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Pinball technique video critique thread

roadshow16 said:
Just dont shoot the saucer Jon. Its the most dangerous shot on the game, avoid it at all costs. I know its fun, the designer has made it fun to lure you in, dont shoot it :)

For me, there is one shot on AFM. The lock shot, thats it. It always feeds back to your flipper, hopefully you will be able to bump over from left to right, shoot the lock again. Play mulitball, shoot as many jackpots as possible. Do it again.

You can see where i'm going with this right. On every game I have a very simple, very safe strat that I can hopefully repeat over and over and over
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Problem is Craig, the majority of players aren't as accurate at shooting as you! :)

I'll give an example, I was playing this at Neil's and tried this strat you mention vs Diane, Reece and my son Michael at Neil's. Everyone hit the saucer and got at least some points by destroying one, I hit two locks before draining with hardly any points and took a 4th. So against certain players I might agree with your suggestion, but I would suggest the "right"strat is not always the same - it depends on who you are playing. Sometimes ensuring you get a base level of points (and not having a complete disaster) is enough to succeed.

NB - Michael won the game, he just shot the saucer
 
Replay said:
I agree accuracy is number 1 skill top players have.

Elwin and accuracy go together like bread and butter.

Over the years I have learnt to nudge, to do great saves, learn complex rulesets, have 4 balls on one flipper and move to other.

Bounce passes, drop dead catches, all mastered.

Despite all that my accuracy still hasn't improved and so ball constantly out of control.

Yet to find a technique that REALLY does improve accuracy ( watched all above videos ).

If I could improve shot accuracy, I would go to more tournaments.
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If it helps any, I thought accuracy was key as well. So, I worked a tonne on accuracy (it didn't work). Then, we played a four-way game of JJP GNR with @Chris P at Medway Pinball Club for London and SE League, and he was missing all the time on the first ball. Like bricking about half the shots for the first few minutes and he's a great player, so he didn't drain any of the bricks and eventually went straight through the replay IIRC, and onwards and upwards.

Likewise, if you watch Bowen Kerins doing PAPA tutorial videos, he is also bricking shots all the time. His play style is completely different from Keith Elwin, who seems to be able to miraculously hit all the things, but Kerins is also one of the world's best players. Defence is a great form of offence and it seems you don't need to be mega-accurate. You just need to be able to keep the ball in play long enough to get accustomed to the pin, so you can get dialled in on the shots and choose a good strategy (if you haven't pre-practiced that pin). I can't do that consistently so, if I'm familiar with a pin (it plays like one at home, for example), I will be in the top ten in a tournament on that specific pin (e.g. the PBR Flash Gordon on Thursday or the RFM at Martin's house). Otherwise, my ball times are measured in milliseconds.
 
Jackpot said:
Problem is Craig, the majority of players aren't as accurate at shooting as you! :)

I'll give an example, I was playing this at Neil's and tried this strat you mention vs Diane, Reece and my son Michael at Neil's. Everyone hit the saucer and got at least some points by destroying one, I hit two locks before draining with hardly any points and took a 4th. So against certain players I might agree with your suggestion, but I would suggest the "right"strat is not always the same - it depends on who you are playing. Sometimes ensuring you get a base level of points (and not having a complete disaster) is enough to succeed.

NB - Michael won the game, he just shot the saucer
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I understand what your saying Yuen, but there is no way im shooting the saucer, because I know it will insta-drain. I can't play like that, I would get to in my head, if I have resorted to shooting the saucer, i've already lost. That's the worst place to be when you are competing, watching others and thinking 'how are they getting all these inlanes, if I did that, there is no way I would' etc etc etc.

All of my strategies are about getting a base level of points and doing it in the safest possible manner. Inevitably, sometimes you will lose, thats pinball, but keep the faith, you were on the right track. If you had played that same 4 player game 10 times in a row, I guarantee you would have won the majority of games sticking to your strat, it was just unfortunate this one time it didn't go to plan
 
As a "born-again beginner", I have to say that this is all great stuff, it's really useful to hear and see the approaches all levels of players take with regard to certain tables and the game as a whole. Kudos to anyone with the cajones to put up footage of their play for critique.
 
I'll have to get a one try video of Claire and I playing a two player game next 😄


Neil McRae said:
No they are not! My eyes bleed from that.
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The colorisation or the brightness? 🤔 You know between the colordmd led and the pin2dmd the only difference you can see is the colourfiles, same dots and colours available. Just different artistic choices by the individual creators.
Our Creech display is set bright because I was trying to recreate the resets we were getting, I just forgot to tone it back down.
 
VeeMonroe said:
That was my experience for a year… everyone who had a Creech wanted £6k for it 🤷‍♂️

You need to wait for a motivated seller @s000m.
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It was a while ago and we didn’t get as far as prices when we discussed ‘possible’ trade for yr LOTR , but I wasn’t / would not be looking 6k for my Creech and it’s a looker with a lot of extras 🙂

I think when people say they are looking , people sometimes read this as ‘desperate and will pay over the odds’ and try their luck.

 
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Sgt GrizZ said:
It was a while ago and we didn’t get as far as prices when we discussed ‘possible’ trade for yr LOTR , but I wasn’t / would not be looking 6k for my Creech and it’s a looker with a lot of extras 🙂

I think when people say they are looking , people sometimes read this as ‘desperate and will pay over the odds’ and try their luck.

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I wasn't having a go at anyone, especially you. That's why I wasn't naming names, here :)

I was looking for a year for both CFTBL and AFM (or MM), and I got a lot of £6k and £9k price points (respectively) for pins that were nailed to the floor. I also had some people wanting to make straight trades of CFTBL for my LoTR. But that's just human nature, isn't it, when people don't want to sell or are a bit ambivalent about a trade? I had to wait, in both cases, for motivated sellers to get a good deal and, in both cases, I saw the same type of pin come up even cheaper on the open market (what felt like) a week later. Patience is a virtue and a year wasn't patient enough, as it turns out :)

Getting back on topic, would be great if some amateur (or intermediate) players - other than us - wanted to post for feedback at some point. Come on, roll up, roll up. It only takes ten/fifteen minutes to make and upload a video. We managed to make one during a lunch break. And you can’t seriously play worse than us :)
 
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VeeMonroe said:
I wasn't having a go at anyone, especially you. That's why I wasn't naming names, here :)

I was looking for a year for both CFTBL and AFM (or MM), and I got a lot of £6k and £9k price points (respectively) for pins that were nailed to the floor. I also had some people wanting to make straight trades of CFTBL for my LoTR. But that's just human nature, isn't it, when people don't want to sell or are a bit ambivalent about a trade? I had to wait, in both cases, for motivated sellers to get a good deal and, in both cases, I saw the same type of pin come up even cheaper on the open market (what felt like) a week later. Patience is a virtue and a year wasn't patient enough, as it turns out :)

Getting back on topic, would be great if some amateur (or intermediate) players - other than us - wanted to post for feedback at some point. Come on, roll up, roll up. It only takes ten/fifteen minutes to make and upload a video. We managed to make one during a lunch break. And you can’t seriously play worse than us :)
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10-15 minutes? Bloody hell, I can fit quite a few games into that timeframe 😂
 
I'll make a video shortly here, not been able to make any on my setup for a while, but got a computer good enough to record again now.

Regarding the videos already uploaded, I think having a strategy to get at least some points and trying to stick to it helps. (so with Creech, move your car, then multiball, then right saucer awards)
With AFM, you'd have to learn to nudge if you're going for saucers. If you're good enough, you should be doing multiball all day.

Sure we've all had games when we have drained lots from trapped balls, it just happens, but it's still usually best to control the ball. Watch videos of other people playing the same game and see how they play.
Control, nudging and aiming will just get better over time if you practice, tournament experience should help with tournaments too. (though I've not been to many)
 
Alright, here's a somewhat average game of me on Fish Tales, not high scoring but long, with quite a few multiballs.
I've picked this video due to the length and the amount of techniques used in it.

I've recently waxed the playfield so it plays fast, and the left outlane post is set in the hard position, and the right in the middle position, and small rubbers on the inlane/outlane divider posts.

I often have a timer on my videos to make it easier to find and save any highlights and for referencing parts of the video.

 
there are things outside of the game play you need to consider. what is your position relative to the game so when you need a big move you can do it and also where are your hands relative to the buttons and how quickly does that make you able to dig quickly.
 
Smraedis said:
Alright, here's a somewhat average game of me on Fish Tales, not high scoring but long, with quite a few multiballs.
I've picked this video due to the length and the amount of techniques used in it.

I've recently waxed the playfield so it plays fast, and the left outlane post is set in the hard position, and the right in the middle position, and small rubbers on the inlane/outlane divider posts.

I often have a timer on my videos to make it easier to find and save any highlights and for referencing parts of the video.

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Our only (negative) feedback is that we’ve found it easier on Fish Tales to use the boat ramp rather than making technical passes from one lightning flipper to the other.

Positive-feedback wise, there was some great multiball work. When I’ve got two balls cradled on a flipper on FT, I really struggle to flick one ball back over the slingshot while shooting the other. I usually just lose the ball down the outlane. Our Caster’s Club isn’t backhandable - apparently, this is a feature of different Fish Tales machines.
 
Thanks, I wish I did this well at the league meet over the weekend :p

My boat ramp rejects more than usual, so I feel more safe doing post passes or backhands, and it's not worth the risk if the ramps aren't lit (I'd go for it if I need to lite the loop shots)
I know I'm usually better at pinball when I'm in a multiball, and often confident managing with 2 balls, the hardest part for me is actually getting into the multiballs.
If there are 2 balls on the same flipper, you could try and make the ball go further up than the slingshot and post pass the other ball and then catch the first ball, that works well on FT. I know I should learn the up/over and under technique more.
I usually can backhand the lock on other FT machines, some are easier than others, it feels easier to do when it plays slower for me.
 
Surprised nobody has mentioned stance yet?

There's an official 'Dutch' stance apparently, Lyman used to nearly kiss the glass and someone on here (as they have done before) will remember and hopefully post the greatest 'stance' player of all time - American dude that had crazy legs back in the day.
 
Tucks said:
Surprised nobody has mentioned stance yet?

There's an official 'Dutch' stance apparently, Lyman used to nearly kiss the glass and someone on here (as they have done before) will remember and hopefully post the greatest 'stance' player of all time - American dude that had crazy legs back in the day.
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That would be Rick stetta
 
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