Easy to see what he's doing here (from Pinball 101):

tappass.gif

I can do it on my Aztec. Cant do it on any of my other games.

This is easier to do on older SS games with leaf switches -- newer games with opto's and 3" flippers are a little tougher...

That's really cool.

That is truly great. But on a DMD 1990 - 2013 I do not see how you could do it. If you tap the button the flipper will fire. Is there a way on DMD games.

Only way I see how on a dmd is to hold the flipper up on the side the ball is rolling down the inlane and when the ball reaches the peak of the flipper give a fast button tap

I figured out how to do it on my LOTR which surprise me but it works great. Except every once in a while it doesn't flip and drains : (

But otherwise, it's a great skill to have. I try on every game I play now.

It would seem the older solid state games have more control. Might be time to return to leaf switches on flippers

Yeah it's an older trick for sure, and it is dangerous. I was fooling with it a little after watching some Paragon vids. Never tried it in DMD games as I just ASSumed it wouldn't work...plus it isn;t really needed

Very nice. You do the same as in the gif above? I noticed I can do it on acdc as long as the flipper button is pressed in

That video is amazing to watch. Its like the right flipper never moves and the ball magically hops over to the left one. I can pull it off occasionally but most times I end up looking like the fool.

I'll try to put up a video - basically on LOTR looks like the ball just floats over. Works well with harder settings such as toggled K E E P letters when you want to get that lock before you hit another ramp and un-light the lock.

But modern games you can always post pass betwixed flippers...a lot of old games you can't.

I'm talking when the ball is moving fast, say you make the left ramp and it completes KEEP as it comes thru left inlane. Rather than take a more difficult shot on the fly to the right ramp, I just tap it over, cradle the ball then backhand it for the lock. If I could easily trap the ball as it comes out of the inlane, I would do that and post-pass if needed (this is with rules setup to toggle K E E P letters & no stacking).

It's really a situational decision based on rule difficulty but works well in certain situations.

For instance in War of the Ents mode, I'll hit the left orbit & as it comes out of POTD & goes left inlane I'll tap it over on the fly, then hit left orbit again, rinse & repeat & mode is completed rather easy. That is if I don't miss the tap pass and let the ball drain. Rough when that happens. So I don't do that as often anymore since the reward out ways the risk in a good/great game.

Ahhh i see what you're saying.

Sounds like you are over-complicating this a bit -- on most LOTRs you can simply backhand the ents shot on the fly from the POTD feed to the left inlane.

It can be done, but the margin of error is much tighter. Basically you have to tell the flipper to fire for an incredibly short amount of time, so that the flipper immediately ceases fire just as the upstroke begins. Look for a Youtube video of some Brazilian repeatedly doing "rolling tap passes" on Scared Stiff. They're very impressive, though practical use is a bit lessened on games where post transfers or alley passes are easier.

Frontier was used in the PAPA Circuit Final, and Keith Elwin picked it to play, so if you didn't see it live, you'll get to see his tap-passing play in a tournament situation sometime in the coming months.

http://papa.tv

True, if you only want 500,000 points for every shot, but the left orbit (and right) are 750,000 point shots, so out of 6 that's an extra 1.5 million points.

But yeah, I don't do that anymore unless I'm one or two shots away to complete and time winding down. Shooting for the center shots off left inlane is hit or miss, but tapping to right flipper, settling it down and then taking a clean shot to left orbit works well. Like I said, it's really only worth the risk if you only have a shot or two left and time running out.

I basically only tap now for KEEP locks (when on extra hard mode / toggling mode).

Now my Harlem Globetrotters - that's a lot of fun tapping from right to left. I always let the ball bounce around and cradle on the right, then easy tap pass, then easy drop target shot, bounce off left flipper to right, cradle, tap, shoot, rinse and repeat. Love the tap pass.

Or when showing off in front of others. I've been guilty of that but the reactions are always priceless. I don't tell them I'm going to do it and tell them to watch and they kind of get stumped and don't know what they just saw until I explain and do it again. Fun times.

Whi do all that? WotE is very easy. Hit right orbit, repeat. I wouldn't bother with flipper passes etc. The right orbit is very easy to hit on the ramp feed.

Harder to do on an old Sterns. I've found it works on most early Ballys (Paragon, Harlem Globe Trotters, etc...)

Ron...

I can do it fairly reliably on HGOT and Mystic. My technique, right or wrong, is to hit the flipper button with my middle finger, letting the index and ring finger land to either side of the button. the middle finger is tilted back a little, so the other two fingers form a stop and the middle just barely actuates the flipper. I'm right handed and I can do it much more reliably with the right hand. On mystic theres really no critical reason to ever do it. On hgot, theres very little reason to risk tapping from the left to the right, mainly right to left is needed for the drop targets.

I would never be able to do it with a video camera over my shoulder.

LOTR right orbit rarely ever stops with the pop-up post. Never seen a LOTR that worked correctly even 10% of the time with that shot.