the deal with magnasave? I activate it and sometimes I’ll take a gutter and not get the ball back. Once magnasave is active, is the only benefit of hitting the flashing letter of ROAR to get 50k?
What triggers the multi-way combos? You don’t always get it from hitting multiple lanes or ramps in a row.
Once you’ve got a Magna save you can hold down the tick button on the right of the screen and a couple of powerful magnets to turn on above the outlanes. You’ve got to hold the button down though! Those magnets will attract the ball so strongly it will save a ball that is draining. I’ve even had them save a ball that’s already gone off screen although that’s a bit hit and miss. Keep trying to get those 50k score bonuses as well as you can collect multiple Magna saves.
I think there’s 6 targets for the combo multiplier in this one. 2x stampede loops, tour ramp, kitchen ramp, chaos ramp and bunker hole. I think you only get an increase in the combo score if your hitting a different one of the set quick enough. The table guide says you get an extra ball for hitting a master combo, which would be standard and probably the easiest way to get an extra ball. I just don’t know what a master combo is! The stats say I’ve hit 2 super combos, which I’m sure is all 6 targets, I just don’t know how to turn a super combo into a master combo.