This man deserves a TWIPY nomination. I know you can do it Mr. Tuckey. His videos are REMARKABLE! ( Said in my best Jurassic Park voice.) I haven't seen production quality this good since watching your infomercial 30 years ago! In all seriousness I anxiously await content from both your channels.
Best pinball skills tutorials ever! Concise, well explained, well illustrated, great practice/mastery advice - pure Excellence! Thanks for the insights!!
This would be gold for Monster Bash in Pinball FX (4), but unfortunately, I cannot configure the buttons for Tilt, it's always mapped on one of the two sticks.
5 credits for €2? I'd like a machine to be that fair here in the US. 50 cents is cheap enough but games that start at 75 cents to a $1 will typically only give 3 credits per $2.
I prefer to shift the table slightly as the ball is about to drain (mostly to avoid disturbing other people around me, and it's just what I have success with). But I see all the really good players slap saving. Is there some significant reason I should be slap saving instead, aside from maybe being a little bit safer when it comes to tilting? Anyone's input is appreciated.
Your method works very well for slower balls with the right feet and floor combination for less ground friction- a skill I have not shown here 😉 Slaping is safer for not tilting, but worse because of losing ball control. However if you are good at shifting the machine it can be very efficient. Anyway, for fast balls you don't have the time to shift the machine, so you might give the slap save a shot to complement your skillset 👌
Thank you so much! I've been rewatching this as I get more experienced and notice new details. For example, it seems that you keep the first flipper in save up as you slap the other one. Is this intentional? Is it supposed to prevent a drain from hitting the sling's bottom post? Thanks again!
Hey there, acutally there is no reason to hold any flipper up during a slap save. It's even better you drop them ASAP imo, since you want to be ready to save the ball a second time. In Slomo it migh look like I'm holding it up longer. I rarely use the double slap due to the loss of ball control, however the single slap still works for me. Anyway, I know good players who are also great double slappers
Dirty pinning leads straight to Hell .... Sometimes in life we watch a ball go SDTM and theres nothing we can do . Thats just life. Dont play god respect the creators. They made the flippers how they made them
@@michaelaeschbacher4648 Dirty pinners are cheaters and probably cheat in all other aspects of their lives. Including on taxes & on partners. Keep it clean folks respect the craft respect the creators.. Respect the board
This might be a silly question but do you ever kick when you play,’? Are your feet staggered, under your shoulders, or something else? I am trying to break the habit of kicking when I slap save.
Hehe i know players who jump when they slap, kicking not so much. Alot of times those slaps seem very effective. Sometimes I catch myself also jumping during a slap during tournaments. Players have all kind of different body movements and I wouldn't bother too much. Just reflect if it makes your technique worse in any way or if it "hurts" you or other people around you.
Great vid! I'm a bit of a beginner. It feels like my home machine (Hot Wheels) is so sturdy that slap saves and nudges don't affect it much. Do I need to loosen the bolts on the legs, or raise the machine up so the feet are extended a little? Or do I just need to smack it harder?
Hey, even if it works, do not loosen up the bolts! You can extend the feet as long as they are secured well in the screw thread. I dont know american pinball machines well, but the cabinets looks conventional to me. You said you are new to pinball and my guess is that you just dont have enough experience. Especially slap saves and nudging takes alot of observation and trial and error. On the slap saves, flipper angle and rubbers can make a difference too. Anyway, i would start off with a loose tilt and nudge a little bit more extrensive ...wait 1-2 weeks for the upcoming nudging videos, there should be some awnsers for you! 😋💪
@@AbeFlips Ooo. Looking forward to it! Thanks for the reply. I'm stuck in the valley where the more I try and control the ball the worse I do since I get a lot of ball activity in the middle of the playfield, and the ball seems magnetically drawn to the outer lanes 😭
@@MrDochorrible thats also common for better players. Find a ballance between control and on the fly play style. Your control techniques like live catches will get better over time if you practice them, but if you want to make it to wizard modes it may be smarter to not try to control any ball at any cost.
@@AbeFlips woah this is good wisdom. I feel like this is a missing aspect of pinball tutorials... okay now that you know the tools, what's the overall strategy on getting better? Thanks for the great content and thanks for being active in your comments.
@@MrDochorrible You`re welcome. I was hoping to give you some hints with the videos 😉 Practice constantly one hour a day. Try to understand whats happening during gameplay. Dont just play for fun, but also include drills, combos and challange yourself. Watch good streamers on Twitch or better in person! Play different machines.
"Since im playing alone every day and getting better, some questions came up. I have Pinball 101 and 102 and I'm watching pinball streams, but it cant replace real teaching. Am I right that slide save is a extreme version of a slap save? At first I just let the flipper in the up position and after that i slid the machine. The thing is, when i see a ball going slowly SDTM, a slap save is not enough, because I really have to move the machine a little bit to save the ball. I know the "slap" should also move the machine but in some cases the slap will not be enough and it hurts when hitting harder. Slapping harder also wont help, because the timing is way too off with slower SDTM drains. The flipper will rise too early. My solution is that I drag the machine with my palms an push the flipper button a little bit later to get the timing right. It feels like I decouple my fingers from the hands, so I'm able to be more precise. Am I doing it right, and how do you do it?" Abe 1 year ago on Pinside Sure, sliding is extreme. Problem is that it's only practicable on very smooth surfaces like carpet. Even on a medium smooth concrete floor it makes such a hell of a sound that everybody in a 30 m radius will turn the head. So I'd do it there only if something big is at stake. I have had a few situations where the ball was going uphill and when it was about to slow down to almost zero, I suddenly realized that the trajectory will be exactly SDTM. In that moment it can sometimes help to give a quick forward nudge which can amplify tiny bumps in the playfield and thereby influence the path a bit, so that the following slap save will be sufficient. That the flipper is rising too early on an extreme slap save that would move the playfield a lot is an interesting statement. In theory maybe yes but being the incredible Hulk + absent tilt, would be requirement. Yes, pulling the machine to the side and then hitting the button(s) is the most effective but I almost never encountered such a loose tilt. The most borderline power slap save I had, a unicorn that appeared only a few times in my life was the triple slap. Requirement for any multi slap but especially here is the immediate release of the buttons. For a power slap a lot of speed, a lot of arm swing (side clearance) and a fast snapping wrist is needed. The latter is probably what you mean by "decoupling the fingers". The fingers and the palm of the hand must have extreme speed and after impact "bounce back" - it's like a karate hit. Hurts for sure. After an intensive pinball session I have stripes and cuts on the palm of my hands. Sometimes even a tiny amount of blood appears - depends on the sharpness of the lockdown bar. In the video you make a very valuable point about the single slap being a great way to guide the ball towards the opposite alley / flipper area. "...you have to take the strong impact on the tilt bob into account due to the one directional force." Hm, you could counter-act by slapping the other side under the flipper button (without flipping). Nobody don't does that probably bc if the single slap is misjudged and the ball bounces off too low, then one would be too slow to push the other button as an emergency reaction. Btw Keith Elwin uses the single slap very often and efficient. Requirement is a good eye and excellent judgment. When I'm distracted or otherwise unfocused I often double slap instead of single. The silverball then shoots up, hits something and from there the Lord brings it directly home to its resting position in the trough :-) Then I immediately realize what a bs I played again. What a funny ending with the dummy ha ha ha!
Hey, from what I'm reading you understood everything well. What I learned during the production time, that alot of slaps saves are not required, and a good ball prediction helps most of the time. Learning from this is the way to go. Also waiting longer for the ball to come down and then hitting the flipper in the last moment is important, since the reach of the flippers are highly dependent on the angle from where the ball is coming from. Slide Saves aka Nudge passes are really dependend on the material you are sliding on and the feets material you are using. Rubber on wood will also cause alot of stress on the legs, not good for the cabinet. A slow SDTM ball cant be saved with a slap save, only if you want to destroy your hands... i found myself with a hurting ring finger knuckle from a slap, I think it was a sqeezed artery. Another reason I find myself using gloves more often. What i learned over the last year is, that most techniques are overlaping into each other and you can refine your techniques by combining them or taking elements of other techniques. For example nudging combined with dead- or tip bounces or the timing aspect of the hybrid version of slap saves / slide saves- decoupling fingers from the slap so you can control how much of a slap you need or when the flipper lifts up. I'm still learning too and I love it when things fall in place naturaly like when combining techniques. Regarding the counterslap... that is an information I oftan came across and heard from professional players. Truth is, it only works on really fast slaps and you have to be right on time. Personally I think that re-centering the machine is just important on very tight tilts and I do not know how professional players really take advanage of it. Maybe they get a feeling for the timing and just use that as a rule of thumb. If so, the second slap on the cabinet for single handed slap saves could make sense, but I'm not sure since the single slap also feels like a hybrid technique, since I use more force there. It is also hard to learn how the tilt moves, since its under the playfield. Sooo much to learn ;-) I really can recommend the "pinball wizardy" book, you find more information in my chanel description. Or ask me via PM/email. And check out streamers on twitch or youtube like IEPinball, RayDayPinball and DeadFlip! Good luck!
@@AbeFlips "...a lot of slap saves are not required. Yes, sometimes I find myself playing too brutal. Choosing carefully what's needed is key. "...squeezed artery." Ouch! Gloves, yes, saw them in the video. Hm, I think to have more feeling when playing without. Might be only imagination. One day I'll try finger-less gloves as I have only real problems with the cuts in the palm of my hand. Do you play standing? I play sitting on a barstool with a medium back rest. I ask bc the hand position is usually different then. Standing players tend to grip more from the top down as they're mostly in a bit more upright (higher) position. I grip totally from the front and even though I have big hands, my thumbs barely touch the glass. I don't like the standard tilt bob as the outcome often depends on which way it's swinging. Nice invention in 1935 by Harry Williams but as today acceleration sensors cost around 0,25 EUR, it's time for a change. But somehow most players care more if Baby Yoda Grogu moves his ass or not... I've seen that book online somewhere. I'll look into it, thx man!
@@chuckwurt Probably bc it's not appreciated if players don't properly move the machines back to the right position, so that it looks a bit messy? What's your outlook, given the political situation, will players return to tournaments in great numbers or is lack of money and other problems preventing that?
Dude these are the best pinball tutorials and it's not even close
Exactly
Yes, they are the best. Most tutorials don't explain the details,they just show you how they do it, they don't even speak.
These tutorials are so hilariously better than anything else out there. Great stuff man keep it up
These are the best pinball tutorials on youtube. High production value, short, informative. Perfect!!!
Wow! Thanks for all the detail too, inside the cabinet!
This man deserves a TWIPY nomination. I know you can do it Mr. Tuckey. His videos are REMARKABLE! ( Said in my best Jurassic Park voice.) I haven't seen production quality this good since watching your infomercial 30 years ago! In all seriousness I anxiously await content from both your channels.
Bob hates slap saves.
Best pinball skills tutorials ever! Concise, well explained, well illustrated, great practice/mastery advice - pure Excellence! Thanks for the insights!!
Like how your video uses the sparring manikin to demonstrate slap saves ...LMAO 😂😂👍
This would be gold for Monster Bash in Pinball FX (4), but unfortunately, I cannot configure the buttons for Tilt, it's always mapped on one of the two sticks.
That footage on the toilet 🤣
5 credits for €2? I'd like a machine to be that fair here in the US. 50 cents is cheap enough but games that start at 75 cents to a $1 will typically only give 3 credits per $2.
I'm so bad at this...but there's always more practice
Pretty sure I just watched the definition of a Pinball tutorial. Is nobody else even trying?
Fantastic tutorial!
Wonderful tutorial! Thanks so much Abe!
Professional and funny.You got a sub 👍🏼
Quality pinball content 👌. I like the demo alot
This guy should be up for a TWIPY award. Seriously...
What did the five fingers say to the face pinball?
I prefer to shift the table slightly as the ball is about to drain (mostly to avoid disturbing other people around me, and it's just what I have success with). But I see all the really good players slap saving. Is there some significant reason I should be slap saving instead, aside from maybe being a little bit safer when it comes to tilting? Anyone's input is appreciated.
Your method works very well for slower balls with the right feet and floor combination for less ground friction- a skill I have not shown here 😉
Slaping is safer for not tilting, but worse because of losing ball control. However if you are good at shifting the machine it can be very efficient.
Anyway, for fast balls you don't have the time to shift the machine, so you might give the slap save a shot to complement your skillset 👌
Thank you for the supportive and thorough reply! You are an excellent teacher 😄
Thank you so much! I've been rewatching this as I get more experienced and notice new details. For example, it seems that you keep the first flipper in save up as you slap the other one. Is this intentional? Is it supposed to prevent a drain from hitting the sling's bottom post? Thanks again!
Hey there, acutally there is no reason to hold any flipper up during a slap save. It's even better you drop them ASAP imo, since you want to be ready to save the ball a second time. In Slomo it migh look like I'm holding it up longer. I rarely use the double slap due to the loss of ball control, however the single slap still works for me. Anyway, I know good players who are also great double slappers
What a fast reply! Thank you!@@AbeFlips
Another great one..
Dirty pinning leads straight to Hell .... Sometimes in life we watch a ball go SDTM and theres nothing we can do . Thats just life. Dont play god respect the creators. They made the flippers how they made them
Have you ever tried not being an insufferable elitist
@@michaelaeschbacher4648 Dirty pinners are cheaters and probably cheat in all other aspects of their lives. Including on taxes & on partners. Keep it clean folks respect the craft respect the creators.. Respect the board
Love you tutorials. Especially love the Dummy slap :-)
Thank you so much for these! I am thrown off by the humor in the last couple videos, but only because I wasn't expecting it! Please keep these up!
This channel is fn amazing
Thanks for making these awesome vids
This might be a silly question but do you ever kick when you play,’? Are your feet staggered, under your shoulders, or something else? I am trying to break the habit of kicking when I slap save.
Hehe i know players who jump when they slap, kicking not so much. Alot of times those slaps seem very effective. Sometimes I catch myself also jumping during a slap during tournaments. Players have all kind of different body movements and I wouldn't bother too much. Just reflect if it makes your technique worse in any way or if it "hurts" you or other people around you.
best Pinball technique videos on UA-cam
Love your videos!
Awesome video. Very well done.
Great vid! I'm a bit of a beginner. It feels like my home machine (Hot Wheels) is so sturdy that slap saves and nudges don't affect it much. Do I need to loosen the bolts on the legs, or raise the machine up so the feet are extended a little? Or do I just need to smack it harder?
Hey, even if it works, do not loosen up the bolts! You can extend the feet as long as they are secured well in the screw thread. I dont know american pinball machines well, but the cabinets looks conventional to me. You said you are new to pinball and my guess is that you just dont have enough experience. Especially slap saves and nudging takes alot of observation and trial and error. On the slap saves, flipper angle and rubbers can make a difference too. Anyway, i would start off with a loose tilt and nudge a little bit more extrensive ...wait 1-2 weeks for the upcoming nudging videos, there should be some awnsers for you! 😋💪
@@AbeFlips Ooo. Looking forward to it! Thanks for the reply. I'm stuck in the valley where the more I try and control the ball the worse I do since I get a lot of ball activity in the middle of the playfield, and the ball seems magnetically drawn to the outer lanes 😭
@@MrDochorrible thats also common for better players. Find a ballance between control and on the fly play style. Your control techniques like live catches will get better over time if you practice them, but if you want to make it to wizard modes it may be smarter to not try to control any ball at any cost.
@@AbeFlips woah this is good wisdom. I feel like this is a missing aspect of pinball tutorials... okay now that you know the tools, what's the overall strategy on getting better?
Thanks for the great content and thanks for being active in your comments.
@@MrDochorrible You`re welcome. I was hoping to give you some hints with the videos 😉 Practice constantly one hour a day. Try to understand whats happening during gameplay. Dont just play for fun, but also include drills, combos and challange yourself. Watch good streamers on Twitch or better in person! Play different machines.
"Since im playing alone every day and getting better, some questions came up.
I have Pinball 101 and 102 and I'm watching pinball streams, but it cant replace real teaching.
Am I right that slide save is a extreme version of a slap save?
At first I just let the flipper in the up position and after that i slid the machine.
The thing is, when i see a ball going slowly SDTM, a slap save is not enough, because I really have to move the machine a little bit to save the ball.
I know the "slap" should also move the machine but in some cases the slap will not be enough and it hurts when hitting harder.
Slapping harder also wont help, because the timing is way too off with slower SDTM drains. The flipper will rise too early.
My solution is that I drag the machine with my palms an push the flipper button a little bit later to get the timing right.
It feels like I decouple my fingers from the hands, so I'm able to be more precise.
Am I doing it right, and how do you do it?"
Abe 1 year ago on Pinside
Sure, sliding is extreme. Problem is that it's only practicable on very smooth surfaces like carpet. Even on a medium smooth concrete floor it makes such a hell of a sound that everybody in a 30 m radius will turn the head. So I'd do it there only if something big is at stake.
I have had a few situations where the ball was going uphill and when it was about to slow down to almost zero, I suddenly realized that the trajectory will be exactly SDTM. In that moment it can sometimes help to give a quick forward nudge which can amplify tiny bumps in the playfield and thereby influence the path a bit, so that the following slap save will be sufficient.
That the flipper is rising too early on an extreme slap save that would move the playfield a lot is an interesting statement. In theory maybe yes but being the incredible Hulk + absent tilt, would be requirement.
Yes, pulling the machine to the side and then hitting the button(s) is the most effective but I almost never encountered such a loose tilt.
The most borderline power slap save I had, a unicorn that appeared only a few times in my life was the triple slap. Requirement for any multi slap but especially here is the immediate release of the buttons.
For a power slap a lot of speed, a lot of arm swing (side clearance) and a fast snapping wrist is needed. The latter is probably what you mean by "decoupling the fingers". The fingers and the palm of the hand must have extreme speed and after impact "bounce back" - it's like a karate hit. Hurts for sure.
After an intensive pinball session I have stripes and cuts on the palm of my hands. Sometimes even a tiny amount of blood appears - depends on the sharpness of the lockdown bar.
In the video you make a very valuable point about the single slap being a great way to guide the ball towards the opposite alley / flipper area. "...you have to take the strong impact on the tilt bob into account due to the one directional force." Hm, you could counter-act by slapping the other side under the flipper button (without flipping). Nobody don't does that probably bc if the single slap is misjudged and the ball bounces off too low, then one would be too slow to push the other button as an emergency reaction. Btw Keith Elwin uses the single slap very often and efficient. Requirement is a good eye and excellent judgment. When I'm distracted or otherwise unfocused I often double slap instead of single. The silverball then shoots up, hits something and from there the Lord brings it directly home to its resting position in the trough :-) Then I immediately realize what a bs I played again.
What a funny ending with the dummy ha ha ha!
Yea. A slide save is just an exaggerated slap save. Those won’t always be possible since a lot of tournaments put rubber feet on the game.
Hey, from what I'm reading you understood everything well. What I learned during the production time, that alot of slaps saves are not required, and a good ball prediction helps most of the time. Learning from this is the way to go. Also waiting longer for the ball to come down and then hitting the flipper in the last moment is important, since the reach of the flippers are highly dependent on the angle from where the ball is coming from. Slide Saves aka Nudge passes are really dependend on the material you are sliding on and the feets material you are using. Rubber on wood will also cause alot of stress on the legs, not good for the cabinet. A slow SDTM ball cant be saved with a slap save, only if you want to destroy your hands... i found myself with a hurting ring finger knuckle from a slap, I think it was a sqeezed artery. Another reason I find myself using gloves more often.
What i learned over the last year is, that most techniques are overlaping into each other and you can refine your techniques by combining them or taking elements of other techniques. For example nudging combined with dead- or tip bounces or the timing aspect of the hybrid version of slap saves / slide saves- decoupling fingers from the slap so you can control how much of a slap you need or when the flipper lifts up. I'm still learning too and I love it when things fall in place naturaly like when combining techniques.
Regarding the counterslap... that is an information I oftan came across and heard from professional players. Truth is, it only works on really fast slaps and you have to be right on time. Personally I think that re-centering the machine is just important on very tight tilts and I do not know how professional players really take advanage of it. Maybe they get a feeling for the timing and just use that as a rule of thumb. If so, the second slap on the cabinet for single handed slap saves could make sense, but I'm not sure since the single slap also feels like a hybrid technique, since I use more force there. It is also hard to learn how the tilt moves, since its under the playfield. Sooo much to learn ;-)
I really can recommend the "pinball wizardy" book, you find more information in my chanel description. Or ask me via PM/email.
And check out streamers on twitch or youtube like IEPinball, RayDayPinball and DeadFlip!
Good luck!
@@AbeFlips
"...a lot of slap saves are not required.
Yes, sometimes I find myself playing too brutal. Choosing carefully what's needed is key.
"...squeezed artery."
Ouch! Gloves, yes, saw them in the video. Hm, I think to have more feeling when playing without. Might be only imagination. One day I'll try finger-less gloves as I have only real problems with the cuts in the palm of my hand. Do you play standing? I play sitting on a barstool with a medium back rest. I ask bc the hand position is usually different then. Standing players tend to grip more from the top down as they're mostly in a bit more upright (higher) position. I grip totally from the front and even though I have big hands, my thumbs barely touch the glass.
I don't like the standard tilt bob as the outcome often depends on which way it's swinging. Nice invention in 1935 by Harry Williams but as today acceleration sensors cost around 0,25 EUR, it's time for a change. But somehow most players care more if Baby Yoda Grogu moves his ass or not...
I've seen that book online somewhere. I'll look into it, thx man!
@@chuckwurt
Probably bc it's not appreciated if players don't properly move the machines back to the right position, so that it looks a bit messy? What's your outlook, given the political situation, will players return to tournaments in great numbers or is lack of money and other problems preventing that?
@@Packgammon tournaments will be bigger than ever this year. Every big tournament I’ve seen has sold out day one.