Brag follow-up: Valinor again

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

The only reason I decided to post this is to illustrate the wacky
nature of pinball. It is not meant ot be a rub-in. And no, everytime I
get Valinor I am not going to post. This is enough. This just seemed
like an appropriate follow-up being that I had no idea what happened
last time I went to Valinor.

So I posted last weekend that I finally made Valinor after a bazillion
attempts it seemed, falling short over and over etc. After I made
Valinor, I did a thorough shop on the game, and just let it sit there
looking pretty. I wanted to enjoy my victory and I was not in a hurry
to jump back into playing and get spanked by the game so it could laugh
at me and tell me it was a fluke.

This weekend I fired it up and figured I'd play a little. The game was
naturally playing lightning fast since it had been super cleaned. The
first two games were very average and certainly a far far cry from my
previous outing. I thought I hear Sauron say "You cannot play" instead
of "hide" when I hit the ring.

Dang, that stunk. Ok-one more game. I can't go out like that.

To yadda yadda through the filler and cut to the chase:

On Ball 1 (including earned extras), I reached/played Valinor with a
score of 586,150,070 and a Valinor score of 193,027,220 (Per Koz, it
was time to act like I had been there before and since I had....) What
was more enjoyable to me was that my 6 1/2 year old was there to watch
it as he was very disappointed he missed it last time. I got the "good
job, Dad" followed by a little hand wanting to give me a high five.
(That is better than a victory lap!)

This was a much better overall experience (the first time was in a
league of its own) since I wasn't just sitting there with my mouth
gaping open like a drooling dog. It was very enjoyable to play, watch
and listen to (I am serious the music is SO RELAXING). I am pretty sure
Valinor multiball lasted longer than my previous 2 games

So after it ended, I, in true pinball karma fashion, naturally
finished my game with a house ball festival and ended up with just over
615M essentially the result of bonuses-pathetic considering the start,
but as we all know all you need (and sometimes get) is one good ball.
I just happened to get mine on the first ball.

Thanks again for reading.

Jeff

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Good to hear you achieved "Valinor" on your freshly shopped out game
which your kid witnessed. That's what I'd call "Priceless"

Todd "GravitaR"

On 11 Jun 2005 14:25:24 -0700, "Jeff Palmer"
<bigshermantruck@hotmail.com> wrote:

>The only reason I decided to post this is to illustrate the wacky
>nature of pinball. It is not meant ot be a rub-in. And no, everytime I
>get Valinor I am not going to post. This is enough. This just seemed
>like an appropriate follow-up being that I had no idea what happened
>last time I went to Valinor.
>
>So I posted last weekend that I finally made Valinor after a bazillion
>attempts it seemed, falling short over and over etc. After I made
>Valinor, I did a thorough shop on the game, and just let it sit there
>looking pretty. I wanted to enjoy my victory and I was not in a hurry
>to jump back into playing and get spanked by the game so it could laugh
>at me and tell me it was a fluke.
>
>This weekend I fired it up and figured I'd play a little. The game was
>naturally playing lightning fast since it had been super cleaned. The
>first two games were very average and certainly a far far cry from my
>previous outing. I thought I hear Sauron say "You cannot play" instead
>of "hide" when I hit the ring.
>
>Dang, that stunk. Ok-one more game. I can't go out like that.
>
>To yadda yadda through the filler and cut to the chase:
>
>On Ball 1 (including earned extras), I reached/played Valinor with a
>score of 586,150,070 and a Valinor score of 193,027,220 (Per Koz, it
>was time to act like I had been there before and since I had....) What
>was more enjoyable to me was that my 6 1/2 year old was there to watch
>it as he was very disappointed he missed it last time. I got the "good
>job, Dad" followed by a little hand wanting to give me a high five.
>(That is better than a victory lap!)
>
>This was a much better overall experience (the first time was in a
>league of its own) since I wasn't just sitting there with my mouth
>gaping open like a drooling dog. It was very enjoyable to play, watch
>and listen to (I am serious the music is SO RELAXING). I am pretty sure
>Valinor multiball lasted longer than my previous 2 games
>
>So after it ended, I, in true pinball karma fashion, naturally
>finished my game with a house ball festival and ended up with just over
>615M essentially the result of bonuses-pathetic considering the start,
>but as we all know all you need (and sometimes get) is one good ball.
>I just happened to get mine on the first ball.
>
>Thanks again for reading.
>
>Jeff

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

I'm still playing catchup. Finally had all 6 elf gifts collected in a single
game. Also had TABA played. Played DTR twice but did not complete. When I
went through the status report I still needed several things for valinor.
That was my best yet, and that game I concentrated on Man rings and played
gollum multi as much as I could. Either it helped or I just had a good game.
367M I think.

"Jeff Palmer" <bigshermantruck@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118525124.801021.158010@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> The only reason I decided to post this is to illustrate the wacky
> nature of pinball. It is not meant ot be a rub-in. And no, everytime I
> get Valinor I am not going to post. This is enough. This just seemed
> like an appropriate follow-up being that I had no idea what happened
> last time I went to Valinor.
>
> So I posted last weekend that I finally made Valinor after a bazillion
> attempts it seemed, falling short over and over etc. After I made
> Valinor, I did a thorough shop on the game, and just let it sit there
> looking pretty. I wanted to enjoy my victory and I was not in a hurry
> to jump back into playing and get spanked by the game so it could laugh
> at me and tell me it was a fluke.
>
> This weekend I fired it up and figured I'd play a little. The game was
> naturally playing lightning fast since it had been super cleaned. The
> first two games were very average and certainly a far far cry from my
> previous outing. I thought I hear Sauron say "You cannot play" instead
> of "hide" when I hit the ring.
>
> Dang, that stunk. Ok-one more game. I can't go out like that.
>
> To yadda yadda through the filler and cut to the chase:
>
> On Ball 1 (including earned extras), I reached/played Valinor with a
> score of 586,150,070 and a Valinor score of 193,027,220 (Per Koz, it
> was time to act like I had been there before and since I had....) What
> was more enjoyable to me was that my 6 1/2 year old was there to watch
> it as he was very disappointed he missed it last time. I got the "good
> job, Dad" followed by a little hand wanting to give me a high five.
> (That is better than a victory lap!)
>
> This was a much better overall experience (the first time was in a
> league of its own) since I wasn't just sitting there with my mouth
> gaping open like a drooling dog. It was very enjoyable to play, watch
> and listen to (I am serious the music is SO RELAXING). I am pretty sure
> Valinor multiball lasted longer than my previous 2 games
>
> So after it ended, I, in true pinball karma fashion, naturally
> finished my game with a house ball festival and ended up with just over
> 615M essentially the result of bonuses-pathetic considering the start,
> but as we all know all you need (and sometimes get) is one good ball.
> I just happened to get mine on the first ball.
>
> Thanks again for reading.
>
> Jeff
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Thanks Macman

Yes, Ball 1.

BTW, I don't avoid DTR the first time. Get to it, win it, and get a
gift is the way I look at it. I find it is easier just to get through
it once so I can concentrate on working on the finishing the
requirements. Otherwise, I am too concerned with only making shots to
earn rings to engage Gollum mb. Then when I get Gollum, I am worrying
about losing a ball.

If I could play the whole game straight and only DTR once for Valinor
that would really be cool. I don't really see that happening.

Keep at it. It'll come

Jeff

 

[MacMan]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Grrrrrr!!!

I have had about 4 or 5 games this week where I have been 3 or 4 shots
away. Why can't I get there with a damn ball to spare! Ball 1???? You
got there on Ball 1???

ROTK no longer a limitation but I have to practice avoiding DTR.

Oh well... back to it!

Good work!

Cheers
Macman

In article <1118525124.801021.158010@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,
"Jeff Palmer" <bigshermantruck@hotmail.com> wrote:

> The only reason I decided to post this is to illustrate the wacky
> nature of pinball. It is not meant ot be a rub-in. And no, everytime I
> get Valinor I am not going to post. This is enough. This just seemed
> like an appropriate follow-up being that I had no idea what happened
> last time I went to Valinor.
>
> So I posted last weekend that I finally made Valinor after a bazillion
> attempts it seemed, falling short over and over etc. After I made
> Valinor, I did a thorough shop on the game, and just let it sit there
> looking pretty. I wanted to enjoy my victory and I was not in a hurry
> to jump back into playing and get spanked by the game so it could laugh
> at me and tell me it was a fluke.
>
> This weekend I fired it up and figured I'd play a little. The game was
> naturally playing lightning fast since it had been super cleaned. The
> first two games were very average and certainly a far far cry from my
> previous outing. I thought I hear Sauron say "You cannot play" instead
> of "hide" when I hit the ring.
>
> Dang, that stunk. Ok-one more game. I can't go out like that.
>
> To yadda yadda through the filler and cut to the chase:
>
> On Ball 1 (including earned extras), I reached/played Valinor with a
> score of 586,150,070 and a Valinor score of 193,027,220 (Per Koz, it
> was time to act like I had been there before and since I had....) What
> was more enjoyable to me was that my 6 1/2 year old was there to watch
> it as he was very disappointed he missed it last time. I got the "good
> job, Dad" followed by a little hand wanting to give me a high five.
> (That is better than a victory lap!)
>
> This was a much better overall experience (the first time was in a
> league of its own) since I wasn't just sitting there with my mouth
> gaping open like a drooling dog. It was very enjoyable to play, watch
> and listen to (I am serious the music is SO RELAXING). I am pretty sure
> Valinor multiball lasted longer than my previous 2 games
>
> So after it ended, I, in true pinball karma fashion, naturally
> finished my game with a house ball festival and ended up with just over
> 615M essentially the result of bonuses-pathetic considering the start,
> but as we all know all you need (and sometimes get) is one good ball.
> I just happened to get mine on the first ball.
>
> Thanks again for reading.
>
> Jeff

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Ball to spare is of little help if you drain during DTR, since as
you've said at the later stages, requalifying all the MB's is a real
pain. As for me, I'm going to avoid the nasty lock TTT in the future
if possible. One major major cheat I haven't stooped to (and WON'T)
would be to set TTT (or FOTR) to a lower starting difficulty. This
will avoid the nasty locks for one additional DTR over factory I would
assume.

Actually I've been told that the TTT nasty locks were added in a later
ROM revision (the Kozmal rule). Before that they simply needed to be
qualified for each locked ball (didn't unlight on a rollover). This
means Valinor actually got a tad harder in the later ROM revs.

h_h

 

[cah]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

heckheck wrote:
> Ball to spare is of little help if you drain during DTR, since as
> you've said at the later stages, requalifying all the MB's is a real
> pain. As for me, I'm going to avoid the nasty lock TTT in the future
> if possible. One major major cheat I haven't stooped to (and WON'T)
> would be to set TTT (or FOTR) to a lower starting difficulty. This
> will avoid the nasty locks for one additional DTR over factory I would
> assume.
>
> Actually I've been told that the TTT nasty locks were added in a later
> ROM revision (the Kozmal rule). Before that they simply needed to be
> qualified for each locked ball (didn't unlight on a rollover). This
> means Valinor actually got a tad harder in the later ROM revs.
>
> h_h

The Kozmal rule? please explain.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

I have heard that Keith put the rule in after Koz was promoting
stacking everything on TTT as a points rape. The rule change was meant
to discourage this. I'm guessing as a game balancer ;-)

h_h

 

[cah]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

heckheck wrote:
> I have heard that Keith put the rule in after Koz was promoting
> stacking everything on TTT as a points rape. The rule change was meant
> to discourage this. I'm guessing as a game balancer ;-)
>
> h_h

It still occurs to me as possible enough... just not quite as easy. I
heard that the LotR in A Bank at PAPA 7 did this every time.

 

[MacMan]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Ah well... and there's the other thing that I haven't faced yet. DTR is
still a 70/30 for me.

But I usually need to go through it 3 times with Valinor being the 4th.
Just not getting enough stuff the first two times through. But I persist
and manage it all again, but the movie mb's become painful (esp FOTR if
I need it)) third time through.

Keeping on practicing!
MacMan

In article <1118549583.583250.160370@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
"Jeff Palmer" <bigshermantruck@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks Macman
>
> Yes, Ball 1.
>
> BTW, I don't avoid DTR the first time. Get to it, win it, and get a
> gift is the way I look at it. I find it is easier just to get through
> it once so I can concentrate on working on the finishing the
> requirements. Otherwise, I am too concerned with only making shots to
> earn rings to engage Gollum mb. Then when I get Gollum, I am worrying
> about losing a ball.
>
> If I could play the whole game straight and only DTR once for Valinor
> that would really be cool. I don't really see that happening.
>
> Keep at it. It'll come
>
> Jeff

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

That is selectable in the features. You can choose Extra Difficult as
the default setting for TTT MB, and it will start the game that way and
stay that way. You can do similar for any of the MBs.

h_h

 

[MacMan]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

> One major major cheat I haven't stooped to (and WON'T)
> would be to set TTT (or FOTR) to a lower starting difficulty. This
> will avoid the nasty locks for one additional DTR over factory I would
> assume.

I have (just to see if it would work!) and it didn't help as it was so
easy to light lock that way that you can't avoid TTT to delay DTR... so
it won't help you. I guess that's what you get for trying to take the
easy way out.

At least you can make the nasty locks work for you.

And if it had worked it wouldn't have been r_e_a_l_l_y cheating as the
adjustments are there to set the machine up for a more enjoyable game
for players and that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Sigh... Another 45 minute as close as a bee's dicks length away today
again!

Cheers
Macman

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

On 12 Jun 2005 06:40:34 -0700, "CAH" <cmcolinh@aol.com> wrote:

>heckheck wrote:
>> I have heard that Keith put the rule in after Koz was promoting
>> stacking everything on TTT as a points rape. The rule change was meant
>> to discourage this. I'm guessing as a game balancer ;-)

It was always my intention to implement the evil lane lights as a
difficulty (I discussed it with Lyman while I was originally working
on the game), it just wasn't until koz posted his TTT rape strategy
that I made it a priority to get it in there.

>It still occurs to me as possible enough... just not quite as easy. I
>heard that the LotR in A Bank at PAPA 7 did this every time.

Not quite right. I believe the PAPA officials did an "install extra
hard" which would set TTT's difficulty to hard, not extra hard. This
means the evil lanes wouldn't come into play until the 2nd TTT
multiball, which is pretty much how I remember the game playing.
People might be slightly misremembering it because on Hard, the lights
go away if you drain.

keith, still upset he only had one good game (~95M) at PAPA.
--
At one time I had random Your Mother jokes down here.
Maybe someday they'll return...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 18:55:02 GMT, Keith P. Johnson
<pin-wizard@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>On 12 Jun 2005 06:40:34 -0700, "CAH" <cmcolinh@aol.com> wrote:
>
>>heckheck wrote:
>>> I have heard that Keith put the rule in after Koz was promoting
>>> stacking everything on TTT as a points rape. The rule change was meant
>>> to discourage this. I'm guessing as a game balancer ;-)
>
>It was always my intention to implement the evil lane lights as a
>difficulty (I discussed it with Lyman while I was originally working
>on the game), it just wasn't until koz posted his TTT rape strategy
>that I made it a priority to get it in there.
>
He sure does know how to run the scores up on loads of games old or
new. Maybe you should make him a beta tester. Better yet, make a
location in the Detroit area a game testing site so he can provide
feedback on rule/scoring code.

>>It still occurs to me as possible enough... just not quite as easy. I
>>heard that the LotR in A Bank at PAPA 7 did this every time.
>
>Not quite right. I believe the PAPA officials did an "install extra
>hard" which would set TTT's difficulty to hard, not extra hard. This
>means the evil lanes wouldn't come into play until the 2nd TTT
>multiball, which is pretty much how I remember the game playing.
>People might be slightly misremembering it because on Hard, the lights
>go away if you drain.
>
>keith, still upset he only had one good game (~95M) at PAPA.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)

Keith -

I have an interesting question for you...

How long did it take you with your own pin abilities, and intimate
knowledge of the LOTR software, to finally reach Valinor?

Thanks again.

BRETT B