Jurassic Park
Data East, 1993
Star Wars
Data East, 1992You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider trace_on.
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A random first mode instead of automatic Stampede would be great.
Saving the T-rex ball-eating action until you actually get all 4 T-rex pit shots would be cool. However, that might detract from newbies' enjoyment of the game. Personally I would rather be rewarded with the action through skilled play.
Tweaking the T-rex side-to-side motion to roughly follow the ball sounds like a very cool idea.
Just watched the video, looks great so far!
I love that multiball will actually take skill to achieve now. On a related note, I think the T-Rex ball-eating motion should only happen after completing the four T-Rex lights. It really would feel like a reward for skilled play instead of just eye-candy.
OT: Does anyone have a link for buying the Williams pop bumper 'spoons'? Sounds like a mod I need lol. Also think I might need to get a powerball for the captive ball. 
Would it be possible to update the skill shot animations? Right now there is a distinctive pattern for each ball:
Ball 1: Dino moves right and left without stopping
Ball 2: Dino pauses while moving right, but moves left without stopping
Ball 3: Dino pauses in both left and right directions
Extra Balls: No animation
The ideal solution would be to chain together different patterns so it doesn't repeat. In other words, every time the dino moves left or right there would be a random pattern. For example:
Any Ball: Dino moves right w/ pause, left w/o pause, right w/o pause, left w/ pause, etc.
With that solution there would only need to be one skill shot programmed and it would be available for any ball, even extra balls. Now implementation of that is probably quite difficult if not impossible, but figured I would throw it out there.
Oh, and in case it isn't obvious, I will be picking up the updated software chip as soon as it is available. 
An update on my earlier suggestion on T-Rex ball-eating.
IMO the only times the T-Rex should to eat the ball are:
1. Completing the four "T-REX" letters
2. Starting Tri-Ball through the T-Rex Pit
What is everyone's opinion on Tri-Ball start? Would it be preferable to only start Tri-Ball through the T-Rex Pit, that way the T-Rex gets to show off its ball-eating ability? The Raptor Pit is already used for starting the Raptor 2-Ball mode. I feel like the T-Rex Pit provides a much more dramatic Tri-Ball start, allowing the player to watch the DMD animation. If you currently start it through the Raptor Pit, you don't get the full experience.
Man, I am getting excited about Chad's new code. I was considering trading off JP at some point but now it is off limits.
Quoted from rad:I just changed the spoons on mine this week
Do you have a source for the Williams spoons?
Quoted from Rcade:My 2 cents: I think that the T-Rex should eat the ball the first time you hit its saucer, as well as upon T-Rex completion and MULTIBALL start.
T-Rex eating the ball on the first saucer hit is a big positive for non-pinhead players. Those of us that have company over to play WANT to see that stuff. If you make a major toy function and draw to a game too difficult to achieve, than you're boxing out the casual player.
Which is, I think, something that a lot of these suggestions are missing some points on. The lion's share of these suggestions come from the perspective of us owners that have had the same ruleset on JP for years and are excited to make some aspects of the game harder in order to keep up interested. But I think some of e things that were implemented on the original code weren't mistakes, but changes made to make the game more accessible to the casual players.
The chance that a casual player will hit all the standups to qualify multiball properly and make it to Rex before the end of their third ball is pretty slim. Without seeing the T-Rex eat the ball, there's no other "wow" factor to JP for the noninvasive casual player. My wife (and everyone e.se who plays JP that's not a pinhead for that matter) plays JP SOLEY to see Rex eat the ball and start multiball. The way the code is now, it at least gives the casual player one moment when they see Rex eating the ball. 2 if eh make it back into the saucer in ball 3 to start multiball.
"good code" isn't about making things harder or more complex, it's still about having a balance between high level play while still being accessible to the casual player. That's why good code is so hard to find.
I agree in principle, but in this case I think it would be better to save the T-Rex for big stuff. I mentioned in an early post that it would be more difficult for newbies to see, but as it is now they see it every game. My girlfriend even gets tired of it, and she is a casual player at best.
Now if there was an option to enable/disable that I would be all for it.
Quoted from Matt_Rasmussen:They would still get to see Trex eat the ball, it does it the first and fourth time you hit the hole lighting the Trex lights on the apron for the paddock bonus.
My stance is that it should only do so on the fourth T-Rex pit shot (and Tri-Ball start). Or at least have an option of disabling it for the first shot.
Quoted from ChadH:My priority with the changes up front is to overall balance the scoring, timings, gameplay functions, and playfield shots.
Adding the ability to change when T-Rex eats the ball, and also providing an adjustment for it, is extremely low priority as many of the changes take up free RAM memory for which there is precious little of with Jurassic Park. I'd much rather have a every mode be properly balanced and have T-rex gobble the ball as he does today than I would have some unbalanced modes and T-rex gobbling be adjustable.
Every suggestion is on a growing list that I am keeping. Some rise to the top and others sink to the bottom. Of course, there is no way I can implement everything, but please don't hesitate to offer up more.
Totally understood. You've already solved the two biggest issues with the current code, a randomized first mode and having to earn a multiball. Everything else is just icing on the cake at this point. 
Quoted from ChadH:I have also increased the Dinosaur Shootout award from 3M to 10M. It will now also display a "10 MILLION" graphic when achieved. Previously it didn't show anything when achieved and left the player wondering what happened. This new scoring makes this quick video mode more worth the risk.
Quoted from ChadH:I just made a minor break through with Skill Shot. I now have it so the Skill Shots are no longer given to you in the predictable order as described above. It is now random. Meaning, each ball will randomly choose the Ball 1 animation, the Ball 2 animation, or the Ball 3 animation.
I am hoping to take it further and have it work as Trace_on describes above (where it is randomized even during the animation). But for now, at the very least, Skill Shot is random each ball.
This is good news. That is already a vast improvement over the current skill shot.
Quoted from ChadH:Alright... Skill Shot is now completely random even inside of itself! No more memorization tricks allowed. This adds a little more skill requirement to the Skill Shot.
Here's a demonstration:
» YouTube video
Congrats! This really ups the ante.
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St. Louis, MO
