Twilight Zone and power ball

[gonzo]

Hi everybody,

I was wondering if there might be a possibility not to reset the Twilight Zone table each time you launch it? Let me explain: the powerball in the gumball machine always gets back to the same place in the stack each time I launch the table. Not that it's boring or anything but in my opinion that's a departure from the way the real thing works. Each time I play the table this little fact reminds me that although TPA is great and extremely accurate it's only a piece of software whith some shortcomings. Changing the TZ table behaviour would send me right back in the arms of the "it's exactly like the real thing" illusion.

 

[netizen]

play with the operator menu turned on

 

[gonzo]

Well hello netizen, what would that change exactly? Turning the operator menu on allows me to change the ''hardware'' settings, I don't see how it could make TPA behave like the real thing?

 

[netizen]

playing with the operators menu on also saves all the data gathered per game. So the powerball position will be remembered, the auto percentages will adjust to your game play, progressive jackpots will carry over game to game and save, etc.

All in addition to the hardware adjusted you can make.

But wait, if you act now ...

 

[gonzo]

Err... Should I wait or act now? You're making me sooo dizzy. Just kidding. Well I tried your trick, sadly it didn't work. It might save a lot of datas and other kinds of stuff but not the position of the power ball in the stack. Regarding the auto percentages I thought it was the way the pinball rom worked by default as for example the score level that triggers the replay actually already adjusted itself by the way the table was played, and that without setting the operator menu "on". I thought jackpot already carried over too but didn't pay attention to this fact. All that might just work for a game session, changing the table or turning TPA off might reset it if the operator menu is set to "off", don't know right now but I'll look into it. If that's the case I just don't get the logic behind it. Maybe and hopefully someone from Farsight might enlight us about all that? Thanks for your input anyway.

 

[netizen]

The ROM always starts from a known state so the game will always start from a pre-set position eg: the power ball will always be at the top.

When you go into the pro menu an turn the operators menu ON, press back and start the game and play like that all the ROM data will be saved, and the game will start from where you exited.

 

[gonzo]

I thought: this guy speaks with a lot of assurance regarding this operator menu stuff, so he might actually be right in some way. I tested setting the operator menu to on, starting a game, quitting right in the middle of it and coming back. Do you know what strange mysterious voodoo thing happened? Strictly nothing. The game started the same way it always starts: ball in the plunger, score being zero. In other word: the game didn't start from where I exited at all... Which is pretty logic and was absolutely expected but as you express yourself with a lot of confidence I thought I might give it a try. It turns out all your statements so far are wrong or get defeated by experience, all except one.

For example the position of the powerball ain't managed by the rom that only handles the game logic and the display. In my mind the powerball position is managed by the piece of code that handles the physics (in this case physics means the ball dynamic and position), and I'm pretty sure I'm damn right about that. The rom, according to Farsight, is 100% the same as the real thing and it's a fact the real thing doesn't always start on a pre-set state. The designers had to implement a tricky piece of software so the pinball could track the powerball position and know when it was in use. Maybe Farsight had troubles with that? Don't think so as visual pinball manages it pretty well. I think they took an easy shortcut that kills a little of this ''as real experience'' they like to brag about. Obviously you're right on the fact that this position is preset and never changes. But that I was already aware of, that's why I created this thread...

What I've witnessed so far is: setting the operator menu on only activates the entire logic of the rom. That's why in this scenario the rom launches the "first power on" tests which are bypassed when the operator menu is off. This observation is consistent with the fact that setting the OM on allows you to access the "hardware" settings. And that's the only difference between the menu on or off I've witnessed.

Setting the OM to on doesn't seem to save any "rom datas". Rom is an acronym that stands for Read Only Memory, the fact that rom can only be read means that the datas it contains are saved and nothing else can't get saved into it. That's what a rom chip does and that's how it works. Rom were used to store the software in the real things (might still be used with the stern pinball, don't know). So saving ''rom datas'' is a pure non sense. It's already well saved. Variables manipulated by the software, on the other hand, are not rom based by nature but I expect a 2013 android app to manage those extremely well, which is indeed the fact.

Thinking that setting the OM on allows the variables as percentages and all those kind of stuff to be saved seems absolutely wrong, at least in my mind. Who could believe Farsight hid this function in such a cryptic way? Those variables might be saved by the app core or not, frankly, I don't know and anyway this issue isn't the subject of this thread. Ironically the operator menu status isn't even saved by the app... Leave the table and it automatically is set to off when you come back. So, knowing all that and if I follow your logic: setting the OM menu on saves "rom datas" that otherwise wouldn't be saved, despite the fact that there's no need to save anything if you keep playing the table on and on without quiting (the program is what it is but I guess it's pretty good at remembering those "rom datas") and when you leave the table, woooosh all those saved "rom datas" are erased. I just don't get it.

So I'm deeply sorry if you think I'm rude but the only true thing you said I already knew, everything else was absolutely not useful as you acknowledged it in your last message when you finally recognized the powerball position is preset at each fresh start. I'm not a patient guy I guess. Have a nice day netizen.

EDIT: this is a shameful way of concluding a message, so I present my deepest apologies to netizen that really tried to help me the best he could, but I only realised that way too late. The full message was in fact heavily edited along the day from unbearably shameful to just really shameful as I slowly regained some senses, the least I can do is I recognize it.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

All I can say is that I've played about 500 games of TZ Pro and the Powerball's location has been faithfully maintained every time. You do have to go in and turn Pro mode on each time you come in from the table select screen.

 

[gonzo]

The way I see it it might be possible this behaviour was present in previous releases of TPA but changed with one of the last version, and no one that used this trick is aware of that. I'm 99% sure that's the case. Fact is I tried netizen's trick a number of times with 1.17.0 and it never worked. There might as well be a misunderstanding: what I want is the powerball to keep the place it occupied the last time I played, even after playing another table or quiting TPA. I thought my first message was clear enough, but I start to wonder. As english isn't my native language it's entirely possible I was misinterpreted. If it's the case I'm deeply sorry, this one is on me.

I just tried this: loaded the gumball so the powerball was on the second place. Then I played till the last ball drained, I started a new game and the powerball remained where it was previously: second place. This is what I just did right now and the operator mode wasn't even on. This behaviour I expected, it's logic. Could someone confirm it works the same way on his/her device?

I turned the operator mode on, played, loaded the gumball, ended with the last ball draining, quit TPA and re launched it and powerball was on first place. Also tried this variant: operator mode on, loaded gumball blah blah blah, played another table, played TZ again and powerball was back on first place.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I turned the operator mode on, played, loaded the gumball, ended with the last ball draining, quit TPA and re launched it and powerball was on first place. Also tried this variant: operator mode on, loaded gumball blah blah blah, played another table, played TZ again and powerball was back on first place.

You're not turning the operator mode back on when you re-enter TZ. It turns itself off every time you exit the table.

Try entering TZ, turning the operator mode on, load the gumball machine, end game normally, exit, re-enter TZ, turn the operator mode on again, play again and see where the Powerball is.

 

[gonzo]

You're right Sean DonCarlos at no time did I turn the operator mode back on when I went from the table menu to the "choose the table menu". Just tried it and indeed it works, this way the powerball position is saved from game to game when the table is left. Thinking a little bit more about it I guess having a virtual table that works as the real one should is Farsight's idea of premium... Still they could communicate about this a bit more so us stinky cheese don't behave poorly. The fact that the powerball position is kept from successive games kind of tricked me I guess. I must admit I was far from being convinced of netizen knowledge from the start, it didn't improve and my skepticism didn't help establishing an efficient communication between the both of us, to say the least. That is 100% on me too, so please netizen accept my deepest apologies regarding my awful reaction. Thanks for your enlightment Sean DonCarlos.