Ultraman owner jumping over here to brainstorm a mod idea:

I think the Michael Myers' swinging out from the behind the hedges is a fun effect, and it has a purpose w/ the multiball jackpots. However, I'm a little disappointed that when you're standing playing the game, the hedges don't actually "hide" the characters. What if someone designed additional hedges(?)* that could go between the main hedges and act as a hiding place for the Michaels? You'd end up seeing less of the ball coming down the wireform, but I think the effect of the Michaels appearing out of nowhere would be a really cool improvement.

The dotted line in my sketch represents the additional building (w/ a dog house style cutout for the character to come out from).

This feels like it wouldn't be too difficult for someone with access to a 3d printer? Not looking to make money off of these, just wanted to see if others thought it could work or had ideas how to execute.

(*on ultraman, the hedges are buildings, so adding more buildings makes a little more sense than adding more hedges...but I'm sure there's something we could add there.)

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Visiting from the Ultraman owners thread and I’m excited to see people brainstorming about ways to tweak the rules for the top playfield and the modes associated with it. I thought it over while I couldn’t sleep and here are a few thoughts I have:

With the top playfield and middle playfield (House/Jirahs, Sanitarium/Bemular), I think it needs to be decided whether those are MODES or MULTIBALLS. Right now, they act like modes in that when they’re started, they become the primary focus of the game. However, in reality they are meant to be multiballs (hence the inserts related to completing them as multiballs). The way it’s currently setup, I think House/Jirahs makes more sense as a mode: i.e. qualify a mode at the drops, hit the scoop, choose “House/Jirahs” as your mode, and then proceed to focus on the top playfield stuff. I don’t think this is a good idea, as it would significantly reduce the use of the top playfield, but it better isolates the purpose of the top playfield.

Instead, I think the upper playfields should be treated more like multiballs. While you are doing other mode stuff etc., you should be able to slowly qualify those multiballs, and then if you qualify them, they take over as the primary action. For comparison: when you lock your first ball on the left scoops, the game doesn’t immediately change the music and narrow the focus to getting locks 2+3 so you can start Hedge/Baltan multiball. Instead, you’re gradually building up the locks while you do other stuff. So in the same way, I’d prefer gradually building up pretzel loops throughout the game, and once I get enough and hit that crossover shot, THEN the game shifts into House/Jirahs multiball.

Obviously this would require a shift if in how the animations/sounds work, but I think it’s do-able. Maybe play a short sound effect/clip each time you complete a pretzel loop, and then once you hit the crossover, then you start seeing full video/sound related to that multiball.

With my suggested change, another question is: when should the diverter to the top PF be open? I think there are plenty of options (every other shot goes to the upper PF? Hit the two standups by the ramp to open to upper pf? Leave the upper PF always open?). I wouldn’t mind spending more time on the upper PF if it wasn’t locked into House/Jirahs. Hitting middle ramp -> pretzel loop -> crossover ramp could be a great flow combo to use throughout the game.

Overall, I think it would be good to loosen up on the idea that the top playfield *IS* the house and middle playfield *IS* the sanitarium, and therefore anytime you’re on those you HAVE to be doing the related mode. Many games have ramps/upper pfs/targets that represent specific places/plot points etc., but they’re still freely utilized for a variety of aspects of the game. The way it’s currently setup, I feel like I get unintentionally locked into certain battles and it makes me want to avoid those shots.

I appreciate anyone who took the time to read these long thoughts. I want to be clear that I think Spooky has been doing great and I respect their vision/design choices. These are my observations and ideas and I’m grateful that they’d take them into account.