Dot matrix Displays
Joelle Ann Mellon
thought I'd ask the question anyways.
HS2 was referred to by many as a gimmicky game, and after finally
playing the one that arrived in my area, I tend to agree. Playing it
actually made me realize something that's been bugging me for quite some
time about pinball machines in general, and the dot-matrix games in
specific.
Is it just me, or between the programmers putting in all these pretty
graphics for everything from Super Jackpots to lighting kickbacks, to
hitting a damn bumper, did everyone seem to forget that displaying your
score every now and then might be a good idea?
Games that come to find:
* Gilligan's Island
Anyone have the foggiest notion how much each ingredient is worth?
* Addams Family
Granted, I really like these graphics, still, I'd like to know how many
points a bumper is worth outside of the grave value or Raise The Dead
* Earthshaker
I can't even figure out how many miles I have, let alone my score. I
hit the ramp, and by the time the number comes to a stop I have to look
down.
* High Speed 2
Usually I just glance over to watch someone else play. The person's
score is one of the things I least expect to see.
* Hurricane
If the damn ramps ain't lit, don't do anything special! I would much
rather see how much hitting an unlit Hurricane is worth than see a cow
mooing.
There are other games that aren't as bad that you could still make a
reasonable case for: Hook, BK2K, Star Trek, in fact, a great deal of
Williams games, and a good part of Data East games. Gottlieb seems to
have been good in this area.
Have to end this post quick. (which is why a lot of the examples are a
bit choppy). Any comments?
-Robert Chesnavich
"Get...EXCELLENT"
-T2, a bit confused
Roger Patenaude
I noticed the same thing. What gets me is on some DE games like Secret Service
they only use four 7 digit displays and save on a credit/match display by
using one of the player ones. The problem is they show you remaining credits
in lieu of current ball in play. They show you current ball only for an
instant when you start the ball and then drop into credits mode.
I'd rather know what ball I'm on myself.
Roger.
Happiness and Light
|Is it just me, or between the programmers putting in all these pretty
|graphics for everything from Super Jackpots to lighting kickbacks, to
|hitting a damn bumper, did everyone seem to forget that displaying your
|score every now and then might be a good idea?
|
|Games that come to find:
|
|
|* Earthshaker
| I can't even figure out how many miles I have, let alone my score. I
|hit the ramp, and by the time the number comes to a stop I have to look
|down.
Um, isn't that what the lights in the left arrow-like thing in the
center of the playfield is for? Granted, it stops becoming useful
after you pass 75 miles, since that's the most it can show, but by
then you know that 99 miles isn't far off, and the machine tells you
when you're there (rumble rumble).
I always thought that was one of the more cool things about ES, the
way it shows you the miles count via lights in the playfield. I
remember Haunted House actually having a little scoreboard there just
in front of the subterranean playfield (something else I'd like to see
return) that showed your bonus. I wish more games did things like
that, just like I wish bonus was actually important scorewise in
games. At least some recent games (TAF, for example) the bonus is
actually significant, but others (say, Hurricane) all it does is
randomize the low-order digits of your score.
On an unrelated topic: I played some games of the old classic Space
Shuttle (from 1984), the other day, after I'd been playing TAF quite a
bit. I noticed that TAF scoring is right around 100x SS scoring, to wit:
Major shots: 20K, 50K, 100K on SS would translate to 2M, 5M, 10M on
TAF, pretty comparable.
Bonus: 1K units on SS compared to the 100K and 500K units on TAF, but
the SS ones are more spread out and easier to get in general.
Replay: Generally around 1M to 1.5M on SS, which would translate to
100M to 150M on TAF.
Top Scoring: SS rolls over at 10M, where 1B on TAF is also damn
impressive.
Perhaps some energetic person could go thru most of the popular
machines in recent history, making a multiplier factor list so it'd be
possible to compare scores across machines? Granted, some machines
have weird scoring quirks that make that hard (i.e. Bride Of Pinbot,
with thaat damned 1 billion shot), but it could be done.
Finrod Felagund (alias Brad Elmore),
borrowing his gf's acct because his regular acct
has too small a quota to want to keep a .newsrc in
Bill Ung
|thought I'd ask the question anyways.
I think I actually like the alpha-numerics a little better. Something
fancy on an alpha-numeric showed expertise and a little innovation.
HIGH SPEED, my favorite, does some pretty neat things in attract mode.
Not to say Dot Matrix isn't good, I absolutely LOVE the way TAF uses it.
|HS2 was referred to by many as a gimmicky game, and after finally
|playing the one that arrived in my area, I tend to agree. Playing it
|actually made me realize something that's been bugging me for quite some
|time about pinball machines in general, and the dot-matrix games in
|specific.
|
|Is it just me, or between the programmers putting in all these pretty
|graphics for everything from Super Jackpots to lighting kickbacks, to
|hitting a damn bumper, did everyone seem to forget that displaying your
|score every now and then might be a good idea?
I agree with all but one...
|Games that come to find:
|
|* Gilligan's Island
| Anyone have the foggiest notion how much each ingredient is worth?
|* Addams Family
| Granted, I really like these graphics, still, I'd like to know how many
|points a bumper is worth outside of the grave value or Raise The Dead
|* Earthshaker
| I can't even figure out how many miles I have, let alone my score. I
|hit the ramp, and by the time the number comes to a stop I have to look
|down.
Earthshaker isn't a dot matrix, at least none of the ones I've ever seen
are dot matrix. You can check the number of miles at any time by looking
at the lower left area of the playfield. You'll see a group of lights
that combined will display the number of miles you have.
|* High Speed 2
| Usually I just glance over to watch someone else play. The person's
|score is one of the things I least expect to see.
|* Hurricane
| If the damn ramps ain't lit, don't do anything special! I would much
|rather see how much hitting an unlit Hurricane is worth than see a cow
|mooing.
I always wondered why there was an f'ing cow mooing at me. I agree with
you here, this graphic/sound is pretty stupid.
|There are other games that aren't as bad that you could still make a
|reasonable case for: Hook, BK2K, Star Trek, in fact, a great deal of
|Williams games, and a good part of Data East games. Gottlieb seems to
|have been good in this area.
Has Gottlieb entered the dot-matrix era yet? Last time I checked, "Class
of 1812", they were using the small green alpha-numerics, not even the
large ones that Williams and DE have been using for years.
|Have to end this post quick. (which is why a lot of the examples are a
|bit choppy). Any comments?
Maybe this is a way to keep people from complaining about inflated scoring?
If ya can't see it, you can't complain about it. :-)
Bill Ung
u...@filenet.com
donald.w.coons
>
>Has Gottlieb entered the dot-matrix era yet? Last time I checked, "Class
>of 1812", they were using the small green alpha-numerics, not even the
>large ones that Williams and DE have been using for years.
>
Check out Super Mario Brothers it is Premiers first attempt at Dot Matrix
>
>Bill Ung
> u...@filenet.com
Don Coons
d...@wnb3b2.att.com
Steve Baumgarten
Perhaps some energetic person could go thru most of the popular
machines in recent history, making a multiplier factor list so it'd be
possible to compare scores across machines? Granted, some machines
have weird scoring quirks that make that hard (i.e. Bride Of Pinbot,
with thaat damned 1 billion shot), but it could be done.
One of the two T2 machines at Broadway got a ROM upgrade, and ever
since its scoring has been completely flaked out. Scores of 4 billion
are not uncommon, and if you score less than 500M you've had a
complete flop of a game.
Occasionally your score will decrease, which adds excitement to the
proceedings -- kind of like the "Bankrupt" space on Wheel of Fortune...
(No one knows why the scoring is so screwy as the machine is otherwise
in perfect working order. Folks have been over it with a fine-tooth
comb, and no cause or solution seems in sight.)
The sad thing is that a score of 4B is, in general, not really so
outlandish anymore...
--
Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart,
PANIX, New York, NY | remember, we were way ahead of you."
|
Email: s...@panix.com | - David Letterman