What table do you think iis the most complicated (or confusing)?

[Richard B]

Of the ones I've played, I've yet to play a more complicated table than Ripley's. I still don't fully understand how it all works, despite having played it an uncountable number of times. Simpsons Pinball Party seems overwhelming at first, but it makes sense after you've played it a few times and have an idea on how everything works. Big Bang Bar could be a contender for the top spot, as I've no idea what I'm doing on it, though I think this is due to a lack of good instructions available.

 

[Chris Dunman]

Ripleys of all the tables on TPA. I too have no idea. I look at the leader board and just wonder how on earth these are managed....

Real tables, STTNG used to befuddle me... no idea why, just too much going on. Alcohol did not help

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Are we speaking of any table, or just TPA tables so far?

Transformers gets my vote for least intuitive, with AC/DC not far behind (although AC/DC at least makes sense once you've seen someone who knows what they're doing play it). In general, modern Sterns are most confusing..."shoot the flashing shot" is a lot more difficult to follow when half the damn table is flashing.

 

[Squid]

All I know is that I finally got to make sense out of Ripley's without losing a fortune in quarters.

I had a tough time feeling the vibe of a Super Mario table. That thing annoyed me to no end.

ST:TNG is a good candidate as well. Too much stuff to do

 

[Stormchild]

Ripley's isn't so bad. Check out the Pinball.org tutorial video for a good breakdown of which game events are worth aiming for (and more importantly, which ones aren't).

I haven't played that many Stern tables, but I've heard most of them actually follow a pretty similar ruleset, such that once you're familiar with one of them, you should have a pretty good idea what to do on any of them.

Twilight Zone is generally considered the most complex pinball table ever made. Check out Pat Lawlor's Wikipedia entry for some of his comments on the design of that table. In particular:

…From a commercial standpoint, we were out of control…nobody would be allowed to do something that complicated again; nor should they be.

 

[Stormchild]

In general, modern Sterns are most confusing..."shoot the flashing shot" is a lot more difficult to follow when half the damn table is flashing.

I agree with this, though I think the Pinball Arcade version of Ripley's could do a lot to address this. The playfield surface needs to be subdued to make it easier to see which of the inserts are lit (in the same way that the recent Medieval Madness update made the table much, much darker, making it much more obvious which inserts are lit). The flashing inserts are pretty easy to see, of course, but for those that aren't flashing, it's very difficult to tell whether they're lit (solid) or not.

 

[Jay]

The way I play Ripley's is to get all the continents explored. Seems pretty simple to me. There are lots of other opportunities for points (or distractions), but the continents seems to give the biggest payoff.

One table that boggles my mind is Creature From the Black Lagoon. I could never figure that one out. But I guess I'll get my chance later this month....

 

[dtown8532]

The way I play Ripley's is to get all the continents explored. Seems pretty simple to me. There are lots of other opportunities for points (or distractions), but the continents seems to give the biggest payoff.

One table that boggles my mind is Creature From the Black Lagoon. I could never figure that one out. But I guess I'll get my chance later this month....

Check this great tutorial out.

http://pinball.org/videos/tutorials/creature-from-the-black-lagoon/

 

[mmmagnetic]

I think I slowly get a grasp on RBION, and I'm really starting to enjoy it. I actually really love how much there is to discover, which fits the theme very well. I just got Frog Frenzy the other day and the DMD started doing some fake-crashing stuff when it started, which really caught me by surprise.

I love Lawlors tables in general, but I love them even more the weirder they are. For instance, as much as I enjoy Whirlwind and Funhouse, I'm starting to play Gofers and RBION more because figuring out what is going on is a big part of the fun for me.

I've read that RBION is a "more affordable Twilight Zone", which makes me anticipate the release of TZ even more! RBION really feels like a immense pinball quest, and given that both tables deal with the bizarre and supernatural it makes sense that the rules are complex, and often confusing and obtuse.

 

[Richard B]

I have to agree on SMB. It's not a very deep rule set, but it is extremely vague on what exactly you have to do. TZ isn't that hard - just keep shooting the slot machine and/or player piano to light door panels, and relight at the ramps. There's a lot of other features, but they're not hard to learn after Ripley.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I've read that RBION is a "more affordable Twilight Zone", which makes me anticipate the release of TZ even more! RBION really feels like a immense pinball quest, and given that both tables deal with the bizarre and supernatural it makes sense that the rules are complex, and often confusing and obtuse.

Twilight Zone is mechanically complex. Its ruleset is complicated but not particularly so, many modern Sterns are more elaborate, including RBION but most especially AC/DC, whose ruleset is so complex that Lyman wasn't able to finish programming it before the release! (The Simpsons Pinball Party and Lord of the Rings also are fine examples of ruleset complexity gone wild.)

Playing Twilight Zone for score essentially revolves around how well you can do the following:

• Shoot the piano and slot machine to collect door panels and advance toward Lost in the Zone.
• Shoot ramps to relight slot machine and piano, as well as light locks.
• Shoot locks to start multiball.
• Shoot the piano to collect jackpots, and the camera to relight them.
• If for some reason the Powerball is released, get it back into the gumball machine to start Powerball Mania.
• Get balls up onto the Powerfield during Powerball Mania and collect Mania jackpots (as well as accumulate the Powerball Mania end-of-ball bonus).

Everything else on the table - the bumpers, the Dead End / Town Square, the Spiral orbit, the Hitchhikers, the modes started from the door panels, etc. - can be more or less ignored if you want. (Unlike RBION, in TZ you just need to start modes to advance toward the wizard mode.) Of course some of the modes can be profitable: Fast Lock is my personal favorite, Clock Chaos is always fun if a tad dangerous, and Clock 10 Millions (from the camera) is quite lucrative. But you can do very well in TZ from just focusing on multiball, Powerball Mania, and Lost in the Zone.

 

[mmmagnetic]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the detailed answer

 

[mmmagnetic]

I agree with this, though I think the Pinball Arcade version of Ripley's could do a lot to address this. The playfield surface needs to be subdued to make it easier to see which of the inserts are lit (in the same way that the recent Medieval Madness update made the table much, much darker, making it much more obvious which inserts are lit). The flashing inserts are pretty easy to see, of course, but for those that aren't flashing, it's very difficult to tell whether they're lit (solid) or not.

Assuming you've only played the iOS version, this is one of my main gripes with the table on that port. I find it almost impossible to tell what inserts are lit and which are not, even on the big 3x3 grid. On the console version it is much easier to see, which in turn helped me a lot to get a hang of the game mechanics.

Other tables are much better in this regard on the iOS version, though the additional contrast on the tables helps in general. I hope the post processing works better in future versions, or that they simply tone down the graphically busy playfield art in RBION.