Family Mode default setting seems to have been changed...

...to off. When I turn on Pro mode, the setting is at off by default (without Pro mode on, it's on). So, with just having turned on Pro mode, and changing NO settings - I proceeded to have the game of my life (so far at any rate), more than doubling the previous high score, which a friend of mine set a few weeks back (at that time he doubled my previous high score, which is kinda funny). It clearly stated that changing any settings would null and void any leaderboards etc; but I didn't change squat.

10 minutes after the game, and it's not registered to the leaderboards. Thank the good lord I didn't complete the spider wheel; I wasn't too far off. I would have smashed my monitor if that didn't register.

On another note, I encountered so many bugs in that one game, I started to expect there'd be an in-game mode for finding them all. Most notable was when I had a 2 ball multi and one of the balls knocked the other through the left flipper. That was particularly funny. Yeah. Most buggy table I've encountered so far.

So uh, the question is - does just turning Pro mode on count as changing settings? Because after hearing Elvira scream out that she's having multiple jackpots - I ain't ever going back to the kiddie mode; wizard achievement be damned.

Yes, just turning on Pro mode makes any table ineligible for the leaderboard. The score will save locally but will not register publicly.

It's this way because TPA can't really tell if you've changed any settings within the ROM. The computer program mostly doesn't know what the ROM is doing internally.

vikingerik said:

Yes, just turning on Pro mode makes any table ineligible for the leaderboard. The score will save locally but will not register publicly.

It's this way because TPA can't really tell if you've changed any settings within the ROM. The computer program mostly doesn't know what the ROM is doing internally.

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Hmm, that actually makes sense. Still, they really ought to add a separate in-game option to enable / disable family mode. Even if you don't own the Pro version, in my opinion.

Thanks for replying.

If you pay for the pro mode (which proves you are an adult) you really should be able to turn off the darn family mode.

I was so thankful to find that just turning Pro Mode on had it default to Family Mode off, so local high scores are still saved because you don't have to actually change anything in the system. Without that I'd have zero drive to play the game in Pro Mode, gotta have those scores tracking. I don't bother with leaderboard scoring so that's not an issue for me.

Lazareth said:

I was so thankful to find that just turning Pro Mode on had it default to Family Mode off, so local high scores are still saved because you don't have to actually change anything in the system. Without that I'd have zero drive to play the game in Pro Mode, gotta have those scores tracking. I don't bother with leaderboard scoring so that's not an issue for me.

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I just wanted to note that I've found that if you enable Pro Mode and attain a high score, the LOCAL high score list will be COMPLETELY overwritten by the Pro Mode's high score list. Your non-Pro local high scores will be wiped out every time. This can be a real annoyance if you like to switch between regular and Pro mode. If you always play one or the other it may not be an issue. Frankly, I consider this a bug but I don't think I've gotten a response from FarSight about it. It makes me generally avoid tinkering with Pro modes because I know I'll lose my local high score list.

the same here, pro mode is uselles because of this.

I agree there are problems with it. I'll only play Pro Mode for the uncensored experience from now on. And you are correct about the score issues and I wasn't happy at all about losing all of my old scores saved over the years.

I've never been interested in the pro mode stuff. This latest sale caught my eye only because I didn't realize there was an uncensored mode for Scared Stiff. Being a big Elvira fan I just had to try it out, and then I stumbled across the score issue that occurs when using pro mode. I didn't do my research well enough beforehand.

To be honest I'm not a fan of the whole "pro mode" thing in the first place. I feel that the "explore" the playfield option should come with a normal purchase. Nothing pro about examining the playfield so you can see what you're aiming at like IRL where you can you know, walk around the machine and look at stuff from different angles inbetween plays.

Family mode off/on should have been handled differently, completely separate from the gameplay changing tinkering bits that cause high score issues. My 2cents.

well, if I understand that correctly, family mode is always off if you have the pro table. That's why I didn't realized what was all the fuss about censored things in scared stiff so I started to mess with settings and fcuked up my scores in the process just to realize that the family mode is off by default on pro tables. Well, lesson learned.......

If losing the local high scores really really bothers you, you can go into the Operator menu within Pro mode and edit the default local high score entries.

Put whatever you want in there.

kinggo said:

well, if I understand that correctly, family mode is always off if you have the pro table. That's why I didn't realized what was all the fuss about censored things in scared stiff so I started to mess with settings and fcuked up my scores in the process just to realize that the family mode is off by default on pro tables. Well, lesson learned.......

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Family mode does appear to be off by default when Pro mode is enabled. Messing with the settings is probably not what messed up your high scores. Simply playing at all with Pro mode on would have overwritten the local high scores (even if you had not touched any settings).

well, no. If you have a pro table, family mode is off by default and you can hear all those censored things (LOL at censoring system in the US) but the game is not in the pro mode so all your scores are legit for leaderboards. And that is how I played the game. But first game with a change in the operator menu deleted all my scores in regular mode. What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to mess with pro mode or operator menu to have the family mode off. But messing with it will delete your regular local scores. And that is ridiculous since those scores are not legit for leaderboards.

Lazareth said:

I agree there are problems with it. I'll only play Pro Mode for the uncensored experience from now on. And you are correct about the score issues and I wasn't happy at all about losing all of my old scores saved over the years.

I've never been interested in the pro mode stuff. This latest sale caught my eye only because I didn't realize there was an uncensored mode for Scared Stiff. Being a big Elvira fan I just had to try it out, and then I stumbled across the score issue that occurs when using pro mode. I didn't do my research well enough beforehand.

To be honest I'm not a fan of the whole "pro mode" thing in the first place. I feel that the "explore" the playfield option should come with a normal purchase. Nothing pro about examining the playfield so you can see what you're aiming at like IRL where you can you know, walk around the machine and look at stuff from different angles inbetween plays.

Family mode off/on should have been handled differently, completely separate from the gameplay changing tinkering bits that cause high score issues. My 2cents.

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I missed your first message (will go back and look) however my friend Shawn "one wicked pinhead) both the pro for this table and he also lost all of his high scores etc on EVERY table. I assume that's what happened to you? I realize this is locking the barn door after the horses escape but a great reason for ALL OF US to go in and manually back up everything both locally and remotely. I only have that pro version on my Mac and it didn't cause a problem but their is no way in Hell that I'll get it on my iPad....,back up or not!

kinggo said:

well, if I understand that correctly, family mode is always off if you have the pro table. That's why I didn't realized what was all the fuss about censored things in scared stiff so I started to mess with settings and fcuked up my scores in the process just to realize that the family mode is off by default on pro tables. Well, lesson learned.......

Click to expand...

Yup, that's exactly what happened to me.

Reagan Dow said:

I missed your first message (will go back and look) however my friend Shawn "one wicked pinhead) both the pro for this table and he also lost all of his high scores etc on EVERY table. I assume that's what happened to you? I realize this is locking the barn door after the horses escape but a great reason for ALL OF US to go in and manually back up everything both locally and remotely. I only have that pro version on my Mac and it didn't cause a problem but their is no way in Hell that I'll get it on my iPad....,back up or not!

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I have the save backed up but since playing pro mode wipes out that table's high scores there's no point reloading, unless I never play uncensored and that ain't gonna happen. haha

I just checked and high scores saved for other tables are not affected by this little issue thankfully. Sorry to hear about your friend's game though.

kinggo said:

well, no. If you have a pro table, family mode is off by default and you can hear all those censored things (LOL at censoring system in the US) but the game is not in the pro mode so all your scores are legit for leaderboards. And that is how I played the game. But first game with a change in the operator menu deleted all my scores in regular mode. What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to mess with pro mode or operator menu to have the family mode off. But messing with it will delete your regular local scores. And that is ridiculous since those scores are not legit for leaderboards.

Click to expand...

If you're saying what I think you're saying, I'm fairly sure you are incorrect. Just owning (but not enabling) Pro mode does NOT let you play with Family Mode off. Once you enable Pro mode, Family Mode will be off by default (without digging through the operator settings). This will probably still cause your local scores to be overwritten. As far as I can tell, there is no way to play with Family Mode off without having your local high scores overwritten. If someone has figured out something I've missed, please share.

Indeed, you must have Pro Mode turned on. The default setting within Pro Mode for the Family Mode is off which at the least lets your local scores save. Just having Pro Mode does nothing until enabled.

Buggy though...I'm no pinball wizard or anything but I'm working on getting my high scores back up. Scored a 55million game, not great but getting my groove and sure enough it bugs outs during the save routine. It wants to go through a saving routine twice for some reason in Pro Mode. I hit X again during the process and caused it to glitch. No saved score, had to "PS button menu" out because the game was stuck. Wow. Not only is the Pro Mode an odd beast to tame but it's also buggy. Won't be purchasing any more Pro Modes, no thank you...

I feel that Pro Mode is backwards. You should have had full ROM control with the standard table, but no leaderboard access. Pro Mode should have been used to activate the leaderboards and set the table to FS's defaults for the leaderboards scoring. This way, the leaderboards would only be available to the more serious players who play for score, instead of every kid who purchased TPA.

As for Family Mode, that should be able to be toggled on or off without any penalties.

As previously mentioned, when operator mode was turned on family mode turned off without going into the open coin door. However, with the recent new UI on iOS when I turn on operator mode the family mode is still turned on. How did you get family mode turned off now?

I will also post this in the recent iOS interface thread.