Got to play Metallica tonight, and 5 others...

[shutyertrap]

So I'm cruising through Craigslist this morning, and I see "Metallica pin, $1". I'm like, nice bait and switch add! Instead, it was a local pizza place I've been meaning to check out advertising they have the Metallica pin for a limited time. Well twist my arm why don't you.

Went there in the evening, nobody on the machine. Sweet. Handed the lady at the register a $20, she handed me 2 rolls of quarters, away we go.

Love love love the artwork. It just looks like an old school pin. 3 feet away was a Stern Indiana Jones, and the difference was night and day. This was a Metallica Pro, but it had been fully kitted out with LEDs. It's a fast table, the snake kickout was downright nasty, spitting out SDTM shots that you'd have to nudge to survive. A good mix of combos and aiming shots. While I didn't figure out the rules by any stretch of the imagination, it didn't seem overly complicated. My only complaint was paying a buck a play!

All the other tables were set to $.50, and I was shocked at their condition. Rollergames, Road Show, The Shadow, Batman (Data East), and Indy Jones (Stern), all fully LED'd too. Rollergames and The Shadow played like they were brand spankin' new. Considering my hate for Data East, Batman was almost good! Flippers were a little shaky, but considering every other DE table I've ever played had near busted flippers, I almost enjoyed myself. Road Show looked phenomenal too, played much harder than my experience with it in VP. Indy was the only table that looked not quite great, but in any other location it'd be stellar. My gripe with that one though was the SDTM drains from a launched ball! Talk about taking all the fun out of it.

The guy that is loaning the Metallica table to the pizza place, he came in at one point and I chatted him up. Turns out he has a business that deals with LED lighting, and the pizza place was one of his customers. Said he used to do restorations, but now only does it as a personal hobby. He lives real close to me, so I might actually have a local resource for helping me out with my Firepower. Yay!

Looks like I finally found a place to spend a bunch of quarters, so I'm quite happy about that. The fact that I got to play the newest pin out was just icing on the cake.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Good read! Cool that you found a good local spot, and nice to hear some more Metallica impressions. So what did you think of the callouts?

 

[karl]

Nice to hear from a someone who have actually played Metallica Great report. If you have more to share on Metallica I'm all ears

 

[shutyertrap]

I was fine with them. I don't know what people were expecting. I found it strange that some swearing was bleeped, while others weren't. The music kinda just becomes white noise and has no bearing on game play, but was still cool. Loved the electric chair and the blinding lighting that goes off when you hit it! This was a well lit place, so would be very curious to see it in the dark.

Can I just say how humbling real pinball is? I mean, I couldn't even come close to replay scores for ANY of the tables! Rollergames utterly destroyed me. And I thought I was doing alright on Metallica, playing 2 player with the owner. At start of 3rd ball, I was beating him. Then he takes his turn and proceeds to play for the next 5 or 10 minutes on his 3rd ball, getting multiball 3 different times in that run. Trounced me by a solid 50 million at least!

 

[DanBradford]

wow, six machines all in great condition in a pizza place!

i wish we had that kind of scene here in the UK, there's practically zero pinball sited in pubs or clubs or malls or garages here - even the arcades usually have no pinball in. i'm lucky to be a pinball owner, and to play in local leagues, so i get to play real pinball all the time, but would love to have a local pub that took the step.

yes, more detail on Metallica please: did you get any pictures? did the owner say he liked it? any feedback from him or the venue on what machines took the most money? any opinions from all concerned on WOZ? (here in UK, on forums and amongst all my pinhead friends, we agree that the delays totally cost JJ his possible hit with WOZ, everyone has long since lost interest, and the only winner has been Gary Stern, who's put out three different games while WOZ has been "about to be released").

is the Metallica a stop and start game, like TZ, or a fast flow game like ACDC or STTNG? any favourite bits on it?

 

[shutyertrap]

I didn't bother with pics, as honestly there are a ton of them to be found now and mine would be no different. The owner of the table seemed happy with the machine. He had never put one on route before, was really just looking for reaction to his LED install. As far as the pro version goes, I can offer some thoughts...

As you may know, there is no hammer, no animated snake head, and no spinners on the pro model. I'm baffled at how spinners were deemed a luxury item and thus not on the table. The snake head, probably looks cool moving, but honestly I didn't feel it was lacking anything. The captured ball area where the hammer is supposed to be? At the end of ball, it adds up how many points you scored for 4 distinct areas: the drop target cross, the electric chair, the captured balls, and the snake head. I was barely ever scoring points for the balls. If I had to guess, I'd say the lack of hammer there makes that area forgettable when shooting. I don't know, just after the fact I realized I never once purposefully aimed for it. I noticed the lock bar is a plastic material, which just doesn't feel the same as metal under your palms. The table legs were pretty blah too. Not $2000 extra worthy of complaint though!

I'd say Metallica is more start and stop, except you can get a real nice flow going back and forth between ramps, kind of like what you can do with MM. I was certainly doing a lot more catching than I was on Rollergames (side note...the flippers on Rollergames are vicious. When flipped, they don't go much higher than straight across flat. That means, if the ball as ANY momentum on it, it rolls to the tip. Previously when I've seen it in person before, I blamed it on the state of the machine. As this machine was damn near perfect, I realize it's obviously a design of the game. The result is, catch at your own peril and instead keep that ball moving!) Ultimately I think Metallica has a nice balance of ball movement versus catching and aiming.

I've seen it pointed out that the YouTube vid for Metallica already has twice the views of any other Stern release. This think is going to be wildly popular. Hopefully Stern gets the message loud and clear, because it really does scream classic 90's table to me in both look and feel, as well as it not being overly complicated. It is made for quarter plunking, not free play so you can practice and work the wizard mode for hours.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

While the guy was there you should have asked him to LEVEL them next time bring a level.

 

[shutyertrap]

While the guy was there you should have asked him to LEVEL them next time bring a level.

Who said they weren't level?

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

The snake doesn't shoot SDTM

 

[shutyertrap]

The snake doesn't shoot SDTM

That had nothing to do with the table being level. Nate (the owner) was actually trying to figure out if it's adjustable. I'd say 7 outta 10 times it'd shoot the middle. All it took was the slightest nudge to get it to touch the left flipper instead. The kickouts on Metallica are pretty strong, ejected with velocity. Even if the table wasn't level (which it was!), the ball moves too fast to be affected.

Like I said, Indy was just as nasty in that respect. You launch the ball, it goes up and around, through the pops and SDTM. The skirts on the pops were chipped (same as my Firepower) so I don't think the ball was triggering 'em like it should have. Again, not a leveling issue but a quirk of that particular machine it it's condition. Funny thing is, they were offering $100 if you could beat the grand champion score, so that was totally playing in house favor!

 

[Kevlar]

Good read, I wish there was somethng like that around here. I think the nearest public pin to me is about 40 miles away.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Well its good you got your PINBALL fix once you get FP going you can get your warm up games in at home also practice techniques

 

[shutyertrap]

Considering how much each table kicked my a$$, I totally need to brush up on technique!

In other news, I got my invite to join the OC Pinball League...now I just need them to have an opening for me to actually get in to play. Will find out in 2 days.

 

[mudtoe]

My very first concert experience was Metallica's "Damaged Justice" Tour on June 22, 1989 (with The Cult, featuring a quite-inebriated Ian Astbury)! So despite the group's precipitous decline (IMO), this table is of great interest to me.

As recounted elsewhere, I was able to play a few rounds on a Metallica pro last Sunday. I've got to say it's a fun game! I enjoy fan layouts and this is a good one. I enjoy the artwork, too. In fact, it's my favorite Stern title to date. My only complaint is that the volume was way too low so I could barely here the music, much less the call-outs over the din of the game room. This could be an operator setting, but I've read other complaints about the stock sound systems in Stern tables.

The best part? It was set on free play!

Cliff em all!

 

[netizen]

My very first concert experience was Metallica's "Damaged Justice" Tour on June 22, 1989 (with The Cult, featuring a quite-inebriated Ian Astbury)! So despite the group's precipitous decline (IMO), this table is of great interest to me.

LOL, I remember that tour. The Cure wasn't very well received where I saw them. IIRC, they were booed off stage in less than 15 minutes for how poorly they were performing.

But Metallica on the other hand ... it was such an opposite show. **** falling, nearly hitting Lars. I don't think I have seen a concert quite like that in the way the crowd energy and physical effects merged into such a wild feeling.

 

[shutyertrap]

Whoo hoo!

So I get to play in the OC Pinball League tourney on Sunday! If I'm able to show up at 4 of these in a row, I'll no longer have to be on the stand by list. Judging by the listing on their website, there's usually 40 participants. I've never played pinball in real life in a tourney setting, so this will probably be quite humbling. Can't wait!

Maybe I'll get lucky and there'll be a few TPA titles so that I can have a small fighting chance.

 

[SpiffyRob]

Good luck SYT! Played in my first tournament a few months back. It can be quite humbling indeed! But even when I don't do well, it's still a blast.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Good luck and take pictures this time! or it didnt happen