Slam23
Active member
- Jul 21, 2012
- 1,279
- 2
Hi folks,
I thought Big Frank could use some love. At first I really didn't like the table, but after spending some time with it, I came to appreciate it more. It has no real depth but has a nice variety of modes and shots. There is also some strategy involved if you want to get really high scores. Disclaimer: I'm currently at 22B and change, that's a top 10 score at the moment I think.
General strategy
Player's choice is my main course, shooting an unlit right gap to get there. I often hit the target at the upper left flipper from the right, to get the ball safely on the left flipper. Post-passing can be done actually very easy, but I find the results a bit more unpredictable. Player's choice when selecting right gives you MB, and lights EB hurry-up amongst others. Passing up "light double" or "advance two innings" for two grand slam letters may be worth it, otherwise select always right. I stink at MB, often only getting the single jackpot, but in a longer game that might easily be upward of 250M (in my last game I had it up to 440M and there was no indication that it was going to max out soon). The trouble is hitting the homerun hole from controlled stationary position. I hit that hole more often with running balls but that's more risky offcourse. MB even helps advancing the Jackpot at the left orbit. The hurry-up EB's are key to prolong your game and they are the only repeatable EB as far as I know. There's enough time to stop the ball and aim at the left orbit or post transfer to the left flipper if the right orbit is lit. Orbit shots are not that hard after some practice. Try to catch the ball at the return for immediate control. As far as I've seen the game never stops giving out EB hurry-up. It seems player's choice awards are handed out in a kind of order, but there have been variances to what I thought was the order, so it may be a bit more random or dependant on other variables like number of EB's collected. With some patience you can build up a nice cushion of EB's. In my best game I had 6 EB's on ball one at some moment.
If you are really good at left orbits, it may be a viable strategy to keep shooting it until you lit the 1B shot. For me though, I'm not good enough at one-timing the shot and not quick enough to get control in between shots. I think I got to 1B twice in this manner in quite a few games.
To mode or not
In between player's choices I will play some modes, but I'll be very careful and often use the second ball as insurance. Useful modes are Stealing Bases the first time because of the EB you can get after 3 stolen bases. Same goes for Night Game if you still have to score innings to max out the super Jackpot at 900M. Hitting the "stretch 7" inning mode early is a bit wasteful though, you'll want to have the Jackpot at a nice level already, especially because you'll only play this mode once per game. World Series mode is good scoring with a Super Jackpot at the end and 30M shots in between. It reminds me of "Destroy the Ring" in LOTR. Completing All Stars is also nice scoring with 450M at maxing for 9 players. The rest is not worth the risk in my opinion and may need a forced drain of the second ball or time-out to continue.
It's in the cards
Collecting cards can be huge, especially when you can hit precisely 16. If you trade those, you can choose to double your score. I'm not sure I actually like these kind of "features", because it doesn't feel like I worked for those points. It also narrows the focus too much on that one time you can double, see for example Tee'd Off or even the ramp shot on POTO. Anyway, I haven't been able to ascertain if this card trade option to double is possible multiple times during one game, but I would guess not. The rules state that you can collect EB once from the cards (10-12), if you collect the same number again it will give MB instead, so I would assume it's the same for the doubler. Getting it later is better offcourse with doubling, but it requires smart timing to take advantage. The Cards mode is ideal for this purpose, it will tell you the number you have after each shot, alternatively you can wait for the status report. Hitting various things on the table can produce cards also, so be careful of the total. I'm curious if trading a higher number of cards than 16 precludes getting the doubler afterwards. Be on the look-out for miscellaneous Bullpen awards, that can give 3, 5 or even 10 cards. Hit both white targets at the scoop and at the upper left flipper to active "trade cards" at the mode hole.
Loose ends
- I'm still looking for a dependable way to get the ball to the bumpers for a Bullpen award. Nudging helps a bit but can be surprisingly ineffective in that area. On the other hand, if it gets there (especially high up), it never leaves the area.
- the table can lose track of balls, they seem to get "stuck" somewhere, especially in the mode hole. Nudging might help but often does not. Fortunately this has never lead to a gamebreaking situation in my games. Ball search will often produce at least one of the balls, and that may even lead to an advantage, you then get to play an MB mode with just one ball. I had one instance in which the left orbit timer stopped! I was up to 4 loops each worth 1B when I discovered that, and promptly messed up offcourse.... Anyway, this is potentially a bit of an exploit. Call assistant also works, just be careful that you don't get stuck on the plunger camera just when the table itself produces a ball after a prolonged search because your flippers won't work. In the course of a long game the problem corrected itself by the way.
- There may be some rollover score issues. In my best game I was sure that I doubled my 14B score, and played on to what I thought was 32B. The game awarded me a 22B game instead. I'm not sure where this went wrong.
I thought Big Frank could use some love. At first I really didn't like the table, but after spending some time with it, I came to appreciate it more. It has no real depth but has a nice variety of modes and shots. There is also some strategy involved if you want to get really high scores. Disclaimer: I'm currently at 22B and change, that's a top 10 score at the moment I think.
General strategy
Player's choice is my main course, shooting an unlit right gap to get there. I often hit the target at the upper left flipper from the right, to get the ball safely on the left flipper. Post-passing can be done actually very easy, but I find the results a bit more unpredictable. Player's choice when selecting right gives you MB, and lights EB hurry-up amongst others. Passing up "light double" or "advance two innings" for two grand slam letters may be worth it, otherwise select always right. I stink at MB, often only getting the single jackpot, but in a longer game that might easily be upward of 250M (in my last game I had it up to 440M and there was no indication that it was going to max out soon). The trouble is hitting the homerun hole from controlled stationary position. I hit that hole more often with running balls but that's more risky offcourse. MB even helps advancing the Jackpot at the left orbit. The hurry-up EB's are key to prolong your game and they are the only repeatable EB as far as I know. There's enough time to stop the ball and aim at the left orbit or post transfer to the left flipper if the right orbit is lit. Orbit shots are not that hard after some practice. Try to catch the ball at the return for immediate control. As far as I've seen the game never stops giving out EB hurry-up. It seems player's choice awards are handed out in a kind of order, but there have been variances to what I thought was the order, so it may be a bit more random or dependant on other variables like number of EB's collected. With some patience you can build up a nice cushion of EB's. In my best game I had 6 EB's on ball one at some moment.
If you are really good at left orbits, it may be a viable strategy to keep shooting it until you lit the 1B shot. For me though, I'm not good enough at one-timing the shot and not quick enough to get control in between shots. I think I got to 1B twice in this manner in quite a few games.
To mode or not
In between player's choices I will play some modes, but I'll be very careful and often use the second ball as insurance. Useful modes are Stealing Bases the first time because of the EB you can get after 3 stolen bases. Same goes for Night Game if you still have to score innings to max out the super Jackpot at 900M. Hitting the "stretch 7" inning mode early is a bit wasteful though, you'll want to have the Jackpot at a nice level already, especially because you'll only play this mode once per game. World Series mode is good scoring with a Super Jackpot at the end and 30M shots in between. It reminds me of "Destroy the Ring" in LOTR. Completing All Stars is also nice scoring with 450M at maxing for 9 players. The rest is not worth the risk in my opinion and may need a forced drain of the second ball or time-out to continue.
It's in the cards
Collecting cards can be huge, especially when you can hit precisely 16. If you trade those, you can choose to double your score. I'm not sure I actually like these kind of "features", because it doesn't feel like I worked for those points. It also narrows the focus too much on that one time you can double, see for example Tee'd Off or even the ramp shot on POTO. Anyway, I haven't been able to ascertain if this card trade option to double is possible multiple times during one game, but I would guess not. The rules state that you can collect EB once from the cards (10-12), if you collect the same number again it will give MB instead, so I would assume it's the same for the doubler. Getting it later is better offcourse with doubling, but it requires smart timing to take advantage. The Cards mode is ideal for this purpose, it will tell you the number you have after each shot, alternatively you can wait for the status report. Hitting various things on the table can produce cards also, so be careful of the total. I'm curious if trading a higher number of cards than 16 precludes getting the doubler afterwards. Be on the look-out for miscellaneous Bullpen awards, that can give 3, 5 or even 10 cards. Hit both white targets at the scoop and at the upper left flipper to active "trade cards" at the mode hole.
Loose ends
- I'm still looking for a dependable way to get the ball to the bumpers for a Bullpen award. Nudging helps a bit but can be surprisingly ineffective in that area. On the other hand, if it gets there (especially high up), it never leaves the area.
- the table can lose track of balls, they seem to get "stuck" somewhere, especially in the mode hole. Nudging might help but often does not. Fortunately this has never lead to a gamebreaking situation in my games. Ball search will often produce at least one of the balls, and that may even lead to an advantage, you then get to play an MB mode with just one ball. I had one instance in which the left orbit timer stopped! I was up to 4 loops each worth 1B when I discovered that, and promptly messed up offcourse.... Anyway, this is potentially a bit of an exploit. Call assistant also works, just be careful that you don't get stuck on the plunger camera just when the table itself produces a ball after a prolonged search because your flippers won't work. In the course of a long game the problem corrected itself by the way.
- There may be some rollover score issues. In my best game I was sure that I doubled my 14B score, and played on to what I thought was 32B. The game awarded me a 22B game instead. I'm not sure where this went wrong.
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