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Making a pinball table *slower*?

PBrookfield

PBrookfield

Resident Uneconomical Repair Representative
5Years
Joined
Mar 23, 2017
Messages
1,341
Location
Wolverhampton, UK
I overdid it on F14. The spinner spins for years and if the Yagov kicker doesn't ignore your flipper completely and fly over it, it's got enough energy to backhand itself right back into the Yagov.


It makes me moist in my underwear but my wife and brother are now too afraid to go near it.

All I can think of is making the slingshots less keen, but everything else seems like deliberate vandalism. Slope adjustments on F14 are out because it makes the side drains impossible to handle, unless the slingshots are just flat-out turned off
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
Fit weaker coils ?
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It feels like this may be the only realistic choice... and you know what... as someone that doesn't have spare, weaker coils laying around, it ain't happening!

May just have to put it on five ball with a huge insurance period for the missus and bruv!!
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
What coils would you be after ?, many folk on here ..myself included ...have used but perfectly good ones knocking about / gathering dust in parts boxes? Ask and you may find one :)
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Shhh, I'm telling my wife it costs too much to replace the coils and to deal with it...!

stoptap said:
As it is a Steve Ritchie pin there is only one thing to say.

Play Better !

:clap:
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100% agreed, I'm happy as hell that the playfield protector has only made it more wild, not slowed it down... but at the same time I'd love it if my wife and brother got into pinball a bit more. Unfortunately my first choice of table is not a beginner's friend...

In all seriousness though the spinner feels like cheating, especially when it's lit for 1k.

kevlar said:
Install powerballs, that'll sort it :D
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Believe me the only reason I haven't already done exactly that for the giggles (and possibly to leave it in as a novelty for when I eventually take it to a pin event!) it is that I haven't yet found a supplier of ceramic bearings that would talk to me for a small amount of balls, and I don't predict the interest from pinheads in buying a box of them and selling them as parts (and I don't have that kind of money to flush.) I'm not paying £25+ for one spare TZ/Avatar ball.

I do very much want at least one for later in the year when I put a P-ROC in this table... I have plans for it... so many plans, mwa-ha-ha-ha
 
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PBrookfield said:
Shhh, I'm telling my wife it costs too much to replace the coils and to deal with it...!


100% agreed, I'm happy as hell that the playfield protector has only made it more wild, not slowed it down... but at the same time I'd love it if my wife and brother got into pinball a bit more. Unfortunately my first choice of table is not a beginner's friend...

In all seriousness though the spinner feels like cheating, especially when it's lit for 1k.


Believe me the only reason I haven't already done exactly that for the ****s and giggles (and possibly to leave it in as a novelty for when I eventually take it to a pin event!) it is that I haven't yet found a supplier of ceramic bearings that would talk to me for a small amount of balls, and I don't predict the interest from pinheads in buying a box of them and selling them as parts (and I don't have that kind of money to flush.) I'm not paying £25+ for one spare TZ/Avatar ball.

I do very much want at least one for later in the year when I put a P-ROC in this table... I have plans for it... so many plans, mwa-ha-ha-ha
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Not sure if you've seen this thread, but if not it would probably be of interest to you: http://www.pinballinfo.com/community/threads/f-14-tomcat-shop-log.9453/

and on the darkside: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/t...d-sortie-information-and-on-going-development
 
aaronhicksuk said:
Not sure if you've seen this thread, but if not it would probably be of interest to you:
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I have indeed! Bride of Pinbot v2 was my inspiration and realisation that pinball machines are just boxes of switches ready for rulesets, and how fundamentally simple it is to make a game when you don't have to model physics :D I found that guys work shortly after.

His work in getting a P-ROC working with a System11 is invaluable and solidified my decision to eventually go down this route.

Though I dare say even with my delay in starting I will probably finish before he does... he's going with a lot of modifications to the playfield and to my surprise, I've decided that I really do not like LEDs at all, and the only mod I can see myself going with is a auto-launcher, which allows for extremely creative use of the ball locks, and allows for a 7-ball game with the correct logic - and maybe adding an LCD panel somewhere under the glass for extra info, not removing the segment displays. I don't want to make any irreversible changes to the game, and after some brainstorming, there is a huge amount that can be done with the stock materials.

I'm also a programmer by trade so with all of the electronics pre-made like this, I will probably complete the code in about a week. In 2017 five pounds gets you enough computing power in a Raspberry Pi Zero to use a high-level language efficiently.
 
PBrookfield said:
Unfortunately my first choice of table is not a beginner's friend...
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I thought that when you first joined - a great game, but a truly hard case. I found the same with Black Knight, the most numerous of the 2-level games.

steve brum said:
casual players don't like F14 as its too fast for them . diddums! go and play Cyclone!
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The intent was declared on the flyer. "It's Fast, It's Furious, and it Fights Back!"

Re. the slingshot coils, on this game they use the 25v solenoid power. There are 23 gauge coils with more turns, 850 and 900. Later System 11 games have 26-1500 coils on slingshots, but they use 50v power and an extra driver stage. I'm not sure how suitable such coils would be for use with 25v.
 
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steve brum said:
casual players don't like F14 as its too fast for them . diddums! go and play Cyclone!
Click to expand...

Jay Walker said:
I thought that when you first joined - a great game, but a truly hard case. I found the same with Black Knight, the most numerous of the 2-level games.



The intent was declared on the flyer. "It's Fast, It's Furious, and it Fights Back!"
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I'm not using my wife and brother as some sort of excuse cover here - I'm the one that wants to put Powerballs in the darn thing!
It was just a post looking for ideas for helping to make the game - reversibly! - more friendly for new players. Because I'm new to the scene, I didn't get a chance to build up a collection of tables when they were cheap enough whereby storage space was your primary concern. I simply don't have the money - or space if I'm honest - for owning two tables.

And if it's got to be just one table - and my money - then it's F14
 
To make any game more friendly and fun for new players, do what I do when kids play my tables: 5 balls, and rubber bands across the outlanes.
 
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