Top 5-10 Pinballs every made - Pro talk

[Crooker]

In MM you could somewhat equate castle multiball with strobe multiball in AFM. Except that castle multiball is not a random reward given but activated and can be repeated.
I mean this in the way that castle multiball gives an extra ball and that maybe some don't realize that and also how high scoring it can be also.

 

[jonesjb]

Pet3r, isn't the issue similar to STTNG with the artifacts? If I only get 2 or 3 artifacts, Vs 8, I'm not maximizing my score and my jackpots are 1/3 of what they could have been. At least with WH20, you generally have a few shots at multiballs in one game... Which is more rare in STTNG.

 

[invitro]

At least with WH20, you generally have a few shots at multiballs in one game... Which is more rare in STTNG.

On TPA, multiballs are many times more frequent on STTNG than on WWater... MB's get much harder to get in WWater, not any harder in STTNG.

From memory, they were about the same on real machines, about three on each in a good game for me. But I was pretty good at WWater (high score around 3.1B) but not STTNG.

 

[Crooker]

On TPA, multiballs are many times more frequent on STTNG than on WWater... MB's get much harder to get in WWater, not any harder in STTNG.

From memory, they were about the same on real machines, about three on each in a good game for me. But I was pretty good at WWater (high score around 3.1B) but not STTNG.

This is very true. Lighting the multiball locks after the second time is pretty difficult as it will time out after the second hit on the lite standup. You have about 5 seconds to hit the lock standup or you have to start over again.
In STTNG if you can grab a bunch of artifacts thru the video mode you can then choose not to play some of the harder missions. Grabbing artifacts from the easier ones such as rescue, asteroid and time warp? It is much easier then to cycle back around for final frontier a bunch of times.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

The trouble with STTNG is, you can ignore Final Frontier and missions entirely.

My best game is a "mere" 72B, and do you know what finally killed me? Deciding to go for that last mission to complete my first Final Frontier.

 

[Crooker]

The trouble with STTNG is, you can ignore Final Frontier and missions entirely.

My best game is a "mere" 72B, and do you know what finally killed me? Deciding to go for that last mission to complete my first Final Frontier.

Yeah if you just wanted to play Borg multi ball you could put up a damn good score by only doing that. I'm of coarse assuming that's how you got that score.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Yeah if you just wanted to play Borg multi ball you could put up a damn good score by only doing that. I'm of coarse assuming that's how you got that score.

Correct. Doesn't make for very interesting or varied gameplay, mind.

Moving along - how about Fish Tales? I think anyone who played in the recent tournament will agree, it's a great tournament table that really sorts out who's good and who's not. Monster Fish maybe is the safest way to score in a sure-but-steady way - but FT really rewards top-quality play with its Super Jackpots.

 

[Crooker]

I really like FT. Straight up game. Not a game with deep rules but rewards quality shots. Really fun in a tourney when you're under the gun in time limitation. Multiball is the way to score big but very deadly trying to shoot that Superjackpot captive ball.

 

[PET3R]

The trouble with STTNG is, you can ignore Final Frontier and missions entirely.

My best game is a "mere" 72B, and do you know what finally killed me? Deciding to go for that last mission to complete my first Final Frontier.

We are talking about the tables as they are in real life, not in TPA and absolutely not as they are on PC or consoles where you can have never ending games.
I have been told that borg multiball is not an issue in real life and the only way to beat your high score is mainly through Final Frontier.

 

[Crooker]

Ok. Guess I'm out of this discussion as I've only had the opportunity to play 3 or 4 of TPA's tables in real life.

 

[PET3R]

Pet3r, isn't the issue similar to STTNG with the artifacts? If I only get 2 or 3 artifacts, Vs 8, I'm not maximizing my score and my jackpots are 1/3 of what they could have been. At least with WH20, you generally have a few shots at multiballs in one game... Which is more rare in STTNG.

Not at all. First of all, modes and artefacts is the main key of the game and that is where you spending 99% of your game, knowing that if you play this well you will beat your high score. In WW the rafts are supposed to be the main key, but they are not, the 3 shots for triple jackpot is the main key to high scores. In STTNG you have around 10 artifacts, if you miss one or two you loosing only about 20% from the Final Frontier. In WW 2 shots costs you 2/3 of the mutliball scoring. In STTNG you have usually 30 seconds to make 3-4 successful shots to collect artefact. So even if you miss few times, you still have chance to make it. In WW it is one try. You miss those shots, you are screwed. It takes you around 5-15 minutes in STTNG to collect those artefacts, so if your Final Frontier is low scoring, it means you did poorly during whole this period of time. I can play WW for 15 minutes really well, shooting all the rafts, but only the 3 seconds - 3 shots of that game going to decide whether my multiball is going to have single, double or triple jackpots. And we are not talking about any multiball as the triple jackpot can be easily worth more than anything else in the game.

 

[PET3R]

Ok. Guess I'm out of this discussion as I've only had the opportunity to play 3 or 4 of TPA's tables in real life.

Please don't quit the discussion, you can still comment on rules if you do know the tables very well, but as I said before, we have to be very careful when commenting on the scoring as many times the ways of getting high score in TPA differ from those in real life.

 

[soundwave106]

We are talking about the tables as they are in real life, not in TPA and absolutely not as they are on PC or consoles where you can have never ending games.
I have been told that borg multiball is not an issue in real life and the only way to beat your high score is mainly through Final Frontier.

Concentrating on spinner / warp factor shots is another way to get very high scores. To be honest, from what I understand, the best high scores come from a combination of things including a good Borg multiball (particularly if you make all your initial jackpot shots), a good Final Frontier, and a good Warp Factor series. There's more than one way to score big on ST:TNG.

On the real table, the warp factor shots are quite a bit harder, especially if the playfield hasn't been maintained and the upper right flipper is weak. In that case, absolutely, Final Frontier might be the "easy" way to a big score in that case, not that it's very "easy" to get TBH.

 

[jonesjb]

Okay Pet3r, I concede. You raise some good points. I just really really like WH2O, but yes you are probably right.


So here are my nominations for top 5. If I can't have WH2O and since this is regarding real tables, I'm putting Shadow in.

Twilight Zone
Attack From Mars
STTNG
Shadow
Monster Bash

 

[PET3R]

Concentrating on spinner / warp factor shots is another way to get very high scores. To be honest, from what I understand, the best high scores come from a combination of things including a good Borg multiball (particularly if you make all your initial jackpot shots), a good Final Frontier, and a good Warp Factor series. There's more than one way to score big on ST:TNG.

If using all of the features of the table is the way to High Score, then STTNG is really strong and solid table.

 

[PET3R]

Okay Pet3r, I concede. You raise some good points. I just really really like WH2O, but yes you are probably right.


So here are my nominations for top 5. If I can't have WH2O and since this is regarding real tables, I'm putting Shadow in.

Twilight Zone
Attack From Mars
STTNG
Shadow
Monster Bash

Thank you for agreeing with me. I love WW and in terms of fun it belongs to my top 5, but this is not what our rating is based on. I have lot of fun playing High Roller as it gives amazing feeling of being in the casino, but because of lot of randomness involved this table can't enter our top 10.

I am glad you brought Shadow into our ratings because that table really caught my attention and I hope some others will bring tables like Indiana Jones, Metallica AC/DC, LOTR and others into discussion. Unfortunately I can't give any comments on this table as I have not played it properly (VP only where it boots me out after 5 minutes of play), but this should not stop this table from being discussed here.

Can you please write a little review about Shadow why do you feel it should be in the top 5, so others like me can understand better what makes this table so good.
You can write it in the similar way as I did STTNG a-z, listing all things that makes this table great and unique from the other tables. All the tables have some weaknesses and therefore I would like to ask you to mention those as well so they can be discussed more.

First 2 questions I have about this table: 1) Why wouldn't I want to time out the modes to reach quicker the wizard mode ? 2) The mini playfield. Seems like you have to hit all the targets there. Doesn't it take too much attention and importance from the main playfield. My understanding is that you can't reach wizard mode if you don't hit all these targets in the mini playfield, as well as you can't finish the wizard mode without hitting all those targets. With 3 or more balls, it seems bit impossible to really control that mini playfield therefore resulting in a luck driven completion of the wizard mode.

 

[jonesjb]

Will do. In the meantime, there is probably a way we can calculate the value of modes. If we add up the value of playing all modes, and timing them out, then subtract that from the value of completing all modes and doing very well (let's say 10 shots on an ongoing mode). You should know how important the modes are. Then we can go one step further and divide this by the wizard mode value (or the tables highest scoring feature) to get the overall balance of the scoring.

 

[jonesjb]

So what's the final consensus on the top 5?

 

[mpad]

Hahaha. Good one.

 

[PET3R]

So what's the final consensus on the top 5?

It will take a while to reach that point, since there are still lot of tables we have not even discussed yet (LOTR, Indiana Jones, Metallica, AC/DC, Shadow...)
If this top 5 is to be done properly then I am afraid to disappoint you that we might not find this out any time soon.

For now I think we could agree that AFM and STTNG will very likely stay in top 5.
Other strong contenders are: TZ, MB, TAF, Shadow
Tables that need to be discussed more: MM, CV, RBION, CC
Tables that have not been discussed yet: LOTR, Indiana Jones, Metallica, AC/DC