Android - Bug so, my game ended on 2nd ball....

[kinggo]

... while I had an extra ball. Or two.
Is this the buggiest table of all? I don't like it much. I don't play it much. But each time I have a decent game something weird happens.

 

[Pinetwig]

Had this bug playing the Gottlieb&Stern challenge. Never seen it in "regular" play and I've spent quite a lot of time on this table.

 

[vikingerik]

This is a known bug. http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/5190-Game-ending-bug-2

You have to tilt away the bonus count. DO NOT speed it up by hitting the flippers.

 

[kinggo]

I've seen that. But I'm not sure if it's the same thing. I was nowhere near 6B or 1B. I had some 28M and maybe 25 idols.

 

[vikingerik]

Yeah, it can definitely happen at idol counts far below 255, I've seen it somewhere below 50. Tilting away the bonus count consistently works to avoid the bug, at any rate.

 

[kinggo]

OK, I posted this after my game ended last night. But now I wanted to play again so I started a new one just to find out that I actually continued the one from yesterday.

 

[kinggo]

And a bit more on the subject. I'm not sure what's triggering this actually. It's not 255 idols, I didn't get that far.
I never hurry up the bonus and after reading about it I was paying attention not to do that. After loosing some (3rd at least, can be an extra ball on 1st one) in game ball, bonus is counting and after that game "ends" with local leaderboard on screen. I can press "continue" and that leads me to the main game screen but on the DMD I can see my score and ball count. But after pressing "start" I can actually continue my game. But there's more. After continuing the same "end game" thing happened again at some point. I was still at 1st ball, I'm not sure how many extra balls I used up by that time. Again, local leaderbord-continue-start and I'm in my game. Score is as it was, ball is still 1st but this time, after pressing start another player joined the game. I keep playing, get some extra balls (really Stern??????) and the same thing happens again. Again, local leaderbord-continue-start and I'm in my game. Score is as it was, ball is still 1st but this time, after pressing start another player joined the game. Now, there's 3 of us
I just wasted the balls of 2nd and 3rd but I didn't get much further with my game so I don't know if 4th player would join us Probably not since we were on 2nd ball but..........

 

[Zaphod77]

yes seems there's a bug with skipping the bonus count that fools the emulator framework into thinking the game ended.

so do not skip the bonus count, and if it gets stuck tilt it away.

 

[kinggo]

I'm not skipping anything. The ball drains, bonus is counting and after that local leaderboard.

 

[vikingerik]

ONLY tilting away the bonus avoids this bug. It happens whether or not you speed up the bonus count. But you must not speed it up, just to allow yourself enough time to tilt past the warnings.

Sadly I doubt we can expect any attention from Farsight on fixing it.

 

[netizen]

Kinggo is addressing a bug in the Challenge Mode of TPA, not the pet bug of Zaphod and VikingErik

They are two completely different things.

It'd be best to email support@pinballarcade.com and report the challenge mode bug in as much detail as possible. The quitting and starting another player in the same game is a known bug.

 

[kinggo]

well. if it is a known bug what's the point of reporting it? Apparently, nobody cares. Spitting out unfinished game each 5 weeks is obviously the way to go for FS.
RBION is TWO YEARS old and stuff like this is still present.

 

[netizen]

the bug isn't in RBION it's in the Challenge Mode which is only a few months old.

The more people that report it the more common it is known to be the higher priority it will become. or you can just complain about it here and hope that it will get noticed.

 

[kinggo]

I'm not playing challenge mode.

 

[vikingerik]

The same bug happens in both regular play and challenge mode. Either way the TPA program is somehow fooled into thinking the ROM went into game over mode.

Then when you try to start a new game, TPA will "press start" on the ROM. If you are still on ball 1, the ROM interprets this as adding a second player. If you are not on ball 1, the ROM interprets this as restarting a new game.

The results are different based on what ball you are on, not what TPA mode you are playing.

 

[Echeos]

I encountered the same thing today. Was on a record smashing (for me) score of 119mil but it only recorded my score as 118mil.

What do people mean when they say "tilt away the bonus"?

 

[kinggo]

when the ball drains, start nudging like crazy to tilt the game before the bonus is aded to the score.

 

[Echeos]

So I just continued there and brought my score up to 123mil. After each ball drain you're returned to the start screen for the table and when you finally go to enter your initials the interface for doing so does not show up and doesn't fully work. You can touch the screen where the arrows should be and that works but if you touch where select should be nothing happens. If you let it time out it the initials enter but then there is no way to continue. You have to exit the game meaning the save data will be lost. What an absolute pain in the ass.

I'm on iOS by the way.

 

[Echeos]

when the ball drains, start nudging like crazy to tilt the game before the bonus is aded to the score.

Okay thanks. Does that not count toward tilt though? That is, will it not lock you out if you do that?

 

[kinggo]

I never actually tilted it. I was able to continue my game each time. But if you tilt the bonus on 1st ball you can normally continue the game with the 2nd one.
And I also had that missing buttons issue but I was able to enter my initials.