Jurassic Park = Cool, Lost World = Not, What happened?

Phetishboy

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Jurassic Park = Cool, Lost World = Not, What happened?

Is Lost World really that bad? Why is it so shunned compared to JP? I've only played JP, but curious as to why Lost World seems to be so hated?
 
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I actually like the Lost World's Backglass better:

image-2.jpg

jurassictl.jpg
 
Lost World gets a bad rap. I don't have any time on JP, so I can't compare. Lost World is actually a tough game to complete. The dinosaur theme is always a hit with kids that come over to my house, and the shaker motor adds to that.

Maybe it is a case where the original is always better that the sequel.
 
I loved my JPLW. Only reason I sold it was to buy a grail. I've played a few games on JP, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting. I actually prefer the toys on LW. The snagger motor is unique, and the baby t-rex egg is quite satisfying, and has a fast kicker.
 
JP playfield is similar to TAF, just a good layout.. fun game and it was popular, a lot of people know it.
LW was less produced, not so many people have played it so can't comment on it..
 
To me, LW is an underrated game, but I can see why. (I've owned a NIB LW since '98.) LW isn't as "glitzy" as JP. The layout is straightforward fan style, like AFM/MM but without the big toy. (The egg is just a simple mech over the scoop, and the ball-lock 'Snagger" is really just a single drop target with a cool ball lock toy.) Neither one is a toy you can beat on.

LW isn't so popular because it's a true player's game. Not friendly to novices (the game is screaming fast) and there are no mega-points modes. I really like that the score is extremely balanced. You have to be very accurate to score well. (A killer game on easy settings is about 20M, rarely attained.)

LW has 5 separate modes, plus a multiball.Each mode takes certain shots to start, and then needs more shots to complete. Modes are either timed (Site B, GPS, egg scoop) or 2-ball (raptor, mobile lab). Finishing a mode scores 1M plus points scored during the mode. If you don't complete a mode, it's harder to start and/or finish it next time!

What's amazing in this game is there.s not a SINGLE SHOT that is shared between any two modes, either to start OR finish. So, you gotta be very accurate with every shot on the pf to score well. Finishing all 5 modes in a game starts the wizard multiball (San Diego). This has never happened on my game. (One world-class player spent almost all night trying to get to the wizard mode. He may have completed 4 modes in one game. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was set to 'easy'!)

LW is pretty brutal and fast, but an extremely balanced and fair game--great for tournaments. May be the ideal tourney game, even. Only high accuracy will result in good scores. There are no crazy stacking strategies or mega-jackpots, just a lot of shots to make to progress.

I like LW as a challenge game, and it does make you want to play again to do a bit better. But it's not as player-friendly as, say, JP or other easier games.
 
I actually like the Lost World's Backglass better:

Some games have a 3D lenticular version.

I like Lost World better. The music is truer to the film score and the modes/features are pretty cool. I think most people don't like it due to anti-Sega bias...and the playfield looks like a bucket of rainbow sherbet. :)
 
Some games have a 3D lenticular version.

I like Lost World better. The music is truer to the film score and the modes/features are pretty cool. I think most people don't like it due to anti-Sega bias...and the playfield looks like a bucket of rainbow sherbet. :)

Yeah I kinda figured it might be the Sega bias, but I thought there must be more to it. Horrible design, distorted sounds, shit breaking all the time, something. I am looking for a JP or LW and just wondered if I should abandon even considering a Lost World. Thanks for the insight.
 
Some games have a 3D lenticular version.

I like Lost World better. The music is truer to the film score and the modes/features are pretty cool. I think most people don't like it due to anti-Sega bias...and the playfield looks like a bucket of rainbow sherbet. :)

I have the 3D translite. And, I don't understand the "anti-Sega" bias in this context. Really, DE=Sega=Stern. Unless it's because several Sega games have fewer toys than a lot of the DE games?
 
This is all my opinion, but just from looking at the two games it's not even close. JP has nice hand drawn art, a quality look, and to me looks like it could stand up to a Bally or Williams game. Not a standard playfield layout, but something that has a lot of varied shots.

Lost World looks bad. The BG/Translite is cheesy (looks like a bad Wal-Mart poster, and is from the terrible San Diego ending part of the movie) and doesn't list the name of the game. The playfield isn't photoshopped, but it could have been. Bland, almost no inserts, absolutely zero going on for about 70% of the playfield. I love art/sound, and Lost World wouldn't cut it just by appearance.
 
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I'd get the LW, plus I'd get an upright JPLW light gun game to go with it (this is the one with the tube monitor). Kids absolutely love that gun game.

This is sort of off topic but of the three video arcade games they made for the Jurassic Park movies, the LW game is hands down the best one. So if you had the pin and the vid together from that movie, it would be kind of cool - even though the movie itself was only so-so.
 
I have the 3D translite. And, I don't understand the "anti-Sega" bias in this context. Really, DE=Sega=Stern. Unless it's because several Sega games have fewer toys than a lot of the DE games?

Sega's started to have a "cheesier" art style, and they do feel different than DE games. Stern games feel different than Sega games. They also had a sound design/quality that many people don't like.
 
Sega's started to have a "cheesier" art style, and they do feel different than DE games. Stern games feel different than Sega games. They also had a sound design/quality that many people don't like.

Yeah, I think Sega cut down to one backbox speaker for a while. I barely remember, but way back when, I put a 2nd speaker in my JP--just another cheap car speaker, wired in parallel to the factory one. I guess many DE games had more toys/mechs too: captive balls, scoops, spinners, diverters, vuk's everywhere! Some Sega games are pretty underrated imo, though.
 
By the way, the title of this thread in no way mirrors my feelings. I have never played JP:TLW, ever. I am just getting the vibe that the mainstream pin community feels this way and I'm wondering why.
 
By the way, the title of this thread in no way mirrors my feelings. I have never played JP:TLW, ever. I am just getting the vibe that the mainstream pin community feels this way and I'm wondering why.

Sega, Stern and Data East pins are commonly thought of as cheaper, less quality games in and out. They heavily reused rulesets, features and sounds and the cabinets have a cheaper playing feeling to them. Try playing JP and then play Last Action Hero with your eyes closed...it's practically the same game with heavily reused sound effects, right down to the smart missle feature in LAH which makes no sense at all. Many people who play Bally / WMS games are very surprised by the cheaper feel to them. My wife literally thought she was going to break Pirates of the Carribean on route the first time she played it. She couldn't believe how cheap it felt to her compared to what she was used to. She had only played my Bally / WMS pins before that. Some people will go to their grave saying Bally / WMS games don't have a better quality to them then the others, but I have to agree that DE, Stern and Sega definitely feel cheaper to me. That said, there are still some games made by those companies that are good and I would/do own. Unfortunately JPLW is not one of them. I do not care for that game at all, and I do like JP.
 
I have a friend who owns quite a few pins and he' s always complaining about how the Bally/Williams pins are always broken or malfunctioning and how great the new Sterns he owns are. Of course, the rest of us tell him its just the age difference between the two that make the difference, and if his malfunctioning Ballys/ Williams pins were repaired properly every now and then, he would probably not have any complaints with his older games.

From what I have played, I have to say I like many of the manufacturers and think its more about the way the games play and their themes that decide If I like them.

In horror genres, I like SS, TFTC, Freddy and the looks of quite a few others.
I like Star Wars, and JP by DE. And I even saw a Big Bang Bar that really does seem as awesome as its been made out to be. But their is no substitute for Bally Williams pins. It doesn't matter weather its DMD or System 11. I think they reached the pinnacle of the art form and everyone else has just been trying to catchup ever since. As long as its like '85 forward, a good Bally is hard to beat.
 
Wow. Talk about derailing. :p

I can feel the similarity between some sega titles and modern sterns. Sound and art direction is where I see a huge difference between sega/de/gottlieb and bally Williams of the 90's. Bw had a better sense of art direction overall.

Aside from that, it's all bullshit. All of them made great tables. There isn't anything inferior in one company's base design decisions. There isn't one gameplay design element that can be pinpointed as inferior across the board. It's just that in the end bw made a lot more quality titles. That's not bias, it's just how it turned out.

With all that said, I've only played jp. I can see the taf similarities, but I didn't have as much of a good time as taf. Never played lw, but after reading the description in this thread, I really want to.
 
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