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Eric Stone - Tips to Become a World Champion IFPA Player

Pintastic New England·video·1h 1m·held·Sep 27, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

IFPA World Champion Eric Stone teaches competitive pinball fundamentals and advanced techniques.

Summary

Eric Stone, 2023 IFPA World Champion and meteorologist, provides comprehensive gameplay tips for competitive pinball, demonstrating advanced techniques on Iron Maiden including ball control, drop catches, nudging, flipper passes, and strategic mode/multiball sequencing. He emphasizes that pinball mastery centers on control and accuracy rather than flashy play, and demonstrates how to manage multiple balls, read playfield layouts, and maximize scoring through smart shot selection.

Key Claims

  • Eric Stone won the IFPA 17 World Championship in Fort Myers at the Pinball Asylum

    high confidence · Eric Stone speaking directly about his recent accomplishment

  • Ball control is the most important aspect of competitive pinball play

    high confidence · Repeated emphasis throughout the demonstration by Eric Stone, stated explicitly multiple times

  • Skill shots on new games are not worth the risk and only provide a couple million points

    medium confidence · Eric Stone's opinion based on gameplay demonstration and strategy discussion

  • IFPA World Championship tournaments have very tight tilt settings on machines

    high confidence · Eric Stone discussing tournament-level machine configuration during gameplay

  • Most modern multiball modes have a method to add an extra ball during play

    medium confidence · Eric Stone's general observation demonstrated across Iron Maiden gameplay

  • Drop catches are a critical advanced technique that requires timing but becomes easier with practice

    high confidence · Eric Stone demonstrating and explaining drop catches multiple times during the video

  • Iron Maiden is not a forgiving game compared to other modern Stern releases

    medium confidence · Eric Stone's subjective assessment during gameplay commentary

  • You can often light drop target locks by holding a flipper and letting the ball naturally sweep all three targets

    medium confidence · Eric Stone demonstrating this technique on Iron Maiden during gameplay

Notable Quotes

  • “Everybody wants to get a higher score in pinball. And so, you know, that's what I'm here for.”

    Eric Stone@ 0:59 — Establishes his core motivation for teaching pinball strategy and technique

  • “It's all about control. Control and accuracy, making your shots.”

    Eric Stone@ 29:54 — Encapsulates the central thesis of his instructional approach

  • “Sometimes it's more important to not flip, believe it or not, than it is to flip.”

    Eric Stone@ 25:28 — Counterintuitive strategic insight about flipper restraint and ball control

  • “When you've got the ball save on, who cares? I'm just trying to shoot as many ramps as possible.”

    Eric Stone@ 20:42 — Demonstrates risk management strategy based on game state and ball save availability

  • “When a ball's bouncing very lightly from one flipper to the other, if you give it a nudge up, it'll help the ball bounce up over to the other.”

    Eric Stone@ 33:59 — Teaches subtle nudging technique for controlling ball flow between flippers

  • “Pinball is all about control really.”

    Eric Stone@ 29:54 — Reiterates core philosophy of competitive pinball play

  • “That drop catch is huge because look how I'm controlling that ball.”

    Eric Stone — Emphasizes the importance of drop catch technique for maintaining ball control

Entities

Eric StonepersonIron MaidengameIFPAorganizationPinball AsylumvenueWFLAorganizationSterncompanyPintastic New EnglandorganizationGodzillagameFort Myersvenue

Signals

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Extensive demonstration of advanced ball control techniques including drop catches, flipper passes, cradle separation, and ball catching—presented as fundamental to competitive success

    high · Repeated demonstrations and emphasis on control throughout the video; Eric Stone shows multiple angles and variations of catch techniques

  • ?

    competitive_signal: IFPA World Championship machines are configured with tight tilt sensitivity and specific settings (e.g., extra balls may be disabled for tournament play)

    high · Eric Stone discusses tight tilt settings and notes that extra balls are set to tournament configuration; mentions typical allowance of two good nudges

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Optimal strategy involves sequencing: light locks → start mode → bring multiball into mode → maximize jackpots. This pattern is consistent across modern games

    high · Eric Stone demonstrates and explicitly states this pattern multiple times across different attempts and emphasizes it's applicable to newer games broadly

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Skill shots offer minimal point value (couple million) relative to multiball/mode scoring (hundred million+) and introduce risk of ball loss; generally not worth pursuing

    medium · Eric Stone dismisses skill shots and chooses safe alternatives; notes skill shots only worth couple million in context of billion-point games

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Contemporary Stern games (and new games generally) feature distinct modes, multiballs, drop targets for locks, and emphasis on shot sequences—establishing consistent game design patterns

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.185

0:00
Rather than try to cover the vastness of Eric Stone's trophy case, we have a small compact set up here of him and a pinball machine, and he's going to show you a few things that will make you a better pinball player. Take it away, Eric. All right. I don't know about Chuck, but... All right, anybody that doesn't know who I am, I'm Eric Stone. I'm actually a meteorologist down in Florida, in Tampa, at WFLA. And when I can get time off, I try to play pinball. So my latest accomplishment was winning the IFPA 17 World Championship down in Fort Myers, which was really cool because it was kind of at my home at the pinball asylum. And so, you know, what I love doing is just showing people kind of the tips and tricks on pinball, how to control the ball, how to get higher scores. Everybody wants to get a higher score in pinball. And so, you know, that's what I'm here for. So we've got Iron Maiden. The first thing when I come to a pinball machine is what do you do? What's the strategy, right? So with Iron Maiden and a lot of new Stern games, a lot of new games, period, there's modes. And you want to start modes and you want to start multiballs. So you want to know how do you start a mode? How do you start a multiball? How do you get the maximum points? And believe it or not, sometimes what I'll do is I'll watch YouTube videos and I'll see how other people have played the game. And I say, okay, I see how you're doing it. And then you try to do it better, right? So on this particular game, Iron Maiden, there are five modes that you can see right here, these blinking white lights. Now, a couple of these modes are multiballs. You have to get familiar with the modes and what you need to do once you start one of the modes. So in order to start a mode, I'll start the game.
1:52
Is that loud? All right. Hopefully you can hear me over that. So you see the white shots. There's five white shots. There's a ramp, this loop, this little ramp, this ramp, and this orbit, okay? and once you spell Eddie which you do by shooting the white shots the mode shot will light right here in this little rim and then you get the mode started. Ideally what you want to do is you want to know how to start the modes how to start the multi balls and it's always good to start a mode and then bring a multi ball in the mode that way as you're doing the multi ball getting the jackpots you're also getting the mode shots and trying to you know maximize your score so So there's two multi balls that I go for in this. One is mummy and that's shooting this shot right here, this captain ball. Once you spell mummy, you lock a ball in this little ramp and then you spell mummy again. And once you finish the mummy, it starts a multi ball. The other multi ball is the trooper multi ball.
@ 19:27

  • “I always like to find where that line is so that I know how far I can move the game.”

    Eric Stone@ 4:55 — Shows how to learn machine-specific tilt sensitivity during gameplay

    • high · Eric Stone discusses standard features across 'a lot of new Stern games, a lot of new games, period' and demonstrates understanding of these as baseline expectations

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Restraint in flipper activation is strategically important; allowing the ball to bounce naturally and controlling its path via strategic non-flips is often superior to reactive flipping

    high · Eric Stone repeatedly demonstrates and emphasizes not flipping, stating 'Sometimes it's more important to not flip' and showing how this prevents loss of control

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Subtle nudges are critical for: (1) preventing middle drains, (2) managing slingshot bounces, (3) assisting flipper passes, (4) keeping balls bouncing to desired flippers

    high · Multiple demonstrations of nudge techniques with explanations of intent and timing; Eric Stone shows one tilt warning is typical for good nudges in tournaments

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: When multiple balls are in play during multiball, trapping multiple balls on one flipper while playing with others is a core technique for safety and control

    high · Eric Stone repeatedly demonstrates cradle trapping, holding 2-3 balls on one flipper while playing aggressively with remaining balls

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Competitive players learn by watching YouTube videos of expert play, then attempting to replicate and improve upon those techniques

    medium · Eric Stone mentions watching YouTube videos to see how others play, then practicing to do better; this mirrors community learning practices

  • ?

    product_concern: Playfield leveling issues are a real problem in arcade machines; even slightly unlevel tables significantly affect gameplay, shot difficulty, and ball control

    medium · Eric Stone repeatedly notes Iron Maiden example machine is leaning right; adjustments are made during the video to improve gameplay

    • 2:57
    That's hitting these drop targets and you see it says light orb. If you shoot all three of the drop targets at once, it automatically lights all three of your locks, which is what I try to do ideally. It's not always the easiest thing to do. Otherwise, you have to shoot the drop targets twice and then you light your locks and you can start a multiball by shooting this spitter or around this orbit. So what I try to do first is I try to nail these three drop targets, I try to get my locks lit. I try to start a mode and then I go for the multi-ball and I play the mode with the multi-ball.
    3:33
    When you start a game, most of these new games have what they call a skill shot. There's several skill shots. I don't try to get fancy. You can try to plunge the ball so it comes to your flipper, shoot a shot and get a secret skill shot, a super secret skill shot, but it's only worth a couple million points. Sometimes it's risky. You can plunge the ball all the way down here. If that's not a skill shot, then you're in trouble. So what I try to do is I try to just shoot the ball and hit this, this little target right here. You can see that it's flashing skill shot. You hit that, you get a few seconds of ball save and you get a few million points. The one thing I'm always trying to do is control the ball and I emphasize, try to control the ball. If a ball is coming at your flipper, you don't necessarily have to flip. You can let it bounce, especially if you want it on, say I want it on the right flipper, I let it bounce on the left flipper, bounce to the right, and then catch it. I'm going to do a lot of catching because I want to control the ball. It's a lot easier to make a shot when the ball is on a flipper versus when it's going crazy and you're trying to, you know, you're trying to kind of flail, go on the fly. Another thing I do is I like to nudge. You know, I don't know how much, okay, so you see, I gave it a little shake. I already got a danger. So some games are set up to where you can't even do this, and then other games are set up to where you can move it to the next table. So I always like to find where that line is so that I know how far I can move the game. Okay, so what we're going to do is, first thing, we're going to try to hit that skill shot. It's not a big deal if you miss. It's a couple seconds of ball saving a couple million. And in a game where you can get several hundred million or even a billion, you know, a couple million, it's not really going to do all that much. But it helps. So we're going to go for that. We're going to try to get these targets for the lock. And then we're going to try to start modes. and we're just going to keep on doing that, all right? So here we go. So I missed the skill shot, big deal. Now see, I just let the ball bounce. Now I'm over here. Every time I hit one of those wide shots, it's going to advance me to my mode. Wow, okay, cool. So I know that the tilt is very tight so I can't do that but that's all things that you learn as you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah we're gonna loosen it till just a little bit. Now at IFPA World Championships the tilts are pretty tight. Some of them are actually not quite as tight as this and then others are tight like this but when you're playing you know you know kind of where you can go with it so I'm just gonna test it out. Okay, that's a little better. So what we're going to do is we're just going to start this over. There we go. All right. So here we go.
    6:20
    Missed the skill shot. See how I let it bounce? Because I want the ball on the left flipper. So I let it bounce over. Now I'm going to try to sweep these three targets. It's not easy. It's not even easy for me.
    6:30
    But I did. So now my locks are lit. Now that's okay. My ball saves on. Let it bounce over. Now what I'm trying to do is hit the white shots all right or the lock now see how it's blinking white and green It'll spot it'll give me a lock and it'll give me a mode
    6:51
    One more eddy letter to light my mode So that's what I want to do now. I don't like using this flipper. Let's see how it comes down from there look at that Now see how nice and controlled that was why why use this flipper like this isn't going to get you anything thing. You're not going to get any points. But coming down, letting the ball bounce, and now I got control and I can shoot it again. And we're going to do the same exact thing. We're just going to let the ball come down because it's all about control. So it bounces over. Now it's over here. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to start a mode. So now what have I got? So I've got Flight of Icarus. This flipper is sticking a little bit. So now I got Flight of Icarus, which is the ramps. Either way, I got multi-ball started. So the blue shots are jackpots, the yellow shots are modes and jackpots, right? I like to lift this flipper up because it kind of gives a little more space. So now what we're going to do is, that was pretty cool. There's a ramp, there's a ramp, there's a blue shot. Now with my ball save on, I'm not trying to control the ball because with the ball save on who cares? I'm just trying to shoot as many ramps, there's a ramp and there's, now as the shots change color they're going to be worth more. Now see my ball save is gone. So now I'm trying to control the balls. So I've got three on the left flipper. There you go, look at that. Is that cool? So now it's like, alright, I mean you want to try to get one ball over, two balls over. You just do a quick flip, bounce the ball up on this sling and see what you can do. Okay so there you go. So you keep going and see now I'm basically playing with one ball, right? I've got three balls that are safe and I'm playing with one ball. Now I'm going to try to hit the ramp, didn't quite get it. There we go. Now that was a little tip, what I call a little tip over. I don't care about that fourth ball, there's a lot of balls that are in the way. So now you see there's a super jackpot shot, I can't show you with my hands here, but almost right there. And again all I'm trying to do is I'm just trying to control a couple balls so that I've got one in play right there that was a super jackpot shot I mean it's only worth 8 million but big deal so basically when you're playing multi-ball it's so safe when you've got two balls on one flipper look how safe it is to just play with one ball right because that's what you want to do so again the ramp is a jackpot you see all the shots and as they change color they're multiplied so we'll go for the ramp now I give it a little tip you see that little tip there it's not easy, so now I got three balls trapped, so what I want to do, they call cradle separate, okay, I want to get this ball, I want to pop it up a little bit, and have it come down, bounce off this one, and then bounce over here, not the easiest to do,
    10:15
    oh, well, see, that didn't work out, okay, so now the easiest to do is when you've got two balls, because now I've got one ball and one ball. I don't have to worry about doing anything.
    10:32
    And now you see the nudge. You see the nudge I just gave the game. That ball was going down the middle. Okay. So now try to get a jackpot. Nope. Didn't work. So now what we're going to do is try to start mummy. All right. So mummy, I've already hit mummy enough times. See this little lock insert. Now it's ready to lock, all right? It doesn't actually lock the ball. It kind of does like momentarily. So again, you let the ball come down, let it bounce off the flipper, and look, I got control. Shoot a shot, same thing. Isn't it so much easier than the ball flailing away? Now, you see that? So basically, the ball was coming right down the middle. So right when the ball gets about here, you give it a nudge. And what it does is it shoves the ball to one side or the other. And I got one tilt warning for it. That's about typical in tournaments. Usually you can get away with two good nudges where you shake it just like I did. It saved the ball from going down the middle. So I got 54 million. Let's see how many more points I get just from saving that. So again, I'm going for the mode shots, the white shots, because I want to light the next mode.
    11:47
    Alright, now what I did there was called a drop catch. When the ball is coming at your flipper, at this angle, toward the flipper, what you do is when it gets here, you're actually putting the flipper up and you're trying to time it to catch the ball just like that. And you saw that when it came down, it went just like that. That's called a drop catch. It's a trick, it's hard to do, it's hard to time it, but once you know how to do it and get more comfortable with it and you start timing it out it's a lot easier and again it's all about control all right so well that was tough again i i had to give i had to give the game just a slight nudge not much now now here we go let the ball well that was more of a drop catch that wasn't as pretty so right there that was a drop catch right there okay so now i got a mo i got the mode start light lit but what I want to do is I want to hit mummy enough times it's kind of a dangerous shot
    12:48
    so again there's a drop catch that's not that was uh close to a catch all right so I I want to hit hit mummy enough times now did you see how I let the ball bounce over don't be afraid when the ball is coming at your flipper don't be afraid to just let it bounce otherwise you're going to be taking a shot at it you don't know where it's going Again, I want to hit mummy. I'm only two letters away. Same thing. When it's coming down here, I don't hardly ever use this flipper because you flip it and it's out of control and you never know where the ball is going. So it comes straight down and it comes to your flipper. All right, I need one more mummy shot and there we go. Oh, it must have gave me credit for two. Okay, well, I started mummy multi-ball without a mode. So that's fine. I mean, it's not the end of the world.
    13:44
    So again, I've got ball save on. I need to hit the ramp. In this particular mode, if I hit both ramps, I'm going to get it at a ball. Okay, so it's going to give me an extra ball. Now, most multi balls, most multi balls, there's a shot where if you hit it, you'll get an extra ball. Come on. All right. So we're actually, now we're not, we're just going to play it out. I was going to just shoot up there to see, but that's okay. All right. So now we've got, um, we've got the next mode lit, so we're just going to shoot it. Now see that target? this. Now that's a trick that I learned just from playing this. You hold this flipper up sometimes and the ball bounces, goes right into what you need. Okay. So now I've got a mode lit, the orange shots are the modes. So we're going to shoot some orange shots.
    14:45
    I'm not even close to a multi-ball. So again, there's a drop catch. I could hit mummy. I could work on mummy again now do you see what happened I use this top flipper and look what happened the ball went down the side if I didn't use the top flipper it would have came to it would have came down here I would have been able to control it so you every game will have different nuances so it's like okay well I don't want to do that so again here's the skill shot see if I can get it this time no not quite a little bit too hard but again I don't really emphasize a skill shot all that much It may still be lit There it is but no Okay Okay so now once again I going for the white mode shots
    15:31
    The mummy's good. So there's mummy. Now, I gave it a little nudge like that. By hitting the side, right here, right as the ball's coming down, it pushes it a little bit away from here. If I didn't do that, it would come here, hit this sling, and the ball would be out of control. So subtle nudges will really get you out of trouble. So let's see. Again, I'm shooting for white shots. There's a drop catch again. It's very nice when it's coming down here.
    16:05
    All right, so now, and so there's what we call a flipper pass. When a ball's coming down the ramp, I don't want the ball in this flipper. Hold the flipper up, bounces up and over. Sometimes you give it a little nudge up and it'll help the ball get over to the other side. I still need, I think, one more shot until I get to... No. Okay. Yeah. No. Still need another. So let's shoot that.
    16:33
    That's a tomb treasure. Whenever this is blinking red, you make some sort of accomplishment. Then it lights it up. You get points. You get all sorts of stuff. Now I've got a mode lit. this mode is a multi ball it doesn't start out as a multi ball but I want to hit it so now I hit that shot one more time and I'm in a multi ball so I'm getting points again what I want to do is let the ball come to the flipper let it bounce and there it is so now I I just want to shoot all I want to shoot the green shots all right so there's a ramp shot I can't really do anything right now except shoot the colored shots.
    17:16
    So, you know, as long as I have the ball save on, the ball saves right here. Okay, the ball saves off now.
    17:23
    And you can see, I'm sure you can see that the game is leaning, the game's leaning to the right. But whatever, you know, you just deal with it.
    17:33
    It's a little tougher. You can see the game is a little bit leaning off to the right. So everything's kind of going this way. All right, so again, You want to try to make the skill shot? I need two more modes to at least finish the modes. So what I'm doing is shooting the white shots. This is another multi-ball. The orbits, the ramps, the pops, the targets, and the spinners. And you can see, you always want to look up on the screen, you can see what I need. I need seven more ramps and eight more orbits. An orbit is just shooting around one way or another. So I may try to shoot some ramps, shoot some orbits, just to try to advance that because that's a pretty lucrative multi-ball. Also, this spinner, if you shoot it enough, you'll get your out-lane saves. I always like to see what can I do to minimize the damage, right? If I can light both out-lanes so that when the ball goes down I get it back, well that's pretty cool. It's hard to hit that spinner and it's hard to advance it enough, but it's definitely doable. See how I missed that? Now look, I'm bouncing it over, missed it again. I do a drop catch and that's that. Okay, not bad, 158 million. That's a good start. So you get the feel for the game. So now I have a better feel for where the shots are in the game. So you try it again. So the first thing, you go for the skill shot and not quite. I shoot the drop targets, let it bounce over because I want it on this flipper, try to shoot all three of the targets. Okay, I didn't shoot the three, but you see what I did there. I let it bounce off the flipper and go into the drop targets. I'll do it again just because the ball save was on. Now I've got my lock lit already. Within 10 seconds, 15 seconds of starting, my locks are lit, and that's huge. Let it bounce.
    19:21
    Let it bounce again. Actually, I'm just going to try to catch it. Look, now I got mummy going. Okay, so now, again, that drop catch is huge because look how I'm controlling that ball. shoot it so now i've got the mummy lock and again it's all about understanding the game you want to understand what everything in the game does otherwise you don't know what you're shooting for okay so now i've got a mode ready but i'm going to try to get the locks i need two locks okay so now i want to start the mode because one more shot i'm going to get a multi-ball so i let it bounce there it is and i'm going to backhand that shot to start the mode and then let it come down here and then shoot it right back in there for multi-ball.
    20:11
    There we go. So again, I got my yellow shots on the ramp. I've got all the blue shots lit. I'm going to focus on this spinner because what I want to do is I want to get my saves on the outside blitz.
    20:29
    So that was my out of ball shot, so now I've got four balls going and remember how I told you that there's almost always a way to add an extra ball into your multi ball. So again, I've got the ball save lit, I'm just trying to hit shots. And if I got too many balls, I'll let a couple go on purpose knowing I'm going to get them back. All right? So here we go. I've got two balls on one flipper and then I'm playing with the other two. So now there's no way I'm not going to be in a multi ball when you've got the balls controlled. So here we are trying to get the jackpot and I don't mind using that top flipper if there's a shot worthy. So there's the little tip over. Once the ball gets to the tip of the flipper, you do a quick flip and it pops the end one over to the other flipper. Pretty cool. It's really hard to do though. Alright, so again, I want to pop one up and get it over to this flipper. So that's my mow that's timing out right now. And I did get a mow shot. All right, so this is what I like. Now, did you see that right there? If you missed that, you can see the two top flippers? I don't have the top flippers flipped, but the bottom flippers are flipped. If you let go of the button just a little bit, you can actually flip the top two flippers. It's not the easiest thing. It's called stage flipping. It's not the easiest thing to do, but it sure feels good when you can do it. Okay, we're going for that spitter on the left.
    22:21
    All right, well, I mean, at least we hit it. So, again, we're going to try to bounce it up. And we're going to try to hit shots, try to hit blue shots. Now, again, the ball was coming down the middle, so I had to give it a little nudge. And don't be afraid to give the game a little nudge. All right, there's that. Okay.
    22:54
    Again, there's a drop catch. Don't use that top flipper. Ah, almost. Again, the game's leaning this way, so it's very difficult to make saves out of that lane. Can you? Yeah, yeah. If you could level it, that would be amazing.
    23:15
    Okay, so again. the first thing you're trying to do is get control of the ball. All right? So I got control. Now I want to hit shots. There's the mummy shot. The ball stays on. I don't care if the ball goes down.
    23:30
    Now I do. And that was it. Again, Iron Maiden is not the easiest game if you've ever played it. All right. So, again, that's a drop catch now. I got control.
    23:42
    This time I am not going to start the multiball too early. I don't think. Again what I want to do is I want to shoot the white shots. Don't be afraid to just pass it over. There we are. Try to catch it. I mean it's very hard to do but once you get the hang of it it's not as hard as you think. So now I've got the mode going right. So now what I want to do is I want to hit the mummy shot. Now I've got the mummy multi-ball. I shoot both ramps and it'll add a ball. So I'll have three balls instead of two. So there's one ramp, there's two ramps, now I have a ball. Now I need to shoot four shots in order to add another ball and you see they're in the yellow. Also the mode is when you hit a ramp you want to hit the spinner to maximize your mode value, which is fear the dark right now. So I'm dropping that flipper because I want, so I want the spinner shot. So there's a ramp, there's a ramp. Now I want to shoot the spinner because that's worth a lot of points. Oh boy. And there you go. I didn't have control and you see what happened. I lost both balls at the same time. All right, let's try to do a little better than that. So now I'm going to do a little less talking because you all know what I'm trying to do now. I'm trying to start the modes, trying to start the multi balls. See, I let it bounce off of that flipper, catch it and then shoot it. Now I'm just going to let that bounce. You see how many times I am not flipping. Sometimes it's more important to not flip, believe it or not, than it is to flip. So we've got the first, we got the lock from mummy, the ball is dropping, let the ball bounce over, that's not good, that's trouble. Now see, I could tell that was trouble all the way up here. So again, shooting the white shots, getting my locks lit. Now that's actually really nice that I can just hold that flipper up and it sweeps all the drop targets. That is cool. So now I've got a mode going and now I'm going to get all three of my locks. So you see the pattern and it's on all games, especially the newer games. You start a mode, then you bring in a multi-ball with it. Now you just shoot the shot three times. Don't use the top flipper. You don't need to use it. Let it bounce or try to catch it. That's your other lock shot. You can shoot it around. So now we got two balls locked. Let it bounce and just try to do it again. So now we're into the multi-ball.
    26:51
    And that's a hard shot. It's much easier going for that. I like to hold this flipper up so the balls go around and don't hit the corner.
    27:00
    So now we just have fun for 10 or 15 seconds until the ball save goes away. Try to shoot the rims. Try to shoot the blue shots. The blue shots will turn greenish. Eventually the shots turn red, and they're worth a lot more. Again, I've got ball save lit so I'm not too concerned about losing these balls. Now I am concerned because now I don't have the ball save lit. Oh, jackpot. I do have a super lit. There's that little tip over. I did give it a nudge as it was getting close to the lane. I nudged it up to bounce it on the rubber and it actually got it out, which is great. All right, there's a ramp. Now we're going to try to tip it, tip it up. If the game was leveled, it would have tipped up and over, but it tipped up and tried to go right back to that flipper. Oh, that might be trouble.
    28:00
    All right. Yeah, you guys can see that right side. I did get the super jackpot at the last second. Six million. Yay. All right, so again, start another mode. Here we go.
    28:17
    Start another mode. Now I've got 2x playfield running. See the 2x here? So I want to shoot that red shot because it's going to be worth 30 million instead of 15. 30 million on one shot is pretty good on this game, especially early on. So you let the ball come, let it bounce. That was what you call like a little slap save. When the ball is coming really close to the tip, you slap it with one side, slap it with the other at the same time, it'll go boom, boom, and then shoot it back up. Yeah. Oh, did you figure out a way to, all right, cool. All right. So again, shooting the white shot, shooting mummy.
    28:59
    Oh, look at that. All right. So now I'm not really close. I'm not really close to a multi-ball. So I'm just going to start a mode anyway. Oh yeah. That's, that's definitely, definitely better.
    29:15
    Okay, when the ball gets here, you want to try to shake it side to side to move it this way and sometimes you can knock it out. Again, Iron Maiden is not really a forgiving game. Alright, so yeah, the level is definitely a lot better. So again, I'm shooting wide shots to try to get a mode going. Let it bounce, control the ball. It's all about control really. Pinball is all about control. Control and accuracy, making your shots. See you don't make a shot and you're out of control. Look at that.
    30:08
    All right. Now we are ready for, again, this is a multi-ball mode. I have to hit that again. I have to hit that shot again.
    30:19
    So now I'm in multi-ball, and you just shoot the blue shots. Now in this mode, I believe if I light this shot right here, it will add a ball. And by doing that is hitting those drop targets which I just did So that was a good catch right there on the right flipper Almost Now see what I doing up top I let the top flipper go
    30:57
    but I'm still holding on the ball. Okay, now, so there's my add-a-ball. Again, just about every multi-ball will have an add-a-ball. All right, so now we're in 2X, which means everything I do for the next X amount of seconds are going to be, it's going to be worth two times. So what I want to do is catch a ball. That's perfect. There we go. Perfect. So now I want to shoot a jackpot shot.
    31:29
    Okay. I just want to shoot all, I just want to shoot the blue shots. That's all. So now I want to shoot the rip. Oh, extra ball. I hope extra balls are turned on. All right, so one target away from lightening the first lock. I catch it. Again, all about control. Now that was interesting. The ball was coming up here. When it gets to the top, I flipped it real quick to keep it on this flipper. kind of a tricky thing to do as well. Alright so now we've got the first lock lit, the second time, the second time, oh wow it went right through it. Extra ball isn't on, oh extra balls are not on, okay so this will be a three ball game. So this this is like set for tournament settings so technically in an arcade I would have had an extra ball. Alright so mummy, so I need a lot to get the next multi ball. I need four ramps and seven orbits to get a really cool multi ball. Alright so now we're in another mode we don't have any other multi ball as close but that's okay. Catch the ball, shoot the ball. I like to call it catch and shoot and then lose it. Hey, can we change the settings so the extra balls are on? Because when people come to an arcade, they're going to want, you know what I mean? Are you okay with one extra ball? Yes, that's fine. You don't want more? Well, yeah, I mean, of course I want more. When I go to an arcade, it's how do you get extra balls, you know what I mean? put it this way, if somehow I get a second extra ball, we'll change it. So catch the ball, I've already got the mummy lock ready with the ball save on, gotta love it.
    33:32
    There it comes. Shoot the white shots. Don't miss the white shots. Bounce. Now see that little bounce over and the nudge. So what that did was, when I catch the ball, I'll show you when I catch the ball. There we go. That's better. Bounce it over. We can catch it. So when a ball's bouncing very lightly from one flipper to the other, if you give it a nudge up, it'll help the ball bounce up over to the other. Not the easiest thing, but not the hardest thing. So now I only got one drop target. So I need to get those other two. I don't care. I'll start the mode. That doesn't really bother me. So I'm gonna I'm gonna nudge it when it hits this flipper try to get it up into those targets just like that. Oh that was cool. So now I've got no I don't have multi ball it but I got the mode so we're just gonna shoot ramps. ramp, ramp, no, drop targets, no, okay, ramp, not the easiest shot, there's a ramp, there's a nothing, see, I didn't have the, I didn't have control of the ball, and look what happened, so I don't, I don't necessarily take those pot shots all the time, because you just, it, it, the ball gets out of control and you saw what happened.
    35:08
    All right, so now I've got the lock lit. And we need the white shots. There's a catch right there. I mean, such an important, such an important part of the pinball game. Try to catch the ball and control it. Don't use those top flippers.
    35:28
    Godzilla is definitely a good example of that. because the top flipper over here, you get that out of control and forget it.
    35:39
    All right, so the mode starts ready to go. But what I want to do is get multiball. Again, once you get a multiball, especially if you're playing with your friends, you're like, hey, you know, you want to beat them, you get a mode going, you get a multiball going, and chances are you're going to be well on your way to beating whoever you're playing. All right. That wasn't good. Oh, so there's the secret skill shot, 20 million, because I plunged it down here. Pretty cool. All right.
    36:13
    So I started a mode. Again, I'm giving it subtle nudges to get it away from here, away from this sling. I'm going to give it a nudge this way to get it over here more. Like that. Okay, so it bounced on this flipper. I nudged it to come over here rather than more toward the middle
    36:33
    Well, that wasn't good. There's a catch and There's here. So now you get multi ball. So every game we're able to start this multi ball every game We've been able to start both multi balls really Which is good
    36:47
    All right, so here we go So now we're just shooting shots. There's your add a ball on that bullseye, that little rim in the middle. And I'm just shooting shots. Now my ball saves over. I've got three balls on one flipper. And so now we're just trying to make shots. I will use the side flipper in a multi-ball.
    37:29
    All right. Yeah, it's still trying to drift. All right. There's a multi-ball shot. There's a jackpot. Maybe, maybe not.
    37:40
    So now I'm trying to get control of one of those balls. all right, got control one ball, and that shot right up the middle is worth points, it's flashing orange, so it's worth more than one times, so that's the shot I want to shoot at,
    38:02
    we're getting there, again, I'm just trying to catch the ball and control it, all right, so there's a jackpot shot, and now look, I'm already up to 121 million, that's going to light my 2x play field, so all my jackpots are going to be double what they normally would be, Again, I'm just trying to keep my eye on both balls. Hit the ramps. The longer you multi-ball, the more points you're going to get, obviously. Oh, that was bad. I want to show you this spinner. You don't seem to get many spins on that, but I want to show you that spinner because If you can get these lit, it's huge.
    38:54
    You know what? I'm still going to go for it. See that? You missed a shot and you paid for it. But that's a better game, $225 million. Most of us on a three-ball game playing rather difficult will take $225 million, right? That's not terrible.
    39:16
    Geez, I can't even get my initials in. I'm not a morning person. All right, again, we're going to try to keep doing better. So there's a skill shot right there. So now I have extra time. I have extra time to make shots that I normally wouldn't. I normally wouldn't shoot that top flipper, but as long as my ball saves on, I'll take chances. I'll do whatever I can. Now I won't. Now I want to hit those two drop targets, not quite, not quite, let the ball bounce. I got a mode lit. Alright. Again, this game is very brutal. It's not the easiest, so you get 100 million, 200 million, it's not terrible. All right, so now I got a mode going, now I got to get the multi-ball going. Again, it's the same thing. You let the ball bounce, try to get those drop targets. I didn't get all three, but now I could have saved that if I did shake it, but I didn't want to go crazy with it. Now this game, this game is not looking so good. Not every game you play is going to be a great game. Hopefully these tips will help make them better games for you.
    40:43
    All right. So we need a lot of work here. Again, I give it a nudge when it comes out of here to get it over rather than hit the sling.
    40:55
    We're trying to get mummy lit. We're trying to get modes lit. And we're trying to get a decent score.
    41:03
    Now that, I use my leg. I always keep my leg right here in case something is coming right down the middle last second. I moved it with my leg, and the same thing is going like this with the game.
    41:15
    It's just something that I do that you don't normally see people doing, but it works. All right, so lock's lit, mode's lit. Let's see if we can get this 6 million game to 150 million game.
    41:32
    All right, catch the ball, shoot it back. Now I want to start a mode before multi-ball. And if you're in a tournament and you need 20 million points, you go for the multi-ball. You don't shoot the mode and take a chance. All right, catch the ball, shoot it back up. All right, that was nice. So now we're in the multi-ball, we got a mode going, and we're ready to go. One shot, this shot is very hard, but I always try to, I usually try to shoot it right away. Again, I don't mind letting balls go when the ball stays lit because I know I'm going to get them back, right? All right, so now, there we go. Now that middle shot is an atta ball. You see that rainbow shot. I don't want to shoot that yet because I still have three balls in play. I rather do that when I have two balls in play. So I get a little bit greedy. All right now this I like. The ramp is a mode shot. You can see it leaning. So there's the super jackpot. And I hit the add-a-ball by accident, but that's okay. We're still getting jackpots.
    43:11
    We're just trying to get control. All right, so there we go. So now we're almost up to 100 million. We got a super jackpot lit, which is a hard shot.
    43:26
    Almost. But again, I don't mind using that. Oh, that was terrible. Terrible. Double drain there. But I've got that 6 million all the way up to 100 already.
    43:41
    Now what I want to do is shoot the mummy. I want to shoot the mummy. Oh, I got two times going. And the red shot's lit. So now I got a 30 million shot, just like that. So even if your last ball, you got 6 million, nothing's going your way. Don't give up.
    44:01
    Okay, so now I need a couple more white shots. You don't want it going side to side because it goes side to side and then you're in trouble. I think I only need one more.
    44:19
    No, maybe that. Uh-oh. Okay, so now we got a mode going. Now this is right, okay so this mode is the multi-ball. So you want to shoot it, uh oh. Oh boy. Now we'll shoot, now we'll make it. Okay so now we've got a multi-ball going and you just shoot those shots. If I want to get it out of ball I have to hit those drop targets twice to light the orb and once I light the orb and I do it with the ball save on now the ball saves off but I only need one more shot then you hit this like that except it wasn't lit yet it wasn't plugged in yet all right so now what I can do is shoot that shot for an add a ball. Again it's still slightly it's definitely not as bad so you notice most the time I'm gonna have balls trapped on this flipper again I'm just trying to get control now I hit that now I got a ball added again it's a lot of pinball is trying to be accurate especially on shots that may not be the easiest shots. Okay, that ball will come back.
    45:55
    We're trying, there we go. Okay there our jackpot shot And again we 180 something million right We were just at what were we at Six million four million going in this ball
    46:21
    All right. Extra ball is lit and it is working. Oh, that was terrible. Terrible shot at the extra ball. Okay. So the extra ball, people don't know, it's this hard little X right there. Oh I hit it! Oh all right so now now we get an extra ball. Now see I use that I use that top flipper to help guide the ball down here rather than it if I didn't have that flipper up it would have come straight down you never know if it would have gone out you never know if it would have so instead of flipping with that flipper. Hold it up. Use it to your advantage. All right, so that was no good, but again it did guide the ball back down to me. Oh now see I did not want to do that. There's a little nudge. Bounce up. I did not want that yet, but that's okay. I need the two ramps to add a ball. Again it's all about knowing the rules, right?
    47:27
    Again, I have ball save on, don't care. There's one ramp, there's the other ramp. So now I've got to add a ball. Now I've got four yellow shots blinking that I need now, right? There's one of them. Uh-oh. Okay, there we go. That was almost two of them. That was two, okay? So now I need this ramp, or I should say the left ramp. Okay, any time. Oh boy. All right, and now I need the orbit. Again, I use my knee to nudge that. All right, so now I need this shot. It'll add another ball. And again, it's all about patience. So I want to drop that flipper. Drop that flipper. Nope, not quite. Drop that flipper. Still no. We're going to get it. No we're not. Okay, mummy jackpot. Remember that's not the easiest shot to get. All right, so here we are. Well, that's one way to get a cat, right? So there we go. So now we add another ball. Now there's, I think, six shots. I need six shots in order to add another ball. So it gets harder and harder, but the more switch hits I get, it actually lights Mummy for a jackpot. And Mummy is the captive ball. Ah, that's okay. Ramps I need three orbits. All right, so you see on the top left the ramps are flashing. I need three more orbits and then I can light what's called Cyborg Multiball. Two more orbits. And again you can do this in Multiball. Metallica is a really good example. If you ever play Metallica, what you want to do is you want to get to crank it up. While you're in a multi-ball, instead of shooting the shots, you're trying to shoot the shots that light your crank it up. Because once you get in crank it up, it's worth a lot of points. So I need one more orbit. My mummy is flashing, so I'm going to try to glance it off the captain ball and go around the orbit. Not quite. Go around it. There we go. Oh boy. Now that red shot I think is the mummy super. That's good enough. Oh come on. I can't believe I didn't get that. All right that's cool. You want to do that to me? I get it, I get it. That's good. Okay so again so orbits are ready. Once I hit this shot cyborgs ready. Ready. Ha ha. It's a risky shot. But I had what, 4 million going into that ball and what are we at here? 300 almost? So in a tournament that's 295. That's a decent score if you're playing in a tournament. So now I've got all these lit, right? So now Cyborg is lit right where you see the red. It's a fun mode. It's worth a lot of points. All you do is shoot it right there. need to hit one of each one orbit one ramp one one pop one target and one spinner and then you shoot this and it adds a ball and you keep doing that eventually it stops adding a ball but it will multiply your jackpot every time your super jackpot so orbit so all I need is the orbit right there so now this shots lit right there I get a jackpot only four million I gotta add a ball. So now I've got four balls right and you get a pretty long ball save with this. So I need orbits and I need targets. Alright so it's lit again. So I'm just trying to control the ball just like that and I want to hit that bad right there. Okay so now we got to add a ball that was a 2x jackpot worth maybe 14 million or so. What do I need? I need targets and ramps. We're almost, all right, targets. Okay, so we've got them all now. We want to hit that shot right near there, but not quite.
    52:22
    Again, I'm just trying to get control. All right. ah there it is now that was worth 22 million times three right seven but now you see i didn't get it out of ball okay so now it's like uh-oh i gotta do this on my own i need orbits pops and spinners ah look at that there we go Alright, well that's cool. It's a lot easier to do with one ball than two. Okay, so I need spinners, pops, orbits. So let's do the orbits. Come on, come on. There it is. Now it's ready to go, right? There it is. How much was that? 33 million. So you know, this mode can be pretty lucrative. Again, I want to be shooting the white shots, getting the next mode ready. So I've got the lock lit, but this time you need to get those drop targets three full go arounds in order to light all three locks. So it's not easy. So I usually don't go for that. All right, so now we've got the next mode ready to go, which is called Fear of the Dark, and I'm a fear I'm going to lose it.
    53:57
    Again, when it's coming down here, I'm giving it a nudge this way to get it away from the wall, get it away from this sling, right?
    54:03
    Okay, so now we're into Fear of the Dark, which is the ramp shots, ramp shots and then spinners. Nope.
    54:17
    Bounce it, bounce it over. Don't be afraid to let it bounce. Then miss the shot. Don't be afraid to miss the shot.
    54:25
    Alright, one ramp. So now I shoot either one of these spinners and I get points. If I shoot both spinners, I get a lot of points. I really want to get this going though. but you can see that the the spinner is a little bit off it's leaning a little bit forward so it's really hard to get a good rip see on that spinner but so normally you hit the spinner about twice you'll get the revive and you'll get the out lanes lit but because it's leading a little bit to the forward when the ball hits it it kind of kind of deadens it so 402 million that's not terrible again we're getting better and better. It's all about knowing the strategy of the game and kind of doing the tricks. So do we have time for one more game or are we getting close? Okay, we're getting close to the end. So does anybody have any questions? I'm going to start out with a question. So suppose a person owns just an Iron Maiden. That's the only game they have at home, but they want to learn all their skills. So what would you tell them about getting more general skills with one game that they can have infinite practice? Right. It's all about controlling the ball. So the one thing I'm trying to do is just get the ball on one flipper. You got to know the rules. You got to know what you're shooting for and you got to know the strategy. So if you have a Godzilla, have you guys played Godzilla? Yeah. Okay. You want to start the mode. Okay. You want to shoot both ramps, you shoot the scoop, you start the mode. Then you want to get into a multi-ball. A lot of the games, especially the Stern games, Jersey Jack, all of them nowadays, you start a mode and you get into multi-ball. So if all you have is one game, it's not Iron Maiden, figure out how you start the mode, figure out how you get into multi-ball. That'll be your maximum scoring. But any game, even the 1970s, the 80s, you want to control the ball. You want to try to get the ball on one flipper. You don't want to be afraid to let it like say, okay, I've got a 50 million shot with this left flipper. The ball's coming right here. Let it bounce over to here, catch it, and then shoot the 50 million point shot. So no matter what game you have, it's all about control. You want to have control of the flippers and you have more control down here than you do when the ball is up here, right? Because when the ball's down here, you've got the flippers, it's in your control. When it's flopping around up here, you have zero control. So you always, no matter what game you have, you want to try to trap a ball on one of the flippers. And if you have a multi-ball, instead of just flailing all the balls away, try to catch one ball on one flipper. Just try it with two balls first, because it's hard when you got three or four going. Try to catch one ball on one flipper, and then play with the other flipper, and see how long you can keep a multi-ball going with one on one, one on the other, and just kind of, you know, with any game, not just Ironman, obviously. So it's all about control. Yeah. I'm going to come to the microphone so I can record you, or just yell it out and I'll repeat it. The question was, how did you improve a skill recently, and how did you set about... So I'm going to show you a skill that, this is one of the skills I don't have, that many players do, all right it's called a tap pass you probably heard of a tap pass maybe it's basically and you usually do it on older games on 80s games but if the ball's coming down if you just go go like this like like you barely tap the flipper now see that was horrible but you barely tap the flipper and it goes to the to the other side so if i have a huge shot over here and i want to get the ball to this flipper, sometimes you just try, but a lot of times on the newer games, it's very hard to do. Usually on the 80s games, like Harlem Globetrotters, stuff like that, you can barely tap. You can barely just give it a little tap, and you'll tap it over to the other side. So that's something that I've been working on that other players are really, really, really good at. The other thing I've been working on is a lot of these international players, when I'm playing in a world championship, these guys from Europe, they do this, they're constantly, like, they got the ball in play, right, and they're going, they're, they're, they're banging it, you know, they're, the ball gets close to the side, and they're going, bam, bam, you know, and it's like, the ball gets right here, bam, and, and see how it knocks it out, that's something I've been working on, I like to do subtle nudges, I'm not really a slam, you know, slam it like that, but it's interesting watching some of these guys play and watching what they do because they're really good so that's another little technique that i've been getting better at so how i got better at tap passes was feeding the ball down the in lane so it's got some momentum yes just and working with less and less momentum as i got better at it right and so and that's what i call um i don't know what you call an alley pass maybe, when the ball is coming down and you just hold the flipper up and you pass it over or you hold the flipper up and because it's still slanted a little bit it's harder going from one side to the other but sometimes you just you give it a nudge up right there and it pops it over to the other side so. You can do a tap too. Right yeah you can do a tap but the tap passes are a little harder. Any other questions? All right, thank you. What's that? Oh, left and right nudging, yeah. Yeah, so when the ball's coming down the middle, a forward nudge isn't going to do anything. It's still going to come down the middle. So when the ball's right here,
    60:18
    basically, so the ball's coming down, I want to go like that. I give it a nudge to the right, and it put it on the right flipper. You don't have to nudge it that hard, but when it's coming to the out lane, you want to get it out. So a nudge to the right or left may push it to the right, but I want to nudge it up. See that? I nudged it up and it bounced it up and out of the lanes. So when it's bouncing around here, if you can bounce it up, bounce it up over the rubber just like I just did, that's what you want to do. But when the ball is like right here, it's hard to like that. See that? So that was a left to right nudge when the ball was right there, it bounced it off the rubber and bounce it out. So you got to kind of get the feel of when to push it up and when to move it side to side. But those were pretty good examples. I was fortunate enough. I'm going to cut it off there. So thanks very much. Okay. Thanks everybody.
    61:20
    Thank you.