Derek Nelson's Journal
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Derek Nelson's LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, April 6th, 2004 | | 12:30 pm |
ouch
Some of you may be wondering why I haven't update recently. Well, here's the scoop. I went to the South Side of Chicago to go and play the Ripley's game on location. Really a great game; best in a while. Unfortunately, when I left (about 11:00 at night), I got jumped by some of the more colorful residents in the area, and literally got knifed in the back. Luckily, I was able to make it back to the bar, where an ambulance was summoned. Things happened pretty fast after that. Anyway, I'm back at home recuperating, now. No more trips to dangerous locations for me! | | Monday, March 15th, 2004 | | 11:16 am |
| | Thursday, March 4th, 2004 | | 9:44 am |
Non-believers!!!
It appears that some people out there (the usual @ssh@les like Manic) don't believe I've played the game on test and diss me in public on rec.games.pinball. But then they email me and ask various questions on the details of certain things. And so, in response to Manic, I provide just a few of the following details: The idol has a magnet, and it has a light that turns on and off. When the light turns on, the idol magnet can grab the ball and throw it around the playfield. The nifty trick here is that the opto reciever looks through a small hole in the magnet. And no, the monkey head does not move. And for those who have been wondering if the standups have been fixed. YES THEY HAVE! They detect just fine on this game. The multiball display effect is great! It involves a guy stuffing pool balls in his mouth and spitting them back. BEST MULTIBALL START EVER (almost). and... you know, I don't know why I bother with this since people just hate me anyway. I've stopped posting reports on the TOM home rom because of this, and now, I might as well stop updating test game finds. Thanks for ruining my hobby, bastards. | | Friday, February 27th, 2004 | | 8:08 am |
New Ripleys playfield shot
So, I went back with my better digicam and took another shot of the playfield, and what a playfield it is!!  | | Thursday, February 26th, 2004 | | 11:48 am |
Ripleys BION!!!
Well, I found the New Ripley's game at my favorite 'test location.' It plays great, and is one hell of a time. I might have to pick one of these babies up NIB. I have been sworn to Ottowan secrecy exactly where it is, but here's a pic! Believe it or not!!!  | | Friday, February 20th, 2004 | | 7:39 am |
things I learned from survivior, sort of
Edited from alt.tv.survivor ****"These people have no soap to wash their hands after they take a shit. Then they go and pick food, stir rice, or handle fish. Hepatitis would have these people down way before the game ended." ****"son, most of us figure out how to take a crap without handling it by the time we reach 18 months." ****"He's referring to how you wipe your ass after defecation. Our primitive ancestors, and the few remaining primitive Third World peoples today, managed to survive without soap. What they do, is use one hand to wipe their butt after defecation, and use the other hand to eat with. Typically the left hand is used for wiping their butt, and the right hand is used to eat with. In fact, in dry areas without foliage, there are no leaves for toilet paper either. So primitive people simply wiped their ass with the fingers of their left hand." ****"Which is why you should never go to shake someones hand from the middle east if you have to use your left hand. It is offensive and crude to do that to them. No joke." ****"Perhaps that is why nearly all of us--even left-handed people--shake hands with the right hand. The custom of handshaking must have evolved from a time when people wiped their asses with their left hand. " | | Wednesday, February 18th, 2004 | | 2:48 pm |
STTNG breakout!
After years of digging, I have received information that the breakout code is soon to be released!!!! And here am I playing it!!!!  | | Thursday, February 12th, 2004 | | 9:00 am |
Buggy Whips
"I don't agree with the idea that the buggy whip market it going to die. In fact, I think buggy whips are in a good position to take off. Not at the moment, it's not going to, however, eventually people (such as myself) are going to become jaded to the horseless carriage stuff. It's just that we are inundated with speed and convenience to the point that it's pretty much blasé. I mean, how much more "stuff" can you add to an automobile? Now you have to add something else, something tangible, physical to interact with. Look at the new crop of autos. You've got the turn signals, glass wipers, a slew of additions that add a tangible, physical element to the auto. I think that in the next 5 years or so, we're going to see someone try to enter into the buggy whip market with some fresh ideas who has the money to take the chances that the current manufacturers can't. Buggy whips provides a tangible, physical control that you just can't get from an automobile. Yesterday, when we were at a local park, I was petting my horse and a young kid was waiting patiently to let me pet him. He couldn't have been older then nine. This kid, I bet, had been raised on horseless carriages his entire short life, and so the horse and buggy fascinated him. That's the buggy whip-future I see." Ernest Bendover, 1912 | | Thursday, February 5th, 2004 | | 11:13 am |
| | Thursday, January 29th, 2004 | | 8:09 am |
TOM roms
After talking with the programmer, a couple of things have become oddly clear about the TOM roms and home roms in general. He is making these roms pretty much just for him and his friends who happen to have the original hardware that was supposed to be in the game. He deos not want them to be out in general circulation (of course he realized that, odds are, they'll eventually find there way out through some weasel). One reason for this this because he finds it upsetting that there are people profiting from this work, and all the time he is putting into it. Much like many of the home roms and "profanity" roms that are available out there now, many of these roms were done in the spare time of the programmers at WMS, for their enjoyment. If there are people out there who are now selling these roms, these people should, out of the kindness of their hearts, be passing along these profits to the people who created them. As for the argument that they are merely "selling a service" as agreed to by their WMS parts contract, he noted that the contract also states that these licensed vendors are not allowed to sell hacked ROMS, only those authorized by WMS (which home roms and hacked roms are NOT). These vendors are, effectively, nullifying their contract. I wonder at what point Gene Cunningham (if he owns the software rights) starts clamping down on his share of the business from people selling WMS roms now that they are licensed to do it? | | Monday, January 26th, 2004 | | 10:23 am |
Thanks for your mail
Well, I'd like to thank everyone for their emails I've gotten so far regarding my blog. It's exciting to see so many others interested in the sport of pinball as much as I am. For those who wanted to know more about the TOM home roms, you NEED to have a working tiger saw and poof posts installed, otherwise, the game just "don't play right". However, I have asked the programmer about it, and he is working on trying to make another version that doesn't require these elements. And the BBB movie is supposed to come out later this summer. However, the producers are now thinking it will be direct-to-DVD. They still are trying to work out the correct name. The working title right now is "Soggy Bottoms #8" | | Thursday, January 8th, 2004 | | 2:03 pm |
| | 2:02 pm |
| | 1:59 pm |
DemoMan swear ROMS
Well, I just got my DemoMan swear ROMS from an 'unknown source,' and boy, do they make the game a hell of a lot more fun!!!! THIS is what the game should've been like. Even my mom, bless her little heart, loved it. Unknown Source even said I could pass around these ROMS free if I wished, so I'll have to think about that. | | Friday, December 19th, 2003 | | 1:22 pm |
Big Bang Bar madness
When I bought my Argentinian BBB, I didn't realize it was a prototype game. Apparently, they can't make any more than the 20 that they made because of some ROM's that are not being produced. Anyway, I knew that BB's were fairly rare, and some of the prices they were going for on ebay were ridiculous. Well, the other day, I was offered $80,000 for mine. YIKERS! I asked why someone would want to pay that amoount of money for a pinball machine. It turns out he's some Hollywood producer, and he's looking for a BBB to take 'center stage' in a movie he's producing. Not wanting to give up my game totally, we brokered a nice deal where I get a small chunk of money, and I loan the game out for a few weeks. So, next week, my little BBB cashcow will be shipped off to sunny California! | | Friday, December 12th, 2003 | | 12:12 pm |
More TOM madness
Well, the new Theater of Magic home roms are just getting better. They even got the sound guy to make some new music for the final wizard mode. SUH-WEET-NEZZZ! Too bad I found a bug during the Malefico, the French 18th Century Mage, stage. At least the tigersaw didn't cause too much damage to the mystery box. | | Monday, December 8th, 2003 | | 1:33 pm |
What the f***** is this?!?!?!
So, I was playing my Jackbot over the weekend, got really into the groove, and spent what seemed like 45 minutes running in a casino run. It was pretty amazing!! Suddenly, the game goes dead, drains the balls, and then suddenly it does this whole Wargames tribute, missiles launching across the DMD back and forth, lights flashing and such. And then it asks me if I want to play a game of chess. Does anyone know how to activate chess mode??? | | Thursday, December 4th, 2003 | | 7:33 am |
The new home ROMs for Theater of Magic...
simply ROCK! Using some connections through my work, I have been able to become the "beta tester" for a new, home version, of Theater of Magic, and it seems that all my prayers have been answered. TOM1.9H is simply great. It fixes a few bugs that have been known about for some time, but now, there is a great wizard mode that is really tough to beat. It involves defeating 8 "histerical historical magicians" one at a time during a multiball frenzy across 12 different "time periods." Getting through this, awards you the highest honor of Master of Magic!!, which also includes a FIVE CHARACTER enter-your-initials screen. These five characters are displayed on the trunk in some dot matrix effects until a new MoM has been declared. And for those who took the time to install the buzzsaw, there's been a new software treat for that, too. But I won't spoil the surprise... | | Monday, November 24th, 2003 | | 12:54 pm |
| | 7:35 am |
My review of LOTR pinball!
Some will say that the layout of LOTR is suspiciously close to that of a certain Williams game from six years ago. It certainly does bear a resemblence, but the difference between the two is that LOTR is close to the layout of a good game rather than a bad one! Let's start by going through the shot map. Starting at 9 o'clock we have the mystery shot. You know random award kind of thing. However unlike popular opinion, it is NOT a catapult. Instead it's a VUK that feeds the left habitrail. There's a redundant target in there which does the same thing if you hit the mystery shot. The game awards you mystery whether you hit the target or not as long as the ball stays and hits the hole. The outer left lane which feeds the right tower when not diverted. It feeds the left tower if it is diverted. Next up is the left ramp to left habitrail shot. The shot picks up off the playfield, and makes a u-turn while still rising up off the playfield. It's kind of funny to see a ball rolling toward the back of the cabinet under gravity power on a weak shot. This is probably one of the sweetest shots. Next to that is the inner left lane which if not diverted acts as an orbit, otherwise it feeds the left tower. Next, I want to talk about the money shot! The center ring shot is actually a split tongue skip ramp that lofts the ball over the rear orbit lane and into The Ring which is mounted in the back wall (bad video and drippy wet floors not included). I'm not going to spoil The Ring effect (that was stolen lock, stock and barrel from a Williams game from nine years ago) but suffice it to say that this game does the effect justice! If you make the shot while start mode is lit, the ball goes through the back wall and exits via the right habitrail. The ring shot is intentionally difficult. Weak shots will flop off the end of the ramp into either the left tower, the right tower, or the O-R-C lanes. Amazingly this ramp is not a source of SDTM drains. After playing roughly thirty games on at to forty this point, I've had a total of three balls hit that ramp and come SDTM. Next thing are the ORC lanes at the top of the jet bumpers. And what's really nice about this layout is that some good jet bumper action will send the ball up and back down through the ORC lanes. directly to the right of the big red guy is Gullom's cave. It's supposed to be a VUK that feeds the right habitrail. It's accessible from below by the flippers and above by the jet bumpers much like AFM's Stroke of eat your playfield hole. There's a ramp shot next. It's the right ramp. It is what feeds the sword and the really cool rolling lock. Balls have a tendency to pop off the sword lock perpendicular to the intended direction of travel. I mentioned this to KJ and he let us know they are redesigning the sword lock area, so hopefully this will get fixed in the near future. Then there is the right orbit shot (*duh*, wonder what that does?) and the "spot ring" target, which is self explanatory. One thing that's not a shot but looks really neat are the ring lights right between the flippers. This is the first use (that I know) of LED lighting for insert lights. They used the LEDs here because the inserts are very dense, so regular bulbs wouldn't fit. I have a feeling this is a durability experiment for Stern; none of the _shots_ are lit by LEDs, just these secondary status lights. They look nice, and you can instantly tell that something is different about them. Oops, I need to go back, because I completely missed the Path of the Dead. The left tower shot is to a VUK which pops the ball onto the Path of the Dead. This is in NO way an upper playfield. The Path of the Dead is a nudge-o-matic experience. There are four rollover switches (two rows of two) separated by plastic posts with rubbers on them, just like... SOUTH PARK! You can (somewhat) nudge the machine to get the ball where you want it to go. The four rollover switches can each be worth 100, 250, or 500 souls, so choosing the correct path is advantageous. In addition to the rollovers, for every tenth of a second the ball is on the nudge-o-matic, the game adds one soul to your tally. A main rule is collect five thousand souls to light return of the king multiball. Also, each shot on the playfield awards you one of the nine characters in the fellowship. WHEN YOU HAVE ALL NINE CHARACTERS, shoot the left lane to the tower to start fellowship of the ring multiball. Now this tower is not the magical collapsing tower that it's been made out to be. It wiggles, and it falls over about a whole thirty degrees at most. Think about the castle on MM, how it had five or six moving parts when it exploded. Now take ONE of those spires, and mount it onto an assembly that can wiggle back and forth with optional tilt, just like.... SOUTH PARK! Quite seriously, yelling "YOU KILLED KENNY!" is most appropriate for tower hits. Anyway, In the Fellowship Of The Ring Mutliball, you play the mode just like stage 2 of Join The Cirqus on CV. Start by hitting the Balrog in the middle of the playfield. Then shoot either the left or the right ramp to have the Fellowship memeber cross the foot bridge. The Balrog swings out from it's home position and blocks the front of the ring ramp. Since the home position is in full view the Balrog doesn't surprise you like the trolls on MM or the Brain Bug on Starship Troopers. However it would have been cooler had it have that element of surprise. Now the target at the bottom of the Balrog is really a narrow target with two big rubber rings on each side. If you hit the Balrog but it doesn't register, you most likely hit the rubber post instead of the standup target. When you hit the ramp a member of the Fellowship crosses the foot bridge. According to Keith, there is an inside joke when this animation occurs. You will have to be a total video game freak from the 80s or had to love playing your Atari 2600 to get the reference. But the joke is there and once you know what it is, really is kind of funny. I'll give you a hint, the DMD dot work is part of the joke, listen carefully to the footsteps. Let's see how long it takes someone (other than Keith) to post it to RGP. The multiball that is more fun to play and you might think is more rewarding at first is the Two Towers Multiball. Every shot is lit for a jackpot. The scoring is simple, if you are in four ball mutliball the jackpots are tripled. If you are in three ball mutliball the jackpot is doubled. With just two balls you are earning single jackpots. Every shot is lit for Jackpot. Sound simple? Well listen to Gimli shout out "Jackpot One", "Jackpot Two"... if you trap the balls on a flipper to play mutliball you are screwed. Once you hit a jackpot shot, that shot is turned off for future jackpots and you are forced to hit one of the remaining shots for jackpot 2. After collecting jackpot 2 hit one of the 5 remaining shots for jackpot 3. Here's the kicker, if you don't hit the next jackpot in three seconds you have to start all over. Collect all jackpots to get to the supper jackpot level which is kind of like Wet Willy's level 2. Okay, I'm not really suppose to be talking about rules however I felt these had to get mentioned because you'll see them soon enough. Anyway, the shots have a nice smooth feel to them, and the playfield when you look at it has a very deep shine to it. The playfield does have some of the best shot feel that we have ever seen from Stern. Quantifying flow on this game is almost impossible. The reason is because depending on what mode you are in the shots can either flow or stop. For example: The sword lock when empty and no locks are lit has very good flow. The game manages to pull the plunger out of the way before it hits the ball. Obviously, if you have a lock lit, then the game stops the ball there and destroys any flow. This is hands down Stern's best game, ever. The game has that unquantifiable FUN factor that's been only halfway present (at best!) in every previous Stern release. I have never seriously considered buying a NIB Stern game up to this point because they simply didn't deliver anywhere near enough fun value for the money. LOTR is truly in a class of one at Stern because right off the bat the game grips you and keeps reeling you back in for more. On a scale of ten, I'd have to give LOTR a nine easily. I'm really THAT impressed with how well the game plays, how well the theme is integrated, and the entire package. It's one of those games where the total is far greater than the sum of its parts. It's kind of interesting that this game deliberately breaks all the rules that Gary Stern has been talking about for the last four years. All of his talk about physical action pinball and in particular the absence of any drop targets make this game feel very un-Stern and by the same token very WMS. Gary has in the past decried the use of a target with a light (either in front of it or _inside_ of it in this case) because the light could break and all feedback to the player is lost. Yet this is exactly what happens with the Balrog in the middle of the field. You hit him and he doesn't lunge or move, he simply blinks bright red. Don't get me wrong, I like the effect a lot, it just seems to be going in the opposite direction of where he wants to go. I wasn't paying much attention to the art as I was having far too much fun playing the game to bothered with it. However, the cabinet artwork is a big improvement over what we have seen previously. Yeah, it's still pixilated, but you have to put your nose right up to the wood to see it. I asked KJ if Stern had changed their printing process (or printer) for the cabinets, since the cabinet seems a lot less pixilated to me. Nope. I think it was either deliberate or dumb luck in selecting what art to put on the cabinet sides, so that the art screened onto the cabinet a lot nicer than previous work, such as T3. |
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