My problem is that I have an LE on order, so I have to decide before a lot is known, it's possible that the magnetic slings are not great. But no one knows since the LE is shipping before the premiums.

Unless we get some video and maybe payer feedback from the factory tour.

I'm semi out of space so I'd prefer to buy a keeper.

I guess the best solution is to drop down to a premium but there's so much hype and the LEs are sold out I don't want to be the guy who drops out of the next great LE before it's even released.

Stern almost always lets you skip animations with a double flipper press. I don't see why it would be different here.

Some nice information I just got from someone who works at Stern, won't mention names:

Asked about the left outlane that has bare wood showing, where the art stops. This is because the screen printer has margins they must stick with, and the art needed to cut off there. Didn't sound like there were plans to cover this area with a plastic, but not totally ruled out - which brings me to my next question I asked...

I asked what happened with the possible "streams crossing" function and if that has anything to do with the black plugs on the lower play field. He said that this was for a potential accessory upgrade down the line that would use these plugs. I then asked if that could be the reason for the bare wood over on the left and he said its possible, but if it comes to market when the "programming becomes available for it" then theres a good chance it will utilize that spot.

Just wanted to pass this on, and now it seems the Cross Streams may have required extra R&D with the mechanics and programming aspect, so it may possibly be sold as an accessory later on.

Why not? You've been annoying me every 5 minutes today, and I've been pretty patient and nice so far...

And could you please take that picture of me off of your avatar?

Imagine if you were forced into playing the same 2 out of 6 missions in Star Trek each game you play - that would get old though. At least with ST you can select 1 of 9 missions right from the start, and select which mission you would like to progress into. Not saying it needs to be like that, but imaging if in TWD you always had to play Barn or Arena mode first before starting other modes. It would feel like you have to grind away right from the start, and could get old quick. Just like I think there should be more video modes than just the one card game that seems like it could get annoying very quickly as it breaks up gameplay and slows it down. A "Don't cross the streams" game would have been great, each flipper is a stream, and you are trying to catch a ghost without the streams touching accidentally. Hopefully it gets added down the line with code releases.

Understood. Makes sense.

Great points

I like your video mode idea a lot.

Idk looks exactly the same to me just different numbers, Trek you have to start with 1 of the 6. GB you start with 1 of the 3. Trek they are all 3 deep. GB has a 2 deep, a 3 deep and a 4 deep one. Granted thats the difference between 18 and 9 but they are different games with different features surrounding those modes as well. I believe it will come down to the actual coding of the modes and how they are integrated with super jackpot that makes them interesting or not.

Linear wouldn't be the end of the world, PM is great.

Maybe not since there are 3 ladders. But each ladder is linear and you have to repeat a scene if not completed. Maybe it won't matter while we actually play the game but that doesn't sound good.

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Ya, I couldn't agree more. Why did they even bother? And the Scoleri Brothers at that? It's like they wanted two drop targets on the PF and were hunting for a 'pair' of something and then someone said "Scoleri Brothers! Brothers means there are two of them right?" then they implemented the idea without researching it and 5 weeks later someone casually said "You guys know that the Scoleri Brothers are in GB2 right?"

Everyone in the meeting room is speechless...

Gary says something to the effect of "No one will care. Push it through"

Haha same here but in for premium for now.

Exactly - I guess that's my concern with it at the moment. The outlanes and flipper gap make for a brutal game as we saw in the DF stream, so casual/not so great players like me may never see most of those modes and 90% of games will be playing the same scene over and over- like what happened during the live stream. We saw guys playing at the Stern factory that have play tested the game hundreds, if not thousands of times and they didn't progress much at all, and hit only a single (Storage Facility) multi ball only a small amount of times.

I just hope that the code is resolved because the theme, art, sound, music etc seem great - but the gameplay shown yesterday really took the wind out of my sails as far as looking forward to the game. I really hope once the video of the Prem/LE comes out that will change though.

dropped my LE the day they announced. Currently in for a Premium though.

WEll I leave this stuff to the pros. Maybe it will be new an interesting? I'll wait till my pro gets here before worrying. I got a hankering that maybe the code isn't complete yet so I have no idea what will end up

I don't mind a linear experience. It just moves the variants from the modes to how well you perform on each mode. Plenty of games that don't really have modes or are fairly fixed in their progression are tons of fun. You still get to choose whether you want to focus on a mode, work towards multiball, or aim for other scoring opportunities. Something like Scared Stiff has absolutely zero variation, and it's still tons of fun because it's completely based on how well you shoot. Nothing is started at random or by chance in that game, it's all plotted out before you even drop a coin.

I am more than happy with the code Full Throttle has out of the gate.

How are the scene/modes? Are they the shoot 'lit arrow' variety like ST or are they more nuanced like Tspp where Homer is : work, bar, TV, couch?

Sure, but compare the length of development cycle and the wait between announcement and ship date. I'd rather get my game early and let it evolve over time.

I think the ruleset is going to turn out great. 9 scene modes, 5 multiballs, two of which may or may not include the two wizard modes, plus hurry ups, etc. Factor in the games cool toys and sounds and there's a lot of potential there.

Personally I find ACDC'S ruleset repetitive over the long term. The multiballs pretty much all play the same (with the same DMD animation...), same with the songs. The game also lacks hand drawn artwork and voice work from any of the band memebrs. TWD lacks any voices and character likeness from the show which is a huge bummer. GOT feels like a generic castle game due to its generic medieval photoshop artwork and certainly doesn't provide a GOT world under glass feeling.

I'm not saying those games are not fun as they certainly are. However, I don't feel they hit on theme integration (audio, character likeness, custom callouts), artwork, and providing a world under glass feeling as well as Ghostbusters does.

The first run of Full Throttles were released months ago. iirc the Francisco guy wasn't even talking/moving yet in the initial code release.

It seems like the hit the arrow variety. Think LOTR / XMEN. Personally I prefer that style of mode or at least a blend of hit the arrow and general points based modes. I find games like ACDC with no true progression based modes to get boring in the home environment while a game like LOTR will stay. WOZ and MET are two games that kinda have a blend of both.

That is a generic pinball player.

The second image is important here.. You get to start over where you left off.. So getting past one rung of ladder shouldn't be so hard that you don't ever see anything but ladder 1, rung 1. Yes you only have 3 ladders but but feeling like you are actually progressing might not be so horrible. The trick I guess is making sure there isn't a clear preference / score imbalance where only 1 ladder is used for big points.

yeah, but the core of modes and MBs were already there. Full Throttle code was solid from early on, regardless of cycle time. If anything I would say the code has not got as much polish in that time from initial release till now as I would hope for, but still far from beta upon release.

Fingers crossed they can learn how to up production speed, maintain quality, and still put out 1.0 code with initial release that is worthwhile.

I know from what I saw in the GB video I sure hope code gets quite a bit more meat on the bone by the time games deliver.

There are sooo many cool items on Amazon and toy stores that could be a Topper for this game!

http://www.amazon.com/Ghostbusters-7-Action-Figure-Slimer/dp/B0001NECKA/ref=sr_1_13

How boot this one? Throw some awfull LEDs in it and bam!
http://www.amazon.com/Bag-Poop-Novelty-Gift-Island/dp/B00E8MEMQY/ref=sr_1_1

http://www.amazon.com/Mattel-Masters-Creations-Ghostbusters-Goggles/dp/B00EPIXB4U/ref=sr_1_80

That one looks perfect for a GB pin. Just need to make sure it's secured to the cabinet as otherwise it could make an interesting surprise when it crashes on the playfield glass, haha.

Negative, ghostrider.

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Other than Slimer, what other ghost do you actually see the GBs bust in GB1? They chose to go with more recognizable ghosts from GB 2 rather than some other random generic ghosts on the drops.

The Ecto-1a light bar from Ghostbusters 2 would make a much better topper, it has a lot more lights in red, green and yellow and looks much cooler...

Ecto-1a_(resized).png

If someone can retrofit a standard slingshot assembly into the Premium/LE without hacking the playfield up I will be shocked. The Premium/LE playfield only has the one small slot for the single leaf switch to detect the ball touching the slingshot rubber. To get a standard slingshot assembly in there you would have to route out that central hole into a slot big enough for the armature and it's range of motion in addition to routing out two more holes for the two standard slingshot leaf switches. Highly doubt that will happen... People gave me some crap earlier in this thread about speculating on magnetic slings, but the proof was right there in the whitewood.

I'm assuming (hoping) that this unique feature will only enhance gameplay and truly be an upgrade especially in the "fun" sense of the game. Why would STERN put in a feature that sucked worse than the traditional? Especially in the premium versions? I am skeptical though on how it will play during multiball... Then again, Addams Family already started this crazy magnetic multiball mayhem and I find that to be one of the funnest multiballs in pinball (although, maybe that's just because of how fun, challenging, and rewarding it is going for the super jackpot).

Is anybody else taking their laptop into the bathroom to keep up with this thread?

dupe. Goddamn it !

I hope by laptop you mean iPhone or another smartphone..

I'm German. I'd pay to do that.

No.

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good lord.

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Lol, someone's been drinking the kool-aid.