Just joined the club with a nice loaded pro! Super excited to dive into this one. Had to adjust the raptor target like the indexed post suggested since I was getting ghost hits. I think I’ll also have to make the jeep adjustment because mine gets stuck occasionally upward during movement. Also if anybody knows the type of screw used on the top of the raptor tower that would be great, can’t find it in the manual. Seems the modded raptor tower is just sorta resting there, unsecured. Gotta treat this game right since I know I’ll have it for a long time!! )

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I replaced most my rubbers with Titan Silicon rings and I’m having issues with ball hop. Especially on my upper flipper. Not really the lower ones so much. Anybody have any tips to possibly help with this?

Thanks! I looked for the thinner ones before I made my order but didn't see them. Didn't realize the low bounce ones were the thinner ones. Looks like I'm taking another shipping hit for this order haha.

Yeaa, I'm kinda experiencing something similar since switching them to Titans. They are WAY bouncier than normal rubbers. I do like the look of them a lot and the durability, but I'm thinking about ordering a set of superbands to see how I like them in comparison. Seems there are a range of preferences for what types of rings to use between Titan, standard rubber, and superbands.

I do both but backhanding it works fine on my game. Usually I try to backhand it.

I have the Mezel raptor tower and this has happened to me as well.

Trex ramp -> right ramp -> Tower -> right orbit

When smart missile is lit at the left inlane and you go over it, the ball is staged with the up-post and you get a few seconds to cycle through awards with the action button. After the time to choose is up, you have to hit the amber target in the pops to get the award you had selected. The idea is that you shoot the ball right at the target through the pops (between the truck and the right ramp). It's a super tight shot and it quite difficult but it feels great when you nail it. There's a very short grace period if you don't hit the shot right away but it's not very forgiving and you're clearly intended to hit it with one clean shot but I've gotten it with a second try before, or with another ball bouncing in the pops during multiball. Hope this helps!

If you do get Titan rubbers, be sure to get the low bounce ones for all 3 flippers instead of standard. I had the standard at first and was getting really bad ball hop on the upper flipper but the low bounce ones solved that!

Ok hear me out. Would it be possible to replace the spinner with an opto spinner? Ad if so do you think it would be too OP in the grand scheme of the game? (Large super spinner rips and easy huge pteradon values) Or would it not make that big of a difference? I have been wondering this ever since I ripped the beatles spinners and it just felt oh so good.

Recently my strategy has been to try and capture all the optional dinos and make it to the visitors center because I haven't done that yet, (I've done all but one multiple times). But in general I'd actually recommend not getting the spitter, the super spinner bonus isn't that large in the grand scheme of the game if you can make it further. Going for the T-rex is almost always worth it for the extra ball unless you're playing for rescue streaks and perfect paddocks.
Also, a tip for some who might not know, the extra ball is offered as the fourth option on the smart missile at any point in the game if you're already in a multiball. So if you like smart missile and then start trex multiball you can go for it early. If you're not in multiball, you need to collect the +5 rescue reward before it is always available as the fourth option. Also I've generally found the left dinos to be more useful than the ones on the right. Triceratops gives easier loop rewards which is great for getting more supply drops and other rewards like a wildcard fossil. This is vs the easier inlanes which will give you more chances at smart missile and super spinner. Both can be good but I feel loop rewards are more valuable. Then I stay left again as the dino on the left after T-rex gives more amber value for pops which can make you really blow up the amber modes. The other option after T-rex gives +250k for combos which can actually stack up a lot as well so this is a viable option as well. Spinosaurus is fun for the King of the Island multiball, but if you're playing for progress then I would say it's not worth going for, the multiball is generally pretty low scoring. Finally, the last 2 double your multiball scoring for either chaos or raptor depending on the one you pick. I'd recommend the raptors because the raptor multiball is generally worth more but both are good, especially chose multiplier if you are close to getting to completing all the letter jackpots in chaos multiball. Also, I'd like to mention the T-rex not only gives you an extra ball, but increases timers for modes, so you can earn fossils for completing trex or control room modes easier and that can help your bonus and visitors center values a lot. If anyone has any other things to add or thinks I could be doing something better let me know!

TLDR: Extra ball is always 4th in smart missile during multiball. Spitter and spinosaurus not really worth. T-rex is always worth (unless you need to keep rescue streak). Left side dinos are generally my go-tos. (other than the raptor paddock at the end)

I'm thinking about making a series of posts here going super in depth on each of the tiers of paddocks and which one is better overall or better for certain playstyles. And for the middle path ones, whether they are worth going for and their scoring potential. Glass off testing and numbers will be used to determine. Would people be interested in something like this before I actually make the first one, Gallimimus vs Brachiosaurus (1st paddock)? haha

Tier 1 Paddock Analysis: Gallimimus vs Brachiosaurus

Gallimimus (left side)

keep in mind these values are ONLY the extra score earned by the perk multiplier itself, not the total points you would have received by going through the paddocks.

Minimum scoring potential to visitors center (staying to left side for quickest path and assuming you actually capture the dinos at the paddocks you visit): 30 million

More average game potential scoring (capturing 3 dinos total): 12.5-17.5million (depending on if you get optional dinos. High end is if you stay left, skipping the optional dinos)

Based on the numbers here, the Gallimimus seems like a pretty desirable choice since you will be working through the paddocks anyway, and snagging those extra points. One thing I was curious about was if the bonus applied to the captures you can get during escape Nublar, so I tested it and the bonus does NOT apply to the capture scores during escape Nublar.

Brachiosaurus (right side)

500k for rescue one, 900k for rescue two (500k base value plus the 400k for being the second in a streak), 1.3mil for the third rescue (900k from previous rescue + 400k additional for continuing the streak), then 1.7mil for rescue four (1.3mil from previous rescue + 400k additional for continuing the streak), and 2.1 mil for rescue five (1.7mil from previous rescue + 400k additional for continuing the streak). This is a total of 6.5 million points.

This keeps growing for every rescue until you lose an employee to a dino. As you can see this compounds quickly. Now what the perk from the Brachiosaurus does is make it so that each rescue in the streak adds an additional 200k per rescue. This means that each rescue adds 600k to the value for each rescue in the streak instead of 400k. That makes a five rescue streak starting from scratch have the following scoring:

500k for rescue one, 1.1mil for rescue two (500k base value plus the 600k for being the second in a streak with Brachiosaurus), 1.7mil for the third rescue (1.1mil from previous rescue + 600k additional for continuing the streak with Brachiosaurus), then 2.3mil for rescue four (1.7mil from previous rescue + 600k additional for continuing the streak with Brachiosaurus), and 2.9 mil for rescue five (2.3mil from previous rescue + 600k additional for continuing the streak with Brachiosaurus). This is a total of 8.5 million points, an additional 2 million over not having the Brachiosaurus perk.

This may seem underwhelming at first, but since this streak bonus keeps growing, and you cash it in with every rescue in the streak it can get to pretty high values much quicker than without this perk. Here are some scoring scenarios for this perk:

keep in mind these values are ONLY the extra score earned by the perk itself. NOT the total scoring of the rescue streak itself (aka I'm not including the base value or the default 400k increments in the calculation)

Minimum scoring potential to visitors center (never getting a streak at all): 0 points. Ok so this one is pretty unrealistic but so is the maximum scoring scenario, and technically you can make it there by not having a rescue streak at all the whole way, in which you would not gain any bonus from having this perk.

More average game potential scoring (capturing 3 dinos by getting half of the available rescues in each paddock, and keeping your streak alive the whole game): 11 million

More generous higher end average game (capturing 5 dinos by getting half of the available rescues in each paddock, and keeping your streak alive the whole game): 34.2 million

Conclusion

Final Result

Yea, the value can definitely get huge if you keep your streak alive. I had originally interpreted the Brachiosaurus perk incorrectly so I was surprised of it's power as well. I played a game going for perfect paddocks too with it and it definitely got really valuable. I used to avoid this perk but I will get it now if I'm feeling like going for the streaks!

Basically how escape Nublar works is you have to work your way back through the island from the visitors center back to the main gate. If you qualified this in an actual game, it uses the path you took to the visitors center but for the challenge, it uses the shortest path up one side of the island (based on the truck position when starting the mode). During the mode you need to work your way back through the paddocks starting from the visitors center. Each paddock has 3 main phases.

First the rescue phase where shots will be lit to rescue staff. After collecting all rescues two things can happen. If you're at a paddock where you did not capture the dinosaur on your way to the visitors center, you need to capture it on your way back. That's why you're seeing the requirement to hit the set trap targets on some paddocks only. If you already caught the dino for the paddock you're in, you skip the capture phase and go right into the navigation phase. In the navigation phase you must shoot red shots until you find a valid exit, which lights the left ramp to move on to the next paddock. Similarly to regular play, the direction of the truck indicated which paddock you will go to next. Going down a path where you have not captured the dinos already is worth more points for the captures but requires more rescues during the rescue phase.

Also, when using the competition mode that removes some of the randomness it just makes it so that the rescues in each paddock are in the same place (for example the right and left ramps for the visitors center as you noted) and also makes it so you find a valid exit in a set number of shots during navigation phase instead of randomly. Normally the red shots will just randomly open a valid path, where the chances get lower the further you get. In competition the visitors center only needs one red shot to open a path then 2 for the next paddock, then 3, etc, etc.

Hopefully this clears up some of the randomness you're seeing. It's mainly due to which path you take down the island and whether you already have the dino at each paddock or not.

All good, it's kind of confusing. Capturing dinos is always part of escape nublar whether you played through the game or are playing the challenge. Take a closer look when you start playing the escape nublar challenge and see if one side of paddsocks are fully lit. It has to simulate that you got to visitors center just as you would in a regular game because the mode relies on the fact you made it there. The side that it sets you up with is based on the way the truck is facing when you start it. Once you're in the mode however you can traverse to any of the paddocks on the way back. So yes, you can go to the trex, spinosaurus, and spitter paddocks during escape nublar, but they won't have been previously visited because the game sets you up with the shortest path on either side (again, based on the truck position when you started the challenge mode). This is definitely the reason you're seeing the set trap sometimes and not other times, because you will need to capture the dinos in paddocks you haven't already.

For example, if the truck is facing left, then it will set you up as if you captured all the dinos going up the left side of the island, so it will act like you have the pteradon captured. If you go to the pteradon paddock from the vitiors center you will not need to capture them because you already do. If you had gone to the raptor paddock instead you would need to capture it because you hadn't done it yet (since you had the left side lit up from the start). Maybe this makes more sense. Basically when you play the challenge the game has to simulate that you reached the visitors center because the gameplay directly involves going back through the island.

Also, the number of rescues is related to this. There will be more rescues to get on paddocks where you did not capture the dino already. So in our example above, the pteradon paddock will have fewer rescues to collect than if you went to the raptor paddock because you already have the pteradon and not the raptors.

This is also why you may be a bit confused with seeing different results when going the same way. If you start the challenge with the truck facing right, you will have all the dinos on the right side, which then makes the pteradon paddock have more rescues and the capture phase, while the raptors are already captured and so you need fewer rescues, and no capture sequence.

Hopefully this clears things up better.

Tier 1.5 Paddock Analysis: Dilophosaurus (Spitter)

Information and analysis

The spinner scored 30k points per spin as the base value, and you will receive this for every spin of the spinner. Under the spinner there are 4 inserts with differing values on them, and each corresponds to one of the ramps in the game. The 15k value light corresponds to the left T-Rex ramp, the 30k value light corresponds to the far right heli pad halfpipe ramp, the 50k value light corresponds to the right Pteranodon ramp, and the 100k value light corresponds to the raptor tower side ramp. Hitting any of these ramps during gameplay will light the corresponding insert under the spinner. When the spinner is hit, the value of each of the lit inserts will be added to the base 30k spinner value per spin. After the spinner stops, any lit inserts under the spinner unlight and must be relit by hitting the ramps. A fully lit spinner is worth 225k per spin (30k base value + 15k T-Rex ramp insert + 30k Heli Pad ramp insert + 50k Pteranodon ramp insert value + 100k Raptor Tower ramp insert).

As you can see, a fully lit spinner can be worth a good chunk of points, almost a quarter million per spin, but it can be hard to fully light the spinner at times since the spinner value resets to the base value with each shot to it. Also something I've noticed that can make it hard to light the 100k light is that if you make a clean shot to the spinner, followed by the raptor tower ramp while the spinner is still spinning, the 100k light will go on during the spin, and then once it stops it will unlight alongside the other lights. This can make it hard to get the 100k light at times. On the other hand, one of the possible supply drop awards is to immediately max the spinner value, so that can help with getting good values ready.

The super spinner will be lit at the right inlane after a certain amount of rescues are made, and the truck is facing right. Rolling over the lit inlane will make the red "Spitter" insert under the spinner blink to indicate that super spinner is running. While super spinner is going, the spinner is multiplied by your current Bonus X + 1x. This means with no Bonus X (1x), the spinner is doubled. But with 2x bonus, the spinner will be worth 3x (2x Bonus X + 1x that super spinner always gives). Now what the Dilophosaurus perk does is add an additional +2x to the multiplier during super spinner. It does NOT simply double the super spinner value. This means that with a 2x bonus multiplier and the the Dilophosaurus spinner would be worth 5x the regular spinner value (+2x from Bonus X, +1x that super spinner always gives, +2x from the Dilophosaurus perk). This behavior means that we can calculate the Dilophosaurus perk will give at minimum an extra 60k points per spin during super spinner, and at maximum an extra 450k per spin. Here are a few scoring scenarios for the Dilophosaurus perk:

keep in mind these values are ONLY the extra score earned by the perk multipliers itself, not the total points you would have received by ripping the spinner. Keep in mind these values can obviously vary based on factors like flipper strength, playfield cleanliness, and spinner tweaking. For the isolated scoring tests I will make 3 separate clean shots to the super spinner with the Dilophosaurus perk from a trap on the right flipper, hence the 3 values for each.

Half lit super spinner rip: 4 million | 5 million | 5.4 million

Unlit super spinner rip: 700k | 1.2 million | 400k

Low end scoring game for super spinner (2 super spinner rips, one half value, one min value): ~6.6 million

Lower mid scoring for super spinner (3 super spinner rips, one full value, one half value, one min value): ~17 million

Higher mid scoring for super spinner (4 super spinner rips, two full value, one half value, one low value): ~27.3 million

Higher end scoring for super spinner (5 super spinner rips, three full value, two half value): ~41.7 million

Conclusion

Final Result

No problem man, I respect your opinion.

I do try my best to be as objective as possible and simply break down the scoring that's in the game, and apply it to realistic game scenarios. There is really never a single "correct" answer but I try to point players who want to optimize their games and get higher scores such as myself to think about their strategy more. Or just to teach people who might be unsure about the perks because I had misinterpreted both the spitter perk and the Brachiosaurus perk before making the analysis so I learned stuff by doing it as well! At the end of the day though it's all about the risk reward that's offered and whether you think it's worth going for so I hope I didn't make it seem too formulaic. It's similar to pro players timing out modes in order to make it to a much more lucrative game mode. They skip out on parts of the game in order to get higher scoring potential. I suppose my goal is just to help highlight the objective benefits in the game to better my own average scoring and help others understand the game better as well!

I appreciate those of you who are enjoying reading my analysis and letting me know. No need to dislike or shit on this guy though, it's all good! I'm always open to ways I can improve my future entries!

When super spinner is active, it will also multiply the spinner by your current bonus X value. And Dilophosaurus adds 2x to the multiplier. So You must have had a pretty high bonus X to get it that high! Or 2x PF may have been running and you had just 2x bonus. Cause super spinner always adds +1x and then Dilophosaurus adds +2x and then a 2x bonus multiplier would add another +2x, making a 5x total. THen double PF would effectively make that 10x!!

The T-Rex head does not move at all in the pro version. It's just a static figure.

JP is a fantastic game and is great for owning at home because of the crazy good replay value and depth of the code. Most people here will probably say you gotta go premium cause the moving T-Rex is pretty sweet and the raptor pit as great as well. And while I agree the upgrades between the pro and premium are one of the best compared to other Stern games, I have a pro and enjoy it just as much. But hey, if you have the budget to go Premium go for it, it's the better version but it's just if the extras are worth it.

All that being said, if you are also considering Cactus Canyon Remake as a second pin to accompany Godzilla, I think that actually may be the better option. I think Jurassic Park is a better game than Cactus Canyon, but the thing is, Jurassic Park and Godzilla both play somewhat similarly, both being from Elwin and having similarly deep rule sets. If you add a Jurassic Park then you may have 2 somewhat similar playing games. Cactus Canyon on the other had has a different feel with the classic 90s pinball charm and rules, as well as a more standard layout. Most people would agree that Cactus Canyon stands up there with the greats of 90s pinball such as Addams Family, Attack From Mars, or Medieval Madness. If you go with Cactus Canyon you will have a more complete and rounded collection in my opinion. If you go Jurassic Park, I think you will be lacking the more laid back pinball action that you could add to the collection if you go Cactus Canyon.

But hey, that's just my 2 cents. Either way you certainly won't be disappointed!

If you were already in a paddock mode when you started multiball then it will stack into it and you can collect the rescues as normal by hitting the shots that are lit for rescues. You can also capture the dinosaur in multiball. This works with t-rex multiball, raptor tri-ball, and chaos multiball. You can't earn MAP letters or start another paddock mode once you're in the multiball however.