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  1. M

    Live Catching - Is it possible?

    Yes, they're part of the same four-dimensional vector. But all four components are independently conserved (three of momentum and one of energy), which is how the Newtonian case falls out in the appropriate limit. I personally suspect the detailed answer to my question involves the physics of...
  2. M

    Live Catching - Is it possible?

    There are two quantities involved in any collision, though, momentum and energy. The momenta do cancel each other out like that, but the other question is what happens to the kinetic energy: that is, why is this particular collision with the flipper already in motion so much more inelastic than...
  3. M

    Nailing the elusive Crossover Bonus (and other strategy discussions for Taxi)

    One of the Joyride awards is to spot you a passenger; that's another way to get one that's causing you trouble, though it's not reliable. I tend not to shoot for Pinbot intentionally, since it's a very risky shot. When I win jackpots, it's usually because I got him either by nonstandard means...
  4. M

    Pinball that has been featured on TV and in movies

    The one I don't know is the machine that hooked Mr. Belvedere: the one closeup of the playfield seems to show Fireball, but the cabinet shot from the side clearly isn't Fireball, and there's nothing to go on but the side artwork.
  5. M

    Pinball that has been featured on TV and in movies

    It looks to be Gottlieb's "High Hand" from 1973, or one of the differently-named variants thereof: http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1173 I think they painted over the name on the backglass, which initially confused me.
  6. M

    Live Catching - Is it possible?

    I've managed something like a live catch on TPA's Black Hole when the ball was heading toward a point near the base of the lower left flipper. I don't think it'd work if the point of contact were further toward the tip. The physics of real-world live catches is actually somewhat mysterious to...
  7. M

    360 - Request Stop making the tables easier!

    Disagreement about appropriate difficulty levels seems to be something that goes on in every online discussion about a game. In every gaming community there are always going to be players of different skill levels, who approach the game with different levels of seriousness. More casual...
  8. M

    360 - Request Stop making the tables easier!

    Specials, and replay scores. You're right on with the rest. I think the predictability of kickout bounces and the ease of nudging are the big ones. Also: To me, the angles at which a ball comes off the flipper feel noticeably more discretized than on a real table, which can make it easier to...
  9. M

    High Scores are Bogus...

    Besides which, Harem Multiball seems to be particularly hard to get in TPA...
  10. M

    Farsight comes clean on issues with 360 platform

    Your devs already say so much more in public than I'd be comfortable saying about any job-in-progress I've ever had (which is basically nothing). From a user's perspective, it's terrific, but it's unusual for the industry.
  11. M

    Farsight comes clean on issues with 360 platform

    Now I'm wondering if it was my brain fart. I might have just seen it on Android. I know that it seemed to go away and then come back later.
  12. M

    Farsight comes clean on issues with 360 platform

    My guess is that this is mostly because the 360 version as released is behind the other platforms, and some of the patches since then are introducing new bugs. The multiple-balls-at-plunger bug used to plague Cirqus Voltaire on both Android and 360 and got patched a couple of times, but I think...
  13. M

    Funhouse skill shot

    This actually exists on the table itself. I haven't played the PS3 version, but on Android and XBox you can select a plunger-cam position that looks straight down on the plunger. From that vantage point, there are visible markings at the bottom of the plunger lane that you can use to plunge...
  14. M

    Farsight comes clean on issues with 360 platform

    Huh. So the definition of "code" here is native executable code rather than just anything Turing-complete?
  15. M

    Bugs/problems with BK for PS3...

    I think it's a consequence of the general choice to have ambient playfield illumination be very dark, to make the playfield lights pop out. I think Farsight is currently overdoing it a bit on the consoles, but I think they're trying to address the general problem of the limited dynamic range of...
  16. M

    Taxi/HD/Gofers/Elvria update out!

    Of the recent packs, Taxi and Elvira and the Party Monsters are my favorites. Taxi was also one of the most addictive tables in PHoF; I still play it sometimes on the Wii. Contrary to what others have said about the tables of this era being neither fish nor fowl, I seem to be greatly fond of...
  17. M

    Steampunk Pinball Cab

    It's adorable.
  18. M

    That annoying pinball moment...

    Or it's on that swirly ramp in Tales of the Arabian Nights, just sloshing lazily from side to side before it goes down the drain... (I hear one of the recent patches provided some more friction up there, but I mostly play this one on XBox.)
  19. M

    Bug Compilation

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

    DLC Release Date

    Things were pretty grim in the days when we were waiting for the first XBox DLC, too. That wasn't so long ago. At least this time around, XBox users have actually got ten tables to play, instead of four. I just wish my daughter would let me play Funhouse while she was in the room (Rudy creeps...

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