Really cool! Always discovering something new with your games.
Also, I know that landing directly on Start with Roll 'n Win starts the timed Super Modes at 50% more time. But does anything special happen if you land directly on Start with Super Surprise, which isn’t a timed mode?
Ballsaver is 50% longer. It’s probably like a minute or something so it goes to 90s. I think. Whatever the ballsaver time is, you get 50% more, so the rule still holds. It says “super time” so in that case ballsaver is the time.
Heres a semi useful tip for Stern Wars:
Lightsaber Duel is lit via Force target completions, but doesn’t start if you are in a planet mode or multiball.
Once it does start, you’re stuck in it until you complete it or time it out.
BUT it is also superceded by hurryups (Hyperspace or Tie Fighter)
So, if you realize you have lit it, but would rather, say, play a planet multiball you have already lit, you can start a hurry up, complete the mode you are playing and then hit a lit planet shot to choose your next mode/multiball.
Mystery Castle - As it turns out, there are combos in this game, which is surprising because I never thought they’d even be implemented in a game with such rudimentary code. Left orbit - upper loop - upper ramp is a 3-way combo, so is left ramp - left orbit - upper loop. If you make the left ramp followed by the first 3-way combo sequence, you’ll get a 4-way combo. 3-way combos are around 10M, 4-way combos are around 20M. They also seem to give you whatever items are lit at the shots you made.
From WPT:
During No Limit Multiball, the left ramp’s “Flop”, “Turn”, and “River” inserts will light to indicate the multiplied jackpot available. So if you have a 1X jackpot qualified, the “River” insert will flash. 2X-- both “River” and “Turn” will be flashing. 3X-- all three inserts are flashing.
Each tell in Spot the Tell has a unique sound effect when revealed, so if you’re too preoccupied to look at the display, you can play the mode by ear (single ball only; multiball choreography takes priority over Poker Corner modes).
During Poker Hands Multiball, drop target banks award varying jackpots and advance a certain number of “Poker Hands” playfield inserts: the center bank is 1X and awards one advancement; the right bank is 2X and awards two advancements; and the left bank is 3X and awards three advancements.
The more hurry-ups you miss, the faster future hurry-ups will count down.
Collecting 9x worth of jackpots (any combination; note that a triple double will add 6 lights) lights the super which IIRC is a roving shot (big red arrow). I believe it scores 5M+1M (triple-able of course).
The more hurryups you start the faster it will count. But collecting them raises the start (probably up to ~2.5M), so it helps cancel out. This is why I say not to ignore them if you’re going for KI.
I keep learning something new from your games. Thanks, Keith!
Just found out that if you win the WPT World Championship and still have balls in play, each shot is worth 1M “Champion’s Toast” awards until the end of the multiball. Dang!
Just found out you can stack Heartbreak Hotel and Jailhouse multiball in Elvis by using grace periods. In my case I drained out of heartbreak then the jailhouse was lit and i shot it, and it resurrected Heartbreak! Saw two mode total screens at the end even. Funny how there’s no other way to do this besides reviving in grace yet they clearly programmed them to work with each other (or they just happen to work ha)
Elvis is awesome btw
From Wipeout: During multiball, if you can collect the Super Jackpot while there is another ball in the ski-lift, then once that ball reaches the top of the lift, the ski-lift will immediately reopen and qualify the next set of Jackpots without having to shoot for the dangerous drop targets first. There are several caveats that make this trick not so simple:
The ski-lift will close once the SJ lights.
The ski-lift also temporarily closes while a ball is climbing the lift even if the SJ is not lit - in this case, it will reopen once the ball reaches the mogul area.
If the SJ is lit, but the ski-lift ball reaches the mogul area before the SJ is collected, the trick fails.
So, in order to pull this off, you would need to shoot a ball into the ski-lift after another ball reaches the top of the lift, but before that ball can collect the final Jackpot in the mogul area (which lights the SJ). Then, you have to collect the SJ with the second ball before the first one can reach the top of the lift. You’ll probably only have enough time for one shot at the SJ, maybe two, before this timing window passes.
Isn’t it though. I think this was the first game where the jet bumpers awarded random prizes. I get that Whodunnit awarded prizes, but only if the ball went down the non-gobble hole. The jets just qualified the hole if the slot prizes lined up, but no direct award from the jets. Same thing with Klondike, you had to go over a rollover or hit a stand-up to collect it IIRC.
So Elvis served as a template for Stern Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Game of Thrones and whatever else I am missing from Stern.
I wrote the Elvis bumpers, but it was clearly a Whodunnit ripoff. It just made sense to be with the 3 TVs.
I’d been to Graceland as a kid, and I remembered being wowed by it at the time. And of course, it was referenced in Simpsons at some point too (the show not the game).
Dwight worked on Elvis too, though, so I’m pretty sure I got his blessing or OK or whatever.
The Elvis bumper rule has a legit tournament mode, too. Same award order, same # hits for each award.
in Game of Thrones and others? when in non tournament mode it carries over player to player.
In tournament mode per player
If the jets line up three of the same prize in GOT, you get the prize. The same thing is true in Elvis. That’s good enough for a simpleton like me.
I think the direct bumper award tweak you made to Dwight’s original Whodunnit? rule where you only get the award if it goes down the hole above the elevator was great. I guess if players are looking for a bigger challenge than the direct award, but want to take the luck element out of it that Whodunnit? had, since the last jet hit could create a match but send the ball upward, banking off the disappearing post and down the right orbit, another variation would be to start a 20 second timer if the three bumpers create a match. During the 20 seconds, the player must hit a feature on the playfield outside the bumper nest, like a standup target, ramp, saucer, drop target or what have you to collect the match award.
On the other hand, Who Dunnit always pays you something. Which is nice. When no match, you get at least a measly 5M, if not a second chance and sometimes three matches is not even a demand (which I have yet to figure out).
Other games with this concept, you can have several trips to the pop nest with only a long nose to be given.
Also mind you, that the implementation of these is not necessary an honest wheel of awards per pop. The whole mechanic of what award to give, if any, can be chanced, if not entirely controlled, by other stuff in the game state. Sorry to mess with your illusion.
That’s if the ball makes it through the jet nest and falls into the hole above the elevator right ? Otherwise, if the jets put the ball back up top, it can go down an orbit, usually the right orbit and you do not get an award of any sort IIRC.
Yup. Also I think Who Dunnit might not be truly random with what the slots give you when it comes to the bumpers. Specifically I’ve seen people get 4 extra balls in a row off of them.
A tournament classic! 
Time to extract the slot PAR sheet from the Whodunnit assembly code. Just Kidding.
Well it’s definitely not random: if you have three the same when you go into the bumpers, it’ll lock two of them. So you will either get that reward or a second chance.
Works especially well for collecting extra jackpots after multiball. Or collecting all the equipment. Heck it’s even useful just to open the elevator safely.