Ground Kontrol

[deathsave]

hey GK, any chance you'll put the home rom on cirqus voltaire? must stack multiballs!

[Opto]

My hat is off to whomever went over the T2 at GK recently - it plays GREAT! Not that you're taking requests, but here's my thoughts on MM, MB and TOTAN. Seems like I can play those games all over town. I'd love to see more Sys11's from the 80's up there. FIRE!, Road Kings, Earthshaker, Cyclone, Elvira and the Party Monsters etc - games you don't see anywhere else. You could buy 4 of those titles for the price of one MM or MB. I'll pay 50 cents per play on any of those games . . . any day. Take this with several grains of salt as it's coming from the guy who dumps his money in BK2000 almost exclusively. . .

[ROM]

Yeah, I pretty much just play BK2K and Bride of Pinbot at GK. I love those games. I think one of things that really appeals to me is that they aren't super bouncy, with lots of random bounce/drain shots. As long as I keep making most of my shots, I can play forever!

I put up 3rd and 5th in the billionaires club bracket on Bride today. On the one where I got 3rd, I was already at 82 million when I lit the billion wheel. I probably should have just not shot for it.... I could have put up a score in the regular score bracket. But I just couldn't resist hitting that shot. Do any of you ever just time out the billion shot? The billion feels to me like a cheap thing... It's still pretty fun to collect. But I'm thinking about avoiding it in the future.

[Kickback]

I think you have guilt issues. Take the boints, it's ok.

[GroundKontrol]

[fathom22]

ROM wrote: I put up 3rd and 5th in the billionaires club bracket on Bride today. On the one where I got 3rd, I was already at 82 million when I lit the billion wheel. I probably should have just not shot for it.... I could have put up a score in the regular score bracket. But I just couldn't resist hitting that shot. Do any of you ever just time out the billion shot? The billion feels to me like a cheap thing... It's still pretty fun to collect. But I'm thinking about avoiding it in the future.

BOP was a personal fav in the 90's, I went to Wunderland back in '91 to play Party Zone but it had a weak-ass flipper and was unplayable so I played the BOP sitting next to it. I got dialed-in and ended up playing a 3 hour long game with no horseshoe EB's, all EB's were from the left ramp. I had 8.4B right about the time they were closing but the right flipper was becoming a wet noodle anyway and it would barely make it up the left ramp even on a rolling fly-shot.
I think I collected 6 billion shots and got the remaining 2.4B the hard way. I had the Skill Shot Multiplier up to 123X.

A friend told me he wanted to see what would happen when you got over a billion boints without collecting a billion shot, well he did it and it puts you on the Billionaires Club and not the "GC" score list. I think he said it took him several hours to do it.

Have you collected the "Backdoor Billion" yet?

[GroundKontrol]

[DannyBackglass]

Yes GK!

[sauce]

Was playing TOTAN tonight an seemed like a column of lights was out on the left side.

[GroundKontrol]

[Opto]

I sent this email regarding LED's to GK's contact email. Figured it wouldn't hurt to post it here so they can respond to everyone if they like.

Thanks GK!

First off - I think you guys have been doing a fantastic job of maintaining the pins as of late. I actually stopped going for a brief period last year, because so many games weren't playing well. Whatever you've done in the last 6 months to keep the games in better shape - it's been fantastic. I probably come play there at least once a week now!

Anyway - I know a lot of folks that are turned off by LED's in games (myself included to some extent). For most of us, it's not the look that is bothersome, but the "Strobe Effect". From what I understand, pins send out pulse power to lightbulbs, and you can't see this in standard bulbs, but the LED's respond to the pulse by flickering and creating this strobe effect. I realize that bulbs in machines draw a ton of power, so doing full conversions to LED means less burnt connectors and a lower power bill. You also don't have to replace the bulbs as often.

I guess my customer request would be, if you're going to install LED's in games, please keep it to a minimum if possible. Maybe just the insert lights and backbox GI, as the PF GI seems to be the thing that creates the strobing the worst. You guys have a great spot with lots of great machines. I've stopped playing T2 and BOP as a result of the intense strobe effect, and I know others have too. Would hate to see that happen with some of the other great titles you have. My guess would be that the "date night" crowd probably won't notice or care, but the hardcore pinball scene in portland will.

Just my 2 cents - keep up the good work!

Noah

[Opto]

I got what I think is a very good response from Ground Kontrol - sounds like we don't have to worry about them converting all their games to LED's which is GREAT!

Here's what they said in regards to their plans with LEDs in pins.

Like you and others, we are extremely sensitive to flicker as well.
That is the reason that our pins have not been converted over en
masse. On several of the machines, we've tried to convert over some to
LEDs but it looked bad enough that we removed them.

Our motivation for changing over to LEDs is based on serviceability
and look. As you know, pop bumper lamps go out very quickly, which is
why you've seen some of the pop bumpers get LEDs.

Take a look at TOTAN - the purple LEDs were in the pop bumpers and in
strategic places because it makes the playfield vibrant and they're
very hard to get to. Originally we were going to replace the #47s in
the GI with LEDs when the pin was shopped initially. The LEDs looked
horrible! So that pin retained most of its GI as #47s.

Regarding Bride Of Pinbot, the playfield looked absolutely horrible
with the #47s. Very dull color-wise, and not well lit - lots of dead
spots in the playfield, and accessibility of some of the lamps is a
really difficult. I'm sure that, if you had seen the original game,
you'd agree what's there now is considerably better - even with the
flicker.

Ultimately some of what we decide to do comes down to personal
preference and subjective, but hopefully this reassures you that we're
not simply going to shotgun all of the pins with LED installations
without regard to look and playability.

We've found it's simply a trial and error approach. Sometimes the
backbox lends itself to LEDs, sometimes it doesn't. There are games
where GI is great with LEDs, and horrible with others.

We've seen some truly hideous pinball conversions to LEDs - done
without regard for color context. Most of the #47 LED equivalents
aren't white - they're slightly blue, and that looks horrible against
yellows and greens. We would never intentionally uglify one of our
games, and definitely exercise restraint when deciding what to
replace.

We're looking a less offensive solution for at least the static GI.
Ultimately the proper fix is for LED manufacturers to put some sort of
capacitor on each of the lamps to approximate incandescent bulb decay,
but there's no guarantee when or if that'll happen.

We ask for your continued patience and understanding regarding our
games, and if you have specific requests, please contact the attendant
on duty, or email us. Thanks very much for the input and your
continued patronage!

[Dropshot]

I liked BoP when it was dull, you could see the ramps.

[eric]

Has anyone seen these? Marco had prototypes at the NW show and I hadn't realized they had come out.

http://www.marcospecialties.com/itemdes ... PJ%2D12246

Switching power supply and (!) DC GI.

[Rob]

Does anyone know what happened to Haunted House?
GK seems to have switched up their selection somewhat.

[revtest]

OH NO! Tell me it's not true. damn it! when it worked it was so fun.

[sauce]

I went to GK the other night after the Shanghai tourney and it made me sad. I recently learned a new strategy on Doctor Who and was stoked to play one with lightning flippers, but I when I arrived a bunch of dudes were ganged up on it. So I decide to play Cirqus Voltaire, it was playing nice but over half of the GI was out or realllllly dim, bummer.

Doctor Who opens up I go over there put in my 50 cents start a game, and oh hey, the top left flipper is stuck up. Looked like the return spring had broken or something, the flipper would not go down, destroying any chance of getting any type of score on that machine, so I drain ball one and go tell the bartender. He comes checks it out and sure enough still totally busted. We go back downstairs I get a refund and ask "Hey you want me to turn it off when I go back up there?" the reply is "No, leave it on." and I think thats kinda shitty, what do you guys think? I mean yeah you could make some more quarters off of suckers that dont know better? Could it damage a flipper for people to play the game in that state? I dont know. So I move on to Simpsons.

Simpsons is another game I have recently been getting more into. GK's Simpsons was the filthiest I have ever seen a game there, playfield is super dirty. Start a game with Brian (who took 2nd at Shanghai) and Im having trouble hitting the treehouse shot, and I realize its because the top right flipper isnt firing, at all. During Brian's first ball I tell the bartender again, he comes checks it out we show him and go "no flippy." We play the game out because it isnt as crucial to scoring on that machine. After the game is over I am just like "Fuck this, every game I want to play is broken, I'm going to Slabtown." Sad but true.

Do you guys need another tech? I would love to work 2 days a week just cleaning playfields and fixing flippers, doing the basic maintenance stuff that it seems so many machines are lacking right now at GK. What can I do to help Ground Kontrol? I love GK and what has done for pinball in portland, but its been really frustrating to go there for the past 6 months or so. Now I'm ranting. Hope to see some improvements soon.

[Dropshot]

Batman Forever- Right flipper a little weak, could only hit the left ramp when it wasn't coming down the inlane.

ID4- First jackpot shot (alien head) wasn't registering for every other player. Balls where getting stuck in the right VUK. Would take a couple of minutes ball searching before it would kick out a ball.

Stargate- Skill shots were only registering half the time. Ramps still can't be hit.

RCT- Missing plastic above right slingshot and a wild flying ball landed inside the rubbered off triangle like area. I doubt the ball landing in there could be reproduced.

WH20- Insanity falls light is out. Whirlpool wouldn't register jackpots during Whirlpool Challenge or when lit for advance raft.

TAF- Pretty sure the light is out on the chair when ready.

The Shadow- Left phurba diverter is stuck feeding the ball to the left flipper. Drop Target in front of the Sanctum was either not working or missing making it extremely easy to start multi-ball.

That is all I know of from last night.

[KYL]

Fish Tales - Resets after the second jackpot has been awarded. All game lights go off and the flippers still work until all the balls drain.

TOTAN - The Bazaar kicks the ball out SDTM. It would really help if this were adjusted a bit.

[Opto]

KYL - Saw your crushing GC on Roadshow . . . nicely done! We're in trouble if you start coming to the weekly tournaments (you should come)