Played 2 more big ticket pins for the first time.

shardian

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Today I met Wade at the local go-kart/arcade during lunch. I got word they had switched out their pins again.
Their current line-up:

Attack From Mars - shopped out
Batman - Still sucks, did not play
Fishtales - they've had it for a while, but it was working this time. Used it as a coat rack. Did not play.
Monster Bash - Fully working but had some broken parts.


I was really excited to play a real Attack From Mars finally. With it even being about the cleanest route game I have ever seen, I was fairly underwhelmed. Maybe I built this game up too big in my head I don't know, but it wasn't very fun at all...

Monster Bash on the other hand, was a BLAST! Definitely has one of the highest 'fun factors' of any game I have played. The VUK ramp was bent horribly, and the VUK launched the ball directly at the glass! :eek: I can confirm the glass is tempered on this one.

Being that the VUK scoop was bent, it was nearly impossible to hit that shot. Other than that, the flippers were slightly weak. They had all of their pins adjusted so the outlanes were as wide as possible. However, the replay on MB was set at a stationary 5 million. In other words, unless you just absolutely laid a stinker game you got a replay! We played head to head 3 rounds near the end (for free), and I expect Wade played for free well after I left.

My only wish was that the audio would have been a bit louder on MB. I could hear it, but not very well.
 
You broke my brain.

Attack From Mars is a million times better than Monster Bash aside from some of the easy payoffs you get with the MB theme. I wouldn't pay the typical asking price for either, but I consider MB to be the second most overpriced pin out there (after Cactus Canyon) when you consider staying power versus price.

Monster Bash is a ton of fun...in the short term. Attack From Mars, while the shots can get repetitive, holds up much better over time.
 
We'll agree to disagree. I've played them literally side by side, and that is my opinion.

Either way, both lose a big point because of the lame-ass pushbutton ball launcher. Even Data East games had plungers*!! :D


*Or at least really neat launch buttons - gun on LW3, door knocker on TFTC...
 
I agree with you Shar. I find AFM boring and I will never add one to my collection. I do play it fairly regularly at a local bar but my alternatives there are Big Buck Hunter and Golden Tee, so the choice is fairly obvious.

I do find Monster Bash entertaining at least. it is fairly easy but the humor and music are good. I'd consider adding one to the collection for visitors to my arcade even though it wouldn't get much play by me.
 
AFM and MB are both great games.....but I would give the nod to AFM. Monster Bash is just a tad to easy. AFM has a good layout, with good flow, However I like the artwork on MB better though. Consider yourself lucky to find a location that has these on location!
-Mark
 
AFM is the game I will have in my BorKade sometime to make my life complete. It is the machine I want most. It is not the best game out there or the funnest, but I absolutely love it. Lots of shots, fast, not cluttered, funny, and the multiballs are fun.

I do not think it is worth the current price it fetches. I would not pay over $2K for one.

I have decided AFM to be my dream game for a couple reasons though. I have yet to beat it, rule the universe. I was soooooo close one time. I think that makes me crazy about it. 2nd reason is that I have always not gone with what is considered the norm when looking for something. I have my own likes. Growing up I knew I would never get the hot blond girlfriend so I started finding cute brunettes more attractive. Scored a total geek brunette babe as my wife (although she has been a redhead for the past 13 years) and could not be happier. I think that is why I like AFM so much, she might not be a MM or circus Voltare, but I find her to be quite the catch. if only I could catch one :(
 
AFM and MB are both great games.....but I would give the nod to AFM. Monster Bash is just a tad to easy. AFM has a good layout, with good flow, However I like the artwork on MB better though. Consider yourself lucky to find a location that has these on location!
-Mark

Most of the time the flippers are weak or something is messed up, dirty, etc. on location pins. I called this local minature golf place that has pins and reported that 4-out of the 5 pins they had were weak flips or the flippers one wouldn't work at all. He e-mailed me today and said all 5 pins went through a flipper rebuild so my wife,kids and I are going to play pinball family night-dinner and pinball, and come home and play HS! They have attack and escape from mars there, Spiderman, theatre of magic,rollercoaster tycoon. I told them get them pins flippers working your killing thefun factor damn it!
 
I'm a big fan of both games, but Monster Bash is my all-time favorite pin. I've played it many many times, and it never gets old. I'd take MB over AFM any day of the week. One of these days I'll have one in my game room. One magnificent day.
 
It has been pointed out to me by a certain interested party that I did not point out who won the head to head challenge.

Wade won 2-1. Are you happy now Wade? :rolleyes:

I was able to show off my sweet catching technique a few times though, he has to give me that.
 
It has been pointed out to me by a certain interested party that I did not point out who won the head to head challenge.

Wade won 2-1. Are you happy now Wade? :rolleyes:

I was able to show off my sweet catching technique a few times though, he has to give me that.

I hadn't even seen the thread yet when I mentioned that... I was actually thinking more along the lines of how I beat your best score by a factor of what... 5x? :) :)

We had two credits left when you left, so I played 2 player games since the match replay happens more often that way. Pretty good fun for location games, in a lot of ways I enjoy the games I play on location more than at someone's house. I guess it's just because there's a little bit of pressure to play well.

The replay did go up after you left. I saw it at 9M and 11M, it might have gone up one more time but I didn't notice it on the display. So it's a very slow mover. My guess is there will never be enough great players there to drive it up very high. So we can get more Monster Bash than we could ask for, for only a few dollars. Far cheaper than owning!! Since we got about 10 games per dollar, we'd have to play about 30,000 games just to break even. It takes a lot of effort and time just to put 1000 games on a home machine.

(PS - I know the catches were just pure luck.) :)

Wade
 
(PS - I know the catches were just pure luck.) :)

Wade

C'mon man, I DO have pinballs at home to practice with! I do flipper and sling passes at home on a regular basis. I even taught Michelle how to pass on the PotC. I can catch on the LW3, but Whodunnit has odd flipper action that I haven't encountered on any other game. The ball gets extra bouncy down there, and it is difficult to catch or cradle.

Maybe I need to point out your game was pure luck too!
 
Whodunnit has odd flipper action that I haven't encountered on any other game. The ball gets extra bouncy down there, and it is difficult to catch or cradle.

Could be an issue w/ the ball force pushing the flipper enough to open (or is it close) the EOS switch...I had this problem on my BK2K. The flipper doesn't look like it's moving, but when the ball hit it, it would pulse quickly enough to make the ball bounce - making catches near impossible. The problem was the coil had the wrong type of sleeve, which cause the flipper bat to not move as high up as it should have.
 
C'mon man, I DO have pinballs at home to practice with! I do flipper and sling passes at home on a regular basis. I even taught Michelle how to pass on the PotC. I can catch on the LW3, but Whodunnit has odd flipper action that I haven't encountered on any other game. The ball gets extra bouncy down there, and it is difficult to catch or cradle.

"Odd flipper action" = strong flippers and good rubber. The MB had weak flippers which helped your catches!

Okay, I'll give you some credit. I wouldn't even attempt a dead stop catch like that. So the fact that you even tried to do it (so you say... ;) ) and then did it, shows you have some skills. Even if it didn't help your score. :)

Maybe I need to point out your game was pure luck too!

Not even! Total skill. :) I haven't even touched a pinball machine in months. I just needed some games to warm up and learn the machine a little.

This is one thing I'm loving about my 720. Pinball is so random! A person won't get a lucky high score on the 720 (sans a game board malfunction), and I'm gradually seeing my score improve. I get some satisfaction every time my score goes up.

I do miss having a pinball to play whenever I feel like it, though!

Wade
 
id love to own an attack from mars or revenge from mars someday!! both are the dopest a$$ pins ive played to date.. family guy is also pretty fun...
 
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