Ben I am an owner please don't skip out on the video mode; one of the main reasons I bought the game because it is going to have a video mode

I suppose, but the ability to move with the market quicker...

yes [H]

since when did people start actually liking video modes in pinball? Census used to be they were hated and wished most were removed from the software. Only a few were even worth a shit.

Ben, do you have a way to update the game? Like via USB stick and a menu option? Just curious. Hope to see this at Allentown. I enjoyed playing it at EXPO.

i like video modes

Reckon best to copy the best of all time - Fish Tales and BSD - shoot ghosts. BSD type video mode would be great. Some video modes are totally boring so copy the best!

I like video modes when done well and/or they have the option of skipping them.

I vote for thinking outside of the box for a video mode and incorporate all player controlled button by using the start button also.

You could incorporate a cool video mode that actually uses the plunger. Your skill shot variability is really cool so maybe have it be some sort of ghost hunting and shooting mode. You use the plunger to select your travel through the adventure. Understairs, ORBS, Pops or Left orbit will register by first switch hit to decide your path through an abandon house. All other action on the pf is killed for video mode.

Left button moves you to left, Right to right and start shoots your gun.

You see an image of a ghost running to one of the random plunger shots. You then need to hit that shot to chase it down. Hit the correct plunger shot and you folow the ghost.

Then you use the buttons to do...

you get the idea

YES. BSD has the best video mode I have played. Played for the first time up at MGC. Its nothing to hard and pretty fun.

Personally my favorite video mode is Shadow's. Fast, short and sweet, the smartbomb adds a little strategy, and you can pick up an EB from it so there's motivation to at least dodge enough to grab that.

Video modes rock! Totally makes a game better. IMO. Look at IJ with such great VM as Escape in the Minecart, Choose Wisely and of course Raven Bar!

I do like this VM. It reminds me of a combination of Raven Bar and Escape in the Minecart. Like previously stated above, take the best out there and copy/make it better!

The problem with most video modes is that they are easily defeated once you know the pattern. BSD's video mode is cool at first, but when I had the game I had to increase the difficulty setting because it got boring beating it all the time once you know the sequence. Same goes with most other video modes that I've played. I think Fishtales is one of my favorites but then I've never owned the game or played it enough to realize what the pattern was on it. I'm also really digging JM's video mode because I don't do consistently well at it and the method of moving around to "snarf" the dots seems random enough to keep it challenging. If AMH does do a video mode I hope they find a way to keep it challenging and unpredictable.

Yeah, the lame ones you can just memorize (looking at you STNNG) but something like the falling phurbas in Shadow is totally random, you can't just memorize some flipper tap combos.

Indeed! I owned a Shadow for 5 years and that video mode was always tough due to how fast things come at you. It's one of the best for sure.

I would like to see a well made video mode, adds another dimension when done well and also ALWAYS commands my attention when an extra ball is up for grabs as well as big achievable points.

Just to be clear thats another YES for a video mode

FT doesn't really have a pattern except for the 3 quick shots at the beginning. Once in a while the EB (extra ball) even passes in the back of some boats and is nearly impossible to shoot.
Fun video mode for sure.

what about a run through the grave yard with ghosts popping out of the grave plots at the local graveyard but make it random ??? with an option in the rules to say no video mode

+1 I like video modes as well. One of my favorites is Fish Tales. You could copy that one for sure. As a buyer of the pin I would definitely want to have one.

One simple tweak to the FT video mode would be to have the "ghost zapper" oscillating back and forth across the screen as the ghosts randomly appear and also move across the screen.

A little more complicated option would be to let the player move the gun to the right and left. Perhaps a quick press on the button fires and a longer press moves the zapper. That way a longer press, say on the left flipper button would move the zapper to the left while quick taps to the right flipper button would fire it. I think it would be fun to try and strafe the ghosts.

Ben, what about a super short video mode? Maybe a ghost appears for 1-3 seconds and you have to push a button or a sequence of buttons depending on what the ghost is doing and then the ball is put right back into play. I haven't totally thought it through yet but my biggest complaint about video modes is that they are long and repetitive.

Oh cool, so some have shipped already?

Noticed in this video on youtube,

#t
At 5:50 you get 10 million from Spirit guide. But your score went from 2,385,870 to 20,439,740. So it gave you 18,053,870 points. Perhaps is that a mistake in code. I know that that is old video by now, so if it is mistake, perhaps fixed already. I haven't finished rest of video, so maybe there is more.

Looks like there is a video edit there. Some part was cut out.

You should make a flappy bird clone for the video mode, flappy ghost. Either flipper button acts as a screen tap. Most people don't last 10 seconds in the real game either.

I guess rather than Flappy Ghost it should really be Flippy Ghost.

Not familiar with Flappy bird, but flapping is a great idea. Can the controls be like Toobin, ie. flapping the left wing would make you go to the right, flapping the right wing would make you go left and flapping both wings at the same time would make you go straight?

You're one of the 12 people on the planet who haven't heard of it probably, was a huge mobile game sensation, the creator pulled it after not being able to handle all the stress, and then 10,000 clones appeared to fill the vacuum. It's ridiculously simple, but also really hard and easy to crash, so it works pretty well as a video mode idea. In theory Ben could program it to keep going forever, people won't last all that long I'm sure, or he could programmatically make the openings you have to flap through progressively smaller until it's got a pretty defined end.

Or optionally it could be X gates long, call it 10, and if you make it through them all you get a completion bonus. I personally prefer that method.

You'd have to randomise the interactive scenery otherwise it will be easy to memorise and get really repetitive really quickly just like the Crappy Bird game itself (although it is tough as you mention).

What about a Doom, timed, maze type of hurry up video mode where you rush around creepy corridors and either bash a ghost, save a crew member and collect random rewards (EB or extra time) etc there can be different levels/paths and even secret (randomised) shortcuts. Should also be a ghost toilet to catch a ghoul taking a dump just for shits-n-giggles. Even have a penalty points element depending on success and hits taken, also include the option to find an exit if you want to mode-out quickly?

Ghosts can go through walls right so that should help with randomisation a bit but ultimately everything is going to get a tad repetitive once it is done enough times, having the ability to add community levels would also help here within certain rules and maybe a BenHeck SDK kit.

Ghoul-dle (doodle) jump could be another "app" rip-off idea?

run over or through lol

smart bomb on shadow?

That got my attention as well. Have I been playing The Shadow wrong all these years?

Yes. The launch button (gun trigger) destroys all the phurbas (sp?) once per video mode. Also does other things at other times

Maybe the video mode could be of your camera man trying to catch a photo of a ghost as it peaks out at you from out of a dresser, materializes on a rocking chair, etc. It would appear and vanish quickly and you'd only have 10 shots to take before your camera battery dies. Have it paced like Dracula's video mode.

My video would be of Charlie running around his shop looking for his 1/4" nut driver while I attempt to kick him in the ass. Each ass kick slows him down and with enough ass kicks, you can catch him and give him a total beat down.

The classic lunar landing video mode in Apollo 13 is really cool.

This was one of my 3 1/3rd games that I played at the MGC this year, and I have to say that it was really awesome! It was the best first impression that I've had on a machine since Iron Man. The shots are all really smooth, the ramp is fascinating because there is a bunch of ways that it redirects the ball, and the ruleset and audio packages really came together. I really want to get one now, and it would be by far my largest single game purchase. I'm hoping I can work something out.

As for the video mode, before I say anything I generally HATE video modes, and they ruin a lot of games for me. If done right, they aren't so bad... with that, if it's a pure video mode the Flippy Ghost idea, I think that would work just fine. Just make it hard to get too. AFM and MM's video modes don't drive me insane because I don't generally get to see either in a normal game. Stuff that I see regularly I despise.

Exception to Jurassic Park's shoot the dino skill shot, as I think that was integrated right so as to not break the flow of a ball in play.

Also, if you could do something that integrates the video mode with playing, that is where my vote always is. I really love the "video modes" on both Popeye and Judge Dredd because both of them have the player playing with the ball, but needing to check out the playfield to figure out what is up. I really enjoy Popeye's, but it's too brutally difficult. Judge Dredd's is just about perfect. Also, shooting the random dino that walks across on Jurassic Park (and things like that which happen in a lot of DE games) is great by me.

My vote would be to have a floorplan (a la Popeye) with the game telling you where you want to get, and you need to complete some shots that you see based on what the video mode shows, with different shots each time.

Considering this sounds like it will be a more "pure" video mode, Flippy Ghost is about the best that it can be, I think.

The smart bomb is when you pull the trigger on the gun during the video mode. Wipes out all the falling phurbas and gives you a second of breathing room. Of course when they come back they're sped up from before.

The only times it's really worth using is right at the end if you're looking to complete the video mode (though honestly if I'm in a groove to finish I rarely want to break my rhythm to reach for the gun) or if you're just looking to score the EB. That's what I mostly do now, just slide until I'm picking up the 3 mil boxes, then smartbomb to clear some space to snatch up the 4's and the EB. Then die from super fast phurba assault.

High praise indeed, my friend. High praise indeed!!

I am shocked that my buddy's rare hero and Jason did not get one of these yet

Yeah. I put 1/3rd game on the NIB Metallica Pro I opened, 1 on AMH, 1 on PZFBTG and one on Tron after we set it up Thursday night. I am pretty sure that was the extent of it.

When I first played Iron Man, by the end of the first game I knew that it was a machine that was made for me. I played it at the launch party in Chicago when they were really only doing one of them, and it was really a reveal of the game. I only put two games on it that night, but by the end of the second game I knew that IM was suddenly at the top of my list and perhaps my favorite game that had ever been made. Now, having owned one for a while and having put well over 1000 games on it, that holds up.

Admittedly, I was barely standing up when I played AMH, but it had the same effect. The game is fast, it's dangerous, and what I really liked about it is that it is constantly changing shots so you have lots of different configurations. I really like games that do that, and this game is great about that.

I'm not an audiophile, but having more than 1000 quotes in the game means that it is constantly changing.

I'm *not* a dude that buys new machines just about ever (Metallica Pro is about it, and there is a long reason why that I won't get into here), but I am seriously considering finding a way to afford an AMH from *one play*, which is a hell of a compliment from me.

Since I had virtually the identical experience that you had with my first time playing IM years ago (and to this day, no pin that I have ever played has ever given me a better first impression than I got when I played that IM), I find your reaction to AMH to be very intriguing to say the least.

I really do like what I see in the videos. But it's hard to make a decision based only on videos, so opinions like yours help, but I'd really need to play it in person before buying...

Which is why I hope that Rarehero is our soon to be SoCal owner of AMH.

flippy-ghost.jpg

I will say it again. AMH is the real deal!

It is a great theme and well executed. I can not imagine anyone that loves pinball not liking this game in the home environment!

The floor should definitely kill you, or the strategy of hanging at the bottom and popping up to go through the pipes will be correct and boring. Just make the character narrow in the vertical direction (3-4 pixels?) and the small height of the DMD should be fine.

Letting the character go off the top of the screen is "fine", I guess, but marginally harder to code.

How about you float just above ground level through a graveyard and have to hop over gravestones and monuments of varying height and with varying distances between them.

It's less a 'stay in the air' flappy bird clone and more of a hurdles game where each tap raises you a small percentage of a jump and you automatically sink without a tap. Alternately right flipper taps you up, left flipper taps you down, but you're always gently sinking towards ground level.

The premise for your game is mocking pop culture ghost shows, so it feels right to get a tongue in cheek pop culture reference in there by making a parody Flappy Bird game. The joke will eventually age into obscurity, but the game mechanics are sound, so that's okay.

Part of the Flappy Bird thing is it's frustratingly hard, you might want to tweak things so it's not an instant death since you can't just restart it. Give people a fighting chance at least, it will still be short even if they manage to beat it.

I am a pre-order for AMH and I approve "Flippy Ghost"