Great to hear Bowen's comments he's a legend in this house please keep having your say on Pinside.

All other things being equal (default settings, incline), ball times are much longer on AC/DC than games like IM or BBH. The only reason so many here talk about short ball times is because as soon as they take them out of the box, they install white rubbers, wax the playfield (at least once) and install Cliffy's. All of those things shorten ball times and make the game harder. AC/DC has shorter ball times than Spidey, but if you play smart, ball times can be quite long.

LOTR and WPT are Keith Johnson games. Lyman's programming is typically very different than Keith's. Lyman likes to make it all around harder on the player. Keith gives the player all the info he can handle, but makes the games ridiculously deep. Plus, because of the music on AC/DC, audible cues are much more subtle than a non-music game. Seemingly to make up for this, instant info has more info than a typical Lyman game. I like the fact that I've been playing a couple of different games for a month now (on location) and still have a lot to learn.

With default settings (including rake), IM will have much shorter ball times. Have you tried more than one example of each? Took me a long time to learn not to judge a game after only playing one example. Another consideration is that Stern's level bubbles have been getting much worse lately. Don't trust what you see through the playfield glass. Which brings me to...

This is incorrect and it seems to be becoming a pinball myth. 9 out of 10 games will get harder the steeper you make them. Next time you're at PAPA, take a walk through each bank and you'll find that A games are almost always noticeably steeper than B or C games.

For a number of reasons, AC/DC is taking everyone, including Bowen, longer to figure out. This hasn't been the case for years. It should be celebrated, not denounced.

Guys this thread is old news the X-Men video is out. AC/DC is a thing of that past and no good There is already someone bashing it on the X-men thread. I for one think they both are awesome wish I could have both But alas I choose AC/DC and I am loving it! I do enjoy the mode based games as well though sometimes I am not sure what I am trying to do in AC/DC but yet I still want to keep playing because I feel like I was so close to a monster game!

I definitely could use com clarity on the rules. Not sure how to get the various jackpots in particular super in multi ball!?

Just broke 200 million!!!!!!! Holy crap!!! Big night for me : )

Well done!!

Thats a good feeling when u break 200Mil. I have done it 3 times. And I feel like a just ran a 1K. Also want to do circles on the ground like angus. Key is double scoring and keeping the MB from one to the next. Flip like crazy.

Seems Stern is firing on all cylinders .. waiting for the miss fire. None in sight.

Wow I just saw the video. I just played AC/DC a week ago for the first time and then watching this makes me want to get one. Maybe there will be a facey/dc in my future.

Anyone figure out how to adjust the cannon to shoot up the right ramp for anyone having problems?

My comments got blocked out and yours are still there. Anyway, I agree with several of your points. ACDC has a different type of ruleset, but after watching and playing a bunch (even 3/4 of Bowen's tutorial), I have little clue about picking a strategy or changing it on the fly. Plus, many of the modes seem to be very similar--I guess they needed to put in 12 songs' worth of modes in? I don't expect to know every rule of a game off the bat (I play EMs for that!) but it's nice to have some idea of what a game's purpose is. After maybe 20-30 ACDC games and watching the tutorial, I still am befuddled. And usually just the tutorial clears things up nicely!

I still believe a proper, relatively shallow pf slope is harder. Not a 'myth' imo but based on direct experience and experiments. When the ball tends to drop down to the flippers hard, it's easier to catch/trap and there's less side-to-side action. I've tried this on my own games--have you? A steep setting feels faster, but a shallower game leads to less ball control and more randomness on the same game. Games feel very different when you change the slope--a good way to shake up your collection! And when I want to make my games more challenging, I level them out a bit. If I want to make them faster, then steeper works. I was thinking of asking Kevin or one of the PAPA techs to do this side-by-side with a few pairs of games--set them up the same except that one game will have a shallow slope and one will have a steep one. I bet most players will like the steeper one and find the shallower one harder to play and do well at!

I don't think most players prefer easy games. Pinside has a lot of newbs on it, but all the pinheads I know enjoy the challenge. Most of the guys I know look for pins that we can't beat the crap out of on the first night it's in our basement.

Agreed who wants a game that's beaten on the first night, I had that with my TOM and now its gone.

I am loving the game but must admit I am still a little lost at what to shoot for at times

Looks like the video of Trent playing that Bowen referenced in this vid is now up on pinball.org. I'm checking it out now.

http://pinball.org/videos/tournament/gameworks/gameworks-2012-acdc/

What an incredible comeback by Trent!!! Great strategy. Im going to give it a try Thanks for posting.

Loving that im still learning new thing about this acccadacca.

Been trying to replicate the inlane ball stop technique, not sure what it is called, and can't get it to do it. When he backhands the ramp and then stops the ball in the same side flipper, then backhands the ramp again, then stops it, etc... How is this done? Whenever I try it the ball still rolls off the end of the flipper. Is it a timing thing, playfield steepness setting, the fact I am using black rubber?

Sadly its not the rubber..its practiced skill. That man is plain sick!

Yeah, hes good. But that technique looks so simple yet I cannot recreate it.

Flip the flipper as soon as the ball reaches it. Act like you're trying to flip it into the slingshot. And know that it only works on some machines, notably Sterns; it does not appear to work at all on Bly/Wms games. Good luck!

So it is a timing issue. Thanks. I will work on it. So far, I have not been successful.