Johnny Mnemonic Video Mode

[Dan Q very much]

JM's video mode, looking at some past posts, seems to be very
polarizing. Some people think it's great, some think it's horrible!

Perhaps it's because until you get the hang of it, it makes you feel
very spastic. Using the four "flipper" buttons to change directions is
not very intuitive, and you find yourself telling it to go down and up
at the same time, or right and left simultaneously.

If you want to get a lot of practice on the video mode, just disable
the hand, then the Video Mode is chosen the first time you hit Crazy
Bob's in every game.

My strategy is this: first just tell it to go either right or left,
then concentrate on just up and down, letting the bounce off the side
walls do the right and left switching. Then eventually start quickly
tapping right or left to change the
sideways direction, then returning to concentrating on up and down. I
can get the EB on wave two almost every time now.

I almost like the game better with the hand disabled; I'm practically
glad it broke! The layout is killer fast except for the hand. I think
this game would be a good candidate for P-ROC and new rules, leaving
the hand out entirely and doing something else with the matrix lights,
besides just flashing them like it does with the hand disabled.

[Don]

Post by Dan Q very much
JM's video mode, looking at some past posts, seems to be very
polarizing. Some people think it's great, some think it's horrible!
Perhaps it's because until you get the hang of it, it makes you feel
very spastic. Using the four "flipper" buttons to change directions is
not very intuitive, and you find yourself telling it to go down and up
at the same time, or right and left simultaneously.
If you want to get a lot of practice on the video mode, just disable
the hand, then the Video Mode is chosen the first time you hit Crazy
Bob's in every game.
My strategy is this: first just tell it to go either right or left,
then concentrate on just up and down, letting the bounce off the side
walls do the right and left switching. Then eventually start quickly
tapping right or left to change the
sideways direction, then returning to concentrating on up and down. I
can get the EB on wave two almost every time now.
I almost like the game better with the hand disabled; I'm practically
glad it broke! The layout is killer fast except for the hand. I think
this game would be a good candidate for P-ROC and new rules, leaving
the hand out entirely and doing something else with the matrix lights,
besides just flashing them like it does with the hand disabled.

I don't mind the stoppage with the hand and kids love the hand. I got
a jm a couple of weeks ago and have done the mode about 10 times but
have yet to clear the first board. I have gotten down to one dot but
thats it. Is there a trick to the bonus multiplier? I can't figure it
out. If a lane is not lit it does not neccessarily light when the
ball drops through the lane.

[Don]

Post by Dan Q very much
JM's video mode, looking at some past posts, seems to be very
polarizing. Some people think it's great, some think it's horrible!
Perhaps it's because until you get the hang of it, it makes you feel
very spastic. Using the four "flipper" buttons to change directions is
not very intuitive, and you find yourself telling it to go down and up
at the same time, or right and left simultaneously.
If you want to get a lot of practice on the video mode, just disable
the hand, then the Video Mode is chosen the first time you hit Crazy
Bob's in every game.
My strategy is this: first just tell it to go either right or left,
then concentrate on just up and down, letting the bounce off the side
walls do the right and left switching. Then eventually start quickly
tapping right or left to change the
sideways direction, then returning to concentrating on up and down. I
can get the EB on wave two almost every time now.
I almost like the game better with the hand disabled; I'm practically
glad it broke! The layout is killer fast except for the hand. I think
this game would be a good candidate for P-ROC and new rules, leaving
the hand out entirely and doing something else with the matrix lights,
besides just flashing them like it does with the hand disabled.

I don't mind the stoppage with the hand and kids love the hand.  I got
a jm a couple of weeks ago and have done the mode about 10 times but
have yet to clear the first board.  I have gotten down to one dot but
thats it.  Is there a trick to the bonus multiplier? I can't figure it
out.  If a lane is not lit it does not neccessarily light when the
ball drops through the lane.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

anybody?

[Dan Q very much]

I don't mind the stoppage with the hand and kids love the hand.  I got
a jm a couple of weeks ago and have done the mode about 10 times but
have yet to clear the first board.  I have gotten down to one dot but
thats it.  Is there a trick to the bonus multiplier? I can't figure it
out.  If a lane is not lit it does not neccessarily light when the
ball drops through the lane.

The processor on JM is overloaded, and it seems the lane lights are
given the lowest priority. They just don't react real time with the
button presses, especially when there is a lot going on. I've found
the best results I can get are when I push the buttons as though the
lights had followed the previous button presses correctly, keeping
track mentally where they should be based on what I've pressed. It's
like the lanes have changed, but the lights haven't caught up.

Even if you like the hand, just try disabling it for a while. You get
a lot of Video Mode practice, and it's even more intense without the
hand "intermissions"!

[Jason]

Post by Dan Q very much
JM's video mode, looking at some past posts, seems to be very
polarizing. Some people think it's great, some think it's horrible!
Perhaps it's because until you get the hang of it, it makes you feel
very spastic. Using the four "flipper" buttons to change directions is
not very intuitive, and you find yourself telling it to go down and up
at the same time, or right and left simultaneously.
If you want to get a lot of practice on the video mode, just disable
the hand, then the Video Mode is chosen the first time you hit Crazy
Bob's in every game.
My strategy is this: first just tell it to go either right or left,
then concentrate on just up and down, letting the bounce off the side
walls do the right and left switching. Then eventually start quickly
tapping right or left to change the
sideways direction, then returning to concentrating on up and down. I
can get the EB on wave two almost every time now.
I almost like the game better with the hand disabled; I'm practically
glad it broke! The layout is killer fast except for the hand. I think
this game would be a good candidate for P-ROC and new rules, leaving
the hand out entirely and doing something else with the matrix lights,
besides just flashing them like it does with the hand disabled.

I don't mind the stoppage with the hand and kids love the hand.  I got
a jm a couple of weeks ago and have done the mode about 10 times but
have yet to clear the first board.  I have gotten down to one dot but
thats it.  Is there a trick to the bonus multiplier? I can't figure it
out.  If a lane is not lit it does not neccessarily light when the
ball drops through the lane.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

The video mode is killer! Very difficult to get the hang of, but
it's a lot of fun. The trick is to keep your speed going, even if
you miss one. Just keep going and bouncing around. When you come to
a dead stop chasing a guy in a corner, forget it. It's imperative
you clear the Wave 1 because there's an EB waiting to be gobbled up on
Wave 2.

There are a couple of modes.. Access Code 2 is one of them... where
the jet lanes do not count towards your bonus multiplier.

I would be up for new rules, also. The bonus multiplier, hold bonus,
spinner millions are the ways to high scores. Granted it's not
easy. And if you get it all setup and then drain, then you have to go
all the way through the shooting star to get to it again. But
lighting the spinner, then getting the quick MB, then getting Hold
Bonus.. then multiplying the bonus to 4x... then making SURE that you
multiply your bonus on your next ball (and Hold Bonus if you can) and
if you do all that.. then the billions just add up. It's sick.
Nothing in the game where you can score that many points any other
way. New code to lower the spinner millions, or max it out, would
balance the gameplay significantly. Then again I'd save the original
roms anyway, bc sometimes it's kind of neat to have a game where you
have that much pressure on one accomplishment, as well.

[Dan Q very much]

The video mode is killer!   Very difficult to get the hang of, but
it's a lot of fun.   The trick is to keep your speed going, even if
you miss one.  Just keep going and bouncing around.  When you come to
a dead stop chasing a guy in a corner, forget it.    It's imperative
you clear the Wave 1 because there's an EB waiting to be gobbled up on
Wave 2.

With all this practice, I can chase them down in the corners now just
fine, but yes, it is hard to get going again, so I only do it if time
is running out and it's the only possibility of getting them all. It
sure seems like the more you switch direction, the more the dots do,
the "just bounce around" strategy works better than you would think it
should. It's why just concentrating on up and down works.