Huh. I haven’t played it in a bit obviously. Could’ve sworn I had multiple lit at a time. I guess not.
In Twilight Zone or Demolition Man, if you’re unsure about which Camera / Computer Award will be given next, you can go through the status report and it’ll show you what the next award will be. Typically this is really helpful early on because the game doesn’t bother to show you the next award until AFTER you collect it.
Not sure if this works with the Tag captive ball awards on WWF Royal Rumble considering, you know, different company…
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Solid tip. This means you can be checking this info before you even plunge ball 1. I never see anyone doing this, but I think it’s good to know as early as possible.
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Here are some good ways to use the strategy to your advantage.
Twilight Zone:
- If Collect Bonus is the first Camera award, save it until after you’ve completed a ton of modes and / or started Powerball Mania. No point in collecting it when you’ve made no progress.
- 10 Hitchhikers is also a good early game award, as it’ll light a bunch of Battle the Power rounds for you and make the Hitchhiker door panel score more.
- Greed Targets can be helpful during Multiball because each hit to a yellow target will both increase the Jackpot by 5 million and score 5 million because it was lit through the award. Don’t forget to pick up the Clock Bonus though!
- Light Outlanes can be helpful, ESPECIALLY if you’re closing in on Lost in the Zone. This will guarantee you an Extra Ball or Special without losing the ball.
Demolition Man:
- Maximize Freezes is the world’s best award, as it freezes all four balls and lights one of the four Multiball modes instantly. Unlike “Lock Freeze” from the Cryo-Claw, Maximize Freezes will always guarantee a 5-ball Multiball. If this award is the first one at a start of the game, go for 10 combos to light the computer, collect Maximize Freezes, and let the fun begin.
- Light Extra Ball is worth trying to obtain, especially if it’s early on. If it’s the next award, definitely go for combos as soon as you can.
- The other awards are fine and don’t really score much points wise. Light Arrows could be helpful if you’re planning to collect the next Computer Award quickly but is it temporary?
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I think Ted once told me that the lit Greed targets say 5 million on the display but actually score 10 million. Has anyone ever verified this? I wonder if he fixed it in the last home rom he did.
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What is the Clock Bonus? I got this recently but can’t remember what I did.
If you hit the Clock target when all the Greed targets are lit, you get a Clock Bonus of 10M.
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Collect bonus can be massive if you’re a handle player and the award is late in the game
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Demo Man Collect Bonus: of course, try to run up your bonus X (MTL lanes up top) before collecting bonus, because the bonus X does apply. Bonus X maxes at 5X.
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On the subject of Demo Man - for those who hadn’t gotten two chances to collect a Demolition Jackpot - the value is cumulative for all multiballs in your game so far (excluding Demolition Time of course). Not just the last “set” of the four multiballs. This only probably further cements the “lock freeze all day” strat assuming the claw is enabled.
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Another Demo Man tip: If you see that the Car Crash shot doesn’t give a ball saver, you’ll know the machine is set to Tournament Mode. There’s no other way to disable the Car Crash ball save (other than disabling the switches). Computer awards are identical for each player only when the machine is set to Tournament Mode.
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the modded rom get’s rid of the lock freeze all day thing.
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In AFM, each shot to the saucer while the drop target is up (ie: while there is still something left on its health bar) is worth 50m + 10m * n…where n is the number of saucers you’ve already defeated. Once the target is down, then it’s 5m per shot if you happen to hit the standups inside the saucer without going through and into the VUK which destroys the shit.
HOWEVER, if any damage done as a combo will award the full value, even if the process of the combo empties the health bar of the saucer.
By “combo”, I don’t mean: as a follow up shot to a successfully made shot somewhere else on the playfield, I mean: hits more than one of the three targets inside the ship in one trip (drop target, left standup inside the ship, right standup inside the ship).
Example:
Three single shots to saucer on first ship = 150m (50m + 50m + 50m). Drop target goes down. Any subsequent shot is either worth 5m (if you hit the standups without going in) or 200m if you fall into VUK and destroy saucer.
However, if you combo the last shot to the ship, you can get 250m (50m + 50m + 150m (assuming your last shot hits all three targets, ie: 3x damage)).
(A 3x combo on your first shot to the first saucer will empty the health bar of the ship and you’ll get 150m, but the target will drop so you can’t collect any more hits at 50m).
Sorry to keep giving ones for AFM, but that’s what I’m playing at home a lot right now.
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On Congo, when playing the Gorilla lower playfield. To easily pick off the corner targets, hold the opposite flipper, then flip the ball with the other flipper. This angles the Gorilla for a perfect shot to the corner.
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On Iron Maiden, with Cyborg multiball qualified, hitting the pharaoh target when it is lit for a soul shard will collect the shard and start Cyborg multiball. More importantly, this suppresses the post that normally holds the ball during the Cyborg start animation. This gives you a few extra valuable seconds of single ball play to pick off feature shots before the animation finishes and the additional balls start auto-firing into play.
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Yes: the “5 Million” targets on Twilight Zone actually score 10 million each, even on 9.4.
The “10 Million” award (Power Payoff, below the Piano) … also awards 10 million
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Some small tips for No Fear…
- At the start of any 3-ball Multiball mode, two balls are launched from the plunger lane into the Skydive lane and one is ejected from the Skydive lane. If the ejected ball is shot back into the lane before the other two balls are ejected, you will receive credit for the Skull shot even though you technically didn’t make it. This can be particularly helpful during the normal Multiball, as you can light the Super Jackpot by just shooting the Skydive twice.
- If Jump This is lit at the left outlane and Kickback is also lit, you’ll have wasted your Jump This and have no choice but to essentially time out the mode for 30 seconds. Try and prevent it from being lit at the left outlane by… lucky slingshot bounces. What, I can’t provide helpful tips for everything. It’s a lot more helpful when lit at the right outlane as it has no alternative form of ball saver.
- The random awards given at the tube saucer when no mode is active tend to be biased towards things you’ve done earlier. For instance, if you’ve just lit the Extra Ball by maxing out the Raceway, the chances of getting “Light Extra Ball” or “Extra Ball” from the tube award are weighted higher. It can even start some of the Major Challenges for you if you’ve made it that far…
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I noticed on Family Guy that starting Chicken Fight froze my Crazy Chris timer. Is this a thing? If so, that’s a great unintended use for that mode!
Everything in family guy pauses the timer… such weird sluggishness in that game
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Tron has an insanely long grace period on Light Cycle Multiball and Quorra Multiball. For Quorra, you have about 3 seconds after the multiball “ends” to hit the Recognizer to add a ball, if you have one left. For Light Cycle, after the multiball “ends” there is enough time to have your remaining ball on the left flipper, post pass, then hit the left ramp/Quorra/side ramp combo for the super jackpot.
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