Star Tech Journal

STAR*TECH Journal
Nintendo Guns Revisited
By Todd Erickson
Sumnit Amusement
st Paul, MN
For some time, I have been very
dissatisfied with the Nintendo guns.
Several past issues have dealt with this
subject. '!he original gun was fine in
Japan, but in this country we have a few
animals. Nothing was replaceable, so any
damages meant a new gun.
All of us bought many "HCGAN' S ALLEY".
They have been on location for alnost one
year now. For \'bat we paid for the
original games, it is now time to upgrade
to the new "GUMSHOE" kit just released. I
just picked up my first unit, so I have no
income figures yet. With:>ut the new gun,
there is no way I would have bought the
new kit.
I have had a test nodel of the new gun for
about 8 weeks now. rben I first received
it, I tried to break it first instead of
testing it. To date, the gun has had no
service calls. All parts of the gun are
replaceable rather than the complete
assenbly. I felt that they took their dear
time to redesign the gun, but I would
rather that they take their time and be
right.
It's nice to know the manufacturers took
care of this instead of leaving us with a
bad product. Nintendo is upgrading the old
guns to the new ones for a small nominal
fee.
llmE Qf CRANES '10 OJIE: STAR*TOCH
JOURNAL has asked Frank "The Crank" to
reply to Ron Yaffe's response to Frank's
article, "Who Mak.es The Best Crane Game",
in the next issue. Frank says that he
enjoys this kind of interaction between
manufacturer (Yaffe) and operator (F~ank)
because ... "it's great for the entire
industry". Frank adds that since he wrote
the article stating that "Big Choice"
cranes were the best, that he has
purchased 27 nore (triples and singles) of
them and hasn't yet been 'pursuaded' to
buy any "Showcase" cranes. Frank's
response should.be well worth waiting for.
August 1986 (4)
The Player/HOLLYWOOD HEAT
By John 'Root' Pilarchik
Pennsauken, NJ
'Ibis player found this loud, flashing
machine to be just that; the music alone
gave me somewhat of a headache! After
twenty plays, I came to the conclusion
that Premier's HOLLYWCXD HFAT is not as
hot as it appears to be.
This four-flipper game has the standard
two bottom flippers, acconpanied by a set
of flippers located on the left middle,
which is my first corrplaint. This player
found the main bottom flippers in weak
working order with poor flipper power, and
chewed-up rubber around each flipper which
did not help this game at all.
Next, there is a top bunper in a little
enclosed section with a ball that stays
there, and when you shoot your playing
ball and hit the other, you can rack up
points. The bunper offers good bounce but
you only pick up 10 points off the bunper
each time you hit it!
'Ibis section also offers targets to hit
for which 100 to 1000 points is rewarded
to the player, which is OK, but only
receiving 10 points for the burrper shot is
a little weak considering the game is set
at 1,800,000 points to hit.
'!he machine offers you the Free Ball and
Special shots, and also has a lX, 2X, 4X &
SX point nultiplier, and also offers
3-ball action play.
This machine has plenty of sound and
lights and a hot back glass picture, but
if I wanted to dance, I'd buy an L.P. If I
wanted to look at girls in tight bikinis,
I'd buy a magazine. As far as playing
pinball, this player found Hollywood Heat
a little on the cold side.
I am of the opinion that if a machine is
crammed with too many shots, ranps, sound
effects, etc., there will always be the
chance of what I call overkill of the
pinball machine.
something to think about.
Play on. . . Root