Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (More info?)
No compensation for stuck test car = See other article. I've about
given up hope on seeing decent compensation for broken things on
location games. T2 and Addams Family would practically keep playing
until the legs fell off. Why not make the software in newer games just
as rugged?
Music "I can't drive 55"... he can't sing, either! Please have an
option to turn this off. I'd love to be able to kill this "song" but
preserve the rest of the sound of the game. At least it's not "See See
Rider"!
There appears to be no background music in the game, or it is too faint
to hear, when *not* in multiball mode. It seems that the "I can't
drive 55" song is the only real song in the game! This is a
disappointment. Should have gotten Steve Ritchie to help write the
music for this game
Sound quality is a great step backward. Just one sound effect of tires
screeching, repeated every 5 seconds during gameplay. No other
memorable sound effects. Even the "I can't drive 55" song sounds like
it's been sampled at 8000Hz mono! Did Stern re-use some old mono sound
boards for this game, as a way of using up old inventory, in the vein
of the same brilliant decision Bally made when they forced Embryon to
only have 6-digit scoring?
Design of the playfield is very fun! It's different from the usual
Lawlor game. I especially like the use of two posts in the lock lane
to send the ball two different ways, without needing to use a dverter.
The upper left corner of the game is genius, just as genius as the
lower right corner of Roadshow. The "almost forgot it's there" captive
ball reminds me of Earthshaker. The stereotypical two ramps
side-by-side are nowhere to be seen, and there's no upper flipper to
scare away novice players. And, there's no ugly troll head or
disgusting shrunken head!!
The "infield" jets behind the test car feel like a penalty area, for
shots that are too weak to make it around the orbit. They are hardly
ever used. A great nudge opportunity was missed here: notice the
leftmost exit from the jet bumpers on Frankenstein? The player has the
option of letting the ball dribble out, or giving a slight nudge and
sending it directly into the Geneva scoop. That would have been fun to
do here. Take the feed out of the bumpers and let the player bounce it
into the test car scoop, if open! Unfortunately, there's a post in the
way of doing this now, and the left wall of the test car weldment is in
the way of this bounce.
The drop targets are pretty! Nice artwork on them. Why the old Data
East-style thin drop targets, though? Reminds me of Back To The Future
and Checkpoint, and how fun those games became when the targets snapped
off. Elvis and Harley have nice thick sturdy drop targets. Might want
to retrofit these?
And finally, the loop! I played other games other than Nascar tonight,
and all of them felt slow and dull... I caught myself on other
machines, expecting the ball to zing around the playfield multiple
times before dropping into play, and felt that something was wrong,
when it didn't! I thought T3 was broken when the ball stopped halfway
up the playfield and was caught, instead of letting it zing around a
few times.
Anyone remember playing World's Fair Jig Saw, or World Series, by
Rock-Ola? Those games also had zingarounds the ball went around before
entering play! I thought this feature seemed familiar. Wow, 70+ years
between use of pinball features? That's a new record, replacing the
previous gap, set by the Disappearing Jet Bumper, between Gusher and
Cirqus Voltaire.
Good game, and I'll be back when they find a way to unjam that test car
Josh
No compensation for stuck test car = See other article. I've about
given up hope on seeing decent compensation for broken things on
location games. T2 and Addams Family would practically keep playing
until the legs fell off. Why not make the software in newer games just
as rugged?
Music "I can't drive 55"... he can't sing, either! Please have an
option to turn this off. I'd love to be able to kill this "song" but
preserve the rest of the sound of the game. At least it's not "See See
Rider"!
There appears to be no background music in the game, or it is too faint
to hear, when *not* in multiball mode. It seems that the "I can't
drive 55" song is the only real song in the game! This is a
disappointment. Should have gotten Steve Ritchie to help write the
music for this game
Sound quality is a great step backward. Just one sound effect of tires
screeching, repeated every 5 seconds during gameplay. No other
memorable sound effects. Even the "I can't drive 55" song sounds like
it's been sampled at 8000Hz mono! Did Stern re-use some old mono sound
boards for this game, as a way of using up old inventory, in the vein
of the same brilliant decision Bally made when they forced Embryon to
only have 6-digit scoring?
Design of the playfield is very fun! It's different from the usual
Lawlor game. I especially like the use of two posts in the lock lane
to send the ball two different ways, without needing to use a dverter.
The upper left corner of the game is genius, just as genius as the
lower right corner of Roadshow. The "almost forgot it's there" captive
ball reminds me of Earthshaker. The stereotypical two ramps
side-by-side are nowhere to be seen, and there's no upper flipper to
scare away novice players. And, there's no ugly troll head or
disgusting shrunken head!!
The "infield" jets behind the test car feel like a penalty area, for
shots that are too weak to make it around the orbit. They are hardly
ever used. A great nudge opportunity was missed here: notice the
leftmost exit from the jet bumpers on Frankenstein? The player has the
option of letting the ball dribble out, or giving a slight nudge and
sending it directly into the Geneva scoop. That would have been fun to
do here. Take the feed out of the bumpers and let the player bounce it
into the test car scoop, if open! Unfortunately, there's a post in the
way of doing this now, and the left wall of the test car weldment is in
the way of this bounce.
The drop targets are pretty! Nice artwork on them. Why the old Data
East-style thin drop targets, though? Reminds me of Back To The Future
and Checkpoint, and how fun those games became when the targets snapped
off. Elvis and Harley have nice thick sturdy drop targets. Might want
to retrofit these?
And finally, the loop! I played other games other than Nascar tonight,
and all of them felt slow and dull... I caught myself on other
machines, expecting the ball to zing around the playfield multiple
times before dropping into play, and felt that something was wrong,
when it didn't! I thought T3 was broken when the ball stopped halfway
up the playfield and was caught, instead of letting it zing around a
few times.
Anyone remember playing World's Fair Jig Saw, or World Series, by
Rock-Ola? Those games also had zingarounds the ball went around before
entering play! I thought this feature seemed familiar. Wow, 70+ years
between use of pinball features? That's a new record, replacing the
previous gap, set by the Disappearing Jet Bumper, between Gusher and
Cirqus Voltaire.
Good game, and I'll be back when they find a way to unjam that test car
Josh
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