I had the game 4 years and I never once hated the wild flasher effects from this game. I wish the newer sterns like xmen had these great flasher shows. Now I'm missing tftc even more. Great game.

I thought of another that needs to be fixed. The right ramp modes should end at play the organ not loop back to living dead after play the organ is complete.

What happened is I had play the organ flashing and ready to go, ended up going up the left ramp enough times to light the next mode on the right ramp and it ended up skipping over play the organ back to living dead. When I got up the right ramp I didn't get my play the organ.... bah

Not sure if you're still considering this for update, but after playing recently, I remembered a few more things..

Bonus gets maxed out fairly easily; perhaps adjust this so it can go higher?

Psycho Pops mode - too hard to get the 25 needed to score this; pops are spaced a bit too far apart to get much action on these without multiple shots up top - perhaps make this a bit easier/more interesting?

Electric Chair mode - more balls than normal multiball, but I find it boring by comparison - perhaps more points for making the scoop shot? Add something for making ramp shots?

I have had TFTC for 5 months and I absolutely love it. It's the most addictive game I have had. The modes are all different and fun. The jackpots are progressively harder. The game is hard overall. The sound is great. The shots are varied and the key shots are hard. I love the art and the humor.

Things I would complain about.

The crypt shot is impossible from the lower flippers, at least on my machine.

The VUK is very inconsistent.

After finishing all the Creature Features, all features are reset but no longer available, though one can still lit the insert as if they were.

Fantastic game.

Rise from the grave, thread.

Hey Chad, any updates on this? You're probably busy with finishing JP, but curious if this game is still in your crosscheck.

After MGC, my TFTC was delivered to Chad's house. That's all I'm saying.

Any updates on new revision to ROM?

Loving this damn pin. Really has that one more game feel to it. Even moreso than BSD for me..

1. Adjustable multiball. Like an easy setting for spotting letters in CRYPT. And a hard setting where you need to spell it all the way. I hate the gimme multiball. Make it adjustable.
2. Make a fourth jackpot. Call it Keeper's Jackpot. Maybe after getting Monster Jackpot, make hitting all KEEPER targets a special Keeper's Jackpot.
3. Fix Bats 1, Bats 2, .....etc etc.
4. Increasingly more difficult skill shot. Speed up progression of lit targets and/or make them cycle randomly.

Well, let's see...

No freebie spotting of "CRYPT"-- that has to be earned with tombstone hits.

The captive ball scoring could be re-worked--way too little reward for how difficult it is to hit that five times. I suggested to MezelMods that he design a new toy for this area (skull pile, skeleton head, etc.), we'll see what Tim comes up with...if you like this idea drop him a PM!

The right ramp could use some tuning--it should keep building modes into the next ball like the left ramp does. It is almost impossible to complete all four modes on one ball as the ramp shot is so tight it has to be almost perfect.

I'd like to see the skill shot tweaked a little. It would be cool to have the drop targeting speeded up after each time you successfully hit the correct drop target (sort of like T-2) to make it more challenging. Perhaps three skill shot hits in a row on could also start a CJ mode to speed that along and make it more attainable. Be nice to have some other way to get CJ modes going--Crypt Jam is way too difficult to achieve for the average to even better-than-average player.

I'd like to see another 6 ball multiball mode worked into the game. Electric Chair M-Ball is way too much fun, let's do it more often!

There are some cool callouts and music that only pop up occasionally. I'd like to use them all, lighten up on a few Keeper cackles and "who goes there" and some other overly repetitious calls/sounds. I love the "Death March" tune, but I think it only pops up for a death save--let's use it for a SDTM drain! The biggest knock on this game from non-fans is the Keeper Cackle. Easy fix--mix in and make use of some of the less used callouts on the ramp shots.

The flashing lighting could be a lot better controlled and be more dynamic--way too much flashing going on in the back box and on the playfield--almost blinding at times (I know nothing of programing--I'm guessing the lights are controlled by code).

I'm sure I am missing more--this is just off the top of my head. Don't get me wrong, the code as it stands is very good---but it could be tweaked and tuned to make this game just that much better and attract a new group of fans. Sure would open up some eyes to the fact that DE made some really good games--just like the new code for SW did.

Another change that really should happen: When you've just gotten the double jackpot and are now shooting the crypt to spell letters, they should light one at a time, insteasd of the whole word CRYPT blinking. The display spells another letter in CRYPT, but it should show it on the pf too. Not just all of them blink.

I wanna know on the pf how many more letters to spell.

Here's my skull pile with red LED inside and the hanging skulls move and shake when the shaker motor is enaged.

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I really like what you did with your skull pile. What I suggested to MezelMods was to get rid of the captured ball and replace it with a bash toy of some kind that would trigger the switch. That would add something to the game, be more fun to hit, and also be easier to strike consistently.

Something is wrong with yours then. Mine all flash but turn solid as they are hit.

I'll have to check again

Interesting thing I've noticed: seems as if once in awhile my left ramp will award the "trick shot" as well as start a frenzy.
I've checked switches in diagnostics but no issues. It's really strange.

Anyone have any thoughts? Or is this normal?

pinball gremlins, every once in a while I will get the skull crackin awarded without hitting it, and sometimes the background music will stop playing and everything is quiet for a while , only sounds from hitting things , I don't think it is worth looking for trouble , just my 2 cents

Something for sure has to be done with that, drives me crazy.

Any news on the revision? I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

Yup, way too quiet--throw us a bone!

Same here, planning to sell this game, but if some new software is up, maybe it could be a keeper

Come on chad we're waiting.

Wish that psycho pops gave you points even if you didn't get All 25, and Fritemare gave you points for each spin. Also a more exciting electric chair. It's fun but hitting the scoop for 2 million is a bit anti-climatic. New software would be deadly for sure

How about some news, a teaser, or another clandestine trash run!

nope you can get one with 10 hits to captive ball. Hard as hell only have done it a couple of times

C'mon ChadH--we are past the 2 year anniversary--give us some news!

Bump for an update!

So Chad, any progress?

"holy deadlock!"

Going...going...

I need to read this thread and start compiling ideas to make this game better.

Alright, I'm gonna chime in on this subject.

First off, there are some excellent suggestions.
1) Combos:

a) left ramp to left orbit or mode start.
b) left ramp to skull crackin' captive ball (bigger points)
c) right orbit to right ramp/ middle spinner.
d) Multiple right ramps as that is the tightest shot on the right side of the PF.
e) middle spinner to mode start. should be 1 million x each mode start.

2) Auto multiball on ball 3 should have an option to be turned on/off.

3)adjustable difficulties in multiball.
a) qualification for multiball, shots to the crypt as well as the monster multiball
b) scoring in multiball as compared to modes and wizard modes.

What I am seeing is:
1) some modes are worth going for and others are unbalancing.

a) Modes that are too valuable:
a1) extra ball at 50 mil in tourney mode? Yowtch! Can we drop this down to 10-15 million? At least with a hurry up mode you earn the points you collect for bonus.
a2) vidja mode is worth way too many points and the ball is never in danger of leaving the PF. A good total for vidja would be 15-20 (1+2+3+4+5+6=21) million for all the doors made to the 6th wave. After the last wave... Get a cameo/ quote from the keeper? Also, can this vidja mode seq be truly randomized?

b) Modes that are not valuable enough:
b1) keeper targets. dangerous and not worth the risk/ reward. Would a lit target moving from the "k" to the "r" and back again, or a random sequence make the difference? Speeding up between letters after each hit? Make the targets worth 5-10-20 million and after 3 hits or the timer runs out, the mode is over.
b2) Psycho pops. The pop garden is rather far apart and not active at all. Maybe 3 trips to the pops would complete the mode intead of 25 pops? Could be a frenzy mode with each trip to the pops adding to the base score (starts at 25k- 50k at first pop visit, 100k at second and 200k for the third visit) and the timer resets to 15 secs each time the pops are visited.
b3)thunderstorm. build the score at the spinner at 1m a spin. collect at ramps. 1x score for left ramp. 2x score for right ramp. lasts for 20 secs. each build and/or collect adds 3-5 secs to the clock. spinner-ramp combos are key!

I know there is more that I'd like to try out. If someone makes roms, I'm happy to use my dek as a test bed!

I really like your ideas
Especially B,B1,B2 and B3 ideas!

I just wish the right ramp hurry up modes would stay lit after a drain.
I think I've seen Grave digger mode once!

The hurry up "difficulty" could be set to an adjustment, but the frenzy/switch modes can be overpowering, esp when stacked with a multiball. I mean that is what the Crypt Jam is. A frenzy mode with every switch work 1M points!

I don't think I have much to contribute, but I have a few ideas that were likely mentioned.

- I think psycho pops is way too difficult and should score easier. Or each time you hit the bumpers it adds time to the timer to help you complete the mode.
- Thunderstorm is almost pointless and each shot should score much larger points. Also incorporating another shot would work, as the right ramp is so difficult.
- The skull cracking shot should score higher amounts of points when hit without a mode started or initiate something.
- The skill shot should progressively get harder each time it has been hit.
- I find that a lot of my call out get cut off prematurely during ball drains. Can that be fixed to allow them to run with the drain music simultaneously.
- It would be nice to see some more call outs cycled in through the regular shots. Some call outs are over used and other are hardly ever heard.
- I am not sure if my machine is experiencing an error, but when I shoot the left ramp I have to make two shots to light one of the rats/bats/goblins. I think each shot should light one of the four numbers. Otherwise I find that I have to hit 8 shots to get a mode. The left ramp should also score more for consecutive shots. I don't know why the ramps are so under utilized.
- Another option to start modes would be nice. Most owners use a cliffy and they make the crypt shot quite difficult.
- I think there should be another way to activate the right ramp shots, due to the difficulty of the shot.

I will try to think of a few more. Lots of my ideas have been mentioned before.

Skill shots should require "Skill". Maybe something like after hitting a progressively faster plunge hit to the drops, a shot to the center spinner of the left ramp would make a super skill shot before 5 secs after a second switch hit or 3 switch hits after the drop target being scored for the skill shot(or something similar).

The current settings on the programming set the crypt mode to ex ball after the first ball. Esp in tourney settings when the axe-tra ball is worth 50 mil, this can be overpowering. At the start of each second ball of play. Hit the plunger/tongue twice. You are now 2 shots away from a relatively easy 50 mil...

Umm... x # of ramps to start a mode (tAF again...). Starts at 12 ramps and increments another +3 ramps to the next lighting of the ramp mode. Right ramp is worth 3 ramps towards mode qualification?

If I'd make another "adjustment" to the balance of the game, I'd reduce the value of the JP. The big scoring ops between the modes and multiball heavily favors multiball. Unless you are specifically going for Crypt Jam... Multiball is where it's at. This is one thing that tAF does very very well. TZ does it even better. The balance of the scoring in the big picture of the ruleset is what makes a game a true player.

Skull crackin' is a great mode that incorporates the hardest shot on the table. Maybe make this one a bit easier by starting out with 2 balls and add another ball from the right ramp as well. Maybe an "easy" add from the center spinner as well?

I didn't know that; thanks for the information.

I think the total of shots should be reduced or more value given to the left ramp. Incorporating other shots like completing the guillotine drops, keeper bulbs, combos or skull cracking could also count as credit towards the ramp shots. I very rarely activate one of those modes via the ramps.... let alone the other three.

To clarify. tAF awards a mode at 15 (I believe) ramps and then another at something like 35 or 50 ramps. Maybe another further on, I can't recall. It's not something that most people go for, but if the shot is there and you are able to hit the double ramp reward from the lane, it can come up quicker than you might think.

To clarify, my proposal was for TFTC ramps towards mode to be displayed on the DMD (does this game have an info display?) as: At 12 ramps a crypt mode will start, and show how many more to go as ramps are progressed.

Ok, I misunderstood. I do still think that less shots should be required to activate bat/rats/etc.

Yes yes yes

very good ideas !

Does anyone have any idea about the status of the code update by ChadH? Anyone? A few of the proposed tweaks with this game and I think it would be perfect.

The code is OUT people!

http://www.pinballcode.com/tftc4

Commence rampant discussion! I'm beyond impressed by the amount of unused callouts.

Can't wait to try out the new code but my 13 year old son kind of ruined the door prize feature for me. I thought that this feature was a completely randomized one and that I was just really shitty at picking the right door. He then spewed off a list of which doors to pick and told me that if he gets Door prize he can get over 100 million just from that feature. Reminded me of up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, select, start. I had him write down his supposed door strategy and sure enough, it worked like he said. Can anyone else confirm that this is in fact not random and that the new code doesn't change this except for the values?

Silver lining is even with this knowledge he still can get past my high scores on the machine or break 400 million.

I thought in an older ROM the door prize did have a pattern and the latest official ROM fixed that. What version are you running?

I think it says R3.01 when it boots up. What else was changed if that's the original rom, before the new code that was just released?

This is old code. In 3.01 the door prizes were fixed. In 3.03 the door prizes are random. I'm sure somewhere in hyperspace there is a list of changes from 3.01 to 3.03.

You should be running 3.03 (which you will run if you run this new version)

Great, thanks for confirming. I can't wait to get these new roms and swap them out on him and see his reaction when his pattern doesn't work.

Can't wait to hear the new callouts, that is what I requested.

The door prizes sucks. It matters not which door you pick, the game already decides whether you win or lose. In the new ROM, we made it so the early prizes are bigger, negating the "game liked you this time gave you 100m" bonus.

Even better for people like me who hate the video mode, turn on tournament mode and it goes away and just awards you points.

Anyone have the capabilities to burn these for me for $

Contact John Wart as he is doing this. John runs a very professional ROM burning service and I have used his services for 10 or so of my games. John is very reasonably priced and has very fast shipping. I highly recommend his ROM services.

Post Where John Offers To Burn ROMS For New JP And TFTC Code
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-club/page/20#post-2722158

John's Web Site
http://www.thatpinballplace.com/index.htm

Gord