Angry Pinball Nerd

[Deathtickle]

I'm sure I am not alone at enjoying the 'Angry Video Game Nerd' since the mid 2000's ( Formerly the Angry Nintendo Nerd).

What aspect of a Pinball game from TPA do you feel 'Nerd' anger towards?

The first one for me is getting the all passengers in Taxi and having it end with a super-sonic-speed middle sewer.

 

[splatterthrash]

For me I think its feeling like Im "getting" the table one day; or having a day where at least most of my shots are going where I need/want them to, and then either later on or the next day, Ive got nothing for them. Like my mojo is gone. Most of the time though, a good game makes up for it but its still makes me rage a bit.

 

[Blueshirt]

The posts on the peasant ramp in MM.

 

[Fungi]

95% of the missed shots in STTNG.

 

[Sumez]

Balls that look like a surefire dead pass, but end up just rolling down the flipper into the center drain, making me look like a fool.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Getting an extra ball then immediately draining....I swear the game is rigged sometimes.

 

[Richard B]

MB
Yesterday, I had four features going, and needed one more left ramp shot to get the Bride started, and one more hit to reveal the Frankenstein ramp. I shot for the ramp, but hit the Frankenstein target by mistake, and you know what happens when you do that with the right flipper . . .
In that same game, I had all the instruments except Frankenstein when the ball got out of control, a save with the right flipper, and . . .
Ball continuing to roll up the flipper, longer than its momentum should allow, and resulting in a drain.

CFTBL
Those G****M nearly-horizontal flippers. Combine with some pretty fast outlanes, and you've got trouble.
How difficult it is to get the ball to the left flipper. The only shot that feeds the left flipper can only be easily hit from . . . the left flipper!

MM
Accidentally hitting Merlin's Magic with only one completed event.

TZ
Hitting the left ramp with only one ball locked.
Getting Odd Change.

ALL
Flipperless drains (seems, in general, the older the table, the greater the chance of this occurring).
Tables without Ball Savers. It's especially annoying to work up to a difficult to achieve multiball (like in Funhouse), only to have two balls (or, if you're really unlucky, three) drain almost immediately, before you can get anything going.
Having a multiball restart or any other important feature with a timer active, and getting the ball caught in the bumpers. This seems to especially happen a lot in CFTBL's Move Your Car mode.
Losing your ball immediately during a "survive to re-score" mode. No tables on TPA have this feature, but if they ever manage to get TAF, you'll see what I mean (I think WW has this too).

 

[Sumez]

Getting an extra ball then immediately draining....I swear the game is rigged sometimes.

I do that all the time, but it doesn't piss me off. Usually I won't mind, because I got the extra ball. That might also be the real cause of the "curse". Getting the extra ball caused me to soften up and subconsciously make a risky shot.

Having a multiball restart or any other important feature with a timer active, and getting the ball caught in the bumpers. This seems to especially happen a lot in CFTBL's Move Your Car mode.

Dude! RBION :s

 

[iguanarama]

MM
Accidentally hitting Merlin's Magic with only one completed event.

TZ
(...)
Getting Odd Change.

Oh man. This, this, this.

And: purposely draining the ball to get the ball saver, but just missing the ball saver timer and ending the ball instead.

 

[Crush3d_Turtle]

I cannot stand how Rudy will almost always spit the first ball straight down the left outlane once you start multiball; nudging sometimes doesn't even help. Having played the real machine a few times and watching videos of it online I can say for sure that this does not happen with the actual machines.

 

[KithKanan]

CFTBL
Those G****M nearly-horizontal flippers. Combine with some pretty fast outlanes, and you've got trouble.
How difficult it is to get the ball to the left flipper. The only shot that feeds the left flipper can only be easily hit from . . . the left flipper!

A dead pass when the ball drops from the bumpers works to get to the left flipper for me. Unfortunately I'm not very consistent making any of the shots besides the snack bar from a left cradle yet.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Rudy- nudge left immediately after spit.
CFTBL-flip pass from right to left

 

[AKrumbach]

CFTBL-flip pass from right to left

If you can backhand the ball between the right ramp posts from the right flipper, I find that on return the ball has just enough speed for a dead bounce from right to left, too. (That is, assuming it doesn't just go up the ramp!)

As to the rage -- I've only picked up TPA in the last month, so:

• TPA flipper physics don't seem to permit drop catches. I still try to drop catch high speed sling returns on most tables... hello outlanes!
• Every time I forget there's no up nudge when trying to save an outlane ball.

And on any table, virtual or real:

• Being one mode/shot away from wizard mode when the ball drains. (Doesn't matter even if I'm on was ball 1.. it was this close!)

 

[Richard B]

As to the rage -- I've only picked up TPA in the last month, so:

• TPA flipper physics don't seem to permit drop catches. I still try to drop catch high speed sling returns on most tables... hello outlanes!
• Every time I forget there's no up nudge when trying to save an outlane ball.

And on any table, virtual or real:

Personally, I think we should keep this focused on the tables themselves, not bugs or missing features. This is an entertaining thread, and I don't want to see it turn into another catalog of bugs and omissions.

 

[Mayuh]

...just when you say to yourself (TPA) or to others (real tables): wow, this is one-hell-of-a-ball! You have exactly 10 seconds left until it drains ;-)

 

[AKrumbach]

Personally, I think we should keep this focused on the tables themselves, not bugs or missing features.

Fair, but I really wasn't (and personally don't) think that way (although it could qualify as such). To me, the examples were supposed to be more of "You idiot, this has happened dozens of times before and you know how to save it... so why didn't you?" It's "pilot error" moments that make me grind my teeth, not table design (or TPA itself). Since there are so many tables available, if you weren't accepting of design ideas like the Pat Lawlor horizontal jackpot [Twilight Zone, Funhouse] or center targets where a miss sends the ball down the drain with speed [Attack From Mars' saucer, CFTBL's snack bar] you could just play another table.

Although if you want an example of that nature ... Genie. All three of the returns from the upper playfield areas have lines that go straight down the middle with little hope of saving it (even with a nudge ... because the bounce lines also go SDTM)!