Looking for a tabletop pinball suggestion or two.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

11 hours ago, Tanooki said:

@Skippy B. Coyote Well now that's a clean one, the model I had was an older one where the back board art for the score area had a different style logo and image, but same otherwise.  Piece of advice, leave the volume on low, because even low is somewhat ear shattering so I wouldn't advise maxing that out.  Not sure why they felt it needed to go to that level of pain but it's there.  The game plays well though, nothing crazy on features, more like a classic EM style table more or less as what you see is all there is.  The bumpers and things work nice, and if you can get it into that hyperspace it goes under the table for awhile, huge plug your ears style cycling sounds, and then it spits out on the other side adding a decent score boost.  That new colors thing is amusing, you can see what mine was, I guess they had left over boxes and put a sticker on it?  That back art in the box itself is how they came out originally.

 

I seriously suggest tracking down sonic, it's really solid if you're into these style of tables vs the ridiculous 1/4 sized stand up that basically are the astro shooter style on tall legs, the more complex and easy to break zizzles, etc.

 

I'll be sure to remember to keep the volume low!  I've already watched every video and read every article I could find on Astro Shooter and all it's variants, so I think I have a pretty solid idea of what to expect from the gameplay (assuming everything still works right in mine) and I'm really excited to finally get to play it! I've been wanting one for about a decade now, mainly because space is at a premium in my apartment and there's just nowhere to put a full size or even 3/4 size pinball machine like the Zizzles and such, but I do have space for a couple tabletops and I think Astro Shooter will be a ton of fun to play; if not a bit noisy. It has pretty much every feature I could want in a tabletop pinball aside from multi-ball, so I imagine I'll enjoy it a lot.

 

Next week I'll also be picking up that Brio tabletop pinball that I was talking about a few posts up, just to have something quieter to play too that doesn't have any electronic or mechanical parts to worry about breaking, and I think between the two of them I'll have my tabletop pinball needs pretty well covered! That Sonic the Hedgehog machine you got does look neat, but having all the objectives on the playfield constantly shaking and rattling loudly would drive me absolutely nuts! 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Skippy B. Coyote

[Tanooki]

I had fit a zizzle pirates into/up against a corner in a 1bed apt and it didn't create a problem, but I get it.  The Astro Shooter and Sonic are both easily stowed away and enjoyed on a table.  With AS, if you're hoping to get an early 80s EM/SS style pinball table with the basics on it, it'll serve you well enough.

 

I hate to break it to you, Astro Shooter is the same as Sonic basically when it comes to constantly shaking and rattling loudly.  The table always has this loud noise going in the case, a chunk of it from the ever rotating light and trap on a post under the table face in the large center area.  It and then the good sized plastic secondary mechanism it's all tied back to for the hyperspace make it loud, which is likely why the speaker is ear shattering on higher levels.  All the face of it with the ball over contact type spots they too vibrate and wiggle as they're actually large plastic plates under the table that dance around a little due to the motion of it.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

 

 

So I got my Tomy Astro Shooter in the mail last night and omigosh it's SO much better than I thought it was going to be! I thought it was going to feel like a cheap toy, but it actually feels and plays just like a real electromagnetic pinball machine from the early 80's; minus the solenoid flippers. It's got active bumpers, kick out holes, rollovers, a skill shot, sound effects for everything (flippers and plunger included), and a couple other features I noticed  that I've never heard anyone mention before!

 

The first surprising feature I've never seen anyone talk about is that the spinning lights above the flippers are actually lightly magnetized, so if the ball rolls over a light while it's rotating around it can alter the trajectory of the ball. The ball has to be moving fairly slowly for the magnets to have an effect, but it is still a neat touch I think.

 

The other feature I thought was very cool is that the point value of the Hyperspace cellar hole jackpot isn't static and can be increased by shooting other objectives on the board! Based on the table artwork for the American Pinball reskin of Astro Shooter those objectives seem to be the Kickout Craters on the left side of the table and the Cosmic Channels rollovers in the upper right of the table:

 

 

 

When none of the bonus objectives have been hit the jackpot starts at 5,000 points but it rapidly increases the more you shoot the Kickout Craters and Cosmic Channels rollovers, and by the time I finished my highest scoring game where I got 91,635 points the Hyperspace jackpot was awarding around 15,000 points every time I hit it. The increasable jackpot adds a lot more strategy and depth than I was expecting from a toy pinball game!

 

 

 

Altogether I now totally understand why even though Astro Shooter came out in the early 80's it's still considered the absolute best tabletop pinball machine ever made more than 40 years later. It's just astonishing how incredibly much effort Tomy put into this thing, and aside from the analog flippers it really does play just like a real EM pinball machine from the early 80's! I didn't find the noise of the motor running to be off-putting either once I started playing.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2023 by Skippy B. Coyote

[Tanooki]

I'd agree with it, though Sonic behaves the same, is a little smaller and more narrow, but has the added benefit of the spinners, ramps, vortex(whirlwind) type bowl for fun effect.  But it is a 90s version, a smaller version really of Astro Shooter, like a v1.5 or 2.0 of it in enough ways.  I'd recommend checking it out.

 

I used to have a video of it in play maybe I can make one again soon.

[Madwindoman]

Picked up a Starcom tabletop pinball the other day. Wasn’t working when I got it. Opened it up and a lil gear had come off the motor. Pretty easy fix. Cleaned it up and filled it with 17 dollars worth of batteries and it’s working great. I was looking for a tapletop pinball . A lil while back I was in little ceasers grabbing a pizza with my 7 year old. They had this wooden pinball machine. When you pop in a quarter a rubber bouncy falls in the playfield. You play your game of pinball and when you eventually lose the ball it gets dispensed out and you get to keep it. She got pretty into it so seems like something we can do together that doesn’t involve me playing with Barbie dolls

[Madwindoman]