easiest and hardest pin in TPA

[mmmagnetic]

From the tables I´ve actually played long enough to form a solid opinion:

Easiest: Scared Stiff

Hardest: Fish Tales, Dr Dude

This being said, my enjoyment isn´t tied to the difficulty all that much. AFM is pretty easy to conquer, but it just moves so smoothly and bashing the saucers just simply never gets old to me. On the other hand, I´ve been kinda bored with Scared Stiff, it just loses something from being so easy. I still play it once in a while because the presentation is so superb (probably the most luxurious next to ToTAN and ToM), but everything just takes too long and there´s never a sense of danger.

On the other end of the spectrum, I really appreciate fast, tough games like Firepower (this one especially being a table where you just can NEVER relax even for a split second!), while Fish Tales or Dr Dude are just infuriating to me.

There is just this special magic to a good table that has shots that just feel right, organic and satisfying, and others where things are just awkward and obnoxious. Dr Dude in particular is just a hot mess (which is a shame, since I enjoy Elvira and the Party Monsters so much!).

Oh, man, and screw that spinner shot on Star Trek. For some reason I can NEVER get it right consistently. Same with Terminator 2. Steve Ritchie tables just seem to have the shots in weird places - or maybe I´m just unlucky

I also feel that table with fan layouts (that´s what they´re called, right? The ones with the shots just neatly side by side in front of you) like AFM, Monster Bash or MM tend to be more predictable compared to more erratic tables like TZ or Dr Dude. I used to drain a lot from the saucer shots in AFM, but after I got a feel for the angles I almost never lose balls that way. Other tables just throw me off so much that I never get really used to them.

 

[Zaphod77]

that spinner in ST:TNG is really supposed to be that hard, because it's a widebody table. so from a trap you have to flip JUST as it starts to roll off the edge of the flippers or you hit the drain rift. slightly to late and you hit the kickback standups.

T2s, on the other hand is NOT supposed to be that hard.

 

[vikingerik]

Steve Ritchie tables just seem to have the shots in weird places

The problem here is the TPA flippers, which don't have fine enough control around the tips to accurately aim at outside shots like that. It's not just Ritchie tables: CFTBL, TOTAN, Theatre of Magic, and Cirqus Voltaire also have outside orbits that the TPA flippers don't seem to aim at quite right. This has improved considerably since TPA's earliest tables though, like High Speed is much smoother on the orbits.

Zaphod: could be a good point about the wide body of STTNG putting the spinner farther out than you think. Although TZ's right orbit is in the same place and is no trouble at all.

 

[Gorgar]

Easy - Scared Stiff
Hard - Firepower

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Not in my experience. Shooting the mineshaft is a lot trickier on the real thing for starters. FarSight did a pretty good job of making theirs play like the real deal, but I've yet to play any of the tables in real life only to think FarSight's version is tougher.

Definitely, I feel The Champion Pub is harder on The Pinball Arcade. I think I mentioned it elsewhere, but it's the only table where I have a higher score on the real thing than on the virtual machine. The balls drain down the outlanes so much more frequently in the virtual version than the real thing, for whatever reason. The stopper also remains up for a shorter period of time during a boxing match.

 

[Bruttus]

For the tables I regularly play fish tales and championship pub are the hardest. I just can't get into any significant rythem when I play them......

High Speed, albeit new to the TPA, is as easy for me as the original table. I always play that table well and I can develop a nice flow. Taxi is also easy.

 

[mmmagnetic]

The problem here is the TPA flippers, which don't have fine enough control around the tips to accurately aim at outside shots like that. It's not just Ritchie tables: CFTBL, TOTAN, Theatre of Magic, and Cirqus Voltaire also have outside orbits that the TPA flippers don't seem to aim at quite right. This has improved considerably since TPA's earliest tables though, like High Speed is much smoother on the orbits.

Zaphod: could be a good point about the wide body of STTNG putting the spinner farther out than you think. Although TZ's right orbit is in the same place and is no trouble at all.

Never really thought about that, but it makes sense. I always felt like I can make shots around the top and middle part of the flippers much more reliably than on the tip. I always assumed that was just due to real-life physics in general, never would have guess that it has to do with the virtual physics model!

 

[vikingerik]

The balls drain down the outlanes so much more frequently in the virtual version than the real thing, for whatever reason.

The reason is as usual TPA's too-predictable physics, that the left flipper -> boxer rebound reliably points at the right outlane or dangerous bumper area. Work around this by shooting the boxer only from the RIGHT flipper and TPA Champion Pub gets much easier.

Also really learn the rules around the KO shots: don't use KOs for the first three boxers, save them to beat the last two easily. The KOs don't get any harder (more shots) until after you use them.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Huh, interesting. That's a weird exploit to the physics and...pretty unintuitive. I hope doing that doesn't make me worse at the real thing.

I don't go for KO shots, but rather, I hit the boxer as many times as I can. Unfortunately, the green curved ramps seem a lot harder of shots than the real one, as if the virtual ramps were steeper. That makes head shots hard on the virtual one whereas I can get three or four on the real thing. (On the other hand, balls get stuck on the plastics a lot in the real one because of those ramps.)

 

[Mark W**a]

I think Cirqus Voltaire is still the hardest DMD in the game, easily.

 

[Tann]

Easiest - ScS and BoP, obviously

Hardest - The half of tables from S2! Compared to S1 tables, these tables are harder, and actually, react more like IRL (an this is so good).

Especially:

Whirlwind > STDM and outlanes fiesta, the ball goes at the speed of light.
Centaur > Similar to Gorgar for the layout, but a lot more harder to master.

 

[Buzz1126]

If I want to feel like I've accomplished something, I play AFM or BoP. After a few games of each, I'll walk around the house with my chest puffed out a little bit. Then my wife will tell me to take out the trash or change the cat litter.

The hardest for me is Cactus Canyon. For a table that requires you to score almost 11 million points per ball for an extra ball, it's hard for me to score 6 million, total. Dr Dude and Whirlwind are close seconds.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Oh good, so I'm NOT the only one struggling big time with Cactus Canyon.

 

[shutyertrap]

I was struggling with Cactus Canyon until someone dropped this truth nugget on me...it's all about the multiplier. You'll wind up scoring more from that than all the points you earned while the ball was in play. If you can get it past 35x, it makes all the difference in the world.

 

[vikingerik]

Yup, Cactus Canyon is all about the bonus X. I just took the #1 score on the table. Of the 2 billion points, over 1.4B came from bonus. I maxed it at 99x four times in the game for over 300M each time. Just shoot for Gold Mine MB over and over again, and shoot the right orbit repeatedly for bonus x while holding a spare ball on the right flipper.

That aside, yeah CC is one of the harder tables since you lose control with any of the drop target or Bart shots. DO NOT FLAIL on this table or you will get punished. It takes steely discipline to methodically catch every ball and make your shots, but it rewards you well if you do.

 

[karl]

Hardest for me is probably HH (the real thing is hard but not TPA Hard)
Easiest is without a doubt BOP and SS

TZ and MM is also a lot easier in TPA than in real life but at least I can have a bad round now and again (that almost never happen on BOP and SS)

ST TNG is hard but so is the real thing. Of all the ones I have played in real life, I think this is the one closest to the real thing in terms of difficulty, except for the right loop. That shot is easier on the real thing but tpa physics does not handle shoots to the far left and right very well, because of the Future pinball like physics, when it comes to the tip of the flipper shots with speed it is hard to calculate the trajectory of the ball (for me at least)

 

[Zorgwon]

Just shoot for Gold Mine MB over and over again, and shoot the right orbit repeatedly for bonus x while holding a spare ball on the right flipper.

There is a certain risk (~10%) that balls coming from the mine and the lanes above will go STDM. At least on my tablet. So racking up the multiplier needs a good portion of luck. The bad guys are like trolls but more surprising and require face shots.

 

[Espy]

Really don't see what makes CC so hard. I actually got the wizard mode in that game on my second try, before even knowing the rules or having a strategy. Just the mindless "Let's see what this triggers" first few games stage.

 

[Zorgwon]

Really don't see what makes CC so hard. I actually got the wizard mode in that game on my second try, before even knowing the rules or having a strategy.

I never had High Noon so far. Mainly because i don't get the Bart brothers. There is some random on that (Bart) scoop and I don't get anything there. All this on Android.

 

[Tann]

Well... now I can play on S2 tables, I would say that Haunted House is hard as hell... mainly because the physics is too bouncy and the ball goes at the speed of light.

I struggle to score the +100K monster bonus (standard goals), even on PS3.

Overall, I find that S2 tables are harder than S1 tables, especially on EM tables.

Unlike S1 tables on which you lose a ball only when you fall asleep, on some of the S2 tables, you can lose a ball at any moment (you can barely react/nudge as the ball is so speedy - Is that a way for Farsight to add difficulty to the tables???)

On Haunted House (the worst!!), Flight 2000, Firepower, Centaur, I have trouble to "eye-follow" the ball!