HGSS BOOM! Voltorb Flip!

[FrostPheonix]

In the international releases of HG/SS, the slot machine was replaced with the Voltorb flip; something about not wanting to promote gambling among children. There were several prizes to be won, and there was also no method to ‘buy’ coins as many had previously done to get the stuff they needed. What did you think of this? Did you love or hate this change? Did you spend the agonizing hours many others have to get a nice pokemon or TM? Or did you just ignore it because of how tedious it was?
EDIT: Oh yes, and did you just not like game corners at all and just bought all the coins you needed in previous games?

In the previous thread, there were some tips other people have given us:

Spoiler:

Landorus:

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by Landorus

Voltorb Flip Tutorial

Hey guys, I figured I would just make a simple tutorial for you all. This tutorial will be on Level 3 - so you can still rack up a pretty decent amount of coins if you keep dying on 4.

Here are a few small notes:

• The memo pad is the key to winning. Do not just do it in your head, you'll get confused and make mistakes.
• Voltorb Flip is still luck, sometimes it will just trick you. But this tutorial will use chance to your advantage.
• If you're stuck, look at every single tile and determine which one has the lowest probability of being a Voltorb.
• Rows where the Voltorb number is hired than the sum of numbers, or they are close are high risk. Try to avoid them.
• I will be refering to rows as "S-V" or "Sum - Voltorb." So, as you can see the second horizontal row in mine has a sum of 7 and 1 Voltorb, so it is row 7-1. If two rows have the same, I will say if they are horizontal or vertical.
• Feel free to ask any questions.

The tutorial is picture-based, and all the pictures will be in spoilers.

First off, here is level 3.

Spoiler:

Now, the first step is to look at all the colored side-tiles that show how many Voltorbs and numbers are in a row. The bottom number next to the Voltorb image is how many are in that row. The number above is how what the numbers in the row add up to. You want to mark off all rows where the two numbers add up to 5, and flip over all tiles in rows with 0 Voltorbs.

Spoiler:

We have some numbers now! Look to see if any of the numbers in the 0 rows will complete a row. Luckily for us, we have one. On the bottom, row "4-2" has a 2 in it. That means that there can only be two 1s and two Voltorbs, so there you do not need to flip up any more tiles there. So mark them off using the memo pad.

Spoiler:

Uh oh! Now we have no more rows that are already completed! Looks like it's time to play with chance. Look at your side rows together. Find where rows where there are low Voltorb numbers connect. Those spots have the lowest chance of having a Voltorb in them.

Spoiler:

Oops, it's a one! Well, that's better than a Voltorb by far. Luckily for us, the row is a high number - 8. That means the two remaining tiles are not Voltorbs and are higher than 1. So flip those tiles over.

Spoiler:

Woo! Completing the row 8-1 on the bottom helped to completed rows 5-1 horizontal and 4-3 on the side. Since the only number row 5-1 horizontal can have in it is one 2 and 3 ones, mark off that row. Row 4-3 can have either two 2s or one 3 and one 1, but since we found a 3 in it that means the only remaining tiles are a one and Voltorbs, so mark them all off.

Spoiler:

There are only two spots left! Look at the bottom rows 6-1 and 5-1 vertical, both have no revealed numbers and both have one spot left. That automatically means that the two remaining spots are numbers, so flip them over and you will have won level 3!

Spoiler:

I hope this helps some of you!

U_Flame

Spoiler:

Originally Posted by U_Flame

Use your brain. One thing I like about Voltorb Flip is it requires math.

A calculator given by Niven: http://gravityprops.com/voltorb/index.php

A website/guide made by dragonfree:
http://www.dragonflycave.com/voltorbflip.aspx

A general tip from most posters: use the memo pad. It helps A LOT.

[Curious.]

I enjoyed playing Voltorb Flip. It's a great little mini-game in my opinion. While it got tricky at stages, and I quit many times because I kept finding one of those round buggers, it kept me busy - especially when I had nothing else to do. I didn't really play it to earn the coins, since I only really got up to levels 2 -4. I just played the game for a bit of fun and entertainment every now and then.

[Hikari10]

I didn't really like Voltorb Flip to be honest, that was one of the only downsides of HG/SS for me. I could never always pass the first stage, also I didn't like how they disabled buying coins, meaning I could never get Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Flamethrower as easily as other games.

But then again, the reason the slot machines got removed in non-Japanese releases was due to the Europeans passing anti-gambling laws in video games, which explains why European copies of Platinum did not have working slot machines compared to other regions.

At least there is a chance you can get a Dratini early on if you save enough coins. It can he a helpful asset to your team.

[AWsquared]

I didn't like it at first since I was always losing right away. But I've somewhat figured out a strategy and it's become relatively easier. And now I think it's actually kind of fun and addicting to play. Once you get the hang of it and use the memo pad, it becomes easier.
It's a game of chance so it always pisses me off when I get a Voltorb.

[LightOfTruth]

I only really played it to get a Dratini and the items

[⊗Slenderman⊗]

It took a while for me to get the hang of it, but I never cold earn enough coins to get anything good. I planned on obtaining a Porygon that way (I discovered my love of them after reading about the episode of the anime). But I never got enough coins to do so. Eventually I got one on Diamond version in that garden, though.

Anyway, yeah, I did kind of like the game. But I reset HG and SS (which was stupid of me) and now I can't play it until I get to that point in the game. :T

[Rainbow Arcanine]

Voltorb flip did have some amazing prizes, but for me I really disliked the game as it was tedious and almost impossible for me. Even when I repeatedly attempt it, there was a never a point when I made it past the second level. It was super hard and I spent hours before finally giving up with sweaty hands and leaving in a rage.

After that, I wasn't too keen to play it again so I never set foot in the Game Corner again sadly ;_;. Maybe I will play it again sometime later, but I don't think that'll be a while. To sum it up, I don't particularly like Voltorb Flip and would have the coin machines with the slots any day n_n.

[FrostPheonix]

tbh, I think most people just didn't like the game corner at all. I always bought my coins, never actually played slots that much. I actually started playing at a game corner with Sapphire which had multiple games and SS, because I kinda liked it and there was no other way to get my sandshrew at the time. And it also seems that people actually like the game, which may have been the case earlier if we had had the system of buying coins abolished earlier. It makes you play the games instead of buying your way through.

[Totodile42]

To be brutally honest, I preferred Voltorb Flip to the slot machines (even if it did make me rage more than once).
It was pretty fun, you have to admit. But, I didn't like how you couldn't buy/bet coins on the game. Having said that, I assume that's why they got rid of it in the first place, because it 'provoked gambling' or something.

[Cirno]

I really did not like Voltorb Flip. Was pretty boring and I never had any interest to actually play it since I lost so quickly orz. I think the furthest I got was level 2 buuut at the same time I never played the slot machines and only bought coins with money. xD;

[Brendino]

I always thought the Game Corners in the previous games were alright, but the only game I really enjoyed playing was the Roulette from R/S/E. Other than that, I would usually just buy the coins if I wanted a certain prize.

And while I didn't initially like it, once I started figuring out how it worked, I started to enjoy playing Voltorb Flip. I was able to get up to level 5 or 6 on a number of occasions, with a lot of help coming from the memo pad. I wish there still would have been the option to buy coins, but this was a good enough alternative for that, I guess.

[Huggermugger]

Voltorb Flip became a much more viable option for me once I found this bad boy, a Voltorb Flip Calculator: http://voltorbflip.lanowen.com/

It's not perfect, it's based on probablility and chance, but it still saves a lot of time. Using this, in my current run through of SS I got a Porygon and the TMs for Ice Beam and Thunderbolt through the Game Corner. It still takes a couple hours per each item, but I find the process almost meditative.

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

I also did not like Voltorb flip; I found it to be very boring, so I've played it a couple of times and never did it again due to the fact that the highest level I ever got to was level 2. I also didn't like the fact that you couldn't buy coins in order to get Pokemon as prizes; I would usually buy coins in order to get these prizes because I am very unlucky when it comes to these games. If they took out the slot machines in the American HG/SS, I can now see why there isn't a game corner in BW and B2W2.


TG

[Lapras*]

I still have no idea how to play Voltorb Flip does anyone ever explain it ingame?

[LAT10S]

emulator + save states
that is all

[KingCarini]

I prefer Voltorb Flip to the old slots. I feel like it's easier to get coins in Voltorb Flip, I used to just ignore the Game Corner in the second generation because of the odds of the slots. I also like how Voltorb Flip is more of a puzzle and that 9 times out of 10 you can use math/knowledge to solve it.

[the adop17]

I like it way better, I have more control of how many coins I earn. But it only took me like 10-20 mins of playing to get Dratini at that early in the game :D

[PlatinumDude]

Voltorb Flip was alright, but it was more tedious getting coins than the slot machines, IMO.

[Pingouin7]

I think Voltorb Flip was better.
It only took me a few hours (2 hours at best) to gather enough coins to buy 5 Ekans.

[P-Sign]

I absolutely loved Voltorb Flip. It actually required some thinking instead of the good ol' slots and that's definitely a plus for me. It's too bad that it wasn't included in BW(2).

[LilJz1234]

Voltorb Flip was meh. It was definitely more challenging and didn't need to waste coins in order to play. But it was also very long to get the items...

[Deceit]

I spent lots of time on this to get the TMs in Goldenrod, but it got annoying at times though, when I just picked one card and it happened to be a Voltorb. Well now I know how to play strategically, and I've gotten better. In previous games I just bought coins, but I'm fine with this game as a replacement.

[nouchken]

Unlike most of you, I really don't like to play the game corner games.

I always save a lot of money thx to amulet coin + battling trainers and
spend them on the price(s) I'm the most interested in.

[kj3400]

Hate hate hated this. I'd've rather been exposed to gambling. The slots were better, imo.
But, to be honest, I'm not one for gambling, and rarely walked in the game corners, but when I did, I tended to stay for a while, especially in Mauville.

[Snivysmiley]

I hated volt orb flip initially, but slowly started to get the hang of it, and now I'm addicted