According to my WinXP start menu, the only program I’ve accessed more than Pinball since I reformatted my hard drive is Solitaire. Does anyone else still play this? I know it’s not high (gaming) art or anything, but it’s a fun little way to wind down at the end of the day while I’m listening to my music.
My high score since the reformat is a little under 11 million, and I have yet to advance more than 2 or 3 ranks. I’ve noticed/wondered about a few things since I’ve started playing it more, though…
Is it just me or does the ball have different “weight” and behavior during different playing sessions? There are times it’s easy for me to flip the ball up the launch ramp using the left paddle over and over again if I want, and other times it’s like the ball is just too light, and I have to use the right paddle to accept missions.
Similar thing with the fuel system: there are times it seems like a single “tank” of fuel will last forever, and others where I’m constantly having to refill it to keep from aborting missions.
Does anyone know what the red light above the engine bumpers is for? It’s the one on the far left of the table, basically the first thing the ball runs over as it goes past the point of no return on the launch ramp. I’ve noticed it blinking before and couldn’t even remember seeing it light up, but I’ve never noticed it stop blinking and go out after a few seconds the way other lights do… it just keeps blinking till I hit the launch ramp again.
Would this table be possible in real life? The main thing I think would be difficult to replicate would be the “gravity sink,” or whatever they call it when you hit the hyperspace launch 5 times in a row. The red light in the middle of the table lights up and acts like a magnet. If it manages to pull the ball all the way in it locks it there for a second then fires it off in a random direction. I think the magnet may be possible on a real table, but I don’t know how they’d get it to fire off like that.
On to my (quick, I promise) question about Windows 7: what games are included? I assume they still have Solitaire, Free Cell, Minesweeper, &c. but I haven’t actually read about this anywhere. I’m mostly interested in the Home Premium version, since I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ll upgrade to whenever I eventually make that leap.
ETA: Sorry this is so long… I clearly don’t have enough free time on my hands here in Iraq. :rolleyes:
I love this game too! My all-time high score is about 26 million, and on that game I think I got four promotions (5 “rank” lights lit). I don’t think the ball sometimes has a different weight, although occasionally the game may not respond quite as you expect if it’s running on a slow machine (like mine) - in other words, the flippers may not flip as quickly as they should when you press the buttons.
There are a couple of ways to refuel so it is possible to refuel without necessarily meaning to do so, I think the rate at which it diminishes is constant, though.
I don’t know the answers to your other questions and would be interested in them, I hope you don’t mind if I add some of my own? I have tried Google before without much success.
Does anyone know how to get a “replay ball” (as opposed to an extra ball, which is not quite as good as everything re-sets - I know two ways to get these)?
Does anyone know how to re-open the outermost ball drains (snerk) when they get shut off?
I feel that if I knew how to do these two things, I could improve my game dramatically. Also:
Do the yellow lights above the inner and outer ball drains (there are four in total) signify anything?
Alright! More Space Cadet fans! My highest is aroudn 23 million, level 4 or 5. I’m not patient enough to do that again (I just keep doing reflex shot into the purple area on the left to run up the score)
I notice that too, but its more pronounced for me on different computers. At work, I can hit that hyperspace tube with a good deal of accuracy but I can’t seem to do that at home
You are probably getting refills but not noticing them. Fuel is based on time, so if you do a lot of things that is time sensitive, you’ll probably notice your fuel going down faster
I’m not sure which red light you mean. Did you mean to say the far right of the table instead of left?
I would love a table like this in real life. For one thing, the paddles are longer. But yeah, the gravity thing would be hard to pull off without an electromagnet
There is only 1 way I know to get a replay ball. You have to shoot the ball into the correct wormhole when it lights up. There are 3 wormholes on the board: yellow (above the right paddle), red (very upper right of the board, near the set of 3 bumpers, and green (right under the lone bumper on the very top left of the board). To make them light up, knock your ball into the red button to the left of the hyperspace entrance. That will light up all of the wormholes and you just knock your ball into the one with the matching color.
There’s 2 sets of yellow dots on the board that control the outermost ball drains. See the set of 3 bumpers on the upper part of the board? To the right of that, you see 3 yellow dots, plus 3 red dots on the wall behind it if you look hard enough. Light those 3 up and it turns on the right outermost ball drain. To open the left ball drain, look left of the 3 bumpers. You’ll see 3 yellow dots, plus 3 red dots on the wall behind them. Light those up
Not that I know of. Probably some level 10 mission but I never got that far
Cool, thanks for that. As I suspected, what I want is possible, but far harder to deliberately achieve than what I am doing at the moment! That FAQ was quite useful as well - thanks, BobLibDem.
It almost seems like you’re talking about (from left to right) the light above the left kicker, the light next to the refuel return lane, the left return lane, the right return lane, and the right kicker… but that’s five, so I’m fully aware as I’m writing this that this may not be what you’re talking about and I might not actually be helping you. But here goes anyway: the ones above the kickers light up when you’ve hit the hyperspace return four times in a row, then go out and award you an extra ball if you hit the kicker lane during that time. The refuel lane lights up whenever you finish a mission, and all it does is double the point value of hitting that refuel lane. The left and right return lanes light up when you hit the space warp (the green spot on the upper left side of the table) and award you double points for hitting those lanes once.
No, it’s definitely on the left… it’s on the light purple area that you hit to accept a mission, right above the bumper thingies that change color when you “upgrade engines.”
Ok I’ve figured it out. That red light lights up when you have to shoot the ball into the purple area. On the first level, before I hit one of the yellow dots to accept my mission, that red light was off. When I got the prompt to shoot into the purple area to get my mission, that light went on. The mission I received was the mission where you have to shoot into that purple area 3 times. That’s when the light came on again. It didn’t go off until I finished the mission. Seems like it’s an extra marker to tell you where to shoot the ball
My highest is aroudn 23 million, level 4 or 5. I’m not patient enough to do that again (I just keep doing reflex shot into the purple area on the left to run up the score)