(Topic ID: 127327)

Spider-Man rolls at...?

By BangBackula

8 years ago


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  • 18 posts
  • 12 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 8 years ago by jawjaw
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#1 8 years ago

So... I discovered SM rolls at 4 billion. Yes, it's totally time to make it harder. No, I'm not bragging about rolling it. My question is why 4 billion? That seems like a weird cut off. It's not like the digits couldn't accommodate a higher score. Are there other Sterns that roll at 4 billion?

While I do believe most SM games will never exceed that threshold, it is possible if you play your cards right. Once you start picking up x6 super jackpots, the scoring becomes insane. So then, why 4 billion?

I understand that this is probably a unique problem. That game went 2 hours and 8 minutes. I don't particularly care to play longer than that, but it bothers me that if I wanted to, scores wouldn't track correctly. I missed regaining my GC because of the roll.

And in case anyone asks, the glass was on, the tilt was sensitive, the lanes were narrow, and eb's were allowed. Looks like I'm going to have to remove the center post, remove the outlane posts, disable eb's, and add lightning flippers.

But still... WHY 4 BILLION?!?!?!

#2 8 years ago

It's 2^32....probably a 32 bit computer

#3 8 years ago

Thank you. That's the exact kind of answer I was looking for. I just wanted to know technically why.

#4 8 years ago
Quoted from BangBackula:

Looks like I'm going to have to remove the center post, remove the outlane posts, disable eb's, and add lightning flippers.

I would say do all of this. Pretty nuts you rolled a DMD game. Didn't know that could happen. Neato.

#5 8 years ago

That is interesting that the score rolls over. 4 billion seems arbitrary unless it was some kind of memory issue. Edit: Robertmee beat me to it.
Wax the playfield, remove the extra balls, and open up the outlanes and I am sure the games will not be hours.

#6 8 years ago
Quoted from robertmee:

It's 2^32....probably a 32 bit computer

Nicely done sir. As for the OP, time to make it harder as you say.

#7 8 years ago

Thanks, guys. I'm still trying to strike the balance between my games being fun for the average player while remaining challenging for a few of the better players. Making everyone happy is not an easy task, and I'm afraid that some of the changes I mentioned will hurt them more than me. If I don't murder it out though, then I'm afraid there's nothing left for me to do.

9 months later
#8 8 years ago

Just wondering how one would get X 6 super jackpots? I would think you have to complete all modes in one single ball but there are only 5 modes so where does the X 6 come from thanks and wow what an epic game.

-1
#9 8 years ago
Quoted from robertmee:

It's 2^32....probably a 32 bit computer

Actually, the number 2,147,483,647 is the highest possible number for a 32-bit binary integer. A 32-bit machine, however, if programmed properly, can handle numbers much larger numbers (using multiple registers, and overflowing the data into it and adding them). I'm guessing that 4 billion was just an arbitrary number that was chosen during programming.

#10 8 years ago

As I found out the hard way, the Gottlieb DMDs all roll at 10 bil--and don't save that fact. Womp womp, no high score for you.

Quoted from mbaumle:

Actually, the number 2,147,483,647 is the highest possible number for a 32-bit binary integer. I'm guessing that 4 billion was just an arbitrary number that was chosen during programming.

Scores are unsigned integers, which gets you another factor of two.

#11 8 years ago
Quoted from Excalabur:

As I found out the hard way, the Gottlieb DMDs all roll at 10 bil--and don't save that fact. Womp womp, no high score for you.

Me too. I had a 22+ billion point game on Gladiators that didn't even make the high score list because of that. I'm glad I got video of my 3 billion Mega Bonus countdown to remember it by.

#12 8 years ago
Quoted from mbaumle:

Actually, the number 2,147,483,647 is the highest possible number for a 32-bit binary integer

*Actually*, it's 4,294,967,295 (2^32-1) for an UNsigned integer, which is what I would assume they would be using for a score variable, since there's no reason to have a negative value.

#13 8 years ago
Quoted from RobertWinter:

*Actually*, it's 4,294,967,295 (2^32-1) for an UNsigned integer, which is what I would assume they would be using for a score variable, since there's no reason to have a negative value.

Makes sense. Thanks for pointing that out. It's still an interesting thought to think about a simple game of pinball maxing out a core component of the 32 bit architecture!

#14 8 years ago
Quoted from mbaumle:

Makes sense. Thanks for pointing that out. It's still an interesting thought to think about a simple game of pinball maxing out a core component of the 32 bit architecture!

It's not, really, with no way to modify the ones digit of the score. You could go to 2^32*10 pretty easily by manipulating the display strings. It does highlight that scores of 2-4 billion are dumb: 2^32 is plenty enough resolution for darn near anything.

#15 8 years ago

Does this same issue impact other Stern games? Are all operating systems up until Spike limited to 4B (or lower in the case of earlier processors)?

Glad B/W didn't limit AFM to this scoring method. They would have had to reduce all points awarded by a factor of 10.

#16 8 years ago
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

Does this same issue impact other Stern games? Are all operating systems up until Spike limited to 4B (or lower in the case of earlier processors)?
Glad B/W didn't limit AFM to this scoring method. They would have had to reduce all points awarded by a factor of 10.

I know WOF doesn't roll over at 4 billion. I've had a 7 billion score on one before after rolling it once. And no, it wasn't legitimate. I'm good, but not that good. A ramp switch was stuck. I ended up with 1400 ramp shots.

#17 8 years ago
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

Does this same issue impact other Stern games?

I was initially looking to find this out as well.

Quoted from LesManley:

I know WOF doesn't roll over at 4 billion.

That's interesting. It would be awesome if somewhere there was a list of scoring thresholds. Seems like a good stat for a game's splash page.

#18 8 years ago
Quoted from RobertWinter:

*Actually*, it's 4,294,967,295 (2^32-1) for an UNsigned integer, which is what I would assume they would be using for a score variable, since there's no reason to have a negative value.

This. All digital games will have some limitation when it comes to numbers. It largely depends on the programming since there are usually ways/hacks around these limitations. I would think it would be easier to make scoring smaller. I don't really get why some games having scoring in the billions where each shot is worth millions of points. I guess it sounds cool but that's a lot of numbers.

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