Having a TPA tournament at work tonight

[Espy]

So my work is having a Games Night, which we do every few months. All kind of video games, board games and party games are brought out. But this time I've decided to open up about my pinball addiction, and have arranged a TPA PS3 tournament! I've decided on three tables - Twilight Zone, Attack from Mars and Big Shot (for something different). Hope my selection isn't too hard for beginners - it was tough to pick. I did choose Big Shot directly for its difficulty as a "challenge table". AFM is a bit drainy, but the goal is easy to follow (shoot the saucer). I had to put TZ in due to its status. As no-one at work aside from me knows much about pinball, the rules are they can have as many tries as they like, their best score will count. Really hoping I can open some people's eyes to the joys of pinball tonight! Will let you know.

 

[Kolchak357]

You must work with some good people to have a game night. Let us know how it goes.
Might sound weird but I might have chosen Harley Davidson. Beginners really like the multiball action.

 

[Espy]

You must work with some good people to have a game night. Let us know how it goes.
Might sound weird but I might have chosen Harley Davidson. Beginners really like the multiball action.

Maybe I should have chosen some games with easier multiball, yeah...

 

[MonkeyGrass]

Twilight Zone is one of the most involved, demanding, and difficult to understand tables ever made.

It would not be my choice for a casual "game night" unless your co-workers are rabid pinball fans.

Big Shot is great, but also simultaneously boring and unpredictable. Again, that would not be my choice for casual gamers.

I would take a look at EATPM, FunHouse, WhirlWind, stuff like that. Attack from Mars is great, but maybe pair it up with a Lawlor table that isn't impossible and something fun and easy.

Oh, and enjoy passing that single controller around all night. Probably my #1 pet peeve when hosting tournaments with TPA. Someone has a great ball and you get the hot, sweaty disgusting controller right out of their hand. Yum!

 

[vikingerik]

Yeah AFM is clearly great. I think Big Shot is fine too, easy to understand and nicely representative of what people think as classic pinball distinct from the modern DMD machines.

Twilight Zone can be intimidating, but for a crowd accustomed to gaming in other forms, they'll pick up on what's going on. They'll understand the idea of stacking stuff like Town Square Madness into multiball. And the Powerfield is wholly intuitive and fun. TZ teaches you to make shots instead of just whacking at the ball probably better than any other table. (Unlike AFM.)

The other table that might be worth fitting in is Monster Bash. Everybody loves the monsters, the over-the-top revelry is fantastic, and multiball is pretty easy. It does fill some of the same space as AFM, though.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

If it was the real Twilight Zone, in all its cruel glory, I would be very reluctant to unleash it on beginners. But even novices should get along with TPA's fluffy-bunny version just fine. They can always look in the instructions if they are truly baffled by something.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

alot easier than bringing real pins to game night too! You should get some prizes.

 

[Espy]

So... it didn't work. When I hooked it up there was a good half-second flipper delay (and you thought one frame was bad!), which as you can imagine, killed the gameplay. As the screen I used is part of our company's presentation suite it was a very complex wire-up from one side of the room to the other, which I'm sure had something to do with it. Tried a bunch of PS3 and TV tweaks to no avail. And there were a bunch of people quite eager to steal my PS3 to play FIFA on. Despite me explicitly bringing it in for TPA, when I asked if I could kick them off FIFA so I could start the tournament one guy said "Pinball doesn't take long, right? Only a few minutes..." My PS3, mate. My PS3 that you're sullying with FIFA. But they got their wish as I didn't have another use for it.

Then someone thought it would be a good idea to stack another PS3 on top of mine (you might note that they have very curved tops and are NOT stackable), which left mine with a load of scuff marks from very unstable PS3 wobbling around on it.

If I had a real machine I would actually bring it in for sure, then they would see how great pinball is. Grumble grumble...

 

[Kolchak357]

Sorry it didn't come off as planned.
You still get an A+ for the effort Espy.

 

[shutyertrap]

Ah, the problems of using a tv with unknown settings. If you have TPA on Steam, you could always use one of the office computers next time...

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Bummer. Youll get'm next time.

 

[neilpinbot]

You should have taken a tablet in with TPA on... Then they could have sat and played angry birds