It has now been four or five trips to Pinball Pete's to play South Park. I have not gotten anywhere close to the high-score, which I don't believe is real. The highest score registered by a human on this machine is one tenth of the score needed for a free game. The jokes are old, the machine is loud, and I'm pretty sure the goal is impossible.
I've done some serious thinking. I'm not enjoying my trips to Pinball Pete's, knowing that I am no where close to achieving my goal. Knowing that even though my scores are going up each time I play, I've managed to turn a fun game into a horrible slog. So, I've decided to modify my quest. At first I considered finding a pinball machine not a Pinball Pete's, and substituting that for South Park. But, what if that game was super-easy like Shrek? No, I need to make sure that I'm not cutting out a difficult challenge, and replacing it with a piece of cake. I've decided that instead of beating South Park, I am going to both (a) advance Medieval Madness until I've beaten all of the King's Men and the King of Payne, and (b) advance Attack From Mars all the way until I conquer Mars. Both of these goals are actually more difficult than winning a free game on points, and I know that I like both of these machines. Plus, they're not ear-shatteringly loud, and their jokes are likely to age better.
[Edit: I've since looked up the Guinness Book of World Records score for South Park. As of 2007, the world record is 456,968,070. The score to win a free game on South Park is 4.25 times higher than the world record. I feel vindicated in my decision, and wish I would have looked up the high score sooner.]
Saturday, May 29, 2010
South Park
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4444&picno=13203
High 400,000,000
Replay at 1,945,000,000
3 plays for $1.00
I went to a small, private, Catholic college. Strangely, watching South Park turned into an event night in the basement of my dorm, and if you wanted to hang out with people on Thursday night you'd be watching South Park. I enjoyed it at the time, but since then I don't really find myself watching it, so I'm not sure if I really like South Park or if I just liked hanging out with friends. Probably I liked it but it got old. Whatever my feelings are, I've seen all of the episodes referenced by this game.
Each of the main characters gets its own target, and hitting the ramp/hole three times lites a huge red arrow. A fourth hit starts that characters mode, which is either to hit the character again within a timed period or, in the case of Chef, to hit all of the other characters. Not too bad, the ramps are pretty large and the game is rather forgiving. The fun part, however, is five-ball multiball. Strangely, almost every time I get multiball, two balls hit each other and one drains almost immediately, leaving me with essentially a 4-ball multiball. It's still pretty exciting to keep three or four balls going on this table. You have to keep your eyes on the flippers, but because all of the ramps are at the top you can't see what you're shooting at or hitting until you're down to two balls. And there's no point aiming, since what you hit will bounce off another ball anyway.
I'm somewhat concerned with the required score to win a free game, you'll notice that it is almost five times the high score. Even worse, high scores 1-8 are all 400,000,000 - (25,000,000 x Rank-1). There isn't a score with values in the thousands column until number 8, at around 223 million.
http://www.pinballhighscores.org/highscores.php?filter_game=south+park&filter_country=+&filter_tm=+&filter_tilt=+&filter_outlanes=+&filter_diff=+&filter_bpg=+&filter_buyin=+&filter_bbds=+&filter_home=+&filter_image=+&hs_type=Sega&sort=&filter_on=yes&show_all_games=&page=
High 400,000,000
Replay at 1,945,000,000
3 plays for $1.00
I went to a small, private, Catholic college. Strangely, watching South Park turned into an event night in the basement of my dorm, and if you wanted to hang out with people on Thursday night you'd be watching South Park. I enjoyed it at the time, but since then I don't really find myself watching it, so I'm not sure if I really like South Park or if I just liked hanging out with friends. Probably I liked it but it got old. Whatever my feelings are, I've seen all of the episodes referenced by this game.
Each of the main characters gets its own target, and hitting the ramp/hole three times lites a huge red arrow. A fourth hit starts that characters mode, which is either to hit the character again within a timed period or, in the case of Chef, to hit all of the other characters. Not too bad, the ramps are pretty large and the game is rather forgiving. The fun part, however, is five-ball multiball. Strangely, almost every time I get multiball, two balls hit each other and one drains almost immediately, leaving me with essentially a 4-ball multiball. It's still pretty exciting to keep three or four balls going on this table. You have to keep your eyes on the flippers, but because all of the ramps are at the top you can't see what you're shooting at or hitting until you're down to two balls. And there's no point aiming, since what you hit will bounce off another ball anyway.
I'm somewhat concerned with the required score to win a free game, you'll notice that it is almost five times the high score. Even worse, high scores 1-8 are all 400,000,000 - (25,000,000 x Rank-1). There isn't a score with values in the thousands column until number 8, at around 223 million.
http://www.pinballhighscores.org/highscores.php?filter_game=south+park&filter_country=+&filter_tm=+&filter_tilt=+&filter_outlanes=+&filter_diff=+&filter_bpg=+&filter_buyin=+&filter_bbds=+&filter_home=+&filter_image=+&hs_type=Sega&sort=&filter_on=yes&show_all_games=&page=
Medieval Madness
http://www.pinballdiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/img_2605.jpg
(this picture does is of a partially disassembled playing field, but the major points are there)
2 plays for $1.00 | 5 for $2.00
High 365,393,330
Replay 42,000,000
This is one of my favorite machines, and Rebecca's too. The Quest to beat all of the machines at Pinball Pete's actually began with this one, which both Rebecca and I love to play. According to the Internet Pinball Machine Database, it is the 5th most-popular solid-state game (i.e. post-1977). ST:TNG, which I gave a lukewarm review last week, is number four. When this quest is over, I'll have to revisit ST:TNG and see if it really is better than MM. I doubt it, but name-recognition with ST probably swings the internet's opinion. Finding the list of the top-ten SS pinball machines was pretty nice; six of the top-10 are just chillin' at Pete's waiting for me. Like venus flytraps for my quarters.
The goal of Medieval Madness is to destroy the castle. Hitting the drawbridge to the castle enough times will cause it to lower, revealing a portcullis inside. Hit that enough, and it will open your way to victory. A great feature of this game is that after destroying the castle, it resets and you are battling a new minion of the King of Payne. They came up with six different characters to taunt you, and it really feels like you're progressing through the game in a way that Star Trek doesn't.
Rebecca's favorite feature is the trolls that pop up from little trap doors. There aren't very many machines that are able to add features to the playfield during play, and it adds quite a bit to the experience. If only the ball didn't occasionally get caught behind the right-hand troll's head, it makes me extra-cautious during "Trolls!" mode.
Since I played this machine quite a few times prior to The Quest, I got a quick and respectable score of 54.1 million, and will be moving on to South Park. The Troll Multiball mode is broken, but because this post is a little delayed, it has since been fixed. Having played and paid attention to these games, I've noticed that Pinball Pete is pretty timely about repairing the machines.
(this picture does is of a partially disassembled playing field, but the major points are there)
2 plays for $1.00 | 5 for $2.00
High 365,393,330
Replay 42,000,000
This is one of my favorite machines, and Rebecca's too. The Quest to beat all of the machines at Pinball Pete's actually began with this one, which both Rebecca and I love to play. According to the Internet Pinball Machine Database, it is the 5th most-popular solid-state game (i.e. post-1977). ST:TNG, which I gave a lukewarm review last week, is number four. When this quest is over, I'll have to revisit ST:TNG and see if it really is better than MM. I doubt it, but name-recognition with ST probably swings the internet's opinion. Finding the list of the top-ten SS pinball machines was pretty nice; six of the top-10 are just chillin' at Pete's waiting for me. Like venus flytraps for my quarters.
The goal of Medieval Madness is to destroy the castle. Hitting the drawbridge to the castle enough times will cause it to lower, revealing a portcullis inside. Hit that enough, and it will open your way to victory. A great feature of this game is that after destroying the castle, it resets and you are battling a new minion of the King of Payne. They came up with six different characters to taunt you, and it really feels like you're progressing through the game in a way that Star Trek doesn't.
Rebecca's favorite feature is the trolls that pop up from little trap doors. There aren't very many machines that are able to add features to the playfield during play, and it adds quite a bit to the experience. If only the ball didn't occasionally get caught behind the right-hand troll's head, it makes me extra-cautious during "Trolls!" mode.
Since I played this machine quite a few times prior to The Quest, I got a quick and respectable score of 54.1 million, and will be moving on to South Park. The Troll Multiball mode is broken, but because this post is a little delayed, it has since been fixed. Having played and paid attention to these games, I've noticed that Pinball Pete is pretty timely about repairing the machines.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2357&picno=19076
1 play for $0.50 | 5 for $2.00
High Score: 7,030,426,690 RML
Replay at 271,000,000
Perhaps, unlike me, you were not raised by a computer programmer. And, perhaps, you were not fortunate enough to watch Star Trek growing up. Perhaps you don't have fond memories of being allowed to stay up until Midnight on Saturdays so you could recored (on VHS!) a rerun of Star Trek, back before it was "The Original Series", to help your dad complete his collection. Perhaps you don't remember when The Next Generation premiered, or watching Captain Picard in his brother's vineyard during the final episode. Perhaps you don't remember the premier of spin-off Deep Space Nine, being disappointed by Voyager, or when Enterprise became the first (only?) Star Trek series to have sung lyrics in its themesong. Yes, I may be a huge nerd; but you're reading a blog some guy playing pinball.
My wife and I have been watching The Next Generation via Netflix. She was fairly resistant to watching it in the beginning, but she's since turned into a Trekker. So, I think by now, I've made my point that I'm pretty excited about this one.
Stepping up to the machine, the first thing you notice is that your hands are slightly farther apart. ST:TNG is a W?idebody, and is 25" wide instead of the more-standard 22.5". It feels very "open", especially because there are few targets in the lower half of the playfield. The plunger is actually a phase-pistol handle attached to the machine; it feels out-of-place on a ST:TNG machine, very few episodes begin with violence.
There are quite a few ramps to shoot here, and quite a few lights to let you know where you should be shooting. There are sink-holes near the center for "Command Decision" and "Star Mission", and you can choose to what mode to start. These modes are generally timed and will light certain ramps, daring you to collect the whole set. I think an experienced player would earn a lot of points by picking the right mode, but since the rules scorecard didn't list how the modes work, I picked at random. I scored most of my points via destroying asteroids and banishing that dastardly Q. And by advancing rank, which is somewhat nice because it carries over from ball to ball.
This is a complex game, and I think you could play it for a long time before discovering all of its nooks and crannies. On my sixth game I scored 339,106,750 and gave my free game to Rebecca. I was a little disappointed with this machine for a couple of reasons. First, it was relatively easy; there is a lot more to the machine than I had to figure out to get my free game. And to figure it out, you need to make semi-arbitrary decisions about what mode to choose. This is a problem with many pinball machines, but seemed moreso here. My feeling are somewhat conflicted here, because I like that the ramps-to-hit for that mode light up, but on the other hand it makes the machine feel condescending. I also didn't like the widebody design; the machine was very sparse at the bottom and didn't seem to take advantage of the space that being wide-body allowed. It did have several ramps at the top, however. Finally, this machine suffers from being between the loud Lord of The Rings and the loud South Park.
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2357&picno=19076
1 play for $0.50 | 5 for $2.00
High Score: 7,030,426,690 RML
Replay at 271,000,000
Perhaps, unlike me, you were not raised by a computer programmer. And, perhaps, you were not fortunate enough to watch Star Trek growing up. Perhaps you don't have fond memories of being allowed to stay up until Midnight on Saturdays so you could recored (on VHS!) a rerun of Star Trek, back before it was "The Original Series", to help your dad complete his collection. Perhaps you don't remember when The Next Generation premiered, or watching Captain Picard in his brother's vineyard during the final episode. Perhaps you don't remember the premier of spin-off Deep Space Nine, being disappointed by Voyager, or when Enterprise became the first (only?) Star Trek series to have sung lyrics in its themesong. Yes, I may be a huge nerd; but you're reading a blog some guy playing pinball.
My wife and I have been watching The Next Generation via Netflix. She was fairly resistant to watching it in the beginning, but she's since turned into a Trekker. So, I think by now, I've made my point that I'm pretty excited about this one.
Stepping up to the machine, the first thing you notice is that your hands are slightly farther apart. ST:TNG is a W?idebody, and is 25" wide instead of the more-standard 22.5". It feels very "open", especially because there are few targets in the lower half of the playfield. The plunger is actually a phase-pistol handle attached to the machine; it feels out-of-place on a ST:TNG machine, very few episodes begin with violence.
There are quite a few ramps to shoot here, and quite a few lights to let you know where you should be shooting. There are sink-holes near the center for "Command Decision" and "Star Mission", and you can choose to what mode to start. These modes are generally timed and will light certain ramps, daring you to collect the whole set. I think an experienced player would earn a lot of points by picking the right mode, but since the rules scorecard didn't list how the modes work, I picked at random. I scored most of my points via destroying asteroids and banishing that dastardly Q. And by advancing rank, which is somewhat nice because it carries over from ball to ball.
This is a complex game, and I think you could play it for a long time before discovering all of its nooks and crannies. On my sixth game I scored 339,106,750 and gave my free game to Rebecca. I was a little disappointed with this machine for a couple of reasons. First, it was relatively easy; there is a lot more to the machine than I had to figure out to get my free game. And to figure it out, you need to make semi-arbitrary decisions about what mode to choose. This is a problem with many pinball machines, but seemed moreso here. My feeling are somewhat conflicted here, because I like that the ramps-to-hit for that mode light up, but on the other hand it makes the machine feel condescending. I also didn't like the widebody design; the machine was very sparse at the bottom and didn't seem to take advantage of the space that being wide-body allowed. It did have several ramps at the top, however. Finally, this machine suffers from being between the loud Lord of The Rings and the loud South Park.
Shrek
http://www.sternpinball.com/shrek_playfield.html
Replay: 19.5 million
Ah, vacation. This week my wife and I went to Florida with my mom+stepdad. It rained and was overcast the entire week, which wasn't really how I hoped a trip to Florida would be. BUT, while we were at Universal Studios, drenched, we popped into the arcade and found "Shrek". It's a new machine, based on the movie(s) of the same name. You know, about a green ogre. How else could you justify putting green legs on a pinball machine?
I only played a pair of games, so didn't get a great feel for it. It has targets and bumpers and ramps and talking characters and lights and colors. One new-to-me feature of this machine are "captive pinballs", which are basically enclosed pinballs that move along a short path when you hit them with your pinball. I thought they were going to do something cool like multiball, but no. Like a normal target, with false promise.
The coolest feature of Shrek is that it has an inset "Donkey Pinball" machine. Hit the right series of targets, and it will shrink your ball and put it into a smaller pinball machine at the top. I think they use the technology from Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Because the balls in donkey pinball are smaller, it seems to have a faster pace, and a few times the small balls had so much speed they bounced over the flippers, ending Donkey Pinball mode. I scored over 22 million, so happily I beat it. I didn't particularly love this machine, but didn't get time to really love it since we had to get going to wait in line for The Simpsons Ride. Definitely worth the wait.
Replay: 19.5 million
Ah, vacation. This week my wife and I went to Florida with my mom+stepdad. It rained and was overcast the entire week, which wasn't really how I hoped a trip to Florida would be. BUT, while we were at Universal Studios, drenched, we popped into the arcade and found "Shrek". It's a new machine, based on the movie(s) of the same name. You know, about a green ogre. How else could you justify putting green legs on a pinball machine?
I only played a pair of games, so didn't get a great feel for it. It has targets and bumpers and ramps and talking characters and lights and colors. One new-to-me feature of this machine are "captive pinballs", which are basically enclosed pinballs that move along a short path when you hit them with your pinball. I thought they were going to do something cool like multiball, but no. Like a normal target, with false promise.
The coolest feature of Shrek is that it has an inset "Donkey Pinball" machine. Hit the right series of targets, and it will shrink your ball and put it into a smaller pinball machine at the top. I think they use the technology from Honey I Shrunk The Kids. Because the balls in donkey pinball are smaller, it seems to have a faster pace, and a few times the small balls had so much speed they bounced over the flippers, ending Donkey Pinball mode. I scored over 22 million, so happily I beat it. I didn't particularly love this machine, but didn't get time to really love it since we had to get going to wait in line for The Simpsons Ride. Definitely worth the wait.
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