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Homepin NEW licenced theme & new staff
- Thread starter Homepin
- Start date
Yep,
" I'm the best plucker here" especially if bungles playing with his twanger.
Hater’s gotta hateYou’ll get to play one, there’ll probably be one with David at Pinfest (if you’re able to drive up for a day)
Also, if you want to play Thunderbirds (Homepin’s previous hit title), there’s one at Medway Pinball Club along with the spectacular The Jetsons, my personal lowest-rated pinball machine!
I still like Thunderbirds
Not at Medway anymore though, replaced a few pins since you were last here Vee
... ThunderTurds in Gone!
I like Thunderbirds. Not something I’d personally buy, but it’s more fun than many people give it credit for.Hater’s gotta hate
I still like Thunderbirds
Not at Medway anymore though, replaced a few pins since you were last here Vee
I’ve definitely played worse pins
very tempted to say .. worse than Thunderbirds... Spinal Tap?
only 2 games I have ever not bothered to finish my first game on: Stern Rolling Stones and Spinal Tap. TB would've been ok apart from the lock a ball on the ramp and play all day and the daft centre ramp thing.
Bugs bunny maybe worse than anything because it was a great license and major manufacturer
TRS is bad but the two l had were so easy to sell it was godsmacking
back on topic - Tap: i just spent 90 mins listening to Mile K at Homepin talking on an Ozzie podcast in June 2023, here - https://thepinballnetwork.podbean.com/e/the-aussie-pinball-podcast-ep-16-mike-from-homepin/
he talks about everything from his first jobs fixing B&W TVs in the 60s as a teenager in Oz, to 30 years in fixing electronics (inc some pinball) with his first wife in NE Australia, then selling the business and opening a factory in China making electronic boards and pinballs etc ..... then eventually moving to Taiwan for business and other reasons, marrying a local, setting up a factory there etc......
anyway, the interesting bit, for me, was when he said they have one year left with the license, then (i think) he could no longer make them. So i can only assume that he's now fully focused on Blues Brothers, and is out of the Tap game. another manufacturer could approach the license owners and buy it off them.
p.s. I don't know if Mike is still planning to deliver the improved game (with extra flipper etc) to the Newcastle (Oz) September show or not. But he has said that he'll deliver the fixed flipper mechs (the links) to the people who have the prototype games - like maybe the one in Great Yarmouth UK. Mike says repeatedly that he does not like complex rules or games controlled by a motherboard in the backbox. he is a technical guy rather than a pinhead, and rubs some people up the wrong way.
like Rollergames (he didn't say that; i did)
p.p.s. - is UK the country he said he wouldn't ship to, or do business with, because of some paypal scammers decades ago? Strange if so, as you could tell over the long interview that he likes and gets British humour. and Tap is after all a (fake) British rock band (all played by American actors inc the legends that are Harry Shearer (The Simpsons) and Michael McKean (Chuck in Better Call Saul).
he talks about everything from his first jobs fixing B&W TVs in the 60s as a teenager in Oz, to 30 years in fixing electronics (inc some pinball) with his first wife in NE Australia, then selling the business and opening a factory in China making electronic boards and pinballs etc ..... then eventually moving to Taiwan for business and other reasons, marrying a local, setting up a factory there etc......
anyway, the interesting bit, for me, was when he said they have one year left with the license, then (i think) he could no longer make them. So i can only assume that he's now fully focused on Blues Brothers, and is out of the Tap game. another manufacturer could approach the license owners and buy it off them.
p.s. I don't know if Mike is still planning to deliver the improved game (with extra flipper etc) to the Newcastle (Oz) September show or not. But he has said that he'll deliver the fixed flipper mechs (the links) to the people who have the prototype games - like maybe the one in Great Yarmouth UK. Mike says repeatedly that he does not like complex rules or games controlled by a motherboard in the backbox. he is a technical guy rather than a pinhead, and rubs some people up the wrong way.
like Rollergames (he didn't say that; i did)
p.p.s. - is UK the country he said he wouldn't ship to, or do business with, because of some paypal scammers decades ago? Strange if so, as you could tell over the long interview that he likes and gets British humour. and Tap is after all a (fake) British rock band (all played by American actors inc the legends that are Harry Shearer (The Simpsons) and Michael McKean (Chuck in Better Call Saul).
Ive said it many times but give Mick a chance and there is a decent and very challenging rule set . It’s not the most inspiring layout - sadly the development of it was plagued with interference from the Stones people with lots of ideas and features ruled out , plus it came at Sterns cheap ass phase - but it’s fast and furious and I had a lot of fun owning one.
didn't you make a rulesheet for it?
I've not managed to play Rolling Stones yet (or Bugs Bunny). One of the 'disadvantages' of going to events with pins donated by collectors of taste is there's a minimum quality bar to a pin being owned, and included!
The true dross, I never get to play and review, although I've saved all my Pinside ratings below 3 incase I stumble into any real stinkers.
I have a dream of organising a tournament with the world's best players competing on the worst pins ever made, though. It would be a Twitch streaming event for the ages!
I haven’t played Bugs Bunny, Hurricane and Rolling Stones. But my 170-177th worst pins I’ve played (and rated) are:
The Machine: Bride of Pinbot
Cheetah
Rocky
This is Spinal Tap Pinball
Game Of Thrones (Pro)
Star Wars Episode I
Dr. Dude
Hook
3 Coins
Junk Yard
The Jetsons
And I can definitely see some commonalities emerging
I just played a Led Zep Pro on location tonight for the first time - I didn’t hate it! The only thing I didn’t like was that the left scoop which looked like it should be backhandable absolutely was not, turning it into a super tight and dangerous shot from the right flipper, but that might have just been this particular machine. The upper flipper shot also felt a bit anticlimactic with that weird cul-de-sac thing.
Otherwise, it rewards you for making shots and punishes you for not… which I can live with
Reviewing after how many plays though ???I've not managed to play Rolling Stones yet (or Bugs Bunny). One of the 'disadvantages' of going to events with pins donated by collectors of taste is there's a minimum quality bar to a pin being owned, and included!
The true dross, I never get to play and review, although I've saved all my Pinside ratings below 3 incase I stumble into any real stinkers.
I have a dream of organising a tournament with the world's best players competing on the worst pins ever made, though. It would be a Twitch streaming event for the ages!
From 35 years plus playing and owning pins you absolutely cannot judge a pin on a few plays .
When people say I played 1 ball and walked away and that’s it , their opinion based on that , it’s just ridiculous.
Like deciding you hate a band after after hearing 1 track.
The whole rating of pins is ridiculous really tbh. So subjective. So many so called A titles bore me to tears . So many ‘****’ games have given me so much pleasure.
Hmm. Transformers. Only game I have ever walked away from on a commercial site. Admittedly it was one game and the the ****er gave me two free ones 
Utter cock. Absolutely no interest in playing it again. Hated everything about it from the colour scheme to the theme and the game play.
Almost every other game deserves more plays but not that utter piece of crap
Utter cock. Absolutely no interest in playing it again. Hated everything about it from the colour scheme to the theme and the game play.
Almost every other game deserves more plays but not that utter piece of crap
Usually at least three. I’ve played more than 177 pins, but there’s some pins I haven’t played enough to feel I can review them yet. I would never review a pin based on one ball! You’ve got to remember I live within an hours’ train/cycling distance of PBR, Medway, and The Pinball Office, and I was playing in PBR weekly league, so I play a lot of different pins almost weekly for months on end - whether I want to (or, in some cases, not!! HELLLOOO, Junkyard!)
I think it’s a mistake that you have to own something to review it. With some pins, the layout, artwork and inserts are so viscerally bad that it’s never going to come together, however many times you play it.
Modern Spike 2s are harder to review on a few plays because Stern are now layout experts, so much is dependent on the code and that’s increasingly taking a year or more to complete. Most of their pins are ‘fun’ on the first few plays, and whether one remains better than another depends on how the code evolves. Also, I’m not good enough a player to get to the wizard modes, so I’m reliant on better players to tell me whether a pin remains fun at higher levels of play.
I’ve come to increasingly trust my snap judgement because I *knew* Godzilla was going to be a hit based on a first play, and - likewise - I *sensed* Elton John might end up being highly ranked on Pinside based on a couple of plays. There are ‘patterns’, I suppose is the best way to describe it, in how pins feel depend on era, inspirations and designer, and you can tell after a while how well pins match to the ‘better’ patterns.
I also have known biases. I like feeling constant tension when I’m playing, so I tend to prefer the harder titles, and underrate pins like Elvira or Deadpool that are (usually) more forgiving. I try to take that into account when I’m rating a pin. Likewise, if I play a pin that is dirty and/or broken, I try to take that into account and revise my review once I find a better example (sadly, Hook did not improve)!
Yes, but that goes for everything. It also depends on *how* you enjoy them. I enjoy(ed) playing Thunderbirds whenever I went to Medway, but I couldn’t - in good conscience - recommend someone spends several 1,000£££ on one!
There are pins that are just *fun* and I come back to them (on location), but they’re not “objectively” good and I wouldn’t want one in my house either. Likewise, there are pins that seemed someway-above-okay on location, but which really blossom at home. Centaur is a good example.
But, for the most part, you can’t polish a turd. Stuff that’s terrible on location remains bad.
Hmm. Transformers. Only game I have ever walked away from on a commercial site. Admittedly it was one game and the the ****er gave me two free ones
I haven’t played that (yet) either. Sounds like there are still so many catastrophically terrible pins I have yet to “enjoy”!!!
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I'm with Tony. Thunderbirds had a worlds first. You could lock the ball and it would deposit it into the base cabinet! Not many other games can do that.
Reminds me of a story someone (possibly @Pinballsurgery ) related at Swavesey this year. Apparently someone they knew of who didn't know much about pinball, and never lifted the playfield, had a machine (not Thunderbirds), and from time to time it reported that there were insufficient balls, so not knowing any better, they'd just buy new balls and put them in it, solving the error message, perhaps with the assumption that somewhere inside there was a reservoir of many balls, rather than just 4 or 6 or whatever. When it came to moving it, this was the reason it weighed a heck of a lot more than when they first got it several years earlier.
Bump.
I read that Spinal Tap was at pinfest. Was it playable? Was it the 2-flipper version? Was it brilliant? This remains one of my favourite films, and I am still desperate to play one that is in playable condition - is the Great Yarmouth one the one that was at the show?
p.s. lick my love pump. Nobody else will.
I read that Spinal Tap was at pinfest. Was it playable? Was it the 2-flipper version? Was it brilliant? This remains one of my favourite films, and I am still desperate to play one that is in playable condition - is the Great Yarmouth one the one that was at the show?
p.s. lick my love pump. Nobody else will.
It was. Sorry to break it you but it is literally the worst game I've ever played. Flippers were unreliable, some shots were unhittable (saucer) the playfield is some kind of printed acrylic placed on top of ply, graphic design is amateurish, 3d printed "toys" were essentially PLA on wobble springs, except for a guitar which for some reason went up and down using a servo. Metal ramps have been cut badly and assembled badly, with rough edges. It felt cheap, rushed, ugly, sloppy, inaccurate and a massive p1sstake.
It was so bad I made as many people go up and play it as I could, just so they could share my shock. It was so bad it's almost like it was done on purpose that way. But of course it wasn't.
It was so bad I made as many people go up and play it as I could, just so they could share my shock. It was so bad it's almost like it was done on purpose that way. But of course it wasn't.
i believe it was a prototype rather than a finished design ?
Can't wait for the final version.
But apart from that it was OK?
The speaker panel design is nice, it looks like an amp. I guess it was done like that to try and draw your eye away from everything else.