One of the common games with plunger and Auto Launch issues is NGG. That game has such a climb to get the ball around the curve of the ramp that it takes everything that plunger spring has to get it there. One of the typical problem with W/B manual plunger/Autolaunch games is the plunger hits the Autolaunch pivot. This can cause a weak launch with both the Autolaunch and the plunger. The other thing that happens with W/B autolaunchers is the striker only hits one side of the ball causing a weak launch.

Found a beat up whitewater on route. Dropped in my money and the plunger spring was so weak that it could not get the ball into play. Instinctively I smashed the plunger immediately remembering my wrist injury from a couple months before. I was in so much pain I didn’t even play the game out. (Fell on my bike in the spring, thought it was just a sprain but might have broke it, it hasn’t healed that well)

zaccarias have a pointy end as well.

Could have been me, too, except my watch would have been on the other wrist.

Not sure where I picked it up but honestly smacking the plunger is my preferred shot. Take #addams-family for instance if you do it right its a huge advantage at least for me I can lock shots all day using the smack plunge. Another one is #white-water , I can hit my smack plunge better than a normal one to start the ball.

Other times I use it to the get energy of the ball in play up, for instance for those times on machines where you ball just can't quite make it up the ramp. Power plunge it hit your shot and it goes right up the ramp no problem. But I pick and choose which machines I do it on. If its useless then yeah I'll just flip it out like normal. For the 1st shot it definitely can change you game up, I love using it for superskill shots, #deadpool-premium is one of them.

Occasionally though I will have the problem of the ball leaving the play field. I've knocked one of the small spaceships off of its roost before in #attack-from-mars and taken off the wing of the Tie Fighter on #star-wars-stern-le . Although I don't attribute that to the smack plunge its just I am too used to playing on the fly and my ball energy stays up and it does things that balls probably just shouldn't do. I'd honestly like to become more of a finesse player but its just my go to I guess.

Biggest problem that I have is that the ball getting english on it just like in pool. If you've played pool the ball actually curves. An example of this is on #metallica if I even touch the captive ball and have my energy built up it goes directly in the snakes mouth, literally no questions asked. On the flip side though I've tried to do a dead flip and take some energy out of my ball, it hits the flippers goes up and literally stops dead and drains down the center. Very frustrating indeed, I'd actually love a ball that has something on it, a stripe or a dot, to tell what kind of english I have on the ball.

I dunno I guess I'm still learning but to read comments in here about calling out people for looking like douche for that shot seems pretty judgmental. There are definitely reasons to smack/power plunge.

Depends on the game. That's the way I almost always launch on Scared Stiff. It's not like I wail away on it, but I give it a nudge, and I'll soft plunge into the spider hole virtually every time.

Smack plunge is very useful on Firepower and Cyclopes to get that top lock.

Nah, seriously. Short of the plunger JUST NOT WORKING due to a busted spring or whatever, there's literally *zero* reason to do this, and even THAT is questionable if you're just going to further damage the game. If you have to do that versus using the thing as intended to make a skill shot...that's just your crappy skill at play, or someone putting the wrong plunger springs on there. Stuff like this makes me question whether or not I should even bring my games out to shows or not. What if some asshat had smacked the plunger on my (Ahem...Best ORIGINAL *WINNING*) Farfalla like that and cracked or shattered it? Do you have even the first clue how hard it is to find a replacement red acrylic Zacc plunger with the correct knob?!

Probably smacked 20,000 times before you owned it.
You could also just swap out the plunger if you're worried aboot it, but I know I know, then you couldn't threaten not to being games to shows.

Eh, fine. I didn't think about that. Yeah, I could swap it out.

With a nail welded to the end of a metal one.

Then you'd have to learn how to weld

I understand there's a lot of people that feel the way they do things is the only/correct way, but for a time they made plungers with a pointy end for a reason, this has been happening forever. Amazingly pinball has limped thru just fine.

Haha! Good props on calling out that I don't actually know how to weld. I'd love to learn, and have the space for it. I do have local people I know that are welders, though, so it wasn't a total stretch. I just don't understand why people can't just be a *little* civilized with other people's property. It's ridiculous, and unneeded, like looting TVs during a hurricane. And in some cases (like mentioned) there literally IS unreplaceable parts at risk.

You want to slam your plunger, on your game, in your house.. HAVE AT IT! Anyone that knows me knows I'm a big advocate of "It's my game, I do what I want." and there's 4" scuffs on my wood floor where games used to sit from me and my wife being crazy with the slide saves. But yanno....."It's my game." I do think people should be more respectful of things that aren't theirs, when that equipment might be someone's livelihood, or something they've brought to a show for everyone to enjoy. If you bust the plunger tip or the spring playing like a mongoloid, then that game won't get played nearly as much as it would've otherwise, and you're also taking away from their time to get on site to fix it...for what? Your own personal rebellious streak, or to make a skillshot on an Addams when you're not even playing competitively? We're better than that....or should be.

I tried doing it once when I saw a video of a person do it. Yeah... It hurt... Didn't like it... Haven't done it again. And I do think its bit rough on the machines, so I wouldn't do it again even if it didn't hurt, out of respect for the operators.

But, at Galloping Ghost. One time Black Knight during extra time I had 2 balls stuck in the shooter lane after the game. I couldn't plunge them regularly. I told the employee and he did the smack plunge to clear it, and it worked. But, again he's an employee. I wouldn't want to get yelled at for doing something like that. I have too much fun at GG.

Tried a a few times recently. It's dark, I could never even see what I was welding, it looked like total shit I had a dream of dropping a row of dimes down but it did not come true.

This is a similar issue to glass banging/lockdown bar hitting. There is the assumption that it's a bad thing, but how many busted plungers have you actually seen? Lockdown bar hitting I have done/seen hundreds of times, and only seen 1 break. Shit breaks for sure, not doubting that, but I think perhaps you are applying a false narrative to this story.

EDIT: It's only threads like this that I miss Vid. Right now he'd write a reply that in the old days if Ops busted a plunger they'd throw the whole machine away because that's how they did it then. I miss the nonsensical shit

If you are doing hard enough to break your wrist or injure you hand then you aren't doing it right. It doesn't take that much force if done correctly. Perhaps have someone show you how to do it instead of injuring yourself.

Noticed all of the JJP games at the place I operate suddenly had shooter rods drift upwards and bind on the auto plunger. The whole mount needs to be shifted down and tightened. These happened all at once! From a launch DI to a new Wonka.

We suspect a smacker has become a regular.

Don't be so sure, I don't do it myself and had to reseat my Di plunger.

Yikes!

Cuz everyone knows that people with Down’s Syndrome are violent, and known for their maniacal tendency to destroy pinball machines, right?

At the risk of being called PC, I think that stinks.

Man I got no idea what's going on here

I believe his use of the word mongoloid

Yeah. I think you are correct. But, nothing wrong with the old school method of using the plunger.
Also, from all the pushups and weightlifting and dips. My wrists have been basically shot and useless. I had to scale back my bench press and limit my reps because doing a full extension was really hurting them. And I'm not going to lift without a full extension.
After easing back on the dips and pushups. Most of the pain has gone away. But, it can flair up from time to time.

It can also be helpful on WCS where on the skill shot, one is the softest plunge that just gets to the 3 lanes, the slap plunge guarantees the farthest lane, and then there's something in between for the middle lane.

Just ask Devo.

Where the hell....

You're only going to get called on the PC thing because YOU mistakenly assumed that I associate "mongoloid" with Downs? Also...WHAT THE HELL?

*Scratch head*

https://www.etymonline.com/word/mongoloid

Oh, humans are trash, right. Obviously, I was going for the other usage. I guess I'm too 'young' at 39 to have ever known that was even a thing.

How terribly offensive and insensitive of you! You still consider people with Down Syndrome to be “mongoloids”?!?

Truthfully way back in yee old times when we were but barbaric hunters and gatherers who drove big V8’s without a care in the world since gas was a nickel, medically speaking people with Down Syndrome were referred to as simply “Mongoloids” similar to how we used to say retarded and being “dumb” meant mute. Times have changed and most of those words are just plain ol’ insults and don’t actually refer to their historical meanings.

In truth Mongoloid actually refers mainly to East Asia peoples, it’s basically a subrace used to classify phenotypes of the different races.

Same reason they do it in porno, I'd think.

I would like to see them try and smack the plunger.

image (resized).jpg

Forgive me for assuming you knew the meaning of the words you selected.

Good link: “In reference to the genetic defect causing mental retardation (mongolism), by 1899, from the typical facial appearance of those who have it. See Down's Syndrome.”

Obviously. You weren’t making a thoughtless and cruel reference to retarded people, you were making a reference to Mongolians (presumably well known for their tendency to violently destroy pinball machines).

No problem! I don’t expect you to apologize for what you claim is merely your insensitive ignorance, rather than the casual slur against those less fortunate than you (that casual slur it still appears to be).

And what about that mongoloid wife of yours that slide tilts?

So the new euphemism for it is "smacking the plunger"?
What was wrong with calling it "choking the chicken"?

Forgive yourself for misunderstanding which meaning I was using?

Wow, big man. Bring my wife into this to defend your shitty logic and idiocy. If you were trying to prove you weren't a troll....congratulations, you just failed.

Hey now hey now guys let’s get back to chocking the ch.... I mean smacking the plunger talk.

So what do you all think of this video then? I'll clue you in. Its Keith Elwin vs. Lyman Sheats at Pinball Expo 2013 SMACKING the plunger on X-Men. Thoughts on this? Anyones opinion change at all? Its obviously something he's done before because he does it twice in row. Here is the video