(An attempt at) The top 40 TPA players from leaderboard scores

[Xanija]

I have been looking at this thread very closely for a while now. It has been a bit more quite since I am moderator and I certainly hoped it stayed that way. Let me point out a few things:

This thread is about a Top 40 TPA players taken from the leaderboards. That's it.

It's not about personal motivations of others or how much time anyone else than yourself is spending on this game to get into the rank they have or any other private war.

Any unsportsmanlike behaviour against other players has no room on this board. If you spot anything like this, don't hit the reply button to fire back. Use the report button instead to make us mods aware of an inappropriate post and we will take action.

Thanks for your attention. Any questions - PM.

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

I have been looking at this thread very closely for a while now. It has been a bit more quite since I am moderator and I certainly hoped it stayed that way. Let me point out a few things:

This thread is about a Top 40 TPA players taken from the leaderboards. That's it.

It's not about personal motivations of others or how much time anyone else than yourself is spending on this game to get into the rank they have or any other private war.

Any unsportsmanlike behaviour against other players has no room on this board. If you spot anything like this, don't hit the reply button to fire back. Use the report button instead to make us mods aware of an inappropriate post and we will take action.

Thanks for your attention. Any questions - PM.

Fair enough, but isn't trash talk part and parcel of healthy competition?

 

[Heretic]

I believe trash talkin is part and parcel of any competition but no need to be an arse about it, we have managed a welcoming enviorment for years without things getting too hairy(excuse the pun). people loose their **** sometimes thats normal and to the indivduals mind im sure they feel justified but a sustained attack on another persons lifestyle or charcter with no other reason that some "jealously" high score nonsense should be frowned apon....tareks always been nothing but humble and really shouldnt have to defend himself here. Ive a rulewhen ****s crazier than me its bad.

 

[Xanija]

Ok, let's get back to topic please, gents.

 

[vikingerik]

Here's what could be an interesting exercise: make a run of the ranking system using only tables where going infinite isn't an issue. I don't have experience with all the tables (only bought seasons 1, 2, 4) but here are the ones I know where extra balls are ultimately limited:

Ripley's
TOTAN
Harley-Davidson
Cactus Canyon
Central Park
Whirlwind
Champion Pub
Flight 2000
Class of 1812
Junkyard
Starship Troopers
Safecracker
(According to Tarek, not Dracula, but also the following: )
Hurricane
Eight Ball Deluxe
Fireball
El Dorado

These are tables where going infinite is possible but still skill-testing, because only one EB per ball can be earned so you have to get it every time without fail:
Black Hole
Gorgar
Elvira
Big Shot
Genie
Firepower
Goin Nuts
Teed Off
Haunted House
Victory
El Dorado City of Gold
Xenon

These are tables that do go infinite in TPA even though they shouldn't, because TPA sets them to award a replay/EB after every time you roll over the score:
Pinbot
Taxi
Dr Dude
Cyclone

The following may have an EB limit but aren't skill-testing because they have a maximum score limit either in the ROM or by lack of rollover detection:
Attack from Mars
ST:TNG
Fish Tales
Frankenstein
Last Action Hero

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

For BSD I would deny an non infinite state after a long game yesterday. I ended with ball 1 and 4 EBs stacked at more than 300B. The game always wait for the next ramp EB, so it's possible to work for another EB in the previous ball. Only one ramp is needed to collect the EB and you can continue with ramp shots for the next ball EB. One of my favourite tables. Now overplayed...

Hurricane is another limited table. In one rare game I've got two lottery EBs but that's an exeption. Be lucky for one EB this way.

EBD, Fireball and El Dorado are the other limited Season 5 and 6 tables.

 

[relaxation]

Taxi, I know there's an 'increasing requirement' EB on the rollovers above the pops, I've gone up to 11 sets required.

Class of 1812, I thought the Bats EB award was always there.. never needed more than a couple of those so far. (really a pain in the neck to collect)

Haven't played the rest for score (besides JY, which has window shopping EBs available).

Goin' Nuts is actually not infinitable, I made a forum post about it. [here]
basically, Extra Squirell only worked once or twice and after they failed to work.. it never works again for the remainder of the game

 

[vikingerik]

I was excluding anything with an increasing requirement. That's not truly infinite, eventually the requirement will be higher than any human can manage. I thought Dracula's ramps and 1812's were also increasing too, didn't remember for sure. Dr Dude's EB from the standup targets also increases without bound.

Junkyard's window shopping is random, right? Not sure how to count those. The random frequency could be low enough that it has to fail fairly quickly (AFM's video mode, ToM's basement), or common enough to rely on forever (Road Show's wheel), or might be right on that knife edge (Jack*bot).

 

[relaxation]

I'm not 100% but my bet is Junk Yards Window Shopping is pseudorandom like Safe Crackers board game, you could potentially pause the game and compare to where you are in the sequence to compare to other known sequences or attempt to fish for collects via pause.

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

I thought Dracula's ramps and 1812's were also increasing too, didn't remember for sure.

I thought the same for BSD ramps and can't confirm that they never increase. It was a very good game with long ball times. I've played 15-20 balls or so and in the final state the next ramp EB was always a little bit over 100 ramps. Maybe that's the maximum distance... Btw. I've found another ROM bug. The Castle Jackpot resets to 120M (at x3) in longer games and stay with this value for the last hours. Sometimes a bumper hit(!) change this back to 480M.