Table of the Week Club...week 5: BLACK HOLE

[Maggie]

Just to ease your concerns, on iOS, the BH HUD is working just fine, and the FP, BK, and Gorgar issues have been taken care of. But the POTO high score issue is still there.

Have they? I've tried deleting and reloading both BK and FP, but they are still messed up for me. I can't launch multiball at all on FP, and only about half the time on BK (ball hangs up the other half of the time). What am I missing? Neither table is playable for me.

 

[Fungi]

Have they? I've tried deleting and reloading both BK and FP, but they are still messed up for me. I can't launch multiball at all on FP, and only about half the time on BK (ball hangs up the other half of the time). What am I missing? Neither table is playable for me.

I'm talking about the latest test build with TAF. Sorry.

 

[Maggie]

I'm talking about the latest test build with TAF. Sorry.

If that means that when TAF arrives, I also get back FP and BK, it's all good!

Meanwhile, this thread inspired me to go back to BH. I finally got all the wizard goals. Still need to up my best score, currently at 1.8. Not good enough to have the problem of having a game go on to infinity!

 

[shutyertrap]

Well that wasn't too tough. All Wizard goals accomplished within 45 minutes. Went ahead and played without the HUD displayed, but since the only score I cared about was the lower level bonus (and that did show), I had no issues.

Top score this session was 2.3 million, but my overall top from some other time of playing is 2.6m. Incredibly boring table, gotta say. If all the good points are scored in the lower level, then that's where you spend your time. As a result, the table is reduced to an 8 x 11 inch area with one bumper? Ohhhh, fun. The gimmick should never become the prime play element.

So tell me, what would be different with real emulation? Or better physics? Seems to me the points are still to be scored down low, so other than the challenge ramped up a bit to take away from forever games? Enlighten me, please.

 

[Slam23]

[MENTION=16]Fungi[/MENTION]: thanks for the info on the next build, good to hear about the fixes. Now what would it take to get Farsight to fix POTO and those lingering rollover/HOF points issues? Any chance you could relay that to them as beta tester? Maybe that would put some weight behind it.

In other news: my string of improving on every TotWC table is still intact, put some extra 300k on top of my modest 7.0M didn't try very hard because of request time-outs to Farsight's server. I would really be bummed if I lost a score that I put a couple of hours into.

 

[Fungi]

[MENTION=16]Fungi[/MENTION]: thanks for the info on the next build, good to hear about the fixes. Now what would it take to get Farsight to fix POTO and those lingering rollover/HOF points issues? Any chance you could relay that to them as beta tester? Maybe that would put some weight behind it.

No promises.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Well that wasn't too tough. All Wizard goals accomplished within 45 minutes. Went ahead and played without the HUD displayed, but since the only score I cared about was the lower level bonus (and that did show), I had no issues.

Top score this session was 2.3 million, but my overall top from some other time of playing is 2.6m. Incredibly boring table, gotta say. If all the good points are scored in the lower level, then that's where you spend your time. As a result, the table is reduced to an 8 x 11 inch area with one bumper? Ohhhh, fun. The gimmick should never become the prime play element.

So tell me, what would be different with real emulation? Or better physics? Seems to me the points are still to be scored down low, so other than the challenge ramped up a bit to take away from forever games? Enlighten me, please.

Well yeah, the games would last like 5-10 minutes instead of 45+...which would give it that "just one more game" vibe that pins from this era should have, which is why the real pin was such a quarter gobbler.

When TPA was first released, it was almost impossible to cradle the ball on the lower playfield which made it quite a bit tougher, plus hitting the bumper would trigger the gate.

As for the gameplay, if you love drop targets then the real pin is quite a treat.

 

[Slam23]

We have a Black Hole at our clubhouse, and just as Haunted House is more impressive in real life with it's widebody and 3 layers, so too is Black Hole more vibrant and "spacey" than can be brought over by a 2D screen. As has been said it's way more difficult than it's TPA counterpart, which in the case of "our" Black Hole is also a bit because of wear and tear. Not every rubber is that reactive anymore and the flippers also feel a bit worn out. Where a clean shot to the alley at the left (to the lower playfield) is an instant access in TPA, in the real table it's about 50/50 if it will get up high enough in the alley to get to the lower playfield. Anyway, I didn't play it very long or often because it's often broken down. Love the atmosphere though!
[MENTION=16]Fungi[/MENTION]: thanks for considering it!

 

[Slam23]

Another couple of thoughts on TPA Black Hole: while they captured the overall floaty feel of the original table quite nicely, some physics betray the fact that it is a season one table. I tend to use deadpassing a lot more lately in my playing style, and I have never seen such bouncy results as with this table. That shows how much better later tables are in respect to dampening the momentum of the ball when deadpassing. Also hitting (drop)targets often speeds up the ball instead of slowing it down, as if the same physics are applied that get used for slingshot type rubber.

 

[Slam23]

.....and 20.5M for 26th on the leaderboards. Not much fun to be had, only sport is to ramp up the lower playfield counter to 999.990 before draining and watch the overall score counter fly. Don't know if I got another grind game in me.

 

[shutyertrap]

This table is making for a very sedate thread! Good news is they fixed the HUD problem with the latest beta build. Bad news is nothing else changed.

 

[vikingerik]

I don't know how long the Top Ten players had to play to get these scores. I'm not even sure the #1 high score is fake with 1.5b, given how easy this table is.

My 190M was probably eight or ten hours, I don't really remember.

The table doesn't quite allow infinite play, because EBs don't stack. If you drain without earning an EB there's no way to make up for that and recover, you're permanently on the next ball. It's possible to get a house ball from the plunge into the bumpers directly to the left outlane. 1.5B can't be automatically ruled out, although I'd doubt its legitimacy.

Strategy tip: Don't bother with the second g-force accelerator. Just get one, because that carries over to a new ball. Getting both means you have to redo them later. You'll score faster by staying at 2x rather than sometimes going to 3x but then dropping back to 1x and having to redo them. You can reach 999k bonus during multiball just fine even at only 2x.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I try to avoid multi-ball. Your bread-and-butter are the yellow drops in the lower playfield, if you activate multi-ball you have to light those drops again. I can score faster in single-ball play than trying to juggle balls in multi-ball.

 

[Fungi]

So far what I'm taking from this is... The best way to play Black Hole is to play the boring lower playfield as long as possible and avoid multiball.

 

[shutyertrap]

So far what I'm taking from this is... The best way to play Black Hole is to play the boring lower playfield as long as possible and avoid multiball.

Thrilling, isn't it?

So here's a question for you all...this table will be in the March tournament, not the upcoming Feb tourney. Just as we are asking everyone to only play 2 games per table, should we ask that everyone just plunges their extra balls on BH? That should eliminate the forever aspect of this table, but is once again one of those unenforceable requests. Thoughts?

 

[vikingerik]

I think playing multiball in BH is perfectly fine. The faster scoring and drain insurance is worth it. It's easy to start, just hit the four yellow standups and two locks. How good multiball is does depend a lot on how good you are at one-timing the re-entry shot back into the tunnel.

I don't remember having to re-light the lower drops in multiball. Don't they stay lit? They unlight only when multiball ends. And then you have to hit the targets again anyway to light the lock for the next one.

 

[Maggie]

I got my 1000 PHOF points! It only took about an hour. For this one it's patience over skill. (And for me it's very much about avoiding multiball and staying on the lower level as long as possible.)

 

[Slam23]

Congrats Maggie! Where are you with your total HOF points?

As for MB: I get what VikingErik says, and had some success with keeping it going on that lower playfield, all depends on dividing attention so that you one-time upper playfield balls into the tunnel back to the lower. I really like the effect of playing on the two levels at the same time, my brain sometimes gets tricked into thinking the lower playfield ball is coming SDTM on the upper playfield. Re-lighting those right yellow targets afterwards is a bit of a hassle sometimes and can have drain risks associated with them. I'm still not sure about those G-accelerators, I think I'm not patient enough to go with only one

 

[Maggie]

Congrats Maggie! Where are you with your total HOF points?

As for MB: I get what VikingErik says, and had some success with keeping it going on that lower playfield, all depends on dividing attention so that you one-time upper playfield balls into the tunnel back to the lower. I really like the effect of playing on the two levels at the same time, my brain sometimes gets tricked into thinking the lower playfield ball is coming SDTM on the upper playfield. Re-lighting those right yellow targets afterwards is a bit of a hassle sometimes and can have drain risks associated with them. I'm still not sure about those G-accelerators, I think I'm not patient enough to go with only one

9648! Which is nothing compared to you guys, but my game has jumped a notch, and I've piled on a couple thousand points over the last week or so.

I think the advice on strategies depends a lot on ones skill level. For example, it makes sense to get a G-accelerator first. But I miss too many shots to make that work for me. What I can do is consistently get the ball to the lower level, so once the gate is open...

 

[Slam23]

Going over 10.000 is near! I got my current 4th place just by keeping at it in the beginning, and then my skills picked up enough to also get those more difficult HOF points in later season tables. And then there are a couple of tables I have no hope of improving on, like Cactus Canyon or Dr. Dude. I have my sights set at 3rd place which in theory is in reach, maybe 2nd place but I'll probably never pass [MENTION=4380]Toolinit[/MENTION] who still has nearly 8.000 HOF points more at the moment. This table of the week club thing already netted me a couple of hundred points, improving on Firepower, Genie and Flight 2000. Already maxed out on 1000 for AFM and Black Hole. I never thought I would be even in the top 50 for HOF points when I started though, so I guess perseverance payed off. If you want any advice: I made a fair jump in the standings a couple of months back by solely concentrating on Season One tables, which yield the easiest HOF points -besides Big Shot though, that's a monster!-. There are also some tables on which it is currently impossible to score 1000 HOF points because of rollover score issues (for example Theatre of Magic). Toolinit has made a post in which he lists those machines. I have most Season 1 tables on 1000 points. That's almost 20.000 points in itself.