No recognition for Rule the Universe?

[exnooyorka]

First, many thanks to Pinball Arcade for fixing the bumpers in this game. You really dialed in the bumpers spot-on, resulting not only in super jets achievement that's on par with the physical game, but bonus multipliers that are on par with the physical game.

Just finished a game where I ruled the universe and was a little dismayed to see, after the game had completed, that there is no recognition of having ruled the universe during attract mode. I own the game IRL and see the most recent Universe Ruler with a count of the number of times that player has consecutively ruled.

Is there a reason why this has been omitted from the virtual table?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

First, many thanks to Pinball Arcade for fixing the bumpers in this game. You really dialed in the bumpers spot-on, resulting not only in super jets achievement that's on par with the physical game, but bonus multipliers that are on par with the physical game.

Just finished a game where I ruled the universe and was a little dismayed to see, after the game had completed, that there is no recognition of having ruled the universe during attract mode. I own the game IRL and see the most recent Universe Ruler with a count of the number of times that player has consecutively ruled.

Is there a reason why this has been omitted from the virtual table?

Secondary scorelists, such as AFM's Rule the Universe, CV's Cannonball Champion, TZ's Lost in the Zone Champion, etc., are lost after you return to the main menu. This is because the ROM is reset to a known state when you start a standard table.

However, if you have a Pro table, then when you play the table with the operator's menu turned on, the game remembers the ROM state from before - it does not reset - and so it will remember Ruler of the Universe and so forth and display them at appropriate times. This only applies to games with the op menu on...if you turn it off to play a standard game, your scores will temporarily disappear (but they'll come back when you turn the op menu back on again).

 

[Fuseball]

Does the resetting to a known state each time explain why the Neutral Zone awards in ST:TNG are not as random as they should be? It always gives me Ferenghi multiball, and I'm sure my own machine isn't so predictable.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Does the resetting to a known state each time explain why the Neutral Zone awards in ST:TNG are not as random as they should be? It always gives me Ferenghi multiball, and I'm sure my own machine isn't so predictable.

Yes, although it depends on how often the machine recalculates its "randomness". Some features, like TZ's Camera awards, do seem to get pseudo-randomly chosen at the start of each game. Others, like ST:TNG's Neutral Zone, seem to always pick one particular award first and then start randomizing.

 

[David Smith]

However, if you have a Pro table, then when you play the table with the operator's menu turned on, the game remembers the ROM state from before - it does not reset - and so it will remember Ruler of the Universe and so forth and display them at appropriate times. This only applies to games with the op menu on...if you turn it off to play a standard game, your scores will temporarily disappear (but they'll come back when you turn the op menu back on again).

I didn't know this. Saving the secondary high scores would almost make the Pro mode worth the purchase. Can you still post leaderboard scores using the Pro version if you don't modify any options? If you could participate in the leaderboards *and* save secondary high scores that would be a big win for me.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Can you still post leaderboard scores using the Pro version if you don't modify any options? If you could participate in the leaderboards *and* save secondary high scores that would be a big win for me.

Unfortunately not. Turning the operator's menu on at all turns off the ability to post to the leaderboards.

 

[phreaker47]

Unfortunately not. Turning the operator's menu on at all turns off the ability to post to the leaderboards.

They should really fix that so that only the truly game-changing options would be the ones that disqualify leaderboard posting. I'd much more likely buy pro tables if that were the case. All they'd have to do is something like mark certain options (like ones that affect EBs and scoring) a different color, so you know those are the ones that disable the leaderboard.

 

[Tuomas Hämäläinen]

What would be nice if they did is to stop resetting the ROM to this known state. I admit I know little about the reasons behind it being how it is now, but how important is it to have it that way? I mean, considering the benefits we would get: better randomization of random awards/modes, functional date/time, secondary high score lists, features that should carry over from game to game and everything else there might be… And the fact that it already works in operator mode suggests that it isn't impossible.

 

[phreaker47]

What would be nice if they did is to stop resetting the ROM to this known state. I admit I know little about the reasons behind it being how it is now, but how important is it to have it that way? I mean, considering the benefits we would get: better randomization of random awards/modes, functional date/time, secondary high score lists, features that should carry over from game to game and everything else there might be… And the fact that it already works in operator mode suggests that it isn't impossible.

I believe it had been mentioned that the saved state was implemented simply to allow the game to load faster and more efficiently.

As for date/time though, I know at least in the case of AFM on PS3/Vita it pulls the date/time from the system itself... I've seen the RTU post-game screen reflect the correct date/time.

It would be cool to offer a "cold boot" option, where you actually see the machine powering up, as if you flipped that toggle switch underneath.