Just exactly what is meant to open and close the gate from the lower playfield?

Righto

It seems after the update the pop bumpers are closing the gate again from the lower play area.

Its kinda a glaring thing to keep changing , whats the offical rules say? Should anything on the lower area close the gate once its open?

It kinda makes it a different game with it so id like to know whats what

Cheers

From what I gather, according to the real table, two things should cause the gate to close in the lower playfield ... the slingshot on the right and the spot just below the left row of yellow drops. The circular bumper in the middle should not close the gate - but it does.

Oh well thanks anyway at least i know now, only upshot is once its fixed i should be hiting 10s

One thing is for sure, if it is ever fixed, it will lower our chances of accidentally draining with the gate closed.

Check here for the official rules:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/602-Black-Hole-(actual-machine)-rules

Notice that it has a section for the both the Upper and Lower playfields under the "ADDITIONAL FEATURES".

The only time it says anything about the gate closing is in the Upper Playfield section, for the Pop Bumpers and Ten-Point Switches.....however, in the Lower Plyfield section, it doesn't mention the gate closing at all when anything is hit down there.

So I think Farsight had it wrong initially, then they fixed it in the previous iOS update, but now it's wrong again in the latest iOS update.

Here are the excerpts from the ADDITIONAL FEATURES section:

UPPER PLAYFIELD

POP BUMPERS

* Score 1,000 points (3-ball).

* Score 100 points (5-ball).

* Closes gate except during multi-ball.

TEN-POINT SWITCHES

* Score 10 points.

* Closes gate except during multi-ball.

.......................................

LOWER PLAYFIELD

POP BUMPERS

* Score 100 points.

TEN-POINT SWITCHES

* Score 10 points.
Kicking Target
Kicking Rubbers

I want the damn table fixed the way it should really be ... has anyone here ever played the real table? and if so, what is your take on all this ..

I avoided the table since the beginning of TPA, then magically, the gate punishment for hitting the bumper that's smack dab in the middle of the playfield went away. I started playing BH again. I enjoyed it. The clouds parted and I could hear chanting far away. But then Gorgar came to be and the evil BH bumper came back. I'm back to ignoring BH. In pinball, I should be punished for missing a target, not hitting it.

I have managed to score very close to 3 Mil on this game...my best is a little over 2,700,000 and it was accomplished thinking that the table was following the real rules. Now knowing better, I will feel cheated when the gate closes by hitting something in the lower play field, but I can not stop playing it and want to break the 3 Mil Mark in its current condition ... but I still want the table fixed.

It's hard to understand why they would correct this rule only to "un-correct" it in the latest update. The actual rules of the real table aren't hard to find. Someone posted them on here recently.

I so far have scored 6.9M on this game and with the gate now set to close by hitting something on the lower PF, that is both frustrating AND challenging to me. But the bottom line is , since FS claims it wants to recreate the actual machines as close as possible, this should be definitively dealt with.

That being said, Wondering why the Lower PF camera bug of last month could have gotten by their play-testers, they have to be seriously understaffed, with trying to produce tables and versions for all the different platforms and devices..... AND fix bugs.

At least you had the chance to play the table as it should be on your device ... on PS3 and PS Vita, it has never been right!

I'm probably in the minority here, but in my view the table is problematic regardless even with the original ruleset. It won't ever be strictly speaking a good table because there is no limiter to the total number of extra balls you can get. It's still fun to play but since it's completely breakable for practically endless games it's not competitive in any real sense. Granted, this goes for almost all older tables and it's just something you have to deal with as long as TPA doesn't have a tournament mode. I'm hoping they add it at some point.

You must be a true pinball wizard! This is my favorite table and I still have not passed the 3 MIL MARK!

RetroBlast said:

You must be a true pinball wizard! This is my favorite table and I still have not passed the 3 MIL MARK!

Click to expand...

Well I appreciate the compliment but I don't think it's about that really. It just depends on prioritizing certain things to make sure the game never ends. The fact that you can even do that is what's problematic in the table in my opinion. Oh well, it's just a pinball table anyway and if they ever bring out tournament rules with no extra balls that'll pretty much completely fix the table anyway.

I realise I'm being very cynical here, but I believe the whole process of "fixing" the table went something like this:

Oh crap the bumpers are closing the gate,
Let's fix that then,
Oh crap the camera is stuck in the lower playfield,
Let's rollback to the older version & hope no-one notices.

DopedToInfinity said:

I realise I'm being very cynical here, but I believe the whole process of "fixing" the table went something like this:

Oh crap the bumpers are closing the gate,
Let's fix that then,
Oh crap the camera is stuck in the lower playfield,
Let's rollback to the older version & hope no-one notices.

Click to expand...

Havent played much in the last couple of days and it may be my imagination but there seems to be other tweaks aswell so i dont think they did a rollback but who knows, cant blame ya man, camera bug was annoying enough and now this.

Sidenote - my scores 3.7 million heh needa wait for the bumper fix before ill be able to break 4! Shame i was getting good at sending the ball straight back down again, best laid plans n all that

FWIW, I just played the PHOF version on the PSP. The bumper below does not close the gate. The TPA version is still much more playable though.

Fungi said:

FWIW, I just played the PHOF version on the PSP. The bumper below does not close the gate. The TPA version is still much more playable though.

Click to expand...

Gotta find my damn psp if only to dust it off and sample some of the upcoming games, spaceshuttle just dings a geek like me lol

JPelter said:

Well I appreciate the compliment but I don't think it's about that really. It just depends on prioritizing certain things to make sure the game never ends. The fact that you can even do that is what's problematic in the table in my opinion. Oh well, it's just a pinball table anyway and if they ever bring out tournament rules with no extra balls that'll pretty much completely fix the table anyway.

Click to expand...

I got close to 3 MIL, with several items in the lower playfield on the PS3 and PS Vita which close the gate ... The sling shot on the right, the yellow spot below the left yellow drop targets, and the large center pop bumper in the middle ... and that was an accomplishment but I bet once they fix that glitch, in my mind I will always think those things will close the gate.

I just have a quick question about the rules for this table. After you have locked 2 balls and made the shot into the lower playfield is the gate open or do you need to do it through the lower playfield? The reason I am mentioning this is that several times I have had the multiball started and the gate remained closed and due to the fact that touching almost anything other than a drop target in the lower PF closes the gate, I will not be able to get a 3 ball multiball going. By the way, this is happening on the PS Vita.

Here is how it works currently in the state the table is in. If you have opened the gate from the top play field via the right return rollover below the four yellow drops ... when you go down into the lower play field and initiate multi-ball, the gate will remain open and never close until multi-ball ends. Now, if you have two balls captured and have not opened the gate from the top play field and go down into the lower play field with the gate closed .... you must open the gate from the lower play field but once you open it, it will not close until mulitball is over.

How I deal with this situation ... I usually try to set up multiball in this way ... when down in the lower play field, I drop the right purple drop targets twice to light up extra ball on the top play field ... then I drop two of the three purple drop targets ... then I lock the ball in the lower play field. Now back on top, I try to lock the other ball on the top play field. Then when I go back down to the lower play field, it initiates multiball but not immediately ... your ball comes down into the lower play field and I keep the left flipper in the open position to catch the ball and stop it ... I then shoot for the last purple drop target and once you hit it, you are home free and the gate stays open. You have plenty of time to do it because the locked ball in the lower play field takes a few second to come out and by that time, you already have opened the gate if you made that drop target shot.