Someone already said it better than me but essentially you adjust and learn not to dead-smash the center targets on a controlled shot, save it for MBs or when you can backhand one that's not as strong. The camera being direcly overhead made it hard to see when the center post or robot was up but both were definitely working, I also a few instances where the ball went through the lucky break lanes that lead to a ball-save. Ferret mentioned that those lanes will award multiple things during games including a MB - will be interesting to see more about how that's coded.

No but we did have to bend the bracket behind the 5 targets. The game had about 500 plays.

Nice stream. Like that light show and what was shown by the pops with their lighting effects.
Look forward in playing out on location first and to see how it develops.

It would make sense for it to come up when hitting the tank for sure. Need to watch again.

Right now the center post is used during the start of the ball while ‘defense’ is flashing. If you hit the tank, it will come up temporarily. Other uses were still to come according to joe.

I only saw one ball jump the flippers. And i think I remember one other major airball back. I didn’t see any other egregious airball action. No one was being upset with it either.

Balls can come off the habit trails right now due to speed. That is something we’ll just see how it plays over time.

No lock stealing. Each player is tracked separately

The center up-post was working fine on the game. I’m sure it was not easy to see on the stream, since it just moves vertically, and the camera was directly overhead.

Also, I don’t know if there were any airballs off the tank targets… perhaps, but it was certainly not an ongoing problem if there were any.

Thanks to One iPod One Pinball, and Ocelot Brewing Company for hosting the stream tonight, and thanks to all of you who watched. If you’re near Dulles, VA, the game is on the floor there, stop by and check it out. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask, I’ll do my best to answer.

Thanks!

Here is the switch assembly picture. AP told me that they are working on a reinforcement bracket.

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This stream has nothing to do with AP except Joe generously stopping by and sharing with you all because he’s local and a friend of those involved.

Whether you are interested in the game or not this was very cool of Joe and the location to do this for the community.

Like i keep trying to tell people… it is a difficult game. But it is fun especially when you get mb stacked up with stuff. There is lots of scoring angles to explore too.

The game is hard, but is not a ball buster. It’s not evil - just not a forever player. We are not all karl deangelo. You saw people playing a brand new game in their first 10 games playing the game ever…

Meanwhile another local player who played near the end put up over 500mil

Special thanks to jose and steph for coming out and making the stream happen on basically no notice. With everyone clamoring for footage I basically begged them to come out and do something. That was at like 230pm today and they both live over an hour away. So over 8hrs of commitment from them today unplanned.
Hope everyone enjoyed the stream. Sorry we didn’t have a studio setup. This is just raw location action and none of you bought out the arcade today

Thank you all!

Yeah, that was very cool! I've never seen or heard of them before (I rarely watch pinball streams) but I know from watching other people put together and fine-tune streaming rigs how much goes into it. Doing it on short notice in a location is a whole other thing so major kudos to them and everyone involved, especially you for talking them into it and hosting them. Raw location or not it was absolutely the best we've seen so far! I loved Steph's visceral response to getting a couple house balls and Jose was certainly killing it on some games, I 'd love to flip some games with them one day.

P.S. For those complaining about frame rate, the sound wasn't the best, etc. - quit being so negative.

Framerate could be related to the platform being viewed or at the receiver. The stream to multiple providers so different people can have different experiences. The source network stayed in green the whole time.

Watch later for more festival mode steph

Thanks to all who made the huge effort to stream this evening. Absolutely loved it. GTF fan group really needed the stream and the win for AP and all those who have worked so hard on this game.
A few tweaks and this game will be dialed in.

There’s an adult mode?
Do tell…..

There is an adult mode, but it’s nothing earth shattering. If turned off, some of the risqué quotes get omitted. Someone in tonight’s stream described it as PG-13, which is probably realistic.

LMFAO is LIT!

Are there any noteable changes in adult mode? More beefy language ("fudge packing")? I am reading multiple posts about the fudge packing-topic but haven´t heard any call out in the videos and the display says "drilling for fudge"

Thank you for putting together that stream. I ordered the top trim sight unseen based on AP reputation. After the gloom and doom this got me off the ledge.

I feel like if AP just went all in on a killer theme, that have the staff to knock it out of the park

Appreciate the effort in putting this together...But it's not going to help move units...Players looked frustrated, and couldn't hear anything on the stream.

You know that feeling when a roller coaster rounds the final curve and suddenly slows down to pull back into the station? That's this thread right now. Nice job coordinating the stream, @flynnibus. Hopefully someone at AP is watching this sudden change in tone and taking notes, namely:

1. Whoever decided to focus the marketing almost entirely on the live action video deserves a hefty smack. Watch a Stern or JJP trailer sometime -- people who play pinball want to see, you know, gameplay.

2. Much like producing pinball machines, writing comedy is hard and probably best left to professionals.

Why was the first stream of this game done on short notice after weeks of announcing the game? Pulp Fiction came out at the same time and did a featurette 2 weeks ago, very proffesional and it sold games. This was their first original game and probably smaller company than AP I might add. I guess I will clap my hand because we got something.
Dennis and Franchi don't seem to be shy around the camera when it comes to advertsing. I would love to see Dennis go over this game and play it like the old Williams sales videos. Looks like there is a lot of explaining and story telling for Franchi to go over the artwork. I think they tried at TPF but were cut off by Mr. "If its not broke,don't FIX it".

8 people other than me were watching on youtube.

I thought the game looked decent on the stream. I would much rather have the moving spaceship in the middle and the tank off to the side. But overall, I'm going to throw some money at it on location.

If you are referring to last night's stream keep in mind American Pinball had absolutely nothing to do with that. It was a group of Pinball streamers broadcasting from a Brewery that has the game on location already; completely independent.

I was one of 150+ watching on Twitch.

I was one of the Youtube people...I had that going on my TV since the YT interface is easier to use on the TV. Then I had twitch app going on my phone for the chat functionality. I did not think the frame rate was an issue on either device, as one user was pointing out.

The one thing about streams is it is very hard to show the physical depth of the playfield features from a straight above camera. The camera was perfectly over the top of the game, so the center ball save was not visibly operating to the people at home...but it was definitely operating. You could see a ball get trapped between the ball save popup and the flipper every once in a while during multiball.

This game is going to feel much different in person when you actually get to play it versus what you saw on the stream. Whatever your opinion is on the game now, I think you really need to play one before cementing your opinion either way. I thought BKSOR pro was a barren pile of money grab for both stern and operators (quick ball times) when I first saw it virtually, and now it is one of my favorite games to play in the wild when I come across one.

Thanks for putting together the stream! Was an entertaining first proper look at the gameplay for me. Looking forward to playing one!

Yeah, it was kinda tough to tell when the Nord-man 3000 Robot popped out of the tank too but if you watched the screen it was there in animated form. Just an observation, certainly not complaining about the stream setup. On the other hand you could really see the top of the playfield behind the pops which is a bit hidden from a lower camera / players angle.

I mentioned the lightshows already but the radar mode and those animated pop LEDs really stood out, I wonder if the player can see the LEDs from the flying saucer reflected off the playfield like you could from that camera angle - that was very cool too.

The other 1,992 people already have bought it.

Thank you! flynnibus

Ditto this. I was another one of the 8 on you tube. Looking forward to playing this game. Not a potential NIB buyer of it or any of the other new ones. They all look fine as a side note.

I was in the crazy 8 too At one point we dipped to 6, but I watched an hour of gameplay on my small phone. Relieved to not be seeing many airballs. I’d consider that issue manageable and maybe squashed. Got to see people hitting all quadrants of the playfield too (another concern). Will play GTF! when I find one. I’ll be in Ashburn VA in 3 weeks and will stop by Ocelot Brewing for a good time. I am sure there will many changes to software and bug fixes by then.

I like and recommend many of AP’s pins. I especially liked Houdini and Hot Wheels enough to buy. I enjoy playing Oktoberfest and Valhalla on location monthly. GTF! will likely join those I enjoy playing on location.

Thanks for the stream. There are things that still aren't my jam on the game, but at a glance it looks fun to shoot. Hopefully one will end up somewhere around me to flip locally.

Seem to be in the minority opinion that the stream wasn't helpful. But direct video feed is awesome, stream quality was high. Got to see several people playing several games. I think it relieved a lot of people (and maybe a lot is 20 and not 2000) that had put in orders or were on the fence.

Some hours later it has 1611 views on twitch, 190 on youtube. Youtube is the google+ of streaming.

Because a guy who bought the game convinced some local streamers to travel to him and help the community by showing the game.

And on behalf of the charity let me promote a raffle that opens this morning.... the opportunity for a Signature Edition GTF!

Get ready at 10am EST on 3/31 for an out-of-this-world adventure from American Pinball: The Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition Pinball machine raffle! Limited to 200 entries! $200 per entry

Click the link below for a preview of the raffle until it is live. All proceeds benefit the mission and programs of #ProjectPinballCharity. Thank you all!

https://projectpinball.rallyup.com/galactic-tank-force-signature-edition-pinball-machine-raffle

#projectpinball #forthekids #forthefamilies #pinballmachineraffles #supportprojectpinball #forpinball #pinballmachinelivedrawing #pinballmachinesforall #fortheloveofpinball #therapeuticpinball #pinballistherapy #nonprofitforpinball #giveaway #projectpinballfundraiser #pinballforall #pinballforkids Pinball #americanpinball #ap-galactic-tank-force-se

The objective is for the player to drill and pump fudge, like it was oil, for the ice cream. The phrase Fudge packing does not appear anywhere in the script or the rules, so you will not hear any voice calls with “packing”, unless they did more recording sessions after I was gone. Not sure where the ”packing” came from and why it is on screen.

The back of the saucer bracket is that disco reflective kind of sticker. You get these wild patterns from the saucer which are neat. It’s kind of a muted effect but cool looking. The saucer seems to have dome lighting and then the ‘beam’ lighting under it. It’s a really cute toy

Project pinball charity has just gone live with raffle tickets to win a galactic Tank Force

Happy to see how the pop bumper and flying saucer LED boards came out so well. The boards have a ring of 12 LEDs along the edge and then some in the middle pointing both up and down. The same basic board is installed upside down in the saucer with the ring facing down. There was no EE on staff at the time so I mapped out the layout and designed the circuits based on other light boards we had developed in the past. I was then getting up super early in the morning a couple of times a week to have calls with Aimtron India to get the boards laid out. I Never got to see them before I was gone. Seems like Casey has done some really great stuff in putting those LEDS to work, they look great. Not cheap or easy to do, between how much is packed into those boards and the way cabling needs to be done work with the pop bumper bodies.

As impressive as the light show was last night, and it was, the pops and UFO especially stood out to me. Using the ring to show progress in the pops was brilliant and reusing that part on the UFO was genius. I love the UFO "tractor beam" light illuminating the playfield and foil sticker.

So are the Deluxe's shipping now?

What a relief that they are only drilling and pumping fudge, as there is clearly no sexual innuendo there.

Originally rings were going to be single color, red for the pops and green for the saucer, so as to keep the costs reasonable. But procurement came back and said they would likely be buying RGB regardless, even if single color, given price and availability. We did have to re-work the electronics and the boards and did cost a few extra dollars for the additional electronics, but RGB was obviously a big bonus. It allowed for Meltdown to not just build the LEDs as the pops were collected, but to change color as you got closer to meltdown as well as using colors during the MB. Since it also required more electronics for the RGB, it gives us a couple of LED extra drivers so we could add a W to the center RGBs to get extra brightness when flashing white.

This is the top side of the board when a saucer, and bottom when in the pops, it uses a RGBW for dome and an RGBW on the underside to light the pop body, but you can see there is not a lot of room to work with to get all the electronics in there, connector, room so the pop bumper body is not hitting components, etc. Zofia and Mitesh were pretty involved in the mechanical and wiring side of the design.

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In Todd's stream someone folds the tank up and drives it like a remote control car.

How did that work?

I have never been a video game type of player/person. Does this pin resonate with the video gamers who also are pinheads?