What do you do to rack up the points? I’ve gotten to visitor center with like 100mil

Does that offer extend to out of state locations?

Man, I need to play better!

Great score I'm wondering what is your average score (in audits) and how do you have your game set up? have you moved your outlane posts? have you changed any settings?

I have not been able to get 1 billion yet and have only reached the Secure Control Room once. I have had my JP prem pin a month and have played it flat out around 700 games. I would rate my flipper skills as above average but this title is hard, which is great it keeps me pressing start. I normally keep my pinballs with everything at factory default but decided to lower my outlane posts on JP as it is so difficult to nudge save there.

My average score is 135million and slowly going up, grand champ 950million, on a session of 10 or more games I might get one game over 500million. I'm starting to wonder if I will ever get a 2 billion score or see some of the later wizard modes.
I will keep trying to play better and hit the shots more consistently, currently I probably only hit the smart missile target shot a quater of the time, if I could hit it at least half the time I would get the extra ball there more often.

Well here was my score today

- Tilt topper (ordered mid November and showed up yesterday)
- upgraded 5.25” speakers
- speaker light kits type 13
- stern dust cover
- Brite light LED flipper buttons (not in pic)

I’ve attached some pics of my fun for the day. Love the end result still need to adjust speaker light colors haven’t adjusted at all.

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Stock. Tight tilt. About 6.7-6.9 pitch.

I have this on temp loan from a friend. I would say once I got good at clearing paddocks, my scores are averaging 200-300 million. I’ve maybe put 30 plays on it so far.

But yeah my score was all from doing perfect paddocks the whole way to VC. I had 2.2 billion once VC was over.

Oh FFS

To be fair I know the game well. Been playing it on location and at tournaments since it came out.

I suck!

I found playing the Nublar Challenge great for focusing on specific shots and making me play better. It's such a great game - hard, challenging & frustrating (at times), mixed with fun and hugely satisfying when you are in the zone and have a cracker of a game. Enjoy!!

I have the stock speakers with the light kit. I need to upgrade. Looks awesome!!

chuckwurt I came close to your score The other night but I was using 5 balls, my glass was off and I was checking every switch and every opto 14 times.

Your a beast!!

That's...disgusting. Just disgusting.

Yeah I was pretty pumped. Those clear paddock smart missiles were huge. Can’t believe I hit 3 of them. Haha. So that means I only had to get 4 perfect paddocks on my own.

I swear like 90% of the time I get the smart missle the truck is pointed to the left so the ball is on the right making it that much harder.

I also think I may change my angle from 7 degrees down to like 6.7 or something and see if that helps me get any better. Maybe it's just rolling too fast for me and that is why I can't seem to feel like I'm improving.

That’s the only way smart missile will start. . The game makes you earn it.

Just keep playing and learning. Follow Abe flips on YouTube. Tons of good tutorials on there how to get better.

That’s the only way you get a smart missile. The exception is during a multiball where one of the active balls hits the truck before the smart missile ball is released. Elwin is brilliant in that way.

Haha okay damn I didn't even realize that. I've definitely activated it when it's facing the other way but guess it was more luck.

I've watched the Abe Flips videos and they were pretty helpful in general, but I just don't see myself getting better. Like last night I probably played 10 games and only 2 of them I got over 100 million, once into 200 millions. And those games are so damn fun it's when things are just going right and I'm not getting bs bounces and stuff.

I am going to try to adjust my levelers though to make the legs sit a little higher. I do feel like watching videos of nudging that mine simply isn't nudging like what I see in videos, and it might be because of how low my levelers are from what I was reading about. So I may like move every leveler to make it like 1" longer or so and see if I get more "wiggle" when trying to nudge. I'm playing on carpet with carpet sliders on and it just seems tough and like I'm not getting much wiggle on my machine.

Although I did do my first death save yesterday and felt like a boss. Then the next game I did it again but those were the only 2 I could do all night. Most of the time it doesn't get enough bounce to bounce it back up though.

Just takes the want to. What’s the saying? Need a 10,000 hours doing something before you master it?

When the truck is facing left then Smart Missile will be lit, and when facing right then Super Spinner will be lit - so it's not possible to activate SM when the truck is facing right, however as Lounge indicated if you are in multiball you can spin the truck to the right (opening the gap) with one of the balls in play before the smart missile ball is released.

Note CHAOS however will remain lit regardless of the direction of the truck

Ok while on the subject of Smart Missile, when in multiball I often end up with 2-3 balls stacked up behind the SM up-post however I then fail to make the shot due to the changed dynamics of having multiple balls rolling down the face of the flipper. Can people still make the shot with the leading ball or what technique do people use in this situation to give themselves a better chance (eg I've tried to ski pass the first 2 balls to the right flipper but they don't have enough momentum). Any suggestions welcome ... videos would be even better

Yeah it's difficult enough without multiple balls in the lane, I was just reading the wiki rules and thought maybe the answer isto abort in this case.

Choice 6 - Abort - selecting this award will deactivate the Smart Missile and the inlane insert will flash instead of being lit solid; you can requalify it (lit solid again) with two shots to the Truck.

Do you know how long the inlanes stay light for after lighting them? is it a numer of rollovers or time?

I'm running the "enhanced" code and I noticed a couple of default settings that seem unusual to me.

My left and upper flippers were set at 255 but my right flipper was 235 - I changed it to 255 and I think that feels better.

DNA to light EB says 6 in the wiki but mine was set at 8, I changed mine back to 6 and I think my best is 5 anyway.

Yep I have aborted sometimes although trying to hit the action button that many times while keeping the other balls alive is a challenge in itself LOL

I had thought the lit inlanes remain lit until used or you drain that ball in play, but recently I thought I lost a lit inlane during play ... so maybe there is a timer??

I think the reason the right flipper power setting was lower was that it gave T-Rex a better chance at grabbing the ball. As for the DNA EB, up to code v1.02 the DNA EB was set at 8, but the default was lowered in 1.03 to be 6 - what version of code are you using?

Well just had my best game ever so maybe I am improving! Wanted to play a few games before the NFL game starts but did so well I only had time for one! I know it ain’t shit compared to some of you but I finally have GC on my machine lol.

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Pinball > NFL all day long. I can't believe people still support them.

Maybe it's the National Flipper League

Had never tried the Escape from Nublar mode until just now. Wow pretty cool and I'm going to use it to try and get more consistent with some of the different shots in the game that I'm having trouble with.

I have an extra raptor figure, great detailed replacement for Pro model. $10 - PM me if interested.

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Power Slide? you mean shoving the machine across the floor to stop a SDTM?

Really? this is the kind of play I see all the pinball video streamers promoting these days.

IMO sliding the machine across the floor, death saves, bang backs etc are just full on cheating. Many of the huge scores on video for JP include moves like that.
These "pinball influencers" are starting to make such moves acceptable, but I know they are not at my place or the meets I attend.

If you want to cheat just put rubber bands over the outlanes and drill a pin into the middle of the centre drain.

(Nudging, bumping and slap saves are fine and part of the game as long as the tilt is set reasonably)

It’s not cheating, but easy to stop if you want. Tilt adjustments and rubber feet stop all this if you don’t want it done.

Death saves & bang backs are cheating. Sliding the machine is really only just an exaggerated nudge though. If you can do it without tilting then it’s fair game.

Yes, I can still make the shot with balls stacked, you need to flip the flipper earlier than usual, more weight on the flipper so it flips slower.

Good to know - what power setting do you have on your left flipper? As I'm not sure mine would make it to the target

I'm using the enhanced unofficial code that AFAIK uses v1.03 so I thought it was strange that mine has 8 DNA for EB as factory settings. 6 DNA is still tough and not something I have acheived at random. I've got 5 but I'm going to have to study and memorize the DNA combos to get more.

OK I did some forum searching and found an interesting vote poll from a while back which shows that I am in the minority thinking slide saves are cheating.
Anyway I certainly have never played pinball anywhere that they were viewed as being normal fair play.

When you power on the machine it will display the code version (regardless of whether it's the official or custom code) - I'm using v1.02 of the customised code (haven't quite got around to upgrading to 1.03) but have manually changed the DNA EB to 6 (to bring it inline with the 1.03 settings). Given the custom code only changes the audio and video content, I would expect the 1.03 code would have DNA EB default to be 6 (as it was a documented change for 1.03) but now you've got me curious ... might need to upgrade to check lol

I can't nudge, let alone slide save ... and while I appreciate the reflex & skill to do a slide save, I wouldn't want people doing it on my machines. That said I find with JP most shots required to progress through the game (other than the truck) feed back to a flipper, so while the game is brutal in draining bricked shots, you are well rewarded if you can make your shots

From discussing it with others, it might be a AUS USA thing. But never the less, no IFPA tournament is going to penalize you for slide saving. Bang backs and death saves yes, but not sliding the game. I guess if you’re the TD and you want to make that a rule you could, but I’ve never seen it.

So, who judges when it`s sliding?
When i do nudge passes I sometimes use tiny slides without getting a warning, but its still enough to save the ball.
Like EaglePin said, slides can be just a stronger nudge or even a very slow subtle push to the side.
I also think that the tilt mech should be the judge, you even can set the tilt debounce timing which makes big moves more punishing.

Getting better takes some time as chuckwurt said. If you keep playing, you will notice how different techniques become fluid and you will find yourself using those simultaneously which makes them even stronger and more applicable. The same is true for aiming, if you keep practicing you will slowly get better at it and recover faster from bricked shots with drop catches, dead bounces and nudges. Escape Nublar is a really good practicing mode, challenge yourself and work on your flaws:

cheers

I just put down a deposit on a JP premium yesterday for April delivery, and can't wait! Are there any must have mods? I ordered the set of Cliffys, but that's it so far.

Nobody at my tournaments. . Or any other tournaments I’ve been to. In the 7-8 years I’ve been competing, slide saves have never been penalized.

^^^ This ^^^

I just wanted to celebrate my 666 th post here!

thank you

LOL... Lots of threads about this, but in a nutshell, the Shaker is a must, universally agreed upon due to the software integration. The rest is a matter of taste. Lit shooter rod is highly desireable, again because it is integrated into the software. Sideblades come in many variants, I like the WizBlades best since it matches the color palette of the backboard very well. The flourescent protectors on the lower slings and lanes adds a bit of punch too. I like the lit flipper buttons from PBL, but I chose the yellow translucent plastic and yellow LED kit. I think some great apron cards are a simple add, and you could consider one of the raptor pit fence systems. Mr_Tantrum has a nice lockbar application the says "When dinosaurs ruled the earth" which is pretty nice. And he also has a tower roof replacement that replaces the four plastic roof triangles. Again very tasteful. You could consider sound upgrade with a simple drop-in Boss CXX8 woofer, or go a little farther and add some Kicker 4" 2-way speakers in the backbox too. Again drop-in replaceemnt. The Cliffy shooter lane protector is worth the investment and easy to install. Feeling flush with cash? Try a sheet of $250 HD/PDI/Voodoo glass.

You'll find all kinds of other plastic and stick on trees and dinosaurs kind of stuff, but try to limit/edit yourself otherwise your playfield will begin to look a bit awkward. Also, the jury is out on if you should swap the rubber with Titans or equiv. Some folks love them, some hate them. I have settled on titans posts but factory rings.

A few well placed palm tress are nice....

Pleased to report after 2 months out of commission, my TREX is fully functional again for horizontal movement.

Kurt and Mark at Hempispheres went out of their way to get a new Stepper Driver Motor Board invoiced out to me after my last one fried (out of warranty unfortunately)

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Double checked and mine is 1.03 and factory settings for DNA EB = 8

OK you guys are starting to convince me, I'm starting to think that big scores and later wizard modes will be difficult to obtain without the occasional slide.

But my gamesroom has thick carpet and the pinball legs sink in a bit making sliding next to impossible. I might try putting furniture sliders under the front legs (My friends would no doubt say that is cheating)

May as well do front and back. Don’t want to torque the back legs.

I haven’t performed a slide save at home in like 7 years. It’s not necessary to obtain high scores and to beat games. You just have to know your setup. I’m going to approach a game differently if I can slide it or if it’s at home and I know I can’t because of rubber feet and tight tilts. You just have to play differently.

And yeah. Thick carpet makes sliding a no go unless the legs are on large carpet sliders.

Instead of sliding, I would be taking you game and leaning the game so that SDTM balls can be saved by essentially pushing one of the raised flippers into the ball. The natural flex of the games legs will allow this.