Score updated on page 2, almost cracked 8 million... (had over 7 million on my first ball)

So I'm taking the approach that anything less than 1 million on my first ball is an automatic reset. I have yet to play a full game. I simply am not getting the bounces as the game is determined to send my ball to the toilet. That bottom playfield was a piss poor design. Whoever came up with it should get their 2 balls quickly drained with a dirty syringe.

I'm late to the party, but that's a damn good score arch. My thumbs want to fall off just from looking at that!

I agree with the bottom board, that can go suck an egg.

As for resetting after the first ball, it's your decision Guts, but I prefer to play through.  On my 4M run, I didn't reach 1M until my second ball, then I went to town on my final ball and got multiple reshoots.  Plus earlier today I had my second best run, which ended at about 3.3M after only getting 12K (I think that's what it was, but I know it was well under 100K) on my first ball.  So it's to each their own, but I wanted to put that out there.

Well I normally have played through,but I want my first ball to be the damage maker because then I'll have the max reserve balls to do more damage once I lose the initial ball.

Still haven't played a complete game yet. I haven't even broke 300k on my first ball. The game keeps jobbing me.

Yeah, I understand that.  With the way all the scores have been going so far, its about the only way to even think about reaching some of those.  I just wish on the majority of my runs most of my damage didn't come from just one ball

The worst shot I took from the game was on my best first ball, in which including the reshoots, ended a little over 2M, but my final score was only 2.3M.  The game giveth, the game taketh away and makes me want to punch the designer.

Taking a break from this game. It absolutely refuses to let me get out of the bottom playfield. It's so ridiculous that I'm starting to wonder if I have a corrupt rom as I'm consistently a victim of a cheap drain.

Probably jealous of the other roms that you play more

The absolute most important thing to do first, is lock a ball (easiest with the left side bucket on the normal top screen) and then work toward a multiball on the bonus screen.

Once you have a multiball you are "safe" since even if you get to the bottom, you only have to get one ball away from that screen and it automatically get moved to the up-down shooter on the middle screen.


While you have multiball, focus on getting the cherries from the slots...makes the bottom screen considerably more survivable.


The "naked" bottom screen is pretty tough, but if it was always easier (ie without the cherries) the game would never end for strong players, since as it is it can take hours.





Ideally, you'd juggle your multiball up in the bonus area until you've maxed the bonus multiplier (6 rounds of the bonus field -- 1 = shoot again, 2-5 = advance multiplier), then you'd intentionally drop down a screen, immediately send one ball back UP for safety, and then hit the HAI bonus repeatedly.  Somewhere in there you'd secure the cherries for additional safety.

If you ever lose your multiball, priority number one is resecuring another multiball for safety.



This table would NOT be a money maker in a real arcade !



EDIT:  I know it seems like I give a lot of strategy and tips in some of these contests, but I get a kick out of seeing everybody do the best they can with more information.

No progress made last night. I had a 2.8M game and a couple of 1M+ games. I played for almost 4 hours.

I completely understand how to play this game now and I can make most of the shots I want. I just haven't been successful for a good long stretch yet. I am going to keep trying. I REALLY want to advance after bombing out in the 2nd round last time.

That's what I'm afraid of. About the time I burn several hours straight without making any progress it's going to be tough to get motivated to play anymore. I wish that I could just sit on my 6 million points and take the next few days off, but the way these scores keep going up it's tough to believe that any score is safe.

I have a hard time believing that 6 million won't be good enough to progress, given the past high score history with this game.


I feel like there are a couple of breakpoints in performance on this one:

1) < 500k -- before you really work out the table mechanics and scoring

2) < 2 mil -- you've figured out how to get the SKY HIGH bonus and multiball, at least once, maybe you've
played the slots

3) < 5 mil -- you can get more than 2 or 3 million on a single ball by really working the bonus multipliers and SKYHIGH bonus game

4) > 5 mil -- whether you get 5, 10, or 15 million becomes a function of luck and endurance, since you've pretty much "solved" the table at this point... it just becomes a question of how soon you get the cherries, how well you can recover from the bottom screen when you are unlucky enough to be there, and how quickly you can secure the multiball and shoot-again for safety.



The leap from (3) to (4) is not really a small one, IMO, since that is the difference in not just knowing the table mechanics but really being able to get "in the zone" for a long play session (and repeatably and consistently get the SHOOT AGAIN bonus to extend your game)



It's one thing for 6 million to not be the top score in your tier.  But for all 4 other players to break that threshold means that people are scoring like monsters, left and right.

Single games are stretching longer than an hour to get to 6 million, as it is.  That really limits how many iterations can go in for a week, so affords its own buffer, too.

Very true. I didn't officially time it, but I think that run took me about an hour and a half.

That last sentence has been running through my head the last couple of days as well.  While it's frustrating to spend an hour or more on a run that's not the personal best, I still have plenty of motivation but not so much time.

In Tier 1, I especially feel that if I even get to 6M+ that it's still not going to be good enough.

In Tiers 2 and 3, I would feel at least a little bit more comfortable with a 6M score.  But so far everyone has been one-upping each other so who knows?

I felt like the leap to > 5 million was a lot more challenging than the leap to > 2 or 3 million.

So with less than 5 or 6 million, I would absolutely feel at risk of Balloon Kid finally having a strong run and getting into the 3 million range, especially knowing that CLAYB1RD has approached 9 million in a previous contest.



Even compared with the last times this was played in the contest, though, it is amazing to see how well everybody is scoring.

Based on the scores that have already been posted, I think anyone is capable of having a breakout game at this point and that's all it takes. It's going to be a nervous next few days for sure.

I don't know, I think it's tougher to break into the 2M mark or so.  It takes time to get a feel for the table and how to go about building a score first.  By the time you can get to 2M you've learned how to make good shots and how to work the board well enough, and from there it's a matter to maintaining the run, recovering quickly, and hopefully keeping out of some bad luck.  I have the skill I think, so now it's just a matter of avoiding mistakes and keeping with the strategy.  The run of good luck will come eventually.

I agree with everything else though.  I am very uncomfortable.  I am gunning for BriGuy right now.  I know CLAYB1RD will get his score higher soon and Balloon Kid is a very good gamer and I am sure he will make the leap very soon, if he hasn't already.  I don't see myself getting any higher than 4th place in this tier this week.  But I am going to keep trying and keep pushing!

^^^ I really just want to see how many people manage to break the current world record within a week of dedicated play...

I've been doing all the things you recommended this whole week. My problem is I've been getting very unfortunate bounces. I can't recall how many times I've had everything set up and all I need to do is light up 1-2 more letters or even just put the ball in the top hole of the top playfield only to have my ball fall to the side and down to the next playfield. A couple of bad bounces and I'm in the toilet where balls go to die. I've even had a couple of instances where my ball went rolling over the right side of the 2nd to lowest playfield and proceeded to drop directly down that middle hole and into the drink. As far as my next good run I know it's just a matter of time,but getting everything setup only to have everything blown up due to a few bad breaks is maddening.

That is the single unluckiest drop on the table, because it is truly out of your hands.

That is how I end up dying most of the time, now that I can recover from most other things consistently.


But without the ability to nudge the table, there is really nothing you can do about that bad-fall.



I feel like the two most imporant "skills" on this table were:

1) consistently getting from the middle back to the top -- basically the left-hand Up-Down socket.  If you learn to juggle consistently, you can get back to the top probably 95% of the time (with 1-in-20 juggling actions the RNG shoots you in the face and you fall down the far right to the bottom screen)

2) consistently getting back from the bottom -- this is where you juggle to get a fast moving ball on the left flipper to send up the far-right chute... "consistent" here is only a 50/50, in my experience, unless you have all the safeties in place from the cherries.  Basically with 5 or 6 juggling attempts you'll either make it to the top, or be unlucky enough to encounter that unrecoverable bad-drop you mentioned, and it's pretty evenly split... 


So I rank mid-table mastery higher, just because if you can do that, you very rarely ever even see the bottom screen.

Thinking about it now,I may have just simply been rushing last night and making careless shots after my first few failed attempts. I was also trying to work the HAL slots,but more often than not my ball would fall to the next playfield.

Yeah, it is higher risk to work that bonus slot if you don't have the cherries to guarantee the Up-Dn only goes UP, and if you don't have the extra security of a multi-ball.

I really wouldn't even try without the multi-ball as a back-up, whether I had cherries, or not.


Finding the different spots on the left flipper to consistently get all 3 letters is a pain, though.

I can get the 'I" almost 100% of the time I want to.
I am maybe 30/70 on the "A"... but that "H" is tough to get unless it's by accident

made an update...hopefully that's the last one 'cause I really started to lose patience on the last ball. I'm wondering if anyone will try and break arch's record just for fun lol.

on a side note,this has been really fun seeing what everyone is posting so far.

completely agree...and sometimes on the plunger start..it seems to bounce differently each time. I don't know if hitting your flippers alot will cause the ball to move differently. I tried it and kept a normal routine each time to see if anything happen but almost slightly different each time I started a new ball,regardless if I pulled the plunger all the way back.

I know it says HAI but I've always just called it HAL anyway since I'm sure that is implied unless there is an underlying story about it that I am unaware of. Maybe they substituted the L for the I on the playfield because it would fit easier or look better graphically.