Echo

It was designed with standard flippers. It was a last minute decision from Williams to put on lightning flippers (more $$$ for ops). For this reason, I am sticking with standard flippers.

like mine a lot. I use standard flippers but if I had a set of nos lightning flippers I'd give it a shot. the repro one are kind of crappy.

I found ft to be difficult also. I think you need very good aim for ft. I do not have very good aim, therefore I suck at ft. All I hit is the captive ball and posts. And yea, the lightning flippers don't help.

Lightning flippers on mine, outposts set in the middle position, 6.3 degrees on the playfield, 3 ball with add a ball settings at 100 million.

I have both, full size currently installed. Game kicks my ass, but its a riot when you make it sing.

Lightning flippers are the olny way to go on fish tales love the flow on this pin and out of all the pins I have had over the past year prob my Favorite !!!

I have stuck with the lightning flippers, but just this past week, I gave into my wife and adjusted the outlanes to the narrowest setting.

Yeah, since I like running it with add a ball, I got my roms patched so the "Extra Ball at" text would show up correctly, instead of looking like "Xtra Balle".

Had my FT for over six months and have only just got around to installing the lightning flippers.
Must admit i don't seem to notice that much change apart from making the ramp shots even easier.

Why do you think that is?

Lightning flips and yes, my FT kicks my ass on a regular basis even though it's been in my collection the longest.

I don't understand making the game easier than the way it shipped. Why not just play with the glass off?

Like I said, the designers DESIGNED the game with normal flippers. Williams only added the lightning flippers right before it shipped to increase operator revenue. So that's why I stick with normal flippers. That same reason is why I don't add "add a ball" options to a game, I tend to keep all my games at close to factory settings.

You might as well just add lightning flippers to all your games.

Sadly, this is my only option right now. My glass spontaniously shattered and Pinball Life is closed when I have a friend driving though Chicago on Saturday. Anyone near me have an extra sheet?

Define "near"...I live on the southside of Milwaukee (about 3 hours from you I think) and have an extra sheet of standard glass. Not sure you'd want to drive that far but if you did, I could help you out.

Dave

I don't understand playing a game with parts it wasn't designed for.

I don't understand why we continue to have this debate.

I enjoy it with the lightning flippers. Whatever floats your boat.

What got it excited?

I'd probably consider driving to Madison, but that's about it. I should just not be so cheap and shell out the extra $40 to have it shipped. I just keep thinking, we'll you'll probably be going to Chicago sometime soon anyway, but it hasn't happened yet. I had just been swapping out the glass with my JM, but now with that gone, that's not an option.

Thank you for the offer though.

Hey lpeters82, the friend that's driving through Chicago on Saturday, would he want to head north a bit and pick it up from me on his way? If not, maybe there's a Chicago based pinhead that's got an extra piece of glass that your buddy could pick up for you. If your buddy is going to be over this way anyway, might as well put him to work.

Dave

Just get it from your local glass shop. I got a sheet of standard pinball sized tempered glass for $29 from the place down the street. That was two years ago and it's survived many an airball since. I don't get why people pay big bucks to get it from a pinball vendor and have it shipped. I mean, if you must have invisiglass then spend a fortune, but regular 3/16" tempered glass doesn't cost that much.

I called two glass shops. The first quote was $85 and the second was $49. I might end up going with the $49 quote from the Light Haus in Madison. I also might just wait for awhile, I'm in no big rush and usually get to Chicago a few times each year.

My friend (actually my brother-in-law) will be driving on I-90 through Rockford, then on Hwy 20 and Hwy 11. Pinball life was perfect since it was a few blocks off of I-90. His wife is pregnet and I'd feel guilty about asking them to drive out of their way.

Who knows, maybe someone in Madison, Steven's Point, Wausau or Antigo, WI will read this. I'll be driving through on the 24th and 27th.

I have an extra sheet you can have. It probably has a few scratches but nothing too bad. I just always put new sheets in any game I get.

I work on both the 24th and 27th, but could dip out on the 24th and shoot home to meet you depending on when you are coming through Madison. I am on the far east side (close to 51 and 151). Let me know...

i dont have my FT anymore, but i kept the lightning flippers on it while i owned it.

i spent a ton of my early pinball days playing ft. i hated the gameplay actually, but loved the theme/music/callouts. now i actually love the gameplay 10 years later. the extra ball setting is key, otherwise you can go through all 3 of the mb modes over, and over, and over again. it's all about hitting caster quick when mb starts, then double the jackpot with captive ball, then close her out with the left outer lane orbit. i love the callouts when you get that super jackpot...so worthy! with no new themed pinball this day and age (tired of movies..common stern), it seems i love ft more and more i play it now.

Sorry for the thread derail but I'm gonna assume you're a Tennessee football fan. Just a hunch. Anyway, I coached against Tyler Bray when he was in Jr High and know his parents and uncle. I think he's going pro this year.

Lightning flippers on mine and outs set liberal. Fun game, my girlfriend's all time fav for music, video mode and callouts.

I play my FT with 1 Lightning and 1 Standard Flipper.

How talented was he back then?

Do you also have the outlanes set differently?

When I bought mine, it had one standard and one lightning. It now has two standard flippers - plays great.

I looked at a BSD like this once. The seller (a dealer who has been in the business for 15 years) did not know there was a size difference between them. He told me he thought the lightning flip was "a Gottlieb flipper or something."

Yeah Fish Tales is hard but that's what makes it fun. I get disappointed when I find one on location and it has regular flippers. Lightning flippers all the way!

Was this 'patch' a one off for yourself or can you get updated ROM/s to sort this issue out?

Zipper flippers, maybe that's why i got my ass handed to me on this table. Fortunately I was down at Reciprocal where I was able to just move onto another! Thanks Jon

I've got the lightning flippers on my fish tales. It's what it came with so that's how I play it. Frankly, I hardly notice it...I'm not that good of a player so longer flippers wouldn't really help much. I also have my side posts open as far as they go.

I still haven't seen a super jackpot. I did get a double cross recently though! That's when you shoot a ball up the port and starboard boat sides at the same time during multiball of course. I wasn't expecting to hear a new callout, a pleasant surprise.

Funny you would mention the double cross as I did that today as well, which I hadn't done before. It took me a few seconds to figure out what I had done. Nice when you discover something new.

I did this: http://pinhacks.com/showthread.php?tid=12 as well as applied the wpc led patch. I can PM you a link to the patched rom that I had burnt (my private link, not sure if I'm allowed to post it here). Just let me know.

Happened about a week ago,after having pin for a half year.
Double Cross!!!!!

Ditto. FT is the toughest game in my lineup.

One Super Jackpot in 6 years of ownership. Yeah, it's hard! I get Double Cross all the time, never on purpose though. I'm just that bad at hitting the tournament shot that I get the boat ramp instead, haha!