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Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006
Finally made it to local Pinball joint Mortimers in Minneapolis per Roffel's advice.

Great place - a shame that it's way out of walking distance for me, and well into obscene cab fare range. Would love a good pinball bar nearby.

8(?) tables if I counted right, all looking to be in great shape. Shiny as can be, and brightly lit. A few newer Sterns and a nice little who's who of 1990's Ballys goodness.

But what would pinball be without something bizarre happening. Played a few games of T2 with my girlfriend when she noticed something and asked "That's not supposed to be there, right?"



Heh. No. The loose screw isn't usually sliding down the playfield. Mentioned it to one of the bartenders just in case it wrecked havoc once it made it's way into the drain. (It didn't seem to cause problems.)

Moved on to Theater of Magic for a bit, and then Addam's Family. A game or so in - girlfriend again - "What the Hell's that?" Loose screw number 2 - absolutely dancing around the play field because "The Power" was activated. It ended up in the ball drain - nestled in nicely. A few balls later it was gone.


Mortimer's : great selection. Great condition. Greatly amusing.

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TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Ah yes, the old loose screw. Had my share of those flying around the pins I played at different local places before they all gave up. Most of them made their way down the drain and into the electronics in the cabinet, just sitting there.

Still, the crowning moment of hilarity was when I cleanly knocked out one of the bulbs on the electric chair in TAF. Now that was funny. That one stayed on the playfield for a while, hell, it even stayed on the playfield until the next day, when we decided to complain for the second time, this time more emphatically.

I don't know if it's just bad luck, but every single op I had to deal with just did not give a single poo poo.

roffels
Jul 27, 2004

Yo Taxi!

Tony Phillips posted:

Finally made it to local Pinball joint Mortimers in Minneapolis per Roffel's advice.

Great place - a shame that it's way out of walking distance for me, and well into obscene cab fare range. Would love a good pinball bar nearby.


Mortimer's : great selection. Great condition. Greatly amusing.

Not sure if you were there when Gringos (the back part of the bar) was open, but there's more games back there as well - Dracula, Transformers, X-Men, and AC DC. They're adding a Star Trek Premium and a Junkyard this weekend.

TheMcD posted:


I don't know if it's just bad luck, but every single op I had to deal with just did not give a single poo poo.

Mort's op is on top of things, generally. Usually gets out to the location with-in a day or two at most. I appreciate it. Though I feel like a nag when I tell him if something's broken.

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006

roffels posted:

Not sure if you were there when Gringos (the back part of the bar) was open, but there's more games back there as well - Dracula, Transformers, X-Men, and AC DC. They're adding a Star Trek Premium and a Junkyard this weekend.


Mort's op is on top of things, generally. Usually gets out to the location with-in a day or two at most. I appreciate it. Though I feel like a nag when I tell him if something's broken.

Whoa. Never noticed any additional part of the bar - not sure if it was accessible or not.

And lest it not be clear - I was really just amused that I happened to run into loose screws on two tables almost back to back. Especially when playing ones that are clearly kept up nice. (SS Billiards take note.) Bartender didn't really care, but I didn't expect him to. Said the owner was coming today (This happened yesterday) and that he'd let him know that the screws ended up down there.

roffels
Jul 27, 2004

Yo Taxi!

Gringos typically opens up at 9PM, which is a shame, because I'd really like to play those games more often, but I try to get there before then.

The Joe Man
Apr 7, 2007

Flirting With Apathetic Waitresses Since 1984
How the hell haven't I ever noticed pinball machines at Mort's?!?!

Anywhere decent Saint Paul side?

roffels
Jul 27, 2004

Yo Taxi!

The Joe Man posted:

How the hell haven't I ever noticed pinball machines at Mort's?!?!

Anywhere decent Saint Paul side?

... Playing foosball perhaps?

Sun Ray Lanes has a good selection and the op is a pretty good guy too. He's there daily checking on his games.

Tony Phillips
Feb 9, 2006

The Joe Man posted:

How the hell haven't I ever noticed pinball machines at Mort's?!?!

Anywhere decent Saint Paul side?

Huh. Didn't know there was any other twin cities area goons that posted here. I'm on 7th about a mile southwest of the Xcel Center. Haven't played any of them but have seen a Fish Tales at Shamrocks, an old Mata Hari at a bar called "Grand 7" and at least one table I didn't get close enough to recognize in a tattoo shop between the two. That's all I know of in my neck of the woods though.

The Joe Man posted:

Are you literally my neighbor? I'm at the brewery.

Sup, neighbor? Bottle house.

Tony Phillips fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Jul 22, 2014

The Joe Man
Apr 7, 2007

Flirting With Apathetic Waitresses Since 1984

Tony Phillips posted:

Huh. Didn't know there was any other twin cities area goons that posted here. I'm on 7th about a mile southwest of the Xcel Center. Haven't played any of them but have seen a Fish Tales at Shamrocks, an old Mata Hari at a bar called "Grand 7" and at least one table I didn't get close enough to recognize in a tattoo shop between the two. That's all I know of in my neck of the woods though.

Are you literally my neighbor? I'm at the brewery.

Tony Phillips posted:

Sup, neighbor? Bottle house.
Please stop slamming your cupboards.

The Joe Man fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Jul 22, 2014

Yechezkel
Oct 5, 2004

Fun Shoe
Heads up PS4 Pinball Arcade players: there is a 5 GB game update for the new tables tomorrow. The game update is larger than the installed game file size. :psyduck:

Hopefully, the table trials will work before the PSN update on Tuesday afternoon.

Volfogg
Dec 19, 2010

Some say she was raised by sentient birds, and that test subjects replicating her equipment were horribly broken.

All we know is she's called
The Hunter


Yechezkel posted:

Heads up PS4 Pinball Arcade players: there is a 5 GB game update for the new tables tomorrow. The game update is larger than the installed game file size. :psyduck:

Hopefully, the table trials will work before the PSN update on Tuesday afternoon.

And unless they changed things for the PS4 (don't know since I'm still on a PS3), since it's an Update, you'll have to let it be the only thing going for however long it takes to download. No courtesy of setting it to download in the background and play something else. Oh no, you're leaving it there for the whole download and installation process. Hope you have other plans for while it updates that don't involve your PS4.

Again, I could be wrong and they changed this from the PS3 -> PS4, or it'll auto download through PS+.

ovaries
Nov 20, 2004

Volfogg posted:

Hope you have other plans for while it updates that don't involve your PS4.

If one can't come up with some then they need to reevaluate their life

Yechezkel
Oct 5, 2004

Fun Shoe

Volfogg posted:

And unless they changed things for the PS4 (don't know since I'm still on a PS3), since it's an Update, you'll have to let it be the only thing going for however long it takes to download. No courtesy of setting it to download in the background and play something else. Oh no, you're leaving it there for the whole download and installation process. Hope you have other plans for while it updates that don't involve your PS4.

Again, I could be wrong and they changed this from the PS3 -> PS4, or it'll auto download through PS+.

Other games can be played while a game update is downloaded on a PS4, thank goodness. It's also possible to play the game that needs the update, but it won't connect online.

I can confirm that the trials for the new PS4 tables won't work until the store is updated. :sigh: After selecting one of the new tables, the game tries to access the listing for the table on PSN to sell before giving the option of playing the trial. Since the table isn't up, a PSN error about it being unavailable pops up and the game bumps you back to the table selection list.

Store update is usually around 11am to 1pm Pacific.

BiggerJ
May 21, 2007

What shall we do with him? A permaban, perhaps? Probate him for a few years? Or...shall we employ a big red custom title? You, the goons of SA, shall decide his fate.

TheMcD posted:

I don't know if it's just bad luck, but every single op I had to deal with just did not give a single poo poo.

How common is this? What are the worst and/or strangest instances of this you guys have had to deal with? Have any of you ever had to bribe someone to fix something or get it fixed, for example?

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

BiggerJ posted:

How common is this? What are the worst and/or strangest instances of this you guys have had to deal with? Have any of you ever had to bribe someone to fix something or get it fixed, for example?

My personal favorite is a T2 at a bowling alley a decent distance away (but still the closest location with a pinball until we got our own). At one point, it stopped working (I think the launcher was broke, but it's been so long I can't remember), and the op claimed they had to order a part from overseas.

It's been two years.

Big Bidness
Aug 2, 2004

TheMcD posted:

My personal favorite is a T2 at a bowling alley a decent distance away (but still the closest location with a pinball until we got our own). At one point, it stopped working (I think the launcher was broke, but it's been so long I can't remember), and the op claimed they had to order a part from overseas.

It's been two years.

Make him a lowball offer for the machine. I know someone who got an Addams Family dirt cheap because it sat turned off in a bar not making money and taking up space for a few years. He put something like 75 bucks into the repair and its perfect.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Big Bidness posted:

Make him a lowball offer for the machine. I know someone who got an Addams Family dirt cheap because it sat turned off in a bar not making money and taking up space for a few years. He put something like 75 bucks into the repair and its perfect.

He's insistent on not selling. It baffles me just how this rear end in a top hat expects to make money.

Shock Trooper
Oct 24, 2006

TERROR BALTIMORE


so I got the high score on a recently reset Addams Family machine in the arcade at a roller rink (in the year of our lord 2014). It's only significant to me because it beats my old high score of ~387 mil, which I was very proud of getting at the local arcade during the summer of 92, until some guy blew past it with a 500+ mil score. Feels good to get a personal best after over two decades, but it also makes me feel incredibly old.

(to be fair though, this machine seems a bit more lenient than other TAF's. Have no problems cradling the ball with the right flipper after graveyard kickout where on other machines it might bounce up too high, sometimes into the outlanes)

Squashy Nipples
Aug 18, 2007

loving Pinball, man.


Yesterday I fired up TPA, started playing Theater of Magic. Scored the 100 Million multiball jackpot in the first 30 seconds (accidentally fell down the staircase with my second shot). Gonna be my highest scoring game yet, right?

Sigh. Fell apart after that, only to come alive on the third ball: scored the 100 million jackpot AGAIN and got three extra balls... only to peter out just short of the Grand Finale. My final score didn't even make the high score list. :(

tonedef131
Sep 3, 2003

Picked up this little guy for $650 last night, my first and only pin. The cabinet and playfield are in really good shape and the backglass is mint. It needs a tuneup and a kicker rebuild but there is no battery leakage and everything seems to be functional. The only real problem is that the ramp is broken and the PO patched it with duct tape. Does anyone know where I could find a replacement? It's obviously a game specific part and by the looks of how it wore, I imagine a common break.

roffels
Jul 27, 2004

Yo Taxi!

I don't believe ramps for TMNT are easy to find, best bet is to hit up a site like pinside and see if anyone has one to spare. 650 is a great price for TMNT. I bought and sold mine for 950.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

I think your best bet for a replacement ramp is keeping an eye on ebay or various arcade classifieds to see if there's anyone parting a broken TMNT out. A cursory glance at the common parts shops doesn't find any game specific parts for TMNT.

You could take it to some place that can vacuum form a new ramp for you using the old one as a template, but that gets pricey for a one off.

Squashy Nipples
Aug 18, 2007

Collateral Damage posted:

You could take it to some place that can vacuum form a new ramp for you using the old one as a template, but that gets pricey for a one off.

supply and demand... why make just one? Have a small lot built, sell them yourself on Ebay, pay for the whole deal with sales.

Collateral Damage
Jun 13, 2009

I doubt the market would be very big and it might be more trouble than it's worth. I'd definitely judge interest on pinside first in that case.

tonedef131
Sep 3, 2003

I poked around pinside and it looks like Twisted Pins is planning on doing a reproduction of the ramps sometime this year. Until that happens, I will likely be playing with a duct taped ramp.

Polo-Rican
Jul 4, 2004

emptyquote my posts or die

Never knew this table even existed! I've never seen it or heard of it, and I've gone to a bunch of pinball arcades by this point! Well it looks like I have a new quest.

roffels
Jul 27, 2004

Yo Taxi!

Polo-Rican posted:

Never knew this table even existed! I've never seen it or heard of it, and I've gone to a bunch of pinball arcades by this point! Well it looks like I have a new quest.

It was the first table I bought and it quickly taught me not all pinball games are fun. The theme and art are pretty good though.

Squashy Nipples
Aug 18, 2007

Collateral Damage posted:

I doubt the market would be very big and it might be more trouble than it's worth. I'd definitely judge interest on pinside first in that case.

I was just talking out my rear end, I don't have any idea what reproduction parts cost. I suppose with 3D printing the toolmaking costs might be considerably lower then they used to be.

tonedef131
Sep 3, 2003

roffels posted:

It was the first table I bought and it quickly taught me not all pinball games are fun. The theme and art are pretty good though.
I like the theme as much as any other kid who was born in the 80s, but I mainly just bought it because it seemed like a good deal. 90s DMD machines just do not go for less than $1k around here, certainly not in this kind of shape. I'll probably have a thousand into it by the time I'm done with it, maybe more if I do LEDs, but I should be able to get that back out of it pretty easily. I can tell the gameplay will not have a lot of staying power and I don't really have room for it so once it's cleaned up I'll probably either trade it towards a different machine or stick it at my buddys bar and let hipsters pump it full of quarters.

cosmicjim
Mar 23, 2010
VISIT THE STICKIED GOON HOLIDAY CHARITY DRIVE THREAD IN GBS.

Goons are changing the way children get an education in Haiti.

Edit - Oops, no they aren't. They donated to doobie instead.

tonedef131 posted:

I like the theme as much as any other kid who was born in the 80s, but I mainly just bought it because it seemed like a good deal. 90s DMD machines just do not go for less than $1k around here, certainly not in this kind of shape. I'll probably have a thousand into it by the time I'm done with it, maybe more if I do LEDs, but I should be able to get that back out of it pretty easily. I can tell the gameplay will not have a lot of staying power and I don't really have room for it so once it's cleaned up I'll probably either trade it towards a different machine or stick it at my buddys bar and let hipsters pump it full of quarters.

I paid $1300 for that table. You got a great deal. That being said, the game is pretty shallow. The key to the game is being able to hit 3 consecutive shots when a certain thing is lit. Hitting one ramp, then the other, then the sewer. It's a pretty low scoring table and hitting that combo is worth like 10 million by itself, when otherwise your total score might be 10 million.

Bloody Hedgehog
Dec 12, 2003

💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something

Squashy Nipples posted:

I was just talking out my rear end, I don't have any idea what reproduction parts cost. I suppose with 3D printing the toolmaking costs might be considerably lower then they used to be.

Not really. You could certainly get a cheap 3D print, but if you wanted a 3D print indistinguishable from the true part, it would probably cost more than the machine itself.

A bunch of my sculptor friends have started using 3D printing to make copies of ZBrush/Mudbox models, and high-quality copies of even mid-size stuff costs thousands.

Domus
May 7, 2007

Kidney Buddies

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Not really. You could certainly get a cheap 3D print, but if you wanted a 3D print indistinguishable from the true part, it would probably cost more than the machine itself.

A bunch of my sculptor friends have started using 3D printing to make copies of ZBrush/Mudbox models, and high-quality copies of even mid-size stuff costs thousands.

Yeah, we managed to get our hands on a pair of blinders for Data East's Tommy, a part that sells for 2 or 3 hundred dollars. I wanted to get them 3d scanned and printed, because it's a part that broke all the time, and no replicas are available. I contact a 3d printer in town. $160 to make a CAD model? Awesome. Now we get to printing costs. How much to print them? loving $175 a pair. Uh, no. There's gotta be a better way to make these. Anyone know what it is?

Squashy Nipples
Aug 18, 2007

Yay! Finally got my Multiball Super Jackpot in AFM! Rule the Universe was actually pretty easy once I got there.

This there a secret way to activate Cow Mode for Video Mode? I swear a few times the machine has given me notice of something to do with cows right when I launch the first ball.. maybe a flipper combo I accidentally pressed?

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Squashy Nipples posted:

Yay! Finally got my Multiball Super Jackpot in AFM! Rule the Universe was actually pretty easy once I got there.

This there a secret way to activate Cow Mode for Video Mode? I swear a few times the machine has given me notice of something to do with cows right when I launch the first ball.. maybe a flipper combo I accidentally pressed?

There's two, apparently.

http://hem.bredband.net/b257182/Cows&Easter.htm#3781 posted:

Sometimes when you shoot the Big-O-Beam, a cow is displayed and a female voice says: "Would you look at the size of that cow?!" and a moo is heard.
Sometimes when you shoot the Tractor Beam, a cow is beamed up.
Whenever one of these animations appears, hit the Launch button repeatedly for lots of mooing sounds. Do this for both of the ramps and then the next Video mode will be Cow Attack Video mode, where the
saucers has been replaced with mooing cows.

Press the following sequence:
2L + 1R + 18L + 1R + 5L + 1R ; Moo sound, replaces video mode (ball in lane)

Squashy Nipples
Aug 18, 2007

Hmmm. The first one is in the instructions. I don't I could have possibly entered the second one by accident, though... too many button presses. Maybe I was imagining things, maybe it's a bug in TPA code.

canyoneer
Sep 13, 2005


I only have canyoneyes for you
There's a shopped-up Jurassic Park without a topper on sale near me for $2300. It seems a little high for that game, even though it's in great condition and has LED upgrades and new rubbers.
I'd bite at $2k, but I'm concerned if I bought it at $2300 I'd have a hard time reselling it for more than $2k in the future :ohdear:

roffels
Jul 27, 2004

Yo Taxi!

You would. The retail place near me wanted 2300.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

canyoneer posted:

There's a shopped-up Jurassic Park without a topper on sale near me for $2300. It seems a little high for that game, even though it's in great condition and has LED upgrades and new rubbers.
I'd bite at $2k, but I'm concerned if I bought it at $2300 I'd have a hard time reselling it for more than $2k in the future :ohdear:

You do have to take into account the fun you have with the machine. I'd say that if you buy a machine for 2300, own and play it for a couple years, then resell it for ~1800, then I'd say you still got a great deal.

roffels
Jul 27, 2004

Yo Taxi!

TheMcD posted:

You do have to take into account the fun you have with the machine. I'd say that if you buy a machine for 2300, own and play it for a couple years, then resell it for ~1800, then I'd say you still got a great deal.

But if you're like me, and hang on to a game for 6 months or less, maybe not.

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Same Great Paste
Jan 14, 2006




How are you guys going for score on HRC?

I seem to always end up with one of two scores, about 500 if I don't get the 100chip multiball, and 1-1.1 if I do. Am I playing wrong, or is that just how the table goes?

Some light googling failed to find a tournament strategy for it.

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