Galactic Tank Force (DE)
American Pinball, 2023
Galactic Tank Force (LE)
American Pinball, 2023Quoted from galore2112:Is there no one with a phone made in this decade taking a 4K quality video at TPF? This looks like it was “shot” with a Nokia from 1999.
For some reason video’s uploaded to YouTube sometimes look like crap. The downgrade it to like 240p. This has happened to my videos. So it’s not necessarily the phone. I have an Iphone 14 and YouTube downgrades some of my videos quality wise. Very frustrating.
Quoted from BallyKISS1978:For some reason video’s uploaded to YouTube sometimes look like crap. The downgrade it to like 240p. This has happened to my videos. So it’s not necessarily the phone. I have an Iphone 14 and YouTube downgrades some of my videos quality wise. Very frustrating.
They do a low quality version first and then render it in HQ which of course takes quite a bit longer on longer videos. And sometimes because of this, your quality settins auto to lower quality (on your device) until you manually change them higher. At least, that's been my experience.
Quoted from NevadaNutJob:Was Josh an employee or contractor to AP ? Why did he leave / get let go ?
He was one of their lead programmers for quite awhile, I do believe. Not sure why he left but I really hope he catches on with another company - his contributions and communication here are top notch, and I liked his work on Hot Wheels.
Since Ferret is on vacation, although I did see he popped in last night, I'll give you guys a bit more about the rules.
Let's start with the rule summary . . .
Rule Summary
? TANK BATTLES: Shoot CENTER TARGETS to attack enemy TANKS and protect the Moon of Lumina! Charge your METHANE to METHANE BLAST the tank!
? UFO ATTACKS: Watch out for UFOs trying to abduct your COWS! When the UFO attacks, shoot it repeatedly to destroy it and save your cow! Save several cows for COW-A-BONGO MULTIBALL!
? ICE CREAM MISSIONS: INLANES light MISSIONS on RIGHT SAUCER. During missions, lit shots collect ice cream ingredients.
? ADVANCE RANK: Complete top right LANES to advance RANK and increase MISSION scoring.
? AIR STRIKE MULTIBALL: Shoot A-i-R TARGETS, then LEFT SAUCER to scramble air fighters. Shoot major shots, then UFO, then ramp to destroy enemy attackers!
? MELTDOWN: Hit enough POP BUMPERS to start MELTDOWN MULTIBALL. During Meltdown, quickly shoot lit shots, pop bumpers, and left saucer.
? QUANTUM ACCELERATOR: Complete POP BUMPER TARGET BANKS to temporarily INCREASE ALL SCORING.
? FLANK FORMATIONS: Complete STAND-UP TARGETS for awards and scoring boosts.
? PLOTNICK’S LAB: Complete L-A-B and LEFT SAUCER to collect helpful items.
a few bits of more info . . .
Tank Battles -- pretty much always actiive, each one gets more difficult as later tanks have shields and robots that also need to be killed. The 'weak' spot in the tank also moves and unless something has changed, when you have enough methane (collected via the four main shots, you need more to charge it over time, first time it is just one shot needed), once you have sufficient methane, one target will be flashing red as the kill shot (the works a bit different if the shield is up). Get through five tank battles and you get to the mini-wizard mode.
No surprise, UFOs get harder to kill each time (shots, movement). Quicker you destroy it the better.
Ice Cream Missions, collect ingredients for Plotniks Ice Cream research. Inlanes light the saucer/VUK on the right side. The right spinner (near the planet) changes which mission will be given. The spinner also adds time to a mission, once the planets ring turn yellow. Five missions, each about collecting ingredients, which lead to a mini-wizard mode. Each mission focuses on a different part of the playfield. While we filmed Kyan, Duke and Plotnik for the missions, Plotnik stuff was the best. Not sure all will be used or just him. This is part of why Fix is saying the game has a ton of assets, during filming I made each actor do a lot of the game lines, even if we did not see them being the ones saying them, so we would have options and could see which work best. Since they are talking about how many assets are in there, sounds like maybe they are using a majority of them. There were over 2500 lines filmed across the four main actors and the pilots. And since every line is recorded many times . . .
Hitting the pops builds towards Meltdown, which is a two ball multiball. the pops have a ring of individually controlled direct wired RGB LEDs, that will show things building up and then are used during the Mutiball as you build a jackpot, collected at the upper VUK (left orbit, magnet grab). This will also award one of the center inserts towards the final wizard mode.
Flank Formations -- the award locks in when the first target is hit, so there is some strategy/skill around this for more skilled players. Award typically increase pops, spinners, cow values as well as shot multipliers for individual shots, that can be increased and there is an insert in front of the major shots, that shows the current multiplier level via a VIBGYOR color scheme to indicate how high the multiplier is for the various shots. Multipliers reset at end of ball, unless you have been visiting plotnik and he gave you something to hold multipliers.
I do not know what the switches below the lanes do. We had held off on those until we could see how they 'shot'.
Quoted from NeilMcRae:some more footage:
I'nm going to do a Twitch Stream from the show at 13:30 local time from my phone - https://twitch.tv/NeilMcRae/
Thank you for the post. It does crack me up seeing AP staff in the cut scenes. It reminds me of when Data East would put their staff on the artwork in their earlier games. I like how they are a little more free and loose at AP with their games but are still second to none in build quality and support. The game looks great. They just need (a lot of) polish on that third trailer. My initial excitement was destroyed after that teaser. Knowing Nordman with the design, Franchi with the art, the phenomenal AP team with codes and rules, mated the top notch infrastructure of the AP machines it seemed like this was going to be a grand slam. After watching game play it still appears so (in spite of #3's incredible blunder). Well done AP and team!
PS: That last bit of the trailer with the ice cream bit would have given a chuckle at the time if the rest of the trailer didn't lead me to think game was going to be an unmitigated disaster. It is funny now.
Not sure if anyone caught this, but last night in Todd Tuckey's last broadcast for the night, he talked with Ryan from AP, while the game was out in tank form.
Ryan corrected Todd when he was asking about the SE being $17500, and told him no, the price for the SE is left up to distributors.
55 seconds in.
Quoted from rosh:Since Ferret is on vacation, although I did see he popped in last night, I'll give you guys a bit more about the rules.
Let's start with the rule summary . . .
Rule Summary
? TANK BATTLES: Shoot CENTER TARGETS to attack enemy TANKS and protect the Moon of Lumina! Charge your METHANE to METHANE BLAST the tank!
? UFO ATTACKS: Watch out for UFOs trying to abduct your COWS! When the UFO attacks, shoot it repeatedly to destroy it and save your cow! Save several cows for COW-A-BONGO MULTIBALL!
? ICE CREAM MISSIONS: INLANES light MISSIONS on RIGHT SAUCER. During missions, lit shots collect ice cream ingredients.
? ADVANCE RANK: Complete top right LANES to advance RANK and increase MISSION scoring.
? AIR STRIKE MULTIBALL: Shoot A-i-R TARGETS, then LEFT SAUCER to scramble air fighters. Shoot major shots, then UFO, then ramp to destroy enemy attackers!
? MELTDOWN: Hit enough POP BUMPERS to start MELTDOWN MULTIBALL. During Meltdown, quickly shoot lit shots, pop bumpers, and left saucer.
? QUANTUM ACCELERATOR: Complete POP BUMPER TARGET BANKS to temporarily INCREASE ALL SCORING.
? FLANK FORMATIONS: Complete STAND-UP TARGETS for awards and scoring boosts.
? PLOTNICK’S LAB: Complete L-A-B and LEFT SAUCER to collect helpful items.
a few bits of more info . . .
Tank Battles -- pretty much always actiive, each one gets more difficult as later tanks have shields and robots that also need to be killed. The 'weak' spot in the tank also moves and unless something has changed, when you have enough methane (collected via the four main shots, you need more to charge it over time, first time it is just one shot needed), once you have sufficient methane, one target will be flashing red as the kill shot (the works a bit different if the shield is up). Get through five tank battles and you get to the mini-wizard mode.
No surprise, UFOs get harder to kill each time (shots, movement). Quicker you destroy it the better.
Ice Cream Missions, collect ingredients for Plotniks Ice Cream research. Inlanes light the saucer/VUK on the right side. The right spinner (near the planet) changes which mission will be given. The spinner also adds time to a mission, once the planets ring turn yellow. Five missions, each about collecting ingredients, which lead to a mini-wizard mode. Each mission focuses on a different part of the playfield. While we filmed Kyan, Duke and Plotnik for the missions, Plotnik stuff was the best. Not sure all will be used or just him. This is part of why Fix is saying the game has a ton of assets, during filming I made each actor do a lot of the game lines, even if we did not see them being the ones saying them, so we would have options and could see which work best. Since they are talking about how many assets are in there, sounds like maybe they are using a majority of them. There were over 2500 lines filmed across the four main actors and the pilots. And since every line is recorded many times . . .
Hitting the pops builds towards Meltdown, which is a two ball multiball. the pops have a ring of individually controlled direct wired RGB LEDs, that will show things building up and then are used during the Mutiball as you build a jackpot, collected at the upper VUK (left orbit, magnet grab). This will also award one of the center inserts towards the final wizard mode.
Flank Formations -- the award locks in when the first target is hit, so there is some strategy/skill around this for more skilled players. Award typically increase pops, spinners, cow values as well as shot multipliers for individual shots, that can be increased and there is an insert in front of the major shots, that shows the current multiplier level via a VIBGYOR color scheme to indicate how high the multiplier is for the various shots. Multipliers reset at end of ball, unless you have been visiting plotnik and he gave you something to hold multipliers.
I do not know what the switches below the lanes do. We had held off on those until we could see how they 'shot'.
Great info. Tank you!
Quoted from coasterguy:I think it looks fantastic.
I’m surprised more companies don’t use LED light strips like this in place of standard “general illumination” in every model of every game. You can do a bunch with colors and programming and it’s dirt cheap.
Quoted from wesman:Not sure if anyone caught this, but last night in Todd Tuckey's last broadcast for the night, he talked with Ryan from AP, while the game was out in tank form.
Ryan corrected Todd when he was asking about the SE being $17500, and told him no, the price for the SE is left up to distributors.
55 seconds in.
https://www.youtube.com/live/bLLCoHUGM00?feature=share
But we don't know if the wholesale cost difference from LE to SE is $0 or $5000.. probably closer to the later. I doubt distributors really think they can get this much profit from it without being undercut.
"We didn't tell them what to sell it for, we just charge them a lot more for it"
Quoted from halflip87:I’m surprised more companies don’t use LED light strips like this in place of standard “general illumination” in every model of every game. You can do a bunch with colors and programming and it’s dirt cheap.
It's obtrusive and a lot of people won't like the bars in the way.
It also floods the playfield, and you can't create as much specific ambiance by lighting up only certain parts of the playfield.
But playfield bulbs have a problem to. They shine up. You can't put them in the open playfield etc.
Spotlights can help, but I don't like the way they look wmon the playfield when I'm trying to create an immersive world.
Idk man. Interested to try the light bars at least. Hope you can customize them a bit.
Quoted from rosh:Since Ferret is on vacation, although I did see he popped in last night, I'll give you guys a bit more about the rules.
Let's start with the rule summary . . .
Rule Summary
? TANK BATTLES: Shoot CENTER TARGETS to attack enemy TANKS and protect the Moon of Lumina! Charge your METHANE to METHANE BLAST the tank!
? UFO ATTACKS: Watch out for UFOs trying to abduct your COWS! When the UFO attacks, shoot it repeatedly to destroy it and save your cow! Save several cows for COW-A-BONGO MULTIBALL!
? ICE CREAM MISSIONS: INLANES light MISSIONS on RIGHT SAUCER. During missions, lit shots collect ice cream ingredients.
? ADVANCE RANK: Complete top right LANES to advance RANK and increase MISSION scoring.
? AIR STRIKE MULTIBALL: Shoot A-i-R TARGETS, then LEFT SAUCER to scramble air fighters. Shoot major shots, then UFO, then ramp to destroy enemy attackers!
? MELTDOWN: Hit enough POP BUMPERS to start MELTDOWN MULTIBALL. During Meltdown, quickly shoot lit shots, pop bumpers, and left saucer.
? QUANTUM ACCELERATOR: Complete POP BUMPER TARGET BANKS to temporarily INCREASE ALL SCORING.
? FLANK FORMATIONS: Complete STAND-UP TARGETS for awards and scoring boosts.
? PLOTNICK’S LAB: Complete L-A-B and LEFT SAUCER to collect helpful items.
a few bits of more info . . .
Tank Battles -- pretty much always actiive, each one gets more difficult as later tanks have shields and robots that also need to be killed. The 'weak' spot in the tank also moves and unless something has changed, when you have enough methane (collected via the four main shots, you need more to charge it over time, first time it is just one shot needed), once you have sufficient methane, one target will be flashing red as the kill shot (the works a bit different if the shield is up). Get through five tank battles and you get to the mini-wizard mode.
No surprise, UFOs get harder to kill each time (shots, movement). Quicker you destroy it the better.
Ice Cream Missions, collect ingredients for Plotniks Ice Cream research. Inlanes light the saucer/VUK on the right side. The right spinner (near the planet) changes which mission will be given. The spinner also adds time to a mission, once the planets ring turn yellow. Five missions, each about collecting ingredients, which lead to a mini-wizard mode. Each mission focuses on a different part of the playfield. While we filmed Kyan, Duke and Plotnik for the missions, Plotnik stuff was the best. Not sure all will be used or just him. This is part of why Fix is saying the game has a ton of assets, during filming I made each actor do a lot of the game lines, even if we did not see them being the ones saying them, so we would have options and could see which work best. Since they are talking about how many assets are in there, sounds like maybe they are using a majority of them. There were over 2500 lines filmed across the four main actors and the pilots. And since every line is recorded many times . . .
Hitting the pops builds towards Meltdown, which is a two ball multiball. the pops have a ring of individually controlled direct wired RGB LEDs, that will show things building up and then are used during the Mutiball as you build a jackpot, collected at the upper VUK (left orbit, magnet grab). This will also award one of the center inserts towards the final wizard mode.
Flank Formations -- the award locks in when the first target is hit, so there is some strategy/skill around this for more skilled players. Award typically increase pops, spinners, cow values as well as shot multipliers for individual shots, that can be increased and there is an insert in front of the major shots, that shows the current multiplier level via a VIBGYOR color scheme to indicate how high the multiplier is for the various shots. Multipliers reset at end of ball, unless you have been visiting plotnik and he gave you something to hold multipliers.
I do not know what the switches below the lanes do. We had held off on those until we could see how they 'shot'.
Thx for the summary Josh, great job, rules and coding were never a concern after having Oktoberfest. You guys did a fantastic job.
I’m excited about the whole package and uniqueness of this game.
Loving the speaker panel. Use of the pop bumper lighting in meltdown mode etc, deep for skilled players and some random scoring for casual players to achieve some points
Confirms I was 110% right in the LE decision for me!
Quoted from halflip87:I’m surprised more companies don’t use LED light strips like this in place of standard “general illumination” in every model of every game. You can do a bunch with colors and programming and it’s dirt cheap.
Please no. I can't stand the stadium style lights and I know I am not alone on this. Lighting below the plastics allows the light to come through backlighting the plastics and lighting up the playfield at the same time. Not to mention from the player's standpoint the two strips running from top to bottom of the playfield look incredibly ugly and block the view below. Lets not fix something that is not broken, not to mention that brighter is not always better.
At this point I am leaning towards bailing on this game completely and the light strips are one of the big items in the cons column. If I do end up buying a Deluxe, the strip lights and all mounting hardware will be removed before I ever flick the switch to turn the game on.
Quoted from John_I:Please no. I can't stand the stadium style lights and I know I am not alone on this. Lighting below the plastics allows the light to come through backlighting the plastics and lighting up the playfield at the same time. Not to mention from the player's standpoint the two strips running from top to bottom of the playfield look incredibly ugly and block the view below. Lets not fix something that is not broken, not to mention that brighter is not always better.
At this point I am leaning towards bailing on this game completely and the light strips are one of the big items in the cons column. If I do end up buying a Deluxe, the strip lights and all mounting hardware will be removed before I ever flick the switch to turn the game on.
I'd bet you don't even notice the bars when playing the game.
What if AP paid the license to Hasbro and made a G1 Transformers pin. Could make the entire cab and head look like Megatron with his gun aimed at you...or make it look like Optimus as a Truck.
If you can make the machine look like a tank...you can make it look like Optimus.
Quoted from bobukcat:I'd bet you don't even notice the bars when playing the game.
I didn't really notice them or pay attention when I was playing
Quoted from PunkPin:I didn't really notice them or pay attention when I was playing
That’s because they aren’t causing seizures like pinstadiums and also don’t wash out the playfield LEDs
Quoted from Dan1733:TIRED OF CELL PHONE VIDEO? YOU WANTED A STREAM? YOU'VE GOT ONE.
THIS JUST IN -- GAME STREAMING ON DEADFLIP WITH NONE OTHER THAN JACK DANGER!
TUESDAY NIGHT!
DON'T MISS IT.
E987C9C3-B305-41A8-8E24-F750F7BFC79C.gifQuoted from Eskaybee:[quoted image]
Ooops. I never post in all caps. Sorry for screaming at y'all. 
Quoted from bobukcat:I'd bet you don't even notice the bars when playing the game.
Seriously? They hover right over the wire forms and the shooter lane. Much as I dislike the pinstadium brand lighting, at least they are mounted to the cabinet side and not floating over the playfield!
pasted_image (resized).pngQuoted from Capn12:It’s fun to play, not one I’d put in my house, because of space reasons
Space theme? Or physical space?
Is there a callout that says when all tanks are destroyed, "Tanks but no tanks" "Tanks for the memories.." "Such a tank-less job"?
Quoted from bobukcat:I'd bet you don't even notice the bars when playing the game.
I certainly didn't while playing at TPF...the game looks and plays amazing...I just can't make up my mind between an LE or the Deluxe...it would be nice if the lenticular backglass used on the SE was available for purchase.
Believe it or not GTF is the best thing at TPF aside from the new TZ topper!!
AP did a great job making sure there were many GTFs spread out in multiple places for people to play unlike PF which looked like an hour wait :/
Quoted from Notbychance:Believe it or not GTF is the best thing at TPF aside from the new TZ topper!!
I believe it. I have great predictive skills!
Never in doubt from the 1st teaser drippings
Nordman is a great designer and AP brings the quality and service.
While I’m getting a GFCE and excited for that one too it appears that GTF captured all the drama of the show. Well done AP!
The only issue I’ve noticed and hope gets fixed on release is the oversized sticker on the ball save puck that is getting damaged. I ordered mine after playing it and talking to Dennis and David.
If you are an operator make sure you mention that when ordering for priority shipping. David told me that.
If possible, I would mod the pin stadiums by putting them on the sides of the cabinet vs the location they are in now.
Quoted from Blindseer:That’s because they aren’t causing seizures like pinstadiums and also don’t wash out the playfield LEDs
Every clip I've seen of GTF so far the entire playfield and everything on it is overwhelmed by the blacklight glow of those bars.
Quoted from yancy:Every clip I've seen of GTF so far the entire playfield and everything on it is overwhelmed by the blacklight glow of those bars.
Yeah, I don't really care for them either. Very overblown.
It feels like the reverse of how JJP overwhelms with smaller LED's. I'd like lighting more sparse, like with that's going on currently in PF.
I like the strip lighting is mounted to the playfield. It’s better than Pinstadium. But not as nice as Stern and some others routing the cabinet wall
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Galactic Tank Force won TPF?!
WTF? GTF won TPF? GTFO! PF won IMHO.
Quoted from wesman:Yeah, I don't really care for them either. Very overblown.
It feels like the reverse of how JJP overwhelms with smaller LED's. I'd like lighting more sparse, like with that's going on currently in PF.
I can't disagree more. I love the lighting on this game!! I never thought to myself that it was too much.
Quoted from Beechwood:WTF? GTF won TPF? GTFO! PF won IMHO.
PF wins on theme/callouts. Very important, but that’s it.
GFT Nordman layout, “flow monster”, lighting, Ramps, Toys, speaker panel, artwork, LCD awesomeness versus crap alphanumeric display (yes I’m getting one)
Like em both a lot but GFT for the win on overall review 
Going deluxe here. Can’t see spending the extra on the LE on this one. Love the tank, but in the up position the treads look out of place.
Quoted from iceman44:PF wins on theme/callouts. Very important, but that’s it.
GFT Nordman layout, “flow monster”, lighting, Ramps, Toys, speaker panel, artwork, LCD awesomeness versus crap alphanumeric display (yes I’m getting one)
Like em both a lot but GFT for the win on overall review
Yup, both look great. But I want simple and edgy, nothing deep. And the uniqueness of PF will tickle a different part of my brain the others don't
Cheers 
AP continuing to market this game like a bunch of chumps. Seriously step it up. I still think it looks pretty decent but they really make their customers pull teeth to actually understand wtf is going on. Thanks to rosh for providing som helpful info.
I think I heard the robot say miss me miss me now you have to kiss me. If so, that’s absolutely terrible and needs to be removed. Also curious how the PF will handle all of these direct hits right in front of you (via the tank) - hard to tell with these random videos but Neils seems to be the best and man that ball really rockets out.
If you have the room, tank all day on this one. It’s unique and stands out!
GTF lookin good, why not vote it up? Of course vote how you wish for best of 8 new games by clicking link below…
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/poll-lots-of-choices-which-is-best/
(Hmmm, downvoting over participation in voting for GTF or other games? Rough crowd at times, lol.)
Quoted from Thunderbird:GTF lookin good, why not vote it up? Of course vote how you wish for best of 8 new games by clicking link below…
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/poll-lots-of-choices-which-is-best/
Because we basically have no idea. WHERE IS THE PROPER GAMEPLAY?!?!?
Quoted from FrederikFrost:Because we basically have no idea. WHERE IS THE PROPER GAMEPLAY?!?!?
He's not listening. I'm convinced that account is a bot that just spams all the threads on a schedule so you go to it's thread where you are bombarded with more spam for some unknown yet certainly nefarious purpose.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
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San Tan Valley, AZ
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