Bug Compilation

To simplify the bugs listed, I combined them all into this post. This makes it easier for me to track and post which ones are fixed. I also put the link to the original post on each bug. If I missed anything feel free to comment so I can add them. I'll add the terms FIXED, CNR, Looking Into (CNR = Could Not Reproduce) in front of the ones when thier status changes. Some of these are older and may have been fixed since. I'll also put a date next to FIXED or CNR, which is the date in which I tested my current build. This isn't necessarily the current released build, or even the next build to release. The bug would be fixed in a build submitted after the date I marked it fixed. If you are no longer seeing any of these issues let me know and I'll mark it fixed.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fixed now. Instruction translations sometimes don't make it in until the build after the table release.
No instructions on IOS French
Is it normal that I have no instructions in French on that Table?
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/1958-No-instructions-on-IOS-French

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Background sounds during instructions - possible bug? (360)
On the 360, if you view the instructions, there's a pretty distracting background loop. Not sure if it's as designed or not, but to me it sounds like something may be wrong with the sound file or it's playback. I even rebooted the xbox and restarted TPA just to make sure, but it remained the same.
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...sounds-during-instructions-possible-bug-(360)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Lower Field Bonus Not Adding?
To preface, I have bad eyes. Now that that's out of the way, when I play Black hole and fail, the lower field bonus will start to count down and then whoosh forward. I wouldn't mind it except I can't tell if it gave me all the points or if it just... whooshed forward. Could people with better eyes than mine take a look at this?
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/253-Lower-Field-Bonus-Not-Adding

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Games Loses Count Of Balls on Playfield
I was just playing a game of Blackhole and I managed to get the three ball multiball. All 3 balls made it to the upper playfield and one drained down the left outlane. After that, I had one ball on the top playfield and one in the bottom with the gate open. I screwed up while juggling both balls and the ball on the main playfield drained and the one in the lower playfield was sent back up to the open gate. When the ball that was on the main playfield drained the end of ball bonus countdown started and another ball was dispensed to the shooter lane even though I still had one in play.
A similar thing happened to me this morning on MM which completely ruined a great game and I jumped over to Blackhole tonight attempting to escape from the bugs. All of this is happening on the PS Vita, but since Blackhole is not being run by a ROM, I am sure this could happen on any system which is why I am posting this in this section.
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/1267-Games-Loses-Count-Of-Balls-on-Playfield

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Drop targets don't always drop
Anyone else notice sometimes that the drop targets don't always drop, even when you hit them directly?
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/38-Drop-targets-don-t-always-drop

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Ball stuck in lower captive hole during multiball
When playing on android, I'll start multiball and if one of the balls goes into the captive hole it gets stuck and does not release. The 2nd ball can drain and the camera just stays on the lower play field and I have to quit the game. I've tried calling the attendant but it just tells me the ball is not stuck and resumes the game. Also tried tilting around to see if I can get it to pop out, but no luck. I'm playing only on android so i don't know if it happens on any other systems.
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/1218-Ball-stuck-in-lower-captive-hole-during-multiball

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Missing Speech?
I looked up Black Hole on the Pinball Database. They had a video clip. In it there was speech for 'extra ball' and 'captive ball'. Shouldn't this be in the game?

Since Black Hole is currently scripted (and not ROM emulated), there are some missing sounds and a few other discrepancies as well. Everything will be 100% once FarSight gets the Gottlieb System 80 MPU emulation working and implemented.
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/1222-Missing-Speech

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Multiballs in a knot, hot attendant refuses to help !!!
BALLS IN A KNOT! Here is the situation where I got my balls caught in a knot ... and I have repeated it three times. It only happens when you have activated mulitball .... as you go down into the black hole, multiball is activated, but you lose a ball without opening the gate and it drains out, and then pop a ball into the ball catcher. Now I thought to myself, great! Finally an opportunity to call over that curvaceous and tantalizing attendant and I said "hey there sweetie, my balls are caught in a knot" and she said "Sounds like a personal problem" and I said "really, they're caught, can't you see that?" The manager came and said "Your balls are not stuck, the attendant can't help you" I said "Do want to see how fast I can get my balls stuck in your ..." I not only lost a game with two balls left and score of over 900,000! I was immediately removed from the arcade! My balls will forever be dangling in the black hole, never to realize their true potential! By the way, what is the attendant like in your arcade?
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/487-Multiballs-in-a-knot-hot-attendant-refuses-to-help-!!!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Looking Into
Odd Extra Ball bug
When I was playing on 360, I got multiball, g-force accelerated, and extra balls, but after losing a ball while having an extra ball, the ball counter went blank. When I ran out of extra balls and lost a ball when the counter was blank, the ball counter went back to ball one (which was the ball I started on).
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/547-Odd-Extra-Ball-bug

first of all ... THANK YOU for this thread! you guys rock. Here's one that's been bugging me forever:

Invisible Second Ball on Playfield at Start of Game
If I spam both flippers just as the machine is initializing, before plunging the first ball, an invisible ball will start bouncing around the playfield. it cannot be seen, but it can knock down targets and score points. i can then launch the real first ball, and both will be on the playfield and knock into each other, though one is invisible. if the invisible one happens to get sent to the lower playfield, it magically becomes visible and effectively i've got a pseudo 2-ball multiball going, although the table does tend to get confused when one of the balls drains. I've reproduced this glitch dozens of times. just keep resetting the table and spamming the flippers. I am not sure, but it may be a previously locked ball in the lower playfield that inadvertantly comes alive? just a guess.

I reproduced this last night on the new version of the table, but it's been present in every version i've played.

There seems to be a few problems with BH in 1.1.9 version depending on which device you have. On ipad 3 I notice a minor missing texture problem on the left outlane double post;

Couldn't see the iPad 1 screen grab in the above post, so here's the one I posted earlier...



Octagonal jet bumpers and odd half-height skinny pointy flippers. Was absolutely fine in 1.1.8. iPad 1 with iOS 5.

Also note that on my iPhone 4/iOS 6, I do not have the odd changes in the above pic- still have the fat flippers etc.

however- I do notice that on this version, the text for 'extra ball' and 'captive hole' on the left part of playfield is now skewed/messed up. Other misc. small graphical things might also exist. There's a nice gif in the current iOS bugs list that shows the differences btwn the two current versions of the table that are now out.

Just had a bug ( iPad 3, iOS 6, TPA 1.1.9 ). Losing the ball through the flippers on the lower playfield the ball didn't reappear on the upper playfield but just disappeared. The game didn't know where the ball was, the attendant wouldn't reset the ball as it said it wasn't lost and even tilting didn't return the table to a playable state. Actually even quitting the table and restarting didn't fix the problem, as soon as the ball was lost on the lower playfield the table got stuck in the same state.

Huh. The bumpers used to look octagonal on Android, but after recent patches they're much better now.

iPhone 4, iOS 6, most recent update. Also note that this is the LOWEST camera view possible in portrait mode!!

I'm on a Kindle Fire gen 2. I just experienced this bug 3 times. Multiball doesn't have to be active to get the ball stuck in the lower table lock. All 3 times I caught the lone ball on the right flipper before sending it into the lock. Every time It bounced out of the lock and then off the post right by it and then back in to the lock. The attendant says the ball is not stuck. I have to exit the table.

EDIT: It's just happened again. I can only lock the ball if I hit it while it rolls rather than catching and aiming (At least it looks like my aim is true). This is a pretty bad bug.

I too have suffered the ball getting stuck in the lower playfield. FWIW, I don't think the issue is that it's stuck in the lock saucer down there. I think the ball is actually getting stuck in the geometry or possibly even flying out of the table itself. *Very* briefly I saw the ball below and to the left of the left drop target bank (where it shoud never go) before it was never to be seen again. (iOS 6, iPad 3)

I think some of the sounds aren't matching up to the action in the game that the sound plays for. I need to look into it a bit more before I get all nuts about it. I don't think anyone else has mentioned it, so I'm probably wrong. I've never played a real BH table.

Just had a couple bugs happen for the first time on PS3 last night:

1.) Shot the ball into the upper lock and it went right though the lock and up through the spinner and gravity tunnel.

2.) The plunger freaked out: didn't have enough strength to get the ball up the lane. This happened after one of those cases where the camera didn't zoom back to the plunger lane right away after draining and I think trying to plunge before the camera moved may have caused this, but I'm not sure. Had to restart the game though.

McGuirk said:

I think some of the sounds aren't matching up to the action in the game that the sound plays for. I need to look into it a bit more before I get all nuts about it. I don't think anyone else has mentioned it, so I'm probably wrong. I've never played a real BH table.

Click to expand...

yeah i agree. a lot of the bounces actually sound like balls colliding with each other, for example. it's sort of small potatoes, though, because this table is currently virtually unplayable on my ipad2 right now -- every game i've attempted has ended with the ball stuck after draining from the lower playfield, and the attendant unwilling to help.

The ball being lost after a shot to the lower field saucer in single ball mode seems to happen to me exclusively if there is a ball already locked in the saucer or if I ended the last game with one locked in the lower play field and did not exit the table before starting a new game. In multiball mode if one shot is cycling through the lock and another follows in quick succession the same happens. I think (on occasion) that I've seen hints of movement peaking out in breaks in the graphics in that corner of the lower play field too when this happens. I'd like to know what the "logic" for the attendant "finding" a lost ball might be. That might provide a definitive answer for us if a "lost ball" is defined as no ball in play without a drain event or if it is simply a ball in play and no triggers being registered on the play field. Anyway, I know we've all beaten this horse to death but I wanted to share my experience too in case it's helpful in some way.

Please consider this constructive criticism -- even with bugs, some TPA is far superior to no TPA -- still my favorite application!

On the Mac version, the upper table has the stubby Gottlieb flippers, but the lower table has the long thin flippers. Not that I'm complaining, though; I'm racking up some decent bonuses on that lower playfield now.

okay. finally got 1000 HOF points on this table today (over 5 million). played it for several hours. there was one recurring bug that was pretty annoying -- it happened about 4 times in 3 hours. on the lower playfield, i shoot a ball in the general direction of the captive hole. it hits something, and inexplicably bounces up to the upper playfield. however, the camera stays zoomed in on the lower field, so i am forced to slap like a maniac and hopefully by some miracle blindly knock the ball back down to the lower playfield.

it usually happens when there is a ball already in the capture hole, but i'm pretty sure i had it happen once when there wasn't a ball captured, too.

I used to have the #1 score on the ps3 on this table, with a few mobile scores above me on the list. My top score is still the same but my total placing is around #6700 with mobile and osx scores in the several billions taking up the top thousands slots. Maybe you should take a look at the high scores and why they're all wonky? It's slightly annoying because there's no way to see where I actually am on the scoreboards when fake/bugged/whatever scores are completely saturating it.

JPelter said:

I used to have the #1 score on the ps3 on this table, with a few mobile scores above me on the list. My top score is still the same but my total placing is around #6700 with mobile and osx scores in the several billions taking up the top thousands slots. Maybe you should take a look at the high scores and why they're all wonky? It's slightly annoying because there's no way to see where I actually am on the scoreboards when fake/bugged/whatever scores are completely saturating it.

Click to expand...

If the scores are in the billions, that's probably from the time when Theatre of Magic and Black Hole had their leaderboards reversed.

Had an issue today on the PS3 version in the lower playfield where the ball disappeared from view and would not come back, but calling the Attendendant resulted in 'ball not stuck' message. I shook the table with no success, eventually tilting it (even then the attendant claimed the ball was not stuck).

Perhaps the Attendant logic can be fixed up a bit, where it actually determines there is no ball movement when it should move, or an outside-of-playfield check.

PS - the version for PS3 is so much better than the one I have for PS2! It's a joy to play.

Edit: had it twice in a row today, the gate is open and the ball goes towards the escape (left side).

Ooops