That's So Weird, Mon!

Regular readers of this blog know that the RBION on location at Third Rail Bar & Grill (where I play in league) is particularly evil and often confines even world-class players to seven-digit scores. Part of this is due to its blinding LED package; it's often hard to see what's going on, especially when active lightshows are running like 2X Playfield.

So I was both ecstatic and mystified when, coming off a horrible horrible game of Banzai Run (189K...just terrible...I flipped maybe 3 times), I proceeded to run the table for 25.3 million. Ten million of that was skill shots, and quite a bit of the rest came from hitting the idol a lot and running up the main multiball base jackpot value to 1M. I don't recommend this as a strategy - the idol is normally quite deadly - but when you're facing an evil RBION and you know Ripley's letters are but a dream, cranking up that multiball doesn't seem to be a half-bad way to go. Twenty-five million is good for a league high score so far; we'll see if it holds up the rest of the season.

I still lost the group (the second-highest one...consisting this week of the machines' owner/operator Brian Bannon, a strong player named Ace Akers, and a not-quite-so-strong-but-getting-better player named Sean DonCarlos) with the aforementioned travesty on Banzai Run, a 15M score on Iron Man that normally would have been fine had the other two players not decided to clean the playfield with the Iron Monger's face (Ace ended up with 66M!), and a 15M score on X-Men LE that again probably would have had a good shot at winning in a lower group but was inadequate against strong players. However, to escape with 7 points out of 20 against such competition...I'll take it and run! :D

Apparently, I am also considered by the computer that runs the league to be part of the trailing edge of A Division now, instead of in B Division where I normally hang out. Sounds impressive, but having played most of the A players before, I still have much to learn.
 

shutyertrap

Moderator
Staff member
Mar 14, 2012
7,334
0
I still haven't come across a RBION at any of the league nights I've been to, which saddens me. The AFM that was at the last league night of mine is notorious for being particularly finicky. I got a fantastic score somehow, but unfortunately was paired with three other players that also ran the table. So whereas if I had been in any of the other groupings I probably would have gotten a full 10 points, I instead only got 6. Gotta love league play!
 

smbhax

Active member
Apr 24, 2012
1,803
5
The only LED table I've seen so far has been a Wizard of Oz, and yeah those darn lights were too bright! Seems like shoehorning them into an old table designed for incandescents could be even worse. 8o
 

Sean DonCarlos

Moderator
Staff member
Mar 17, 2012
4,293
0
smbhax;bt297 said:
The only LED table I've seen so far has been a Wizard of Oz, and yeah those darn lights were too bright! Seems like shoehorning them into an old table designed for incandescents could be even worse. 8o
Some games are more suited for it than others. My Twilight Zone is all LED and looks perfectly at home with it, and the AC/DC Premium was of course designed to be (almost) all-LED. But I think something like Lord of the Rings wouldn't take the LED treatment well, unless the LEDs were very high-quality and very carefully chosen.

I've also seen a hybrid (half-LED/half-incandescent) FunHouse and a hybrid Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the LED portions were very tastefully done and really enhanced the game visually.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Members online

No members online now.
Top