Odd...especially since the more active X-Men thread is number 4 with only 18,000 views. Maybe it counts every time someone clicks to a new page on the the thread and we have a bunch of sick people reading through this thread page by page. Let's see 68000 views divided by 150 pages equals 450 or so people reading through every page of this thread in the last week.

--Luke

Cool!

--Luke

This is exactly how I feel.

--Luke

My hardest hero mode is Ice Man. No problems starting Professor X, or any of the others, but I just can't hit that darn Ice Man ramp.

--Luke

LOL...that sounds a lot like me. The only difference is that I have a pro, so I can't blame it on the moving ramp!

--Luke

I have noticed Rogue hits not registering on a rare occasion. It's rare enough, though, that I haven't been able to narrow down any pattern to when it might be happening.

--Luke

Interesting. I wonder if the Rogue switch is debounced differently in the code.

--Luke

Just beat Danger on v1.51. Very cool. Next up, I go for Dark Phoenix.

--Luke

You know...I don't remember. I'll have to check when I have a chance.

--Luke

Finally took a look...it was 180 million or so for that game. I got to Danger Room again last night but didn't beat her. I did, however, beat Magneto and three of the villains. Score was 196 million. I'm slowly making progress towards Dark Phoenix. Who all has gotten to Dark Phoenix on the latest code?

--Luke

Man...so close! I think X-Men, more than any other game, makes me tense up when I have a shot I really need to make. On my 196 million game I posted above, I finished all of the X-Men on ball one except for Beast. Beast is usually the easiest shot for me (other than Wolverine, obviously). I bricked shot after shot trying to get Beast and lost ball 2 and an extra ball before I finally finished Beast on ball 3.

--Luke

Keep at it...DR is very cool.

--Luke

Awesome! Glad it's working...enjoy!

--Luke

I prefer 1.51. It has some tweaks to Dark Phoenix as well as some other miscellaneous fixes. The downside to 1.51 (according to RCade's excellent research) is that after you get Danger Room and Dark Phoenix, the hero and villain inserts don't reset. That means you can't really go around and try to get the wizard modes again. For me, though, I'm not too worried about that. How often are you going to get to both Danger Room and Dark Phoenix in one game?

--Luke

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that the hero lights reset after just getting to Danger Room in either 1.5 or 1.51.

The difference between the two codes is that in 1.5 there was an unfinished wizard multiball mode that would start after Danger Room and Dark Phoenix. After that wizard multiball, I believe the hero and villain lights would reset. That wizard multiball was taken out of 1.51 and thus the lights don't ever reset.

--Luke

Congrats man!

I can confirm that this is the case in 1.51. It's actually a good strategy to beat Xavier if you have a hard time hitting the Xavier shot (you only have to hit him once to start his mode AND reveal the mutant when a villian is running).

--Luke

All heroes do damage, but the started and completed ones do more. The ones you haven't even started only do a little.

--Luke

I haven't seriously collected comics in a long time, but lately I, too, have been reading the Omnibus books. I think they're well put together and I much prefer reading actual books to trying to read them on a tablet or computer.

Here's a question I have...does anyone know where I can get the X-Men Age of Apocalypse Omnibus at a reasonable price? It's out of print and going for like $180 on ebay and Amazon. That's too pricey for me.

--Luke

What size is the screen on your tablet? I tried reading them on my tablet, but I have a 7" tablet and it was hard to read. I think a bigger one would make a difference.

--Luke

Interesting...thanks for the info. I'll have to check it out.

--Luke

Nope...there isn't! I love that skill shot...the animation always surprises me because I get it so infrequently.

Mine does this too.

--Luke

I ended up getting the "Complete Age of Apolcalypse Epic" trades volumes 1-4 instead. I would have liked the omnibus but not at that price and I was too impatient to wait for a reprint.

Interestingly enough, The volume 1 that I got came with a volume 1 cover, but the pages inside were the volume 2 issues. Weird how that could have happened. So I still need to get a volume 1.

--Luke

As far as I know, Danger Room and Dark Phoenix are done. I've been to DR a half dozen times but not to DP yet. To get to DR, completing all the heroes lights DR at the scoop. Then just hit the scoop.

DR is awesome. There is a definite objective that is not easy to finish. I won't ruin it for you, but I have completed it once. Animations, and sounds, are fantastic! Also, plenty of points to be had.

--Luke

I think you just have to defeat the villains to get DP, and not Magneto or DR...but I'm not sure.

I don't worry about this too much. Since I haven't even made it to DP yet, I don't think there will be very many games where I actually get to both.

--Luke

Just curious...has anyone made it to Dark Phoenix?

--Luke

That's as far as I've made it, too. Five of seven completed, one flashing. I find myself going for the villains more these days and neglecting the heroes, just to try to get there.

--Luke

Sweet! I have my Pro set up similar (3 ball, liberal inlanes, factory settings) and I got close this weekend. All villains completed except Sentinels (one of the easiest, I find). And I had Deadpool ready. And then I drained.

Oh well...I'm so close I can taste it! Seems like it would be easier if I could ever earn that Nightcrawler extra ball.

--Luke

Made it to Dark Phoenix for the first time this afternoon. Very cool wizard mode...only made it about halfway to the jackpot, though. Final score of around 326,000,000. In my opinion, Danger Room and Dark Phoenix are two of the best wizard modes yet.

--Luke

Sweet! Good job!

--Luke

I think there's a setting for number of replay levels or something like that. Yours is probably set at one. Increase it to two or three and you should be good to go.

--Luke

EDIT: Oops...Marcus (Xerico) beat me to it.

Great advice! Also...

Focus on lighting Villain at the scoop and try to have a villain running as much as possible. Two strategies for this (I do both):

1) Make sure you light the Launch lanes as many times as possible. Every time a ball comes down a ramp return, concentrate on lining up the Launch lights so that you can collect one of them.

2) Shoot for the Brotherhood and Hellfire clubs, but don't start actually these modes until you've completed the other villains. Once you qualify BH and HFC, it only takes one shot to the respective targets to relight the villain light (as long as you don't start that MB). This is the quickest way to relight the villain light.

Also, try to take a villain into Weapon X MB or Magneto MB. This can be just as useful for beating them as Deadpool (almost, anyway).

--Luke

My ranking without Deadpool:

Hardest:

Shadow King is the hardest for me. Even with Deadpool, you still have to make the final shot to Xavier yourself (Deadpool doesn't make final shots). Xavier is the hardest shot on the board for me.

Omega Red. Not as hard as Shadow King, but can be tough. Much easier with Deadpool.

Middle of the road:

Juggernaut. I usually fight Jugs without Deadpool, but only because he is easy right up to that last shot to Xavier.

Hellfire Club. Definite Deadpool Candidate, but can be done without.

Brotherhood. Another Deadpool Candidate, but also can be done without.

Easiest:

Sentinels. Not very hard because you can shoot any shot. I like to start them with Magneto. I rarely waste a Deadpool on them.

Sabertooth. Shoot a few combos and he's done. Don't really need Deadpool, but sometimes I'll start him with Weapon X.

--Luke

That depends on the version of the code you're running. I'm pretty sure that you only have to beat the X-Men on the latest code and not Magneto.

--Luke

I'm positive that I have made it to Danger Room without beating Magneto on 1.51 code. Do you have hero stacking on or off? I think hero stacking affects the Danger Room qualifier. I have it off.

--Luke

Phew...that makes me feel better. I was starting to doubt my sanity.

If I recall correctly, here is how you qualify Danger Room:

Hero stacking off (default): Complete all heroes
Hero stacking on: Start all heroes (don't have to complete) and beat Magneto SJP

--Luke

I suspect the difference is that I have a pro. Wolverine on my pro is moved over so the Beast shot is easier but the Xavier shot is harder. Beast is a piece of cake on my machine. The only one that I have a really hard time with is Xavier.

I'm not sure I have any advice on Storm/Rogue. They're easier to set up with Cyclops than with Beast because the ball comes around a lot faster from a good Beast shot. Not overly hard on my machine, but they did take some practice for sure.

--Luke

Ahh...interesting. Makes sense.

--Luke

This also works on the Pro.

--Luke

Ask and you shall receive...Xavier mode shots. I put this together last year with help from others on this thread.

--Luke

XavierModeTable4.JPG

Right. And score more points per hit.

--Luke

Pretty easy when it's set on 10 ball...

--Luke

That's quite impressive! That brings up a question for me...what games do you consider to be hard?

--Luke

Great job! Not an easy task...

Do you mean 50 million and 100 million?

--Luke

Yeah...the Magneto light shines out the holes (rivets?) in his neck area.

--Luke

5 balls???? I thought you said you had your game on factory settings!

--Luke

LOL...I'm just giving you a hard time. Actually, even on 5 ball it's not easy to get to Dark Phoenix. So I still think you're good.

--Luke

I did quite a bit of work on the doc this morning, mostly just fleshing things out. One thing that I revised was the info about starting Danger Room...it wasn't quite right. Also, I put in some red bold text where I think there still needs to be more info.

Do you want to put names at the top for people that contributed?

--Luke

Also, Rcade has done all this work already in very high detail. With his permission, maybe we should just compile his notes into a rules document.

--Luke

Changing the subject back about 6 months...It's been a while, I think, since anyone has worked on the X-Men rulesheet. Can we go ahead and submit it to PAPA?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RXQg7NEYahyzLrrT-E3WXAmhKNtT-eVfqc5GEWZdHL0

--Luke