In the eternal words of Jack Danger; What’s up internet? 

After a little hibernation, I’m back at it with more tutorials/ruleset write-ups! I could make any number of the usual excuses for a lapse in posts (holidays, laziness, anxiety, work yada, yada); but that’s not productive so instead I’ll just dive in. 

 Today I’m featuring this Jurassic Park vid from Pinball 101 (or Pinball 102, as the videos are titled). I had no idea that Pinball 101 did some rules/tips vids and I was delighted to come across their Youtube channel while trying to study up for an away league game a few weeks ago. More after the jump! 

Pinball Tutorial #9: Tron Legacy  The first time I played Tron was in the lobby of the hotel at MGC a few years back. My hotel roomie was an epic snorer and I couldn’t sleep, so I took to wandering around the hotel. Since I couldn’t get anyone to sneak me into the afterparty in the ballroom, I played the modded out freeplay Tron just nearby. In my pajama-clad elegance, I played until 2 am (or whenever my eyes started getting heavy). I didn’t understand much, other than it was FAST and combos were somehow important ?? 

Honestly, I haven’t spent much time around Tron since then, even though there’s one available at Logan. Saturday morning I sat down, watched this video, took notes and started this post. Coincidentally enough, I ended up battling some pals on Tron at the arcade for a friends’ party that very night. It was perfect timing to practice what I had learned that morning. Even though I was a bit in my cups and we were mostly just goofing off, I managed to talk through my shots and do pretty decently for a “new-to-this-game” player. 

Full disclosure, this tutorial was a bit of a learning experience for me and I struggled to understand/take good notes. Reading rules online is tough because I learn better by watching or doing. It showed me that not all tutorials will necessarily help. Sometimes you just have to learn by DOING. Hopefully I’ll get some experience playing this with others and can come back to improve my notes. 

Tips/Tricks:

Main objectives: Complete All Modes to advance the progress ladder in center of the playfield to get to Sea of Simulation and/or Portal wizard modes. Build end-of-line value with combos to get the most points from your game. 

3 Skill Shots:

Soft plunge to the arcade shot (the scoop) worth 500k; increases in value by 50K each time it’s collected. First shot to the scoop is also a mystery award. 

If you miss that scoop shot, you can shoot for the left ramp for a value of 250k, (increasing in value by 50k each time after)

Hold the left flipper and full plunge to feed ball to upper left flipper. Hit the right ramp with the upper flipper for 300K (+50K each subsequent time)

3 Multiballs:

Light-Cycle; Advance to Light-Cycle by hitting ramps and loops 4 times. Start LC by hitting the scoop. Jackpots are any ramps or loops and any combos made advances End-of-line value. 2 super jackpots (combos) complete’s LC goal and lights the center LC in the progress ladder in the center of the playfield 

Quorra: Two ball multi-ball. Lite Quorra by hitting the left spinner. Try and complete as combo before hitting the spinner for EOL values. Quorra is completed by hitting all 6 major shots. Spinner is JP, Gem shot (the shot from the upper left flipper) is Super J and if you hit the recognizer, you get an add-a-ball twice. Good strategy during the beginning of Quorra to let your new balls go (while the ball save is on) so you can hit the ramps for combos. Quorra and LC are stackable

Disc Battle; qualify by hitting center recognizer gate 6 times. Hit Disc 6 times to light for Super JP. JP’s are any lit shots, and the value of the JP’s earned will be added to value you collect from the disc. Disc cannot be stacked with other MBs

2 Wizard Modes:

Sea of Simulation; When all center lights on progress ladder are either lit or flashing, SoS will be lit at the scoop. Award of 1mil+ for each level you’ve completed. Shoot all lit discs (the round lavender discs). Every shot you make is worth 100k x the level you’re on. Get credit for whatever shot you can’t make by hitting the middle disc. Shooting Flynn’s arcade scoop gives you advances towards whatever mode you’re working on 

Portal; When all nine main lights are lit solidly, shoot each major shot 4 times. When shot is made 4 times, a ball is added  

Other Goals/Objectives:

Zuse: 4 standup letter targets throughout; once completed starts a frenzy mode. Hit ZUSE shots again in 25 seconds. 

CLU; Hole, Spinner and Loops for a total of 4 shots. The inlanes spot CLU as well. Relight to complete 

Gem: Timed mode. Hit right inner loop 3 times to qualify. Hit Gem shot once within 25 seconds. Hitting the right and left spinner adds 10 seconds

Flynn: I’m unclear from the video what Flynn is/does so I had to do some looking online for a rulesheet I could follow. Started by right rollover switch next to the arcade and completed by hitting flashing arrow (left orbit, left ramp and left inner loop)

Tron: Also not sure about the bank shots to the left. All I understood was . If you “float through” the lane on the right (past the scoop) and hit the Tron target, it will count as though all 3 have been hit. After that I’m really unsure

 Pinball Tutorial #11; Skateball

Look! It’s the OTHER skateboarding pin, Skateball! Skateball happens to be the final pin played during recent PAPA 20 in which our skilled tutorial giver, Bowen, placed 2nd. That tremendous final (which also happened to be a tie-breaker) is worth a watch here, starting at the 8:15:32 mark. 

Some more great examples of advance flipper skills in this video. Even if you don’t understand what to do beyond “collect s-k-a-t-e drops” (as I did after the first viewing), Bowen shows some dope upper-flipper skills as well as alley-passes, post-passes, and drop catches. 

Pinball Tutorial #10; Radical 

Let’s talk about upper flippers! When I was a newbie and didn’t pay attention to shots, I would often forget about upper flippers. It’s something I’ve noticed novices doing, too. Maybe it’s because new players have a reactionary mindset that says “keep the ball alive”, so they focus on the flippers in front of them. It may seem silly and obvious, but learning the rules definitely helps in remembering that there are other flippers, as you need to utilize flippers to make $. I had a habit of forgetting the upper left flipper on TZ because it’s hidden directly under the upper playfield. When I realized that the shot to the piano is hella’ important, using the upper flipper became second nature. 

Radical, as well as having two upper flippers, has an unusual layout. Lots of ramps and drops in interesting places. Radical is a practical example of a machine that’s good to closely examine before plunging. Look at your shot geometry; where will this upper flipper send my ball? Can I trap or drop catch on one of them? Are any of the shots dangerous? (i.e. will it hurl my ball to the drain quickly?) Take an initial game to dial-in your shots and see where the ball goes before playing for points! 

Tips/Tricks:

Skill Shot: The RADICAL lights just above the flippers start cycling quickly when a ball is fed into the plunger lane. Shoot for the upper left ramp and whichever letter was lit when you plunge is awarded. 

Objective: 

Spell R-A-D-I-C-A-L 

2 balls locked starts MB

Collect JP’s by hitting the left ramp for Mega-millions; in non-competitive play, it’s usually a variable between 2-10mil. After Mega-millions is collected, you have to restart spelling Radical. 

Snake Run:

Complete the 1-2-3 drop targets (next to the pops) 

Once you complete 1-2-3, you have a limited amount of time to shoot for Snake Run, a drop behind the 1-2-3 targets. Once you hit the drop target behind 1-2-3 you get a random award. Snake run also re-lites Mega millions

Other Stuff:

In-lanes spot letters, so you can attempt an alley-pass to collect a letter if you need to. The drop target bank also spots letters

Limit to tailsliders (left ramp feeding to the funnel-like hole) before the ball diverts to the snake area on the left. Tail Slider is lit by collecting the second A in RADICAL

Millions on the drops are usually on a timer

Right out/inlane is super dangerous; utilize your nudges

HUGE DQ: If you tilt out with a ball lock, the game will release the ball so the next player cannot steal your lock. This is against the rules in tournament play and probably just-not-very-nice if you’re playing with others

Cool thing: Bally and “the skateboarding community” had some kind of deal to make a skating pin once every decade. This collection of pins started with Zip-A-Doo in 1970, Skateball in 1980 and Radical in 1990. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was going to be released in 2000 but Bally went out of business before the machine could be developed. 

A Quick Note About Trapping Up;

Trapping up (or cradling) is basically Flipper skills 101, day 1, page one. It’s something I’ve noticed beginners having a hard time with, especially if the ball is moving quickly or coming from anywhere but the in-lanes. Nerves get the worst of a lot of new players because they’re often on edge about the ball draining out. Trapping up (like dead flipping) can feel a little second nature when one is a beginner because you’re not quite used to the physics of the game. 

This is another reason I encourage people go to out to freeplay arcades or home arcades to practice drills and/or one-handed. When you don’t have to pay money and can just let balls go as much as you want, it’s a lot less stressful. 

Pinball Tutorial #6; Attack From Mars (AFM)

I’ve been practicing every day since getting back from Pinburgh and I’m feeling a bit of pinball fatigue. Including the days I was at ReplayFX, I’ve played pinball for 9 days straight and I think a recovery day is deserved.  Last night at the arcade, I was getting very discouraged because almost all of my shots were bricking and there was a real struggle to gain control. My only good games were on Game of Thrones and even then there was this odd sense of existential dread. “What’s the point when I only understand 50% of what I’m doing?” I thought. I powered through and tried to remind myself that even practice without full knowledge of the rules is still intentional and productive. At least I was able to get some flipper skills work in, right?   This toot gave me a little bit of perspective in regards to that fatigue/frustration. You can hear Bowen getting a bit frustrated with some of his shots. It was a nice reminder that even the most experienced player with an in-depth knowledge of rulesets can ride the struggle bus. Tips and Tricks:

Super Skill Shot: Hold the left flipper and hit any orbit, ramp or the center gate for 50 mil. It’s wise to aim for the gate as that’ll start an attack wave

Saucer: Basically focus on getting those attack waves done. Use multiballs, stroke of luck and ball saves wisely to help get that saucer hit.

Ball save when Strobe MB ends! Use that time to knock down the target bank 

During Total Annihilation you need 10 shots to the center. Trap up on the right, shoot with the left. Total Annihilation bonus is shots to the center (lock shot) which = the grand total of all JP’s earned

“I’m in a little bit of a danger situation now I gotta’ figure out how to get back to my happy situation” lol 

You can find more rules that go a bit deeper here. 

Other thoughts/New terms: This is a great video to set an example for some deeper flipper skills. Fantastic cradle separations and trap-ups. At around 7:30, Bowen mentions using balls in a 2 ball MB to carom or for deflection. This is something I’ve done instinctively but never thought about from a strategic point of view. It’s a good tip to keep in mind and focusing on the skill rather than doing it reactively might help improve play during MB. 

Pinball Tutorial #2; Aerosmith. Tutorial from Timballs. Old code but the basics are there. Gonna’ practice this one tonight at my local. Wanna’ try and get used to those shots and remembering which mode corresponds with which super mode. Chop away at completing modes, practicing that lock shot and getting Toybox and Elevator multiballs.