I had TSPP and FG next to each other for about a year. It is a much funnier game, but no where near the depth of the Simpsons. Just hit the spinner X times to light the mode, go in the TV, do the mode, repeat 4 times and get the final jackpot mode. Little table is fun to finish. It is actually prettier than TSPP, but after finishing it many many times, sold it. Still battling the Simpson's daily.
I was aiming for Simpsons, Griffins and South Park crew in a line-up, but didn't like SP reviews

There is no way you beat Family Guy many times. Sperm Attack is damn near impossible to get to.

My FG has been with us about 6 months....I'm no where near dominating the machine yet....TSPP is finally on its way, and counting on both to be keepers.......

It is missing Harry Shearer voice work.

Uh, you didn't finish it...you got to the mini-wiz mode.

TSPP is definitely a top tier Stern. It would be great if Stern actually made another new Limited Edition production run with new sounds to boot. The only thing I don't really like about this game is the sound package. Some key characters of the show are glaringly missing and being how this is known as being a long player it would be great if there were more variety in the music. The Simpsons is such a strong theme I don't see a new LE version not selling well.

I suggested this a while ago - I thought it would be a good "test" of whatever their new system is going to be. Since the game is already designed and rules coded - I think it would be really interesting to see a "10 year Anniversary Edition" running on the new hardware with Color display (animation could just be ripped from the billion episodes that have been produced), newly "remastered" audio with ultra clear voices & stereo music. Also there would be something kind of fascinating about a game like that selling against WOZ, since the same team created it.

What? I ripped myself off and thought that was it.
Bugger. Cannt afford to get it back, used it to buy a WOZ.

They where only able to pay for so meany actors to get the voices from. Maybe it's time for a 3rd Simpsons game.

I would so buy that. Hell, I'd just take ColorDMD doing the current one as a more realistic wish!

I had another huge game last night on it, and I think I will actually change my position on the otto shot. Despite it being slow, I always forget about how handy that comes in during MB. Shooting a ball to the otto shot, holds it long enough to do something else, which is important when trying to get all the supers. I got all 5 last night, and each time it's a hold one or more balls on the left, open the garage with the right, at least one left ball shot into the otto, upper left flipper shot to the tv, then which ever trickles out first, concentrate on a couch shot.

I wish it would kick out fast in single ball play, stay the same in MB. As it is it actually comes out faster in MB play.

you can get it to kick out faster by pushing both flipper buttons at the same time. Same for when it goes behind the TV and when couch/I&S MB starts. Basically, doing this skips the animations and releases the ball. It's not instant, but is much quicker. I have heard people say they don't like the stop and go nature of TSPP, but wonder if they know this. BTW, it works on all Sterns.

When I listened to Gary Stern at one of the Michigan Pinball Expo's, someone asked for a new run of TSPP and he said the license was expired and they wouldn't pursue it again.

It was my the first machine I bought and it will be the last one to go. Beautiful, complete game with so much to do and shoot for. Great cabinet art and back glass.

Nice to see so many feel the way I do about this game. I'm always hearing it one of the best "Stern" games, when in reality, at least to me it is one of the best games period.

Do you have a name or link to the supplier on those?

RussMyers

It seems to be intermitent though, as I do this, and sometimes it spits out faster, other times it seems like it's doing nothing. Not a big issue by any means, like I noted, if there was one thing... But this machine has so much. I don't know, it's hard to decide which Stern is, in my opinion, the best ever. Super close between TSPP and LOTR.

Stop and go comments are dumb though. All games have some level of stop and go. I enjoy flow games like AFM and DM as much as heavy stop and go games such as TAF, TZ and TSPP. I enjoy pinball.

hi,

i don't. sorry :/

I like TSPP a lot but am I the only one that finds there is a lot of "dead spaces" in the game as well as ball drains? It's probably just that I suck at pinball but I find the ball draining and dead shots more in TSPP than other games I own and have owned!

I used to play this a lot a ways back (we had one at work). I've had my own for a year now. I finally got my lazy butt around to cleaning and tuning it tonight (probably the first time ever since it had low plays). Wow what a difference, quite a bit faster now.

This is definitely one of my favourite games and will never leave the collection. It's not the fast thrill-ride of some other games (ACDC, ST), but the theme is so well put together and the rules are so ridiculously deep. This is one game where I don't try to look up the rules and figure it all out. There's so much to do that I want to discover it just by playing it and enjoying the new discoveries (I just hit my first pretzel multiball since owning it, had no idea how I got it until I looked it up). I don't even really use it to practice being a better pinball player. I just like to chill out and enjoy it. I even make a point of not playing it too much so I don't get too familiar with it, just play about one game a day and enjoy.

In regards to dead spaces and drains: I guess there are some dead spaces in that there are just rubbers around the right ramp and stuff instead of the narrow standups you find in newer sterns. If you have your shots dialed in you don't hit them often though. As for drain monster, I don't find this at all. It by far has the longest ball times of any game I play (20 to 60 minute games on average), and I have my outlane posts on second hardest setting. The only thing I find a little hard is the left outlane - it has no rubber post, and it sneakily slants to the left. So if you catch a ball and it goes all the way up the inlane it almost always drains into the outlane. I keep telling myself to watch for that next time and try nudging it somehow but I never remember. How long you last probably depends on your strategy. For most of my life I've always just tried to get through the TV modes to get to Alien Invasion (sometimes twice in a game). In that case the shots are Krusty, get to the upper playfield via garage or treehouse, then your play is in your upper playfield and you are safe while the ball is there. Get couch multi-ball then you can hit a pile of other stuff on purpose or incidentally (otto 2x, itchy and scratch, left loop, etc.,) without fear of ending your ball. Lately I have been trying to figure out the rules on my own and maximize/start otto 2x, daredevil, etc., instead of just going to the upper playfield, and I did find my games to be a lot shorter/suckier. So I say just go for upper playfield/multiball and let everything else fall into place if you want long games. If you do find TSPP really hard I would wonder if you have ever played something like ACDC pro - it's just mean and nasty, a 15 minute game would be a really good game.

I like the kicker delay for upper-playfield. It gives me time to light a cigarette.

I get one beer sip from the Otto shot, and two from the garage/treehouse.

I, for one, appreciate a small, expected delay.

I am absolutely in love with this table. It keeps on giving and shows no signs of letting up. The Mystery spot has to be my favorite mode other than LITZ.

For people who don't like all the plastic tapered Stern post sleeves (people call the game "clunky" due to them) - replace them with color Cliffy post sleeves. They look great & have more bounce to them, so you won't get that plastic "thunk" when hitting them.

Love this game! It got me into pinball again and will be my next.
Hadn't played pinball in years but I have wasted so many monday nights with my bar tenders ignoring customers because we were playing. Games were lasting 20 minutes + for all of us.

We could all get the mystery spot and Alien Invasion atleast once a night, pretzel happened a few times.
I don't know if it's normal but the one I used to play got REALLY loud when you hit AI.
The first few times it happened I had a crowd and no drinks were served until the ball was drained.
The first time I felt good at pinball.

I never found it to be a drainer because there are so many hurry ups, itchy and scratchy, the couch, stacking....

The strategies of how to play it are endless.
I have never been so intrigued and rewarded by the rules of pinball.

Mine does this too, also happens when multi-balls are stacked. It actually drives me nuts, because I'm trying to have a quiet game late at night. I have it on the lowest volume setting, and even in normal play it is louder than I would like, but when you hit AI/etc. the volume bump is insane and makes me worry about waking everyone up and I get nervous and suck a bit. This is the only complaint I can think of with TSPP as of now. Going to try getting the V5.00 ROMS soon, hope this fixes it, but I doubt it.

I was just having a killer game before this, on ball 2 with 200 million, and 3 extra balls to spare. I think I had about 4 of the modes complete to get to wizard mode. I'm never sure how to tell how far to wizard mode as the thing flashes by on the DMD too quick for me to see. I think the lights for Simpsons in the car indicate this though? I had at least 4 lit up. Anyway, I for once stopped and checked the status and all that and thought what I might have to finish to get to wizard mode, then adjusted my strategy trying to hit what I thought might complete the last couple of modes (I don't actually know for sure). I then proceeded to drain the remaining 5 balls within a minute, I kid you not. One I just let drain after the skill shot because I had a brain cramp and thought I missed it even though I saw that I hit the skill shot. That will teach me for thinking too much when playing this game, from now on I just stick to staying alive until I randomly hit enough junk to finish the modes.

I love the mystery spot just for the reversed flippers, as it's such a cool and unique idea, but I do think AI is the best MB in pinball - genius. FOTR is the most exciting MB in pinball I think. I wish there was more hoopla when you complete stuff.

I believe there is an option in the menus to not raise the volume on AI.

EDIT: I think I'm wrong, I this existed but I can't find it.

Maybe put in a headphone jack? http://pinnovators.com

Service menu > Adjustments menu > Feature Adjustments > Allow Volume Effects > No

Ah! I knew it.

Where do you get the V5.00 ROMS ? ...and what's the difference?
I think I have v4.0 in mine.

thx,
bb

If you have v4.00, these are the changes below, if you have a different version, just google TSPP Roms and you'll see a thread where this info came from.

Changes from Game ROM v4.00
---------------------------
- *** THIS GAME ROM REQUIRES DISPLAY VERSION 5.00 OR HIGHER. ***
- Mystery award no longer gives the same award back-to-back in competition
mode.
- Mystery award no longer lights extra ball if one was already lit.
- Mystery award no longer lights special if one was already lit.
- Kwik-E-Mart standup now changes digits correctly in competition mode.
- HSTD Reset now also resets Grand Champion (there is now no way to manually
erase the non-grand-champion scores, they will reset themselves only on
the HSTD Reset Count adjustment). This is to address not being able to
change the default grand champion score.
- If an Otto award gets stacked in the display queue, it will now show the
correct shot that was doubled (previously it would generally always show
upper playfield at 2x scoring if it was queued).
- Homer's TV-lit speech now takes priority over Krusty's quotes again, and
will also be heard if the display effect doesn't get to run.
- TV start effects now stack after combo and other awards.
- Couch lock and multiball start animations now stack after combo and other
awards.
- Major award events (e.g. TV mode start, Otto award, Treehouse awards) now
only hold up the device they are associated with, not all kicking devices.
- Combo awards now awarded before anything else on a given shot.
- Itchy and Scratchy eject now double-checks to make sure the targets are
actually down before trying to eject the ball. It also waits until any
drop target reset process is complete before kicking.
- Otto eject now has more low-power kick table entries.
- Couch multiball start lamp effect now called from the display effect.
- Couch multiball start lamp effect now goes away properly if the start
display effect is blown off.
- New U.S. default pricing, 1/.75, 3/$2.00

Ah, how did I miss that, and I even write audio tech for a living. I think the naming threw me off a bit, I expected "volume boost" or something, or maybe I just glazed over going through all the adjustments. I've changed the setting but I am sucking too much to find out for sure if that's it - though I'm sure it must be.

Anyway, thanks a ton! Now I'm down to zero complaints - well except now that I polished my playfield/balls the ball often repeatedly jumps back into the Otto kickout hole after smacking against the loop wall, weird. I didn't even touch that part of the playfield much as I can't really even reach it. I don't see a gate or anything so I am a bit stumped, I can only think my balls are so clean that they rebound too well off the metal wall now.

I don't know the best place to get them, I was going to ask my distributor/repair guy first. I got the idea from stumbling across them on ebay. I won't include links as I'm not 100% sure about the legality as some sellers just burn ROMS. Just do an ebay search or google search or whatever for "simpsons pinball party roms". Seems like a pretty cheap upgrade anyway and I'm sure it would be the last set ever released.

_{Post edited by Bif : Removed ebay link to ROMS as I'm not 100% sure of legality.}

Just had a few drinks and jammed on some TSPP. Man I love this game. So much to do. I was one shot away from alien invasion and one hurry up away from the comic guy's mini wiz mode... (which is what exactly?)

Secret Stash

I can tell you how I missed it, it's not documented on the manual on IPDB. It must have been added at a later date.

Get the roms from John wart. Just google his name and roms. I got mine from him. You need CPU and display. $15.

John is great, and quick.

Great thread. After reading this thread I think I may like to own TSPP. I never really watched the show but I still like the theme. I like the fact that it is a deep game. Right up there with LoTR and TZ two of my favs. What can one expect to pay for one in excellent condition? I may start looking
Thanks. Pinside is amazing and addictive as pinball

3500-5000, routed can be tough on this game.

Hey thanks. Your saying that routed games are not worth it. Too many mechanical problems?
I only try to buy hUO games until I have more time to fix them once I retire, if ever!

Routed can be tough but NOS playfields can be had for the game, most of the ramps (except living room) are obtainable and there are some NOS plastics roaming around out there. I got almost a full set but still need to find the long one on the right side.

Great game, can't say enough about how fun and deep it is.

Not all routed games, just not TSPP. Mine is huo and when I play them on route, they are usually disappointing, ranging from weak flippers to just overall grimy.

Well I am sold. I want to buy one now. I will take my time to find a nice one

Thanks Scott. Great thread

I love it when a thread stays positive too. There is enough negativity in the real world. Why bring it into the world of pinball? This is a great hobby which it a ton of fun. Keep it positive and fun and everyone will have a great time and learn a ton of useful stuff about the hobby that will make it even more fun.
If you want negative stuff just turn on the TV or talk to a a fellow office worker. You should get your fill of negativity there.