Zen Pinball - Star Wars

[Sinistar]

Nerd!

damn straight , I was wearing pants that came up to my ankles and wearing my belt too tight before it was a fashion. (still do)

 

[shutyertrap]

And dare I say a fully functioning operator menu in each purchased table. And a great leader board and working friends list.

It is precisely this that I want FarSight to just wholesale copy! I don't play Zen that often, but when I do I get angry that this stuff if so beyond anything that is in TPA.

 

[SilverBalls]

go to the fx menu and turn them off then

I know that- just what is your problem? I just commented that is good to see a video with them turned off, because in just about every other video they are on.

 

[Sinistar]

Oh , he thought you didn't know how to use options. He wasn't trying to offend you my friend. Hell I didn't know the color DMD option was in the game until 2 days ago.

 

[Butterkins]

It is precisely this that I want FarSight to just wholesale copy! I don't play Zen that often, but when I do I get angry that this stuff if so beyond anything that is in TPA.

Yes, and no.

The DMD in TPA looks far superior to Zen's efforts.

Zen Pinball's DMD doesn't even look like a DMD. It looks like a 2 bit image made of points, rather than cells, with no plasma glow, and bad colours.

 

[shutyertrap]

Yes, and no.

The DMD in TPA looks far superior to Zen's efforts.

Zen Pinball's DMD doesn't even look like a DMD. It looks like a 2 bit image made of points, rather than cells, with no plasma glow, and bad colours.

But I wasn't talking about the DMD!

Talking operators menu, leaderboards, friends list.

 

[Richard B]

Oh , he thought you didn't know how to use options. He wasn't trying to offend you my friend. Hell I didn't know the color DMD option was in the game until 2 days ago.

How do you access the DMD options? It's not under operator's menus.

 

[netizen]

How do you access the DMD options? It's not under operator's menus.

One Final Note: Some features/options will vary from table to table. For example, Civil War doesn't allow you to change the color of the DMD, since it already changes color depending on the side you have chosen and/or the event (the Standford Multiball) that is going on.

https://forum.zenstudios.com/showth...-Menu-Navigation-Guide&highlight=change+color

 

[Sinistar]

How do you access the DMD options? It's not under operator's menus.

Utilities/ extra utilities /dot matrix color default 0 use selection to choose 8 colors

 

[Butterkins]

Gotta say: I'm seriously impressed by the TESB table.

It oozes quality, and considered design. There are many multiball modes, and most (all?) are stackable.

It's also a decent challenge. Zen have really stepped up their game for this one. Anyone writing off these tables because of past Zen efforts, is doing themselves a huge disservice. This is quality pinball.

Haven't played the other two tables much yet. But Yoda does annoy the hell out of me on Clone Wars, so I may give that one a miss.

 

[Pinballfan69]

Gotta say: I'm seriously impressed by the TESB table.

It oozes quality, and considered design. There are many multiball modes, and most (all?) are stackable.

It's also a decent challenge. Zen have really stepped up their game for this one. Anyone writing off these tables because of past Zen efforts, is doing themselves a huge disservice. This is quality pinball.

Haven't played the other two tables much yet. But Yoda does annoy the hell out of me on Clone Wars, so I may give that one a miss.

Most not all are stackable. Hyperspace wont stack with Cloud city Mutiball. You can stack Cloud city or hyperspace with imperial (tie fighter) as well as jedi and sith. I've had cloud Sith and jedi running at the same time for a 5 ball (yes 5 ball) multiball you can't start Cloud city and hyperspace while jedi/sith or imperial is active I believe.

Edit: Also note Hyperspace mutiball is a 2 ball mutiball, Cloud city 4, Imperial 3. Starting Jedi/Sith in either of these modes will add another ball.

 

[sharkbear]

I finally downloaded the Empire table Friday -- visually, it is very impressive, no doubt. But, man, Zen really struggles with telling a compelling story and communicating rules. I can play for 10 minutes and there's no change in emotional tenor, no sense of urgency, no humor. I just get bored, and I'm honestly perplexed by the audio selections. The only clip I seem to get on the way to starting Vader Frenzy is "What is it, General?" Why? It's Empire, so that means the player is Luke, so why the complete non-sequitur? This happens all the time -- too often the sound clips seem random and unconnected to the action on the playfield. And when the ball exits the playfield Luke says "There's something not right here." How about instead you cut my hand off, freeze me in carbonite, crash my snowspeeder or have C3P0 blown to bits by a stormtrooper? There is so much emotion, excitement and humor in this theme -- it doesn't seem like any of it made it into the game. It's to pinball what the Star Wars prequels are to the real trilogy.

 

[night]

Yes, and no.

The DMD in TPA looks far superior to Zen's efforts.

Zen Pinball's DMD doesn't even look like a DMD. It looks like a 2 bit image made of points, rather than cells, with no plasma glow, and bad colours.

That's not completely fair, FarSight does not make the DMD's, Zen DMD's are homemade, like all the other artwork. Zen has a great artteam, somthing we should be deeply jealous about. FarSight scans-in the original table art and barely succeeds to turn 'other people's artwork' into lovely looking table art.
Yep, I'm in my negative modus again.

 

[Sinistar]

The Clone Wars table has it's charms and I rank it number 2 behind EMpire Strikes Back.
Boba Fett is a bit repetitious and frustrating , unlike the other two modules , it lacks variety , if it had a top level or shooting gallery it would be a closer call with Clone Wars.

I cant wait to see the next batch .

 

[Butterkins]

That's not completely fair, FarSight does not make the DMD's, Zen DMD's are homemade, like all the other artwork..

I wasn't referring to the artwork.

Rather, the DMD display itself. The simulation of the DMD plasma glow effect. They added it to TPA, but it's missing in Zen's work.

 

[Butterkins]

According to the designer of TESB, you can "start the Hyperspace multiball, than the Jedi, Sith and Imperial multiballs. So you get 4 running multis at a time."

Some questions:

- how do you get HYPERSPACE letters? I know it's about shooting the right ramp, but when? (Do you have to hit that Force Target, to change the ramp diverter?)

(FWIW, I'm not a fan of the Hyperspace multiball. The camera angle changes to a very low one, and there's a bug; the next time you start another mulitiball, the camera goes back to that low angle instead of respecting your choice.)

- it seems to me that the FORCE Jackpot is pretty much worthless, at least early on. Can you build it up, and is it worth bothering with?

- VADER Frenzy seems similarly worthless. Starts at 100K a shot on Vader, builds up slowly. Seems chicken feed, when I could just be making safe, easy shots on EMPIRE. Is there a way to increase Vader to make this worthwhile?

- what's the "hold launch button" part of the Bespin spins about?

- R2D2 - is it simply a matter of hitting the left loop in to the bumpers, over and over, until the time expires?

 

[CC13]

According to the designer of TESB, you can "start the Hyperspace multiball, than the Jedi, Sith and Imperial multiballs. So you get 4 running multis at a time."

Some questions:

- how do you get HYPERSPACE letters? I know it's about shooting the right ramp, but when? (Do you have to hit that Force Target, to change the ramp diverter?)

(FWIW, I'm not a fan of the Hyperspace multiball. The camera angle changes to a very low one, and there's a bug; the next time you start another mulitiball, the camera goes back to that low angle instead of respecting your choice.)

- it seems to me that the FORCE Jackpot is pretty much worthless, at least early on. Can you build it up, and is it worth bothering with?

- VADER Frenzy seems similarly worthless. Starts at 100K a shot on Vader, builds up slowly. Seems chicken feed, when I could just be making safe, easy shots on EMPIRE. Is there a way to increase Vader to make this worthwhile?

- what's the "hold launch button" part of the Bespin spins about?

- R2D2 - is it simply a matter of hitting the left loop in to the bumpers, over and over, until the time expires?

-Yes, hitting the Force Target is indeed the easiest way to set the diverter to Hyperspace Multiball. It seems like other shots also change the diverter, but I'm not quite sure how all that works just yet. I usually don't pursue this mode aggressively—the spinners are hard shots to make, trapping a ball also blocks off a spinner by raising an upper flipper and Hyperspace Multiball disables the magnets above the upper flippers, so shooting the Jedi & Sith lanes is a lot harder than usual.

-The Force Jackpot can get pretty big if you're having a good game—I've personally had it break 1M on my best game. It seems to increase with every shot to the Force Target.

-I also don't go out of my way for Vader Frenzy. According to the Zen forums, you want to get it right when you're about to start a multiball, but I've never pulled it off. It seems like it could be a worthwhile source of points if you could do that, though (Vader Frenzy caps at 1M/shot).

-I think the launch button releases your ball from the Cloud City lock, but I'm not precisely sure.

-When R2D2 is running and the right ramp is diverted to the upper playfield, it will send the ball to the bumpers instead of the rollovers.

I hope my answers were helpful to you. Hopefully, all will be revealed once STTC releases his table guide for TESB.

 

[Pinballfan69]

-Yes, hitting the Force Target is indeed the easiest way to set the diverter to Hyperspace Multiball. It seems like other shots also change the diverter, but I'm not quite sure how all that works just yet. I usually don't pursue this mode aggressively—the spinners are hard shots to make, trapping a ball also blocks off a spinner by raising an upper flipper and Hyperspace Multiball disables the magnets above the upper flippers, so shooting the Jedi & Sith lanes is a lot harder than usual.

-The Force Jackpot can get pretty big if you're having a good game—I've personally had it break 1M on my best game. It seems to increase with every shot to the Force Target.

-I also don't go out of my way for Vader Frenzy. According to the Zen forums, you want to get it right when you're about to start a multiball, but I've never pulled it off. It seems like it could be a worthwhile source of points if you could do that, though (Vader Frenzy caps at 1M/shot).

-I think the launch button releases your ball from the Cloud City lock, but I'm not precisely sure.

-When R2D2 is running and the right ramp is diverted to the upper playfield, it will send the ball to the bumpers instead of the rollovers.

I hope my answers were helpful to you. Hopefully, all will be revealed once STTC releases his table guide for TESB.

-hitting the Force ramp and Left loop (R2-D2 loop) only allows you go up the ramp or to be able to get to the rollovers and bumpers. Shooting the SITH Lane will divert it so the ball will go back to the right in lanes (the one you need to light the letters) or go to the Cloud City lock. You can tell when the ION cannon shoots at the ramp. Otherwise Cloud city will be flashing.

-If you get the FORCE mode AT-ST and R2-D2 running at the same time you can get crazy with the bumpers. Like CC13 mentioned you can get there by shooting the right ramp but also the JEDI Lane, and sometimes R2-D2 Loop. I find it best when cloud City is lit and release it when the ball moves to the back with the launch button bur either right ramp shot works and is much easier.

-Hyperspace MB is best used while JEDI/SITH mutiballs are going as hitting the spinners also raised the jackpots for both modes. Hitting the Left loop (R2-D2) scores the hyperspace jackpot.

-Also if you have both JEDI/SITH Jackpots there is another way to score super jackpots by shooting into the red sinkhole that pop up (the one that starts the scenes and gives you the empire bonus items) I think you have to balance them out somehow and the sinkhole will pop up.

 

[Kevlar]

Don't know if its already been mentioned here but there's a good interview with one of the zen guys on the push the button podcast.

 

[Trowel]

During Vader Frenzy it's possible to open the sinkhole for a decent score (don't think it's a 'jackpot' however) - seems to be that you have to hit the Sith or Jedi loops to open it, but not sure what determines the value of the sinkhole shot (highest I've seen is around 850k the first time, but drops away for subsequent shots). Anyone else know how this works exactly?

Personally I just use the left flipper to direct the lightsaber return to the left flipper every time for the multiple easy 100k+ ramp shots.