Games With Lock & Point Stealing

Games Wiki Rulesheets
1

Locks

Hard Lock Stealing - If another player takes the locked ball, the current player has to start from scratch to relock.

  • 4 Million B.C.
  • Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle (+1m points when another player steals your locked ball)
  • Andromeda
  • Big Valley
  • Black Knight 2000
  • Fireball
  • Fireball Classic
  • Grand Lizard
  • Jokerz
  • Night Moves
  • Nip-It
  • Sorcerer
  • Space Shuttle
  • Swords of Fury
  • Taxi

Soft Lock Stealing - If another player takes the locked ball, the current player’s progress to activate a lock is remembered but they will have to physically re-lock a ball to earn progress

  • Big Guns
  • Black Hole - Lower PF lock only
  • Cosmic Gunfight
  • F-14 Tomcat - Re-locks balls on plunge for players as compensation, and scores 25k per lock (unwarranted). Fixed in tournament romset, locks score 10 points instead.
  • Fireball II
  • Firepower
  • Funhouse - Rudy clock will reset back to 11:30 after drain forcing you to relock-balls (when in tournament mode)
  • Stern Jurassic Park (Pre/Le) - Raptor lock
  • Monte Carlo (Gottlieb)
  • Mousin’ Around
  • Nine Ball
  • Oktoberfest (Beer Barrel)
  • Rollergames (modded / tournament rom gives you plunge to easy re lock)
  • Scorpion
  • Total Nuclear Annihilation (do not need to fully relight)
  • Whitewater

Lock Blocking - The first player to lock the ball gets a physical lock. Subsequent locks for other players are virtual locks based on different conditions

  • Doctor Who
  • Stern Jurassic Park (Pre/Le) - Raptor lock

Locked Balls Hold Across Games - Locked balls stay in place between games (subject to software settings)

  • 4 Million B.C.
  • Big Valley
  • Fireball
  • Fathom
  • Nip-It
  • Oktoberfest (Beer Barrel)
  • Rollergames (modded rom fixes it)
  • Wonka (Elevator Multiball) (setting to turn off)

Locked Balls Kind Of Hold Across Games - Locked balls stay in place between games but they kick from lock on locking balls and you lose chance of skill shots (subject to software settings)

  • The Addams Family (Non gold and non modded roms)
  • The Simpsons Pinball Party (setting)

Balls

Ball Stealing - You can steal balls from your opponents (subject to software settings)

  • JJP Pirates of the Caribbean

Loss of Ball - You have a ball subtracted from your total ball count

  • JJP Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Speakeasy
  • some add an ball em’s on tilt take ball in play + 1 more.

Loss of Ball In Play Not from Tilt or Drain - Your ball in play ends (not games with outline last chance shots / timed bonus balls)

  • Operation Thunder (out of fuel)
  • Capcom Kingpin (when in timed play)
  • Caveman (die in video mode)
  • Walking dead when with competition install / Feature setting Horde Lost Advances B.I.P on
  • Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (water modes)

Features

Games With Progressive Jackpots - Jackpots that retains there values across Players / Games

  • Bad Cats
  • Bally Atlantis (modded / tournament rom fixes that)
  • Cyclone
  • High Speed (has an tournament rom)
  • Mousin’ Around (has an tournament rom)
  • Music Man (bonus saucers)
  • Taxi (Can set range to be very small)
  • Elvira and the Party Monsters

Feature Hold Across Games - A feature that retains progress across individual games

  • Apollo 13 - BLASTOFF Letters (tournament mode does fix this)
  • Black Knight 2000 - RANSOM Letters
  • Cue Ball Wizard - WIZARD & DOUBLE Letters (has tournament mode)
  • Dr. Dude And His Excellent Ray - Dude-O-Meter (has an tournament rom) and (tournament mode setting)
  • Elvira and the Party Monsters - ELVIRA Letters
  • Mustang - MUSTANG Letters (tournament mode fixed start for each player?)
  • Rollergames - WILLIAMS letters (has an tournament rom)
  • Super Mario Bros - Completed Castles (has tournament mode)
  • Teed Off - SKINS! & GOPHER Letters (has tournament mode)

Features Than Can End Game - A feature / mode that can End Game Before Player Plays All Balls.

  • Operation Thunder (last mission) (setting)
  • Total Nuclear Annihilation (Destroy Last Reactor)
  • Stern Jurassic Park (Play Wizard Mode)
  • Stern GODZILLA (Play Wizard Mode)

Points

Loss of Points - Player can lose points

  • Champion Pub (cash fights)
  • Road Show (buying souvenirs)
  • Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (fire modes)
  • Teed Off (double or nothing)
  • The Sopranos (poker video mode)
  • Who Dunnit? (roulette)
  • Vegas (double or nothing)

Copied Points - Player can add points of another player while not affecting the other player’s score (subject to software settings)

  • Cactus Jacks (Catch-Up)
  • Class of 1812 (Catch-Up)
  • Police Force (Take Highest Score)
  • The Simpsons (Catch up)
  • Lights…Camera…Action! (Catch-Up)
  • Super Mario Bros (Catch up)

Stolen Points - Player can lose points and those points are given to another player

  • JJP Pirates of the Caribbean

Gained Points While Not Playing - Player can be given points when it’s not their turn.

  • Gilligan’s Island (Gift of the God’s)
  • Monopoly (Chance card) ?
  • Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle (+1m points when another player steals your locked ball)

Games That Can Swap Player Scores

  • Bugs Bunny Birthday Bash (gifts at the end of the game) (setting to trun off)

Games That You Can Lose Bonus Multipliers

  • Counterforce

Loss of Bonus Units That Are End Of Ball/Game Points - Player can kind-of lose points

  • Alien (weapons)
  • Gottlieb System 3 games with shopping
  • Riverboat Gambler (betting)
  • Road Show (souvenirs)
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I’ve made it a Wiki, so anyone can feel free to edit it

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I’ll add bits as I remember them, e.g. Sorceror. I know some of the older EMs in my guide have it, have to remember which ones. FWIW, I have advocated for a “Thieves Tournament” which would use ONLY games where you can steal from other players. I don’t have the resources to do it myself, but maybe I can wangle something as part of a future Indisc.

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added some stuff
need to look at some Some system 11’s that may have take high score / take points.

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Grand Lizard - lock stealing

Space Shuttle - lock stealing

Night Moves - lock stealing

Swords of Fury - lock stealing

Taxi - lock stealing

Whitewater - need to re-lock balls

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F14 re-locks balls for players as compensation, and scores 25k per lock (unwarranted). Fixed in tournament romset, locks score 10 points instead.

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Soft lock stealing:

Firepower
Big Guns
Monte Carlo gottlieb

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You can lose bonus multipliers in Counterforce. This lead once to an interesting scenario where I intentionally drained to win a match after calculating that my current bonus would give me a win, rather than risk losing the multipliers that made it possible.

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What about something like Doctor Who where if P1 locks both balls every following player has to hit the center target to progress their locks? Does that fall under any of the lock categories (I guess not?)

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Kind of Soft Lock Stealing (other players have to make harder locks?) also list if the game can be put into virtual lock

Maybe even add
Kind of Soft Lock Stealing + (other players can get free multi balls from DOUBLE kick outs)

11

That - and it’s a harder and more dangerous shot too (mitigated somewhat by the fact that there’s a silent ball saver if it bonks SDTM). But I’m usually inclined to just shoot loops and WHOs all day regardless.

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Under points gained while not playing I added: Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle (+1m points when another player steals your locked ball)

Someone correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t have the machine anymore to confirm that. (And I don’t know the name of the multiball…but it’s the one that holds a ball behind the drop target on the main playfield).

13

2 EMs I have that fall into the potential of leaving points on the table to be stolen category are

Lariat (Wild Wild West AAB version) 2 player game with 2" flippers. Big Points are earned in a two step process, Step 1-Red and Yellow vari targets are pushed back to increasing point level and/or add a ball. Step 2: Vari target points must be collected at respective color saucer. Does not reset ball to ball. Drain and the other person can pick up whatever was set up. Same thing with collecting 1-5 rollovers for extra ball. If only one number is left (or any amount for that matter), the next player can pick it up. Does not reset ball to ball.

Dodge City-4 player game 2" flippers . Five gates A-E are available for bigger points based on the current playfield multiplier times the value of the rotowheel at each gate. Mulitpliers are 1, 10 and 100 with increase each time the lit arrow at E is collected. Arrows advance through letters as lit gate is hit.

One of the awards on the wheel is a star. Hitting the Star at the corresponding lit gate awards extra ball. Does not reset player to player. The twist is that when the multiplier reaches 100 there is ONLY one 100x shot that can be collected before resetting back to 1x per gate. So if a player sets up the 100X and drains the next player is guaranteed to collect it. (Gates score in each direction). Very dynamic and exciting 4-player game.

I am sure BMU has a whole category of EM games wth similar ideas :slight_smile:

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This basically. I’m often tempted to fill the locks if I’m head to head on DW with players I know don’t like shooting loops but I was fairly chastised here on Tilt Forums years ago for suggesting this as a good strategy.

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Yes, it’s either main multiball. The bonus points can be shut off in settings and are shut off in tournament mode.

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Was there a category for games like WCS, where another player can unload your locked balls, and your multiball is still lit on your turn or your progress is retained, but downgraded somehow?

In WCS, you go to a 2 ball multiball unless you re-lock before you start it.

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Yes obviously WHO/side ramp loop is the optimal strategy, but my points was if something like this falls under any category. I think the point is to categorize everything?

Also funny that people once felt salty about this “strat” because that was one of the first things I thought (and try to do) when playing this game haha

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The tone from the replies I got were more “only a doofus would waste shots doing that dumb thing” than “it’s annoying being forced into the center target for locks.”

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Do you have examples of games that do this?

I added a category called “Lock Blocking”.

I’d put that under the “Soft Lock Stealing” category with relevant notes on the “downgraded” function based on the game. Do you have examples of games that do this?

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There are a LOT more of these. All the progressive Jackpot games that carried between players/games on mid-era SS.

Also, a TON of early multiplayer EM’s that carry lit feature status either between players or between games.