"handful of points from grand champ score"

I once had a friend of mine comment that "Nothing seems to piss you off more than having one of your best games."

It's probably true.

I recently experienced "Dog barfs on feet while having a particularly good ball 3 on AFM," so I think that should be an option.

family bugging you.

A heart attack is worse

During multiball, all three balls collide in the middle of the playfield just above the flippers and all 3 go straight down the middle.
It’s rare but it’s horrible.

For me, having an absolutely massive first ball then subsequently draining the next two almost instantly.

You completely forgot the "Put it in a 4-player game and just walk away on ball 1 for player 2".

-Hans

One shot away from launching Atlantis wizard mode on Ripley's. Drain after 1st attempt trying to make scoop.

Uff, brutal!

Funny you mention The Hobbit...

1st time ever playing a demo Hobbit at LAX, on ball 3 and doing really well on the early code, shot the left ramp and somehow the ball derails off that left-side arrow diverter into the left outlane. Game over

2nd time playing at Expo in Chicago shortly after release, again doing very well, past the first wiz mode and over a million, still have a ball to go. Shot one of the pop-up critters, ball jammed in its face as it went halfway down and got stuck. Game over. No amount of shoving or ballsearches would resolve the situation, game just sat there.

3rd time playing, in a Pinburgh round where I desperately need points. In last place on ball 3 but ready to start multiball, shot the right ramp to setup left ramp MB start shot and the ball perfectly moonwalks out of the ramp exit into the right outlane. Game over.

Fuck that game.

Whirlwind has some particularly brutal moments, but I can't decide whether draining while Mega Door is lit or failing to get control right after collecting it and celebrating feels worse..

My Sure Shot always seems to leave the 4 or 5 for last.. Collecting one with an outlane on your last ball and watching it drain out while Special is lit is maddening.

As bad as Hobbit was, this is worse:

Trent stops by back in the day and is completely blowing up my AFM. Finishes RTU with 60B, beating my old GC by a few billion and still has a ball left.

One of the balls got stuck on the saucer barrier seam during post-RTU balldrain and causes a ballsearch, he shakes it free and things seem OK. They're not. That ballsearch apparently triggers a bug where the game no longer responds to any ball in any hole. Balls won't kick out of SOL. Worse, we cannot end the game because it's ignoring balls in the trough. Cannot continue playing; cannot end game and enter initials.

We eventually powercycled and the game worked fine afterward, so wasn't an opto issue.

A handful of months ago I had Encore lit at the Jukebox on AC/DC. Just had to hit the right orbit to start it. I did get three tries, but was unable to make the shot to start that wizard mode. I had been there once before, but it had been a couple years. Really sucked

Holding start and the left button.

BSD...beginning of mist multi ball when you hit the mist ball while moving from right to left and the magnetic ball shoots into coffin lock while your playing ball gets taken by the magnet to the left side hold and game ends. Major Bummer...but a good time to pound a beer to the Carpathian mountains.

Have a high score on my past ball and a pop bumper locks on. Then the Pascal board ends the game to stop the coil burning out...

Definitely either with an extra ball lit, or starting a wizard mode and/or another mode that you know will make a big difference in your score. Especially in league or any other competition. The entire match came down to you crushing the post trying to make the shot to start the mode, and the rebound's in the outlane before you can process that you missed. A lot of work and a series of shot-making, shot.

your having a great game and a gate falls off or simple playfield part falls off and you need to pull the glass

Steps away from the wizard mode always gets me.

As to HOW it drains, if a ball jumps a flipper, that is one I will always get actually mad at.

This is true. However, the Pinball Gods have given you the chance to finish the game with the glass off and they cannot interfere if you happen to save/nudge/divert the ball with your hand during game play.

The Gods take away, the Gods giveth...

I already saw the video of the worst way to end your game...

Dude played LOTR for like an hour. Got ONE shot away from starting Valinor Multiball. Hit bad shot & drained right down the middle. Game over.

It was the worst scream of agony I had ever heard.

I'll be damned if I could find it on YouTube now.

1) Airball over slings/inlanes/flippers.

2) When you think you hit a ramp shot in a fast game (i.e. right ramp in Stern TMNT), your eyes go up the ramp... but you hit a post and it rifled in the outlane and you hear it in the trough before you even have looked back down.

Alien Invasion on Simpsons getting two balls in a scoop. Having the game doing a ball search and then ending your final ball and game (during a multiball). Then reading on a forum, that new code allows you to press start button to clear the scoops and continuing to try to get one ball in each . . .

I was playing my Xenon and by ball #2 I was already on my 3rd multiball. Power failure. Game over. Plus I was stuck in my basement without any lights. Sucked.

The rectifier board on fire?

This would be bad... you're already beating your highest score before the last ball... which proceeds to get stuck someplace so you need to slide the glass down and put the ball back in the shooter. You still beat your best but it will have an asterisk next to it in your record book.

Anything out of my control is the most frustrating, so errors, stuck balls, something breaking. Like in poker, if it's my fault, I can live with it.

Yep that's the one! Forgot it was a flipper fumble. Even worse.

#1 - this is the absolute worst.

A great game on MB comes to mind, it was one of the few times I had a chance at Monsters of Rock.

One of the two top spheres by Igor came a part and the half circle was working its way down the playfield and was heading between the flippers. I had to stop the game pull down the glass and retrieve it. I lost the ball on that and never recovered.

I used crazy glue to prevent it from happening again.

Gambling on a fart and losing.

Best of a bad situation

On JP2... leaving extra ball lit, Chaos multiball lit AND a T-rex mode available, draining the ball and then hearing "Shoot the left ramp!"

All of these are what make pinball so fun.

Well not when shit breaks or your dog is puking on you lol, but the "I only needed one more shot" drains, and the ball doing weird stuff.

That valinor vid is great

Ooof that LOTR video lol. Agree with the bricking the scoop shot for a wizard mode and draining that’s been mentioned a few times. Just sold my TZ today and wanted to get LITZ one more time the other night and was one shot from starting it and I biffed it. Fuuuuuuck!!

YES, YES , YES, This close to utopia and " I need you right away , can you come up here RIGHT NOW.

Spiderman (about a year after Stern released it).... One shot away from super hero... Best game I had ever had.... Spinner was worth (in my mind) millions of points.. Refrigerator compressor in my friends garage blows the breaker.... All gone. Darkness...... One even one damn initial in the high scores!!!

Tilt while in a multiball. Talk about blue balling. All you can do is watch and hear all your balls bounce off your flippers/slings and drain.

...get to Sea of Simulation in TRON with all modes solid only light cycle blinking...and have the ball spit out of the scoop SDTM (happened to me 2 days ago)...

I hate it when there is a bug in the code and the game shuts down. I've only experienced it once, but it is such a sinking feeling, especially because I had a good game going. Pinball machines always break on me when I'm having a good game.

The worst way I can imagine is if a car hits your house and tilts your Rick and Morty when you had 40 megaseeds, screwing you out of a bonus equal to twice what you earned on a killer ball 3!

When your naggin wife needs to “talk” all of a sudden . There goes my game in the shitter .

having an awesome game, really in the zone, everything is lit, multiball started...

fuse blows

Never played Alien Star... is the left saucer lane supposed to just drop the ball on the top sling post every time like that? Right about when that game was made I went to see one for sale in a guy's garage, probably $1000 or something, he'd just won it on a game show but I didn't have that kind of dough back then.