Table of the Week Club...Week 50: CACTUS CANYON

[Johni3w6]

I caught the season premier, have the 2nd episode on my DVR. Love the show. Was totally stoked when Jackson Public visited a set I was working on, totally fawned all over him while everyone else wondered who the hell he was beyond a friend of one of the actors.

That's awesome, did you get to talk to him at all and tell him how much you love VB. Just finished up watching episode 2. Told my wife that I think we should wait till we have all the episodes on the DVR and watch them all at once. It never gets that far, can't wait till episode 3.

Amazing that a show that started in 2003 would be on season 6, 13 years later. Also one of my favorite musicians does the score for the show.
Enough with VB, should get it's own thread.

Enjoy episode 2.

 

[shutyertrap]

That's awesome, did you get to talk to him at all and tell him how much you love VB.

Yeah, so this was a few years back. JP came to set to say hello to Nathan Fillion, who of course has done voice work for VB. I offhanded heard someone tell Nathan that "a Jackson Public is here to see you" and my head whipped around to locate him. He stuck around for a bit, chatted with Nathan, and nobody else said a word to him. So I thought, what the hell, and approached and said what a huge fan of the show I was, and then proceeded to show him a pic on my phone of my buddy who'd dressed as Sgt. Hatred for Halloween. We had a very casual conversation and then I had to help with the next camera setup.

You have to understand, working on a film set you come across famous people every day, and it's heavily frowned upon to geek out on anyone. On the other hand, some actually hate this, everyone being so cold to them, and love nothing more than fueling the geek flame. Nathan is like that, so I figured his friend would too, and I was right. In my 18 years of doing this, I've only geeked 3 other times; once with Kevin Smith, once with Robin Williams, and once with Rob Bowman who directed that Reign of Fire movie and I couldn't help but laud praise on having the best movie dragon since Dragonslayer.

 

[Slam23]

CC Continued is by and large what was originally intended. They got extensive notes from the designer and went from there. For instance, there's a 'drunk' mode, where the flipper inputs are reversed for right is controlling left, left controlling right. No idea if tech at the time could handle that or not. There are also a few DMD screens that are a little more violent than what probably would have been allowed. That being said, all the changes feel perfectly at home in the game. All the voice work matches up perfectly, lighting and insert cues make sense.

This isn't a re-imagining like BoP 2.0, but adding in all the bits that Bally either took out for cost or development time. In a lot of ways it's what Stern does now, where new code is released for updating tables. CCC has actually had a few updates itself, as there was a year separation from when I played it and things had changed quite a bit in that time (order of modes unlocking, certain animations, rule changes)

Seeing what Farsight is planning with that Dr. Who Regenerated table, this CCC version could also very well be a special version of regular CC. This idea probably came up earlier when CC came out for TPA but I don't remember any discussion of it. Would there be a technical reason it won't fly? The most pressing problem would probably the legal/rights side of it, because it was released under an open source license and Farsight making money of that will not be appreciated probably

 

[shutyertrap]

Wow, deja vu.

So my last wizard goal was getting high noon. I wasn't getting very far, and usually it was the combo badge that was screwing me up. I thought, "there has to be a controlled way of getting the combos" and set about discovering it. I could hit the center ramp almost at will from the right flipper, regardless of if it was caught or in motion. Problem was, once made the ball goes to the left flipper and I was very poor at hitting the center ramp or right orbit from there. After some trial and error, and more error, I found that if I put both flippers up after making the center ramp, if I just nudged at the right moment as it rolled up the left flipper, I could safely land the ball on the right and quickly shoot the center ramp once again before the combo light went out.

Well it took a while, but soon I was able to get it on my first ball which allowed me to concentrate on the other badges which came much easier. Finally I lit High Noon, but had no idea what to shoot (didn't have the volume up and failed to notice the flashing lights) and lost the ball. Read the instructions far enough to see I needed to shoot the mine, which I kicked myself over as I can nail that from the right or left flipper almost at will.

Had at it many times again, finally lit and started High Noon. I didn't pay attention to the fact I was on a timer, scored 16 of the required 20 bad guys. So once more I went to the instructions and read them all the way through for that. Discovered you get extra time for all the bad guys you dispense during the game. AHHH! See I was so focused on getting to High Noon, I didn't bother to maximize during Showdown Multiball. So I corrected that mistake, found myself with 62 seconds to defeat High Noon, and just like that I finished my last wizard.

So why the deja vu?

I defeated CC on my PS3 way back when it first came out. Since then I'd forgotten all the tricks. What I realize now is that I essentially repeated exactly what I did back then! The nudge pass to the right flipper, the needing to read the instructions (twice), everything. The only thing I didn't forget was when going for points, I'd just shoot the mine over and over, collecting multipliers often as the ball exited, especially as multiball was going. And now I remember why I stopped playing this table, because that method is soooo boring to play!

BTW...something else I remembered about CC Continued; I believe the bonus multiplier got nerfed and doesn't go above 5x or something. This of course changes strategy for tourney play, forcing you to go for modes instead. In general the points structure is much more balanced rather than being entirely dependent on you final bonus count.

 

[Voof]

Congrats on your high noon! I love the part of how your sound was down so you couldn't see flashing lights. <3 Keep on Flippin'

 

[vikingerik]

Can't see the flashing lights, can't hear the bells... hi there Tommy

I haven't played CC in a while, but I think I remember going for the combos mostly as right ramp -> left ramp, and also -> orbit when the orbit shot towards Stampede isn't yet completed so the ball will stop in the bumpers. I agree that running shots to the center ramp are difficult or impossible (as with many TPA shots in that location), and that you don't want to make freewheeling orbit shots which loses control.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

The thing with combos is that there's an enormous grace period. You don't have to be accurate, just safe.

 

[shutyertrap]

Okay, I need to clarify since you guys are having a go at me!

It's not that I didn't "see" the lights, but in that mad panic rush of "oh s***, I just lit High Noon!", I couldn't distinguish which blinky light I needed to go for, especially since I had a multiball going at the time.

I'm hideous with the ramp combos on this table. I usually ignore saving Polly for precisely that reason. But running shot to center ramp off the right flipper? No problem at all.

This is also one of those tables where none of the shots I can hit with ease translates to playing the real thing. I can nail the mine shaft all day in TPA, but it's a true struggle IRL. On the other hand I'm much better at ramps!

 

[Crooker]

Can't see the flashing lights, can't hear the bells... hi there Tommy
I haven't played CC in a while, but I think I remember going for the combos mostly as right ramp -> left ramp, and also -> orbit when the orbit shot towards Stampede isn't yet completed so the ball will stop in the bumpers. I agree that running shots to the center ramp are difficult or impossible (as with many TPA shots in that location), and that you don't want to make freewheeling orbit shots which loses control.

Hehe. Nice.
Great monologue SYT. Highly entertaining. It always comes down to those pesky instructions.

 

[switch3flip]

For the combos completion I just shoot the middle ramp repeatedly. Hold up left flipper, let the ball jump over to the right flipper with a little upwards nudge help and shot up the middle ramp, repeat. Middle ramp is really easy and safe on a slow moving ball from right flipper.

 

[Snorzel]

Some great tips in here thanks guys. I would love to have a go on this one IRL. I will see what I can do later and maybe leave some feedback.

I always like reading these threads, but feel I have little to offer in terms of input, as seen above ^. Thanks to all of you who contribute to these threads