Topic: Old Fashioned Pinball Rivalry

[Betazep]

So is there any regulation on the tilts of pinball machines?  Does the tilt affect that much?  (like would you generally do better on lower tilt versus higher?)

[hans]

Lower tilt will enable more saves with fewer tilt warnings and allow you to play longer. There's no regulation other than simply making it tighter or looser by adjusting the plumb bob. In the casual scene tilts are often fairly loose since it's more fun for non-skilled players, but in competition it's generally tightened up so a decent bump will give at least one, probably two warnings. So you usually get "one good move" and then you have to be careful. Some games are bonus heavy too so tilting out is way more of a punishment and you'll see players make moves early in the game when the bonus hasn't built up yet but not later unless it's more of a rage tilt.

Tilts on modern games can make the games end much quicker and is usually the first thing you adjust for competition. Removing posts on the sides and making the game steeper for faster play are other typical tweaks.

[Betazep]

Bah... I shouldn't have said "tilt" as it is a thing.  I meant the slant of the game (steeper).  Like putting the front feet low and the back feet high.  I was thinking that a place would do that so people drop more money hehe.

[hans]

Ah, stupid English.

Yes. The slope of the game is important. There's a bubble level in the shooter lane that tells you how steep the game is set to. I think right in the middle is "stock" at about 6.5 degrees for modern games.

Making it steep will make the game feel faster but isn't as much of a tweak as other things like outlane posts or sling posts. It can make ramps harder to make though which are usually designed to drain down the middle if you don't make them. So...

[hans]

Regarding nudging. There's a player making some in-depth videos now and working on the nudging one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zno0Fcmxts

[hans]

Note, the move you see him make bringing the ball back from below the flippers (0:20 - 0:25) is not a legal move in competitive pinball. It's called a death save.

[Mike]

Note, the move you see him make bringing the ball back from below the flippers (0:20 - 0:25) is not a legal move in competitive pinball. It's called a death save.

Any particular reason for that?

[ober]

That's kind of fascinating!

[hans]

Note, the move you see him make bringing the ball back from below the flippers (0:20 - 0:25) is not a legal move in competitive pinball. It's called a death save.

Any particular reason for that?

It can be hard on the machine since it's generally a pretty harsh move left and right in order to execute it. Although there are people that think it should be fair game and the tilt should be set to punish you for attempting it. There's another move called a bang-back, where you give a hard hit to the front of the machine with the lower part of your hand to bump the ball back into play when it goes down the left side. That one is not allowed  either since you can seriously injure your wrist doing it and thus it's not encouraged to practice.

[hans]

That's kind of fascinating!

I know lots of people think pinball is mostly luck, but once you learn some of the techniques there really is quite a bit of skill involved and playing is much more enjoyable since your game isn't over 10sec after you started. These kinds of videos are massively responsible for the large competitive scene now since I think. I sucked before watching a lot of the early PAPA videos when they started to stream tournaments.