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Been thinking about video modes in pins - mainly because I just got BSD and I LOVE shooting the werewolves.
A few years a go I did my Top 5 best and worst vid modes for the Pinball Blog (RIP) so some of this might be familiar to anyone who read it then, and has a ridiculously good memory Still I thought I'd do it again just to spark some discussion on vid modes - love em or hate em that is the question !
Heres my 5 best and 5 worst ......
My TOP 5 VID MODES
1. Fish Tales
Just damn good fun blowing the cr*p out of the boats and waterskiers. Throw in the 'Jaws' music, some great sound effects and cool animations and its a winner. You need to concentrate to maximise points by nailing every one without wasting a shot, and not forgetting to get that Extra Ball as it floats past. Apparently shooting more of the rear boats triggers the EB to come out, but I'm not always convinced by this theory. Still - its great !
2. Bram Stokers Dracula
Ahhh the creatures of the night ! Shooting ever increasing numbers of snarling Werewolves with silver bullets. BOOM ! Whats not to like ? Wait to the last moment to fire to maximise points. First wave is not too tricky, but the 2nd and subsequent waves are insane
3. Attack From Mars
I just love the Missile Command retro stylings of this , spraying the sky with bullets to take down the saucers. And judging just the right moment to drop a bomb on their martian asses
4. Guns N Roses
Screaming down the freeway on yr roaring, ozone destroying, chrome and leather freak machine whilst mowing down pedestrians ! GNR blaring ! F*ck yeah, where do I sign up ? OK - so I have prob made it sound more exciting than it actually is within the confines of a bunch of orange dots....but I still love it ...and its a pretty tough vid mode to master.
5. Indiana Jones (Williams)
Hold on to yr potatoes Dr Jones ! Hey why settle for one video mode when you can have three ! And they are all pretty good - 'mine cart chase' is best (complete with Frog eater egg), the 'bar room shootout' has some cool gun noises, and the' choosing the chalice' is .....well ok it's a bit lame but the other 2 make up for it
My 5 WORST Video modes
1. Tommy
It pains me to put this here as it is one of my favourite pinball machines but ...... ...the question remains .....just how in the hell did Data East make blowing the bejeezus out of buildings and enemy planes so pitifully unexciting !?!
To make matters worse the scoring is so low that it makes little difference if you try to play it or just let yr plane drift along whilst you crack open another cold beer (I recommend this course of action) . After about 30 seconds it all just sort of ends, its like the designers started it and then just went ......meh ! this will do. Shame.
2. Theatre Of Magic
As if the worlds most annoying pinball machine wasn't painful enough .....they then decide to put in a lame digital pinball game. This is a REAL pinball machine ...why ? why ? why ? would they think the player wants to play a crappy dot matrix version that has no relation to the magic theme and has the sort of ball physics you would expect on a low gravity planet. Use the magic ...no thanks, use the off switch. Cr*p.
3. Dr.Who
Remember playing games on your ZX Spectrum in the early 80s ?? Yeah ...well most of them were better than this joke of a video mode. Badly animated Doc spazs along jumping over piles of rubbish whilst a Dalek tries to wee on him. Oh dear god, exterminate me .
4. Johnny Mnemonic
Talking of early 80s computer games , JM vid mode is straight out of the mid 70s....what the hell is this ?!? A bunch of dots bounce around and you try to bounce a square thingy cack handedly around after them. The graphics are beyond sh*t, the controls are pathetic, this makes me angry to even think about it. I'm not even gonna post a vid of it. Just imagine the worst arcade game ever. This is worse.
5 . Any Video Mode that just involves flailing at the flipper buttons like a hopped up monkey on a banana promise.
I'm looking at you Creature From The Black Lagoon, Lethal Weapon 3, Baywatch and prob some others that the designers just couldn't be ****d with. All stupidly easy, maybe if you had no arms you might not complete them but even then I'm not sure. I always hated Track N Field in the arcade.
A few years a go I did my Top 5 best and worst vid modes for the Pinball Blog (RIP) so some of this might be familiar to anyone who read it then, and has a ridiculously good memory Still I thought I'd do it again just to spark some discussion on vid modes - love em or hate em that is the question !
Heres my 5 best and 5 worst ......
My TOP 5 VID MODES
1. Fish Tales
Just damn good fun blowing the cr*p out of the boats and waterskiers. Throw in the 'Jaws' music, some great sound effects and cool animations and its a winner. You need to concentrate to maximise points by nailing every one without wasting a shot, and not forgetting to get that Extra Ball as it floats past. Apparently shooting more of the rear boats triggers the EB to come out, but I'm not always convinced by this theory. Still - its great !
2. Bram Stokers Dracula
Ahhh the creatures of the night ! Shooting ever increasing numbers of snarling Werewolves with silver bullets. BOOM ! Whats not to like ? Wait to the last moment to fire to maximise points. First wave is not too tricky, but the 2nd and subsequent waves are insane
3. Attack From Mars
I just love the Missile Command retro stylings of this , spraying the sky with bullets to take down the saucers. And judging just the right moment to drop a bomb on their martian asses
4. Guns N Roses
Screaming down the freeway on yr roaring, ozone destroying, chrome and leather freak machine whilst mowing down pedestrians ! GNR blaring ! F*ck yeah, where do I sign up ? OK - so I have prob made it sound more exciting than it actually is within the confines of a bunch of orange dots....but I still love it ...and its a pretty tough vid mode to master.
5. Indiana Jones (Williams)
Hold on to yr potatoes Dr Jones ! Hey why settle for one video mode when you can have three ! And they are all pretty good - 'mine cart chase' is best (complete with Frog eater egg), the 'bar room shootout' has some cool gun noises, and the' choosing the chalice' is .....well ok it's a bit lame but the other 2 make up for it
My 5 WORST Video modes
1. Tommy
It pains me to put this here as it is one of my favourite pinball machines but ...... ...the question remains .....just how in the hell did Data East make blowing the bejeezus out of buildings and enemy planes so pitifully unexciting !?!
To make matters worse the scoring is so low that it makes little difference if you try to play it or just let yr plane drift along whilst you crack open another cold beer (I recommend this course of action) . After about 30 seconds it all just sort of ends, its like the designers started it and then just went ......meh ! this will do. Shame.
2. Theatre Of Magic
As if the worlds most annoying pinball machine wasn't painful enough .....they then decide to put in a lame digital pinball game. This is a REAL pinball machine ...why ? why ? why ? would they think the player wants to play a crappy dot matrix version that has no relation to the magic theme and has the sort of ball physics you would expect on a low gravity planet. Use the magic ...no thanks, use the off switch. Cr*p.
3. Dr.Who
Remember playing games on your ZX Spectrum in the early 80s ?? Yeah ...well most of them were better than this joke of a video mode. Badly animated Doc spazs along jumping over piles of rubbish whilst a Dalek tries to wee on him. Oh dear god, exterminate me .
4. Johnny Mnemonic
Talking of early 80s computer games , JM vid mode is straight out of the mid 70s....what the hell is this ?!? A bunch of dots bounce around and you try to bounce a square thingy cack handedly around after them. The graphics are beyond sh*t, the controls are pathetic, this makes me angry to even think about it. I'm not even gonna post a vid of it. Just imagine the worst arcade game ever. This is worse.
5 . Any Video Mode that just involves flailing at the flipper buttons like a hopped up monkey on a banana promise.
I'm looking at you Creature From The Black Lagoon, Lethal Weapon 3, Baywatch and prob some others that the designers just couldn't be ****d with. All stupidly easy, maybe if you had no arms you might not complete them but even then I'm not sure. I always hated Track N Field in the arcade.