Table of the Week Club...week 2 : FIREPOWER

[Pinballwiz45b]

Few tips:

Don't plunge R, or expect a house ball down the left.

Never backhand any of the 6 targets, or expect an outlane drain. Also, aiming for 1 directly from the right usually results in a STDM.

ALWAYS try to find an opportunity to light Kickback. The outlanes are pretty hungry on this table.

The 1,000 point spinner (when lit) can actually be denied by another switch hit. Don't expect it to always award those points.

Watch for the kickout from the lower left, and be prepared for which flipper to use.

And speaking of which...

 

[Xanija]

Nice, just before the end I scored a "real" table high score: 1,312,540. First time I went over 1m.

What's funny about this table: I rarely play it, but when I do, it's fun. I just don't know why I always never choose to play it. So in the regard the Table of the week Club is serving it's purpose to 100%.

 

[shutyertrap]

Never has 300,000 more points seemed so out of reach. Bastard.

 

[Nightwing]

Well,I'm still working on the Xbox One standard goals,which I just completed on FP. It takes a while for me to get into a rhythm for shots,but after that it went pretty fast. Score is around 650,000 - I'll edit it when I get back online and get the exact total.

 

[Fungi]

I like this screenshot. Still hate the game tho'.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

kthxbai

 

[JefferyD]

I'm glad Firepower is popular again (for a week) because, by reading this thread, I've learned what a "Firepower bonus" is! I know it sounds dumb, but I never bothered with trying to figure out why “FIRE” and “POWER” light up, or what you get for doing that. My routine has consisted of blasting through the spinner, trying to get “FIRE” lit up over and over until the extra-ball light turned on. Hit the 1-2-3-4-5-6 targets if you can, but mostly let those accumulate from incidental contact while chasing “FIRE.”

I presumed the 10,000, 30,000, 50,000 lights were for that center bullseye target. Going for that never seemed to make much of a difference to my final score, so I long ago stopped trying for it. If I get it, great. If not? Well, I won’t know the difference anyway.

Whenever the blue and red lights turned on in the outlanes I just shrugged and figured it was probably good but why would I try to guide the ball out where it might drain? Not worth it, whatever it was.

Scrolling through the instructions on TPA, each sentence dragged out over 10 pages, is so annoying and hard to follow that I rarely find the patience to make it through one set of tips. I count on youse guys to figure this thing out for me.

Of course, with this new knowledge, my scores have dipped horribly as I am learning how to aim for shots I never considered before. Once yesterday I hit it big and managed a 1.2, but it was sloppy and flukish. For one game last night I reverted to my original manner of playing in ignorance by not ever trying for the Firepower bonus. I got at least one FP bonus and a (sadly) offline score 1.6.

I’d play more but my working version of TPA (newest table: Black Rose) is on the old iPad, which my 2 year old daughter is using for a Curious George marathon this morning. Her naptime should hit soon, tho...

 

[neglectoid]

ive always liked firepower even tho im not real good at it. its one of those machines that humble me whenever I get a big head. finally got all the wizard goals after this thread. score - 800,000

 

[Gus]

Wow that's a great score EOS! Grats!!

 

[shutyertrap]

New table is up. As requested, this thread will be left open for one week longer to catch any stragglers that still wanna dabble in it. Same will happen every week to follow.

 

[Reagan Dow]

Apparently you didn't see my post about beating all the wizards and topping 1.5 million.

That sound I hear is someone's balloon deflating!

Yep!! Those aren't tears of joy running down my face!! I should get more time since got 3 ft of snow and was out for three days w very little sleep then slept for two days. Sigh.....one of these days I'll be nipping at your ankles like those annoying little dogs that bard all day long and pee everywhere!!!

 

[shutyertrap]

I just got to play a fully restored Firepower at league night. It was shinier than the brand new WoZ that was sitting next to it. Brand new CPR playfield with drop target mod installed, fully restored cab that was painted beautifully, new Williams backglass (they sold 'em in the 90's to make up for the flaking on the originals) with 7 digit display, 'deluxe' ROM' on System 7 boards that adds things like a skill shot.

I'm telling you, I could not have played on a more perfect machine...and it played nothing like the TPA version. Ball moved soooo much slower, shooting the spinner to capture hole was not a given, as often the ball didn't have enough to make it in. The kickback had no chance of shooting anywhere near as high as TPA does, but also would never shoot it straight into the right outlane like TPA sometimes does. Drop targets slowed the game down some too.

The one constant? Those outlanes are every bit as deadly.

 

[Slam23]

I found this to be true of a lot of real life machines I played that have TPA counterparts (I'm up to 26 machines I played both for real and in TPA). I actually did some in-depth threads of those comparisons, I believe at least for CFTBL and STTNG. Although both of those were in "well-played" condition which showed in less reactive bumpers, maybe a bit less flipper power and a bit more worn rubber. For example there is no way to miss making that left ramp on Creature in TPA, even with ricochets from the targets. On the real machine, halfmade ramp shots would come screaming down and threaten to go SDTM. On the other hand, balls that would escape a real STTNG's bumper area left under the right ramp wouldn't make straight for the left outlane as they do on TPA. The question is, if that restored Firepower played like "new-out-of-the-box" or that still some parts showed their age? It sounds like "real pinball" to me though, with a lot more randomness involved, like it should and would be nice to have some more for TPA!

 

[shutyertrap]

I found this to be true of a lot of real life machines I played that have TPA counterparts (I'm up to 26 machines I played both for real and in TPA). I actually did some in-depth threads of those comparisons, I believe at least for CFTBL and STTNG. Although both of those were in "well-played" condition which showed in less reactive bumpers, maybe a bit less flipper power and a bit more worn rubber. For example there is no way to miss making that left ramp on Creature in TPA, even with ricochets from the targets. On the real machine, halfmade ramp shots would come screaming down and threaten to go SDTM. On the other hand, balls that would escape a real STTNG's bumper area left under the right ramp wouldn't make straight for the left outlane as they do on TPA. The question is, if that restored Firepower played like "new-out-of-the-box" or that still some parts showed their age? It sounds like "real pinball" to me though, with a lot more randomness involved, like it should and would be nice to have some more for TPA!

This was a full restore, no worn parts. I own this table too, and it played slower too. But mine is a wreck!

There was also a fully restored Whirlwind. TPA played closer to that, though the middle ramp shot was brutally hard to hit. The TZ he had was overly kind to me and I was nailing shots as if it were the game. Scored 270 million, which may not seem a lot, but it was double the next guy in my heat.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

There was also a fully restored Whirlwind. TPA played closer to that, though the middle ramp shot was brutally hard to hit.

Of all the TPA recreations that I've played (a lot) IRL, I concur that WW is a pretty close match. Initially I even thought it was harder - the spinning discs are more brutal in TPA, it seems.