1-Avengers LE

2-Convincing my wife that I really needed to have it when she wants a new kitchen..

WOZ
The art of waiting and waiting

PinBot
Outlane nudging

F-14 Tomcat
Swearing and hitting the start button repeatedly

Black Knight
How to trap three balls with two flippers, hold one flipper with leg and grab a quick swig from the pingulp
(under-rated yet vital pin-skill)

Lucky Hands.

It was the first game I I owned that had the open inlanes at the bottom. You had no choice but to drop catch...anything that rolled up the inlanes would drain

STLE: taught me a new one i love to call, 'where the f*ck did my ball just go!?' Skill

http://i.imgur.com/z5XOIad.png

- Indiana Jones, Williams, Pinball Adventure
- The left flipper is so important for the jackpot ramps and the Hand of Fate, that it forced me to pass the pinball from the right to the left flipper (hold pass, bounce pass), as well as learning the backhand via the left flipper.

Tron really taught me to use left hand dexterity. I am right handed and it took some time and practice to hit upper left flipper shot. Even when I don't play Tron for awhile it is difficult to get the hang of it again. It takes a couple warm up games. I love the upper left ramp shot-very satisfying.

Iron Man has taught me some good nudging technique with factory set outlanes. Also aiming the shot and reacting to Iron Monger.

Iron Tron.jpg

I got over 10mil (5 ball ), is that considered beating the game?

I learned about super skill shots when i owned (the first time around) a RFM. Now, it seems most newere DMD's have a super skill shot - just gotta figure them out.

STTNG:
- how and when to outlane nudge. can't be explained. only learned through experience.
- to keep the ball going north and south on widebodies!! east and west is bad news! STTNG magnifies this concept with it's weirdly-shaped slings that funnel balls to the outlanes more than most other machines.
- how to analyze the scoring potential of a table. how to recognize exploitable mechanics: for example, the borg jackpot is built through pop bumper hits (and successful cannon shots during borg multiball), persists through the whole game, and has no ceiling. it's exploitable in certain setups, and in longer games dwarfs the Final Frontier in scoring potential.

Black Hole:
- when a ball is speeding towards your flippers, a dead pass is better than semi-random flailing. it slows the ball down, and often offers a cradle opportunity.
- intentionally shooting at not-yet-activated features can be immensely useful for purposes of control or lining up shots. (the unlit captive hole on the main playfield is great for setting up shots at the all-important 4 orange targets on the right side) this is a lesson that can be applied to many machines!
- how to not to break into uncontrollable sobbing when you finally, improbably, miraculously make it to Black Hole's notoriously rare multiball mode only to fail to drop any set of drop targets on the lower playfield and instantly lose 2 of the 3 balls, setting you back to square one.

Fishtales taught me the art of backhanding. Ya have to to hit that tight bitch of an extra ball shot!

I only own one pin (SST) and it's extremely fast for me. Pitch may be slightly high and the flippers have been rebuilt; perhaps this is why. I've had to teach myself everything on this one table and it's really slow going as a result. I can drop catch really well on all 3 flippers. However, the live catch is something I am having an insane time learning. I just don't think the table is set up to make it work to my advantage. If it's messed up, there's a high chance a slingshot will drain it through an outlane. Still attempting to learn to tap pass as well, but it's not easy. Owned the table for five years and still haven't beaten it (with casual play, a few games here and there). I think I need more tables to learn some different techniques.

Sinbad taught me how to dead pass. No cradling with inline flippers.

Flip-A-Card taught me how to nudge.

Flash Gordon taught me how to cry.

X-men made me a better player, you have to nudge like crazy to keep the ball alive. I also have much better aim for those tight shots.

johnny mnemonic taught me to have finesse. so many targets in the game can be missed if your shot is too hard. fly over diverters, jump off ramps, roll over vuks. made me realize that a full power shot is not always appropriate.

the front three drop targets on blackout is where i practiced my response time. they serve it back at about eight million miles an hour. in fact even years later when lining up unknown ramp shots, ill look at the posts, imagine a missed shot, and prepare to act quickly on the chance that i hit them instead of the ramp.

even though i already knew the technique when i first played it, i recommend avatar for learning to slide or bump to avoid going sdtm. my local machine has the ball rolling perfectly stdm upon exiting the bumpers. wanna play the game? youre going to need to learn the slide or bump.

every game with an aux flipper taught me that if there is an aux flipper, whichever ramp or loop it leads to is usually the most lucrative in the game.

I learned my basic techniques on Stern's Avatar. Things like the dead flipper bounce, and backhanding both lock shots. I learned most else of what I currently know from watching YouTube videos and seeing better players play live in front of me.

+1 X-Men and its 3rd flipper, also trying to hit the Ice man ramp. There such a challenge. I love it, it only makes me a better player.

+1 to Xmen. The hardest game I've ever played.

f-14 taught me that flipping the flippers willy nilly doesn't work well.

Addams Family taught me that you can catch/trap balls out of ejects. (I also applied this to Funhouse... although this doesn't work on all machines, which I guess is another thing I learned from both of these machines

Acdc: taught me control and the importance of planning an attack
Avengers: taught me shot accuracy

popeye (my first pin) - learned drop catch by accident when lock shot ball out to right flipper. After that jackbot-shot were much more easier.

Earthshaker and Checkpoint taught me how to shoot a ramp 100 times in a row.

Paragon - Taught me how to tap pass.

AFM - Taught me how to drop catch and loop pass(well, still learning that one....)

TZ and Tron have helped me tremendously with the live catch.

Star Trek - cradle ball on left flipper, hold right flipper up- SHOOT! Hopefully ball goes under upper right flipper back into shooter lane to start a new mission! Very rewarding shot I have never experienced before.

WOZ taught me how to fix a pin.

LOL-STTNG taught me

Lord of the Rings taught me to love. Star Trek: The Next Generation taught me to believe in myself. Twilight Zone taught me patience. Star Trek LE taught me forgiveness.

me too. it's not that it's built badly, it's just there are so many moving parts compared to other non-EM machines. Two rotating cannons, three VUKs, branching subways, and the borg lock shooter ... that's a lot of coils, diverters, motors, actuators, and general machinery. it's just law of averages there's always gonna be something on the cusp of failure, especially when those parts are over 20 years old at this point. i have learned much in the last year!

STTNG taught me how brutal outlanes can be. More nudging done on this machine than probably any other.
IJ mode start hole taught me to find new ways to make shots not just one. Also taught me soft shots.
Flash Gordon taught me I was never any good at pinball to start with.
AFM made me realize I missed my true calling. ( I just know now that I was meant to save the world)

I think every title has taught me something. Some have taught me repairs

Another one: T2 taught me to do tap-pass with WPC. Not perfect but doable and pretty safe when get hold of it. Won't work on all machines, usually easier with games that has leaf-switches on flipperbuttons.

Not sure why but i always been a very good player on CFTBL. It feels like alot diffrent from other WMS games (Sure smaller flippers). However it learned me to take it slow and easy...! If you play to fast on this game you will get bashed (Atleast i do) So it did teach me to slow things down a bit. Sure i often have a problem taking it slow on other games

Not to pin-police, but I believe they are standard size flippers placed slightly further apart on the playfield than a "normal" game.

AC/DC LE by a long shot. Xmen LE is the hardest pin I've ever played & still Learning!? I'm glad a have games like mousin around to play when I just want to mess around.

Doctor Who taught me a great skill: Soldering

BOP - Dead bounce pass and post transfer

Corvette - Flipper combo pushes before ball launch to activate Super Skill Shot

MM - Using multiball to achieve a non-multiball task (destroy castle).

MB/BDK - Stacking modes/multiballs can vastly increase scoring potential

NF - Timing out modes to get to Wizard Mode (Boring but profitable in comp, just watch any PAPA with ST)

CSI - Letting ball drain if skill shot not achieved to have another go (assuming no points scored)

POTC...back handing the ship and left ramp
FGY....dead flipper bounce

Not in my collection, but...

1 - Flash Gordon
2 - Taught me how to not weep when I drained without even getting a flipper on the ball. Also taught me how to tap pass.

You have learned well. You still have the GC on my AFM and #2 on my Tron.

+1

...and I'll add one more.
Tron - staging upper flippers. During LCMB, trap a ball on the lower left and stage the upper left. It makes it way easier to try to complete the combo.

Judging when to not flip on pins with a post between the flippers.

The crappy software in NGG taught me how to hate

Black Hole taught me the Drop Stop. Cannt trap in that game!

6M$M taught me about everything else... as a first game should

All my SYS80 stuff taught me more repair skills...

FH was my first game, so I learned most of my skills there, such as:

bounce pass, post pass, nudging, etc...

JM taught me backhanding skills, as it is really easy to backhand the left ramp over and over.

Wh2O taught me ball trapping from the lost mine kickout

HS taught me patience, as I have had the game since 2006, waiting for the repro PFs