I swear it's Springfield's only choice

[austin_dern]

Back on March Hare Madness and how cards affect the play. At the start of play everyone got two cards; mine were a heal-me card that would let me play an extra ball at the end of a game and a cancellation card. Though I finished second my first game, I didn't think it worth using the play-another-card. Same with the second game, Guardians of the Galaxy, although that's one I might have turned into a first-place finish with one good ball. And I got an extra ball, earning another card. The next game I finished in third and couldn't see any way to better my position. But I did earn a card for getting an extra ball, and got to thinking how I needed to start using them.

The next game was a three-person group, on Rush, a game I quite like and usually do well on. After an okay but not-great first ball TZ, the woman new to pinball, asked how many cards I had. Four, I owned up to; she had just the one, and she played it. It was the one requiring me to pick one of my cards and throw it away. I could have cancelled this, but it would still leave me down one card, and the cancellation card might come in handy sometime ... so, I shuffled and let her pick. She drew the heal-thyself card, wiping out my chance to add an extra ball somewhere.

Ah, but, my cards ... as I had decided I needed to really use mine. Especially as DOM, the other player in our group, had put up a killer game of Rush in the first two balls. So I called on one of the cards I had picked up ... one that requires everyone to give up one randomly-chosen card from their decks. TZ had none to lose, but DOM went from two cards down to one. This was me doing what I could to keep anyone from negating the card I really wanted to play ...

So after the second ball with DOM way in the lead I said, ``You know, I do envy your position ... I wish I had that score. ... Oh, in fact, I do'' and tossed down the card that let me swap positions with any player before the start of the third ball. He could have cancelled that --- but he only had the one card, and I could cancel his cancellation. So that's how I stole a first-place finish on Rush, while TZ looked on with admiration and DOM nodded along with, well, that's March Hare Madness for you.

Next game was one on Scared Stiff where I was again in TZ's group. And, learning she was unfamiliar with the tables, I told her what to do (shoot the crate for a two-ball multiball). While I played I overheard JAB giving her much more advice, which is right in the sense of not giving someone false information, but useless if you want someone to have a chance a understanding what to do. Don't try teaching someone more than two rules at a time; they need time to learn the complexity of a system.

I took second place but, even more important, got an extra ball and another card. And people started telling me I was all but set for finals, which shocked me as I thought I was playing nothing but mediocre. Well, a steady second-place finish this sort of match will get you to the brink of finals, and even more important, I had never finished in last place.

On to The Simpsons, in another three-player group, once again with TZ and this time with TY. I was able to give TZ two pieces of advice that brought her to a pretty respectable five million point score (shoot the garage, for the D'Oh frenzy, and shoot the drop targets, for the Itchy and Scratchy Multiball). TY put up thirteen million points. And me? I put up nothing.

But I had cards. I was able to do some mischief, particularly: the moment TY started his D'Oh Frenzy --- during multiball! --- I said ``Stop that!'' and slapped down the card that requires you to stop playing right now until the ball ends. (You get a compensation ball, after the game is over, and add that to your score, which is how he got up to the 13 million.) TY, again, admired the strategy of this, agreeing that it was perfectly played. Ah, well, that's it, on to the next round ---

Except I had another card.

This one let me replay my whole game. Which, since I was in last place --- and we were on either the last or next-to-last round? Why save these cards? I slapped it down, figuring I was not likely to beat TY's 13 million points, but I could surely catch up to TZ's five million. And, even if I didn't, I could at least put up a not-awful score instead.

Dear reader, I aimed at the garage, building up for the D'Oh Frenzy --- where everything on the playfield is worth (25?) thousand and makes Homer cry out ``D'Oh!'' And, as you can't avoid it, also starting out various modes, which is great because the game lets you combine modes, like, 'Stop the Monorail', and turn a shot that might be normally worth, oh, 25,000 points into one worth 25,000 plus 250,000, or so on. And then got Itchy and Scratchy Multiball going, giving me several balls in play at once, each getting a D'Oh and racking up points. By the end of my last ball, I had landed around 15 million points, and first place, a perfect use of cards.

I had only the one card left, now. And got called up again on the Simpsons, yet again in a group with TZ, for what would be the last round of the night. Here, I did decently, but didn't manage a repeat of my replay of that Simpsons game, taking another second place.

Everyone playing had their stories more or less like this, getting cards and losing some to other people's predations and trying to figure whether to use their cards now or whether to hoard them in case the boss rush needs everything. But this should give you a sense of what the flow of the game is like, and how the cards add chaos and mischief to the proceedings. Other people had cards to do things like force the display screen to be covered up --- distracting, even though the main action is all on the playfield, especially as modern games give hints to their extremely complicated rules through display information --- or to swap a person from their group with someone in another group. Change the game they're playing. Force a different group to change the game they're playing. Anything could happen.

For example, I got into finals. Who would expect that?

Trivia: The Love Nest was a made-for-television ``movie'' starring Eddie Albert and Grace Bradt broadcast from Studio 3H at the NBC studios in Rockefeller Center the 21st of September, 1936, the earliest known original drama written for the medium. The audience was about a half-dozen television sets and maybe fifty people, all in the RCA building, mostly VIPs, advertisers, and broadcasters exploring the possibilities of the new medium. Albert and Bradt would share ten dollars for the work. Source: Please Stand By: A Prehistory of Television, Michael Ritchie.

Currently Reading: Miscellaneous comic books that a friend sent.

PS: What's Going On In Gil Thorp? Didn't Mimi Thorp's mother die back on New Year's? December 2022 - March 2023, a very belated story summary.