Raven

Thought to myself, how bad could it really be? I bought a project that was a nightmare to repair. When it was fixed, the layout isn’t bad, but the rules are horrible.

Meteor has to be set up right - it’s literally all or nothing. Once you do that it’s a great game.

Don’t sugar coat it..... tell us how you really feel.

Ah, Middle Earth. Beautiful game. Interesting layout. Lots of things to shoot for, and none of it means anything. Worthless.

Space Riders was another one I regretted buying. A total bore fest.

Can’t say you’re wrong. Xenon is a lot of flash with not much substance. Seriously, only 3 shots on the game and one of them (the drops) I only shoot when lit for extra ball.

Five years ago, I pulled out the project game I had in storage for several years and as I was doing the playfield swap I wondered if I would still like it.

I soon realized my fears were true. So I modified the pops, the lighting (a lot), the backglass, the apron, and the sounds. It’s a lot of fun to play now. Some new rules would make it a fantastic game.

I have lots of ideas for new rules.

One thing I thought would be good is 3-ball multi. Lock one in tube, get 3 more X’s and lock one in top saucer. First points on plunge starts 3-ball. It already has the extra trough switch for this.

- 2x and 3x playfield during multi is good
- pop bumpers score 1000 instead of 100 (stupid rule)
- spinner scores 100 instead of 10 (another stupid rule, although 100 isn’t much better)
- the 3 arrows increase pops by 1000 for rest of game instead of spotting a bonus letter (another dumb rule, who shoots the arrows?)
- arrows could also increase mota wheel instead of automatically increasing with tube shot
- incorporate jackpots and hurry ups

Wait......this is not the Xenon thread LOL

Fan layout, super easy to beat. Played it on location one day and got my fill. Glad I never owned one.

I have yet to put time in on Judge Dredd, but I agree with you on the other two.

Raven was the game I shouldn't have bought. I bought a semi-working project. I assumed getting it working wouldn't be a problem, and even though I read many reviews, I thought, "How bad could it really be?"

Well, it was a bitch to haul downstairs and even more of a bitch to repair. It had more problems than I thought, uncommon problems that I spent a lot of time troubleshooting, plus a couple hundred bucks in parts.

Once I got it working, THAT'S when I found out how bad it was. The gameplay was fun, but the rules were awful.....AWFUL! The game needs multiball, badly. And the ramp, it’s a narrow shot that you have to make squarely or the ball won't make it all the way up and around. Once you've hit the required targets to lower it and you make the shot you get, what, a 50% chance at a bonus multiplier? Are you kidding me?

And trying to sell it? Nobody wanted it at a reasonable working-game price. I ended up taking a loss and selling it slightly above project-game price.