Sopranos

[eric]

I was playing Sopranos at the PPL meeting last night (Florida Room) and had what seemed to be a never ending multiball. I'm hoping someone who understands the rules better than I do can help explain why this happened. The sequence of events was as follows:

-Locked one ball in Stugots
-Started Party at the Bing
-Locked second ball in Stugots to start Stugots Multiball
-Hit lit Fish saucer to add third ball to Stugots Multiball
-Hit x-amount of switches to start Bing Multiball and add fourth ball
-Obtained Stugots Super Jackpot

Somewhere around here Shoot Again became lit and stayed lit for what felt like at least 90 seconds. It was long enough to feel like the game was malfunctioning. Some of the other players reported seeing this phenomenon on different Sopranos around town, but no one could come up with a definitive explanation as to why this happens.

[Dropshot]

Unless you went into Underboss without realizing it, which happens quite often, I am pretty sure that's a malfunction. The fish add-a-ball will give you a ball saver, as will starting the Party at the Bing. Other than that I have never noticed a ball saver from getting jackpots or switches.

[ROM]

Well, he hit Fish multiple times during the multiball. I wonder if the ball saver will "stack."

According to the , the game doesn't have a setting to adjust the overall difficulty. Things have to be set individually. We requested it be set harder, and he went in and changed the settings for each mode/device to be more difficult. Perhaps he didn't change the settings on Bing Multiball.

[Dropshot]

I am pretty sure just like LOTR, Palantir will only give you add-a-ball once per MB.

[eric]

I definitely wasn't in Underboss. It seemed to me like it was a malfunction. The autofire coil would randomly fire even when there wasn't a ball in the shooter lane.

On a side note, I was looking through the on Stern's website and found note of a secret mania:

- Added Ampersand Mania if you hit the flippers 3 times during F-ing Big boints comes up in the Pork Store. [ONLY IN ENGLISH ROMS]

Has anyone tried this?

[bounceback]

they must've reset that game at florida room since they moved it. the uber-long ballsaver when you stack bing and stugots is the insane factory default, or so i was told. i thought the same thing, i once went through that sopranos at florida room twice in the same game without even paying attention and had grier play the 2nd underboss multiball for fun. i put up a GC of somewhere around 4-500 mil on it and felt fraudulent. i also completed boss on that same game because the ballsaver was like 5 minutes long during boss mode.

i wrote some comments on the site about the game being set on "baby mode" and pinbrawler said that yeah, you have to individually adjust the timers/difficulty settings for the multiballs. if they reinstalled factory settings when they put sopranos in the back room, it probably went back to bullshit land.

i, too, thought this was a glitch, but have encountered it on a handful of other sopranos-- including the one at crow bar. it seems to confirm what the tech said, because the game appears to be set on higher difficulty settings-- you have to light lock each time from the first ball, it takes more shots to complete modes, and so on, and the timer on underboss wasn't that long, but the timer on bing/stugots was ridiculous. that multiball alone is worth like 50 million. i think that your first couple of bing jackpots restart your multiball timer, and there must be something going on with the way those two mbs overlap that restarts the timer for one then the other. i really got tired of playing it pretty fast, it just feels like taking candy from a baby when it's like that.

[Dropshot]

We should just try to start getting all the techs to place every machine in tournament mode....fuck EB's anyway. Well I take that back Eb's are my friend but....so is a challenge!

[bounceback]

i kind of agree with you. a while back we were talking to mike about the possibility of designating at least one location around town that had some totally pimp rare games, some of the 'notoriously hard to repair but highly prized by collectors' type shit, set totally tight, on tournament mode. having a spot like that would be really sweet.

personally, i think some of the spots that get higher volume play should get everything dialed in and set up tighter. if everything at clinton and places like that were cranked up tight, but working great, they might stay in working order longer, and there's enough volume of play there, billy rays, and so on, that i doubt people would drop off their play there. places with 4 machines in town are pinball destinations, attracting better players that will still rock the games. hell, for that matter, if each of those spots with 4 machines just had one game set up super great, tournament mode, fully working, tight tilt, it would be cool, and there would still be those other games for the less intense players, or for when you want a break from getting your ass kicked for a couple thousand boints.

[Dropshot]

Yeah having an entire line-up of hard machines dialed in will get destroyed by those two asshole guys that throw the machine everytime they drain.

[bounceback]

let's find those guys and throw them!

[KYL]

[deathsave]

if i recall correctly, in "ampersand mania" each switch hit scores and periodically you hear one of the cast members shout expletives. it's been awhile since i've seen/played it because nobody installs the profane rom around here.