Got a updated score

This is a well made video pinball game for a 1983 release with the interesting variety of targets, the large two-screen playfield, and the bonus stage with Mario. The only glaring omission is not being able to nudge the ball. It doesn't exactly push the NES in terms of graphics and sound, but it's still quite playable and enjoyable for what it is. Were there any better pinball video games from that time? Maybe Pinball Construction Set for computers (which I've never played).

Update: 383,740

Good lord. I guess I just suck at this. I'm beating 200,000 so I can call this "beat' and then I'm calling it for the week

135,560
128,540

I like this game.
Hopefully I can find more time to play it this week.
At least participation is posted for now.

Some of the old timers posted insane scores.

I played a bit last night and only managed a scratch above 100K. When I went to take the picture my phone died! Guess I'll have to try again!  

Getting well over 100k in this game is tough and quite a bit of luck is involved. Does anyone here score high consistently? I usually get crap scores and it's a rare thing to get a decent score that is worth posting. But that's pinball for you.

When I got over 200k, I had all the cards flipped over and the bumper between the bottom flippers so I could keep the ball in play for a long time once the flippers disappeared. It's best to have the bumper and the two side things for protection when the flippers disappear or you're probably toast, but even that requires a fair amount of luck to happen.

I wondered why sometimes the flippers hit the ball lightly and sometimes it's full force. I thought that it may have to do with how I'm pressing the button but I wasn't sure. I just found this in the FAQ: "Flippers can be flipped in two ways. If you press the button normally they will fully flip, but if you just tap the button they will only flip halfway."


 

I can consistently get 100-200k.  But for every 100K ball I have, I have 1 or 2 that take a direct route to a hole, nothing I can do.  Pinball games NEED a nudge ability

 

Agreed. It needed the nudge as a way to counter ball losses that you have no control over otherwise. It's a pretty decent pinball game except for that.



 

333,260

I do like this game, but the luck factor is a drag. Your luck can turn from good to bad at any moment. You can never count on a good run continuing. You can be doing great and racking up a bunch of points on your first ball, and then the game decides to screw you over with a bunch of crap that you have no control over. It's frustrating

Also, I've noticed that the more that you need the ball to be somewhere, the harder it is to get it there. The last card is always the toughest to flip. Losing a ball when you only have to flip one more card to get the big bonus and the bumper is painful.

Cool channel. I subscribed. I enjoyed the Ninja Gaiden let's play. Much more competent than most on Youtube, especially the final boss fights.



 

Morseus will be happy to hear that! He worked hard to get good enough at the game so the playthrough was high quality.

Yeah he did a good job. With a little more practice he should be able to 1cc or even no-death the game no problem. He already has the tough stuff figured out. Maybe he already has.

He demonstrated how laughably easy that infamous jump from 6-2 is once you know the solution. For me it's one of the easiest parts of act 6. The worst is the jetpack ninjas. No matter how good you are, you can still succumb to a cheap death from the 6-2 jetpack ninjas.
 

Ha, I remember playing this at length, but I didn't post a score. Probably didn't get anything good and thought "screw it"  

Having a killer run right now. I'm so paranoid about a freeze or something that I'm pausing and taking a picture every 30 seconds


Update:

563,700


 

Edit: Took to the desktop this time. iTunes kept me company for a while.

I'm done. Good luck everyone!

595,310

Oh shit Pinball! I can get on board with this, I actually really wanted to play Lunar Pool and just never got around to it.

I just can't string together a super high score. I've had runs where I had over 160k with three balls left, and still managed to blow it. Your luck can run out at any time in this game.

Oh man, Lunar Pool was a tough one that kicked almost everyone's ass. You only get the bonus points if you can successfully pocket one ball after another without missing a shot. Otherwise you get barely any points for pocketing a ball. You can progress far into the game level-wise and still have a low score if you're blowing your shots. I had to grind the hell out of it to get second place. Brock and skinny could barely stand to play it. I liked it much better than Baseball and Golf.

 

Lunar Pool was ridiculous.
I managed to crack it open badly, but since then I didn't have the stomach to put another full run on it to record on video, because doing so takes well over 3 hours and it grows old after a while.
The scoring system on it is just broken. If you miss a shot, you will be only scoring 10 x ball number for the next ball you drop.
I will still do that recording and post here, along with the Paperboy one (Guil got to see a "failed" test run where I only scored 194K points on Paperboy, at least.  ), but that will take a while.

I will be far less active in the future games as well, because as of this week, I enrolled in belly dance and pole dance classes, so my evenings are full now. Not much free time for videogames.  
Good luck to you guys this week.  



 

The Mexican Runner beat the entire game with a score of around 62k. I got 48k and I think that I only made it to stage 21. That was actually a pretty good score although it should have been higher. Instead of trying to beat the game, I focused on practicing individual stages and trying to get perfects.


 

262,580

By far my best run of NES Pinball ever.  Even if I don't place this week it's good enough for me!   

48K is a pretty good score there, yeah.
You might make less than that if you beat the game without hitting consecutive shots, even.

 

Lunar Pool is one of those games that's an absolute perfect candidate for a TAS.