I read an article
(http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/sportsstory.asp?id=146310) about how
a point system for ranking marathon runners is being made to help
increase awareness of the sport. It is a very simple system, that uses
a 2 year moving period, with a point breakout for 1st through 5th
place. The breakout is 25, 15, 10, 5, and 1 point. A $1 million prize
purse will be split evenly between the top male and female series
finishers who rack up the most points during the two-year scoring
period.
Now in the pinball world, there is obviously no big prize at the end of
the tunnel, but I thought it might help increase awareness if maybe
there was some sort of official player rankings that can actually be
quantified. I found as many tournament results as I could, and I'm
using a 3 year period just so we have more data. I've had a chance to
consult a bunch of different players, and am currently developing a
system to rank pinball players OFFICIALLY.
There is still some international results that need to get included,
and a few additions on the US side as well, but here is how things
look. Read further down for a breakdown of how each tournament is
scored. We'll call them WPPR points for now :-)


1       Keith Elwin     431
2       Bowen Kerins    357
3       Neil Shatz                      272
4       Roy Wils                        218
5       Jim Belsito     210
6       Lyman Sheats    207
7       Chris Newsom    197
8       Josh Sharpe     174
9       Zach Sharpe     145
10      Trent Augenstein        124
11      Jörgen Holm    117
12      Stefan Andersson        109
13      Mats Runsten    100
14      Michael Lindström      96
15      Fredrik Lindberg        88
16      Paul Madison    82
17      Sean Grant      81
18      Andy Rosa       77
19      Albert Nomden   75
20      Dirk Klaver                     70
21      Roger Wijnands  61
22      Andreas Harre   59
23      Karl Broström  58
24      Jason Werdrick  56
25      Reidar Spets    55
26      Mark van Duinen 52
27      Markus Stix     52
28      Patrik Bodin    51
29      Adam McKinnie   50
30      Ed Hershey      50
31      Steve Epstein   50
32      Per Holknekt    49
33      Linus Jorenbo   46
34      John Miller                     42
35      Markus Salo     40
36      Mark Van Der Gugten     39
37      Brian Dominy    39
38      Keith Johnson   39
39      Fredrik Malmqvist       38
40      Mike Turack     38
41      Kevin Martin    37
42      Derek Fugate    36
43      Drew Cedolia    35
44      Daniel Schmatz  33
45      Paul Jongma     32
46      Taco Wouters    32
47      Stellan Blomqvist       31
48      Fred Richardson 31
49      Kim Brennan     30
50      James Furdell   30
51      Michel Van Den Elzen 30
52      Rick Prince     30
53      Andrei Massenkoff       29
54      Lars Ørskov Jensen     28
55      Paul McGlone    27
56      Mateo Leyba     27
57      Antoine van Wijk        27
58      Lars Ruehl                      27
59      Martijn Van Amsterdam 27
60      Roland Nitsche  27
61      John McEwen     26
62      Jörg Buchacher 26
63      Martijn Van Aken        26
64      Martin Hotze    26
65      Ari Koivunen    25
66      Bob Winter      25
67      Georg Hinterhofer       25
68      Lars Preben Arnesen     25
69      Peter Van den Bergh     25
70      Szalai Krisztián       25
71      Vesa Tyry                       25
72      Dave Stewart    23
73      Dave Hegge      22
74      Mike Mahaffey   22
75      Darren Kamnitzer        21
76      Rick Stetta     21
77      Bjorn Englund   20
78      Helena Walter   20
79      Ronald Blass    20
80      Ciske Vreuls    19
81      Sean Hall                       19
82      Donavan Stepp   17
83      Eko Elens                       17
84      Markus Straube  17
85      Ralph Beckers   17
86      Brian Bannon    17
87      Jeff Rank                       15
88      Antti Peltonen  15
89      Ari Sovijärvi  15
90      Barna Péter    15
91      Cody Chunn      15
92      Glenn Gilliar   15
93      Jörgen Lindström      15
94      Jost Berger     15
95      Jostein Kastet  15
96      Lars Petterson  15
97      Magnus Frumerie 15
98      Markus Hofschuster      15
99      Robert Byers    15
100     Sebastian Sievers       15
* klippt bort ytterligare 300 placeringar*
 

a USB port where a flash memory stick can be plugged to update the system software

Previously, the display could show black and three shades of orange. The different shades were achieved by varying the "on-time" for each dot, typically 100% for bright orange, 60% for mid orange and 40% for dark orange. Now that range of tones has been expanded from three to twelve making way for much more realistic images even if the horizontal and vertical resolution is unchanged. It should also permit better fades between or within effects. The physical display itself is unchanged from previous games.

While it's clear the quality of the sound has improved with this new system, we don't yet have any details on the sample rates or formats supported. What we do know though is that Stern have decided to keep the sound monaural. Forget surround sound. Forget even stereo, it's mono all the way.