Magnet or Model Mistake?

[mpclemens]

Given that it's the table of the month, I've been playing Centaur quote a bit lately, and I've noticed that the ball does what I think of as the "TOTAN wiggle": the ball dances back and forth like there's a capture magnet under the table (as in TOTAN's genie hole) but the physics engine renders this as the ball vibrating back and forth while the "magnet" is on.

In Centaur, this happens in the Release Target lane -- the upper right-hand lane on the table. Presumably there's some mode that turns this on as the wiggle is intermittent. I haven't played it enough to figure out the exact circumstances since I'm usually getting slapped around by a bad ricochet.

In the PAPA video, though, I see that the ball can return to the plunger through an opening next to the release target. It happens around the 1:22-1:24 mark on their "Gameplay" video.

http://pinball.org/videos/gameplay-videos/centaur/

So, what's up? Is there a glitch in the TPA table? A missing gate in the PAPA table? Anybody else experience this issue?

 

[phreaker47]

The ball will be captured there momentarily when you trigger either a bonus collect or a power orbs release.

 

[Fungi]

Magnet

 

[DeeEff]

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/4570-Ball-sometimes-get-stuck

 

[mpclemens]

Fair enough. So has anyone ever been able to coax the ball back into the plunger lane like the video? I can't tell if there's a gate there or not blocking access.

 

[Fungi]

Fair enough. So has anyone ever been able to coax the ball back into the plunger lane like the video? I can't tell if there's a gate there or not blocking access.

There's supposed to be a gate there.

 

[neglectoid]

I have never seen the ball go thru that gate before on tpa. once (out of the few hundred games ive played) on my 1st ball, I plunged the ball and it bounced down thru the release target lane, I let the ball drain down the middle on purpose since it didn't hit any switches, and got my ball back.

 

[mpclemens]

I've never had it go backwards through there, either. The video is play on a real-life table, which is evidently missing that part. This was my confusion: the ball was behaving like a modeling glitch, but the presence of a (virtual) magnet and a (virtual) gate makes perfect sense.

I'll file a bug against PAPA to fix their table.