There is someone wearing this on the game playfield. Can you find waldo?

The Oktoberfest party with the league this weekend was great! I got out my old game of Fingerhakeln to play. Everyone had to try their strength to pull the weight as far as they could using 1 finger. Now if you really want to come out with a mod to sell in which a player can pull the plunger with resistance and it measures it on the screen I'd buy that for $$.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_pulling
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My fingers still hurt. Haha

I'm sensing that music is the key here! Cranking up the pace and energy at the right time makes a big impact imo.. there can be some very energetic polka music to slot into the right moments...!!

Maybe API have a code update up thier sleeves with some rollercoaster sounds to get the adrenaline going... coasters and adrenaline go hand in hand...

Four quick questions for the AP people:

1. Playing juggler suddenly all the the playfield lights (but not the backbox) went off midway through the mode. They came back in after the ball drained. Is this deliberate or a bug or something else?

2. I have had the ball go under the corkscrew ramp just before the ramp goes down, trapping the ball under the lowered ramp. The food drop target was also down. When the ball search eventually freed the ball by lifting the ramp, the food target had been reset and was no longer down. Is this avoidable?

3. Often when the ball is ejected from the food VUK it runs down the habitrail but jumps off into the outlane, and the ball drains. What's the best fix for this?

4. Is there a reason in Looper why the ball stops at the top of the rollercoaster before being released to come back round? Seems like the action would be more exciting if the ball motion was uninterrupted and it came back to the right flipper asap, like loopin' supers in Ghostbusters

Thanks guys!

Sales opportunity for AP!

Wonder if they have a booth reserved at the Fest.

Ferret and Rosh deserve a vacation and a drink. If I was Nirmal, i would already have them there in a tent with 4 games, and an hired interpreter.

Barry too !

LTG : )

Makes me wish I had one. Oktoberfests are popping up in my area in lots of places. Great way to get the word out.

LTG : )

This is not intentional. Do you have any more details on what else was going on at the time? e.g. did you have a Food Stand feature stacked, or collect an Extra Ball during Juggling, etc etc? Anything you can recall that would help us reproduce the problem would be great. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The drop target does get fired if a ball search happens, in case the ball is sitting on the lowered target. The drop target can't be lowered in code; it only has a "raise" coil, not a "drop" coil, so once it's up, it's up, unfortunately.

However, one thing I've been thinking about is tweaking the ball search logic to increase the priority of raising the left ramp flap if it's down, before cycling all the coils, which would help for this sort of situation.

Paging BarryJ ... I believe he can guide you in the ways of gently bending the wireform to minimize or eliminate this issue.

Yes, there is a reason... if you examine the lock device, it's got a (rather cool) interlock mechanism so when a ball is released from the lock, simultaneously a little lip injects between the ball 1 and ball 2 positions, preventing any other locked balls from trying to escape. (If you've ever had to screw with the ball lock on, say, Cirqus Voltaire, you will understand just how great this interlock feature is.) However, nothing is entirely free, so the tradeoff for this more reliable lock device is that there's no "flow straight through" opportunity... the ball has to stop at one of the lock positions.

On the other hand, arguably that's not a bad thing. Fun whitewood story: before the lock mechanism was available, the whitewood just had the steep metal ramp connecting to the spiral wireform, no lock device. It turned out that a good strong shot on the left ramp would send the ball screaming through where the lock device now is, continue onto the wireform, and be going fast enough that instead of conforming to the wireform, the ball just kept going straight and smashed into the right wall of the cabinet, and then fell several inches onto the playfield. Oops. The mechanical reliability of the final design here is the clear winner.

Maybe a line in the code where if there is an outline drain shortly after that VUK is fired then it puts the ball back in the shooter lane? There could even be an Otto call out linked to it... something like: 'that didn't look fair... you can have it back' and then it pops into the shooter lane... IJ had a similar ball save feature...

Thanks for all your replies. 'Fraid I can't remember what was going on at the time but if anything similar happens I will be sure to stop and think what was going on in case it can be of use.

HEY!!! what about me?

Sending everyone to Germany is expensive.

I'm sure you can get some good flight deals!! I think the bigger problem would be organising a booth/tent/place in a tent at this stage in the game... probably needs to be reserved a year in advance!

I most humbly and sincerely apologize for neglecting to mention Dan.

A man of incredible skills and talents. Works hard at American Pinball. Appears at shows too. And should you meet him at the factory or at a show. You'll find him warm and friendly. And like his counterparts, he loves what he does. And it shows in their people and in there games.

LTG : )

Just don’t call him “and Co”. Haha

Hey Dan and Co. I hope you realize, I'm not really sorry.

LTG : )

We are doing a couple local Oktoberfest events Sept 22 at Logan Arcade in Chicago
and Oct 4-5 at The Naper Settlement Oktoberfest in Naperville IL if anyone in the area wants details PM me or check out our webpage

Is there a reason the Oktoberfest targets don’t count towards Lock progress while in ring toss?

Just a choice. Similarly, you can’t advance PROST toward Beer Barrel locks during Target Shooting.

I had not been doing too great, best score was 900k so far, and I forever just could not make the shots I was trying to hit.

I just lit it up last game though, total time played 25.22 with a 2.5mil score, had 2 corkscrew mutiballs, duck derby, sober at the end, and 3 or 4 extra balls. Only one ball in the barrel the whole time, and I am not complaining a bit, hard shots just keep me coming back for more.

I had not noticed before the strength game that wraps around Otto's head. Anytime I hit it I looked at the screen to see what I hit and I did not see anything. I guess I could look for info in the manual, but if anyone has any info about that let me know.

It's unfortunate that it's hard to see back there, because it's a pretty cool shot. It's strength sensitive, so we can detect how hard you hit the ball and reward accordingly.

This captive ball shot...

- Awards a MagNab when lit.
- Awards a MagNab and a progressive combo bonus any time you shoot it immediately following a left orbit shot.
- Is what Inga wants you to hit when the ball comes out of the right side of the pops, is caught by the magnet, and she says "Eins... zwei... drei... STRIKE!" -- it scores much higher than normal during this "Super High Striker" mini-feature.
- Is a jackpot shot during most multiballs.

The upcoming code update gives some better A/V/lighting choreography to the captive ball to draw more attention to it.

Thanks for that info, explains how I make so many points trying to hit the barrel and miss and hit that instead.

After close to 200 games I had never noticed it but I kept hearing the sound of captive balls getting hit and I finally stopped to take a good look. I thought it was a sound effect at first, I never realized there was room for anything else around Otto.

This is a very deep game, and totally awesome!

So many people want some licensed game, I vote AP keep saving money not doing that and keep making original games that are packed and deep.

AP rocks!

Thanks, @johnnypinball007, we appreciate you and all our customers, and we're so glad you love the game we made for you!

I actually had just made another post about Stern and how I had never had any pooling issues etc. going on now but instead the problems I did have they were only ok 50% of the time.

I purchased this game not only because it looked like a whole lot of fun, but also because I seen how hard you guys were working here on pinside taking care of business. When I picked the game up even my distributor commented that he really hopes AP does well he really likes your company.

You are doing a AWESOME JOB!, please keep it up and stay small. Who cares if another pin maker can push out 5 or 8 new games a year. Just concentrate on one a year and make it deep and awesome and I will be in on it.

Im not an "every pin buyer" so i totally agree. The 3 top pins i would buy would be Oktoberfest or Dialed In and finally Iron Maiden. 1 and 2 in no order, but IMDN would not even be considered at this point, due to pf issues. I do hope you can get to more than 1 pin every few years though!! Keep it up!!

Yes, I cant wait to hear about the next game after Oktoberfest is over,of course I hope it never ends. The care that AP puts into the product makes me interested in buying another.

uncle

I could use a few tips. I am not doing something right with Tap It, I can not get far, beer does not flow fast enough.

I was doing pretty good in Duck Derby, but then I could not find a blue light anywhere, only red lights.

Any tips/advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Johnny

Hmmm. There's only one speed of filling. When you're in front of a customer, HOLD the MagNab button (lower button on the right side)... you'll see the stein filling up from the tap. When it's full, the border will turn green... release the MagNab button, and the happy customer should take their drink and walk off. At that point, it's up to you if you want to keep Otto at the same tap, or move him to a different tap where another customer is waiting. Of course it takes a little time to move Otto, so you want to minimize his movement while still serving all your customers quickly. If you've played the video game Tapper, it's very much like that.

Each of the four ducks in Duck Derby is associated with one of the four duck targets on the playfield. YOUR duck will be one of the two lower duck targets (by the tent scoop, or by the right ramp). This target will always flash green. Whichever duck target was most recently hit, that duck will advance when you make shots. You want YOUR duck to advance, not the opponent ducks. So if all the shots have turned from green to red, that means another duck target was hit, selecting an opponent duck... so you'll need to hit your duck's standup target that's flashing green to re-select your duck, which will cause all the major playfield shots to turn green, and get you back to advancing your duck to victory.

(Tournament player note: which duck target is assigned to you is not random; it's based on how many ducks you have when you start Duck Derby... I believe an even number of ducks will be the left target, and an odd number of ducks will be the right target, though I may have that backwards.)

Hope this helps!

All I seen was red, but if/when I make it that far again I will be paying very close attention.

I was hoping for a trick for Otto to pour faster. I will keep trying.

This is a very deep game, and a hell of a lot of fun. I wanted something different, and I am 100% happy with this game, and the support.

Thanks very much!

Cool... Duck Derby is one of those modes that seems complicated but is actually pretty simple once you "get it". Hopefully the introductory sequence explains it, but if not, the simpler explanation is: "shoot green stuff". Sometimes it's just a single target that's green, but ideally the major shots are green.

No trick. Mostly a matter of judging which customer is likely to get mad and leave first, and serve them ASAP. The point values over each customer's head help you with that judgment. Sometimes you have to make a choice to just abandon one customer to have a better overall result.

Very happy to hear that! It's Sunday, hope you have lots of free time to play lots of games of Oktoberfest!

Are there any secrets or ideas on how to hit the 2 left ramps on this game?

I put a good 2 hours on it yesterday and after a while did nothing but concentrate on hitting those 2 shots. I came away with a total of 5 successful ramp hits combined in 2 hours of play. I was using the magnet a lot but it didn’t seem to put the ball directly on the flipper. It seems my best success was hitting it when the ball had a lot momentum like when it would fly around the orbit or down the right inlane. The game I was playing had the July code update. I loved the game and would consider getting one if I those shots were just a little less frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.

The machine I was playing had weak flippers. I played one with enough power and it shot wonderfully. This is Joe’s best design, you can see his passion for this theme in his design. Absolutely inspired.

I've owned this game for months and still can't consistantly make it. I usually get 3 balls locked after an hour. Don't look at it as a reason to not buying the game, it's turned into a reason why I keep coming back and challenging for me.

Just practice. I’m getting good at it. I was getting Beer Barrel almost every game at Viggin900 ‘s house by the end of the night.

It’s really late on the flipper. Really late.

These games are supposed to be hard - it's what makes them a keeper (for me, anyway) - but maybe it's not for everybody

Does the newton ball behind the barrel ramp score points or trigger anything?

Thanks again for the info, I was finally able to beat the preset score!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/joe-balcer-confirms-oktoberfest-as-american-pinbals-next-pin/page/73#post-5213186

It's definitely one way to earn a Magnab According to AP, an upcoming code update adds audio/video/lighting/choreography associated with the captive ball.

Perfect. Thank you

Ok @American Pinball...I had a killer game going today, 8.5 million, had 5 or 6 modes completed and went into sky slide, lost my ball on a hard tilt then made the 2nd of 3 shots to the tent and the game locked up on the tilt. It would do the ball search after about a minute or so, eject the ball but game would not register any shots, no music or scoring. All mec's were active, it would just keep kicking out balls into the trough upon draining. Must be a bug in the code. I left a message around 4:20pm on the answering machine if you have questions...call me. Bummed, it would have blown out my friends GC.

Sounds like same thing that happened to me prior to going down

Edit: same thing, worked on reboot. Had a blown transistor and burned out coil later

My game should be back online this weekend

Love it! Can’t wait to back playing it

I rebooted it and everything was fine, think its more of a bug.

I love the fact that they check pinside and respond. And I love my Okt.

Sure you weren't doing something else at 4:20?

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Absolutely. Haven’t seen Rosh or Ferret or Barry as much lately (shocking! They may have other responsibilities!), but Dan is still pretty on top of things

Email them your error logs. It may help them.

LTG : )

how do I pull them?