Genie plunger needs some randomization

[DefaultGen]

If you plunge the ball in Genie 2 blue bars down and 2.5 red bars down (On the "click" between the 12th and 13th bars) you can 100% reliably get the ball into the 500 + Bonus hole (and back down into the plunger chute). There are other strengths that will do this, but I'm too lazy to pinpoint them. Is this reproducible for other people or am I crazy?

 

[Carl Spiby]

Surely if anything, a plunger SHOULD be constant.

 

[pinballchris]

Ah, right. And everyother table would need to be randomized as well.

 

[Tony C]

The plunger should absolutely be predictable. If anything, TPA's plunger is TOO random. What would be the point of having a scale if it were random? What would change from shot to shot in a real table's plunger system that would make it unpredictable? The issue that remains in TPA is that the plunger strength is not linear. This is more obvious on tables like ToTAN when you are trying to get to the middle skill shot. TZ is much more predictable, but still not perfect.

 

[Jeff Strong]

The predictability of the plunger is what saved pinball back in the 70’s:

"Roger Sharpe is a pinball designer and author. He is the father of Zachary and Joshua Sharpe.
Roger is one of the most idolized people in the pinball community. He is most famous for his work with legalizing pinball by proving it is a game of skill."

In 1976, Roger Sharpe stood before the New York City Council, with all the pressure in the world on his shoulders. He explained that if he pulled the plunger back just the right amount, the ball would go in a certain lane. He pulled back the plunger, and the ball went right into the lane he had pointed out previously. The head of the council announced that he had seen enough, and pinball was soon legal. The decision spread through out the country, and pinball was soon legal everywhere."

 

[DefaultGen]

What would change from shot to shot in a real table's plunger system that would make it unpredictable?

Well in the real world the plunger is analog and in Pinball Arcade at least this table, it's too obviously digital. If you plunged from the approximately the same spot on a Genie table in real life with just the right amount of snap, you could certainly hit the same lane with accuracy, but you couldn't have the perfect bounce to guarantee the ball rolls back into the plunger chute 100% of the time. The problem with TPA is that you can plunge from exactly the same spot because pulling the plunger back isn't smooth, it has "clicks". Even in games without plungers like Terminator 2 or The Getaway, the ball doesn't roll the same way with every launch. It's predictable to a point, but I shouldn't be able to infinitely create a loop like this because the ball bounces the same exact way every time. Just my opinion, there are probably bigger emulation fish to fry though.

 

[Tony C]

WTG Jeff! Great find. I had never heard that, but it makes perfect sense.

 

[Timelord]

The predictability of the plunger is what saved pinball back in the 70’s:

"Roger Sharpe is a pinball designer and author. He is the father of Zachary and Joshua Sharpe.
Roger is one of the most idolized people in the pinball community. He is most famous for his work with legalizing pinball by proving it is a game of skill."

In 1976, Roger Sharpe stood before the New York City Council, with all the pressure in the world on his shoulders. He explained that if he pulled the plunger back just the right amount, the ball would go in a certain lane. He pulled back the plunger, and the ball went right into the lane he had pointed out previously. The head of the council announced that he had seen enough, and pinball was soon legal. The decision spread through out the country, and pinball was soon legal everywhere."

This ^^^

Timelord ...

 

[Shaneus]

The predictability of the plunger is what saved pinball back in the 70’s:

"Roger Sharpe is a pinball designer and author. He is the father of Zachary and Joshua Sharpe.
Roger is one of the most idolized people in the pinball community. He is most famous for his work with legalizing pinball by proving it is a game of skill."

In 1976, Roger Sharpe stood before the New York City Council, with all the pressure in the world on his shoulders. He explained that if he pulled the plunger back just the right amount, the ball would go in a certain lane. He pulled back the plunger, and the ball went right into the lane he had pointed out previously. The head of the council announced that he had seen enough, and pinball was soon legal. The decision spread through out the country, and pinball was soon legal everywhere."

Probably the most interesting anecdote I've ever read on pinball. At least, one of the most.

From where is that quote taken? I'd love to read whatever else it covers.

 

[Carl Spiby]

It was just taken from the pinball wiki: http://pinball.wikia.com/wiki/Roger_Sharpe

 

[Robert Hunt]

And that's the funny thing about that story, because they often leave that detail out, leaving you to imagine that Sharpe put on a display worthy of a PAPA video. Far from it! By his own account he was at sea on that table.

But it's also true that the plunger should be one of the most repeatable events in the game. I could actually see throwing in SOME degree of variability, because for instance, a plunger rod can spin, introducing some smidgeon of variability, and the ball rolling up the chute would never take an ideal track, but would rather wobble some like a bobsled. The first game I ever played a ton was Taxi when it was a brand new table, and it has one of the best skill shots in pinball, but no way was it as easy to hit as it is in TPA.

Roger Sharpe himself has told the story in public probably fifty times, but here's one you can hear for yourself, along with a million other stories about how he got into pinball and then became the licensing king at WMS.

http://www.pinrepair.com/topcast/showget.php?id=17

 

[dagwood]

Vote 1 for predictability but this is just ridiculous!!! I can't seem to get any lane other than "C" in this game on entry.