How come? Put a few euros in it and liked it a lot. Didn't get to deep into the rules, but not sure why bad rules couldn't be fixed with an update

Totally with you on that request, based on a comment at a talk by design team ages ago they may have more "approved" songs than are actually on the machine. Hope they will get added!

Is there some sort of correlation between being the #1 player in the world and being a great programmer?

I definitely agree with revising the menu system. Like I know what the stuff in there does because I have machines and take care of some on route. But the average home owner has no clue what most of the options do, and Stern has already cut back on the printed manual that would spell out what everything did. Like add some additional help text and do a general overhaul of how it’s organized. It’s the sorta thing they do well once and they could quickly update all the other games.

I also agree with the adding of more scoreboards. Every various mode, jackpot, etc should have a scoreboard for it. Hell let me know if I hit the slings more than anyone else. Getting your initials in is a great feeling, so increase the ways it can be done. It also encourages people to play stuff they might not otherwise do while they chase an overall high score.

I really like the Are You a God and Escape Isla Nubar mini game modes on GB and JP. Please more of these! Every game should have something like this. They make some incredible wizard modes, but most people have no chance to ever see them.

I’m glad Stern has been rethinking how to do minimal game time to help novices not feel ripped off. Why not come up with some other formats? Like score X points within a minute, and if you do you get a new point goal and another minute of play time. Or just a fuck it, here’s 3-5min of unlimited balls (imagine how this could speed up tournaments. New round every 30 minutes)

Why would “the average home owner” want to deal with any of this bullshit? They wouldn’t. I’ve owned pinball machines for 20 years and for the most part, *i* have almost zero urge to dive into those menus. I use them for diagnostics and, to turn on free play, and maybe turn off the ball save.

Your “average home owner” wants to turn the game on and press start. Maybe they want to turn free play on, which any idiot should be able to figure out.

There’s nothing wrong with the menus. Wouldn’t equal 1 more sale for stern, and would require plenty of time and resources.

Re-arrange the order of options, then. Put the things most home users would want at the top of each section. And STANDARDIZE the MENUS. I've long suggested that Stern have the most-used options float to the top of the list in order of how often they're used. This would customize the menu pretty quickly at home and on routes, and the code would be very easy to write.

Can’t see this as a good thing, unless I can turn it OFF. I know where all the stuff I need to find is, I don’t need it all floating around and changing, that would suck.
I think it is fine as-is, I am familiar with it and JJP menus are almost too much and confusing with so much BS. And even the manual is pretty much worthless in the JJP menu, if you power the game off when working.

Ah yes, the experienced software engineer chiming in with valuable insight

Oh I guess a total unnecessary revision of the menu system could be tossed off in a couple hours.

Every expert on pinside knows that!

Yes. He is actually a top notch programmer as well.

If he programms pinball this IS the correlation.

Helps to know what you're doing in every (what, why, how) regard.

Makes sense!

I’d just like to point out “coders” does not need an apostrophe.

I’m afraid that this dereliction of proper grade school grammar will keep Stern from taking this biting satire thread seriously, and we will never get that Big buck Hunter update.

He's reiterating the comments I made on the first page. I am an experienced software engineer. Stern won't change these menus until they absolutely HAVE to, because Gary understands the cost/benefit of doing it (lots of cost, no benefit), and until some sort of hardware reason why the menus become incompatible shows itself and forces the change, they will remain the same.