Total Nuclear Annihilation
Spooky Pinball, 2017You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider mcsquid.
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Is it possible to get a total play count if the game has only ever been on freeplay? All the coin audits are zero and I think the rest wipe with code updates
I'm on the latest beta code and I notice no issues with high score screen.
Only bug ive encountered is that if you tilt while inside the core or up top and the ball ends up in the left scoop, it doesn't come out until triggering a ball search.
Quoted from jaybeedee:thenotrashcougar
Hi Scott,
Ball Search Loop after Tilt (1.3.1b3.) - posting here because the bug report form didn't seem to work on your site.
tilted on last ball (extra ball after ball 3).
I think on multiball or multiball just finished (but actually I can't be completely sure of that).
Machine went into ball search loop, even though all balls were in the trough.
I had to power of and it started up no trouble. Very frustrating because I was wanting it to complete so I could enter my name in high score - I'm new to the club and this was my best game so far - tilted as destroying reactor 4
But loving the game and appreciate the support you put in
I actually just had something similar happen. I too was able to softlock the game. I did it with a well timed late tilt. I think what happened was I shook the game to make an outlane save, got a danger, activated an inlane ball saver, couple seconds later a second danger, drained, and it tilted out with the ball in the drain. A second later the audio called out "ball saved"
then nothing happened. It went into a ball search loop with all balls in the trough. I manually ejected the balls and let them drain back into the trough but the game didn't resume no matter what we did. I'm also on 1.3.1b3
Not sure why the tilt is so slow to react on this game. I sometimes tilt out 10 seconds after the shake in question.
Quoted from Robertstone0407:Can we get a option in the settings to turn on some crazy mystery awards like the instant game over, multiball, maybe a reverse reactor where you start on 9 and work down?, i just love this game as a party game and awesome random mystery awards can keep people on their toes
This sounds awesome as a "party mode"
If I had any feature requests it would be uneven team battles. 2v1 or 3v1. My casual friends would love to team up to take me down.
Quoted from Skipnatty:If you beat the game, don't let Scott know and/or see how...he will make the game harder because of you.
TheNoTrashCougar I beat it. Make it harder!
Quoted from pickleric:Just watched part of your stream. FYI, super spinner does do something. It raises the reactor value when you rip the spinner.
Huh, Neat. Thanks for that info!
Quoted from SpookyKT:We still have some for sale. email me kt@spookypinball.com
Nice! Email sent!
Quoted from HookedonPinonics:I love reactor 4's song but don't get to hear it that often.
I have a similar problem, but with Reactor 1's music (Alpha Particles) I love it but reactor 1 goes critical so fast!
How do the speedruns work? I would have imagined the times would be from when you press start to when you destroy reactor X. However my reactor 2 speedrun time is 8 seconds and my reactor 1 is something like 15 seconds. So that can't be it. Are they times from when you destroy the previous reactor? I love speedrunning and I want to start running this game so understanding the timer is step one. Might try to figure out how to get some splits running at some point.
Quoted from rai:Time starts (I think) is from when reactor x is ready (needs to be overheated and destroyed) time is total to overheat and destroy the reactor.
So time starts when you hit the left scoop? That's seems rather arbitrary... Might have to not use the in game timer then. I'll try to get something running in livesplit
Yeah I wont be using the in game time for speed runs then. The time spent unlocking and starting the reactor needs to be included in the speedrun. Using the ingame timer will cut half of all game time out of the run. (alright not HALF as the first two phases of a reactor are typically the quickest.)
Quoted from BillySastard:[quoted image]
this is why speedruns need to include unlocking and starting the reactor.
Honestly, exactly when the reactor timers split is not important for speedrunning. The main problem with the current system is that there is unrecorded game time. I could have a 30 seconds speedrun with an hours gameplay in it.
If anyone has ever done any speed running before or follow speedrunning in general you are probably aware that, almost universally, time begins when start is pressed and ends when the player loses control of the game (or a agreed upon easily marked point.) At no point during the run can the timer stop. The exception to this is that some games are timed using their In Game Timers (IGT) which are not active during loading screens and menus. However, there is never any gameplay that is not timed using this method, or its not used.
Its not a huge problem. A game with unusable IGT is just timed using Real Time Attack (RTA). The only downside there is that it requires an external timer (no big deal), and the actual speedrunners aren't using the function that was supposedly made for them.
I think full reactor 1 speedruns would be a REALLY fun and popular category. Unfortunately, as it is you can spend several minutes setting up the quick take down with multiball and achieve 1-2 second "runs." These runs did not take 1-2 seconds so they are far less impressive as a result. They just required the right set of circumstances to be set up.
now a contest to see who could get the optimal 3 shots for reactor 1 completion (Super skill, orbit, white target) AND control their bounces to get it done quick? That would be fun indeed.
Quoted from iloveplywood:Highest reactor destroyed? I've destroyed reactor five twice, but the last time was a couple of months ago and I fear I'm getting worse. I think five will be my reactor record to the end of time.
Oh is it flex time? OK I'll bite.
Keep at it and find the strategy that work for you. Learn the safest ways to make all the important shots. Practice your lane saves. You can get 6!
2019-07-24 17.02.59 (resized).jpg
I've started just parking the lane save on an outlane as soon as the ball is out of control. It took a few days to train myself to always switch sides with one flip. Honestly I don't even really nudge out of the outlane anymore as long as I have a lane save. I spend that time prepping it before I need it for sure.
Other than that, make sure to plan out your multiballs. Once a reactor is critical, let one rip, and try to finish the center bank afterwards. I don't find multiball helpful for the reactor core phase so I avoid it. After reactor 2 I don't shoot at anything but the lock when I have a reactor critical.
Quoted from Rob-T-800:Anyone else have the issue where most shots to the left scoop don't actually make it in most the time?
Backhand it.
Edit: seriously even if the ball keeps popping out, if you backhand the shot it tends to pop out slightly into the upper playfield and then fall right back in.
Unpopular opinion: I DON'T want the TNA soundtrack on vinyl. The game was very clearly based on games from the 80s and no format is more appropriate in my opinion than the cassette. I'm excited to own it on cassette and I think it was the right choice. Just gotta dig out my old walkman now.
I'm having an issue lately with the 3rd drop target not going down when hit trying to relight locks. (CPU control works fine.) Is that a common issue? Haven't had time to look under the hood yet.
Here is my contribution to the greater TNA community: a Headphone Station.
After searching for a while I found a cheap unit that is a great fit. Its a volume knob and headphone switch all in one. a single button on top switches between your headphones and a pass through back out to the games amp (volume knob still works.) There exists a version of this unit without the microphone jack (and only 2 cables) but I couldn't find a US source and didn't want to wait a month for it to arrive. Check Ebay if that matters to you.
amazon.com link »
I just removed one of the coin mechs and ran the cables through the return slot so I didn't have to drill any holes. I considered drilling and installing a desk cable pass through but decided on this instead.
I modeled up a leg mount with Headphone hook and uploaded to Thingiverse so you can 3Dprint your own.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3935500
You can attach the unit to the mount however you want. I used screws, but it has enough surface area that you could glue or double side tape it on.
Releasing this mod for free. Hope you guys enjoy it. I am no longer banned from playing TNA after the wife goes to bed!
2019-10-24 12.19.54 (resized).jpg
2019-10-24 12.20.27 (resized).jpg
Quoted from rai:Great idea.
When does the speed timer start exactly? Is it as soon as the reactor is active?
It starts when you hit the scoop and start the reactor.
As someone who actually wants to speedrun this game, I still find this unfortunate. All gameplay needs to be timed.
Quoted from joelbob:If anyone is wondering what Titan Glow rubbers look like on TNA, the answer is awesome! I wasn't a fan of the green plastic protectors as it made all the grey graphics look yellow, but these bands add a similar look and still give that cool green glow when you set your multiball to blue.[quoted image]
Wow those look great. Does Titan have any other glow colors? I suddenly need glow purple
Still having a few issues in the latest beta when a game is aborted and restarted. None that bother me too much, but I figured Id report them.
about 70% of the time if a game is aborted and another game is begun, the skill shot for ball 1 player 1 is not available. no light in the lanes, and secret skillshot does not work.
on rare occasion a pop bumper hit will cause the shaker motor to become stuck on. destroying a reactor usually fixes this, but not always. This seems to happen more if the game has had aborted and restarted games since its power cycle
Quoted from TonLoc777:Can you make it yell “LIONMAN” if you hit it That would be hilarious
No (licensing) but YOU can yell it when you hit the shot
TheNoTrashCougar Did you have a chance to fix the skill shot not activating when the previous game is aborted? I believe there were a few other issues reported a while back related to game restarts such as the shaker motor being stuck on.
Also while i got you here:
- why is the fluorescent pink protector kit not available in a full set like the green?
- is this the scoop used in TNA? https://www.pinballlife.com/scoop-weldment-assembly.html
Quoted from joelbob:Did anyone else watch DeadFlip’s 20 person Iron Maiden Steam? It looked to be a ton of fun as they were all competing with different challenges. Anyone want to try to set this up for TNA? I don’t have a multi cam streaming setup but could easily do a single cam Zoom call.
Im in. no idea how to set it up though
Quoted from luckycreature:Just discovered the game over you win new option for mystery awards. Is that actually achievable?
No. There are many fake mystery awards. I mean.... YEAH and you can also get 42 extra balls!
For those who think the shaker is too intense: I removed one of the two shaker weights a while ago. Its still plenty strong but gave me a "lower than low" option.
My general strategy that works well is to aim too start multiball for every critical reactor. use multiball to destroy it, and then carry it into the keypad step. If i can manage a scoop that's nice, but multiball is not very useful for the activated reactor phase. use that phase for single ball and relighting locks.
After updating I had to disable my shaker motor. I removed one of the weights, had it on low, and it's still too powerful now. My wife gets mad. Before I updated half weight + low was fine.
Quoted from yyyyyikes:The machine was on location for a while, and the lock 2 drop push down coil wasn't making the target drop, so it kept trying and trying moving the ball that was resting on it - i eventually upped the coil power level to max on that drop which made it drop 9 times out of 10 - it is actually a lot better now, seems to have worn itself in. Annoyingly, it would only happen when the playfield was flat (or near as dammit) so trying to work out why the mech wasn't resetting was nearly impossible. It was totally lined up, tight and seemed exactly the same as the other two. Just thought a cliffy might just help stop the wear spreading and they are pretty tidy as they only sit on the back edge of the hole. May order some anyhow, as I do own a Cactus and may well need them!
I had an issue with my drop target not going down a while back. I ended up cutting a few turns off of a spring that was slightly too long. It was a strange fix but I haven't had an issue since. I forget what the long spring was interfering with.
Quoted from joelbob:Last night joniano and I got on a Zoom call together where we competed against each other with some different TNA challenges. Overall it was a blast! If anyone wants to do this please let me know and I will set up another call. Here is what we did.
1.Set our games to 1 reactor and raced to blow it up. Awesome way to start it up. It would be awesome if we could set it to act like reactor 9 so there were more shots to have to hit.
2. Race to start multiball. This was very fast.
3. Race to hit a mystery shot. This ended up being more of a challenge than I expected. You have to hit RAD and then the scoop but if you drain your RAD progress is lost. This was surprisingly fun as you never really aim for this.
4. Race to start super spinner. This was also a good challenge because if you drain you lose all progress and have to start over. It would be cool if the display showed how many spins away you were. Another fun challenge.
At this point a part on joniano’s machine broke so we couldn’t continue but we had other challenges planned like:
-first to 500k
-best score after 3mins
-best score with only 1 ball
-high score with one handed play
Once again this was a ton of fun and I’d be happy to set this up again for others to participate! Also if there are other challenges people can think of please let me know.
So sad I missed this! Next time for sure!
Still holding out hope for a speedrun mode that counts all in game time (unlocking and starting the reactor)
Weird request:
Anyone have a CAD file/drawing of a TNA playfield? I'm using a lot of the same parts (PBL) for my sonic homebrew's lower third but my spacing is all off. I COULD rip my TNA apart to measure it all, but if it already exists it would save me a ton of time. Maybe even TheNoTrashCougar? Can't hurt to ask I guess.
Quoted from TheNoTrashCougar:I cannot think of a funny way to answer this, but no, I cannot give out my IP. Sorry for the lack of a funny response.
--Scott
No worries my dude, though you owe me a joke I guess 
Quoted from TheNoTrashCougar:There is more to the super spinner than I think you guys realize....
The super spinner also increases the amount of advance on the reactor core. Whether it is heating it up, or increasing the value. It makes the spinner very important when activated, especially in later reactors where the cool down time is a bit faster.--Scott
Does this mean hitting the spinner more will cause the slings and targets inside the reactor to add more value per hit? That would be good information. I had been wishing super spinner gave 1% per spin or something.
Quoted from herg:If you have a son... and that son almost never plays pinball... and he asks to play pinball with you out of the blue... drop whatever you're doing and play with him.
I felt kinda bad since he ended up sitting and watching a lot, but he did join in on the celebration.
First time starting reactor 7, and man, it's getting tough to keep heating that thing up at that point.
[quoted image]
When playing with someone of lesser skill, consider giving them 3 players to play and yourself 1. When I play with my wife she gets players 1-3 and I get player 4 to help even playtime.
Quoted from Cheeks:Are talking 3 individual players or can you have mismatched teams in vs mode?
3 individual players. Works on every machine. I wish we had 3 on 1 co-op
Disagree on always multiball. Time multiball release for critical reactor phase, use it to finish reactor and keypad for the next reactor. If you still have it running, keep going obviously, but the scoop and reactor core steps are easier in single ball. Get the reactor critical before working on relighting locks.
Quoted from d0n:Now THAT would have been awesome! a row of 3 spinners in the left orbit! I don't think anyone has ever done that. Maybe in the future "vault edition" LOL
This game is so rare & difficult to find used that a vault edition makes sense.
I'd love to see more "hoopla" when the target is hit and multiball starts. Something... anything to make it seem like a big deal. Starting multiball on TNA is a lot like starting herman multiball in Munsters. Nothing happens except the balls release. Could something be added in a code revision? thenotrashcougar thanks for entertaining my questions.
I'm doing this in my next homebrew for theme integration haha
Quoted from razorsedge:On later reactors if heating core with right orbit lit only, I will use a vacant lock to get to the core by stealing a lanes skillshot away from the auto launch.
If I am making an honest attempt at a good game instead of just playing for fun the auto-plunger only touches the ball during multiball when im otherwise busy, and even then sometimes I trap up and try to plunge saved balls into the core.
Quoted from d0n:You mean like when the gameplay completely stops for 5 or 6 seconds while each reactor becomes activated?
Thank god that is skippable. Honestly the way it is setup is perfect. I LOVE that skipping it doesn't skip the 3 pulse light/sound show that is amazing!
Quoted from joelbob:valid point.
So what would you add? There is already a speech call out, the music and GI changes.
I would add a special callout for when all 3 balls come out of the lock STDM
Quoted from TheNoTrashCougar:I did not put one there because it would have interfered with the launch ramp and there was not really much room to put one in. Chose to make it a 1 spinner game and I think it turned out great!
--Scott
1 spinner was the right call. I wish it was more valuable though. Chaining left orbit loops at crazy speed is fun but not valuable enough to be worth the risk.
Quoted from jaybeedee:So I am having a weird problem with my drop target 2, where it will not drop, although the coil is working, the opto and switched all seem to be behaving correctly. I have tried adjusting the brass component that pushes the drop target.
The strange thing is that if the game has been switched off overnight (or for a while) it will work perfectly. After about 30 minutes play it will then when I get to the end of game with a ball in the drop-target it will try and free the ball, but not be able to release it. It generates a backward force flicking the ball back into the top target (or into the right scoop if the top target is dropped).
TNA usually drives me crazy in a good way, but this is driving me crazy in a bad way.
I had a similar issue with one of my drops, I took it apart to clean it only to find it was totally clean. I ended up needing to trim a few windings off of the small spring in order to get the mech functioning properly. It wasn't worn out or anything, just a bit too long in its fully compressed form. Haven't had an issue since I did this.
Quoted from TheNoTrashCougar:OMG WOW.. You are definitely a skilled player. I would bet that is the world record speed run. What was the final number that the game logged in the high score table?
Also... WTF, 1 powerball? Are you crazy?
Love it. Thank you for sharing.
--Scott
The game logged 719 for this run. As I've mentioned before, this timer doesn't reflect the speedrun time since it doesnt time all gameplay as far as I understand.
Yes I am 100% crazy and that is why it has 1 Powerball. Just to screw with me and make it inconsistent :p
Quoted from beelzeboob:I've got a powerball in mine as well but I'm nowhere near as good as he is. Everytime the powerball launches, I'm like, "Oh, CRAP...."
I often also have this feeling don't worry.
Quoted from Joey_Bada_Bing:Hey guys, I have a switch acting funny. It’s the E rollover in the top CORE section. When I go into switch test mode it’s fine Everytime I roll a ball over it but during gameplay it registers intermittently/rarely at all. Thoughts ?
Did you test with a ball during switch test or your finger?
Quoted from trilogybeer:Backhand shots work best for me. I don’t get a whole lot of rejects but most come from the right flipper with a straight on powerful shot. Those I look at like a “Bally brick” from a classic drop target( seems like a perfect shot but gets rejected) the solution is to go for an imperfect shot.
This^ I find that the backhand is even easier if the ball has a bit of a running inlane start as oppose to a full cradle
Hi Everyone! Tomorrow night at 8PM EST I (TheCephaloPod) will be hosting a TNA challenge night along side WildDogArcade, Fliptronic, CosmicCottageArcade, and special guest TheNoTrashCougar . We will be streaming on all 4 channels so feel free to drop in and check it out!
You can watch any of the streams at these links:
https://www.twitch.tv/fliptronic
https://www.twitch.tv/cosmiccottagearcade
https://www.twitch.tv/wilddogarcade
https://www.twitch.tv/thecephalopod
Or watch all 4 at this link (and choose audio from any one):
https://multistre.am/.../cosmiccottagearcade/layout12/
We hope to see you there!
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