https://papa.org/learning-center/directors-guide/?target=game-notes

Not necessarily a comprehensive list by any means, but there are some good things noted that can be done to make the TD aware of game exploits.

I don't think there are a lot of games that are outright banned.

And almost any game is fine for a casual tournament.

But a huge percentage of games do have quirks or exploits that compel high-level tournament directors to make modifications either in the settings, code, or even in extreme cases the playfield itself -- i've heard of TD's disabling the center ramp sensor on Mousin' Around, for example.

I hosted the Michigan SCS the past few years, and I had to do modify or eliminate the following games.

-Subway and Pop-A-Card were AAB games and we didn't feel that it was fair to include these games.
-Safecracker with the board game and timed play was just to weird and random for competition.
-TAFG had the roms changed to standard TAF to eliminate Cousin It random awards. Also the magnets were disabled.
-NGG was not used because of the random wheel awards.
-MB had the Phantom Flip disabled.
-BSD had the right inlane switch disabled so no Mystery award
-BoP was not used because you can't turn off the 1B shot.
-ES was not used because of the center ramp to left flipper shot is too repetitive. You can add a toothpick under the left flipper rubber to introduce ball hop. We just opted to not use it.
-TZ had one regular ball removed from the gumball machine (not sure what this actually does, but it's in the list above).

You can set it to a 1% chance, and you can set the timeout on it so low that it's not possible to achieve. So the upshot is the player has a 1% chance of getting nothing from a big wheel spin.

We tried that. Set the big wheel award to 10M at 99% and everything else to 1% and set the 1B timer to 1 sec. What happened is player 1 goes all the way to the big wheel and for whatever reason gets the 1B shot and then gets nothing. Player 2 goes all the way to the big wheel award and gets 10M. Not fair. Seriously, even when the 1B is set to 1% it comes up 75% of the time you go to the big wheel the first time. Just isn't really fair for a serious tournament like the SCS.

your players really demand that you eliminate every possible random award? seems like pinball to me.

In our tournaments in CO, we always exclude South Park. Not because of any exploit, just because it is terrible.

For the SCS. Yes. All EBs off and all games in tournament mode.

EDIT: And the next SCS in 2019 it's going to be 1000% worse with all the money on the line.

I think Gladiators is because of the calm before the storm cheat.

When a random award can decide the outcome of a game (easily, and often), you really think it should still be used?
And I wouldn't say the players "demand" it. But rather the TDs are aware enough not to use it in the first place.

When we used this game for a few months we just set a cap at 100 million. So if you set up the cheat, have to stop doing it once you reach 100 million. Cannot set it back up after that until you work your way all the way back.

How do you get that up, Erik?

That's exactly what we did. Same value too. We just had a gentleman's agreement beforehand with all players.

When you get to that mode, every major shot increases the jackpot you receive at the end of your ball and the slay the beast jackpots. If you’re trapped on the lower left and upper right, shoot the upper right lane from the upper flipper so that it feeds the upper left flipper so that it bounces off the upper left flipper and feeds the upper right flipper to a trap.

Do that to infinity if you want.

I mean how did you set the cap.

We just came up with a number that worked for everyone. 100 million was beneficial enough to go for, but didn't take all night to do. You have 4 top players timing out every mode and doing this exploit during league it can take all night otherwise.

In Calm Before The Storm, you just need to trap balls on both flippers. Then shoot the right orbit with the left flipper and pass the ball on the right flipper to the left. When you trap the ball on the left, it holds up the upper left flipper too. You can shoot that upper orbit and the ball will roll off the held up upper left flipper so you can do it over and over and over. There are other ways to set it up, but that's how I do it when I have both balls trapped up. I did it once for almost an hour for fun after league and had my Beast Slayer jackpots up to 3 billion.

Just felt like 100 million was fair. Doesn’t take to long to get to it either so you’re not waiting all day.

Ooh okay. For some reason I thought there was like a setting you could set to set a cap.

Terminator 2 cannot be used in big tournaments because you are not always awarded the super jackpot points when you get a super jackpot. Addams family gold cannot be used because cousin it will give you random awards.

I think a game with a random, heavily lopsided award like BoP is a worse offender than TAFG, because once somebody joins the billionaire club, there is absolutely nothing else to try for until that first digit on the display is a 1B. On TAFG roms least there are still various paths to overcome the random cousin It awards.

What about BOP 2.0?

#bugs-bunnys-birthday-ball has random awards that include possibly swapping scores at the end. Some of the points awards are ridiculously high IIRC. We don't use it for league play.

#lightscameraaction offers a catch up feature for players other than the current game leader. I don't know if it would be usable as a one player game.

More chances for everyone to get a powerball I guess.

Gottlieb Monte Carlo has the random ramp shot

One of the Data East Simpsons two-ramp-shot bonuses is "double score" which, yes, doubles your score. Another is "catch up" which, while I've never triggered it, I assume increases your score to your highest opponents score. Neither appropriate for tourney play.

Police Force seems like a bad game for a tournament play. The super easy unlimited millions ramp shot can be made over and over and over. Then there is the “take high score” feature on the 3rd ball if you can make the right ramp shot.

Both are easily addressable.

Thanks for posting this! Some of the comments are great - see Barb Wire