Video Modes
Alan
0:00
21s Hello and welcome back to another episode of the official Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. My name is Alan. I am one half of the Portland pinball bar Wedgehead, of which the podcast is named. I'm joined by my co-host, The Waterboy. Alex the Waterboy.
Alex
0:36
Yeah man, a man of many names.
Alan
0:38
Many, many names.
Alex
0:40
One half of the podcast, not one half of the bar itself.
Alan
0:42
Yeah. My business partner Rhodes, who you will hear on many episodes in the future. He's a busy man and he's a family man. So our schedules aren't always linking up, but it's nice to have Alex's basement studio, which is where we record. And what are we talking about today, Alex?
Alex
0:59
Today we're talking about the best thing that's ever happened to pinball: Video Modes!
Alan
1:05
Oh, God, that intro! (Laughs)
Alex
1:08
That’s the title. Now you're locked in.
Alan
1:10
Okay, we are talking about video modes today. I will say that these might even be more divisive than our first topic: Lightning Flippers.
Alex
1:20
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the general population's opinion is on video modes. I know what mine is.
Alan
1:26
It's split. What's yours?
Alex
1:29
Well, when I'm playing pinball, all I want to do is play a little video game. God. And you know, that's what the video modes deliver. Video modes. If you're like, if you somehow are listening to this podcast and haven't run into a video mode, it's when the game stops flipping the flippers and you get to actually play a fun experience instead of the hellish world of pinball. Not that stupid pinball that you played $0.50 or a dollar to play, you now get to play a very cool little video game up on the display screen. Traditionally, the old dmd's, but occasionally on a new LCD, and yeah, it's usually super simplistic. The best ones are like 10 seconds long. We'll get to that in a minute. But yeah, that's what a video mode is. And I do unironically think they can be great. I also acknowledge many of them are horrible though.
Alan
2:19
Okay. There it is. I was like, are we gonna have to put an audio tag for sarcasm in this episode?
Alex
2:26
I do like them though, I would say as far as like within our group, because I'd say most people within our pinball circle hate video modes with a passion. And I genuinely do enjoy a lot of them. Including some of the games that you have at Wedgehead specifically.
Alan
2:43
Well, some of some of the games that we've had recently are the ones that actually have some pretty good video modes.
Alex
2:48
That's what I'm saying! See, see, you already are conceding your position!
Alan
2:53
Yes, yes. Video modes man. They are something that was sandwiched in the pinball based on how badly video games were basically kicking pinball’s ass as far as like in terms of popularity in pop culture, even if you go to an arcade bar now, so many of these arcade bars, you'll see like a fucking Mario jumping and squishing a mushroom. Eight bit pixel art as a mural on a wall and you're like, this is the place I have to go play pinball. And it's glorifying video games instead.
Alex
3:24
We should be enemies. I mean, really, right?
Alan
3:39
But instead they're smashed together, forced to work together. Video modes are like a weird buddy cop movie with pinball, right? Like they're an odd couple. It's like, they don't really want to get along because one of them plays by the rules and they're clean cut, and one of them's the loose cannon who doesn't play by the rules. And there's just friction there.
Alex
3:44
Yeah, except for in this instance, it's like a buddy cop where one of the cops is a dog because you're like, what is he going to contribute? And that's kind of the video mode. There can be good ones…
Alan
3:54
Yes, like Turner and Hooch.
Alex
3:57
But it’s inherently a bad idea, I would say. Maybe that can be the title: Video Modes inherently a bad idea?
Alan
4:03
Oh, that's a good title. Yeah, these started actually a while ago, like very early on. And at first they weren't the modern version. They were sort of like these early hybrid machines themselves. The first one came out in 1982 and was made by Gottlieb, and it was called Caveman. Have you played a caveman?
Alex
4:24
That one's got a joystick, doesn't it? Oh, guess all we're going to get into is probably a lot of joysticks involved.
Alan
4:28
Yeah. So the separation of these, these games where there's a pinball machine and then there's a separate screen, and it was at the time CRT screens. Right, like you would play a video game on. And so you would hit a ball somewhere, usually like a hole, a scoop, or a saucer. And then it would start the videogame and then now, now you look up at the screen and you hit these other buttons that were used to play the video game.
Alex
4:56
I love that how it's like your reward for playing pinball and doing the thing is, you get to play a video game and you're like, if I wanted to play the video game,
Alan
5:05
I’d just play the one right next to me in the arcade.
Alex
5:07
Why would I play this shitty one here when I could just play a good one right over there?. And that was a horrible idea. But how many of those did they make? Those little hybrid ones?
Alan
5:14
They weren't popular. Yeah, they weren't popular probably for obvious reasons. But there were immediate copycats. So Gottlieb was the first with Caveman. But also in 1982, Bally made Baby Pac-Man, which they got to license their own IP for.
Alex
5:27
Yeah, that was a very popular theme at the time.
Alan
5:29
Yeah, Pac-Man.
Alex
5:31
So you could see why they were like, we got to go for it.
Alan
5:33
Yeah, so they did that. That also came out in 1982. And then they, a year later, in 1983, they made Granny and the Gators. And so Granny and the Gators, Baby Pac-Man. Even Gottlieb's Caveman, Gottlieb's caveman, has the position or the CRT Screen a little bit differently. But they're all the same.
Alex
5:49
They’re basically a little compact pinball cabinet, too. They're not in a regular pinball cabinet.
Alan
5:54
They're more like a video game stand up kind of classic cabinet.
Alex
5:58
Yeah, you do see them every once in a while. I've seen a good number of the Baby Pacs in arcades. They're always shoved into some weird little spot where a normal pinball machine wouldn't work because they're a different form factor. So I'm like, that's kind of like when you're one of those barcades that's just cramming everything into every corner. That's when you see those Baby Pacs, I feel like nowadays, which is kind of funny.
Alan
6:32
Yeah. And some people really like them. I mean, they're oddballs. Yep. You know, they're weird. Like caveman is in a pinball cabinet. But Granny the Gators and Baby Pac-Man are in, like, arcade cabinets. So the bally ones are in that.
Alex
6:34
But I don’t know if I was thinking of Granny and the Gators. I've played Granny and the Gators had no idea what I was doing when I was up on the video game part of it. I've never played a Caveman.
Alan
6:40
So Caveman has like a CRT screen in like the back top of the pinball playfield.
Alex
6:45
That'd be a cool like homebrew idea, but I don't know.I would say of the three I've played all three games, if I had to play one. I'd play caveman. It's more interesting than Granny and Baby Pac-Man to me.
Alan
7:00
Sure. I would say of the three I've played all three games, if I had to play one. I'd play caveman. It's more interesting than Granny and Baby Pac-Man to me.
Alex
7:10
Yeah, Baby Pac-Man has got Pac-Man though. Speaking of, before we get into it. Because that's sorry, you're going to move into what we'd consider a normal pinball video mode, right? But before that, Pac-Man or I think, is it Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man? The George Christian normal conventional pinball machine? Yeah, that has that little grid of lights, and it has like a video game mode. You hit a saucer on there and you're chasing around on this little grid, so it's not really what anyone would ever consider a video mode, but it is like a mini video game mode in pinball,
Alan
7:32
In the pinball machine using insert lights, right?
Alex
7:37
Yeah. It's got like, I think it's like a six by six grid of inserts with incandescent bulbs, but below them and you're like one little dot that's running away from the other dots, like it's like a kind of a knockoff crappy pre video, video mode.
Alan
7:48
Yeah, I think we can give that as an honorary videomode. There's no video part to it. But it plays more like a video game during that mode.
Alex
7:58
That has maybe my favorite feature of all video modes in that when it starts, you have no idea what the hell you're doing and everyone just dies immediately. And then you go, that was shitty. And you go back to playing pinball. And that's a recurring theme on a lot of shitty video modes.
Alan
8:15
100%. Yep. That being said, we sort of transitioned into what modern video modes are and sort of what everyone I think thinks of as a video mode, which is where the ball is held, like you hit it in a scoop, usually a saucer or anything that holds the ball and it starts a mode. So usually the lights go out or dim significantly on the playfield and you're intended to look up. Sometimes there's a call out that'll tells you to look up. Like so you look at the display, and play a little video game. And they started in the 90s. The first game that had it was Terminator 2. And you would look up at the dot matrix display, and you would play a little game where you kind of strafe left and right, and you're trying to kill Terminators with a gun.
Alex
9:01
Exactly. Yeah. You're just moving a reticle left and right. It automatically fires at the robots walking across the screen.
Alan
9:05
A modern video mode is you're playing on the screen, and you're using the flipper buttons on the side of the cabinets. No special controls, because that is very confusing to everybody. So T2 was the first Bally Williams game designed with a DMD. I know that Gilligan's Island was released before it, but T2 was the first one. So I think right off the bat they're like, we're doing this. We got to put a little video game in here that'll get the kids attention, right? And they got that in there. And it actually works pretty well because you don't need to think. You know, it's not that confusing. It's very short, which is the best thing a video mode can be I think.
Alex
10:10
See this is where I'm saying a good video mode is like a 5 to 10 second break from an otherwise frantic game in T2 is a good one because you're like T2, anything to make your gameplay like last a little longer is going to feel like a reward because you're like, oh shit, like I actually got to play. I mean, that thing is kind of an ass kicker when it's set up, right? Yeah, yeah. And so it's like it kind of makes sense in there. In this mode, you don't have to actually fire anything. It's just like you see a big reticle and you're like, well, I'm going to aim at the evil robots. Like it's very straightforward.
Alan
10:19
You intuitively know what you're supposed to do, which is good.
Alex
10:22
That's the word I've been looking for.
Alan
10:23
The T2 videomode is fine. I don't think it's super fun. If it wasn't in the game, I wouldn't miss it. But as far as what we're going to talk about later, it's pretty damn good. What like with what some of the things they came out with later. But Terminator 2 was the first, like we said, and the guy that was on code and the guy that brought video modes and what we think of as video modes into pinball, his name is Dwight Sullivan, and he did the rules and code and software on that game, and he brought that in. The video mode came to be because Dwight is a fan of many games, including video games, and he's always been consistently through the years talking about how, why can't we bring these video game elements into pinball? Like, he draws lots of inspiration for his pinball machine from video games. Which I don't think is bad, but as as we'll see later when you try to make pinball a video game, you're just making the people that like pinball upset and the people that like video games are never going to accept it anyway because it's going to it's always going to be a worse video game, you know, like you can play a good video game on your phone, at home, on a console. If you're in an arcade, there's good video games in different cabinets. So it's a weird, anachronistic thing that pops up in games, and really in a lot of his games.
Alex
11:48
Yeah, Dwight likes video modes.I termed Dwight Sullivan the video mode cult leader. Yeah, that's that's
Alan
11:58
He loves video modes, so I termed Dwight Sullivan the video mode cult leader. He was the first. And he's done the most.
Alex
12:03
And his games are also some of those, I mean, okay, Dwight teamed up with Steve Richie, who we discussed in a previous podcast, for a lot of titles, and his games were monster sellers. And so I think at that time, a lot of people would look at those huge, successful games and be like, we got to do whatever they're doing. We got to do that because video modes were part of that.
Alan
12:23
I think it was hard to tell, like what was earning the money.
Alex
12:26
You got a big you've got a huge theme, you've got the best pinball designer probably of all time in certainly the best. Well, I guess there was already Pat Lawlor around at that point selling huge numbers too. And so, you know, anyway, you've got pretty much all the cards stacked there for Terminator 2. It's a huge success, one of the most popular pinball machines of all time. It's something around 20,000 units, I don't know, it has a video mode and it's the first game with a video mode. And so like you said, you don't know what's making what's making the quarters come in, but you're going to try copying that success.
Alan
12:57
You know that this game, this game had it and we sold the shit out of them. And people are playing the crap out of them on location, right? Right. But Dwight he's done as far as I can tell, he's worked on about 18 games as sort of the lead programmer. He's worked on other games like in different companies. You know, he's brought on to teams. But then he's later said like, oh, I just sort of whatever, I don't want to be credited, but you'll see that list on his like Internet Pinball Database or his listings on games that he's later said, oh, I just sort of helped them with little projects to get a game out the door or something..
Alex
13:30
Do you happen to know how many of those 18 games have video modes?
Alan
13:35
About 11 of them.
Alex
13:37
That’s a big rate. Which also means he's responsible for over a quarter of all video modes across all companies, all pinball machines of all time. That's hilarious.
Alan
13:44
It's crazy.
Alex
13:46
That son of a bitch
Alan
13:47
From my account, he's made about 18 games and about 11 of them have video modes. So that's like 60% of his games have video modes.
Alex
13:55
Yeah, that's kind of nuts, I guess.
Alan
13:57
Like you were saying before, I said, there's about 40 games that have at least one video mode in them starting in the 90s, going until now, and many that have multiple video modes. So that was the other thing that happened as they came in coinciding with a big boom in pinball popularity in the early 90s as well. And they also had video modes. So then they're like, oh, we're selling more units. We also did this new thing, so we gotta keep doing this other new thing because people like this new thing. And so there's lots of games that have multiple. And I think that Indiana Jones, the Williams version, the Pinball adventure, has the most unique video modes in one game because they have three. Do you remember all three?
Alex
14:59
I think that might be his weakest game personally.
I don't like Indiana Jones that much. Oh, this is going to oust me. As you know, a fake Mark Ritchie fan. I don't really like Indiana Jones that much, so I don't think I can name them. I don't want to even try to name a single one of the video modes in there. It’s probably his most valuable game too, which is funny.
U1
15:00
WOW! For shame! Well, it's got a kick ass theme. I mean, yeah, the theme is dope. And it follows the original trilogy, which everyone likes, not the reboots. Indiana Jones is a game that I didn't like when I first played it, despite liking Mark Ritchie and loving the movies as a kid, but I've come to like it. It's just one of those games that needs to be working well and maintained well, because a lot of the things that you're going to do in it are very finicky. And if the path doesn't work, or if the flippers aren't strong enough to make the ramps or there's there's lot or
Alex
15:33
It’s a super pin, widebody game so there's always lots of stuff to break on it.
Alan
15:36
Yeah, but it's got the cool idol lock. It's got very cool features. And they really nailed the theme. And I will say that as far as like, I don't love video modes, but I don't think I'm ruining the ending here by saying that. But I will say that of the ones that are around. The ones that are in Indiana Jones are good. So there’s the mine cart one…
Alex
16:01
Is that like Donkey Kong style where you just have to jump over shit?
Alan
16:03
No no no no, it's like Dwight's the Star Trek Next Generation. You're kind of going one way or the other way and you know, and you try not to die. That was good. And then there's the Grail where it's like one of those three card Monte. You put a ball under a cup, you got to around, you got to choose which one. And then there's then there's like a, there's a gun shooting one in Marion Ravenwood bar where there's a scene at a movie where they all come in and she's got to defend her bar, and, you know, you kind of you kind of go left and right and you kind of kind of pop nazis. It's not too dissimilar from other video modes that'll come later, but there's three of them in there and they're all quality. Like, none of them are bad. They are all different. They're all fine. They're all memorable.
Alex
16:58
Not that memorable. I don't remember them.
Alan
17:00
Because you don't play that game because you're a hater.
Alex
17:04
Yeah. I guess.
Alan
17:05
You're an Indiana Jones hater.
Alex
17:08
I love the movies, I just rewatched them.
Alan
17:10
I'm going to pay you back on this because we had some people after our podcast where you made one offhand comment about Foo Fighters.
Alex
17:19
Oh yeah?
Alan
17:41
And you're like, well, Alan doesn't really like Foo Fighters at all. And I was like, wait a second. Like, don't do that. No, I like Foo Fighters. I think it's good. It's not my favorite game, but I do think it's good. And I've had people come up to me like, I heard you don't like fighters. It's all over the internet. So I'm going to do the same to you. Everyone, give Alex a hard time when you see him, because he hates Mark Ritchie's masterpiece: Indiana Jones The Pinball Adventure.
Alex
17:51
Mark Ritchie's masterpiece easily as Fish Tales.
Alan
17:53
I agree. That’s true.
Alex
17:56
Yeah, it's maybe the best game of all time probably. Okay. Sorry. We're going way off track. But speaking of Fish Tales, that is one hell of a video mode. But what's the order we're doing here? What are we? What's next on your schedule?
Alan
18:10
Oh I was just going to say, so Indiana Jones has the most video modes in one single game. The most unique ones with three. But Junkyard technically has more because it has two unique video modes to that game.
Alex
18:22
Shooting the toast at the dog. Yeah, and I can't. I don't remember another one. I just remember shooting toast at the dog, chasing the girl in the towel or whatever.
Alan
18:30
You gotta flap both buttons. There's that one where the dog’s running and you have to flap both buttons at the same time. It's terrible.
Alex
18:37
Okay, yeah. I like the toast one.
Alan
18:39
The toast once was perfect. It's fun. It's. It's cute. It's of the era. The one where you have to flap, smash both flipper buttons is horrible.
Alex
18:49
Horrible. We could probably break all video modes up into, like, four basic types.
Alan
18:54
Yeah, well you only have two buttons and you have a tiny screen. Well, what can you really you do?
Alex
18:59
You could do all kinds of stuff if you want to get wild with it, I bet.
Alan
19:03
So it has those two unique video modes, but it also has a time Machine feature that cycles through and lets you play other video modes from other Williams games.
Alex
19:13
Yeah, I don't think I've ever run into that.
Alan
19:14
Yeah, it's like a randomized mystery award I think.
Alex
19:17
You know? I probably have, and that was why I was so confused, because I think you can play the Attack from Mars video mode in there. That would make sense. Okay. Yep.
Alan
19:55
Yeah, it'll cycle through different video modes from other games. So technically it has the most variety if you're playing a junkyard. Um, surprisingly I said Indiana Jones isn't a Dwight game, but Junkyard is, which is very unsurprising. But since he was there at the company, I can't imagine that he wasn't involved in some way indirectly, since he was the guy that brought him in, just as someone who loves them and wanted them to succeed. I'm sure that he helped the other software engineers get their video modes up. There's no way he didn’t help in some way.
Alex
20:02
It would be like his framework at the very least, you know. So yeah, he had to have his hands involved in that.
Alan
20:07
But now we get to the fun part. And I want to talk about what's your favorite video mode?
Alex
20:13
My favorite video mode. I could do the top three. My top three favorites would probably be Bram Stoker's Dracula. Yeah, shooting the dogs is fun. And I think it's good because although I will say the first, the first stage of it, which is all a lot of people ever see, is so slow, it sucks. But it's great because it's like risk and reward because you need to wait, right? From a points perspective, really clearly. So, because you need to wait for the dogs to get closer to you, to actually get maximum points. But you also don't want to embarrass yourself by losing in that first round. Yeah. Factory default settings give you an extra ball at the end of the second video mode, right? That's right. So it's like it's humiliating if you try to milk points out of it, it's humiliating to die on the first round of video mode on.
Alan
21:00
Yeah, you will be laughed out of an arcade.
Alex
21:02
But if you shoot the dogs at just a real safe distance, you kind of look like a little bitch. And so if you got buddies there, they're going to give you shit for that too.
Alan
21:11
So that's a perfect video mode, because there's actually complexity of the rules, because you're still using if the dogs are on the right side, they're wolves, the werewolves. But like if they show up on the right side, you hit the right flipper, you're gonna automatically shoot the ones on. You're just shooting.
Alex
21:25
You're just shooting to your left or right. Very intuitive.
Alan
21:27
It's very intuitive. But what makes them fun is that they start coming at you faster. And if you wait until they get close right before they bite you, they're worth like a million points apiece and then 70, 750,050, depending on how far back they are. So it's safer to shoot them early, but then it's not worth any points. So I think that that's cool because it's a rule where it forces you to play riskier.
Alex
21:49
It's an actual inherent risk vs. reward there, which makes that a great one.
Alan
21:52
Yep. And the animation is really cool. The sounds are really cool. That game is just cool in and of itself.
Alex
22:00
But I'll run through my top three and I'll kind of talk about what I think is what makes video modes good I guess. So the next one would probably be Fish Tales, since I brought that up earlier. And you get to shoot water skiers. You're a fisherman, right? So your enemy is water skiers on the lake disturbing your fishing, so you get to shoot torpedoes at them.
Alex
22:16
And there's just three levels of water skiers or boats that come ripping by. And it's all just kind of a matter of its simple timing. So it's one that everybody can just kind of immediately figure out. But there's usually an extra ball that comes by. And that's kind of where the actual like critical piece of it comes in. That one's kind of maybe weighted a little too heavy because like, you have to get that extra ball out of there, but it's just such a fun video mode. Also cute animations, good sound and everything, and it also goes pretty quick. And then the last one would probably be Getaway and that video modes kind of just whatever. It's kind of a gimme once you get good at it, but it's like you're playing road rash, you're playing Getaway which is already a kick ass game.
Alan
23:03
Yeah. You get in there and you get a shift into fifth gear. You just slam into fifth right off the bat. And then you just avoid cars on the highway. And it's kind of like a shifted perspective. It's not straight on which I really like.
Alex
23:12
It's just good dots, like they did really good dots animations you know.
Alex
23:14
I guess thinking about it, that's what wins me over on a lot of the video modes. So if they look funny, like you're like this little car ripping around, I'm like, that's good. I like that animation. And so then I like them. I think a big part of it is that all three of those games Getaway would probably be the easiest. And that's not a slow game, it's just probably the most friendly.
Alan
23:31
It's hard when you're first playing it and you're like, oh, I got to duck and dive around these cars, and I have limited information that's coming ahead of me and the perspective I have. When you learn the secret, which is like, hang to the right edge and then only move kind of a little in and out, you can really exploit it, and never lose and get the maximum points every single time.
Alex
23:51
The funniest shit in the world is how difficult that video mode is for my wife, Megan. She loves getaway and she cannot play that video mode to save her life. And she's seen how I do it, like the kind of safe technique. And then half the time when she's watching me play it, I just swerve all over. Which is also funny.
Alan
24:07
It's very fun to play it that way. Yeah, that video mode is more fun if you play it like it wants you to play it right, rather than knowing the safe route, and know how to get the maximum points out of it.
Alex
24:16
Every time you're just going to slam into fifth gear, you're going to get right on that line between the, you know, second and third lanes, and you're just going to hardly swerve in this lane but don't know. It's still a fun one. I still like it.
Alan
24:28
Yeah, I would say that's fair.
Alex
24:30
And anyway, I was going to say the biggest thing about all of those is that they're not worth that many points. Yes, they can lead to extra balls, although two of those are kind of like gimmes once you get them down. But I think, I think in a way I can give you an extra ball. Yeah, you can definitely, because you have to swerve. That's sometimes you have to swerve to get that extra ball.
Alan
24:47
Yeah. And see, that's fun. I think it's fun when it's like, okay, you can get something out of it that's big. And so if you're a competitive player, you're like, well, I need that extra ball. I guess in a tournament you don't. But yeah, it's just it's like so there's something to get out of it. But the points wise it's not going to be huge there and it’s fast. I don't think a video mode should ever last more than like 10s like I said. Yeah.
Alex
25:05
So yeah. What do you think is the best or what do you think is the best?
Alan
26:04
I really like the minecart one on Indiana Jones. Okay. That's probably the one I would switch out the Getaway one for that one just because it's even though you can memorize that one too as the same thing. But it's fun. It's fast, it's hard, and it's thematically right. It feels different from others. Although he then it's very similar to Dwight's version on Next Generation. So it's like they're all shades of the same thing.
You could really only do so many things, but it feels good. It's fun. I like that one. I think Dracula and Fish Tales are head and shoulders the best. I think that there's really 40 other games that have them but Fish Tales and Drac are head and shoulders the best and it's, it's really not close because they both have strategy and both are rewarding, but not over rewarding, because there are modes like that, I think. I think Star Trek Next Generation, despite that being one of my favorite games, I do think that the video mode on that is broken like it's worth an easy 300 million, 200 to 300 million points with an extra ball if you just memorize the paths.
And I think that breaks the scoring, especially in tournaments. Or if you're just playing your friends like you're not necessarily going to get on the high scoreboard just because of that, but it's definitely going to help you. You can exploit it over and over again. And I don't like that. The mode itself is okay. It's fine for video mode. It's not bad. It's just it's worth too many points, which I think really drags down because it should be. Your high score on a pinball machine should be based on how well you played pinball, not how well you played a shitty video game inside of a pinball machine.
Alex
26:51
That's where I'm saying, like, it's like I think the video modes most should be like the score of like one multiball jackpot. You know, where it can make a difference in a close game, but it should never win you the game. What would you say is your least favorite video mode?
Alan
27:06
There's a lot of contenders for this, but the one that stands out as just atrocious, what the hell were they thinking? Is Theater Magic's virtual pinball, it's fucking terrible. Like so bad. That gets my vote.
Alex
27:09
Yeah dude. I don't need to give you more like Jersey Jack bait. But did you know there is a little virtual pinball mini mode on Toy Story? They have that iPad in there, and I think even though I've not seen it.
Alan
27:27
I would say that even though I'm sure that mode sucks, like it's got to be better than Theatre of Magic’s. There's no way it's as bad as Theater.
Alex
27:29
Imagine that. Theatre of Magic was trying to do like the pinball from that shifted low perspective that they could put on a DMD screen.
Alan
27:34
Yeah, because it's in the wrong perspective.
Alex
27:37
And it’s the king of like we were joking about earlier. The only thing better than pinball is to, you know, you want to stop playing pinball to play a shitty video game. You're like, now you're playing a really shitty version of pinball.
Alan
27:52
Yeah. So, like, what are we doing here? What are we even doing? And it's very slow. And the physics are just terrible. Yeah. It's so not fun. And I hate getting it. I wish you could skip it, but you can't.
Alex
28:05
One that I would say is kind of an example of like it's close but breaks a couple of the rules that I like are Star Wars, Stern Star Wars. That one's the video mode where you're flying through an asteroid field and the Millennium Falcon very Dwight. It's a cool looking one. It's actually kind of like a fun little mode, but I think it goes on too long so you can be sitting there for a while. I mean, I guess, it times itself out every time, but it's a little long into me. The biggest problem is that you can get a ton of points out of that if you stack like a huge multiplier, because that game already has insane playfield multipliers and that applies to the video mode. And so if you get a group of people together that don't know how to play that game, someone can just get the right multiplier, get into a video mode and be ten times the score of any of their friends, which is hilarious to watch.
Alex
28:50
so that's like one of those things where you're like, ah, but if you guys know the game, then it kind of evens out. So it's just a matter of Dwight scoring, which is another topic altogether.
Alan
28:58
Yeah, but that’s like an example of an okay one. Like come on, give me a bad one. What's the worst one?
Alex
29:04
The worst that I can think of I hate. So going to if you define all video modes in like four categories. It's like you got the steer left or right things right. You've got the like timing where it's like jumping over like Circus Voltaire jumping over something or fish tails shooting something, which is timing.
Alan
29:39
Jumping reminds me of the Doctor Who video mode which is pretty fucking bad too. Like, where you just kind of have some guys chasing you, and you just kind of run, and you could either do a short jump or you could do a double jump, but you don't know if the thing coming at you is one thing or two things wide.
Alex
29:41
I think it's like all of it comes down to execution, but the ones that are always shitty are just. And I don't know if this even counts as a video mode, but where it's just like, pick a thing where it's like Congo, where it's like you want to go left or right on the tunnel and you're like, don't give a shit. I want to play pinball. And it's like, oh, you got five diamonds. Oh, there's an evil gorilla.
Alan
29:55
True, but what do you think about the other video mode in Congo though?
Alex
29:57
What's that?
Alan
30:24
It's where you're rafting down the river and trying to dodge rocks. You're like in Getaway left and right, dodging obstacles.
Alex
30:25
Yeah dude, I was going to say the ones where you get to steer left or right, those are good video modes. The ones where you pick things, bad video modes, like, like playing Ghostbusters. You've got steering left and right with don't cross the streams. Good video mode. You've got a picking thing, that ESP shit, bad video mode. Super lame.
Alan
30:29
Ghostbusters is another Dwight Sullivan game.
Alex
30:30
He does love videos and he makes good games. So anyway, that's probably my least favorite. Or any of the ones where you just have to pick some bullshit and you’re like, just pick a room, pick a path, like whatever.
Alan
30:38
Yeah, that does suck. And very anti-climatic.
Alex
30:44
Yeah. And it's just like, that's the absolute worst. Like, why are you forcing me to do this?
Alan
30:49
Yeah. Why are you doing this to me? I'm here to play pinball.
Alex
30:54
Yeah, so anyway, that's all I got, I guess, to say about video modes. I think some of them are fun. I think it needs to be in a frantic, fast game, so it feels like an actual break. The video mode itself can't be too long and it can't be too valuable.
Alan
31:07
I agree with that. Totally. Yeah. Can't make it too valuable. Can't last too long. Can't happen too often.
Alex
31:13
I mean that's a big one. If you can keep getting back into them then it's just like game breaking.
Alan
31:18
Yeah. That sucks.
Alex
31:19
Just stuck in video mode Hell.
Alan
31:21
So yeah I think we covered it pretty well. That's video modes.
Alex
31:36
If you talk to a lot of pinball players and you yourself I assume you are a pinball player, you're gonna you probably have strong feelings one way or the other on them and I bet you hate them. Most people hate them. I think you could push a button. So like you, Alan, if you could push a button to remove video modes from all pinball, would you?
Alan
31:38
Definitely.
Alex
31:49
Yeah, see, I wouldn't. I think the good outweighs the bad. But I would bet that 90% of pinball players would take all of them out.
Alan
31:55
So we mentioned that there’s about 40 games with video modes in them, and we didn't go through the whole list. But most of those video modes in those 40 games are terrible. We talked a lot about the ones that were good or are okay.
Alex
32:06
That’s true. It's like a trolley dilemma, you know, like, would you? The track one. One of them is going to remove the video mode from getaway, which is so cool…
Alan
32:17
That one is fine. The two that are good, that would be really sad to lose would be Fish Tales and Dracula. Yeah, those two are both legitimately good. They're they're the scoring or the benefit from them are weighted perfectly where you still care enough, but it's not going to make or break your game either way. And so those are perfect and they're fun. They're funny. The dots are cool. The sounds are good. Like they're well integrated into the overall game. So those are the two that would suck to lose. But man, there's so many when I just am playing a game and you just pop into one. You're like, why did this happen?!
Alex
32:54
When will this episode air? We should put up a poll on your Instagram story. See what people think, because I'm genuinely curious.
Alan
33:02
Yeah, we'll start doing that when we do these divisive topics.
Alex
33:06
It’ll be fun. Anyway, write into the Wedgehead Instagram. Because Alan loves spending more time on Instagram. For the people. Do it for the people. You gotta let him know what's going on man.
Alan
33:22
Like, did you know that we open at noon on the weekends?
Alex
33:23
That's a good thing to bring up. We should be doing more plugs like that.
Alan
33:30
I guess so. Uh, anyway, this was video modes. Thank you all for listening. Once again, I want to thank Alex for being my co-host and allowing us to record in his basement. And I just want to implore everyone out there, if you're listening to the podcast, first of all, thank you. Second of all, go out and play some pinball. This is what it's all about. Go out, find a location near you. And as with every episode, try to play a game with some video modes. Check them out, make your mind up for yourself. Tell us what you think about video modes.
Alex
34:01
Yeah, go find the shittiest video mode that you can exploit for the most points over and over and let us know what it is.
Alan
34:07
And yeah, you'll have a blast. Go play some pinball on location.
Alex
34:14
Yeah the only thing better than pinball is playing a little video game in the middle of pinball.
Alan
34:19
Yes. It's fun, it's fun, they say. Anyway, that's all for this time. We'll see you again next time.