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Episode 290: Karl’s Wizard Modes and PinClash
PodcastAnalysis updated yesterday28 min listen
Karl DeAngelo continues to impress us and even during a pandemic. He discusses mastering several wizard modes on his iepinball stream, the INDISC 2021 status, Pinburgh/PAPA memories and more. Plus...
Highlights
- Carl completed the wizard mode of Stern's 24 on day 16 after initially being very close on day 1, with the modified version being more difficult than Big Buck Hunter due to unforgiving multiball mechanics
- 25-30 minutes is the ideal sweet spot for wizard mode completion time from a player enjoyment perspective
- Code design is more important than physical playfield layout: good code can overcome mediocre shot design
- PIN Slash uses a point-based scoring system rather than strict wins-loss because online video latency prevents true heads-up precision timing
- The $1,000 first place prize for PIN Slash comes from IE Pinball earnings from his Big Buck Hunter wizard mode streams in 2020
- Jurassic Park was selected for PIN Slash because it had the highest availability among 24 qualifying participants, with Iron Maiden five games behind in ownership/access
- Indisc 2021 will likely be postponed to January 2022 rather than moved to fall 2021 due to vaccine rollout timeline uncertainty
- Carl has been helping multiple streamers (including Marty Robbins and Phil Grimaldi) with streaming equipment and mobile rig setup
- 24 qualified players for PIN Slash completed Escape Nublar in under 4 minutes, with top qualifier earning $100 bonus
- JJP has indicated they may add co-op modes to future games but currently keep games single-player to maintain mystery and novelty
Notable quotes
“I lean more towards the code, to be honest. I think code can save a game. If it's programmed well and balanced well and it's interesting to play, it can overcome some shots that may not be as enjoyable to shoot or as satisfying to shoot.”
“Yeah, it is a grind. That era of Stern game where they were right on the brink of trouble, all those games seem to be similar.”
“You get a certain number of points based on how quickly you beat the challenge. Because with online video, there's some latency. So you can't have an exact finish.”
“I was trying to think of what else to do with that money and decided to use it for Pin Slash instead.”
“I was really worried that I would hear someone say, I'm so sick of Jurassic Park, I'm selling my game now.”
“Let people figure it out. And imagine this too. If people are figuring it out right away, well, then you don't maybe need to do the code if it's easier than you expected.”
“I'm just throwing this out here, by the way. And if we're at that point, we might as well just wait until we get to our January date in 2022, in my opinion.”
“There's no way I could have run this tournament without all these people.”
“So they have to have their tilt bobs set at a minimum spot, machine set to seven degrees, make sure it's level left to right, and then all the software settings...”
“If you don't complete one of them, I was restarting the game just to save the number of balls I would have.”
Entities
- Indisc· event
- PIN Slash· event
- Pinberg· event
- Big Buck Hunter· game
- Escape Nublar· game
- Iron Maiden· game
- Jurassic Park· game
- Lord of the Rings· game
- Simpsons Pinball Party· game
- Stern 24· game
- The Avengers· game
- World Poker Tour· game
- IE Pinball· organization
- Derek Thompson· person
- Escher Lefkoff· person
- Jeff Teolis· person
- Jim Belsito· person
- Kaley George· person
- Karl DeAngelo· person
- Mark Schultz· person
- Raymond Ashby· person
- Raymond Davidson· person
- Snow Galvin· person
- Steven Bowden· person
- Zach McCarthy· person
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