Banzai Run Fatal Flaw

[HiHat]

I put in some time playing this last table of Season 7 yesterday, and my impression is it's an interesting table with one unfortunate drawback that keeps it from approaching greatness.

That is, no mulligan ball when you lose a ball right after launch!

Is this the way the original (actual) table was? Does anyone know?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Yes, that's pretty much the way tables were in 1988. IIRC the first ball-save was introduced in T2 in 1991, at least as it would be considered today. Also I can't think of any of Pat Lawlor's WMS tables that have a ball-save. Definitely isn't one in Earthshaker, Whirlwind, TAF, TZ. Maybe there is one in Red&Ted. Safe Cracker doesn't count because of the timed play mechanism.

I believe that ball-saves as standard had to be put in by the industry as a whole because the UK market regulators wanted some guarantee of playing time. Didn't like kids put their cash into tables only to insta-drain every ball due to pure "luck". This can't have been until after 1994-ish.

 

[DA5ID]

Twilight Zone does have a ball saver, but only on the first ball.

Addams Family has the "old school" ball saver - don't hit any switches and the ball goes back in the trough.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Yeah... true that a lot of early solid-state tables would give you a new ball if it drained without tripping any switches. That was about the extent of their abilities though. TZ ball-saver is optional, IIRC.

 

[DA5ID]

Yeah... true that a lot of early solid-state tables would give you a new ball if it drained without tripping any switches. That was about the extent of their abilities though. TZ ball-saver is optional, IIRC.

Yep in TZ - in the operators menu under adjustments ball saver is called "free ride time" and can be set to 6-13 seconds. The default setting in TPA is "off"

 

[HiHat]

Yes, that's pretty much the way tables were in 1988. IIRC the first ball-save was introduced in T2 in 1991, at least as it would be considered today. Also I can't think of any of Pat Lawlor's WMS tables that have a ball-save. Definitely isn't one in Earthshaker, Whirlwind, TAF, TZ. Maybe there is one in Red&Ted. Safe Cracker doesn't count because of the timed play mechanism.

I believe that ball-saves as standard had to be put in by the industry as a whole because the UK market regulators wanted some guarantee of playing time. Didn't like kids put their cash into tables only to insta-drain every ball due to pure "luck". This can't have been until after 1994-ish.

Some tables seem to need ball saves more than others, depending on the layout. In Banzai, the balls seem to zoom right down the middle very easily. Bummer!

 

[dtown8532]

There was always sort of a cheat to the non-existence of ball saves back then and even in the EM days. Pro players would exploit it. If the game was designed that the ball could be plunged and get to a flipper without hitting a switch but you drained the game would basically think the ball hasn’t been launched yet. And it would kick it back to the shooter lane.

 

[GET]

Also I can't think of any of Pat Lawlor's WMS tables that have a ball-save.

List of Lawlor WMS tables with ball save:
Twilight Zone (optional, only adjustable in operator settings and you actually CAN set it to run at the start of every ball)
Red and Ted's Road Show
No Good Gofers

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Totally forgot about NGG. I kinda knew there was one I was missing but could't remember. Anyway, those (plus Safe Cracker) are his final WMS tables, and TZ typically doesn't have it enabled (not by default in TPA, and I don't recall coming across a real one with the ball saver enabled either).