Green Dragon

[Slingshot]

Arabian Nights "Harem multiball" isn't working.

[ROM]

Maybe you just don't have the goods. Harems are a demanding bunch.

[DDT]

Look @ Rom- u - lon waking up early and crackin out a post!

[ROM]

Actually I woke up in a cold sweat and shot up out of bed, and then yelled out, "I need to check the message board RIGHT NOW!"

And then I made the perfect post, and so was able to go back to sleep.

[bounceback]

well, i did have 1 iron city and play 5 games of star wars without tilting. i suppose i could've been drunk AND broken it. i noticed a couple CFF scores up so i know it must've been working for someone. i know that only a couple days before the yellow target in front of the death star was working with no problems. maybe it's fixed itself by now. i couldn't tell if it was leaning right, or if the ball just has a tendency to spin weirdly on the decals on the lower playfield-- up top it didn't seem floaty and weird, but down by the flippers it's like you never know exactly what's going to happen. i'll have to give it another look today.

[revtest]

So i played at green dragon today and all I played was TOTAN it seems to be fixed up nice in that all seems working well (it still takes some shit bounces though). The scores were reset so I tried to run the board on it only to be denied over and over again, I managed to get 1-4 but the ever elusive GC escaped me (even after dropping a whole roll in that bitch plus all the replays and credits for boarding DAMN IT!). All those games and only came up with one mediocre 24 mill (my best ever on that game though I haven't played it much). The other scores I don't think are even worth a mention (between 12-16 or something). Lets see how many stupid things can I put in parentheses (wow ever tried to spell that word), OK I'll stop at 5. She's warmed up boys someone go get that GC!

[bounceback]

nice-- they now have LOTR as well, feels to me like the one that used to be at goodfoot (?) which was always kind of a bastard to me, but everything's working strong. tends to blast a few airballs now and then, but IMO that's better than flippers so weak they can't make the ramps. played one game, replayed, and left so i didn't drown out the pack of nobs that were playing idiot-quizzy (easiest questions ever at that quiz night? i guess that makes it possible to guzzle high-percentage beer the whole time and still win.)

[bounceback]

been playing tales trying to get GC-- put up 30 mil 1st and 25 mil, but had a frustrating game on the 30. made it to genie battle on ball 2, but there's a ball trapped between the left ramp habitrail and the plastic above the left captive ball, so it only kicks out 3 balls-- that really ruins your chances at beating the genie, it penalizes you for not making shots in rapid succession, and at several boints i had all the balls either on the ramp, in the bumpers, etc. and wished i had another ball-- the bonus for beating the genie is over 20 mil alone. i was well on my way to getting there a 2nd time but had some more bad luck. harem multiball almost never works-- i started it 3 times in one game. two times it instantly ended the mode. one time it kicked out another ball and could be played. on other games, including earlier this week, it never ran the harem mode. the pop bumpers barely work, luckily the game compensates during the Rocs mode and it only takes a couple of hits to light the jewel at ramp, but you're still missing boints. the magnet for locks isn't strong enough and most shots from the left orbit run past the lock. less of an issue with shots to the right orbit. the lamp doesn't spin much unless you totally wail it and even then, if the ball rebounds into the other side of the lamp it stops dead, which effects how high the bonus can go (a huge part of the scoring.) overall i don't mind the sensitive tilt setting, because the feel of the flippers and rubbers is good and the game is level-- i really like playing it-- but i quit tonight after i tilted on my last ball at random-- a hard lamp spin during lightning lamp gave me a straight tilt, no warnings! i also tilted a previous ball on a left flipper slap save, no leg involved. i wouldn't complain if everything else were dialed in, but you have to muscle it to get the ball up the ramp and get the lamp moving, and then you get punished for doing so. i know it got serviced right before shorty's and that's when the GC got put up. i would've had it tonight except for the two tilts and the stuck ball during genie battle. anyway, i'll keep playing the hell out of this game if it gets fixed up, i really like it.

also-- i heard rogue bought the GD; don't know if this is official yet, but i heard the rumor. let's hope they keep the pins, it would really suck if they nixed them.

[ROM]

.

[bounceback]

that's fucking interesting man. i was told this was a done deal, and that the buyout was for a significant enough price that the owners weren't going to be hurting for cash for a while. i hadn't heard at all about the ownership squabbles, and definitely hadn't seen figures like $15,000 as a payoff being thrown around. that's nothing.

really, GD seems super busy almost every night. the only way it seems they could be losing money is if they're sinking a ton into the brewery/distillery and not getting anything back-- so far they haven't produced a single beer, even though the brewery has been in development for a couple of years, so i can see that being a possibility. also distilleries are dangerous and only recently re-legalized, so i can understand how there might be a lot of costly hoops to jump through with the city. that said, the green dragon gin is fantastic, like the best gin ever, better than the rogue shit, which is better than most. even if you don't like gin, both the rogue and GD gins are delicious. it seems weird that they would be going through this bitter sales process without ever having produced a batch of beer-- why would you invest that much into something and not even give it a chance to pay off?

anyway, all i care about is the ball. i like the beers and spirits, but frankly i don't drink much when i'm at the dragon specifically because they DON'T have food and drink at reasonable prices, as they say on their manifesto. they have some really GOOD beers, and some rare things on their rotating taps, and that's cool, but that just makes them a kind of fancy beer snob bar. i happen to really like good craft beers, so i'm willing to pay a little to try things i've never had, and i like that, but i'm not into the 6 and 8 oz. glasses of anything that's over 6% alcohol. elsewhere in town you can get full pints of high percentage beer for the same price as an IPA or black butte or whatever. there are generally only a couple of things on the dragon tap list for under $4. a lot of the food is kind of on the pricey side for pub food, though there are some good deals too-- the rice and beans and the mac and cheese, both $4 on the appetizer menu, are roughly as filling as one of their $9 meals.

the main point is they've been expanding their machines and they're really supportive of us, so i hope all this weird public posturing about what the pub stands for and who wants and doesn't want it sold doesn't effect the pinball. i do think their initial ownership structure was cool-- they allowed people to invest in the pub to get it off the ground for a moderate sum, and for that price you got a seat at the bar, your own mug always on the wall, and a free pint in your mug every day for life. spiffy deal. i'd buy a membership to a place that had a ton of games set on free play, even if it was a couple hundred a year or something. someplace like ground kontrol that had a bunch of pins could do that, and charge admission for non-members instead of collecting money in the games. wonder how it would work out, money-wise.

[eric]

As of yesterday (12/4/2008), TOTAN was turned off (not sure what's wrong with it) and the pop bumpers on MB were really unresponsive.

[bounceback]

i heard they were coming to service those games, i don't know what was wrong with arabian, but the bar manager said he'd let them know about that, and the star wars gate on the death star wasn't working again, i also told him about the sword lock issue on LOTR, didn't play batman, didn't think bash was in that bad of shape. bumpers weren't lively, but weren't dead completely, as in broken.

[eric]

As of yesterday (3/11), all CPU controlled lights are out on TOTAN. IJ4 has replaced Dark Knight. Pop bumpers on MB have been fixed and the machine is playing really nice.

[Dropshot]

I will make sure everything is playing great as a requirement to throw this tournament there

[eric]

If it's turned on, try playing a game of TOTAN. I actually found it to be fun in a masochistic sort of way.

[HornedGramma]

The lock on Champion Pub wasn't working on Friday night. Trapped four balls.

[bounceback]

also posted this in the comments on the front page-- hopefully mike will see it one of these two places. i wrote everything down and gave a note to the bartender, but when i left the note was still sitting on the counter. she probably doesn't give a shit, and i don't really give a shit about $5 well drinks, so i guess we're even. i've tried calling and leaving messages with the answering service in the past, but it's really annoying talking some operator's ear off about pinball shit they don't understand-- i don't even think they're located in oregon. anyway:


played all the games yesterday-- well, the ones that were working.

champ pub was turned off, with a note that the ball lock wasn't releasing during fights/multiball.

star wars just had an "out of order" sign on it, and an employee was looking it over as though a ball was stuck somewhere. i love star wars but i really think this one needs new flipper coils or something, ramp is extremely hard to hit and the rest of the machine is rarely fully working.

IJ4 was leaning right, drained all 3 balls in quick succession out the right outlane.

MB feels good to me, missed the board by 100k (yes, pretty much any one shot would've done it, damn it. i suck.)

LOTR feels mechanically really good, level, and strong, but had the following issues:

destroy the ring won't register the 2nd ring shot, so you can't finish the mode. no exaggeration, i shot the ring over TWENTY times the first time i played destroy the ring. the first ball would stay in the ring, the second direct shot would either bounce out without registering, or, if strong enough, would knock both balls inside; the machine would not register, would do a ball search, and kick both balls out. first ball to drain would end the mode. i managed to re-lodge both balls multiple times and had them kick out over and over again. i spent the rest of my games trying to AVOID starting "destroy the ring." this was super annoying, because it meant after the mode was lit, i'd have to shoot all the rings of men again, and start gollum multiball, just to be able to start a new mode. needless to say i never finished the modes, and didn't score nearly as well as i would've.

also-- ring frenzy would rarely start, even after all rings collected and the ring shot in the center.

the center loop lights weren't all illuminating properly during some modes.

strong shots to the left ramp would come down the habitrail super fast, and at the bottom, would riccochet out, straight into the outlane.

gift from the elves would sometimes not register when lit and shot to the left loop.

lastly, during "war of the ents" and some other modes, the diverters that are supposed to send the ball into the scoop for path of the dead would not catch the ball and divert it properly-- loop shots would continue all the way around, but would trigger the diverter to block shots to the FRONT of the orthanc scoop, making it really difficult to complete this mode, and taking away a ton of boints.

i hope these issues can be fixed while keeping the same feel to the game, the flippers are starting to break in so there are less airballs but still plenty of power, and i was killing the replays even with all these problems.

hope the machines are all working by tourney time!

[Dropshot]

i agree that it seems somethings may not have been working on LOTR, but it also seems like you may be mislead on some of the shots/modes/progression of the game. I forwarded everything you said on to Mike though, i am sure he will get on it before thursday.

[bounceback]

on which things am i misled? i'd like to get clear on it. i know you can't start gift of the elves while you're running other modes, for example, but what else are you referring to?

for the tournament the diverters were fixed on war of the ents and other modes that use them, but destroy the ring was still not working/possible, the left habitrail was still throwing hard shots into the outlane, and the inner left loop's red arrow was still not working, though the ring lights were all working, so it wasn't that hard to tell when it was "lit." ring frenzy mode was working correctly as well.

obviously champ pub was in worse shape after it was worked on than before-- not only did the heavy bag not register, but a ton of lights went out when a training feature or fight started. the locks seemed to be fixed though.

star wars was working as well as it ever has. indy was level.

[bounceback]

monster bash has its left flipper aligned properly, making a huge difference, game feels great now. still the occasional SDTM kickout from the scoop, but if you give the cabinet a slap just before kickout, it seems to come out with some spin that keeps the ball closer to a flipper, or at least in a saveable spot.

thanks for fixing it up!