Quoted from Fytr:Hi guys. Enjoying the show though I'd vote for more pinball poetry and less boring long letters from pin princess
I would have to concur .. reading long form communications doesn't make great listening. Maybe post them up on the Facebook page instead.
I also would like to mention the comments you made regarding Spooky - firstly the centre playfield support. Having had pins for 28 years ish, when I first saw it I went "waaaaat" too. But in practice, it actually works very well, and is vastly superior to the Stern pegs. It gives you the height to work on the flippers if required, and is a stable handle to push/pull the playfield out, as Charlie demonstrates in this video.
I haven't seen TimBalls video, but I admit to using the same technique on Superbeast (and also Dragula..) Start the mode and slam the ramp 1000x. Competition players like us will always find the easy way to score points, however for the vast amount of players, just keeping the ball alive on the RZ playfield for more than 60 seconds is a challenge. I have got to the Wizard mode twice, which was a big challenge with some of the other modes being very tricky.
The Spooky team have been asking for code ideas for RZ over the last few months and a few of us have been helping out. The new code V20 drops very shortly, and you should see some changes in gameplay that should be better for competition play, along with more scoring information on the screen.
I always describe RZ as "black hole on steroids" as that's the closest comparison I came up with. With the exposed pops, you have the random action of the classic Gottliebs (before the Sys3 disasters!) but with 2017 modes and progression added in. It certainly isn't a cookie cutter Stern fan layout, that's for sure, and some of the modern pinballers don't know anything different (probably never seen a Black Hole or Genie, let alone played one..)
RZ brings something different to the table, and I personally celebrate it for doing so. It's a big hit over here (currently the only one in NZ but I have another one on the way for my buddy) and I often have people texting me wanting to come around and play it. I have never had anyone txt to come play the other 11 games in my apartment.
On the Classic Stern front ... NZ is a desert for classic Sterns. There's a few here but mostly heavily beaten through years of arcade use. I have been importing Sterns (and Ballys) for my arcade from the states, so fellow kiwis can get the classic SS fever too.
I think the Stern list looks something like this: Meteor, F2000, Split Second, Ali, Nine Ball, Big Game .. they get dwarfed by the Bally collection, but they're growing.
All good!
rd