(Topic ID: 209676)

Is there ever too much spinner?

By FatPanda

6 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 25 posts
  • 18 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 6 years ago by Mopar
  • Topic is favorited by 1 Pinsider

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#1 6 years ago

I'm in the process of getting my Paragon playing like a champ. I was having a bit of an issue where the spinner was getting caught halfway up, creating an opening so that when the ball passed through, it wouldn't hit the spinner at all. So I took it off, rubbed each side of the posts with sand paper and added just the thinnest coat of super lube. Now the spinner goes about 3 dozen times on a solid hit.

On a game like Paragon, it can advance the bonus quite a bit. On other games with super spinners or lit spinners, you can get tens of thousands of points (or whatever the scale is). Is there ever too much spinner? Would you consider that "cheating" or "unfair"?

#2 6 years ago
Quoted from FatPanda:

I'm in the process of getting my Paragon playing like a champ. I was having a bit of an issue where the spinner was getting caught halfway up, creating an opening so that when the ball passed through, it wouldn't hit the spinner at all. So I took it off, rubbed each side of the posts with sand paper and added just the thinnest coat of super lube. Now the spinner goes about 3 dozen times on a solid hit.
On a game like Paragon, it can advance the bonus quite a bit. On other games with super spinners or lit spinners, you can get tens of thousands of points (or whatever the scale is). Is there ever too much spinner? Would you consider that "cheating" or "unfair"?

Best of luck, i love paragon

#3 6 years ago

Never too much spinner! It's my favorite pinball target! When you light the spinner on Xenon for 1,000 points, you can rack up several thousand.

#4 6 years ago

I'm 100% EM, but do have a little story about a fast, long lasting spinner.
While playing a two player game on a Bally's Hokus Pokus, immediately
after ripping the ball through the spinner, it reckeshade back, drained
and was still spinning racking up points for the other player..
I never gave it a thought that it was too much spin. I had some machines
with fast spinners, but not quite like that one Hokus Pokus..

#5 6 years ago

Yes it's too much. Artificially earning super bonii that stay around the entire game is a bit cheap IMO

#6 6 years ago
Quoted from Mopar:

it reckeshade back, drained
and was still spinning racking up points for the other player..

At a tournament this weekend we had someone do that and also tilt through at the same time. Was an interesting ruling...

Quoted from FatPanda:Is there ever too much spinner? Would you consider that "cheating" or "unfair"?

Paragon is hard enough I wouldn't worry about it that much

BUT! Paragon is designed so that the spinner if hit well will fly across to the waterfall lane and then go back to the flipper, so theoretically you could hit the spinner repeatedly. It'd suck if your spinner was still going by the time the ball got back to the flipper, and you end up ruining both spins when you hit it again, so if your spinner keeps spinning for that long, you might want to tone it down so it settles by the time the ball reaches the flipper.

#7 6 years ago

I did the same thing with my Paragon. I noticed that when you get a solid hit on the spinner and then hit another switch that takes time to make its sound or count points (such as the waterfall or Paragon saucer), it loses track of the spinner revs while it's processing the other switch. But I love having a lucrative spinner on this game. I used to shoot the inlines only from the right flipper. Now I shoot the spinner until I build the 20K super bonus, then shoot for the inlines.

Quoted from FatPanda:

Is there ever too much spinner?

You tell me.

#8 6 years ago
Quoted from FatPanda:

Is there ever too much spinner? Would you consider that "cheating" or "unfair"?

Not possible. Haha. A spinner that isn’t juiced to the max is a bad spinner.

Also, anything to make you shoot something other than the drops on a massive game like paragon is a good thing. Not sure how it’s cheating unless you’re competiting with someone who’s playing another paragon with a gimped spinner.

#9 6 years ago

On Johnny Mnemonic the only way I can now get high scores on my machine is to really spam the spinner for points. If I get Spinner Millions lit, I can spin that puppy for more than a billion points. Then I use the matrix to hold bonus, as the Spinner Millions is awarded in the bonus. Now I'm guaranteed to get at least 2 billion from it. Then I try to ring up the bonus multiplier to 4X. Now I'm awarded about 8 billion for it over 2 end of ball bonus counts. Then I also try to hit award bonus from the matirx, which will give me an additional 4 billion bonus if I've achieved all the previous multipliers and stuff. So, if I play my cards right and pull all that off, I just got around 12 billion points from Spinner Millions. That is 1/3 of my best score on that machine. Whew.. I can't believe I remember all that.

#10 6 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

Not possible. Haha. A spinner that isn’t juiced to the max is a bad spinner.
Also, anything to make you shoot something other than the drops on a massive game like paragon is a good thing. Not sure how it’s cheating unless you’re competiting with someone who’s playing another paragon with a gimped spinner.

Never thought about it cause mine works pretty good... but dang it I'm gettin' out the lube tonight!

#11 6 years ago

I had a great spinner rip on my Silverball Mania that, when the ball entered the kicker, it was several seconds before it registered so the scoring could catch up.

#12 6 years ago
Quoted from dothedoo:

I did the same thing with my Paragon. I noticed that when you get a solid hit on the spinner and then hit another switch that takes time to make its sound or count points (such as the waterfall or Paragon saucer), it loses track of the spinner revs while it's processing the other switch. But I love having a lucrative spinner on this game. I used to shoot the inlines only from the right flipper. Now I shoot the spinner until I build the 20K super bonus, then shoot for the inlines.

I've noticed that it doesn't register also, if you've started another tone in the game, which I guess could be the "balancing" part of it, but I do feel kind of guilty when I hit it solidly, and it still continues spinning for a few seconds. So it seems that generally, it's not a huge deal? I'm not sure how it's artificially inflating score compared to others, or what the baseline of a spinner speed is? If it's consistent for all players in my house (me), then is it really "cheating"?

#13 6 years ago

No such thing as to much spinner. It's like cowbell, I need more of it. It actually become comical and somewhat competive with other players to see who can rip it the best.

#14 6 years ago
Quoted from FatPanda:

If it's consistent for all players in my house (me), then is it really "cheating"?

This. No. JM is an exception. Spinner millions is so nuts that I would try and keep that guy toned down. Just turns the game into a one hit wonder. Nerf that, and there’s a lot more strategy involved.

#15 6 years ago

As someone who has been playing Stars weekly in league, I would say no.

#16 6 years ago
Quoted from chuckwurt:

Nerf that, and there’s a lot more strategy involved.

I guess that's what it'll always come down to in the end. Unless you want to do nothing but rip spinner all day (which is definitely the point of some games!) then you need to make sure that the spinner isn't so valuable that it eclipses all other aspects of the game.

On paragon, the only other real options are basically going up top to the saucers, or hitting the drops. Hard to balance as the saucers build up over time, vs the spinner which pays out straight.

#17 6 years ago

You just gotta love ripping a spinner....

#18 6 years ago

Bally Knockout has too much spinner... because they're the only shots in the game. Left spinner, or right spinner. You pick!

#19 6 years ago
Quoted from Bud:

It's like cowbell, I need more of it.

lol I've got a fever and the only cure is MORE SPINNER!

#20 6 years ago

Lighting spinners and bonuses are key to the majority of 78 - 79 Ballys. None more so than Harlem Globetrotters - three spinners, two in a unique position, and two different functions to advance bonuses and raw points. Spinners have never been better integrated into a game than this.

#21 6 years ago
Quoted from zacaj:

I guess that's what it'll always come down to in the end. Unless you want to do nothing but rip spinner all day (which is definitely the point of some games!) then you need to make sure that the spinner isn't so valuable that it eclipses all other aspects of the game.
On paragon, the only other real options are basically going up top to the saucers, or hitting the drops. Hard to balance as the saucers build up over time, vs the spinner which pays out straight.

I think this is a great point! Most of the shots in Paragon advance bonus (spinner, right saucer, left saucer after 20K, 2 advance bonus targets, waterfall, am I missing any?) So say I can advance bonus 5 times in one spinner rip. In the pops, I can possibly advance bonus that many times with the stand up target, plus getting into the right saucer, and back into the pops. Prior to me cleaning up the spinner, was the spinner undervalued then since I could only advance it 2 times at most?

#22 6 years ago
Quoted from FatPanda:

I think this is a great point! Most of the shots in Paragon advance bonus (spinner, right saucer, left saucer after 20K, 2 advance bonus targets, waterfall, am I missing any?) So say I can advance bonus 5 times in one spinner rip. In the pops, I can possibly advance bonus that many times with the stand up target, plus getting into the right saucer, and back into the pops. Prior to me cleaning up the spinner, was the spinner undervalued then since I could only advance it 2 times at most?

Drop targets on the right don't advance I think. Left saucer by the time you get it to 20 you might as well stop doing anything else.

But yeah, shoot for different things and count how many bonus you get before the ball gets back to your flipper, see how it stacks up with difficulty and danger of the shot, etc.

Spinners are sorta weird because it's impossible for the designers to 'balance' the game taking them into account since they'll be so variable. You've just gotta balance it yourself for your specific game

#23 6 years ago
Quoted from Mopar:

I'm 100% EM, but do have a little story about a fast, long lasting spinner.
While playing a two player game on a Bally's Hokus Pokus, immediately
after ripping the ball through the spinner, it reckeshade back, drained
and was still spinning racking up points for the other player..
I never gave it a thought that it was too much spin. I had some machines
with fast spinners, but not quite like that one Hokus Pokus..

Another EM, snow derby is 100% spinner dependant to count laps.... a fast spinner on this game makes a huge difference.

#24 6 years ago

So many "spinner only" games come to mind - Meteor and Evel Knievel. One shot games. But still so much fun to rip on that spinner.

#25 6 years ago
Quoted from trueno92:

Another EM, snow derby is 100% spinner dependant to count laps.... a fast spinner on this game makes a huge difference.

Yes, and the New York State Model Bristol Hills' playfield didn't look as though it would
be all that exiting to play, but I have one (actually two) because for the fact that Dave Gotllieb
produced a small number run offs of Snow Derby, "Bristol Hills" specifically for an old time vender/
distributer from my home town that was Friends with Dave, but since, I've heard multiple times that
Bristol Hills is actually a very good player. Presently, all spots in the game room(s) are takin', but along
with some other titles, I need to go through the Bristol Hills..
BTW, I have a Fun Park set up and with the spinners adjusted just right, it can give a couple hundred
points with one rip, 10 points per revolution..

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