I like the art and style overall, except for the grainy band clip when entering tents. Just doesn’t fit.

I know code isn’t finished, but I noticed you can keep going into Juggler mode and get a myltiball every time. So right now it’s Juggling tent all day until they figure this out.

And Peggle only costs $4.99 Shows you can do cool animation on a budget.

The grainy crowd footage is either:

a) they didn't license the clip and tried to make it unrecognizable.

b) they wanted to obscure faces they don't have likeness releases for

c) they actually think unsharp mask and posterization would make live action footage blend in with the clip art.

You can only re-visit the tent until you finish it. Ferret explained this pretty well a couple pages ago I think, and while you can keep doing that as long as you don't finish the tent you won't necessarily benefit very much points-wise in comparison to other strategies.

My guess is that they re-use a crap-ton of the code for those mobile apps so the costs get distributed widely.

Or as stated a couple of times in this thread…

a placeholder put in early and not yet replaced as we have prioritized having animations for all modes.

Go right ahead. While in Juggling, you can't qualify other multiballs. You can't collect steins. And the scoring tiers reset every time you re-visit a tent, so you actually need to make a few shots in one tent visit to get any meaningful points. This is not a problem of unfinished code. (At least unless/until someone demonstrates to me that there's an exploit... )

just because you can do something.. doesn't mean it will necessarily pay off

BTW, regarding Juggling... I actually AM aware of one potential exploit. I'm not discussing it because I want to see if it becomes a viable strategy... if so, I'll nix the repeatable Juggling. But it seems too painful to really take advantage of...

What's the story on the characters that once sat in the bumper cars (Duckie, Hot Dog, Monkey)? Cost cutting, or is it that they wouldn't fit under the wireform, or something else? They were super cool, way better than empty bumper cars.

Available to play at The Pinball Palace in Brunswick Ga tomorrow.

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They wouldnt fit under the wireformed ramp.

I see a mod opportunity

Man, I do really like the energy of the cabinet artwork for Oktoberfest and Houdini!

OK that makes sense!

Any games shipping to Los Angeles soon?

We need to get Cayle on it, apparently

Absolutely, Cayle is one of several excellent players who really know how to turn the smallest glitch of a ruleset into a huge exploit. I will be delighted when any such players get some meaningful time on Oktoberfest. I figure it's a given that there's at least one bad exploit lurking in the code... problems like that are found in games by great programmers who have two decades more experience at this than Josh and me combined, so yeah, it'll happen, and then we'll fix it.

I entirely agree with both of your critiques, and I'd say everyone on this thread has provided some good suggestions. I think just after a point of pounding down the same issues, it feels more like "my way is the right way" versus accepting and respecting the design choices by a crew we're not a part of. Doesn't mean we're not trying to be helpful, but at this point, unless anyone is staffed or contracted, it feels like more shade is being thrown at the game than praise, and this close to launch...that doesn't feel fun/celebratory.

I really think if some typography changes were made/tweaked, the entire package might feel more smoothed out and polished, and something like that could be very easily modified and cheap to do, versus redoing entire animations.

Either way, I'm pretty psyched to get to play Oktoberfest, (JJP5), and the new Black Knight this friday at MGC!!!!

And Ben, I really can't imagine the process of how Spooky started, and I'm sure you have some compelling stories, and learned a lot during that process, and like Aurich mentioned, I know I wasn't around firsthand to see any of those things develop on here as they occurred.

Sorry if it’s been asked before, but when will distributors be receiving their games?

Played Monday night at Level 257 for about 45 minutes. Last game lasted 20:30, but got really boring when it became impossible to hit the left ramp a few minutes into it. Flipper definitely weakens over time. I also had a much harder time getting all the way up the beer barrel shot as time went on. I had a really hard time with the right 180 shot the whole game. Loved the layout with the exception of that shot. Fun to play for sure. Awesome that it plays ein prosit after the game ends. Would love some more direction on how close modes are to being completed and what is going on with the food tent. Also, the blurry picture when starting a mode does not look good. Looking forward to playing a finished product.

I think with the current level of animations in pinball, you have to have some that people say, 'wow, that is great' or something.

BKSR's animations are way better than this game.

Not sure why the colors are so muted?

Surely you want them to literally pop out of the screen?

I thought the animations in BKSR were incredible - the best ever I've seen in pinball from both a quality and integration point of view. And yet people were complaining about the animations as being terrible and old looking! WTF??!! It does highlight that expectations for what goes on the screen is really high. Especially in a $5,800 machine.

I too thought that BKSR's animations looked great. But I thought the rest of the game was just OK and I do prefer OKT's uniqueness over it. But, in watching last night's stream I could not help thinking how much more OKT could have been and how much it's animations will hurt it. I hope that OKT succeeds but it truly has some stiff competition coming from a pin that is about $1400 less. I shudder to think what WONKA is going to do to it tomorrow night. Yes, WONKA will likely be about $1100 more than OKT but if it sets the new standard, people will gravitate to it. I for one, am keeping my powder dry until I see WONKA. I'm tempted to put my money on it instead of an OKT. I cannot wait until tomorrow's reveal so that I can make a final decision.

Are you expecting street price on a BKSWOR Premium to be $6300? If not then I don't think you should be comparing the pro to OKT which will have full-color RGB inserts and art blades plus all no missing / removed features.

I think Black Knight looks about as dull as you get with pinball BUT people are out of their minds if they are complaining about the animations. Crazy to hear that

Whenever a mode is running, there’s a status bar at the bottom of the screen telling you what to shoot and how many more are required to win the mode. It also indicates how many of that tent’s steins you have.

Food Stand features are basically Super {Orbits, Bumpers, Ramps, etc} for points and, more importantly, calories. Calories boost jackpot values for Beer Barrel and Corkscrew multiballs.

Totally agree. Not liking the pin but liking the animations myself! Very creative.

Thanks. Will look for that next time I’m back there. Is there a calorie indicator or something else that shows when you’re hitting the orbits/bumpers/ramps or how long they stay lit for? The whole food tent part was puzzling to me.

One other thing - the hit the vuk callout is a little weird. Hit the food tent would be better, and especially with a (aftermarket) tent model over it.

Shots feel great when the flippers are full power and I love the overall build quality.

There is a new version of the 180 ramp, not yet installed on that machine, which makes a huge difference. In fact, so much better that Ferret and I were discussing yesterday changes to the super skill shot. Will get that one changed out soon.

Jus to add to what Ferret said, regarding the food stand modes, shoot the spinner and drop target will add calories and open the food stand.
Shooting the stand (yuk) during a food mode will restart the clock. In addition to increasing jackpot values, consuming an abundance of food/calories can result a "calorie coma" (coming soon), in which your current ball will 'pause' until you work off the calories via shots to the spinner. However, since your are drowsy from having consumed too many calories, your "strength" may not be what it normally is, until you worked off at least some of the calories.

When the main screen is displayed, the food stand on the right side will show you your current calories and status of the food stand, if you are in a food stand mode, it will show the time remaining. We will likely add a version of that clock that is always on screen when a food stand mode is running.

Great stuff, rosh. Really excited for the improvements. Thanks so much for the responses. Would love it if you could keep us posted on changes to the Level 257 machine. Good luck in the home stretch.

Good point, thanks!

Josh says it is a placeholder. I thought that animation, which is based on a video scene, is deliberately blurred to evoke a crowded and chaotic tent as you are entering. It is generic and without detail so it can be used for every tent. It beats having a dark screen transition, or a tent flap opening up. And it is only temporary.

I suspect wonka will have a chocolate river running across the playfield and will cost over $10k. JJPs are too high end for me to afford.

Mode transition idea: Assuming a first person perspective, a beer stein tilts up into view, fills the screen as you chug, stien tilts back down to review the next mode.

I love the creative stuff like this! You are helping to usher in an entirely new gaming experience that combines pinball with video games. Super cool.

Kudos to Josh and Ferret (and Barry) for representing the ONLY manufacturer with the balls to keep showing up on Pinside, whether the criticism is constructive or idiotic, and the positive comments specific or generic, they keep responding. Can't beat that.

This game has some of the most creative ideas on the playfield and in the code that I think I've ever seen - thank goodness at least a few people are taking their eyes off the tv screen for a moment to appreciate the actual you know... PINBALL part of the game. Keep it up AP!

Imagine that! Looking at the playfield, playing and getting satisfaction, vs watching the screen and critiquing cartoons. Wanna watch some great vidoes, go to youtube.

Nice idea, we do something like that in chugging, but it starts full and goes down as it is consumed.

The idea of the intro is that you are at Oktoberfest and looking around at each tent to decide which to enter, and then once you choose you go through the doors of the tent and fly over the crowd until you get to the bar, the amusement area, etc. The current crowd fly over will be replaced with something has not been hacked up with filters, etc. But we certainly might change the concept at some point.

Its Pinside!

We already know the Standard will be around $7500-$8k and LE is $9500

Josh getting revenge for my LCD comments.

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Man, if I was there I'd buy both of you bearded assholes a drink.

all right, well that was worth the entrance fee... haha good job guys

Finally got to play one. I really enjoyed visiting the tents. And the Corkscrew is really cool, just can't get there. Man that ramp is STEEP

There are 3 at MGC if anyone is there and looking to play it.

Nice to see you guys getting along!

Thanks @rosh @pinballer31520 and @ferret for your help with the dimensions for the Oktoberfest machine. I built the topper today out of approx 60 year old beer signs (customized with some photos of me with a group of friends and others I wish were friends at Oktoberfest) from my Dad's beer distributor in Allentown, PA.

Now all I need is the machine to put it on. How long til Pinfest?!

That is Awesome. Love the rotating panel. Nice pics on side 2! Clever, well done!

Finally got to put some time on this yesterday.

My impressions on what I thought would be a great theme/game was a musical cluster f@#$& and felt like 10lbs of shit in a 5 lb bag. Video and animations weren’t spectacular either but they didn’t bother me.

Unfortunately don’t see myself adding this one to the collection.