bad tournament machines

[alveolus]

Hello. I am new to tournament organization and would like to ask for
some advice from the veterans. Which commonly encountered machines
(particularly DMD and later solid-state) would you consider as poor
choices for competition due to unbalanced scoring, non-random factors,
etc?

thanks,
Shawn

[DenPINBALL]

Someone told me that BBH is infamous for unreliable scoring and a poor tourney choice.

[swampfire]

Our biggest problem in league was with games having long ball times.
LOTR and RFM fell into this category the last time I hosted. You can
mitigate this by adjusting the outlane posts, or by removing them
entirely.

If I use my JM in league I will probably replace the spinner with a
roll-under.


--
swampfire
This USENET post sent from http://rgparchive.com

[Jason Bauer]

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 12:49:14 PM UTC-5, swampfire wrote:
> Our biggest problem in league was with games having long ball times. LOTR and RFM fell into this category the last time I hosted. You can mitigate this by adjusting the outlane posts, or by removing them entirely. If I use my JM in league I will probably replace the spinner with a roll-under. -- swampfire This USENET post sent from http://rgparchive.com

Attack from mars has been a problem with long ball times in the last couple tournaments I've participated it.

I would not put my CV in a tournament or my TSPP.

[barakandl]

High Speed, Pinbot and any of the sys 11 games with carry over
jackpots. There might be custom roms for tournaments.

[John Robertson]

Police Force and a number of Data East games had steal the high scores
of the best player - which could be annoying in a tournament.

John :-#)#

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[phishrace]

IJ4, AVE (with current software) and JY all are bad due to lopsided
scoring. HSII and NGG have buggy software.

-phish

[rcba...@gmail.com]

> Attack from mars has been a problem with long ball times in the last couple tournaments I've participated it.
>

Was that the game's fault, or Trent's fault?

[Noahpdavis]

Sounds like you should tighten up that AFM.

Besides removing the outlane posts, you can also tighten the tilt.
Also, installing lightning flippers makes any game harder/drainier and
makes for an interesting challenge as people who are familiar with the
shots have to adjust.

Make sure the slings are really sensitive.

[Jason Bauer]

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 1:34:10 PM UTC-5, rcba...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Attack from mars has been a problem with long ball times in the last couple tournaments I've participated it. > Was that the game's fault, or Trent's fault?

I blame the game. Trent wasnt the only one able to have marathon games on it.

[Jonny O]

There are a lot of games that have issues. Some you can counteract by how the game is set up or by adjusting settings in software. Others are just total no-goes. If you post what games you're considering and what format tournament, people can tell you specifics.

[matt...@gmail.com]

Games with long ball time can be adjusted to make them harder as stated above. What you really need to look out for is a poor scoring ruleset- such as Bride of Pinbot and it's billion shot, it juts makes the scoring too uneven, and even more so because it a "chance" jackpot.

[swampfire]

A lot of great pins allow players to steal each other's locks, e.g.
Fathom and Space Station. That hasn't kept us from using these games in
league. Not everything has to be perfectly "fair".

[Jonny O]

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013 8:01:16 AM UTC-8, swampfire wrote:
> A lot of great pins allow players to steal each other's locks, e.g.
>
> Fathom and Space Station. That hasn't kept us from using these games in
>
> league. Not everything has to be perfectly "fair".
>

I not only don't have a problem with that, I think it's the best thing about those games. It's much more player versus player that way, instead of player versus machine.

[stangbat]

Unless someone can point me to how you can disable the Blastoff
carryover on A13, I consider it a bad tournament game. Whoever is lucky
enough to get 13 ball multiball is going to rack up the points.

Stern Spiderman had crazy long ball times and really slows things down.
I'm thinking of removing the center flipper post for the next tourney.


--
stangbat

[PVC]

Bride of Pinbot with the Billion shot = unfair advantage. Also Williams Indy is blackflagged in the Arizona League for being a marathon game.

[PVC]

I saw Getaway on the list, that machine has had the most entry's in our local tournament.

[calvin12]

While the BoP billion unbalances scoring I believe it can be set to give
that every time as the first big wheel spin, then everyone gets a chance
at it. or you just set it to 1% then its unlikely anyone gets it. you
can also run a custom score that anyone getting a bullion shot take the
billion off the final score and add 5M or 10m instead. so a
1,020,000,000 score gets recorded as 25,000,000.


--
calvin12

[nwojedi]

swampfire;2053302 Wrote:
> Our biggest problem in league was with games having long ball times.
> LOTR and RFM fell into this category the last time I hosted. You can
> mitigate this by adjusting the outlane posts, or by removing them
> entirely.
>
> If I use my JM in league I will probably replace the spinner with a
> roll-under.

LOTR yes. way to long of ball times to use in tourney. RFM on the
other hand is the opposite. In my house, very short ball times. It's
brutal. Maybe the settings?


BBBB would be unusable since they have an award that flips your score
with someone elses. Also, there was another game that had a mystery
award to catch up to the leader, so you automatically got the leaders
score no matter how far ahead he was. That wouldn't be good for tourney
as well.


--
nwojedi

* C a p t a i n N e o *
Pinball 'Playfield restoration' (http://www.playfieldrestoration.com)
service :D

[Jeff Rivera]

Just about any game can be made tournament worthy if you open up the
outlanes, tighten the tilt, and make sure it's steep enough. There are
two major exceptions however:

1) Can't have big random elements/scores (BoP big/small wheels)
2) Can't carry over jackpots from player to player

As long as you eliminate randomness in the scoring, any "long ball time"
game can be made plenty hard enough for tournament play. The PAPA videos
of SM are some of the most enjoyable I've watched, and it's because they
adjusted it well.


--
Jeff Rivera

'The Pinball Podcast' (http://thepinballpodcast.com) - Pinball Talk by a
Couple of Pinheads

[SeeDees]

TOTAN.


--
SeeDees

[phishrace]

On Mar 6, 3:48 pm, Jeff Rivera <jar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just about any game can be made tournament worthy if you open up the
> outlanes, tighten the tilt, and make sure it's steep enough.

Just about any game can be made no fun in a tournament too. The goal
is to use fun games if at all possible. Not just any games you have
laying around.

> There are
> two major exceptions however:
>
> 1) Can't have big random elements/scores (BoP big/small wheels)
> 2) Can't carry over jackpots from player to player

You forgot one:

3. Can't have lopsided scoring

You can use JY or IJ4 in a tournament, but you'll have the most boring
tournament ever. Spectators will all leave early and cameras will
refuse to take video. Game selection is a very important part of
organizing a tournament.

-phish

[PinballDame]

Hey. Will you check out my games list for my poker tourney and let me know any issues you might for see so I can try to alleviate any problems upfront.

lvpinballtournaments.webs.com

[PinballDame]

This is a great Idea. Thank you. This game is in my tournament this upcoming weekend. I will definitely be using one of these options.

[Pinsgonewild]

How is the Billion shot unfair when every player has a chance to get it?

Don.

[calvin12]

It's percentage based default is I think 25. Player one may get the
chance and player 2 might get5 million.

[ldnayman]

Anything by Data East made before 1994.

[calvin12]

[main source]

there are fixed rom jackpots for high speed and pinbot so you are ok
there.
jokerz you can keep it maxed it all times so thats ok.yes,
there are games you can steal ball locks but it is what it is.
same way the random powerball shows up on tz, avatar le, TRS LE.
the data east series mentioned are fine as long as you place fat post
rubber in certain ramp places and other physical tweaks.
TOTAN used to be void, but a recent one at clanceys was set up so it was
tourney worthy (no harem) somehow.
only games with real issues are any game that has a random mystery score
(like many gottliebs) or random catch up to other player scores)
gottliebs again.


--
main source