I have always wanted to get into pinball. But the few times I decided to really give it a go. I could do alright but most of my games seemed to end with a bounce that went straight down the middle out with nothing I can do about it.
When you watch professional pinball players. It doesnt matter what game it is they always seem to be able to avoid those shots even if its their first time on a machine.
So there has to be a method or developable skill to it. But I cant for the life of me understand it.
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If you see it going right down the middle, you need to smack the pinball machine to either side which pushes the flipper in the way of the ball.
If you want to learn more about ball control, check out this youtube playlist:
People tend to focus on the flippers. My game improved when I instead focused on the playfield about 6 inches above the flippers, especially during multi-ball play. Keeping the ball alive is more important in the long run than trying to hit a specific target/ramp.
The “6 inches up focus” gives you .1-.2 seconds extra in which to react. Raising a flipper early can catch the ball early enough on it’s downward path to deflect it and keep it out of the center pit. Having said that, if it’s going right down the middle, it’s going to drain.
I should also add that lots of machines (by stupidity or malice) ARE NOT balanced properly, especially left to right. In most places if you take a minute (and a small bubble level) you can fix this issue by twisting the adjustors at the bottom of the front and/or back legs.
Source: Am 57 year old player with loads of experience.
Yep lots of practice and intuition. Me and my dad went and played pinball every week for a semester and it’s wild how much better we got by the end of it.
Well, there are a few layers to it.
First off, most major tournaments have warm-up time. That’s when you literally try each machine and get a feel for where the shots are on *that machine.* (Shot timing varies machine to machine.) You’re not playing the game to earn points per se, but you’re playing the game to get a feel for where the shots are (the timing), and if warm-up times are short you often abandon games early to move onto the next one.
Secondly, even though you have warm-up time you’re constantly dialing in your shots while you’re playing. This isn’t really a conscious thing, but it’s more of an unconscious thing. Most people most shots you’re not thinking “shoot the ball when it gets to X spot” but rather “shoot the ball to the left ramp” and let the brain do the math. *Occasionally* for really off angle shots you might pick a spot on the flipper to flip to make X shot, but that’s *rare.*
Third, there aren’t *that* many pinball machines (and usually for tournaments you’re going to be on the newest of the new), so you have an idea of what to practice in general for the next few months. Combine that with warm up time and you can walk up to a machine and it looks like you’ve never seen it before but nothing could be farther from the truth.
Third+, since you’re probably playing on a machine you’re at least base familiar with, you already have an idea what’s a dangerous shot. *Don’t shoot there* unless you have a really really good reason to. If you’re shooting something up the middle that kills the ball’s momentum (the saucer in AFM, the boat in jaws, etc.) it often comes back uncontrolled, don’t shoot there unless it’s worth big points (or you’re in multiball, see below).
Fourth, strategy. If you keep aiming for shot X and missing, you stop aiming for shot X. This really applies to newer games (90s+), but almost all machines have many ways to score, if not score big. Sometimes if you just aren’t making shot Y you have to come up with a scoring strategy that doesn’t use shot Y. I once won a league game by hitting the center ramp of Mousin’ Around 35x in a row. The entrance isn’t far from the flipper and it’s wiiiiide, which made it a really safe shot. It only netted me around 3.5M, but that’s all I *needed* to win. It’s called chopping wood and it’s boring as fuck to play that way (both for the player and the watcher!), but I’d rather chop wood and advance than play wild and be eliminated.
Fifth, during multiball nearly everyone who’s any good at all will trap up as many balls as possible on the lower flippers, leaving only one ball and the upper flippers to shoot with. This works on most games (occasionally there’s a machine that forces you not to), and gives you almost the same level of control in multiball that you do in single ball play.
Sixth, there’s no substitute for practice, practice, practice.
Source: [Am ranked in the top 1000 players worldwide.](https://www.ifpapinball.com/rankings/overall.php)
Different games have different shots that are dangerous. People figure out how to avoid those, or find alternatives.
Maybe a shot from your right flipper to hit something is dangerous, but it’s safe with your left?
Maybe you can “backhand” a particular shot that’s otherwise dangerous?
Maybe shooting the ball to a target when the ball is moving puts a dangerous and unpredictable spin on it? (Pinballs are HEAVY, there is a lot of momentum in spin) Maybe other types of bounces adds spin that you need to consider?
And in situations when the ball might get into a dangerous spot, you can often nudge the table BEFORE the ball is about to bounce there, so it bounces to a less dangerous part of the table.
There’s also all sorts of moves that takes some practice to control the ball better, like different catches, passing the ball from one flipper to the other…
There’s a lot of things that good pinball players do that might not be immediately obvious.
TIL there are professional pinball players.
Where was this career path in the 80s when I could have had a full-ride scholarship!?
God I love pinball. From a barber shop back room where I learned playing for hours, right up to the digital stuff. Of course as an old guy I love the mechanical ones.
Wait… there are professional pinball players? Do they have merch? I could use a couple of posters and maybe a t-shirt. Anyone know when the Pinball World Championship will be coming through Denver?
Sounds like an 80’s teen movie. Just need to get them mixed up in a Soviet spy ring.
It’s all in the hips. Might i suggest practice on your gf it’s cheaper and once you got your hip game go and try again see if that middle still represents the problem
Pick a machine and play that a lot. They’re all different and even machines that are the same theme/brand/whatever have differences.
After a while you’ll start to understand where not to shoot the ball (a lot of machines are deliberately set up to have dangerous spots so you’ll fuck up) and what shots are going to get you lots of points.
Just takes a bit of practice.
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