Very sorry to hear about the flooded basement, @tinyblackdog... hope there wasn't much damage to your house or possessions. But congrats on the game... I trust you'll get any glitches ironed out quickly and have a blast with it!

Thank you, I appreciate that. Please: Brian Dominy (@bcd) deserves at least as many accolades for the code... he's a brilliant engineer.

But I feel comfortable saying this for Brian, and all of Team Alien: we're really happy that more people will get to experience this great game, and hope it brings you all much enjoyment!

It’s been awhile, but I believe…

- When making the “explore” orbit during Derelict Ship

- When making either orbit during Queen’s Nest

- When doing an inlane -> opposing orbit combo (might be only during single ball play?) which also briefly gives higher egg bumper scoring

During Ambush, the attacking Xenos approach from one of four "quadrants" on the tracker and on the playfield... if I remember correctly, the leftmost quadrant uses red insert lighting, the second quadrant green, the third quadrant blue, and the rightmost quadrant yellow. Each quadrant has multiple shots that can be used to kill the attacking Xeno in that quadrant.

For biggest scores, this is important, because you don't want any Xenos to reach the center -- that resets the jackpot values back to baseline. So you want to focus on shooting the Xenos that are closest to the center. The callouts during Ambush include "accurate" distance calls that tell you the distance of the Xenos that are closest to the center... they move at about 1 meter per second.

I'm very happy to hear that the Pinball Brothers are rocking it when it comes to customer service. This great game deserves it, especially after all it's been through.

No idea which of these parts need design fixes and which are inherently fine but just failed by bad luck. But it takes time to redesign, validate, and produce new parts, and certainly customers in the field don’t want to just be dead while all that happens.

There are already a ton of quotes from both movies in these games.

Yes, he is, indeed.

I seem to recall doing the calculation of video assets in the game and it's in the neighborhood of 25 minutes. Sure, some of those assets are custom animations (that Kelly knocked outta the park) but there are a LOT of movie assets in the game.

The lights for each quadrant do get brighter and flash faster as the Xenos in that quadrant get closer to the base. Admittedly that can be subtle in the heat of battle, but it's there.

It does various helpful things during modes and multiballs. Can spot lit shots, increase shot values, stuff like that.

Shoot the upper (Hypersleep) ramp to light a Revive light on the left outlane.

Averell has created an amazing rules and reference document:

https://www.ipdb.org/files/6419/2017_ALIEN_Standard_Edition_Rulesheet_Rev_1_2_dated_2020_08_05.pdf

Some details may not be quite correct for the Pinball Brothers models, but it should be close enough.

Each of the 5 weapons has a distinct ability, ranging from Bonus X increase to spotting Xeno hits to activating a ball saver. You can fire the currently selected weapon by pressing the Launch button. (The screens will tell you what the ability is of the current weapon.) Use wisely for big benefit... or keep them for extra end-of-ball bonus, your choice.

Enjoy your new game!

When you complete all the scenes of the movie you initially choose (including its mini-wiz) you switch to the other movie.

When you complete both movies and all four main multiballs, All Out War is the final wizard mode.

Enjoy!

Alien scenes tend to be more “pensive”… make a couple well chosen shots and you can win a mode with decent points.

Aliens scenes tend to be more “shoot first, ask questions later”: more stuff lit but less points per shot. More shots required to win.

Yes.

Not to be too obvious, but did you check the switch gaps on that slingshot?

Hmmm, I had a good time at Chicago Expo. What was the supposed letdown?

As Zablon said, it would be too easy and powerful if you could lane-change. There's basically only 7 increments available from these lanes, so we couldn't make it too easy. (And bonus can get sizable if you have decent Scene Bonus.)

This. (Derelict Ship and Queen's Nest, respectively.)

Hmmm... I'm not sure if anything changed in this regard on the Pinball Brothers game release, but when I last touched the code, both orbits and the upper loop (Vent 3) should all divert to the pops during Queen's Nest. During Derelict Ship, the "Explore" orbit (blue arrow, I believe) should divert into the pops.

A weapon will always be selected if possible, so when you fire one (assuming you don't have multiples of it!) the selection will move to another weapon that you do have... meaning that you can just press the Launch button repeatedly to fire everything you've got, if that's your choice.

Thanks, Tommy! I have an original version in my basement. Love the game.

Sorry, I’m not involved with the Pinball Brothers production of Alien, I can’t speak to their plans.

I guess I'm biased, but I don't think Alien gameplay was ever shallow. Lots of modes that are all quite distinctive, lots of multiballs that are all quite distinctive, lots of side features (things like weapons, Host Bonus, Rescue), and so on. And I suspect most players won't reach All Out War too often.

There's actually more interaction than you might think, though it's not necessarily well explained on screen. For example, the more eggs you destroy (via pop bumper hits), the more valuable the egg-related modes are (Derelict Ship and Queen's Nest). The value of Ambush Multiball is increased by the number of Lifecycles you've completed before starting Ambush. The value of Sentry Guns Multiball is increased by the number of weapons you've collected before starting SG. The value of each movie's mini-wiz is based on how you did in that movie's modes. I think there are a few other relationship links like that scattered around.

Many of the modes also have hidden niceties (and/or penalties!). For example, Find Jonesy scoring is based on how many shots it takes you to find the cat... the fewer the better. Or during APC mode, besides the lit shots, completing the APC drop targets spots the current shot and also increases the value of shots for the remainder of the mode. And the Recharge target is always helpful during modes and multiballs.

And there are miscellaneous fun tidbits, like the 5,000,000 "Super Skill Bonus" for making 3 distinct skill shots in a game.

We tried to design the game to have enough depth to be interesting, without needing an encyclopedia.

There are 10 primary modes (2 of which are mini-wizard semi-multiballs) and 5 other multiball modes including the final wizard mode, All Out War. I no longer have access to the raw assets, so don't quote me, but my memory is that there is +/- 25 minutes of video content, across several hundred clips.

Do you mean Hypersleep + Sentry Guns? Hypersleep + Ambush shouldn’t be possible, I believe.

Great score though!

Right, completing X Lifecycles (adjustable) ... also advancing bonus X past 4+2+6 ... also Mother Mystery award. Winning X scenes (adjustable) lights Special, which can be set for EB. And of course you can set Replay score for EB as well.

Interesting... I worry much less about these issues on PC based games. Hardware will exist to run x86 or ARM based Linux software for a very, very long time, just because of the enormous scale of those platforms in every industry. I don't have tons of faith that, say, my WPC games will be fixable down the road when the MPU board fails. That relies on a small number of highly specialized vendors like Rottendog or Alltek.

I don’t think that’s correct. We tried to make every shot in the game be important. All the shots you mentioned are used in various modes and multiballs — preferably in ways that make sense thematically. Additionally, those shots are valuable for:

Orbits: Feed the L-V lanes (bonus X, potential extra ball), feed pops (destroy eggs), feed upper flipper for ramp and Vent 3 shots.

Upper ramp: lock balls for Hypersleep MB, spot letters toward Drop Ship, lights left outlane Revive.

Vent 2 (right side mini loop): advances towards Mother Mystery.

Unique flow shots also award combos, which can be quite valuable in their own right.

Both spellings are acceptable. It's actually written as "Mother" in the Alien movie script.

The code has been complete since 2018.

There is a wizard mode for each movie, plus a final wizard mode (All Out War) for completing both movies + the 4 main multiballs. I consider it challenging to reach, but not as challenging as, say, Valinor or SDMEWM. An intermediate player should get there occasionally. Of course, difficulty settings can make it a bit easier or harder.

You're asking about the line directly below "Ball Up"? That tells you how many Extra Balls you have collected.

Jonesy is easy! Trap up, wait, watch, and listen. He meows when he starts moving. When he moves, he'll run in a straight line (left or right) from his previous position to his new position. When he moves to a position you feel comfortable shooting from your trapped ball... pounce! You can still shoot his shot even when he's in the shadows (light not flashing) if he hasn't started moving again.

Yes, this one is complicated. It's in three parts:

1) Shoot the roving flashing shots to cut through the grating -- this awards points and increases jackpot value. You can't save Newt during this phase, she always gets abducted... just like in the movie.

2) Save Newt! She'll be hiding in one of the three Vent shots, randomly. (Unless Tournament Mode is enabled, in which case she'll be in the second Vent shot you make.) Find her for Jackpot. This is an homage to Find The Girl in CFTBL.

3) Victory! Alternate shooting any lit shot for Jackpot, and Vent 3 for 3x Jackpot. Repeat forever.

This is by design. The lanes can only be completed 6 or 7 times in a ball before the award is maxed out; having lane change here could make this too easy. (See also: Theatre of Magic)

Make sure "Chestburster Lane Difficulty" is set to Easy. (Hard requires both the proximity sensor and the standup at the end of the lane, which can be, well, hard. Easy requires only the prox sensor.)

You might lower the pitch of the game a bit, and also try *reducing* the flipper strength. Stronger isn't always better: for one thing, if the coil power is set too high, it can get hot and start binding, which winds up sapping its strength over the course of a gameplay session.

What was the resolution here, Tommy?

Be aware that during Derelict Ship, one of the orbits (forget the color, but I think the screen says "Explore Eggs" or similar) diverts to the pops, while the other orbit does not. What each orbit does alternates after each orbit shot.

Most of the modes have tricks to boost their values. Egg related modes (Derelict Ship and Queen's Nest) score more if you destroy some eggs before starting them. APC values increase by completing the A-P-C targets during that mode. Combat Drop can be very lucrative if you're in a rhythm on the ramp combos during the landing phase (especially since the ramp combos also work toward Drop Ship letters for 2x Playfield). Recharge target does something beneficial in all modes.

Also remember that actually winning modes is important because that's what gives you Scene Bonus, which is based on the score you earned in every mode you won that ball, and IS impacted by Bonus X (as Zablon alludes to). 100M+ Scene Bonus feels really good.

There are a couple modes -- Find Jonesy and Bug Hunt -- that you're better off not stacking with multiball, since they punish you for "wrong" shots. Bug Hunt can be quite lucrative, but it's pretty difficult.

The movie mini-wiz modes (Self Destruct and Loader Battle) also get scoring boosts based on how many of that movie's modes you won and how many weapons you have, and since they can convert to multiballs, they can be pretty juicy -- and winning these also contributes to Scene Bonus.

TL,DR: modes may not look like they're very valuable, but they can certainly be a significant component of a big score.

Chestburster shot is makable from the lower left flipper, but it’s very tight.

Save Newt isn't really a wizard mode, just one of the 4 main multiballs. The 5th mode of each movie is also a potential multiball (we DID think of those as mini-wiz modes). You've also got the weapons, combos (including the seldom-mentioned Host and Chestburster combos), and Rescue to add some spice.

I've often heard people say that they find the movie missions difficult to complete. "Beat all missions" is probably nigh impossible -- especially since we don't let you replay them (unless you play through them all and loop back again) -- we debated this a lot during the dev process. However, scoring in the movie mini-wiz modes (Self Destruct and Loader Battle) is based on how many of the corresponding movie's modes you completed, and of course Scene Bonus (earned by completing modes) can be very significant, so if you care about points, completing modes is a Good Idea.

None of the above.

I did game code for Alien right through to the end of Heighway. I haven't touched Alien code since then -- it's been in the capable hands of Brian Dominy, who was the other developer on the original project. (The game software is built on his framework.)

Not really. Just gotta find it on your particular machine.

Although the geometry is obviously different, this shot reminds me of the Millions Plus ramp on Whirlwind: not easy, sometimes rejects when you swear you made it, but feels really good when you make it.

The Vent 2 shot should register anytime the ball goes there. I actually find the easiest way to shoot it is to aim for the right side of the post below the upper right flipper, or the weapon target directly over Vent 2.

Very happy that you feel that way -- of course that was the goal.

No! Easiest mode in the game. All it takes is patience, young padawan. (Oops, sorry, wrong movie.)

Satisfying, and more valuable too.

Sure. Just in the DMD+ era, several come to mind:

Alien (of course)
Full Throttle
The Hobbit
STTNG
Judge Dredd
Demo Man (no, I'm not counting the claw as an upper playfield )
Road Show

And of course, many more than that pre-DMD.

I basically had three tiers of players in mind when thinking about the weapons design:

- Novice: doesn't even know weapons exist. The weapons just passively give some extra bonus points, cool.

- Intermediate: knows weapons exist but doesn't optimize their use -- just jam the Launch button when draining (at least on the final ball) and hope to have the game extend.

- Advanced: uses weapons carefully ... like you say, this can be a huge boost to your score and game length:
--- Pistol (Advance Bonus X): save it for a ball when you've won a couple movie scenes. (Especially Self Destruct or Loader Battle, if you want to really milk it.)
--- Shotgun (Spot 2 Xeno Hits): save it until you drain when you know you have 1 or 2 Xeno hits left for Ambush.
--- Smart Gun (Spot "Best" Shot): save it until you have a tough shot needed, like the Hypersleep ramp or Vent 3 for a Super Jackpot and/or Extra Ball, or maybe Hypersleep ramp lit to start Hypersleep MB on an imminent drain.
--- Pulse Rifle (Start 2x Playfield): save it until you've got a big movie scene + (Ambush / Hypersleep / Save Newt) + Sentry Guns stack.
--- Flamethrower (Start Ball Saver): save it until the ball is draining and you've got no other weapon that can help you. The timer on this is short (2 seconds, I think) so you need to be sure the ball isn't taking its time rolling around the apron.

Makes me very happy seeing players in that third category.

Inlane switch -> opposing orbit (e.g. left inlane -> right orbit) should catch the ball in the bumpers and give you 5X pop bumper scoring... I believe the orbit arrow briefly flashes green for this, and the bumpers show up differently in lighting and/or on-screen status. (Sorry, I'm blanking on the details right now, but that's the gist of it.)

I believe yellow is Rescue Frenzy, which is an underexposed game feature. Complete the A-P-C drops to start Rescue, then quickly shoot the Xeno to lock in the Rescue Frenzy switch value. At that point, all switches add the Rescue Frenzy value to a pot which is collected by completing the A-P-C drops again (any order). Xeno hits add time.

I think.

Yes, any time something good is lit on the upper ramp -- like Hypersleep lock, which is qualified from the A-P-C drops -- orbit shots should divert to the top lanes to increase the chance of the ball feeding to the upper right flipper for that ramp shot.

Not just only 2 lanes, but also a cap on the bonus X. (1X, 2X, 4X, 6X, 8X, 10X, 12X) (4+2+6 = 12)

Don't forget to rate it here on Pinside to let the world know how you feel!

There are a lot of adjustments so you can tweak the game to behave how you like. I believe the default (Medium) difficulty has one Revive lane lit at start of game. I believe default mode times should mostly be 45 seconds, except for APC which has a per-shot timer that is shorter (15 seconds?). Don't be afraid to play with the settings, that's why they're there!

The Pinside Top 100 rating system has always been fundamentally flawed, and it certainly doesn't help when users abuse the system.

Thankfully, it also doesn't matter. The fact that Alien has that high ranking, for however briefly it might be before the review-bombers take over, tells the truth that the game brings joy to lots of people. Many thanks to everyone who has supported the crazy journey of this pin -- we are so happy that you love the game!

You dared to give a recent Stern anything less than a 9. Off with your head.

There is a "Scene Start Difficulty" adjustment that controls the difficulty of starting a Scene (mode), by adjusting whether it's lit at the start of game and/or start of ball. Extra Hard makes it so that you need to re-light it at the start of each ball, even if it was lit when you drained the previous ball.

Absolutely the intent. Like the movies they represent: the Alien modes are a bit slower and more thoughtful. They tend to offer more points per shot, so if you're good at shot-making, they're pretty efficient. Aliens modes, like that movie, tend to be more energetic, and "spray-and-pray" is more effective, but you usually get fewer points per shot. All part of the atmosphere of the game.

The review hate-bombing is indeed disheartening, even though I know it doesn't really matter. Especially bothers me to see people who I personally know who have previously expressed a much more positive opinion give it a 2 or a 3. Really, you find this game to be, by far, the worst game you've ever encountered? And it was just in the past few days that you remembered how much you hate the game and you felt obliged to post that?

No. Please no one do this. Two wrongs don't make a right. Godzilla is an excellent game by most people's standards, please don't post a trash review for it unless you truly hate it.

Wouldn't really matter anyway, Godzilla has many more units out there, and therefore more reviews -- much harder to "move the needle".

This is the real shame for me. I truly value honest feedback, both good and bad, from players and owners. The only way pinball creators can improve their product is by doing more of what most people like, and doing less of what most people dislike -- that's pretty straightforward. But when the feedback is "you're not my favorite game / favorite company, so you suck and I'm gonna trash you", that's unactionable -- so these selfish people hurt games that they or others might enjoy. That sucks for the owners and players, past, present, and future. I guess these people just want a monopoly or duopoly that generates a few titles a year at constantly increasing prices.

I noticed this with amusement:

User review of Alien LV:
Jimmyzz
10.000/10
Awesome pin!!
Jimmyzz currently owns this game.
This rating has not been approved yet, but we're already showing the review.
3 Pinsiders flagged this. <---

User review of Godzilla Premium:
Jimmyzz
10.000/10
Awesome pin!
Jimmyzz currently owns this game.
This rating has not been approved yet, but we're already showing the review.
3 Pinsiders starred this! <---

Too bad Pinside doesn't let people see who's giving flags/stars, the same way it allows you to view thumbs up / thumbs down. Would be interesting.

Recharge does something helpful (often awarding shots and/or increasing values) anytime a movie scene (mode) or multiball is active.

Hopefully it lights for this, but regardless: shooting the Chestburster shot immediately after a ball ejects from Vent 1 (Mother saucer) awards a Host Combo.

Queens Nest: Eggs -> Airlock, 3x.

Actually shouldn't be too hard. Either orbit should put the ball into the pops. When it exits, shoot the Airlock. Repeat 3 times, done.

Each hit on the Xeno increases all the point values for the mode.

It's a tight shot, but makable from both left flippers. Occasionally the pop bumper will just give it to you for free, if your "Chestburster Lane Difficulty" setting is Easy.

I can't speak to @applejuice's lane guide mod personally, but I've heard some people say that it makes the shot easier.

All missions from both movies.

I so much love to hear this.

Ditto.

No, All Out War can't be "won", it's just a super-fun scoring bonanza. You can keep it going indefinitely, since it continues as long as you have balls in play, and completing the 5 weapons targets adds a ball as many times as you want. Congrats on getting there, it's not easy!

Actions > Reset High Scores should clear the high score tables without doing a full factory reset.

Nope.
Part 1: escape the Nostromo
Part 2: escape on the escape ship
Part 3: profit! (Literally!)

Yes. Self Destruct (and Loader Battle) also gives more time and more points based on how many of the movie scene modes you've won.

Hmmm. Phase 1 of Loader Battle is harder than Phase 1 of Self Destruct. But Phase 2 of Loader Battle is easy -- L Ramp, R Ramp, L Ramp, R Ramp, Airlock, boom.

I do love the victory choreography for each phase of Self Destruct, though.

Smart Gun does not collect everything lit on the playfield — it collects the most valuable shot currently lit.

Yes, there are several interactions like that in the rules. I don't remember them all, but I believe the ones you mention are correct.

- Completing a Lifecycle increases future Ambush MB jackpot values.
- Destroying Eggs increases the value of future egg-related movie modes (Derelict Ship and Queen's Nest).
- Completing Vent 1 - Vent 2 - Vent 3 increases the value of future vent-related modes (Tunnel Hunt and Save Newt).

Another non-obvious rule is that during the APC movie mode, completing the A-P-C drop targets spots the current shot and increases shot value for the rest of the mode. (You can do that repeatedly; you could conceivably complete that entire mode just shooting the drop targets. That would be quite lucrative!)

DANG! That is a whole lotta weapons.

Yes, there is a victory multiball for completing Self Destruct or Loader Battle! On both of these movie mini-wiz modes, you can play them indefinitely if you "win" them ... and those points count toward multipliable Scene Bonus, which can be really valuable.

And yes, Bug Hunt is one of the hardest modes, but it can be quite lucrative, and is super fun to complete. (And, honestly, kinda fun to lose, too. Embrace the death and destruction! But win for best score.)

Yep. I’m working on Queen.

This.

It was a deliberate choice of the design team not to say "Jackpot" to the player -- part of the immersion of the game. There are other audio/video/lighting cues to let you know that you've done something good.

There are several ways to get weapons. You can complete the set of 5 weapons targets around the playfield. You can win a movie mode. Mother will give you one sometimes. You can also get one by immediately shooting a flashing weapon target at initial ball launch (skill shot award).

If you have a hard time shooting the lock, don't worry about it for now -- that's only one of several multiballs.

- Shoot the Xeno head a few times to start Ambush Multiball.

- Shoot the Airlock scoop to start movie scene modes. If the Airlock isn't lit, hit both the left and right inlanes (Weyland - Yutani) to light the Airlock... that's most easily done by shooting the ramps to feed the inlanes.

- All shots and switches add ammo to the Sentry Guns, and when the guns are fully loaded (1000 ammo total), Sentry Guns Multiball will be lit to start on the left saucer (Vent 1 / Mother shot) -- watch for the flashing red Vent 1 arrow, which often lights up during another multiball, since lots of ammo gets loaded when more balls are in play.

These basic tips should be enough to get you in the groove... you can explore other game features later.

Have fun!!

The Pistol / Handgun increases Bonus X one step for the current ball. (If you were at 1X, it goes to 2X; otherwise it's +2X.) Using that weapon is equivalent to completing the L-V lanes once.

An inlane -> opposing orbit combo (e.g. left inlane -> right orbit) should also trap the ball in the top lanes, and briefly give 5x bumper scoring.

Yes. This was a Pinball 2000 innovation, but several manufacturers now ship this with their games. Such a simple, clever invention.

Errr... it's part of attract mode, and has been there since the original game. I know, the game is so good, you just want to hit Start again and play some more, but sometime just let attract run for a few minutes, there's lots of fun stuff in there.

Yes, Scene Bonus can be huge... if I remember the math correctly, when you win a scene (mode), 20% of the points you earned in that mode go into Scene Bonus... so if you max bonus multiplier at 12X, you'll be getting 240% of that scene value as bonus.

That has always been there.

This was one of those things we talked through when designing the original game... if we excluded scenes with gore or any form of violence from "family mode", there would hardly be any display effects left. Both films are rated R and have lots of gore and violence, that's just the reality of it. So "family mode" is basically "foul language filter".

Generally, the ball will divert into the egg bumpers if there's something good to be shot with the upper right flipper, like the lit Hypersleep lock -- the game tries to help get the ball over there. It will also divert into the egg bumpers (with a temporary boost to bumper scoring) if you hit an inlane -> opposing orbit.

By design, the game tries hard to AVOID explicitly speaking pinball-y things like "Multiball" or "Jackpot", because those terms aren't part of the Alien/Aliens universe that you're in. Hopefully the change in music, display effects, lighting effects, and balls being launched help cue the player that they started a multiball.

They are not always lit.

During Ambush, aliens can attack from one of four quadrants: 9:00 (red lights), 11:00 (green lights), 1:00 (blue lights), 3:00 (yellow lights), which correspond to the location of the radar blips on the on-screen tracker. The trick to Ambush is that the jackpot value keeps increasing with every shot made unless/until you let aliens hit the center, at which point everything unlights, the jackpot value goes back to baseline, and you have to hit the Xeno to resume. So ideally, you always want to shoot the aliens in the quadrant that's closest to the middle. (This was easier to understand with the playfield screen showing the tracker.) The distance meter also indicates how far the closest aliens are from the center: when it gets to zero, you're toast.

So, once you kill the aliens in a quadrant, that quadrant remains clear for a little while until more aliens come on that attack path, and a quadrant's shots remain unlit if there are no aliens to kill in that quadrant.
---
(I've always called them quadrants, but I suppose they're really sextants? Eh, let's just say "sectors".)

BTW, there are also increasingly distressed distance callouts that match the on-screen distance meter, so keep listening for those callouts to help you know when you really need to be worrying about shooting the correct sector.

There is not, you have to discover it. We discussed color coding the radar blips for the original code, but turns out that makes the tracker look way different than it was shown in the movie, so this was a case where authenticity won out.

As Zablon said, they are "Vents", and are potential shots during scenes and multiballs. Also, in normal play, shoot all three vents (any order, any timing) to relight Mother Mystery.

Left orbit skill shot increases the spinner value (and awards immediate points, as all skill shots do). There is no right orbit skill shot.

Chestburster lane is not a skill shot.

Ramp shots.

No, because you need (at least) two shots to Find Jonesy and qualify the win on the Airlock shot. But yes, you could use the shotgun to collect a Jonesy shot at the Xeno.

I don't think there's an exception to that, but I thought that Jonesy will move immediately when his first shot is made ... but I might be wrong about that! It's been awhile.

I'm not up to date on the latest code changes, but I think this should be a difficulty adjustment, Revive Diff. If you don't want any Revive lanes spotted at start of game or start of ball, set that adjustment to Extra Hard.