shorty's

[deathsave]

as of last night:

MM - peaks and valleys from playfield wear are really screwing with the trajectory of the ball when it's not moving fast. breaking rubber on the right sling is pushing into the inlane enough to nullify most saves. ball likes to get stuck behind the right troll. habitrail feeding the left inlane is bent enough to dump the ball into the outlane a lot of the time, other times it ricochets out to the playfield.

NBA - spinny disc is broken. left inlane switch doesn't register, good luck building that bonus.

TAF - was turned off. last time i was there vault shots were registering as graveyard shots, making multiballs pretty limp. things flips were broken too but who cares?

STTNG - flippers are all a bit weak. upper ramp is a REALLY late shot, possible but risky. too early and it dead ends, bounces and drains down the left. launcher is weak, makes the lock about 1/2 the time. sling flashers from the adjacent TDK will fucking blind you if someone's playing it.

TOTAN - left orbit likes to rattle out, no matter how clean the shot. spring in the plunger is too strong, causing airballs if you aim for the 2nd or 3rd hole. otherwise it plays great if you bring a pair of sunglasses for those LED's.

[Dropshot]

I know it's a little ways off but what is your overall feelings of what the conditions of the machines will be for the Nov. tourney?

[deathsave]

they're definitely not tournament-quality right now, but in years past they've put a lot of work into each game in the weeks leading up to the event. the owner was good about fixing a long list of annoyances that i sent including feedback from cayle, myself, and a few others.

[deathsave]

TAF plays fine now, but the vault plastic isn't quite even with the playfield. results in tricky shots and the occasional ball getting hung up on the edge of it.

didn't play anything else because it's been warm and i don't like swamp ass.

[Maka]

Monster Bash -- "I can barely see the ball!" I've heard a lot of people complain about this lately. Seems like the lame LEDs in the slingshots are to blame? Gotta switch those back to incandescent, or just add more overhead lighting... Frankenstein's keyboard is tough to collect but not impossible.

Speakeasy -- haha. Leans hard to the right. Is it really because of the wonky plastic playfield?

[Dropshot]

I was just talking to Mahaffey the other day and he is trying a new thing where he disables the phantom flip and in it's place ( blue lights) puts in GI lights and it seems to make the ball a lot more visible o the lower half of the playfield.

[deathsave]

here's what's been shopped so far:

STTNG: it was playing very well and very fast a couple of days ago, now it's almost back to the usual - launcher isn't strong enough to hit the lock (cayle suspects they're just replacing coil sleeves on a problematic plunger), upper flipper might as well not exist due to dead ends on the left ramp, random dead-ends on the right ramp. it also got the LED treatment which looks great for some of the GI but is irritating in other places. playable but disappointing for "tournament shape."

IJ4: plays well. watch out for a lean to the left and glare from a green overhead light bulb right over the flippers. ugh.

MB: fast with strong flippers. LED's make it impossible to tell where the ball is once it really gets moving though. these will be quick tourney games.

TOTAN: sometimes the bottom pop bumper registers a hit but doesn't pop, sometimes it's totally dead. really irritating for rocs mode, harem rape, etc. looks like a new bazaar scoop was poorly welded on, it's a REALLY tight shot now, almost impossible from the left due to the angle. otherwise it plays well. there's an eerie blue light shining on this table from above that makes it look really cool...unless you're trying to play it.

i don't expect the older games (speakeasy, fathom, evel knievel, surf champ) will be shopped at all. they all play OK at the moment. flippers are a bit weak on fathom but that means tap pass mania! updates on RFM, CP, 24, TAF, FGY, TDK, NBA and MM to follow.

[caylegeorge]

Tap pass will crush all who enter Fathom and EK!

[fathom22]

All they need to do on the Fathom is change the flipper coils stops from the limp noodle-soggy-ass stops that are on there now to the normal brass insulated stops. Not quite sure why many of the Fathoms, Medusa's and some other 1981 Bally pins got the crappy non-insulated flipper coil stops but they are quite annoying!

MWM

[deathsave]

mentioned this. fathom is not getting a proper tune-up until january 1 for reasons i will get into if you ask me. heeheeheehee.

[deathsave]

p.s. i was hitting the mahaffey pass with remarkable consistency tonight.

[deathsave]

they swapped the old TAF with another one. this one plays beautifully. no more gold rom, actually it's a really early rev that makes a few things more exploitable. gc'd it with 700m or so just to bump nycole out of the top spot and then drained my four EB's to go hang out with a buddy from out of town. i will return this weekend to give it a proper rogering.

[deathsave]

TAF diverter is catching the ball and doesn't really want to let go. ball search won't knock it loose and physical remediation = one or two tilt warnings. staff has known since friday.

[Maka]

Hump it.

[deathsave]

and then go play some pinball.

[PatC]

I stopped by Shorty's this weekend for the first time in a long time...

Pro: I forgot how much room there was between each machine, that was really nice. After playing at the "sorry I touched your hand again, again, again" Standard this week, it was nice to be able to move around a little while I played.

Con: This means that people feel free to stick their ass on the machine you're playing while their friend plays the next machine over.

We went in at 4pm on a Saturday, and I thought it'd be dead, but instead it was packed full of frat-boy types and their really drunk girlfriends. The back room was full, but only like 2 people were actually playing pinball. It was weird.

[deathsave]

i'm pretty sure that a girl was doing this on purpose a few years ago to people who were playing matches with her boyfriend. tim smith, multiple drunkest competitor award winner at the annual tourney, advocates the "ass on hand, fist in face" rule.

the shitty thing about 2nd avenue is that it's adjacent to 1st avenue, where those types congregate when they cross lake washington. some spillover is inevitable.

[deathsave]

those LED's on TDK are nightmarish. enough to ruin your game on STTNG or family guy when someone walks up and starts playing. lots of regulars try the coaster trick, cayle uses business cards.

big buck is in as of a few days ago. it replaced 24. plays like a big buck.

[Maka]

Iron Man is wobbly.

[deathsave]

after giving out at least a thousand free games with a weak saucer kickout, EK is finally gone. centaur is in!