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Launch Ball?

maskeddev

maskeddev

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This barely seems thread-worthy but since I've found you lot over in this corner of the internet, I gotta know if this is something that bothers others or not...

When a machine has a button instead of a proper plunger, it's dropped a point before a game has begun imo. What was the idea behind having a button saying "LAUNCH BALL" instead of a proper plunger?! I like pushing a button as much as the next chap but I don't see why.

Guns, fishing rods, buttons.... whatever, they're all worse than a straight-up plunger to me. Games with no plungers rob us of our first choice don't they?

Loads of popular pins don't have the traditional plunger. I know it's a small thing... but a freakin' dumb design choice every single time imo.

Yeah, I'm a n00b. Go easy lads, just gotta get that burning question off me chest and couldn't see an appropriate thread to post it in. Also don't know any fancy pinhead terms yet :)
 
A lot of games with a launch button will lead to a flipper skill shot. So the skill part of it comes from hitting the shot you are required to. The ball is directly fed to a flipper so it doesn't matter how it gets there.
 
Is there any game's with an auto launch and a plunger?
Click to expand...

There's loads that use the plunger for launching your normal ball and the auto launch for multiball. Pretty common on Data East, Stern (and I'm guessing Sega) games :thumbs:
 
I have three games with both types of shooter- scared stiff, world poker tour, twilight zone (early example as it has separate lanes for the manual and auto shooters)
 
"What was the idea behind having a button saying "LAUNCH BALL" instead of a proper plunger?! "

I'm pretty sure it saved a few manufacturing dollars.
 
Faster gameplay (ball shoots immediately rather than folk walking away, taking a drink etc)

Better multiballs - no need for fancy mechs to retain saved balls (cost saving) no subways to move locked balls (cost saving) etc, multiball triggers more quickly, no stealing balls, more multiballs in multi player games

Good as a ball saver both on game start and as a "kickback" (definitely cost saving)

Gives more space for other mechs on the playfield

I do not see any downside to them other than the loss of the proper kickback (like bk2k which has a real one whereas scared stiff relies on the ball shooter kicker, despite having a hole in the apron designed to take a kickback mech)
 
DRD said:
I do not see any downside to them other than the loss of the proper kickback (like bk2k which has a real one whereas scared stiff relies on the ball shooter kicker, despite having a hole in the apron designed to take a kickback mech)
Click to expand...

Scared Stiff it was a cost saving thing right? Rather than having to buy a whole extra coil they just put additional wear on the ball trough and kickout from there. I guess they decided it quite late into production after the aprons were done, might be interesting to see someone wire in a coil and add the code for it to work as it was meant to before it was stripped out.
 
One of my favorite parts of WCS is that there is no auto-plunge so when you get to the World Cup final you have to decide when to plunge more balls onto the playfield.
Too many at once and they get in the way of one another making it more difficult to score a goal, too few and you're waiting for the balls to come back to the flippers.
The wizard mode would be completely different if balls were just fired in soon as you drained.
 
Jsyjay said:
One of my favorite parts of WCS is that there is no auto-plunge so when you get to the World Cup final you have to decide when to plunge more balls onto the playfield.
Too many at once and they get in the way of one another making it more difficult to score a goal, too few and you're waiting for the balls to come back to the flippers.
The wizard mode would be completely different if balls were just fired in soon as you drained.
Click to expand...
I do the same with TOTAN, only keep two balls in play during Genie battle. Makes it much easier to get the job done.
 
I think some em games like twin win have an auto plunger via the flippers. I think spectrum is first electronic game to do so and t2 the first to do it in the traditional plunger lane
 
DRD said:
I do not see any downside to them other than the loss of the proper kickback (like bk2k which has a real one whereas scared stiff relies on the ball shooter kicker, despite having a hole in the apron designed to take a kickback mech)
Click to expand...

Except the major downside, that if the mechanism fails for one of a multitude of reasons the game is unplayable.
 
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