Easter Eggs
Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
a two Williams games. The first one was on The Getaway; the second was on
Bride Of Pinbot (moo).
The one on the Getaway you could do during game play with the ball in the
plunger lane. Execute the following sequence:
Both flippers simultaneously, followed by
3L 1R 3L 1R 3L 1R 3L 2R
The dot matrix will display "HELLO WORLD."
How interesting and creative. I think that's the output of the very first
C program anyone ever writes.
The other one was kind of neat. It was on Bride Of Pinbot.
During game play, you had to hold in the left flipper button for at least 45
seconds, then the right flipper button for at least 45 seconds.
You then had to alternate flipper button presses to the tune of "Old Mac
Donald Had A Farm." You would do:
1L (Old)
1R (Mac)
1L (Don-)
1R (ald)
1L (Had)
1R (A)
1L (Farm)
The display would show EEEEIIIIEEEEEIIIIIOOOOOO.
If you continued after the EIEIO display with "And on this farm he had..."
(with alternating flipper button presses), the display would show a series
of MOO words and the machine would emit cow mooing noises.
As usual, with most BLY/WMS Easter Eggs, I think you need L-X (production)
ROMs for the sequences to work.
--
Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
The MITRE Corporation
202 Burlington Road, Bedford MA 01730
e-mail: l...@mitre.org
Jarrod Miller
>A player at the Arizona show told me of a couple of Easter Eggs hidden in
>a two Williams games. The first one was on The Getaway; the second was on
>Bride Of Pinbot (moo).
Am I the only one who is tired of all the:
1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
Sure, these things were funny, but they grow very old, very fast.
-jarrod
--
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
internet: laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Stephen Jonke
(Jarrod Miller) wrote:
>
> Am I the only one who is tired of all the:
> 1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
> 2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
> 3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
>
> Sure, these things were funny, but they grow very old, very fast.
> -jarrod
>
Can we quit with this discussion -- I'm getting REAL tired of it, damnit!
Steve
(Actually, I rather agree with you, and I think we should discuss the issue
for the next 6 months. ;-)
------------------------
jo...@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov
"One more for deluxe!"
------------------------
Lee Crawford
| Am I the only one who is tired of all the:
| 1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
| 2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
| 3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
|
| Sure, these things were funny, but they grow very old, very fast.
| -jarrod
Its not whether you're tired of this or pained by that, Jarrod. It's
whether your a pretentious schmuck.
The group, rec.games.pinball, is a free forum for all of us to discuss
any and all aspects of the game of pinball. Some of us tire of things
more quickly than others of us, some of us never grow tired of certain
things. There are certain threads I'm not interested in, I don't read them.
You're not going to like everything posted here. Don't read it, and don't
insult people as you have for discussion whatever they see fit.
I have a feeling that many of the people here are intrigued by the Easter
egg tidbits, and everyone seemed to enjoy the "COWZ" brainstorming, and the
Lyle business, though not my bag, is covered under the constitution/usenet
"free speech" warranty.
So, Jarrod, learn to put up with people. Maybe you should learn to use
kill files, or try to start up your own rec.games.piball.jarrods.way group.
KWIMV ???????
PS: Sorry for failing to "put up" with you...
--
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
= Lee Crawford | And just remember... =
= Committee for Aesthetic Deletion | It's all fun and games, =
= craw...@ahnold.cs.umass.edu | Until somebody loses an eye. =
=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Mark Phaedrus
>Am I the only one who is tired of all the:
>1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
I like these? It's always fun to find something totally new in a game
you thought you knew inside and out... And "find the cow" seems to have
become a game between the designers and the experienced players; we should
certainly hold up our end of the bargain... :)
>2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
Well, this seems to have pretty well taken care of itself; I hadn't
heard anything about it for a week until this post came along...
>3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
But he did ask for it so... :) Seriously, though, I agree that it sort
of lacks class.
--
\o\ Internet: phae...@halcyon.com (Seattle, WA Public Access Unix) \o\
\o\ "How'd you like to move a few steps down the food chain, pal?" \o\
\o\ If you enjoy fantasy/SF stories with transformation themes, ftp to \o\
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Dave Griffiths
>>A player at the Arizona show told me of a couple of Easter Eggs hidden in
>>a two Williams games. The first one was on The Getaway; the second was on
>>Bride Of Pinbot (moo).
>
>Am I the only one who is tired of all the:
>1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
>2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
>3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
>
>Sure, these things were funny, but they grow very old, very fast.
Hey! I've only just started reading this newsgroup and this is the first I've
heard of easter eggs. Sounds fun. If you don't want to read those threads,
put them in your kill file.
Dave Griffiths
Kevin Martin
>>3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
> But he did ask for it so... :) Seriously, though, I agree that it sort
>of lacks class.
Hey, I made the joke once. It has taken on life of its own, and although I
will continue to be amused by it, I won't go out of my way to continue it.
Maybe someday, someone will ask, "Why does everyone use the term Lyle(TM)?"
and... no one will know the answer.
--
Kevin Martin si...@rahul.net
Visit the Pinball Archive by anonymous FTP: ftp.rahul.net:/pub/sigma/pinball
Get thee behind me, Satan... and push me along!
Kevin Martin
machines that just disappeared from the student center.
Anyway, TELL US ABOUT ARIZONA! Who won? What was the surprise machine?
What else happened?
Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
>In article <LFS.93Ju...@scribe.mitre.org> l...@scribe.mitre.org (Lyman F. Sheats Jr.) writes:
>>A player at the Arizona show told me of a couple of Easter Eggs hidden in
>>a two Williams games. The first one was on The Getaway; the second was on
>>Bride Of Pinbot (moo).
>
>Am I the only one who is tired of all the:
>1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
>2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
>3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
>
>Sure, these things were funny, but they grow very old, very fast.
>-jarrod
Gee, wouldn't it be great if every article posted to this group included
some material that everyone thought was new and interesting.
I had this same attitude toward this group some time ago (I was tired of
the summer re-runs), and quickly realized that:
1: What some people find boring or 'tired,' other people find interesting.
2: New people read this group all the time. What may be a 'tired' subject
to you may be a new subject to others.
Personally, I find Easter Egg stuff interesting, I find the Cowz pinball
design discussions amusing, silly, humorous (sometimes), and entirely not
realizable, and I find the use of the name Lyle to describe a machine that
does not receive proper maintenance concise (however overdone) but alien
to new readers. (It's a lot easier to type: "It's a Lyle machine" than it
is to type: "It's a machine that doesn't receive proper maintenance," even
though new readers aren't going to know what a Lyle machine is).
Another person may find the Easter Egg stuff boring, the Cowz pinball
discussions interesting, and the use of the name Lyle wholly unwarranted.
We're all people, with different likes and dislikes. Our opinions vary,
thankfully.
All I can suggest is that you lighten up a little bit. If you see a
subject line that says "Easter Eggs," and you're tired of reading about
Easter Eggs, then don't read the article. It's a lot less trouble than
posting about how tired you are of reading about Easter Eggs.
I can't read minds and as a result I can only post things that I *think*
other people will find interesting. Often what I find interesting others
find totally uninteresting. For example, I'm sure a lot of people who are
interested in game restoration could care less about competitive pinball.
If you find that everything posted here is 'old' or 'tired,' then how about
introducing something that you don't think is? Just because you're tired of
particular r.g.p threads, that doesn't mean everyone else is.
Tom Capek @708-632-6633
>1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
>2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
>3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
>
>Sure, these things were funny, but they grow very old, very fast.
>-jarrod
>
closer to the programmer and manufacturers. Sort of know now where I stand?
Hey Jarrod, go play some vids.
--
+--- O __ ---------------------------------------------------------+
| |\_____|| - 'Welcome honored guests' - 'Fifty Million!' |
| | |-----| - 'Triple Jackpot!' - 'Sorry old man' UGH! |
+--- / \| | ---------- Tom M. Capek e-mail ca...@rtsg.mot.com ------+
af...@acad2.alaska.edu
> In <1v09cm$f...@nwfocus.wa.com> phae...@halcyon.com (Mark Phaedrus) writes:
>>>3) Using Lyle's name as a description of a bad operator.
>> But he did ask for it so... :) Seriously, though, I agree that it sort
>>of lacks class.
>
> Hey, I made the joke once. It has taken on life of its own, and although I
> will continue to be amused by it, I won't go out of my way to continue it.
> Maybe someday, someone will ask, "Why does everyone use the term Lyle(TM)?"
> and... no one will know the answer.
>
Well, I started the whole damn mess, so as long as i'm around...:)
But really, Lyle has made several posts since that infamous flame war, and some
of them have even been pretty informative. :)
Joel Sadler
I STILL think that there are too many Joel's readin' this newsgroup.
u...@phoenix.filenet.com
| Jarrod...@launchpad.unc.edu (Jarrod Miller) writes:
|
|| Am I the only one who is tired of all the:
|| 1) Easter Eggs/Cows in various games
|| 2) Discussion of building a 'Cowz' game
||
|| -jarrod
|
|whether your a pretentious schmuck.
Is this REALLY necessary?
I've read flame after flame after flame against Jarrod here and it's
really appalling. r.g.p. was, at one time, a non-flame board. It
really didn't happen, people were polite, friendly, helpful, etc.
It's not that I don't agree with you guys, yes, Jarrod might invest
in a KILL file, or simply skip the topics he didn't like, but the
tone under which some of you folks are barking back at him is really
uncharacteristic of my favorite (and currently only) net.newsgroup.
Last, take a gander at the subject line, "Is it just me?" Jarrod
is willing to conceed that it COULD possibly be just him, and he's
asking. If a lot of people agree, then maybe r.g.p. has turned
to trash (in someone's opinion) and long-time r.g.p. contributor
Jarrod would like to bring the group back to more middle ground.
It sure doesn't sound like he's being a "pretentious schmuck" to
me ... more like a good-intentioned net.citizen.
Disclaimer: Not all responses to Jarrod's original posting were
inflammatory, but a number of them really belonged
in the net.bit.bucket, IMO.
Bill Ung
u...@filenet.com
Kevin Martin
>craw...@ahnold.umass.edu (Lee Crawford) writes:
>| Jarrod...@launchpad.unc.edu (Jarrod Miller) writes:
>|| Sure, these things were funny, but they grow very old, very fast.
>|whether your a pretentious schmuck.
>Is this REALLY necessary?
Probably not. Well, definitely not *necessary*, per se.
>Disclaimer: Not all responses to Jarrod's original posting were
> inflammatory, but a number of them really belonged
> in the net.bit.bucket, IMO.
Agreed, IMHO. What I *would* like to see out of this thread (gasp,
something productive?) is to find out what Jarrod *does* like to see in
rec.games.pinball.
In fact, I have some time to kill here in my office hours - I think I'll
run a poll. Yes, indeed! And by the time you read this article, the poll
will probably be posted, too.
--
Kevin Martin si...@rahul.net
Visit the Pinball Archive by anonymous FTP: ftp.rahul.net:/pub/sigma/pinball
A body at rest tends to watch television.
Jarrod Miller
>craw...@ahnold.umass.edu (Lee Crawford) writes:
>| Jarrod...@launchpad.unc.edu (Jarrod Miller) writes:
>I've read flame after flame after flame against Jarrod here and it's
>really appalling. r.g.p. was, at one time, a non-flame board. It
>It's not that I don't agree with you guys, yes, Jarrod might invest
>in a KILL file, or simply skip the topics he didn't like, but the
Which is difficult, considering that topics usually wonder off in some direction
(as with most newsgroups), leaving you with different threads with the same
subject. (But of course, it's not impossible)
>tone under which some of you folks are barking back at him is really
>uncharacteristic of my favorite (and currently only) net.newsgroup.
Damn straight! :)
>Last, take a gander at the subject line, "Is it just me?" Jarrod
>is willing to conceed that it COULD possibly be just him, and he's
>asking.
Which is what I thought people would read (the subject that is) before they
jumped all over me.
If a lot of people agree, then maybe r.g.p. has turned
>to trash (in someone's opinion) and long-time r.g.p. contributor
>Jarrod would like to bring the group back to more middle ground.
I would like to see "less" of the topics I said about, but not being able to
control that, I'd like to remind everybody that we play and think about pinball
here, not "Cow-hunting 101". But of course, so I don't get flamed, IMHO. :)
>It sure doesn't sound like he's being a "pretentious schmuck" to
>me ... more like a good-intentioned net.citizen.
Why, thank you, Mr. Ung. I was wondering if ANYONE would be on my side, at
least in part.
And besides, why didn't anyone who flamed me have the courtesy to e-mail me?
I don't mind getting flamed via e-mail, but to blast me all over the internet
I thought was way out of line.
Jarrod Miller
>Agreed, IMHO. What I *would* like to see out of this thread (gasp,
>something productive?) is to find out what Jarrod *does* like to see in
>rec.games.pinball.
Unfortunately, I live in pinball hell (Pittsburgh, BTW), and we never get to
see the games that people talk about until months after the discussion has
died (except for TZ, I guess). So I'm here, pretty much skipping over articles
that I can't contribute to, because I haven't seen the games. So the only
articles I can realistically read are the rest (which shall remain nameless) :)
So, r.g.p to me is a group that I can read, knowing I might pick up a tip or
two about a game that's around, but I don't have anything I can contribute.
Subjectwise, as soon as I get to where everybody else is, you'll all be down
the road somewhere.
So I guess the problem is deeply rooted in where I actually live, which, since
I'm in school, won't be changed soon.
Jarrod Miller
>something productive?) is to find out what Jarrod *does* like to see in
>rec.games.pinball.
Of course, as my roommate Rob Chesnavich knows, possibly discussion about the
creation of a Queen pinball machine! (Yeah, I'm asking too much.) :)
Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
>Yeah, Lyman, we'll try those out... sure. Too bad those are the two
>machines that just disappeared from the student center.
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention: the sequence for the Getaway only works
either once per game or once per power-on, I can't remember.
>Anyway, TELL US ABOUT ARIZONA! Who won? What was the surprise machine?
>What else happened?
Ugh. Do I have to?
Well, OK, Rick Stetta won. His friend Neil Schatz (sp) took second. Rick
won a slightly used (and crappy playing) Twilight Zone. Neil won a slightly
used (but perfect looking) Cue Ball Wizard. Fred Richardson, winner of the
doubles competition at PAPA III (his partner was Paul Madison) finished 3rd.
Fred received a trophy for his third place finish.
There was a single flipper doubles competition; Rick Stetta and Jeff
Newman won with a 400+M game on TZ. They won a backglass, but I can't
remember which one.
It was definitely the Rack's weekend.
I finished 6th. It was the first tournament since PAPA II in which I failed
to finish in the top 4.
I can't remember the name of the winner of the Women's division -- she was
a newcomer. In fact, I can't even remember the finishing order for 2nd and
3rd in the women's division -- either Jeri Lock and Julia Slayton, or Julia
Slayton and Jeri Lock.
For the first time at this show, there was a manufacturer's division.
Jim Gorman of Data East won, Roger Sharpe (Dr. TILT, more on this later)
of BLY/WMS finished 2nd, and Pat Lawlor of BLY/WMS forfeited for third.
(Pat didn't hang around for the finals; he and his family left sometime
early on sunday to finish their vacation).
The qualifying machine was Twilight Zone. There were 5 TZs there. The
games were set up exactly as they were at the IFPA -- extra balls disabled,
buy-in disabled, three ball game, slightly conservative tilt settings, no
rubber band in the pop-bumpers, non-random slot machine awards, etc. The
only difference between setups was that the IFPA TZs had 2 balls in the
gumball machine; the machines at Arizona had 3.
These machines played like garbage. The flippers seemed feeble, the shots
seemed way off, and the slot-machine kickouts on 4 of the 5 games there were
inconsistent. At one point during the qualification period, I mentioned to
Pat Lawlor and Ted Estes how crappy the games were playing, and how much
better the games at the IFPA played. They laughed and said they retrieved
(more like resurrected, if you ask me) the 5 games used for qualification
from some warehouse; they were 5 of the first 200 TZs manufactured.
Advice: if you're going to buy a new machine, check the manufacturing date!
You'll most likely wind up with a more solid and playable game if you get a
game with a later date of manufacture.
Anyway, as I recall, the top qualifying score was around 1.6B. I won't
mention the name of the person who achieved the score, but I will mention
that this person got the score as a result of a machine malfunction.
The game this person was playing had a flaky powerball sensor. The game
would serve out a steel ball, and the game would scream out POWERBALL. This
person scored over 900 million in powerball mania bonus over the course of
his game.
When he was done with his game, I asked him if he was going to have the
tournament official (Jay Stafford) record his score, and whether or not he
thought his score was legitimate with the machine malfunctioning and all.
He said nothing, and had Jay record his score.
Rick Stetta qualified 2nd with 1.460B. I did not see him play this score
out, and have no idea where all of his points came from.
I qualified 3rd with 1.444B. Had LITZ on ball 1 (430M LITZ total), and at
the end of ball 1, had about 1.1B. Is there a Phaedrus law that covers what
happened on the next two balls? Something like: "A 15 minute, 1B ball will
immediately be followed by two crap balls?" There's got to be.
The lowest score that qualified (10th place) was under 800M. Six scores
were over 1B, the other 4 were below 1B.
Now, for the happenings in the finals....
I've never had a nightmare about pinball but I have the feeling I'll be
waking up violently and in a cold sweat after this experience.
The finals game was a Gottlieb piece called Cover Girl. I can't remember
the year of manufacture, but it looked like it might be a sixties game. It
was definitely an electro-mechanical game. It had *really* short flippers.
It had two gobble-holes. It had no return lanes (similar to Space Station).
It was a 5 ball game. It had a player-operated lever that manually served
balls to the plunger lane. It could display a score up to 1,999.
I nearly dropped dead. I was expecting an older Pat Lawlor game (there was
a Banzai Run and a Funhouse at the show to choose from). When I saw this EM
game (I think I've played maybe 10 different EM games in my life), I knew I
was toast. Burnt-to-a-crisp toast.
The finals were run as follows:
10th qualifier plays a single player game, score recorded.
9th qualifier plays a single player game, score recorded.
...
1st qualifier plays a single player game, score recorded.
10th qualifier plays a single player game, score recorded.
9th qualifier plays a single player game, score recorded.
...
1st qualifier plays a single player game, score recorded.
Highest score of the 20 scores wins.
2nd highest score of the 20 scores takes 2nd.
3rd highest score of the 20 scores takes 3rd.
Anyway, the manufacturers played first. Jim Gorman scored over 1,300 points
on his first game, and Roger Sharpe scored somewhat less than that. Jim had
a forgettable 2nd game, but then up steps Roger. He had 1,100 points and was
within striking distance of Jim's score (one gobble hole shot for Roger would
have won it), but Roger TILTED! Many of you may know that a tilt on a single
player EM game ends the current game (the modern equivalent would be a slam
tilt). Jim won, Roger took second, and Pat defaulted 3rd.
The women played next. I missed most of the action (and that's why I can't
remember the name of the woman who won, and why I can't remember who finished
2nd and 3rd).
The players finals were next. After everyone played their first game, Neil
Schatz had a solid lead with 1,600 points and Fred Richardson was close behind
him with 1,500 points. It looked like Neil would win but then up steps the
Rack. He played his last game out for 1,800 points and won. This guy plays
great under major pressure. An exciting come-from-behind victory.
Now, for the non-tournament stuff:
The show was decent. However, there were not as many games for people to
play as there were last year. The show is in a slight transition period as
Mark Pratt is no longer an organizer. I think Bruce Carlton did a decent
job with everything.
Still, there were quite a few games from all eras for people to play. Some
of the newer games were more popular, and often people who wanted to play the
newer games had to wait a while before they could get on them.
All manufacturers were represented this year. In previous years, BLY/WMS
seemed to be the only company that provided newer games for people to play.
Thankfully, this year, Premier had a Cue Ball Wizard and a Street Fighter
II for people to play, and Data East had a Rocky & Bullwinkle and a Jurassic
Park for people to play. BLY/WMS provided 5 Twilight Zones for the tournament
and 2 Draculas for general play.
I didn't understand why there wasn't a Tee'd Off at the show. The game has
been in production for a little while, at least, and I thought there would be
one there.
The banquet (held Saturday at 7:00pm) was good, and the food was actually
edible and digestible. However, the baked potato was slightly under-baked,
and the carrots were a little on the crunchy and stringy side.
Pat Lawlor was the guest speaker at the banquet. He talked quite a bit
about the history of pinball, how he got started, and what he felt were
important things to consider when designing a game. Thankfully, he did
not show any slides of motorcycles.
Two questions asked by people that might be of interest to some people
here:
Q: What's the deal with the Red Button on Whirlwind, Funhouse, and again
on Twilight Zone?
A: No answer, but you'll probably see them again.
Q: Which episode of The Twilight Zone was the Gumball machine in?
A: I'm allowed a little bit of creativity.
(Note: these aren't exact quotes).
Jim Schelberg of The pinGame Journal was there, and he had some of Dennis
Nordman's early design notes for Whitewater. He also had a Whitewater
whitewood, and quite a few (early?) plastic pieces from the game. Chances
are he'll put together something on Whitewater for a future issue of The
pGj.
Steve and Laura Engel were there, selling backglasses, manuals, flyers, and
parts. I got some rubber bands for my Addams and Getaway so I can finally
shop those things out. Boy my Getaway gets dirty REAL quick.
Tim Arnold was there, holding a raffle for miscellaneous pinball stuff.
To partake in the raffle, you bought your tickets and had to put each one
into the butt-hole of a hollow rubber rat. All the rubber rats then went
into a barrel, and were picked out to determine winners. Boy, this guy's
methods are sick, sick, sick. However sick, he did manage to raise over
$1,000 for charity.
Let's see, what else. Not much for me, anyway. I played a lot of pinball
with Roger Sharpe. That was fun. After he kicked my butt on a beautiful
Stern Catacomb, I took him over to a machine of my era (an F-14 Tomcat),
played first, and scored over 10M on my first ball. He wasn't too happy
about that. Then again, I wasn't too happy when he promptly took me over
to an EM (I forget the name) and stomped me blind.
This show was fun, a little smaller than last year, but still enjoyable.
Dan Farris
|>
|> Personally, I find Easter Egg stuff interesting.
I hope so. At Milwaukee, I happened to observe a Williams employee
demonstrating a Twilight Zone easter egg. What came out was a long version
of the "credits." Just happened to notice that one was "Lyman Sheats, Jr."
--
Dan Farris Motorola, Inc.
far...@rtsg.mot.com Radio Telephone Systems Group
+1-708-632-3103 1501 W. Shure Drive
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Kevin Martin
[information about Arizona archived, BTW]
--
Kevin Martin si...@rahul.net
Visit the Pinball Archive by anonymous FTP: ftp.rahul.net:/pub/sigma/pinball
Between two evils, always pick the one you never tried before.
Brian Guest
new machines recently and discovered a Dr Who with 2 credits on it.
It was in fairly good shape and was by far the most forgiving Dr Who
that I have yet seen. The slingshots were pretty weak and it gave an
extra doctor on each ball. I played both games at once and my player
1 score was 1.63 billion and my player 2 score was around 800,000.
Now I realize that luck is a big factor in this and every other
pinball game but I though that it was odd that the same player on the
same machine at the same time could get two scores that were so far
apart. Are there any other games where a good score is more than 2000
times greater than a bad score for the same player. Has anyone ever
gotten a lower score on an easy Dr. Who when they were trying?
pax
Brian Guest \\ It was so very beautiful that the Mole
Centre for Medieval Studies \\ could only hold up both fore-paws and
University of Toronto // gasp, 'O my! O my! O my!'
(bgu...@epas.utoronto.ca) // KENNETH GRAHAME
af...@acad2.alaska.edu
>
>>Yeah, Lyman, we'll try those out... sure. Too bad those are the two
>>machines that just disappeared from the student center.
>
> Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention: the sequence for the Getaway only works
> either once per game or once per power-on, I can't remember.
>
>>Anyway, TELL US ABOUT ARIZONA! Who won? What was the surprise machine?
>>What else happened?
>
> Ugh. Do I have to?
<lots of stuff about the Arizone tourney deleted>
THANK YOU! This is something that I told kevin I would like to see, in his
poll. Personal experience at tourneys. I prolly won't get a chance to get to
one for several years, due to location, so it's a great vicarious thrill for me
to read about the exploits of sheets/martin/etc.
Joel
Kevin Martin
>Are there any other games where a good score is more than 2000
>times greater than a bad score for the same player.
Sure, Dracula. Let's see - maybe 10M for a bad-luck game, 50-100M for a
typical game, 2B for a good Triple Multiball game, 10B for a long or
repeated Triple game.
Well, maybe 2000 isn't quite the factor, but the effect is the same.
>Has anyone ever
>gotten a lower score on an easy Dr. Who when they were trying?
Lower than 800K? When it spots a doctor on every ball? Which is worth at
least 6M in end bonus? Jeez.
Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
>OK, Lyman, go ahead, tell us. What was your high score on Cover Girl?
Ugh. The nightmare resurfaces.
Well, OK, I did manage to score about 1,100 points on my first game.
I have no idea if this is a good score or not.
What was interesting about play on this game was that the winner of the
women's division outscored more than half of the (male) finalists.
Jim Schelberg of the pinGame Journal was asking Roger Sharpe why the women
typically scored lower than the men on new games. Roger theorized that the
differences in score could be attributed to the physical aspects of play.
Roger wanted to test his theory, so we set up one of the crappy playing TZs
to "breathe on it and you'll tilt" mode. Basically, if you got even the
slightest bit physical with the game, the game would tilt.
We played 3 4-player games. Roger and I were a team, and Julia and Jeri
were a team. Total score for each team determined the winner.
Julia and Jeri took the first game decisively (they won by over 100M).
Roger and I barely won the second game (50M point spread), and Roger and
I won the third game (100M point spread). There were no blowouts.
Marc Sira
In a previous article, l...@scribe.mitre.org (Lyman F. Sheats Jr.) says:
>What was interesting about play on this game was that the winner of the
>women's division outscored more than half of the (male) finalists.
I was pretty stunned to read in your earlier posting that there even *are*
seperate men's and women's "divisions". Sounds more than a little ridiculous
to me...you might be able to justify this ever-so-slightly more than the
same division at a video-game tournament, which is to say not at all. If the
difference is supposed to be physical strength, I'd argue that a pinball
tournament should have tilt switches set so that games can be nudged, not
thrown around (actually, so should all games, and no, I'm not a fan of hair-
trigger switches).
--
Marc Sira |
aa...@freenet.carleton.ca | "Your god drinks...p-p-peach nectar."
t...@micor.ocunix.on.ca '
Kevin Martin
>I was pretty stunned to read in your earlier posting that there even *are*
>seperate men's and women's "divisions". Sounds more than a little ridiculous
>to me...you might be able to justify this ever-so-slightly more than the
>same division at a video-game tournament, which is to say not at all. If the
>difference is supposed to be physical strength, I'd argue that a pinball
>tournament should have tilt switches set so that games can be nudged, not
>thrown around (actually, so should all games, and no, I'm not a fan of hair-
>trigger switches).
I had an interesting discussion a couple of weeks ago with a female friend
(non-player) about this.
Basically, all issues of sexism and discrimination aside, it's very simple.
Empirically (I've been to PAPA 3 and AMOA 3), there are relatively few
highly skilled female players (you've seen their names in the AMOA results
posted here and in the Archive), and the skill curve drops off more
rapidly. Most of the female participants are in the company of a male
partner, and otherwise would perhaps not be at the tournament at all. I
think that there would be even fewer female participants if it were not for
the Women's Division (and the Mixed Doubles Division).
I'll agree - a separate division looks/sounds a little bad, no matter how
you set it up (I would like to see the Open and Masters Divisions, which
are implicitly male-only, be truly open), but it encourages more female
players to compete. And anything which encourages more people to play
pinball is an excellent idea, if you ask me.
Oh, as for the Tilt switches, that's basically how the games have been
setup at both tournaments. The only possible exception would be Jurassic,
but only by a slight margin - Death Saves are easy on JP not because of
Tilt sensitivity, so much as the drain plate being so near the flippers.
Tee'd Off was ridiculously sensitive, and tended to give Tilt warnings in
sets of six or seven, instead of one or two.
Now, whom have I offended this time? Sigh.
--
Kevin Martin si...@rahul.net
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