General pinball strategy

[Jutter]

There already are tabe specific strategy guides to be found on this forum. I thought it might be handy to also have some general pinball tips, for people who are really really new to the game.

-disrupt the flow of the ball as often as possible. Some flow-play may be nessecary to gain momentum for ramp-shots, but learning to hit shots from a stationary scenario is the best way to maintain controll over the game.
-During multiball choose a flipper for knocking the balls around, and one flipper to keep upright and hopefully cradle a ball or two. This is how you milk it.
-Nudge after a miss. Tables are designed to drain your ball if it's left at it's own devices after a miss. A nudge might spoil those plans.

Those are based on my measily experience. I'm curious what meta-strategies you could share.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I'm a big fan of the dead flipper pass or bounce pass. Great way to slow the ball down or get it to the appropriate flipper for certain shots.

Some techniques aren't quite possible in TPA yet (live catch for instance), although they sometimes work to a degree.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Another with different names:

 

[Richard B]

Learn to nudge early. If the ball is too close to the outlanes, then it's usually too late to nudge.

BTW, what was that table in the example video with the castle and the "wicked queen" looking character?

 

[immortalmindz]

Nudge when you know its gonna drain, might sound obvious but tpa is like all vid games, its a game of variables, hence you know when you have missed a shot its going to behave a cetain way. That and score as high as you can

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

Depends on what you want? Want to hit a nice score or do you want to play as long as you can.

First one i would them to learn the rules. 2nd, know howto get extra balls.

This are the general tips i give. Nothing much to tell cause every pin is different.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!
I watched NIEL SHATZ (NES) play in real life at Pac Pin museum and the guy is GOOD!

 

[Jutter]

BTW, what was that table in the example video with the castle and the "wicked queen" looking character?

yeah man. Curious too.

 

[Kolchak357]

Learn to nudge early. If the ball is too close to the outlanes, then it's usually too late to nudge.

BTW, what was that table in the example video with the castle and the "wicked queen" looking character?

Pinball Magic
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=3596&picno=4218

 

[Sumez]

Pinball Magic is one of the only non-gottlieb/bally/williams/stern games I'd really love to have in TPA. It looks like a great alternative to TOM

 

[Jutter]

Post-passes go particularly well on Taxi.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Post passes dont work on MM flipper gaps too wide and CV for some reason its too bouncy it will go to the other flipper but it doesnt want to stop and ends up back at the original flipper.

 

[Lord Boron]

It seems any time I try to cradle balls with one flipper and shoot with the other in multiball, it ends in disaster.

 

[brakel]

My number one rule is don't let the silver ball go down the drain. Hope that helps!

 

[Lord Boron]

My number one rule is don't let the silver ball go down the drain. Hope that helps!

I tried that. It doesn't seem to work.....

 

[Mark W**a]

On the digital game I'm a mix of a flow and stop and go playstyle.

In real life I'm an extremely controlled, stop and go player.

Strategy all depends on the table itself.

You have to at least be somewhat flow on Pinball Arcade because without the ability to drop catch, tap pass, or cradle seperate complete controlled play isn't wise or really possible.

 

[brakel]

I'm not sure what its called in real pinball but my brother always called this technique a roll shot. When the ball is coming down you let it hit the flipper like a dead pass but as the ball comes back up off the flipper you hit it. It was a handy shot on a real table to make power shots on a table with weak flippers. I find it handy in TPA because on some tables I don't get predictable dead bounces and occasionally they drain instead of pass. Monster Bash does this to me all the time. We called it a roll shot because if you timed it right it looked and felt as if the ball were rolling down the flipper as you shot it.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

On the digital game I'm a mix of a flow and stop and go playstyle.

In real life I'm an extremely controlled, stop and go player.

Strategy all depends on the table itself.

You have to at least be somewhat flow on Pinball Arcade because without the ability to drop catch, tap pass, or cradle seperate complete controlled play isn't wise or really possible.

Some tables (e.g. most of Pat Lawlor's) tend to send the ball from successful shots to a scoop kickout that is angled so that the ball is catchable (usually trivially in TPA, somewhat more trickily in real life). That really encourages controlled, stop-and-go play.

Steve Ritchie seemed to prefer to drop the ball down an inlane to force you to take a running shot (though I suppose the Hole-in-One in No Good Gofers is a Lawlor example).

 

[Sumez]

Saw this video the other day, from the PAPA finals - guy chooses F-14 Tomcat because he know his opponents are all controlled "stop and go" players, and therefore beats the hell out of them:

[video=vimeo;46979534]http://vimeo.com/46979534[/video]

 

[Mark W**a]

Saw this video the other day, from the PAPA finals - guy chooses F-14 Tomcat because he know his opponents are all controlled "stop and go" players, and therefore beats the hell out of them:

[video=vimeo;46979534]http://vimeo.com/46979534[/video]

Link? I recently saw a papa f14 vid but the entire group got destroyed by that table!

Incedently they just posted up two, hour plus twlight zone battles where two guys were 1 shot away from lost in the zone on 3 balls no extra but blew it.