(Topic ID: 118005)

Metallica cancelling mystery animation- feature or bug?

By Law

9 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 12 posts
  • 7 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 9 years ago by Frax
  • No one calls this topic a favorite

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#1 9 years ago

Pretty minor, but I recently had this happen to me a few times on two different MET pro machines running the most recent code and was wondering if someone that owns one and could test it more reliably could confirm. Mostly just curious about how the scoop interacts with other timed features in the game and whether or not cancelling the animation can be detrimental.

It appears that if you cancel the mystery award animation with a double-flip, it seems to A) end the start-of-ball ball saver early and B) abort the electric chair multiball starting animation (even though I don't think the mystery animation actually popped up). I'm not sure if there are other times this comes into play. I was kind of annoyed when my freebie magnet-didn't-grab-the-ball guitar pick shooting time disappeared.

#2 9 years ago

Yeah pretty sure this is just so you don't have to sit through the animation every time, since it's usually not too exciting.

#3 9 years ago

Yeah, its a great feature. I wish more games had it. Johnny Mnemonic has it for when you put a ball in Bob's. Hit both flippers and it pops the ball out.

#4 9 years ago

I think you guys missed the point. The animation cancel shouldn't kill the ball saver...

#5 9 years ago
Quoted from Frax:

I think you guys missed the point. The animation cancel shouldn't kill the ball saver...

That's correct, I'm aware of the double-flip feature and use it all the time, hence the question. I was pretty surprised when I aborted the twenty second sparky multiball starting animation by hitting the scoop while the sparky dots and light show was still going and hitting both flippers for the quick eject.

#6 9 years ago

Well technically you shouldn't be able to hit the scoop during the electric chair animation, the ball should be held captive on the magnet. So if you were playing with a loose ball during it then you were basically just lucky, and the game was adjusting to a situation that's not common.

#7 9 years ago
Quoted from Frax:

I think you guys missed the point. The animation cancel shouldn't kill the ball saver...

Doh

#8 9 years ago
Quoted from Aurich:

Well technically you shouldn't be able to hit the scoop during the electric chair animation, the ball should be held captive on the magnet. So if you were playing with a loose ball during it then you were basically just lucky, and the game was adjusting to a situation that's not common.

Yep, it's a (sort of) valid playfield thing. If he'd have re-hit Sparky with that loose ball it'd cancel the animation then as well. The scoop shot itself canceled the Sparky intro, not his aborting it.. had the Mystery animation played out, Sparky would have been canceled at its end.

-2
#9 9 years ago
Quoted from Frax:

I think you guys missed the point. The animation cancel shouldn't kill the ball saver...

He was punished for cheating. His cheating may not have been intentional, but it was cheating all the same. Game don't allow cheating. d

Abort animations is a setting (feature, I think) that will abort animations. It has nothing to do with this thread, but some searches may dig this up. Abort animations one (default) will abort one animation (like mystery, still get award). Abort animations all will abort them all. Got the scoop lit for mystery and EB? You can abort both and keep playing. Great for long ball time games or people with full schedules.

#10 9 years ago
Quoted from phishrace:

He was punished for cheating

"cheating" is putting it a bit strongly. I consider it an exploit, but completely within the rules of the game. If making a clean, hard shot to Sparky's left foot to start the multiball and fling the ball over into the pops is "cheating", then I don't know what strategy is. I've never encountered someone that's been disqualified from a tournament because they managed to set up the Genie/Harem TotAN stack or nudged the mist ball off of the magnet on BSD with a loose tilt.

Thanks for confirming Metallik. It's kind of weird that this one shot does that even though the other locations on the playfield that the game uses to determine whether the ball is live for the drop target reset don't abort the animation.

#11 9 years ago
Quoted from Law:

"cheating" is putting it a bit strongly. I consider it an exploit, but completely within the rules of the game. If making a clean, hard shot to Sparky's left foot to start the multiball and fling the ball over into the pops is "cheating", then I don't know what strategy is.

I was kidding when I said you were cheating, which is why I added a winking smiley at the end. Technically though, the game detected something was amiss. The ball should have been on the magnet. When the switch closed in the scoop, the game detected that something was wrong and it canceled Sparky's intro. It also canceled the ball saver because in essence, you've gained a slight advantage by keeping the ball off the magnet (intentionally or otherwise). Because the ball is now loose, the magnet can't throw the ball down the left outlane or SDTM (like many have complained about here). Instead, you're free to shoot jackpots until the other balls dribble out of the pops.

The programmer anticipated your exploit and added programming to deal with it. Lots of games are like this. Whiplash MB on IM works the same way. Ball off magnet? Cancel animations and start the MB. It is a 100% legal exploit, but is it really a exploit? The word exploit in pinball is usually used to decribe moves or shots that are repeatable. Can you regularly start Sparky without the ball on the magnet? If yes, I'd love to see video of you doing this.

#12 9 years ago

I haven't tried to do it intentionally....but I will now.

I'd say it probably happens 1 in 5 times on my game anyways.

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