What table changed your mind?

[Fungi]

In the TPA Barcade podcast #5, an interesting topic was brought up.

What table changed your mind after playing it? For better or worse.

Along with what was said in the podcast, I too would have to say Champion Pub. I thought that game was so much fun in the arcade, but playing the TPA version has me really disliking it. Too many "direct to outlane" traps.

Centaur, on the otherhand, is the opposite. Never a fan of it in the arcade, love it on TPA.

 

[Espy]

RBION took me a LONG time to warm up to. I spent ages getting little more than 10M scores, then one day it clicked and I was getting huge scores. Now it's one of the tables I go back to a lot.

 

[Squid]

RBION took me a LONG time to warm up to. I spent ages getting little more than 10M scores, then one day it clicked and I was getting huge scores. Now it's one of the tables I go back to a lot.

Ditto.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Ditto.

Understatement of the century!

 

[Bowflex]

When I was younger I liked class of 1812 but now it just seems mediocre. Except the chickens. Those are awesome. Champion pub is also a downer but hopefully that will improve.

I can't say Rbion since I never really saw it at an arcade before here. I think Star Trek for me. It was always frustratingly difficult, especially the drains. Tpa gives me more time to really get the feel for it (despite all the drains)

 

[nstalkie]

So I guess it's about tables which you didn't like before, yet like now ? (and the other way around). Not tables that made you change your mind about TPA overall ?

Creature from the Black Lagoon.
I played it in arcade quite a bit. I only bought tables I had played before on TPA at first (now I buy them all, wish I had bought season packs, cause it's expensive ). This one didn't get too much play from me though. I didn't think it was that interesting and it seemed like a grind to play (shoot left ramp until max -> center lane to collect -> rince -> repeat). I don't know if I knew the full ruleset back when I played it in the arcade days (I think I did not, atleast not how to get the jackpot / super jackpot). Just bought it for the nostalgia factor.

Then PS3 tournament comes around and the table was one of them. My previous highscore was something like 400mil. I played a grind of a game and got 2bill. When mentioning it on the forums here, I also mentioned I never got a super jackpot ever, to which someone said: "you would get much higher scores then if you learn to play the multiball better".

So after the tournament, I decided to spend some more time with this table to really learn the snackbar shot (every time I went for it, I drained my ball ... I remember in the arcade it was the same thing). I learned how to properly make the shot and it really made me fall in love with the table as I could now go for that super jackpot.
Since then I have achieved a roll-over on that table (> 10bill.). (which doesn't get registered properly on the local leaderboard unfortunately).

Can't say I really had tables that I loved, but after TPA didn't like anymore. My favourite IRL table of all time is twilight zone and I do think the game is a big grind and too easy on TPA. But it still doesn't really break my enjoyment of it. I bought TPA because I saw that this table was in there, too bad my other favourite IRL tables that are still missing, have a low chance of getting in (Indiana Jones, Addam's family, Jurassic Park, Lethal Weapon 3). (Arcade times are long gone here ... pinballs disappeared in my city since a long time).

 

[Man-Machine]

Class of 1812 was a huge disappointment after all the hype. Also Haunted House wasn't as good as I remembered from the arcades.

 

[Crawley]

RBION for sure - like others didn't like anything about it at first. Then read the rules and played a few times again. Then it clicked and think its one of the best tables.

Black Hole - Did not like this at first since I pretty much dislike multi-platform tables. But at some point on trying to get the Wizard goals I really started enjoy playing it.

T2 - I loved this in the arcades, and put $100 towards the Kickstater so I could play it again, but got tired of it pretty quickly.

Dr Dude - Terrible theme, and hate the 80's call outs. But after playing it a bit more I've warmed up to it, got used to the music/sounds, and its not a bad table after all.

BK2K - Did not care for the original Black Knight, it has the multi-platform thing going on, so wasn't too sure I would like BK2K. But turns out the changes that were made to the table were for the better. Not sure how I will like it long term as it seems to be mainly a single shot game, but I'm having fun with it at the moment.

 

[Bowflex]

Class of 1812 was a huge disappointment after all the hype. Also Haunted House wasn't as good as I remembered from the arcades.

I think part of it for me was the humor. When I was a kid, fart jokes and stuff were fine but now, 25 years later they just seem obnoxious. The gameplay is not bad but nothing special. Good game for beginners although multiball is way too easily achieved.

 

[heddhunter]

Class of 1812 was a huge disappointment after all the hype. Also Haunted House wasn't as good as I remembered from the arcades.

Haunted House really suffers from being reduced to a small screen. The actual machine is HUGE.

 

[danivempire]

I played a few times to ripley in an arcade recently.
But the machine was on a terrible angle.
I don't really know how to explain in it english.
On a table you have a level with a little bubble in it you know?
Well on that one the bubble couldn't be more in bottom
Result? The ball usually goes straight in the drain...
Now with tpa I learned to be friend again with this table and now i like it ^^

 

[Espy]

I think part of it for me was the humor. When I was a kid, fart jokes and stuff were fine but now, 25 years later they just seem obnoxious. The gameplay is not bad but nothing special. Good game for beginners although multiball is way too easily achieved.

My issue is that it doesn't really do anything special. It has all the basic features but nothing grabs you.

 

[Bowflex]

My issue is that it doesn't really do anything special. It has all the basic features but nothing grabs you.

Yeah, that too!

 

[kinggo]

El Dorado..... I really tried to give it a chance, even managed to acomplish goals just to realize that wizard goals are basically the same but x3 and that there's really nothing going on on that table. Drop targets, drop targets, drop targets......... also, it sucks visually (at least on my tab), has incredibly annoying sound effects, most porns have better music and totally ridiculous scoring scheme, bonus is usually 10x bigger than the score.
For a SS machine from 1984 it sucks all the way, Space Shuttle is also from 1984 and looks and plays like 10 years younger machine. Gottlieb was really good with EMs but they somehow overslept the the begining of SS era and never managed to catch up with WMS

 

[Bowflex]

El Dorado..... I really tried to give it a chance, even managed to acomplish goals just to realize that wizard goals are basically the same but x3 and that there's really nothing going on on that table. Drop targets, drop targets, drop targets......... also, it sucks visually (at least on my tab), has incredibly annoying sound effects, most porns have better music and totally ridiculous scoring scheme, bonus is usually 10x bigger than the score.
For a SS machine from 1984 it sucks all the way, SS is also from 1984 and looks and plays like 10 years younger machine. Gottlieb was really good with EMs but they somehow overslept the the begining of SS era and never managed to catch up with WMS

Hey what's wrong with porn music? I like that funky guitar playing! My dream job was, at one time, to create music for pornos. Probably still is actually.

 

[kinggo]

nothing, usually I don't even notice it
And BTW, is there any list for those shortcuts you people use here? SS is solid state and space shuttle, not scared stiff.

 

[vikingerik]

Teed Off brought me around to liking it quite a bit. Yeah, the voice quotes are annoying. But the pinballing is actually pretty good, with some novel layout and flow, and surprisingly deep rules. The scoring looks horribly unbalanced, but then actually converges back to balance at the high end. Skins doubling, Anything Goes multiball, and Pitch-n-Putt each score in the range of 6 to 9 billion when done correctly, and there's a lot of strategy in working to and through each.

Haunted House went the other direction. The more I play it on TPA, the more I hate it. Hate the weird flipper layout, the narrow shots, and that there just isn't anything to do with no multiball or other escalation like Black Hole's scoring multiplier. This table is just a step backwards from Black Hole in every way.

 

[Bowflex]

Teed Off brought me around to liking it quite a bit. Yeah, the voice quotes are annoying. But the pinballing is actually pretty good, with some novel layout and flow, and surprisingly deep rules. The scoring looks horribly unbalanced, but then actually converges back to balance at the high end. Skins doubling, Anything Goes multiball, and Pitch-n-Putt each score in the range of 6 to 9 billion when done correctly, and there's a lot of strategy in working to and through each.

Haunted House went the other direction. The more I play it on TPA, the more I hate it. Hate the weird flipper layout, the narrow shots, and that there just isn't anything to do with no multiball or other escalation like Black Hole's scoring multiplier. This table is just a step backwards from Black Hole in every way.

There is a modified version of Haunted House with multiball. I played it once and it is crazy. Got to watch someone managing multiball on all three levels simultaneously and it was one of the most insane things I've ever seen.

 

[Tabe]

I played a few times to ripley in an arcade recently.
But the machine was on a terrible angle.
I don't really know how to explain in it english.
On a table you have a level with a little bubble in it you know?
Well on that one the bubble couldn't be more in bottom
Result? The ball usually goes straight in the drain...
Now with tpa I learned to be friend again with this table and now i like it ^^

You explained it perfectly!

 

[Tabe]

I don't know that TPA has changed my mind on any tables from real life as very few of the tables in the game have I actually played in real life. The one that I most remember - Funhouse - that's in TPA, my opinion hasn't changed one iota.

I see lots of people mentioning RBION. I, too, am stuck in the "10 million or so" club on it. Hate the table and don't know that I'll ever be able to stand playing it enough to get my mind changed on it. I know that it clicks for people eventually but...I'm not sure I can take the journey getting there.