(Topic ID: 176218)

Best game code

By colonel_caverne

7 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 38 posts
  • 30 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 7 years ago by shimoda
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    #1 7 years ago

    Hi there,
    I was wondering what is, according to you, the game that gets the code which best exploits its layout.
    You can propose a top 3 or 5 if you want.

    #2 7 years ago

    AC/DC

    #3 7 years ago

    Met/prem
    Ac/dc /prem
    Spiderman
    MM
    TSPP
    WD

    #4 7 years ago

    Considering the not really inspiring shot layout - Lyman did the best job ever!

    #5 7 years ago

    - WPT code is exceptional and really challenging. Truly an achievement for a relatively uninspired layout.
    - LOTR fits its theme really nicely.

    #6 7 years ago

    Really dude? Really? Out of everything??
    Acdc?
    I mean , i dig it and i have a luci,but the best?
    We need quality control on pinside

    1)You are aware of the "thing flips" code in adams family? The machine does math until it shoots the shot right,BY ITSELF!?
    It is amazing!

    2)cirqus Voltaire: during the game the ringmaster start to laugh like a maniac for no reason on a randomizer or something..amazing!!

    3)game of thrones le : first week playing i did not notice/understand,but all inserts can change color to match the corresponding house/mode you are playing...amazing!!

    4)wizard of oz : whole new level of deep,i never collected 1 emerald or jewel or whatever that was about, but all pictures of me playing woz feature my mouth hanging wide open

    5)medieval madness: just spot on,allround code,not going to explain.

    #7 7 years ago

    Afm and tz have really excellent code imo especially for what they had to work with back in the 90s.

    #8 7 years ago
    Quoted from pinballrockstar:

    Really dude? Really? Out of everything??
    Acdc?
    I mean , i dig it and i have a luci,but the best?
    We need quality control on pinside
    1)You are aware of the "thing flips" code in adams family? The machine does math until it shoots the shot right,BY ITSELF!?
    It is amazing!
    2)cirqus Voltaire: during the game the ringmaster start to laugh like a maniac for no reason on a randomizer or something..amazing!!
    3)game of thrones le : first week playing i did not notice/understand,but all inserts can change color to match the corresponding house/mode you are playing...amazing!!
    4)wizard of oz : whole new level of deep,i never collected 1 emerald or jewel or whatever that was about, but all pictures of me playing woz feature my mouth hanging wide open
    5)medieval madness: just spot on,allround code,not going to explain.

    Dont forget mb does even a better job with the phantom flip.....

    #9 7 years ago

    Wizard of Oz code is really next gen level stuff. It has a great mix for novice, intermediate, and advanced players and uses the full playfield throughout the rule set.

    #10 7 years ago

    WOZ
    TWD
    AC/DC

    #11 7 years ago

    The code of this one is the reason why I sold it.
    I hate the way to get the MB.

    #12 7 years ago

    I must admit that I was asking myself this question because I got recently an TWD LE, and I am really impressed with the code (even if I'm far to know all the subtilities). I had not felt the same since MM and Lotr.

    #13 7 years ago

    I'm going to go with two older games: Joker Poker and El Dorado City Of Gold. Both have straightforward layouts but really interesting rulesets that make them more fun to play than most toy-packed DMDs. Centaur seems to be another game like this, but I haven't played it enough to really know.

    #15 7 years ago

    WOF. Very hard game to complete.

    #16 7 years ago
    #17 7 years ago

    I would say most Keith Johnson games, especially WOZ, TH, LOTR and TSPP. Those 4 games have code that makes the player work the entire playfield in unique and interesting ways.

    I would say that WOZ may be Keith's "magnum opus" for pinball programming, lol. It's just incredible with what he did with that games rules and lightning affects.

    #18 7 years ago
    Quoted from o-din:

    WOF. Very hard game to complete.

    Especially for Stern, apparently.

    #19 7 years ago

    Everyone here is basing their thoughts of best code based on "how good are the rules," which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think my criteria for best code would be something along the lines of:

    Best engineered auto percentages for high scores and replays to auto adapt to locations
    Quality of ball searches, and "auto healing" of broken switches
    Rules that are relatively bug-free
    Refinements that most players wouldn't catch (i.e. Rudy following the ball with his eyes, or systematically naming each player, and remembering their name ball to ball)
    Level rules that push hardware to the limits

    I think personally, it'd be difficult to pin down one game that really does all those things well, however I do believe that:

    Early Bally games with the -35 boardset really knew how to crank out detailed rules and speech given the obvious limitations of the hardware. They were able to eclipse William's 3-6 boardsets in rules and table complexity with less than half the number of PIA chips. Those software engineers were wizards at assembly code.

    William's really kicked ass with its System 11 boardset. Again, it had obvious limitations, but on my Whirlwind, if a ball gets stuck somewhere, and the game is turned off, then turned back on and game restarted, it'll "rewrite" the rules to perform with fewer balls. Not only that, but if the stuck ball is then later knocked loose (giving the player a 'surprise' multiball), the game will automatically kill the flippers after a one of the balls is lost, so that it gives the machine time to recoup all the balls in the trough, and give the player a fair game. I thought that was pretty damn smart for 1989.

    Finally, I think someone mentioned it already, but "Thing Flips" and "Phantom Flips" was pretty amazing for the 90s. Kinda like the game had AI. Figuring out the timing of the ball, and using switches and sensors to let the fliptronics board make a perfect shot for the player, even by today's standards, is really sharp.

    Just my 2 cents. Stern games today certainly have rule depth, but I don't personally believe that they've really added anything "new" to coding refinements, other than being able to control RGB LEDs.

    #20 7 years ago

    I have to vote one of my tops is Lyman's coding in AFM.
    The layout is simple, it's fast, fun, and it works! Everytime.

    #21 7 years ago

    LotR
    Tspp
    TWD
    Met

    #24 7 years ago

    My vote go to DESW version 1.06 Chad already did a great job on version 1.04. Plus he just released a version 1.07 on 17 Dec 2016

    #25 7 years ago

    CFTBL. Hands down

    #26 7 years ago

    I know the worst is Bally Rolling Stone pinball.
    The programmer really hated the game and
    never made the adjustments work with the
    manual. The code is completely gibberish
    in certain areas.

    #27 7 years ago

    Woz is incredible in terms of playability, lighting and balance.
    Afm is amazing and to me is pinball perfection. Simple enough to attract casual players, hard enough to keep the attention of !ore skilled players. The difficulty level is perfect

    #29 7 years ago

    1. WPT
    2. GOT LE or Premium
    3. TSPP

    #30 7 years ago

    If I would have to pick one it would be a tough fight between MET and LOTR. Winner would be MET as it gives more adreline.

    #31 7 years ago

    Obviously, it's a very subjective question. I consider Lyman and Keefer to be far and away the best coders out there, but they both specialize in a completely different kind of ruleset. To me, games like TWD, MET and Tron are more fun than WOZ, LOTR or TSPP, but I'll fully acknowledge that Keefer's code is brilliant in its own way.

    If I had to pick one single game that I think has the best code, it would be TWD. To me, that is Lyman's masterpiece, and Horde is the single coolest mode in all of pinball.

    #32 7 years ago

    ^^^^

    Terminus and of course LMS are great as well.

    TWD really is a coding masterpiece

    #33 7 years ago
    Quoted from iceman44:

    Terminus and of course LMS are great as well.

    Sadly, I'm still trying to reach LMS after owning the game for more than two years. I've finally come to the conclusion that if I want to see the mode, I simply have no choice but to lower the amount of walker kills needed.

    #34 7 years ago
    Quoted from mbaumle:

    Finally, I think someone mentioned it already, but "Thing Flips" and "Phantom Flips" was pretty amazing for the 90s. Kinda like the game had AI. Figuring out the timing of the ball, and using switches and sensors to let the fliptronics board make a perfect shot for the player, even by today's standards, is really sharp.

    Really??? - it's just the Hi Low game - pretty far from AI. Phantom Flip is usually turned off because it doesn't work well. In TAF, the ball gets slowed down to a very manageable/stable speed before it goes past the upper left flipper. The problem in MB is that the ball can have vastly different speeds, which can be approximated with the switch + opto, but much more difficult to time.

    To the main topic - TWD is awesome!

    #35 7 years ago

    Deep code doesn't always mean best code for me. Maybe for the top tier players. I often find it confusing on what to do when rules get complicated even after I played them a bunch of times. I love games like MET. It's real easy to understand the basics of the game and how to get to mb. The crank it up modes are fairly easy to get to and act like mini wizard modes. There is a lot more to the game for experienced players and you can always choose what to go for.

    For older games, I'm really liking Shadow right now. It's very challenging so you really have to think about every shot. I like how you can play different strategies for points and how all the modes/mb are different. Lot's of wacky, random stuff in code which makes it fun. I still don't get why sometimes a bunch of cows start mooing and running across the screen. Too funny.

    #36 7 years ago
    Quoted from mbaumle:

    Everyone here is basing their thoughts of best code based on "how good are the rules," which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think my criteria for best code would be something along the lines of:
    Best engineered auto percentages for high scores and replays to auto adapt to locations
    Quality of ball searches, and "auto healing" of broken switches
    Rules that are relatively bug-free
    Refinements that most players wouldn't catch (i.e. Rudy following the ball with his eyes, or systematically naming each player, and remembering their name ball to ball)
    Level rules that push hardware to the limits
    I think personally, it'd be difficult to pin down one game that really does all those things well, however I do believe that:
    Early Bally games with the -35 boardset really knew how to crank out detailed rules and speech given the obvious limitations of the hardware. They were able to eclipse William's 3-6 boardsets in rules and table complexity with less than half the number of PIA chips. Those software engineers were wizards at assembly code.
    William's really kicked ass with its System 11 boardset. Again, it had obvious limitations, but on my Whirlwind, if a ball gets stuck somewhere, and the game is turned off, then turned back on and game restarted, it'll "rewrite" the rules to perform with fewer balls. Not only that, but if the stuck ball is then later knocked loose (giving the player a 'surprise' multiball), the game will automatically kill the flippers after a one of the balls is lost, so that it gives the machine time to recoup all the balls in the trough, and give the player a fair game. I thought that was pretty damn smart for 1989.
    Finally, I think someone mentioned it already, but "Thing Flips" and "Phantom Flips" was pretty amazing for the 90s. Kinda like the game had AI. Figuring out the timing of the ball, and using switches and sensors to let the fliptronics board make a perfect shot for the player, even by today's standards, is really sharp.
    Just my 2 cents. Stern games today certainly have rule depth, but I don't personally believe that they've really added anything "new" to coding refinements, other than being able to control RGB LEDs.

    No, my 3 votes went to best code (WOZ, TWD, ACDC). These 3 pins nail down the pinnacle of choreography, lighting, sound effects, and overall package.

    If this was a vote on best rules; GOT PRO would win hands down for me personally.

    #37 7 years ago

    Think of TZ code, expecially for the year it was released.

    Game wise, it's pretty deep. Speaking of toy, the clock is beautiful. Going from twelve to twelve is piece of cake, but telling the time fine tuning a continous motor (non stepper, mind it) it's a great feat.

    And noticed that: you know how it set time during normal working (turning until a good half an hour before, then fine tuning).
    Well, after a battery reset (clean nvram), setted time and no test/games were done, the clock, going to tell the right time, started doing fine movements to twelve to half of the hour to calibrate and memorize, then it did the classic movement.

    Just image how many calibrations and variables are being kept in the NVRAM that we don't know

    #38 7 years ago

    toss up for me - Flash Gordon or WOZ

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