Craig Pullen, UK Pinball Champion, explains how to do the Death Save - saving the ball as it drains via the right outlane by shifting the machine at the right time to bounce the ball back into play.
Written By: Andy Beresford
Video Transcription:
Craig: The next skill I'm going to teach you, or hopefully demonstrate is one that takes a while in order to learn how to achieve it, but it's also illegal in competition pinball. If you're playing on your own machine or in the pub like the majority of people watching this video I would imagine are going to be doing, it's something that's pretty cool to be able to do.
The thing is, a lot of people think this is quite a violent movement, but when done right, actually, it's not that violent. What this is, is basically down this right outlane, this outlane here, what we can do is, if the ball's coming out this outlane in competition play, the ball's gone. It's dead. That's the end of your ball. If you're just playing in the pub, or in a arcade, or whatever at home, then there is actually a way of getting the ball back.
What you're doing, is you're moving the machine this way, and then the ball is hitting off of this plate here, and then coming back through the middle. The ball's coming down with this momentum, it's hitting this plate, and then going back up here.
So we'll try it. Can we see, I'm taking it in and moving it up. All right. I'll do it with you one more time. The ball's going out the outlane, and we go across and up, and then back up above the flippers.
The ball's going out the outlane. You have to hold the left flipper up to make that big gap in there. Obviously if you're doing it, it's not going to get in that situation. If you hold the left flipper up then you got that big gap for the ball to come through.
You're pulling the machine that way in order to create more momentum of the ball, and then back to the right. It's left to right. It's that kind of movement there.
I remember the first time I was trying this I was hitting the machine hard, and it was going the wrong way. Actually, when you watch it, it's not that hard is it? I'm moving it. As long as it's a flowing movement then you're working the ball back into that situation.
Andy: On this machine, this one comes out of danger . . .
Craig: Exactly.
Andy: . . . and then it tilts.
Craig: Usually in a arcade, if you're doing it right you might get one or two dangers, but without tilting on a death save like that. On competition machines there's absolutely no way that you'd be able to do a death save because the tilt would be set too tight.
On this one, we'll probably be able to get away with it as long as I've already not had a danger, then I'll be able to get away with it just to do the one death save.
Andy: In competitions are they watching you to make sure you're not doing it?
Craig: Exactly. If you get caught doing that in a competition, you're thrown out of the competition straight away. You don't do it. [laughs] What normally happens in pinball competition is that you're pretty much always playing against somebody else as well, so they'll be watching you to make sure you don't do that.
We'll just try and do that a couple more times. There you go. I'm just moving the machine that way, and then up to the right. Once I'm kind of dialed in on a machine I can do that pretty much every time, but obviously not in a competition.
Andy: For more pinball videos from Craig Pullen, please visit homeleisuredirect.com/pinball.