Bug Dirty Pool-esque Exploit

[Espy]

In multiball, hit both balls into the saucer (through the spinner or hole), one after the other, so that the balls collide while one is still in the saucer. This sends one of the balls off the table and it gets reset into the plunger. But there is no autofire on this table, so it just sits there. Single ball play with multiball scoring. Pretty big exploit, and while I'm not sure how commonly this occurs (not something I have tried to reproduce, it just happened once or twice by accident), a good player could really abuse this.

 

[Zaphod77]

Easy fix for this.

Make the game reset balls to the today's special hole if a ball flies off the table during multiball.

The physics can easily tell if it happened during a multiball.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Easy fix for this.

Make the game reset balls to the today's special hole if a ball flies off the table during multiball.

The physics can easily tell if it happened during a multiball.

This would have to be an exception to the system. I'm not sure how this would work around, assuming it works like this for all other tables.

I'm not even sure if the ball position is made the same all across.

 

[Espy]

This would have to be an exception to the system. I'm not sure how this would work around, assuming it works like this for all other tables.

I'm not even sure if the ball position is made the same all across.

Add an auto-launch to the plunger when a ball is reset makes the most sense. I think the only reason this bug exists is because the real Diner table doesn't have an auto-launch (balls are locked on the playfield for multiball), so it doesn't do this when balls are reset. But it should be painless to add this.

Or you could, I don't know, fix the glitch that sends the ball off the table

 

[Zaphod77]

honestly there's no reason this particular game should have a manual plunger. skillshot=max plunge at right time.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

honestly there's no reason this particular game should have a manual plunger. skillshot=max plunge at right time.

I don't think they had auto-launchers at the time. Same with F-14 Tomcat and all of the other games without a skillshot.

The first game with an autoplunger, ironically, was T2, one year after Diner.

 

[vikingerik]

Centaur had an autoplunger much earlier, although it was that weird dual level with separate plunger lanes and mechanisms for auto and manual.

Yeah manual plungers were just the way things were always done through the 80s until T2. It's overlooked but T2 actually makes great use of its autoplunger: multiball starts in two different ways both without locking balls, the plunge trigger is also used for firing the cannon, and of course it's the first game with a ball saver feature.

It took several years even after T2 to develop the combination auto/manual plunger within a single lane. Was Cirqus Voltaire the first with this?

 

[Zaphod77]

Data East had the first combo plunger. i think it was batman, though another one might have been earlier.

Then Premier licensed the technology from them, then williams got in on the act.