Gambling on pinball

[thrillhouse7]

Just curious if any of you guys play pinball and if any of you gamble on it.

I play pinball pretty regularly. The other night a couple of guys i see regularly at the pinball place and i bet a few bucks a game. Nothing too big but fun none the less.

Pinball has had association with gambling in the past and i say it's time to bring it back.

[mosquito]

In high school I used to run up the credits
and sell them at a discount.

Only 'gambling' incident was amusing-

While at a convention, and being a lounge
lizard, a guy from the group came up announcing
that he had just put a new high on the pinball
machine in the lobby.

Having never seen the machine, and not knowing
anything about the fellow, I said "I'll bet $10
that I can beat your high in four games or less".

It created a bunch of interest in the group, and
a new high was put up on the second game. I had
not played that model before or since.

best, mosquito

[pshreck]

[ QUOTE ]
In high school I used to run up the credits
and sell them at a discount.

Only 'gambling' incident was amusing-

While at a convention, and being a lounge
lizard, a guy from the group came up announcing
that he had just put a new high on the pinball
machine in the lobby.

Having never seen the machine, and not knowing
anything about the fellow, I said "I'll bet $10
that I can beat your high in four games or less".

It created a bunch of interest in the group, and
a new high was put up on the second game. I had
not played that model before or since.

best, mosquito

[/ QUOTE ]

Kinda sucks to be good at something that can't make any money or gain respect. Like video games.

[Theodore Donald Kiravatsos]

OK, so I used to play a lot of pinball a few years ago. I didn't think I was all that good, still I was good enough to get a replay from time to time if I got familiar enough with a game. My best game was Corvette ZR-1 and put a few high scores on that one at the corner bar.

Anhow, the VERY FIRST time I saw the new version of "The Who's Tommy", I was reading the instructions for how to activate multiball, when I noticed the line "Hint: You can become Tommy by holding down the (whatever) button when you press START". So I did that, and a fan-like thing unfolded just in front of my bumpers and flippers, extending about 5 inches. I played the entire game without being able to see the flippers at all.

And I scored high enough to get a free game. I never played "Tommy" again, I figured it would be pretty hard to top that experience.

[mosta]

there are pinball tournaments around the country and even some internationally. (I think Holland is supposed to have taken the forefront.) I learned from a guy in college how to make slap saves, and that it is a game of acquired skills. many years later in Oakland while playing after introducing a friend to the game we ran into a couple of guys who blew our minds. the variety of traps and passes, and how they could control a multiball, it was incredible, unimaginable. in fact as we watched them play for months later we constantly began to notice more and more things they'd been doing all along that were too fast or too subtle to distinguish for a novice. some of the tip passes that looked like mostly random flailing, we began to notice were consistently placed eg half way up the opposite return lane. they play in tournaments but there's hardly any money in it (if any now--this was all 3-5 years ago), and generally the winner would do well to make airfare, or maybe win a new machine that could be sold for a couple grand. the guys we became friends with are Neil Shatz and Hal Erickson. We also met Rick Stetta and Mark Conant and some others at tournaments. to get idea what it was like seeing these guys play, apart from the pure technique--think of your favorite game and how it has some ridiculous expert mode (do 1 and 2 and 3 and then 4 and 5 and then you get a chance to try to do 6) which you can hardly imagine being possible (think superjackpots in fishtales, or rule the universe in attack from mars, or the comparable thing in medieval madness) and you're probalby never come anywhere close to doing it even by accident and luck. well these guys will do it for the first time within 5 minutes and aim for doing it 5 or 6 or 7 times to get a decent score. we learned most of the techniques but we never came close to their level because we just weren't accurate or consistent enough with our shots and saves. but we have impressive looking game to amateurs. Neil and Hal have both won national level tournaments, though I don't remember specifically what titles. just to give a taste (and maybe you already know this and are way ahead of where we were when we thought we were pretty decent), the big area of the game that was a revelation to us was trapping. the ball is coming at your flippers. you want to control it so you can shoot it accurately. don't swat at it. one thing, if the angle is not extreme, you can do is leave the flippers down. do nothing. the ball then bounces from one to the other and then up slighly and then it comes back down gently on that side and you can catch it in the crook. or, the ball is coming at the flipper. raise the flipper. the instant the ball starts to make contact release the flipper. the loose flipper deadens the balls impact and when it comes to rest the ball almost magically sticks to it, or actually it usually rolls up slightly away from the tip, just a little bit, and you've got it. now try to imagine combining these moves in a multi-ball where you're holding one or two balls and then trapping an incoming ball and shooting a trapped one off the same flipper in a combination. here's a multiball move. you're playing fishtales and you're trying to get a jackpot. you have two balls trapped on the right and one trapped on the left. you shoot the left ball into the lock (the something house?). now you hvae to shoot the left orbit within a timer, but you have two balls on your right flipper. can't shoot accurately like that. give the balls a small tap, after leveling them out on the flipper by shaking. the top ball goes up the edge of the triangular slingshot a couple inches. while that one is in the air, give another tap, slightly stronger. the other ball goes backwards into the bottom corner of the slingshot and ricochets across to the left to the other flipper, just as the first ball falls back into the right crook. presto, separated. it's pretty damn cool. one last move, the resurrection. the ball drains out the right side. it goes down the outside lane. as it comes across the angled part at the bottom, behind the right flipper, hvae the left flipper raised. as the ball is down there on the angled wall and gets just above the hole, you violently shake the machine from left to right, very hard but barely moving it. the legs almost stay in place. it's almost like you're twisting the end of the machine counterclockwise and then clockwise. or if the tilt is broken you can slide it several inches left then right suddenly. the ball bounces from the right side angled wall to the left side one and then up onto your right flipper. on many machines you can't do it without tilting. when there is a tilt but you can get a violent motion while barely moving the legs, and you get a double danger, but no tilt, as you jump back to let it steady itself and the ball flies up, that's pretty cool too. there's a completely different technique for left side drains (bang back), which I've never pulled off a single time.

[thrillhouse7]

bang backs are real easy on some machines and impossible on others. once you do it once it becomes pretty easy. Easier than death saves for me. Another trap that is wicked cool is the one where you flip so that the flipper meets the ball exactly when the flipper is at its uppermost position. ball stops dead. the only really good player i've had the oppurtunity to watch is paul madison. In april i'll be able to see lyman sheats play.

[mosta]

oddly for me, the trap you describe (I forget what name we used for it) is the only one I figured out on my own as a hack--probably because it comes nearest to swatting at the ball, which is sort of the native instinct (though I don't understand how or why it works, and I certainly don't get it every time). my favorite move is when in multiball you have a ball trapped with the flipper up and there is one incoming to that flipper. you drop the flipper, bounce pass the incoming ball across and then shoot the first ball all in one motion. hal and neil do a lot more subtle things with tip passes that look sort of like swatting, but nick it across into the other lane--but they're too subtle for me to appreciate or attempt. I "know" bang backs can be easy bc I was watching this guy on an old wobbly comet machine who was doing them with his left hip! but still I end up hurting my hand and not moving the machine, or anything, at all. it might be b/c I subconsciously refuse to let go and hit full force.