The casters club shot is a bitch

What about DE simpsons?

Hit 3 drops, lock one ball to start a 2 ball, lock both ball to start a 3 ball, hit down drops and then left ramp.

That is a PITA multi also.

granted FT is still bad, but I think DE simpsons is a contender.

I'm pretty sure WOZ Rescue Multiball (and getting to its mega jackpot) is the most difficult multiball ever, in any pinball.

How about almost any early SS game - Fathom or Black Knight for example? You're lucky just to have your MB last more than 10 seconds.

Alien invasion

Hey,

I have yet to watch the video (my apologies), but I found Pretzel Multiball to be pretty miserable to start in TSPP...

Luke

pretzel is the only mode I have never been able to start. I have done Alien invasion, mystery spot, and scratchy's revenge a million times but never pretzel multiball.

hmmm, I find the multi-ball in fish tales to be rather easy? Or maybe that is because I always aim for it because I enjoy it so much. I think the Extra Ball shot next to the club is harder.

Is this what multiball gets you the hardest? Recently it was the four ball Meet Your maker on No fear.

He was talking about regular Multiballs not wizard modes.

Then throw Couch Multiball in there too. Insanely tough to get all super jackpots.

Flight 2000. Spell BLAST-OFF and lock two balls, do the drop target countdown, lock third ball to start multiball. Almost impossible to keep all the balls on the field until the last ball is released from the ball walker. Much more difficult than 2 or 3 ball multiball on Black Knight, but Fathom is at least as difficult, maybe more.

Excalibur. Drop all 16 drop targets to light extra ball then hit ramp to collect.

Black Hole MB is the hardest!

2nd the Black Hole!

There is TSPP and then there is everything else..... Pretzel- Really tough one to start, Couch- I have never seen anyone collect all the Supers on that one (my best is three and that felt like an accomplishment), The rest of TSPP- not nearly as difficult, but still not easy.

Strange Science 5-ball is hard to keep alive. Shots are narrow on that game so balls are constantly in your face (not literally ) down by the flippers. They don't give you 12x playfield scores for nothing.

try backhandding it if you have not. I seem to have good success with that.

Is not that bad... you get a TON of chances to try the different phases assuming you don't just immediately tank. Problem with AI is that most people don't immediately try to lock a ball in the easy shots, they just flail away until one or two are locked. As long as you can fall back to 2 locked balls, you're pretty much golden..

Yes, I got all the FT supers, ON ACCIDENT MIND YOU... I thought you HAD to lock balls back in the CC THEN shoot the orbit! DURRRR...had no idea you could just get the easy jackpots! I've also been to Pretzel Multiball.....once.

Bally Vector is mighty tough, especially when not set at the absolute easiest settings. Drop 3 to 6 targets in order, and then catch the ball 2/3rds around the playfield after a steep ramp, then hit targets to release.

Seriously, backhanding that shot is probably my most consistent shot in the whole game. I kid you not. From a standstill, flip as soon as it clears the slingshot.

Hitting the Super Jackpot on I500 is very tough. You have to lock all three balls back in the turbo, and you only have a short period of time before they are released.

The captive ball shot in FT isn't nearly the drain fest it is now if the game has the full-length flippers it was designed with. It is a challenging multiball for sure, but that makes the reward of super jackpots even sweeter as it is a real challenge to get them started.

It's honestly not that_ hard to light mega jackpot as long as you stack rescue with some other modes. Generally all the flailing from having three multiballs at once will get you within a couple shots. If you do that twice, you'll probably have it lit already. Then it's just trapping one on the left flipper and getting it up there.

Seriously, next time you're playing and have rescue going a couple of times, pay special attention to the light on the castle door (usually you don't notice because it's up in the corner). It's probably lit more often than you think. It's like qualifying locks for ECMB. Just playing progresses it as a side effect.

Optimus prime mb in TF prior to the memory progression patch was one of the hardest standard mb's for me to complete. Fun ass mb too, just tough as nails.

Wasn't FT designed with lightning flippers?

Completing the multiball and getting the super jackpot in Creature is INSANELY hard to do!

FT was designed with regular flippers but Williams changed them to lightning flippers before production to appease the operators that wanted shorter ball times.

Playing FT with regular flippers is weak sauce.

You are right about backhand,but it's still a very tough shot
That's what makes it feel good when you get it!

Getting multiball on Cyclone can be real tough.

Add another one to Back Hole. Its the hardest to get and the hardest to make it worth the effort it took you to get there.

When the designer of the game has normal flippers installed on his personal game, because....it was designed that way, you know it's not "weak sauce".

IIRC, the pod cast interview with Mark Ritchie confirms that. It also mentioned the reason why. A French distributor pressured the company into creating shorter flipper bats to reduce ball time. It also goes on to describe why other games have lightning bats. It was because of surplus stock that needed to be consumed.

Fish Tales with lightening flippers is the "French Edition", as far as I'm concerned.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that all of Ann Arbor VFW's lightning flipper games have regular flippers.

If you went back in time and put lightning flippers on White Water (which was released between FT and BSD), people would cry "weak sauce" if you put regular flippers on it today. But we're used to it, so it's okay. None of those games were designed to have lightning flippers.

I think you are referring to the Super Jackpot during Rescue multiball, it is difficult, but nothing compared to Mega Jackpot. I'm not 100% sure on sequence, but I know it's extremely tough to get.

Think we may be debating semantics. May not have been the initial envision of the designer but they shipped with them thus lightning flippers are stock and reg flippers would be a Mod to the game as it was shipped.

IMHO - FT and BSD with reg flippers is way to easy for the level of depth the game has.

No joke. Getting all that done in one attempt was crazy hard. I'm glad they put the option in there for progression. I would like to see it being a 4 ball MB like Megatron is but with being able to stack Mud flaps and OP you can get 4 that way.

I would agree with Black Hole and TAF. Hard to watch that top flipper for the jackpot while juggling 2 balls down below. FT is frustrating but for may other reasons.

So you prefer your games to be how the sales/marketing team altered/ruined them and not what the actual game designer intended? I wish we had more customers like you back when the company was still in business.

FT plays perfectly fine with lightning flippers. Its a hard game at times but it makes more rewarding when you put up a big score on it.

I was trying to be nice but seriously, the game was shipped with them. Things get "designed" all the time but are cut/changed all the time before production. What goes out the factory door is what it is. You made a comment basically stating that FT is supposed to have reg flippers on it. That is not true. The game, as release by Williams is supposed to have lightening flippers on it. If you want to make your game easier, that's up to you.

You say marketing ruined the game. I say, you ruined the game. FT with reg flippers is BORING!!!! Way to easy and doesn't justify the ball times as the code is way to shallow for it. You can debate that all you want but in this case I think the marketing team (as you say) saved the game.

This could be said of countless games if you put lightning flippers on them. Which is why PAPA sometimes uses them to make tourney games harder, but still playable. We're accustomed to them on a particular handful of games, which began as a sales/marketing alteration but has become gospel.

Whether it's true or not depends on who you want designing your games: designers, or bean counters.

People spend thousand of dollars adding things back to games that designers wanted, but the factory removed. For some reason lightning flippers are sacred. [shrug]

Really learning a lot, never heard this should FT have lightning or regular flipper conversation.

As always, I choose to go with what the designer has on his own machine.

Yes. Extra Ball is harder. The backhand method seems to pay off more. I took off my lightening flippers and put the regulars on.

Me too!

Yeah, like in the new MMr with the coin mechs removed that we now have to buy!
Mike

Damn Frenchies!

If you ever get a TFTC, make sure you re-drill the playfield and move the scoop 1/16th of an inch to the right, because that's what the designers intended.

Might be a decent game then; it would help at least.

Another vote for the Black Hole. 3 balls, 2 playfields angled in opposite direction and 1 transparent blue window to view through . . . . just another easy 80's game. Pack a lunch, you're up for an all day (or night) affair . . . if you get to multiball.