Works for Jai alai. Lol

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Would it help if we labeled them with letters of the alphabet? Works well for video gamers.

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The thing is, even if outside shots can, or even tend to, suffer on widebodies, as Gomez says, that doesn't mean you can't use the additional real estate to position an upper flipper, some pop bumpers, a slingshot, rollover lanes, or something that a creative designer comes up with.

I could imagine a widebody layout with more room in the upper area of the playfield to allow for space for an extra upper flipper shot or 2. Or an area on the lower part of the playfield where you can skillfully nudge the ball back into play or through a beneficial rollover lane or something like that. The problem with Gomez's perspective seems to really focus on fan layouts, which is exactly what I would love to NOT see in a widebody.

The odds that Stern starts making widebody games anytime soon seems extremely low. When you add a new size playfield, you need a new size cabinet and glass, and shelves and assembly stations for those items need to be larger, also. The boxes the games are shipped in would change as well. You add a whole new level of complexity that there is no justification for. They can't even keep up with the current demand so why would they risk making a fundamental change to their games and related factory equipment? If they had spare factory space and labor, maybe, but that's obviously not the case right now.

I agree with the above. It’s like a solution gone looking for a problem. K.I.S.S.

I wonder if 50 degrees is a bit of a design sweet spot and that is why it has stayed that way. I would think as you increase the stroke of the flipper bat, that the centrifugal force on ball as the bat accelerates through the arc causes it to leave the flipper bat early before the end of stroke. I would also think that as you give it an extra 10 degrees, you would have to angle your in lanes as well, which means as a ball comes from the in lanes it's going to hit the flipper with more speed making shots a little more wild.

They're not face buttons, so lettering isn't going to help since you can't SEE the labels as they're on the side of the cab. It's not an issue of knowing what they are, it's moving to another button to flip a different flipper or flip differently. It's just inefficient and dumb.

I honestly don't think any additional stroke range is needed. The best designed widebodies are fine for making the designed shots and feeling good. The others are varying levels of good to meh. Indy would have sucked as a narrow body, ditto jjPotC and TZ.

OK so I have been following this thread for a while...

What is everyone's final guesses on the next pin? I think it will be Jaws.

Jaws, BTTF, Venom, Bond seem to be the consensus. Think it will be one of those or something else?

Jaws might have a cult following for the movies (and shark week is a thing) but BTTF has the mass appeal and the merchandising. Haven’t seen many Jaws toys that I can think of.

I want BTTF but my money is on Bond. They would’ve capitalized on the Shark Week buzz if they were launching a Jaws pin.

That Toad would of disappeared if I went there.

Are we taking a poll or gentleman's (sorry, gentleperson's) bet? I'll go with Bond.

I don’t know how this game had any success then...

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The king and original for complex arcade game controls:

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Put those buttons on each side of the cabinet and see what kind of success it has. Video games are not pinball and vice versa. Two separate flipper controls on each side of the cab is a bad design. No one's ready to follow Multimorphic off that cliff.

We’d all agree that nudging and shaking the cabinet is another form of player input and there are no specific control locations for that. Adding a second button (such as for a magnet grab) is already common. Separate flipper control is not a stretch.

Magnet grab is not common, which also means "often." Magnet grab buttons on pins are RARE. It has been done, but as a separate function, it makes TOTAL sense to have its own button.

But how is splitting flippers onto multiple buttons on each side of the cabinet better? It's not. Munsters Prem/LE kind of got it ok in that the second buttons were for the completely separate lower pf so you could play the upper and lower PF independently, but trying to shoehorn that idea into the same playfield plane is a waste of time. Stupid, clunky and BOM that could be used for something actually useful or interesting to the game.

API’s Oktoberfest does exactly that for their one handed beer drinking mode.

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Novelty mode, and you're still controlling two flippers with two buttons (there are amputees that use setups like this with adapters). It hasn't split >2 flippers to multiple buttons on each side of the cab. It's bad design and costs more to build, which is why it hasn't caught on and never will.

Stern has its finger on the pulse and knows what people want, upcoming sequel Orbitor 2

With Multimorphic, it’s just a menu adjustment if you want to just use one flipper button. But most agree the the two buttons work really well once you get used to it. There’s no problem there.

Some people lack vision or are stuck in their ways. I understand.

How many times has one of your balls hit the underside of a lifted 3rd flipper because you forgot to let go of your button fast enough on a lower flipper shot to let it pass? Two flippers simultaneously firing on one control button has its drawbacks. Separate control opens up more possibilities. On multiball especially I would prefer to have independent controls.

I want a Jack Danger pin. A lot of mirrors and good times such a strapping young man!

Sleestaks!

I'm all for innovation. This isn't it. It's a kludge.

Lots of "innovations" that are really just novelties die. Banana flippers. Remember those?

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Almost never. You're inventing problem frequency for your bad solution crusade to fix. The inconvenience of the multi-button per side to control other flippers solution is FAR worse than the rare chance of what you describe.

And let's flip that and use the instance of the one where you DO want to do that to make a designed shot, like GnR. So I have to splay my fingers to another button and hold that to raise a flipper while then tapping another flipper button with the same hand to activate the lower flipper and make that backhand ricochet shot? How is that BETTER than pressing and holding one flipper button? No thanks.

Sleestaks indeed

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GTFO that weather Pylon!

Now there's a pin that could be fun,, Rocky Horror

I remember not too many years ago, many were convinced that it was the next pin from Spooky. Then crickets. I think the music would be awesome and the game could be a lot of fun!

Definitely a good Spooky pin theme

I’ve been saying Rocky Horror on pinside for years. I’d give them a deposit now if they said it was In The future!
The music, the campiness and the characters could make some hilarious pinball. I can’t imagine that theme was never used especially in the 70’s.
And just the lips on the back glass. Nothing else!

I remember seeing for the first time in 1976, was 16 yrs old. College was showing it and didn't i.d. anyone. The audience participation was crazy!. I had no idea at the time, we were still a small redneck town , most of the students were from bigger cities so know all the props to bring.

Ha, I remember when I was around 15-16, we got thrown out of the theater. They had a big sign outside, no water pistols. Hell, when had big dish washing liquid bottles full of water. No way we were backing down. When the rain scene started we were just hosing people down. When we knew they were on to us, we slid the bottles ten rows under the seats. Too late! We got tossed out. LOL

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The whole backbox needs to be just the lips and the rocky horror logo at the top with a black background only. Then as you start playing, the lips start moving and you realize it's a screen. Also, attract mode could be hilarious with "static" lips that suddenly call to you or catcall or have a tongue dart out and lick them.

As a teen, for a while we went sometimes twice a weekend. We made little slings out of plastic bags with the sides cut down the seams and filled them with flour, then stocked a bag with like 10 of them. When the ship blasts off at the end and the screen filled with smoke, we had passed the slings out to our row and if you spin and launch them so the apex is near the ceiling where gravity causes them to release, a row of those makes the theatre "smoke" too. It was a very effective synergy with the screen, and people started bringing their own in successive weeks, which was even more awesome, until some dumbasses decided to use talcum powder instead. Made the air instantly unbreathable. That was the end of that chapter of my misspent youth.

Two people i know went to a xxx movie theater and brought water pistols filled with cooking oil.only two people were amused.

Who went with you?

People have claimed to like the two flipper buttons after getting used to them. I had a couple games on Weird Al at a show and would have prefered a single button, but didn't have enough time on the game to see what shots were getting blocked. Since the P3 has player profiles, it would be great if you could set the default to a single button for casual players then adjust it to split button as per player profile.

On Alien, the upper flipper blocking the U-ramp is annoying. The upper right flipper blocking the slot machine in TZ is an issue too. Most games have staged upper flippers but that's a pretty advanced skill.

Edit: You can set flipper configuration per player profile!

Inflation is a factor as well as the banning auction. Companies like orange county pinball and the pinball company made the used hobby unaffordable. Fuel was $2 to $3 dollars cheaper 2 years ago. Wood is ridiculous high. Labor had to go up too. JJPs machines uses quality materials. Standard machine weights 325lbs. 15k is a ce price 12 for le. CEs are not made for route. Used 20 plus years old williams/bally is not worth on the plus side of 8k.

I would love to see a Timeshock machine .
I saw some guys were trying to make it a while ago .
Spent hours playing this with mates back in the day .
The best VP pin I've played .

OK, it’s August. Where is the announcement?

The new game isn't scheduled to go on the line for potentially another week or so, so I'd guess... later.

Come on just announce South Park already!

don't worry they will announce it when I'm busy and can't get back to my computer.

They technically have 30 more days.

Same. Except I'll be sleeping while all the preorders fill up. I wake up to the Price-Is-Right losing horn every time.

Who would of thought the next title was The Punisher