Deep cuts of semi-useful pinball knowledge

What are some obscure or weird rules that you know that might be useful to know, but it appears that not many people know?

Here are a couple from Indy 500:

1. In regular multiball, most people know that when you put a ball in the Turbo, the regular jackpot value increases by 10 million. However, an important detail to note is that not only does the scoop switch need to register for you to get this score increase, but the upper Turbo mech itself needs to register. This means that it’s possible to put a ball in the Turbo and shoot a jackpot too early, receiving only the regular jackpot value rather than jackpot+10 million. For example
   https://youtu.be/RGOtrPcBzL8?t=4170
   (Start at 1:09:30 if the video doesn’t automatically start there.)
   @cayle locks a ball in the Turbo and then gets a quick 30 million jackpot via the right ramp that would have been 40 million if he had waited ~1 more second. He then shoots the left ramp and gets the expected 42 million. (Each made jackpot raises the next jackpot value by 2 million.)

Also note that if you’re playing an Indy 500 where you can hear the machine’s sound cues, the game will issue a beep when the value has been added to the jackpot.

2. In video mode, you don’t have to avoid the oil slicks. You don’t get more points to go through them, and they will slide your car if you are not providing left or right button input, but this knowledge might earn you some extra points toward the end of the mode.The rule sheet says “…if you just skim an obstacle you only skid a bit,” but that’s not exactly correct.

3. If you’re playing with extra balls off, don’t select “Light Extra Ball” from the Change Setup award. It does what you’d expect for a game of this era: nothing.

EDITED TO ADD:

4. When you launch a ball, there’s a regular ball save light, but the blinking car in front of the left ramp also indicates that there’s an additional hidden ball save/grace period. If you center drain with this car blinking, you will get your ball back. Any side drain that turns off this blinking car will not be coming back, but it’s possible to drain out the side with the regular ball save light off and have the blinking car not turn off and have your ball saved.

Minds blown? Bored to tears? Either way, it’s your turn now. Are you harboring any deep cuts you wish to share with the world?

I learned something new to me on DESW last night (new ROMs). It is well known that if you activate your death star hurry up as the ball drains, you get 5M, but don’t consume your moons because the death star never opened. What I learned last night, that I didn’t know is you can do the same thing while draining on a freeze. It will at least display the 5M (I assume you get it), the freeze saves the ball, but the death star does not open or consume your moons.

Both pieces of info were new to me.

Here is the order of Change Setup awards in Indy 500 (AFAIK!):

There are 26 items in the list, The list will start at a random position, but the items otherwise appear in the same order. It loops back to the beginning when reaching the end. Light EB randomly replaces one award, you can loop through the entire list to get to it again (26 flips).

1 Million
15 Million
Spot Pit Lane
10 Laps
5 Million
5 Laps
15 Million
50 Points
Light Change Setup
15 Million
20 Million
70 Points
Light Lock
15 Million
10 Million
3 Million
20 Points
15 Million
Spot Pit Lane
10 Million
5 Laps
100 Points
1 Million
15 Million
50 Points
20 Million

My cues for the important ones:
Light Lock is 4 flips after Light Change Setup.
20 Million is 5 flips after 5 Laps.

Corvette: shortplunge and drain after a ball save and your skill shot is lit again

On AFM there is a short ball saver period after Strobe MB. It is often useful to drain on purpose during this to get the ball back up top for more lanes(bonus X) and more pops(towards super pops).

This ball saver can seem very unexpected because it can occur 5-10 minutes into a good ball.

Edits/additions:

Afaik, Jackpots themselves in I500 do not raise the jackpot value. Shots to the turbo raise the Jackpot value in, and out of multiball.

Video mode - the oil slicks don’t give you more points when hit. What you do get by hitting them is they then do not count as an AVOIDED DEBRIS, so, in essence, you can extend your video mode by hitting oil slicks and have a chance to pick up more point collects and thus a higher mode total.

I’ve head this before. Experiments with hitting as many oil slicks as possible have not resulted in longer video mode time and more points. I’m going to call this one doubtful.

Says the guy who thought jacks increase jacks…

jk, your probably right heheh

The rule sheet says that about jacks increasing jacks, so I believed it for a minute there. I think you’re right about it being the saucer that’s doing it. Same with the top center saucer as far as I know.

I’m waiting for someone to chime in and say that the +10 million jackpot timing thing is just a display bug and doesn’t affect scoring. Pretty sure it’s not, but it wouldn’t be too shocking.

It’s a great day for racing, and a great day for displaying non-existent earned points.

Yeah, so the question becomes:

Is there any point in switching the lanes on I500 to light a set of 4? I do it out of habit from every other game where it actually matters, but is there any actual benefit on I500?

Souveniers are all awarded at 5 million rather than the displayed value. Better than nothing, but not by much, and definitely not worth dialing in the left ramp unless it’s somehow easier for making the lock shot stick compared with the left loop combo.

Don’t the souvenirs let you do one-shot kills on the light ups? Depending on which souvenirs you have and which light up wave you’re on

Another ramp means a guaranteed 5 million points.

Yes; not every wave can be completed this way, but most can. Souvenirs definitely have value this way!

Big Buck Hunter:

Common knowledge: Bonus Round (mode) lights after 20 or so pop hits, shoot right orbit to start a mode.

ProTip: Watch the mode start insert - it will tell you what mode is currently “lit” by how many times it flashes (1 thru 6 - count the “off” periods). The six modes are indicated by the art above the insert, bottom to top: one blink = frog toss, two = mug shooting, etc. Five of the six modes are fun but relatively low scoring, but the third mode (boars gone wild) is a four-ball multiball(!); this is the one you want to start. Pops will change the “lit” mode, but this is hard to control, instead shoot the ramp. Each ramp advances the count by one, wrapping from mode 6 back to mode 1. Trap up, identify the current mode, then loop the ramp enough times til Boars is lit, pass right to left then shoot right orbit to start it. You can then stack Elk and Bird with Boars for big scoring.

No one I play with seems to know about the AFM video mode “smart bomb.” You can hit the Launch button any time during video mode and all the saucers currently onscreen will be destroyed. I use it when a saucer is about to land but someone better than me at video mode (i.e., most people) can probably figure out a better time to use it…

Related AFM video mode tidbits:

• In the first phase: about 95% of the time you can get through just by starting your turret full left, sweeping it to full right, and then back again, repeat until done. Make sure you take the turret all the way to each edge each time. Use the smart bomb if a ship sneaks through.

• In the second phase: about 95% of the time you can defeat the Mothership just by aiming straight vertically, stand back, and watch.

To complete the AFM video mode trifecta, cow video mode.

Collect a cow on each ramp during regular play by hitting the launch button while the ball is on the ramp. Martians don’t always beam up cows, so try again if you miss the first time. When you get one, the cow will moo. If you rapid fire the launch button, the cow will moo a lot.

Not especially useful, but a mode everyone should see once.

It feels like the hit region of the cows is a little larger (i.e. easier) than the saucers. Not sure if that’s actually true.

Plus the Cow Attack sound effects are awesome.

I like it when I can finish the first wave without the smart bomb. Then in the second phase you can kill the mother ship with one press of a button. Difficult, but satisfying when you do it.

You can get up to an extra 12M in video mode if you use the smart bomb when you’re down to less than 5 hits left to destroy the mother ship / cow. The smart bomb registers 5 saucer kills or 5 mothership hits, so if you have fewer than 5 hits left to go, you get extra hits, recorded at 3M points each. Thus the true maximum video mode score is not 635M but 647M [635 + a maximum of 4 surplus mothership hits at 3M each].

Now that’s a deep cut.

Once this thread has run its course, I suggest a new one: “Semi-deep cuts of useful knowledge”. (Although I’ll concede that the BBH ProTip sounds quite useful).

Dr Dude. The long-short plunge.

A plunge at the exact strength will maneuver the ball through the bumpers without any switches triggered. And you can get the ball on the left flipper with the game still in start-of-ball.

Why not just short plunge to the right flipper?

Not a particularly deep cut but a surprising amount of people I play with don’t seem to know that on Metallica if you shoot the fuel piston for super skill, not only do you get the super skill points but fuel will also be instantly lit. You can hold the left flipper down and soft plunge the super skill to a live catch on the right flipper to shoot the piston, or you can full plunge super skill and loop pass to get it to the right flipper. Though if you blow the soft plunge and it doesn’t go onto the playfield you pretty much lose your chance to get the skill shot so beware.

It’s nice to have a 2x playfield ready to go for sparky or crank it up without having to shoot standups.

Pirates of the Caribbean. If you destroy a ship with a cannon blast the subsequent ship’s sails come down in one shot. (And if you destroy that ship with a cannon blast, the subsequent ship’s sails come down in one shot). And on and on.

A whole bunch of posts by @keefer on here, particularly on the games he’s coded. Here’s a great example of a Keefer Deep Cut: School me on The Simpsons Pinball Party

watching @heyrocker yesterday we tested out that “Free Kick” are possible during MB on WCS94, who knew?!?

In Rollercoaster Tycoon, if you shoot the right ramp to start multiball, it is supposed to divert into the scoop. Then the multiball buildup happens, locks are released, fun ensues. Every once in a while the ball will miss the diverter and instead divert back into play on the playfield. If this happens, and your ball drains before locks are released, your ball will end, you will not get multiball, bonus will count, and on your next ball you will start the lock sequence over as if you had.

So if this happens to you TRAP UP and wait for multiball to actually start before doing anything.

Ugh I had this happen to me in a tournament except it went SDTM from rejecting out of the hole.

I am surprised to hear this, because of the same thing happening in STTNG 9 years earlier (make a ‘jackpot’ from the cannon and fail to load the cannon for another jackpot - ball goes straight into outlane and the reward is a bonus count).

On Tron if you drain with 2x scoring running, it will double your bonus. This is after any bonus x is applied. The display will not indicate it, but the points ARE DOUBLED! I have achieved bonus of over 30 million this way.

I’m always surprised when I’m playing against someone on BSD in a tournament or league and they don’t know about the extra 5 million points you get if you flip both flippers when the ball falls into the asylum (left hole). This was one of the first pinball “easter eggs” that I learned about.

I swore I’ve been suspicious of that countless times.

As soon as you also know that dangering the game while the ball drain the outlane would skip your whole bonus T_T

The good thing about it is it comes at a time where there’s a break in the action. So it’s perfectly acceptable to blurt out: HIT BOTH FLIPPERS NOW!!! Once they do it, you calmly inform them they just collected an extra 5m points.

On TSPP during couch multiball, if you collect the jackpots in order from bottom to top, you get an extra bonus for that. Can’t recall what the bonus is and exactly what the order is, but it’s there.

1x-2x-3x in order, I believe.

On Austin Powers, starting the Shag Hurry Up, completing the bottom lanes for a second time, if the last letter is gotten by either outlane you will get the ball back.

On Revenge from Mars, if you are in Alien Abduction, you can use the secondary flipper buttons to change the value of the small saucer hurry ups as long as the hurry up has not started yet.

Probably known by everyone else but me - until this weekend

During Monsters of Rock a shot up the centre/spinner lane awards the leftmost unlit monster helping progress to the jackpot.

Kiss:

When playing Deuce an unlit shot just to the left of the lit shots also counts as a mode shot.

On CFTBL, right after you light the I letter for hitting the all the standups or scoop enough times for the snackbar, you can hit both flipper buttons to blow up the snack bar. This is supposed to increase your likelihood of getting better rewards from the snackbar but I’m not sure if that’s true when it’s in tournament mode.

On CFTBL, the order in which you lit FILM letters is not remembered from ball to ball. If you start a ball with leading letters lit (F, F-I, or F-I-L), even if you spelled those out of order, you can complete the remaining letters in order and get the 8mil Sequential FILM award.

Enjoy the FLIM!

maybe everyone already knows this…

Black Hole: when you return from the lower playfield successfully, the re-entry gate remains open for about 5 seconds. if you shoot down to the basment again during this grace period, the gate stays open for that trip. it changes the basement shot from a risky shot to a safe one.

(this is also true of multiball – once opened, the gate remains open as long as there is more than one ball in play, making it the best/safest shot on the game during multiball)

Hitting any upper playfield pop bumper closes the gate. It’s not timed. Someone could skillfully return to the lower playfield over and over, in theory.

thanks for the clarification!

After Terminus on TWD, multikills are worth 1/10 of whatever your final Terminus score is even if you just did Horde before Terminus. So always try to do Terminus with 2x scoring, so that you have really high value multikills.

And, as we discovered this weekend, this also happens on Johnny Mnemonic if you have the claw disabled, shoot the last lock, and drain while the multiball animation is running.

Ugh, I’ve seen all sorts of issues on Johnny Mnemonic with the glove disabled. For those who don’t know, it locks balls on lock shots normally feeding the VUK, and starts modes in the Crazy Bob’s hole. I played it that way for some time as I was trying to get the glove to work in PinMAME with a P-ROC board in place of the WPC controller. Was not successful since the emulated ROM couldn’t cope with the additional P-ROC latency between driving the glove motors and getting rotary encoder feedback.

Anyway, in addition to losing a multiball due to a fast lock 3 to drain, I’ve also had a ball search during video mode end the ball prematurely. If playing with a disabled glove, I now make sure I’m hitting the flipper buttons often enough to avoid that outcome. I thought there were some other quirks, but it’s been at least a year since I’ve played it that way.

And unlike Demolition Man where playing with the claw disabled is still quite fun, a disabled glove on JM means playing Video Mode as your first matrix award in every game, in addition to the other bugs you must deal with.

Yeah they saw this one too.

I’m not totally sure why or how this happens, but on Fire! If you trap up and wait for 3-5 secs, the ladder will sometimes raise. Shoot the ladder for a free lock.

Sure that’s not the ball search?

Do system 11As ball search with a flipper held up?

It’s been awhile since I’ve played a Fire! but I seem to recall the one we had would raise the ramp up what I thought was randomly.

I thought it was ball search at first, but it’s not consistent at all. And it’s not just my game. Played two others that behaved the same way.

The ones that I’ve owned shouldn’t, but all of them had bad switches so it would still happen. It’s bad enough that I’ve seen multiple references to raising the ramp in Jokerz by cradling the ball being an illegal move…

It came up a couple times at NWPC but I couldn’t ever tell if on Johnny Mnemonic if you already have super spinner running when you start frenzy do you still get super spinner scoring while frenzy is running?

I don’t believe so. I find Frenzy to be generally evil on Johnny; it locks out most other things, and just isn’t worth that much on its own.

Got a replay on Twilight Zone? Hit both flippers before the slot machine “REPLAY” animation locks in the reels. Free 5M.

Only in bonus.

That might explain why it worked when I gave my friend a free 5M.

Creature from the Black Lagoon pretzel ball save?

I was playing CFTBL on location last night and received the pretzel as the Snack Bar menu item. For some reason I didn’t choking fatality past it like I usually do (Give me the millions!) and a brief ball saver appeared to come on. I promptly and inadvertently drained and the ball saver worked. When my friend was awarded the pretzel later in the game I looked over and she had a ball save light on too. Is this a real thing? Does the pretzel have actual value? Does it work in competition settings?

Wait does the choking fatality award more points?

Not sure if this one has been stated, but can be super handy:
Always light flying rocks before starting the Atlanta mode in Road show. It allows you to shoot flying rocks, plunge the first hole for 5x blast value, and if you mini flip into the blast zone you can collect a 5x 30 mil = 150 mil Atlanta value

… Style points.

Congo- Starting Ghost Tribe MB (Jungle Jackpot) will make Volcano multiball harder for the rest of the game by causing the diverter to always divert to the left flipper rather than giving you 3 consecutive ramp shots to begin. So always try to do at least 1 Volcano MB before starting Jungle Jackpot.

I always wondered about this. Solid knowledge share.

Today on TZ, I hit left orbit and immediately comboed into hitchhiker shot, and I thought I saw the DMD say that it was a triple hitchhiker collect. Is that true? I presume that meant I was awarded 3 hitchhikers. Are there other ways to collect multiple hitchhikers?

That’s correct, you get 3 hitchhikers for the left orbit -> Hitchhiker combo, including an appropriate graphic. That’s the only way I know of to get multiple hitchhikers at once.

Similar to what keith said, on GOT, good luck getting back to Wall MB a second time. It not only takes 10 turns of the wheel, the controlled gates stay open on all orbit shots.

I guess doing this on a premium wouldn’t be too bad since it’s qualified at the kickback.

To clarify, you can force the ball search by post passing or rattling the ball on the flipper, but when working properly the game will not ball search by merely cradling.

BSD:

You can collect Rats values above ~100M. iirc If you time out rats and don’t collect, the values of previous rats modes will then stack to subsequent rats modes. - Giving a larger base value that can then be multiplied in muti-multiball for some rad payoffs.

BSD#2:

Restart a BSD game during 3X multiball scoring (hold in start button). The newly started game will now be in permanent 3X, and can be multiplied to 9X. Location buster!

Sometimes I wonder how people first discover something - this is one of those times. Who was the person who first restarted BSD during the ultimate achievement?

Double drain, ball 3, during 3x multiball. Restarted game before balls hit the trough -> Pleasant surprise for me

That’s been fixed in the tournament romset. (As it has been in the Doctor Who one, as well, which shares the same bug)

I was reminded of this during a tournament last night…

On Judge Dredd, weird things can happen if you start multiball while you’re in the middle of safe cracker or sniper. The game will let you stack modes and lock you out of jackpots. So if you’re counting on racking up some jackpots, finish your mode or let it time out before you hit that third lock!

I believe this ballsaver is lit after completing the snackbar targets, and I’m pretty sure it’s even mentioned in the rulesheet. Who knows why, though.

…other than the camera…

It seems like when TZs were first new, on most of them you could just hold up the UR flipper and a left orbit shot would naturally zip up there for the triple collect. I also feel like I haven’t been able to do this for years.

Please tell me you can’t do this again for 27x…

That explains it. nice. I always thought this was a bug that the game thought I had just spelled MAP.

A semi-useful thing I don’t often see people take advantage of: Inlane switches usually aren’t debounced, so when a ramp drops the ball onto an inlane switch, quickly changing lanes will register multiple hits.

This works on Firepower really well . . . you can often get 2 FIRE lanes off the plunge by chattering the flipper as the ball passes through the lanes up top.

This game I have seen set like, 4 different ways in tournaments and each has it’s own quirks to consider. As the proud owner of one, here is the list of considerations:

KICKBACK

• Lights on ANY 3 bank completion
• Lights on POWER bank completion
• Lights on 1-6 completion
• Lights on 1-3/4-6 completion

FIREPOWER

• Starts at 10k or 5k?
• FIREPOWER value retained or not at end of ball?
• Special lit at 30k or 50k collect?
• 1 alternating or 2 solidly lit specials?
• Is Special worth EB, points, or nothing?

MULTIBALL

• 1 or 2 locks lit per 1-6 completion on first multiball?
• Does game have lock memory between balls?

BONUS X

• Is Extra Ball on?
• Is Extra Ball lit at 5x or after collecting a set of FIRE lanes after lighting 5x?

Here are the 16 Unique Combos in X-Men, and the base values for collecting the unique combo:

Beast->Rogue = Beauty & The Beast (425,000)
Beast->Storm = Meteorology (425,000)
Beast->Xavier = Sharp Minds (475,000)
Beast->Wolverine = Savage Animals (325,000)
Cyclops->Rogue = Power Drain (375,000)
Cyclops->Storm = Gold+Blue Leaders (375,000)
Cyclops->Xavier = Teacher’s Pet (375,000)
Cyclops->Wolverine = Rivals (325,000)
Iceman->Beast = Angry Yeti (375,000)
Iceman->Xavier = Brain Freeze (375,000)
Storm->Iceman = Hailstorm (375,000)
Xavier->Cyclops->Storm->Wolverine = X-Men Leaders (975,000)
(Storm/Xavier->)Phoenix->Iceman = Fire & Ice (400,000)
(Storm/Xavier->)Phoenix->Wolverine = Unrequited Love (400,000)
(Storm/Xavier->)Phoenix->Cyclops->Wolverine = Lover’s Triangle (775,000)
(Storm/Xavier->)Phoenix->Cyclops->Xavier->Iceman->Beast = Original X-Men (1,225,000)

There is a bug? where Phoenix is unable to start a combo, so you have to start with Storm or Xavier to get the combo arrows flashing for any Phoenix combo.

Non-unique and already-collected unique combos start at 125,000. Collecting a unique combo raises the base value of all combos by 50,000.

Collecting 10 Unique Combos lights EB.

Interesting “x Tron Completed” bonus award I found in Tron:

how many zen switches did it take to do that?

So the details are:

1. Zen switches stack
2. In order to take advantage of Zen you must hit a flashing tron target, and that will give you all the tron targets
3. If you stack like 4 Zen triggers, you can then start Double scoring, Spinners, and Bumpers right after another really quickly. With the 4th Zen trigger still there, attempting to start a tron mode when all 3 are already running gives you this 1 million “X Tron Completed” bonus (which is probably doubled because of double scoring, so technically it’s 500k?)

It should play the Whirlwind 3-way combo siren since it’s up there in being incredibly challenging to pull off, and worth nothing near what it should be worth

Head to Head ImpossiGoal ™ ?

I love Whirlwind’s 3-way combo siren so much. It’s worth more than any number of points.

Along with the acompanied feeling of transcendence.

Hey please turn the Whirlwind siren into the Wilhelm Scream of pinball ok

“Move your car”

I was streaming funhouse tonight. I started the steps frenzy, then while that was running, started the mystery mirror super frenzy. Do they run together or does the super frenzy override the normal one? So am I only getting 100k a switch or 150k a switch? Seemed like super frenzy was the only one running.

100k a switch…but you do get the bonus time!

Right it basically converts your remaining Frenzy time into more Super Frenzy time (12 sec Frenzy -> 32 sec Super Frenzy). You can also extend Super Frenzy the same way.

On Twilight Zone, the autoplunger feed will count The Spiral mode shots if the ball goes all the way around to the upper left flipper. Extremely useful in Powerball Mania since you have a ball save and a straight down the middle feed.

Thanks. So stacking both with MB is still a better thing to do than just stacking one with it. Got it. Love that stack. Super rewarding when pulled off.

Very heavy risk-reward, yeah, but this pays off big-time in multiball because of all the timer-stopping effects. I ran out a Super Frenzy for over 10 million once with this stack.

LOL you should try it during LITZ.

OH NO.

OH YES

Is that stack Super frenzy->Multiball? Or Super frenzy->Multiball->Frenzy?

I though the prior was hardly worth the while (points wise) in itself because frenzy time is ticking down in Rudy bwarrrr.

Super frenzy -> frenzy -> multiball

Meant to add this one earlier, probably a bit more on the semi-useful rather than deep side.

Flash Gordon: Everyone knows that the center saucer kicks every other ball to the upper or lower playfield, so if you remember where it last kicked during a long ball you know where it’s going next. Did you know, however, that the playfield lights either strobe upward or downward before the kickout to indicate where the ball’s going?

Relight the kickback on LW3 by hitting two consecutive left orbits. Then hit the kickback target above the left outlane

On Rocky and Bullwinkle there is a wizard mode (sorta) when you complete all the left ramp modes. Many people time this mode out thinking it’s worth no points. A couple years ago I read that if you hit 10 ramps in this mode (which I’d never done) you get 50m which is a good amount in this game.

Last night I crushed this mode… I found you get ANOTHER 50m at some point (probably 20 ramps) and eventually I got a 75M award (I assume 30 ramps)

I also FINALLY got to see what happens when you reach 0AD. It goes to BC! I think I ended the mode at 1093BC.

50M is a good number but there are a lot easier ways to achieve it. The bigger problem is that if it is 10 ramps for 50M, there are better shot averages in other modes like Loopin’ and especially Spin and Win (12.5M average).

At every 10 ramps, concentrating on Save Nell is looking pretty good!

I wasn’t suggesting this is a good tourney strategy. In a tourney unless I was like 40m away from winning AND had that left ramp dialed in, I would still suggest timing out that mode. The problem is when you hit 9 ramps and brick the last shot off a stand up STDM. Then you get zero points for the mode and lose the ball.

Loopin starts at 2m a shot. If you alternate ramps quickly enough it will build by 1m each ramp. You can get it up to around 5-6m. Then you can loop the left ramp which will add time. I feel like this mode still eventually times out or there is a max number of ramps. So if you get it up to 5m and hit 10 ramps that’s… 2m+3+4+5+5+5+5+5+5+5 that’s 44m or 4.4m per ramp. But getting it up to 5m is the tough part. I won’t play that mode unless I can get it to at least 4m. And I think ignoring it altogether isn’t a bad idea. Spin and win is pretty quick and doesn’t add time for making shots. Plus the right ramp should be more difficult than the left. I’ve probably looped the right ramp 3-4 times during spin and win only a handful of times ever. But it can be very valuable so I usually do go for it.

And save nell should not be ignored. 25M for the first and 50M each additional. 80% of my shots from the left flipper and going towards those drops.

On Scared Stiff, when the Crate is lit to begin the Stiff-O-Meter mode, you can actually shoot the right ramp to collect the Web Value - but because the Spider Hole can’t be lit, you can loop the right ramp and collect the Web Value over and over.

But, do you get points for the web value - because I don’t think you do any other time?

In LOTR, Balrog can help collect Ring Frenzy jackpots or start modes a little easier. It’s more situational, as he must be out during Fellowship Multiball or Bash Balrog (which is usually disabled).

Hitting Balrog during Ring Frenzy cashes out the jackpot, as if you’d made a successful jump ramp/ring shot. During the grace period after Fellowship Multiball, bashing Balrog just before he swings out of the way starts a mode if lit. More riskier, but still a possibility. Just thought this was interesting when I discovered it.

Judge Dredd: if you start multiball during a mode (remember - modes are your bonus) - the mode resets after multiball… Including any progress you made pre-multiball. So if you’re really destroying a mode, try not to start multiball. Or if you’re not getting anywhere in it and you have MB ready, go for MB.

Just be careful not to do this with sniper of safe cracker after making a shot. Judge Dredd mode stack bug - Games - Tilt Forums

On TotAN, if the magnet does not snag the ball and suck it under the playfield during multiball start sequence, the multiball does not start. Draining will end your ball unless you’ve got ball save active for some reason.

Also on TotAN, if the outlane save fails to grab a ball during single ball play, the game compensates and serves up another. If it fails during multiball you’re SOL. I think this one’s a little better known.

If the same thing happens a second time, it will start the multiball though. At least on the one I play.

The extra spicy one. The Shooting star mech lifts the ball over the outlane switch → hello fun with bonus.

Some discussion on the Pool Sharks jackpot reminded me, here’s how Police Force works:

During “build jackpot” every switch adds 200. This is a really ridiculous sucky amount. The real gain is shooting the hot sheet saucer (lit or not) adds 200K during build jackpot.

In High Roller Casino, the value for the Jackpots & Casino Jackpot in Casino Frenzy actually hold over throughout the game. For instance, if you got an 150 million Casino Jackpot during Casino Frenzy and proceeded to drain, the Casino Jackpot in the next Casino Frenzy would still be 175 million. I’m not sure where it caps out.

Also, one strategy I don’t see many people discuss is stacking Super Loops (the second award from Roll 'n Win) with Slot Machine Multiball. During Super Loops, the left and right orbits send the ball around and score the current ATM value. However, in Multiball, it is possible to get credit for both the left and right orbit with a shot to one of the orbits if Super Loops is active. You can also do this with Casino Frenzy & Break the Bank.

Back to I500…

Anyone have any confirmation on what triggers Secret Mode from the Green Flag? I believe it’s a replacement mode for the Multiball modes (Quick Pit, Turbo Boost). For Quick Pit it makes perfect sense, since the ball isn’t being stored in the Pit.

if I remember correctly - Quick Pit and Go for the Pole, but definitely not Turbo Boost

Weird - I had it overwrite Boost at Pinvasion in a qualifying game. Maybe it is random with exceptions?

I’ve never seen it do that.

I’ve always assumed that the idea is that it won’t start modes that only make sense to start via the right orbit VUK. And like @MET said, that’s QP and GftP.

I’m almost positive it caps at 250M. It would match the SDME JP cap and BTB JP cap.

Yeah I noticed this at some point. It wasn’t obvious at first because normally you can’t do ATM shots in multiball. I’m pretty sure I let it stay in on purpose.

On CftBL, in Unlimited Millions, the DMD shows ‘UNLIMTED’.

If you have OCD and can now never play CftBL ever again, I apologize.

(Edit: Okay, so this was more a shallow cut of utterly-useless pinball knowledge, I suppose.)

The real OCD-like complaint I have with it is it’s timed, therefore not “truly” unlimited.

This like how the awards in No Limit in No Fear actually cap out at 70M.

World Cup Soccer – Multiball Reset

Either you hit a ramp or hit the Final Draw to restart multiball. But…

https://clips.twitch.tv/EnjoyableFancyPenguinGivePLZ

what the what?!? i gotta try on my WCS94!

It’s funny, it never even occurred to me this wasn’t well-known, lol.

I used to own a WCS94 and I had no idea.

Iron Maiden- during aces and mariner the orb will always add a ball. The level you are at 1-3 will determine how much ball save comes with it 5-15 seconds.

Maiden- while playfield X is active shooting the blinking X targets pauses the timer.

Secret skill shots- some are only available when plunging with the left flipper held in.

Loop jackpots, shooting mini loops during loop jackpot phase will add 3 seconds on to the timer.

Aces super jackpot- you can shatz the lock on phase of the fighter ace

Great nuance!! Thanks, Keith.

Just came across this gold mine of a thread! Wow! Keep 'em coming!

Judge Dredd, if you reach Ultimate Challenge during multiball, then proceed to reach Ultimate Challenge by completing all the modes, it will relight over and over after you drain down to 1 ball.

Not rules, but I am putting it here anyone. The P3 has a new flipper skill! Being called the P3 pass (I don’t know who deserves credit for the name), if you flip as the ball approaches the flipper, it applies enough force to the lane guide to bounce the ball over to the opposite flipper.

Correct – but even worse is that I usually do this unintentionally to prepare for a traditional cradle. And the unintentional “pass” often ends up out of control.

Is that by design or something making contact that shouldn’t? Sounds awful

On TSPP, until you lock your first ball in the couch the garage will automatically re-open itself any time you drain down from the upper playfield via the monorail. This allows you to immediately shoot the garage again and collect another mystery award (assuming you hit the ‘Light Mystery’ target on the upper playfield). If the game is in tournament mode, the garage will always award “Light TV Mode” so you can take advantage of this to rapidly stack a number of TV modes with little risk at the beginning of a game.

Does this work with monorail mode?

Yeah I watched @BonusLord stack that mode in particular. If anything that’s a great one to start with- intentionally let it fall to the flipper and continue to start the TV.

I always wondered what controlled this! Solid strategic info right here.

Couple things about this TSPP exploit:

1. It was addressed in the final release (possibly earlier) in that the garage will not give the same award back-to-back, so it’s at least more annoying to try and start every mode.
2. The behavior can be defeated by changing adjustment 20 (according to the manual - Garage Door Diff). Setting it anything harder to default should remove the need to lock a ball. The hardest will likely make it never open for free, next-to-hardest probably will not reopen after a mode start has been achieved.

EDIT TO ADD:

Hey, it’s in the readme file. Thanks, me! As of 2.00:

• Implemented Garage Door Difficulty adjustment. This allows the Garage
  Door to reopen automatically under certain circumstances as follows:
  • Extra Easy: Until Couch Multiball is started.
  • Easy: Until any couch lock is made.
  • Moderate: Until any couch lock or tv mode started.
  • Hard: Until any couch lock, tv mode started, or mystery lit.
  • Extra Hard: Never reopens

Neither - it’s because lexan isn’t as compressible as wood and the designer decided they liked it after finding it was possible. You can do it on some traditional games too but it’s iffier. If you don’t like it it should be addressable with a mod and the flipper assemblies are the easiest thing to swap out on the p3, I’m sure there will be other flipper/sling layouts or mods that change things up.

It’s pretty neat in action, you can pop the ball back and forth between the guides with single flips if timed just right.

I am having a hard time picturing this. On Genie a lot of my drains are 1. Ball hits elbow 2. Ball drifts into center and drains. If Genie was a P3 I could save the ball by flipping when it hit the elbow?

Soft plunging (moving the ball off and back on to the shooter lane switch) on Motor Show resets the timed Skillshot.

On behalf of @bpb who found this fun trick in PPL finals: you’re welcome!

I only knew this because it was posted on pintips

Slo moing it added a few artifacts, but I think this shows it.

In Bride of Pinbot, if you have one ball locked in one of the eyes, and you can manage to get the game to do a ball search (by trying to not hit a switch with the other ball while not cradling for more than a second or two - which actually isn’t that hard to do) the game will pop the ball out of the eye to the lock position, and for some reason this will turn on the “all switches score double” insert in the middle, and al things do score double. Once you shoot a ball up the ramp again, it will start the multiball and then all switches will score because you are in multiball, which will end when one is drained.

I have also gotten this to happen in the virtual version on Pinball Arcade.

Haha another exploit foiled by @keefer’s attention to detail! I really gotta get an updated ROM for my TSPP

Out of curiosity, was the ability to bring a treehouse mode into alien invasion added in a later ROM revision? I attempted the Apu’s Giveaway + AI stack you suggested in the TSPP thread but AI seemed to kill the giveaway mode.

Here’s my first post on tilt forums… also, I played my first tourney just a few months ago so I’m still a noob, but I was really proud of myself when I figured this out on “Black Rose”. On the first ball: Plunge the skill shot
, utilize ball save and drain. Full plunge to load cannon, hit as many targets as possible for letters, thus starting double broadside. Seemed like a good strategy nobody else at league was aware/goin for. Maybe not huge secret to ya’ll, but it’s the best I’ve got.

I’m still digging around, but I think these are the requirements to qualify for pity Lard MB on Family Guy, going into the final ball:

1. Must have less than 2 minutes of ball time. (Clock ticks during valid playfield, but also ticks during end of ball bonus count…!!)
2. Cannot have collected Extra Ball (even if it’s worth points).
3. Cannot have started any multiball.
4. Cannot have played Stewie Pinball.

Score is irrelevant.

If you are pitiful going into the final ball, the beer mode will change to Lard, your beer count will increase to one hit remaining, and bumpers will no longer change the beer mode. Funnily, it’s possible to un-pitify yourself, for example, if you go over 2 minutes of ball time on the final ball. The bumpers will start changing the mode again, although you will still only need one hit to start the beer mode.

I feel like this one is in a bit of a grey area rules-wise, not that any TD would be using BoP unless they were really hard-pressed to get enough games.

Can anyone comment on how legal this’d be under IFPA or PAPA rules? Seems rather exploit-y to me.

Not in the grey area. Definitely illegal in the IFPAPA ruleset.

A player may not intentionally cause a ball search in order to activate any feature of the game.

Excuse my ignorance, by why can’t or shouldn’t you use BoP in a tournament?

Billionaire Club and its shot are awarded for achieving metamorphosis during multi-ball, but it can also be a big wheel award. It can really make a game lop-sided when something like that occurs. Even if you’re crushing it and have 35 million+, it doesn’t mean anything without a billion in front of it.

There’s a Bride of Pinbot 2.0 rom I’ve heard that does a good job of addressing that, but otherwise…there’s more factors of luck in some places that can really hurt for opponents that felt like they earned their points versus gained via mystery.

That’s a matter of perspective, however. I put Orbitor 1 in my tournaments and people tell me I shouldn’t all the time.

It’s possible to set the Billion percentage to 1% and the Billion collect timer to 1 second, which effectively disables this award. (Occasionally it’ll be awarded and then immediately time out, which becomes a poor award, but still prevents the unbalanced aspect.)

The 50M award (which is also pretty unbalancing) can be similarly neutered.

We use it in one of our leagues and it’s totally fine.

I can confirm that when the timer is set to 1 second, it is impossible to collect even with an immediate shot. I found this out the hard, sad way: the first time I ever earned the billion (through the metamorphosis) it was on a game that had the timer set to one second since it was also used in league play. I made the shot as soon as it was physically possible and it still failed.

Huh, never knew that.

I suppose at that point it just becomes a bit of a dull game, since it’s still largely a one-shot wonder even without the billion award.

Even with the billion shot, would it work to include BoP if you just say “ your score is x-1B if you happen to get the 1B” shot?

Yeah, even under the best of circumstances, it’s still a lot of “shoot the left ramp”. But there are a couple other options… if jackpot is high, some left lane shots may be a good idea. Shooting the center ramp repeatedly gets you to a state where each center ramp shot is 1M, which can be good money. And bonus can be huge… I’ve had 40M bonus on a ball. Bonus is primarily switch bonus, so if your game has a juiced spinner and pops, shooting the spinner lane starts becoming interesting, especially once your bonus X has been boosted (completing standup targets).

You could certainly make that a local rule if you wanted; of course this should be announced to players before your event starts. If you were to do that, I’d probably say that any billions digit is discarded; it’s possible to get multiple Billion collects. (Although it might be really interesting to do a -1B solution and allow additional billions to stand; that would become a serious “big risk, big reward” solution…)

But… but… What if you get one of the backdoor billions like the 10-way combo?

or getting all 4 Extra Ball lanes lit at the same time?
(Has anyone ever done that?)

i’ve done it on Pinball Arcade app. not in real life.

Perhaps this is old news to a lot of people, but you can press the button under the plunger on World Cup Soccer to relight the jackpot in multiball without hitting the ramps. It only works once though. Thanks to @bkerins and his 8 year old PAPA rule sheet for the tip!

https://papa.org/2010/07/worldcupsoccer-2/

Bit of a thread necro, but I’d be more inclined to treat this a bit like rings in NBA Fastbreak. Find some suitable amount of points and make billions worth that instead.

This assumes that you must use this game in the first place, in which case, I’m sorry.

Super deep cut that nobody should care about: On Indy 500 if you start super jets, it will continue to your next ball. Or at least the display claims it, whether or not the points get awarded is a different question…

hahaha. Yeah, not sure if that’s even “semi”-useful.

Pretty much the case for everything Indy500

Speaking of semi-useful I500 stuff, I’d love to see a list of everything that does and everything that does not get tripled by the 3X Playfield award. Extra credit will be given for providing both a “Shows triple value on the display” and “Actually gives triple value” column.

The 3X does triple the Super Jets completion award (so, 90 million). Or at least the game says it does. Mode points that are awarded as bonus do not get tripled, I think. Laps do. Passes/positions? No idea.

The multiball jackpots are indeed tripled during 3x Playfield. That’s all you need to know.

I think Super Jets times 3 is pretty good to keep in your pocket in matchplay, and I think Checkered Flag awards – yes they do get tripled – can potentially be useful during best game qualifying.

Has anyone ever stacked a collect of all checkered flags with 3x playfield? Seems like one of the toughest collects in pinball.

@KCB has an ongoing bounty of $500 to anyone that records a full game of this

I500 needs a competition rom that actually awards the points it shows.

Haven’t been able to do it yet. I’ve picked up the 3x3.

The hardest part imo is avoiding accidental collects. You have to basically start 3x last on modes, then light the raceway checkered flag (as your 4th flag) and collect before time expires.

…Im not sure if you can light more than 4 flags? Or loop around to get one twice? Memory is that you cant.

I’d love Gasoline Alley to award 45 passes. I’d love it even more if it rolled over like an 8-bit integer and suddenly you’re in 235th or something.

Don’t Gasoline Alley passes keep you from getting the position checkered flag award?

Nope.

Only if you cross the checkered flag with those passes

Deep dive analysis of games is interesting. And improving them is nice too.

Just remember, it may sometimes be the display (or sound) that is incorrect. And not the score tally. It may require a few times around the loop to figure it out. Or best guessing.

Same with the Fish Tales debate recently. For Fish Tales captive ball, even the scores written on the playfield appear ambiguous.

I’m slightly embarrassed to say that I think I learned something new on my favorite game recently. Was playing an AFM with a friend on location. With any ramp shot I made, I would mash the launch button hoping to hear moos, like I always do. (more on this earlier in the thread) After a game, my friend asks me why I’m mashing the start button. I said it was to get to cow video mode and explained how you do it. He asked if it was worth any points (mashing the button) and I said no, it’s more of a show off move.

Next game I hit a ramp again and mash the launch button. I got three or four moos. This time my friend was watching the display. He said each moo scored something like 40M points. Is this right? I don’t recall ever getting points for moos. This was an AFM remake, if that makes a difference. Would appreciate confirmation either way. Like Fluffy in BSD, I’ll still do it every time, but it would be a lot better if I was getting a few points.

I’d be afraid to restart the game doing this either way. Haha.

Unlike GOTG’s other modes & multiballs, there’s no grace period for one last shot on Cherry Bomb MB… getting a ball into Groot’s mouth at the end of Cherry Bomb MB will not credit you with a SJP.
He unceremoniously spits the ball back at your dead flippers.

AFM was available on Farsight’s Pinball Arcade, you should be able to test it there if you can find someone who owns that table.

What games have very liberal playfield validation rules when combined with a short plunge? Two I can think of off the top of my head:

Austin Powers - I believe you can do nearly anything so long as you avoid the top rollovers and starting a mode.

Sopranos - It’s very liberal with the switch hit count. You should be able to start Stugots boat multiball before it starts your ball save.

And of course basically any early solid state or EM will allow you endless ball save as long as you don’t hit any switches. A good thing to be aware of in tournament play. I was DQ’ed on Stars once for playing my opponents ball this way. In my defense, the active player lights were out on the back box.

My mistake. You hit the launch button, not the start button. Corrected above.

You can hit a bunch of switches on Ripley’s without validating the playfield. But because it has no ball saver, you’ll want to test exactly what switches you can hit on free play. I believe any switch below the lower scoop won’t validate that playfield, although it’s been a while.

It’s something like that. I remember taking a few tries at the skill shot, which is worth more points than it probably should be, and I hit something that validated the playfield and wasted a ball.

The two standup targets next to the upper scoop (skill shot) will most definitely validate the playfield. The spinner in the upper loop won’t.

Certainly not true in general for EMs. It is important to know what playfield validate and which don’t. With Gottlieb, AAB I think generally playfield validate ball one only. Non-AAB don’t playfield validate, so you can score a zero.

Try a soft plunge on Pinball Magic for a 0 point ball. Not sure if it’s true on all Capcoms or not…

That is utter crap. How is anyone supposed to be sure they are actually up on the machine?

There really wasn’t a way to tell, but since it was just a weekly tournament we made due until they fixed it.

Also chiming in to disagree. Many EMs have a base bonus value that awards regardless of whether you hit a switch before hitting the trough. Maybe we need @BMU to opine?

It will also get a certain number of slingshots and inlanes, I think it’s around 5 or 6 but I also think there’s some variations between machines. I also pretty sure that if you get 1 outlane you’re done.

It varies. Some EMs will register a no-switch ball as a zero and count it as a ball played once the ball reaches the trough. Others will allow you unlimited replunges as long as there are no switch hits [I know I’ve done at least 5 before, and it’s much harder to do it on an EM than short-plunging on something newer!]. EMs with a non-zero base bonus, however, will score your bonus [1000 typically], then advance to the next ball, if any. Note that there are EMs with bonus but a base bonus of zero, and others with base bonus greater than zero. I think the EMs that still count a zero ball as a played ball tend to be the ones with bonus but where the base is zero. Does anyone know if there are any games where the zero switch replunge is setting-selectable? I never made a list of which games do which; one more thing for my to-do list. Anyone with specific details can send them to me for the next revision.

I have unfortunate lived experience that Solar City is a game where you can walk away with 0 points at the end of ball one. I’d extrapolate that to include Canada Dry, etc. as well.

I recall there being a wrinkle on Jungle Queen where you can drain as Player 1 on Ball 1 with 0 points and get the ball back, but doing so later in the game, the drain will stand.

Not sure if this is true on other Gottliebs of the era or not.

Just confirmed with glass off.

Player one, ball one, no switches get the ball back. Doesn’t work on any other ball.

Behaves the same for single or multiplayer games.

This question had me curious, so i just went to the basement and played around with my Ghostbusters Pro a bit with the glass off.

Here are my findings. A lot of this might be common knowledge, and it may or may not be Ghostbusters-specific:

1. On Ghostbusters, it is pretty easy to short plunge and get the ball to a cradle on the flipper without hitting any switches, and therefore without qualifying the playfield, and therefore without starting the ball save timer. (not news … i think everyone’s seen this)

2. If you drain with the playfield not yet qualified, it gives the ball back and does not auto-plunge, so you can take your time and short plunge again.

3. any combination of 3 switches will qualify the playfield, starting the ball save timer, and any subsequent ball you get back will be auto-plunged.

4. This i did not know: this 3-switch playfield qualifier counter RESETS each time you drain. so in theory, you can hit two switches and drain, over and over, and never qualify the playfield. infinite ball save!

5. any scoop instantly qualifies the playfield.

6. the left ramp automatically qualifies the playfield, because it has 5 switches in it, plus the inlane switch (or scoop) the ball ends up at.

7. a weak shot into the right ramp can theoretically only hit two switches and therefore not qualify the playfield on its own, but it’d be extraordinarily difficult to do this on purpose. (still, it’d be cool to start PKE Frenzy via the skillshot, drain, and have the playfield not even qualified yet, haha.)

8. any shot into the pops will obviously qualify the playfield due to hitting multiple switches.

9. the left newton ball, right newton ball, ghost target, proton pack standups, gozer standup (if you can somehow hit it without hitting the pops), terror dog standup, and Slimer are all fair game and count as one switch hit.

10. it’s not hard to light all 3 locks before qualifying the playfield on ball one simply by short plunging, hitting the left newton ball, draining, and then doing that again. two hits is all it takes.

11. on later balls, you could even light 2x playfield multiplier and super jackpot this way, without qualifying the playfield.

12. there are probably even more ridiculous ways to exploit this that i’m not creative enough to come up with.

13. the real problem as i see it is the counter resetting after ball drain. if someone drains 3 times without qualifying the playfield, it should be obvious to the software that either something is broken or the player is intentionally exploiting the mechanic. at least, that’s how it seems to me.

There is an indicator light next to player #…

He literally said the player lights were out on the backbox.

Outlane doesn’t auto death on Ripleys. When it was in PAPA A and the plunger was removed, I had a few spinner - right outlane and there was nothing I could do about it. Sometimes I got it back, sometimes I didn’t. I suspect it was based on the # of spins.

CHOOSE AND PERISH! CHOOSE THE FORM OF THE DESTRUCTOR!

And on that day, every car in NYC was totalled due to the right orbit…

Outlanes = insta-qualify. Having learned this the hard way many times myself.

This is the best use of invalid playfield on GB I’ve pulled off, although avoiding playfield validation is not strictly required:

• Walk up to start 3rd ball, notice that both playfield multiplier targets are qualified
• Short plunge
• Hit 3X playfield target, bricks down the middle
• Short plunge
• Hit 2X playfield target, bricks down the middle
• Short plunge
• Shoot right orbit for 20% score skillshot, which actually awarded 120% due to playfield X (which amounted to about 4 billion points~)

You can definitely get away with some shenanigans on Ripley’s. Here’s what I like to do:

• Short plunge to flippers
• Shoot scoop; hopefully, it will start one of the 2 ball multiball modes (50% chance I think?)
• Trap up ball from scoop (meanwhile, the game deploys a ball to the plunger for multiball, but does not autoplunge it since the playfield is not yet valid)
• Plunge the skillshot with the ball in the plunger
• Play multiball as usual~

This is not unique to Ghostbusters.
The world is your oyster with invalid playfield.

One of the important factors here is whether the game has a trough switch. And note I don’t mean the outhole switch, there’s a second switch on the ‘downhil’ of the trough as the ball rolls into the shooter lane. Most gottliebs do, most williams/bally don’t. On a game with this second switch, it’s that switch that increments the ball count, since at the point where the ball hits the switch, gravity will naturally carry it to the shooter lane. On games without this switch, it’s assumed that if the ball reenters the outhole without hitting anything that it must have not made it ‘over the hump’ to roll down to the shooter lane, so it kicks it again. Not sure if this is 100%, but every EM I’ve seen where you can score 0 points has the secondary switch. If I were playing an unknown game in a tournament I’d try to look up the trough from the shooter lane and play carefully should I see that switch.

Also note that, on williams games like Aztec where the bonus starts at 5k, not 0, if you do somehow manage to not validate the playfield, it won’t give you your bonus, and will just give you the ball back, so ‘bonus starts at 0’ is not a good indicator

Another note for modern games is often it’s not just 3 switches to validate, but 3 unique switches. Say, on GoT, if you soft plunge, and the ball hits both slings 500 times and then drains down the middle, that would be a zero-point save, because it only hit the two sling switches.

Jack-Bot is another game where inlanes and outlanes do not insta-validate, so it’s possible to get zero-point save on an outlane drain.

Spinner outlane on RBION will not validate. However if it hits the switch about halfway up the spinner shot that will validate as a pinguin loop.

Yep, I lost a match on Target Alpha many years ago (Pinbrawl at Pinball Expo) because of this.

Down by 10 points with 1 ball to play, and didn’t get it.

Wait, I thought it was Orin that zero-drained Target Alpha with 10 points to go. Were you two teammates that year?

I remember this way too vividly. I think you and I were teammates that year!

All this is invented for the sole purpose of maintaining a stable money grabbing piece of equipment in the wild. Where even the casual-ists of players feel they were not robbed. And where games survive switches going dead or going bananas. That is all there is to it.

Heaven forbid players should a) prefer to play something else or b) kick the machine or, worse of all, c) hassle the staff for a refund.

Hey pinball designers. Get rid of all this when the game is set for competition. Have a nice day.

@bcd: Nope, you and I weren’t teammates that year. I was on a team with Julie, Sergio Johnson, and Scott Sidley. We’ve been enamored with Target Alpha since then, because that insane zero-point drain advanced our team to the finals. But we thought the “guilty” opponent was Orin.

@pinwizj, it seems that pinbrawl.org is offline… do you have the detailed results from these old competitions?

The original PinBrawl site was: www.ournet.md/~pinbrawl

Looks like you can drill down into the detailed results from the past results. I’ll let you and/or @bcd do the digging

https://web.archive.org/web/20060207152615/http://www.ournet.md:80/~pinbrawl/

Yeah lets get rid of possibly one of the most interesting strategy avenues in competitive pinball to evolve over the last 10 years…

Sure some games have made mistakes where valid-playfield expoits feel too much like dicking around (hello CSI) - but I’d argue a game like jackbot is an order of magnitude more interesting and skill based with valid-playfield rules.

I’d rather designers use it as an interesting tool, rather than nuke it from orbit (/looks at lyman )

glares at star wars

Don’t think I’ve seen this posted anywhere, so I’ll drop it in here. If you make all three different skill shots on Starship Troopers - - #1, the top hole [must hold in left flipper and lob the plunge]; #2, immediate right ramp [also must hold in the left flipper, full plunge], and top lit lane [normal plunge], then it lights the nuke saucer for an Extra Ball.

Iron Maiden: During Cyborg mb with 3 balls in play, if you haven’t exhausted your 2 add-a-balls at the Orb standup and the REVIVE outlanes are not lit, lay off hitting the lit Orb standup target until you have them lit.

why?

You have the safety of an add a ball and can use the safety to light Revive/milk points on the base cyborg Jackpot, which can be built at any time.

Risky, but definitely profitable!

oh, i assumed there was something deeper there

During Choose Your Battle on Game of Thrones, induce a tilt warning to cancel without losing the ability to choose again.

Forgot to throw that here!

Wow. This could come in handy.

Baywatch multiball does have a restart. I found this out the hard way today in INDISC finals when almost every single ball in my multiball bounced straight into the right outlane.

During the multiball restart animation you can hit the launch button a few times to “drown Kevin”

Want to know how many weapons your scoop is worth on Deadpool? Just look for the little guy next to your weapon count!

20190120_122545.jpg1836×3264 1.16 MB

It’s actually possible to stack Juggler and Neon Multiball on Cirqus Voltaire, but it requires a bit of luck. If the third lock for Juggler Multiball also collects a Side Show award, and it awards you Neon Multiball, both modes will stack on top of each other, making it easier to potentially light the Extra Ball from Neon Multiball. If Voltaire’s Super Jackpot is collected at the end of the stack, and you have only one WOW completion left to light the Extra Ball, it’ll light it for you. I’ve only done this once but my god is it satisfying.

Something I see a lot of people miss on batman 66 is the multiball multiplier. After answering the phone to start a major villain, if you hit the Gordon target twice before making any mode shots you will be awarded a total of x4 bonus (x2 per hit) and x2 villain multiball. It gets interesting when you play through a villain after doing this without starting multiball, if you do the same two shots on the next villain then multiball will be x3. I have yet to check if or what the limit is on this.

It’s probably cause no one knows about it. Haha. Thanks for sharing!

Another good one from batman 66. Gadgets (action button) can be used to open the lock diverter to enable a lock from both the plunge lane or when the ball kicks out of the top saucer. Super handy when you want to carry a minor villain into multiball and you have two balls already locked.

It’s actually possible to stack all 5 multiballs on CV. Presumably everyone knows about the Highwire + Strike an Arc stack… then you bring a Ringmaster MB into it. When you drain down to one ball, during grace period, if you shoot the left orbit and have Juggler ready and get lucky with Neon as you describe, you can revive the other 3 MB’s and have them all running. Machine goes absolutely bonkers.

… and don’t forget to pick up Voltaire’s Multiple Jackpots on the way out

Yes, it’s “possible”, but the best I’ve managed is 4 stacked in many years of playing this game. For me, Neon Multiball is Bigfoot riding a Unicorn on their way to meet Elvis-I rarely see it, period

This, I never knew. I had heard rumors about the Highwire / Juggler stack for a while but I never knew it could be done.

If the Cellar on Whirlwind is temporarily lit from the right inlane, there is about a 1-second grace period after it unlights to still collect it. Worth knowing on our local WW as it’s just enough time to transfer to the left and backhand it.

Pinbot: Once you drop the visor, any subsequent hits to the target banks will count towards progress the NEXT time you need to drop the visor. So if you start multiball and re-lock a ball, you can use that time to safely beat up on the two target banks to help progress towards your next multiball. Even before you start multiball, shots to the side bank will be carried over. These hits do not compromise your chance to take down the visor in one shot once multiball ends. But if you don’t manage to drop the visor in one shot, these previous hits will be recounted.

I think that’s operator adjustable, adjustment 36 Chest memory. Default is Yes.

That straight up resets the chest at end of ball. @JSwain has the Sanctum Pin*Bot set up that way and YOU BETTER NOT MISS THE FLASHING LINE SHOT.

Jack*Bot strategies are highly recommended in case of that setting being off.

@YeOldPinPlayer

I was under the impression that setting just restarted visor progress at the start of each ball, as was mentioned by @ScoutPilgrim . However, next time I’m at my Pinbot (it’s on location) I’ll pull the glass and double check each setting.

Confirmed: Adjustment 36 does NOT effect target progress carrying over from one visor to the next. Only from one ball to the next.

Corvette: scoring a jackpot during the main multiball grace period does not disqualify the pity multiball restart.

Lord of the Rings: you can carry Gollum Multiball between the various movie multiballs as long as you quickly start the new movie multiball before the grace period ends.

On Attack from Mars, if you start Rule the Universe while one or more Hurry-Ups are active, they will instantly be collected before the mode starts.

Jack*Bot has a similar feature where you can collect timed features like Double or Nothing or Solar Jets by starting Multiball or Casino Run, but this is common knowledge AFAIK.

The best version of this is starting Battle for the Kingdom while Royal Madness is running to instantly beat it

In TWD, if it’s set up hard you want to make sure you get the skillshots. Many TWD rejects the plunge and fumble in the pops, bye bye skillshot.

What I found useful is to do a very soft plunge just off the switch, and the machine will auto-plunge the skillshot for you. Time it right and you’ll get the rollovers as well. Less chance of rejecting; and every points matter in a game of TWD.

What!? I love MM and I love finding silly objectives on it to amuse myself. You just made my Medieval Madness year.

Edit to add: Go Huskies! And as a deep cut of non-useful pinball information I almost didn’t graduate from UW because in my senior year I found a Medieval Madness tucked under a stairwell in the student union that was set to free-play.

You can also complete Trolls! by starting Battle for the Kingdom, which will qualify Troll Madness instantly for when BftK ends. Something worth noting about completing Royal Madness through starting BftK is that it actually awards all the points you would’ve otherwise obtained from that mode, ALONG with the Extra Ball.

Starting Alien Invasion in TSPP will collect any active hurry-ups or Victory Laps, and it may do other things that I’m not aware of. The downside is that it ends all timed modes, including D’Oh Frenzy, the Victory Laps, and double scoring shots.

Yeah, I once got excited when I had TSPP Alien Invasion ready to go and I had Otto, Garage, and Living Room all actively doubled, but noted that the 2x flashing inserts went solid when AI started.

It also insta-collects a large amount of each running thing, including (I think) 10 victory laps.

So if you do get there with Victory Laps running, it’s a cool balance between cashing out and trying to find other ways to continue (such as another Otto or even a mystery award time extension).

Starship Troopers: Quickplunging shooter-lane balls before they’re autolaunched during Nuke Multiball will score the right orbit nuke jackpot. Pretty sure you have to plunge them all the way around… Note that this does NOT work during Live Fire or Orbit multiballs.

Airballs into the lock on Aerosmith do not count for skill shots. Balls must be plunged on the ground and go in from the back.

Specifically, they must trigger the right orbit switch.

I only found this out last night, as I’m in the process of writing a comprehensive AS rule sheet

The right outlane post save on Sharkey’s Shootout can launch the ball back into the shooter lane; doing so gives you a “Takeoff Bonus” (I think that’s the name) and some points.

You’re welcome.

Discovered unintentionally this weekend on AFM: if you’ve qualified your roving Super Jackpot and then drain out of multiball, you can start Strobe Multiball (via SOL at scoop) and collect your SJP in the safety of Strobe Multiball. Presumably, the SJP was still on its timer – the Strobe DMD had relegated the SJP timer to the background.

I believe if you start Martian multiball during this time it will resurrect your multiball!

Last night I had a situation with roving last chance super and regular multiball lit… missed and drained of course but I wonder what would have happened …

Starting Martian Attack MB during the grace period and scoring the SJ will indeed resurrect regular multiball and add it to MA multiball.

Also, you can start MA jiggly mode, then keep collecting SOL awards; it WILL eventually give you Strobe if it hasn’t been played yet, and you can then finish MA mode and stack it with Strobe.

Never had all three at once; don’t think the game will award Strobe during a SJ grace period.

Something I found by accident:

On Demolition Man, if you shoot from the right flipper up the left inlane and into the saucer, you get a Huxley Award for a cool 10M.

If you complete 100 hits to the center target bank during Strobe Multiball on Attack from Mars, each target hit will be worth 250 million for the rest of the Multiball.

Absolutely not worth going for but hey, it’s still kinda cool. 4 target hits give you a billion.

You…did this?

If you Plunder a player on JJPOTC, their next MAP award will be the same Plunder enacted on them.

Found a good one tonight on Jurassic Park. Had 1 hit to go to start TRI Ball, started Super Egg via Mr.DNA. Hit Raptor shot and Mball started. Hit a ramp got a jackpot but no CHAOS letters lit up. Hit Egg a few times for 5million points each. Mode ended when got down to 1 ball, and Mball was available after one hit again. Started Mball and game acted like normal.

If you are in Strobe, there is nothing else to go for, so it is worth going for, just not very likely to get there.

Quick Plunge Skill Shots on WOF. Outside of the normal skill shot, the Toss-Up switch awards 1M, increasing by 250K to a maximum of 2.5M per switch hit.

Can you explain this? To me, Toss Up
is shooting the lock as stage 2 of the skill shot, only if you happened to make the turnaround portion of the plunge.

It’s plunging an autolaunched ball (either from a ball save, Free Spin, or multiball start) into the turnaround.

If you want to spice things up a little, bring in Martian Attack multiball by finishing off the targets to start it during Strobe.

On RBION, North America is actually more valuable than the other two MB continents (Africa and Antarctica) because it’s the only one where you can raise the JP value (via pop hits). A couple trips up to the pops makes for a pretty significant difference in scoring.

Note that this could be a quirk of the ROM version at my location (always seemed strange to me that only one of them had a way to raise the JP value).

When playing a Munster’s that has a ball saver turned on, if you are plunging a ball and Munster Madness is ready to go, there will be NO ball saver.

Wow another senseless rule in that game.

That one has bit me more than once. Probably meant to keep you from getting 7X running before starting MM.

Along the same lines, if you’re used to playing a Munsters with the ball saver turned on, remember it might not be turned on on a different game. This dumb mistake costed me the final game of a match in league playoffs recently. Player 1 finishes ball 3 with about 7M. I step up to ball 3 with 5M, soft plunge and it drains SDTM, measly bonus collected, I lose. Didn’t think to see if was turned on during balls 1 or 2. Don’t make this mistake. From what I gather, many operators are turning on the ball saver.

In Total Nuclear Annihilation, if you drain down to 1 ball out of multiball and any inline drop targets are down (because you shot them for jackpots), they do not reset as 1-ball play starts. This can make getting your next multiball significantly easier.

Deadpool: As long as the ball is locked behind the drop targets for Lil Deadpool MB, you can qualify and start a Battle (but not a Quest).

Very cool. But I guess it’s difficult to intentionally take advantage of this, because the drops reset rather quickly on a timer during MB, correct?

Now that I’ve been focusing more on jackpots in MB – pending the state of the reactor of course – it feels like I’ll have at least one drop down at the end of MB slightly more often than not. I think the timer for the first one isn’t super quick, but they get progressively quicker. It’s not super unusual to be starting 1-ball play with 2 drops already down – maybe 10% of the time if I had to guess.

Note that this times out, as I found out the hard way at a tournament yesterday

What times out, the Lil Deadpool ball lock? What happens, it lowers the drop targets and you just lose the opportunity to play Lil Deadpool MB?

Once Lil Deadpool mb hurryup runs out, it releases the locked ball into play (with lowest jackpot value) and you’ve lost your chance to start a battle.

I wish I’d rather have the mode. As @misterchu says though, you lose the chance at the mode, and get an even more worthless MB instead

Use it to light Booms, collect weapons, and/or go for SNKKT multipliers. Any time you can focus on those with the safety of Multiball is time not completely wasted.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-star-wars-clubmay-the-force-be-with-you/page/144#post-4992978

At this point, I would like to ask a moderator to move this post to the thread “Deep cuts of extremely useful pinball knowledge”.

Already posted the same link over in the Star Wars rulesheet wiki thread.

During the Super Jackpot collect sequence on Munsters, induce a tilt warning to pay out the Super Jackpot without having to go through the build up fanfare.

On TWD, at the beginning of Well Walker MB, let all balls drain as long as the ball saver is running. You need a certain number of switch hits to light the super JP and the pops (where auto-plunge sends the balls) is the quickest place to collect those switch hits. Once the big dude starts flashing, hit him and collect your super. Display shows how many more switch hits are required to light super.

Showed this to a bunch of folks at league recently and some were a little surprised that intentionally letting balls drain might be a good strategy. The Avatar wiz mode is another mode where draining early is good.

Indy 500 Multiball start (as long as you have ball save) too!

Except that’s actually the best part of the game.

Glass off, I admit it, but still :]

Explain por favor?

Also helps immensely when you stack wall and winter has come in GOT. Haha

Since both balls kick out of the Turbo at the same time, draining them for shooter lane plunges can give you more control over the Multiball (assuming you have ball save).

I guess I would disagree. The choices in this instance are to attempt shots from a right inlane feed at the start of multiball, or let those balls drain and… then attempt shots from a right inlane feed? And then with less ball save time? The minor advantage of taking those shots with the balls not coming down the inlane successively seems like a questionable trade off.

On the Flintstones, everyone knows that you can only get CONCRETE letters for multiball via spelling DIG at the top lanes the first time around, right?

Did you know, however, that if you get the Bronto Crane award “Complete concrete” for multiball number 1, you can then use the top lanes to get CONCRETE letters for multiball 2?

The sequence of Tube mystery rewards in No Fear in tournament settings:

Supercross Level
200 Meters
Next Summit Award (5M/Video Mode Lit/Super Spinner/10M/10M… progress resets each ball)
Advance Raceway
Video Mode
…repeat from top

Supercross Level being the first award is fantastic for setting up the Payback Time MB stack. Tube is always lit on the left if you aren’t in a challenge/MB/video mode lit. Can give some really nice awards in normal settings too.

On Party Zone, if you start 10X playfield and get a tilt warning when the 10X background display effect is running, the timer for the 10X playfield will stop counting down. Some shots on the game (Rock-It and Comic Hole) will restart the 10X background display effect and the timer will start counting down again, so avoid these shots if possible. Not sure if this bug was fixed in a later ROM release.

On Cue Ball Wizard, if you have the 8-Ball lit in the multiball sequence, where hitting the 8-ball would light the ramp to start multiball, instead of hitting the 8-ball, start Pool Ball Mania, and continue to avoid hitting the 8-ball. After Pool Ball Mania is over, the ramp will be lit for the 9-ball mode where you have to hit 1-7, then 8, then the 9-ball for 1/2 billion (1 billion if DOUBLE is running). Start the 9-ball mode, and all you have to do is hit the 8-ball then the 9-ball for the 1/2 billion.

On Mystery Castle, leave the Painting for the last mode you start, and stack it with the Skull Multiball. TONS of points here.

Verified this works in every PZ ROM I could find (L-1, L-2, L-3, F-4)!

if you drop the left side drops before Lil Deadpool multiball, then get the ball to come to a rest on the right-side drop(s) the game will (most of the time) reset the drops and credit you the Lil DP MB lock. So you end up needing only 1 shot instead of 2 to lock the ball.

Sequence of hold awards on WOF. You get a hold award every 4 left loop shots.

• Hold Bonus Value
• Hold Bumper Value
• Hold Wild Card Value
• Hold Bumper X
• Hold Bonus X
• Hold Left Loop Value
• Hold Right Orbit Value

After you collect all the awards, it appears that afterwards they are awarded again in random order.

I’ve tested this one out a couple times and it has worked as stated above. That is, it’s worked until tonight, when I definitely could not get CONCRETE letters from DIG completions after multiball 1. I’m not sure what’s happening here.

On Tee’d Off, if you manage to collect the 8th Hole in One (or whichever Hole in One lights Quick Pick) at the center lane when all drop targets are raised, Lightning Storm will automatically start. However, Quick Pick will STILL be qualified after the Multiball ends, meaning you can play two Lightning Storms in a row.

Bronco award being complete concrete seems random. Anyone know if there is a sequence of thibgs to hit to get concrete conplete?

I feel like you’re more likely to get the Concrete Complete award if you have fewer CONCRETE letters. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this award when I had it spelled past around CONCR. This could be a coincidence, or maybe not. The game also seems to like to give Bedrock Derby as the first award more often than the others. But they are at least somewhat random.

The Bronto mystery award is in this order of priority. If something is already active, the next award in the list is awarded.

Double 1-2-3 Values
Bowling Power-Up
2x Playfield Lit
Multiplier Maxed
Big Points 20M

Complete Concrete, Bedrock Derby, EB can randomly be awarded instead of the above based on the percentage set in feature adjustments (even if Tournament Play is on). Unfortunately you can’t set these percentages to 0%. It did seem like I couldn’t get Complete Concrete anymore when I spelled CONCR. Take with a grain of salt, this is me noodling around in Visual Pinball!

I wasn’t able to repro this either!

Might have to do with whether or not you scored a jackpot and/or a super?

On The Shadow, you can cycle through the modes on the ramps. The direction the ball is diverted by the Phurba chooses the direction of cycling - left moves to the left/up, right to the right/down.

On Jokerz, I had someone today lock a ball, quickly short plunge, and shoot the ramp before it dropped. I have no clue how consistent this is, but if so it could be a strategy to skip a lock light!

On T3, after Assault and ball drain, during bonus count you can cycle the lit rollovers to get as many as possible at the top. As always, the inlanes and outlanes will be lost, and the top rollovers will carry over to the next ball.

On Iron Man, you qualify Jericho by getting to Mark 6, which usually involves completing the six tasks in the game. But completing the Iron Man targets gives you a Mark each time you complete them, as opposed to all the other tasks which only award a Mark the first time.

There might be a situation where you only have one target left for the next Iron Man mode for your last Mark, vs. taking lots of shots to start the last MB you need.

On Lexy Lightspeed, you can use Agent MB to complete the Spotlight targets for Lights Out MB.

… and the second Iron Man completion starts double scoring, which might be useful during Jericho

[Clarify: you get the mark for spelling IRON MAN, and the next target hit starts the mode. So it’s possible to not even start the mode, if you don’t want it right away.]

The thing about Iron Man, Jericho and Do or Die, is that if both Jericho and Do or Die are lit, you go into Jericho.

False. I used to think this, but it’s actually because you never REALLY had Do or Die Lit. You must start all features on the same ball, GETTING A SUPER IN MONGER DOES NOT CARRY THIS OVER TO THE NEXT BALL.

If you are right about the monger super, and I believe you must be, this must have been my situation and I have to say that the inserts are misleading.

Yes, the inserts are super confusing… Solid character inserts indicate progress toward the Do or Die hurry-up and reset each ball, but flashing character inserts (such as from Monger super) indicate progress toward Do or Die MB wizard mode and carry over. These are independent. Unfortunately the flashing takes priority…

This was confirmed at City Champ in competition so was neat to see proof of it (though unfortunate for the player that had it happen to them - though they went on to win the entire tournament on a tiebreaker on that same Iron Man machine)

In Last Action Hero, if you fail to miss the Double Jackpot (which starts 6-Ball), you have to shoot the Crane to relight the normal Jackpot. If you fail to collect the Double again then the amount of shots required to the Crane will increase by one.

Don’t ask me how I know this.

If the ball falls into the lock on Rollercoaster Tycoon with 1 ball already locked and the lock not lit, the game will remark at this and give you a Quick Multiball. Lock progress is preserved.

Junkyard stuff:

Use the left flipper to change the flashing Junk. This is the Junk you will collect next (except if you get Collect Junk from the Toilet, which will let you choose in a menu).

Before plunging, select the Cuckoo Clock, which lights the Time Machine mode at the scoop. Pray you get Collect Junk from the plunge skill shot. Hit the wrecking ball until your Multi-Ball is ready. Then, shoot the scoop for Time Machine and pray you get Mamushka or mash the flippers if you see 3:33 for Secret Mania (I think these are random, even in competition mode). These are frenzy modes. Start multi-ball. Notice there’s a spinner in the plunger lane…! Purposely let the balls drain during ball saver and palm plunge into the spinner for huge frenzy points.

You can also do this with the Great Toilet Adventure, which is another frenzy, if you collect all the necessary Junk (Bike Tires + Fan + Bath Tub + Fish Bowl).

Collecting Junk on the left ramp will light the toilet to also Collect Junk for a moment. The game also starts with Collect Junk lit on the toilet. But Junk doesn’t stack, so shoot the toilet first or you’ll miss out on potential Junk.

On Iron Maiden Pro (2018), if the loop jackpot is left uncollected, you have a permanent diverter back to the mini-flipper from a top spinner shot. This makes mini-flipper ball passes into the lowest drop target(s) much easier than those done from metal ramp feeds to the mini-flipper since diverter feeds are much slower than metal ramp feeds.
This is important, from a 1st world perspective, because you can keep lighting multiball locks and 3rd level mystery awards.

Found one on Big Guns - if “YOU ARE INVINCIBLE” and you manage to drain a ball, tough luck (guess you weren’t really invincible after all). If, however, you manage to drain the last ball while invincible, it’ll give you a ball save! So, yes, you are invincible!

I believe on Black Knight: Sword of Rage, during the WAR hurry-ups, you must hit the flail, Black Knight standup, and shield twice each. If the shield is open for any reason, shooting it counts as two shield hurry-up hits.

If I play one with video mode capped or disabled I’ll commit this to memory. Nice work.

You have to hit the Shield VUK, Ramp, and Black Knight once. If you’re fortunate, the whole mode can be done in 4 shots.

In Triple Knights Challenge, the flail behavior for WAR Hurryups takes precedence. You can hit the flail to open it up for much longer than the Super Jackpot would normally allow (at the cost of it spinning towards you)!

Cool to know. Thanks!

A couple Stern Star Trek DCoS-UPKs:

The Captain’s Chair awards (super ramps, super bumpers, super spinner) carry over from ball to ball. Therefore, there is no tactical advantage in waiting to start two Captain’s Chair awards at once – all things being equal.

If you have completed a mission (main mode) and drain, using your photon torpedoes as the drain happens is generally a bad idea. If your use of the torpedoes during the drain gets a Vengeance mode/MB ready to start, before you plunge your next ball you won’t get the option of starting a new mission. You are better off holding the torpedoes until you start the next ball with a fresh mission, then using them to ready the Vengeance mode in a way that doesn’t lock you out on the plunge*. For the same reason, it’s also helpful to avoid getting a Vengeance mode/MB ready via shooting the ship when you are not in a mission (or when you’re close to the end of a mission).

*Yes, you can still plunge and start a mission, but it’s an extra shot you wouldn’t otherwise need to take.

In AFM, the best case scenario going into Total Annihilation is to have lock lit with the diverter open. Then, during the long grace period after dropping out of TA, you can flail a shot into the lock and you’ll get credit for both the TA collect, and the lock.

This is particularly nice if you’re one of those people like me whose last ditch attempt at the TA collect is often too weak to make it all the way around, and risks ending up coming back down and towards the right outlane. If the diverter is open instead, you’ll get that TA collect you would have otherwise missed.

I’d argue there is a (small) tactical advantage to playing two Super Modes at once. If you have Double Scoring active you’ll be scoring more points on average with the two, especially during a Multiball. Otherwise I don’t bother.

I thought if you start a super mode the last super mode is ended.

Pretty sure that’s not how it works.

Not sure if this is known, or even all that deep, but…

I was playing Monster Bash this morning after fixing a broken launch coil. I was on ball 3, with Monster Bash going, needing only one shot to Bride to finish that mode and collect the Microphone, the last instrument I needed for Monsters of Rock. Unfortunately, I bricked the ramp at least 4 or 5 times and then double drained Bash multiball. As the ball was heading to the trough I reflexively smacked the launch button just in case I had something to use and low and behold, it applied my Hair Dryer award to complete the mode and started Rock. Obviously there is a grace period for the multiball or both balls hadn’t hit the trough yet. Pretty cool!

On MB you can bring frankenstein into Bash and get unlimited keyboards at the Frankenstein Buffet.

On Big Guns you can do a no-swtich valid playfield drain only once in a ball. If you try to do it a second time, you will go to bonus, even though your score is flashing on the screen.

NOTE: If you do this at Pinburgh you will look really stupid.

also after an lock no valid playfield check.

On LOTR, you can play all three main multiballs with the same Gollum Multiball.

You do this by qualifying all 3 multiballs, then stack one of them with Gollum. Each time you return to single-ball play, start any of the remaining two multiballs during the grace period; if you’re fast enough, Gollum will be “resurrected” by the new multiball as the last one ends.

While true and intentional, it only really matters if you’re good at exploiting gollum for the 2x, which I’ve found most people are not.

I’d always thought that the 2x and 0.5x cancel out and I shouldn’t worry about it. But I guess it actually would average out to 1.25x scoring overall, right? (Unless perhaps it’s not an even amount of time spent between the two states).

Use the light state to guide you! Flashing Gollum light = 2x, solid = .5x

In Jack-Bot, the super jackpot shot is worth 2 jackpots – not 3 jackpots.

I think the confusion comes because you get 3 jackpots’ worth of points for the 2 shots needed to collect it – A) single jackpot; then B) double (“super!”) jackpot.

It’s also possible that I’m confused about people being confused and nobody is actually confused about this rule.

But…are you getting more points than if you shot two different jackpots spaced a few seconds apart?

Of course. Super = 2x value and double progression toward Mega Visor. Regular jackpot = 1x value and 1x progression toward Mega Visor.

I’m just clarifying that a super jackpot in Jack-Bot is not a triple jackpot. It’s a double jackpot.

I thought it was “That jackpot plus the next one in the series”. So if you hit The third jackpot as a super, you get the points of three + four, and the next one you get is the fifth. So technically its not “double” I think.

In terms of advantage, to me, the biggest thing is that you can get four jackpots from two lit eyeballs without having to relight.

How about it’s worth the “next two jackpots”? I get what you’re saying and I agree. The idea I’m correcting is that it’s worth the next three jackpots, which I’m almost sure some people believe.

Here’s the jackpot progression, which I’m sure you know.

So lets say your next jackpot value is 150 million. You collect this jackpot then immediately collect a super jackpot. I think that some people believe the super will be worth 200M + 250M + 300M. It is in fact worth 200M + 250M (plus 2 advancements toward Mega Visor).

I’m still not sure about this

The first Super is worth 225M.

First regular Jackbot is 50M and second is 75M.

That’s 75x3 or 100M+125M (3rd+4th regular jackbots) not 50M + 75Mx2.

Cool, thanks. I wasn’t sure. I’ve never been to Mega Visor. But I spent a lot of time on Jackbot last weekend, so I’m inspired to fill in my knowledge gaps.

This is getting interesting. After you collect this earliest possible super, the next jackpot value is 125 million and you have 12 jackpots until Megavisor.

The display shows 225M for the super, but I’m pretty sure it’s showing the value you got for the 2 shots combined. This sounds crazy, but start here:

Long story short: Jack-bot lies.

Exhibit B:

We can see that P1s score (after a 50M jackpot) is 241M.

P1 then does the following:

• a few flail points
• 75M single jackpot
• 100M single jackpot
• a super jackpot that the machine shows as “375M”

If the super jackpot shot by itself were worth 375M, P1 should have at least 241M + 75M + 100M + 375M. This total is 791M, and assumes no flail points.

P1 actually has 717M at the end of the multiball, which I break down as follows:

• 241M (starting score)
• 26M in flail points
• 75M single jackpot
• 100M single jackpot
• 275M super jackpot

Jackpot be lying.

I think this is the correct answer. The second super is worth 450M after you collect the first. 125M+150M+175M.

Therefore a super Jackbot is worth the value of your next two jackbots (not exactly 2x, jackbot).

The value that gets displayed is the total value you receive. Regular Jackbot + next two jackbots from super.

Yes. And it’s of course very confusing because it happens in multiball, it always involves pretty large numbers, and also the player score almost never gets displayed when good things are happening. It’s a sneaky thing that I thought qualified as a deep cut.

For the record, this is what I wrote above:

I stand by it, though it would have been more clear to say “the next 2 jackpots”.

TECNICALLY, this is correct. Because if you didn’t make the super, you’d still get the single.

Confusion perhaps comes in because you only see the super amount, which is the sum of the NEXT 3 JACKPOTS, starting at the current jackpot level.

Keep in mind, when getting a super, the game never shows you the original jackpot score. So I would argue that it is correct in showing you the next 3 combined since you never saw the first.

The next 3 is important, because there are cases where it’s not just “3x the next jackpot.” The edge case of being at 275M, the super is worth 275 + 300 + 350 (925M, not 900M). The edge case of being at 450M, the super is worth 1.45B (450M + 500M + 500M) not 1.5B.

This is all inarguable, so don’t try. The only arguing to be done is whether it’s showing you a truly accurate value, and I personally am fine with what it shows you. Since you don’t see the original value, showing all 3 is OK.

No. Technically the single shot is worth 175M + 200M (375M), but it will show you 525M (150 + 175 + 200). No matter how you look at it, the outcome of making the 2-lock combo is that you earned 525M total, even if you want to argue the 2nd shot is only worth 375.

Not that I don’t love math technicalities, but as per another discussion, the input window for the Secret Jackpot on Demolition Man is wide enough to allow you to hit both buttons with one hand if you’re fast enough. It’s a neat trick for one handed play

On Batman Forever, when the final lock to start Multiball is lit and the Batwing is also qualified, you can load the Batwing and shoot the lock shot from there. Beginning Multiball this way increases the base Jackpot values and starts it with 4 balls in play.

Nothing in the game tells you that you can do this.

Drop Target not resetting on Guardians of the Galaxy after an Orb lock? Completed all the modes, but stuck in Orb jail?

Play a Groot Multiball and force the drop target up by collecting all the jackpots on the Orb. This will allow you to collect your next lock after Groot. No inducing a ball save required!

On Terminator 2, when you’re trying to get the stupid excellent™, you can actually shoot the Escape Route shot and temporarily lock a ball. This allows you to focus on shooting the strobing target without potentially losing a ball.

However, you can easily just trap a ball while the Super Jackpot is lit, so I’m not sure why they decided to include this. It doesn’t work for the Database shot btw.

Found this out last night, if you intentionally danger while hitting the last lock on Batman 66, you do not start your multiball. Helpful if you are trying to bring in a TV mode.

May have been pretty common knowledge, but I never attempted it because I figured that just by going through the diverter it would have started MB regardless.

Which shot is the escape route?

The partial left orbit that leads to a saucer, with all the inserts in front of it.

Tron hidden feature! 6 TRON COMPLETED

On ST:TNG, the spinner normally maxes out at 3M/spin as a result of hits to the TIME RIFT targets. Reaching Warp Factor 7 will double this spinner value for the rest of the game. However, this doubling can bypass the aforementioned 3M/spin limit.

Subsequent WF7 collections can double the spinner value further, even if it’s already at or above 3M/spin. AFAIK, there is no known limit to the spinner value when increased in this way.

Funnily enough, since Super Spinner (at WF6) scores a flat 10M/spin, this means that given enough WF7 collections, Super Spinner can score less points/spin than a normal spinner shot.

On Dirty Harry, any time you collect a ransom immediately following a side ramp shot, the ransom is double (on top of multipliers). Any time you collect a ransom directly after a left orbit -> side ramp combo, it’s TRIPLED.

On Taxi, a ball feeding the left ramp from Drac + shooting the right ramp with the other still counts as a Crossover Bonus.

I might be wrong about this, but if you roll over the right inlane to qualify the left airport ride while Multiball is also lit and then shoot Drac, Multiball will begin even though you didn’t shoot the left ramp.

That’s certainly true of the airport combo values. Drac will count as a left ramp. Didn’t think you could start MB though?

I heard that limit was 25.5M. Of course, if you get to Warp 7 four times (one for 6, 12, and 24 and calling that close enough), you’re already having an amazing game.

On WOF, you can stack two Trip Multiballs…one from solving a Prize Puzzle, and another from earning a Trip off the wheel. I think the animations of the last Trip Multiball you start take priority.

As a side bit of trivia, judging by some callouts in Pinball Browser, you were supposed to get a World Tour Multiball for accomplishing this stack.

The maximum spinner value on STTNG is 25.5 million per spin.

This doesn’t seem to work, at least on mine

If you’re going to bring 2x or 3x Playfield Multipliers into Stay Puft on Ghostbusters, try not to activate them until after you’ve chosen the form of the Destructor. A glitch in the current code makes the multipliers time out while the display is showing the intro to the mode.

mmmmm dem billion ransoms.

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I was just so intrigued by why the ransom value seemed randomly super high, and after much testing it’s because of this unspoken combo multiplier rule… So bizarre

Ah, so THAT’s where the inspiration for End of Line from TRON Legacy came from…

(Also, I just realized that building the Ransom value to a giant amount, qualifying Super Ricochet, and then just going for left orbit - side ramp - HQ combos all day might be the way to go on this game…)

I definitely remember a CAX finals one year where @sk8ball had a multi-billion game of Dirty Harry with some several-hundred-million Ransom collects.

What is Super Ricochet?

Super Ricochet has a random chance of being awarded off of Get Lucky as the reward for successfully firing the gun. It permanently lights Ricochet for the rest of the ball.

I don’t remember the ransom collects, but he did setup the (approximately) 1/2 bil side ramp.

For those not in the know, that’s get rank to chief (shoot a ton of left ramps), this causes left ramp to be 50M the rest of the ball. Then start playfield promtion (last magazine award IIRC without looking it up) which is 5x because, again, your rank is chief. Finally start multiball, preferably via the side ramp, which is 50M supers. Then, side ramp = 5x (50M + 50M) = 500M.

Aternately, if you start multiball via the warehouse, the side ramp is “only” 450M.

On Indianapolis 500, it’s a common misconception that the “Super Light-Ups” Speedway does nothing. However, it DOES have a practical use - it’s just not made clear by the game.

Certain souvenirs make it easier to complete waves of Light-Up targets, requiring only one hit to each target instead of the normal four. However, many waves have no souvenir associated with it. Wave 5 is the biggest example, as there aren’t any souvenirs that will allow you to complete it easier and it’s required to access the Light-Ups victory lap. So what can you do? You can collect the Super Light-Ups Speedway award, and complete all the targets with one shot each!

The reason many people believe Super Light-Ups does nothing is because it’s often collected when you’ve made decent progress in the game and you have a ton of Souvenirs. However, collecting it when wave 5 of Light-Ups is active can be insanely useful.

I hope you enjoyed this post relating to targets no one aims for on purpose. :]

In AFM, if Martian Attack is running and you have a Martian Bomb, the grace period is long enough that you can wait until your last Martian has stopped moving, hit the bomb, and still trigger multiball.

This is particularly helpful if you have another MB running, and other animations are taking precedence over the Martian countdown timer. Once you’re down to one guy, you don’t have to wonder how much time is left. Just notice the moment it stops bouncing up and down, use your bomb, and you’re back in business.

On Family Guy if you set it to 1 ball per game, LARD is lit immediately.

Learned that the hard way…

alot of games have Muiltball lit on the last ball if you have not gotent it yet.

You can collect the airport ride via drac, but the multiball requires you to hit the switch at the beginning of the ramp and then the switch at the top to activate multiball.

This may be widely known but you can start the lil Deadpool hurry up and still start a battle (not a quest) during the ball save time - this makes it much safer than starting a mode then trying to start the mb (if you drain you have to start all the stand ups and mode start over - plus you lose all your team ups!)

If you can loop pass the plunge this is insanely valuable.

Also, you can bring Nina MB into any quest, so starting quest with two balls locked is optimum.

This is my favorite definition of semi-useful. I’m nearly sure I have one or more better things I could be doing with any given shot, especially since I am only reasonably capable of starting the main multiball on Indy 500 on any given game, but if I Start Super Light Ups while flailing in sheer desperation, it was only mostly a waste of my time. Not a complete waste of time.

And it’s probably possible to interpret this comment as sarcastic or an insult to those that leave highly situational tips, but in my opinion that’s exactly what this thread is for. A better player than I could potentially remember this and make use of it. There may even be a way to exploit it to great advantage. But for the majority it’s semi-useful.

BUT if you take too long and hit the scoop just as the held ball is released from the drops, the game will display the mode select screen but not actually let you start a mode.

And you can get a fun little bug that says Lil Deadpool multi-ball total = 00

Yup, exactly! Semi-useful is what we’re looking for here. Not well known. :]

In Walking Dead, lit multikill shots, besides being worth the multikill value, also have the same effects as the regular walker shots:

• add bonus
• add a walker kill to progress toward EB, Bicycle Girl, and Last Man Standing
• give progress toward lighting the X or increasing the X level

This means that hitting a shot with a multikill and a walker lit gives you 2X progress toward these things.

[Hat tip to @chuckwurt. This was all news to me until today.]

It would actually be difficult to tell if someone was just fucking with me if they laid out optimal multiplier strategy on GoT. See that shot? The one that builds towards absolutely nothing? That you haven’t hit yet and are terrible at shooting? Yup. That’s literally a super jackpot. But only for six seconds. Do it now or basically go play Surf Champ.

I don’t think the multi kill by itself will give you a walker. You must hit an already lit cross hair for a walker with a multi kill light on it and then you get 2.

I’m not sure I tested the multikill shot by itself, but it seems a little odd that it would work that way.

It would be on-flavor!
Now if only there was SOME benefit to having multiple mult kills going at once …

Yes. This is my understanding too. This is why there’s benefit of having multiple multikills lit at once. Better chance that one is on a walker kill.

But it doesn’t work that way… only one yellow light is ever lit at a time

The number of flashing weapons means nothing other than you got those this ball (source: @sir_tankalot)

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…

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.

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?

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.

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.

Collect bonus can be massive if you’re a handle player and the award is late in the game

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.

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.

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.

the modded rom get’s rid of the lock freeze all day thing.

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.

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.

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.

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

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…

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

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.

I’m reasonably confident that you have enough time to get in all three needed hits to the Recognizer during the grace period if you did it perfectly. I’ve pulled off two hits on many occasions.

Relatedly, if you’re trying not to stack multiballs, each one has an audio clue that plays as the MB total is displayed. Listen for that. It’s a longer wait than you were probably expecting.

Oddly enough, Good Ol Boys didn’t pause the timer when performed in the same order.

Good Ol Boys can be worth a lot more than Chicken fight, especially when stacked with Crazy Chris, so maybe there was some thought put into pausing timers.

FGY is an awesome stacking game. Stack Stewie MB, Crazy Chris and Good Ol Boys (or Ipecac) for huge points. Of all the games I’ve sold over the years, I miss that game the most.

I don’t think the mode itself pauses it, more likely you were putting the ball into the pops more during chicken fight (switch frenzy) and shooting the ramp and lanes during GoB. I’ve found the pops tend to pause the FGY timer. Start a mode and immediately get Stewie going, keep putting balls in the pops and the mode will last forever.

I didn’t change up the strategy at all, which makes this odd - I was trying to cash out the last few seconds of Chris by alternating loop to ramp as I was before. I didn’t hit the mystery, either.

It seems like the mode froze the timer and started it back up after the Fight was over.

That’s strange because FG doesn’t stop the timer during a trap up. If you don’t want to chicken fight you can let the chicken kick your butt on a single trap up.

Chicken Fight started life as a video mode, so it’s extremely possible a couple things fell through the cracks when it got emergency-changed into a real mode.

(The emergency was that it wasn’t any fun.)

Came here to say just that… I know I’ve had other modes last forever during a Stewie MB, but seems like CF pauses more than most?

BTW how did anyone get Pat Lawlor to even entertain the idea of a video mode? I thought he hated them…

What about safecracker that had the big board game?

It plays as a board game, not a video mode. If you set the knob spins to sequential (recommended), there’s skill in stopping the dial on the number you want, and you have to make ‘random’ selections at times, but otherwise it plays out like a board game. Roll a number, move spaces and deal with whatever you land on. Try to move your man to the middle for multiball. No mini-videogames on the display, but still the closest PL ever got to a video mode.

NGG teases with video mode in the Gofer Choice sequence, but it’s a fake award that’s never chosen.

Hahaha. Nice. Was this the first example of pin developers trolling the player with a fake mystery/choice award?

Several examples before this:

• Creature from the Black Lagoon has some Snack Bar awards that are never given out, the most memorable being “A New Car”.
• Similarly, Road Show has some souvenirs that aren’t given out. Good luck getting the Uranium Pinball.
• The Who’s Tommy Pinball Wizard has some ridiculously fake awards in the Mystery pachinko animation, like “Enable Free Play”, “Crash CPU”, and “$50 Cash”.
• No Good Gofers has the aforementioned “Video Mode” which doesn’t exist, but “Turtle Wax” as well. I’m wondering if there are any factors that weight whether certain features will be awarded, I’ve only ever seen “Double Skill”, “Triple Skill”, or “Dance Party” a few times in years of playing the game.

Not exactly a video mode.

Remember, Safe Cracker was an experiment. To gain some interest in Euro markets where slot machines were gaining popurarity (*). Slot machines have these top games light sequences that players build up (good old “keep them playing” trick). I guess the SC board game was to intrique people in a similar fashion.

*) Several Lawlor interviews. Actually he name these game “Trail games”. Which to this day is a mystery to me. Eventhough being European, I have no idea what these are. If not “classic” slots. Sound like covert money games. I once suggested Jonathan Joosten to look into it.

Road show too at the souvenier shop. Cute how Lawlor decided, no, video game gimmicks do not belong here. And stuck with this.

Phantom Haus is a better example of Wms trying to make a game like the European trail games. In the end, a lot of those ideas got baked into their successful Monopoly slot machines (among other games).

I heard that Safecracker was originally going to be Monopoly? I don’t have any confirmation but it makes some sense.

Consider it confirmed, but I don’t know much more than that either.

I think Cftbl had a new car as one.

Tommy had enable free play as one.

DCoS-UPK request: On Getaway, what determines how many 1M loops a lit Supercharger shot will give you? I’ve seen some weird cargo cult like behavior on that shot, with people repeatedly pushing the gear lever, thinking they coud control the loop magnet that way.

And here’s something I just learned watching the NWPC: A backhand to the Supercharger ramp will probably not make all the way up, but if you’re in the qualify jackpot phase in multiball, with one ball already looping in the Supercharger, just making it halfway up will add 10 loops.

123 Target hits. Every hit adds 1m. Still need to complete 123 before it times out to actually light. Caps at 10m.

It’s different on l1 but better left unsaid.

And getting high enough to trigger opto and come back down adds 20 (e.g. During super qualifying)

Cheers, here’s another DCoS-UPK request for Getaway: I hear this all the time, but I’ve never actually seen it, is there actually a pixel you can place your car on that will get you through the video mode without steering?

afaik no, but there is a place(s) that will roll mostly vehicles down the side and much less middle - and sometimes never middle if you are lucky.

Scared Stiff:

• It’s actually possible to beat “Beat the Crate”… somehow. Yeah, I’m not sure how, but I was playing Spider Mania and somehow I made enough shots to the crate to display a screen that said “Beat the Crate Completed 500,000”. At the end of the ball the score shown for Beat the Crate was just above 4 million so I’m not quite sure what happened there, might be worth doing research on.
• If you collect either “Coffin Multiball Extended” or “Crate Multiball Extended” from the Spider Spin feature and play Spider Mania without playing either Multiball, the extensions will stack on top of each other. For instance, if you collected the Coffin Multiball Extended award and lit a lock, played Spider Mania, then collected Coffin Multiball Extended again, you’d have two extensions. This could potentially lead to much higher scores from either of the two Multiball modes than normal. (I wonder if it’s possible with three…)
• If “Tele-Pathetic Power” at the right outlane awards Boogie Man, the ball will be launched back into play even though you drained! I’ve only had this happen once but my god is it awesome when you’re lucky enough.

Re: Getaway video mode: the trick is you only need to move one “pixel” to cross from center lane to left or right and back, making it easy to avoid cars. Cayle is correct, if you sit in the center one pixel away from edge lane, most cars go down the side you’re next to.

Shiiiit that is some deep stuff right there. Just what this thread is for, I guess.

If extensions stack the way you describe it, I wonder if they stack too if you terminate a multiball without claiming the extension. I other words tilting during multiball.

BTW. I feel an itch to pull an ultra turbo version of the The Getaway video mode out of a hat. Some day.

Congratulations! Impressive stuff.

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Is there a way to test if Beat the Crate, at least 1 shot at every level = completion?

Hit the crate 10 times while BEAT THE CRATE is running to complete it.

On some Bally early solid state machines where bonus is built by spelling out words (e.g., Black Pyramid, Future Spa) or other objectives (e.g., Eight Ball Deluxe, Mystic), when bonus is maxed additional bonus accumulation can actually make your bonus go down.

For example, Future Spa has a 36,000 bonus insert lite that is lit by collecting FUTURE SPA twice. Any additional lit FUTURE SPA letters beyond 2 completions add to your bonus, but only up to 16K, for a max of 52K in bonus (times multiplier). Being at 52K in bonus means you have the 36K insert lit and all but one FUTURE SPA letter lit. Once you collect the last letter at that point, your bonus reverts to 36K. On this machine, the next FUTURE SPA completion gives a Special. You can set this machine to give 50K points for this Special, but it also would mean that collecting the EB awards 25K and the drop target special is also 50K.

Contrast a game like Mystic (72K max bonus, but you also get bonus for any lit grid inserts) with Paragon (49K max bonus and no ability to light additional bonus beyond that) and it seems that the general idea is that games with things on the playfield beyond bonus numbers that light up to indicate bonus fall into this category.

I’ve had that happen on Xenon before.

Deadpool also falls victim to ball lock mismanagement in Lil Deadpool MB. Shooting the scoop for add-a-ball and then locking the ball for Super JP before the add-a-Ball animation finishes will add 2 balls into play!

In Demolition Man, the time it takes for a ball shot into the ‘Underground’/Computer to register is long enough to take a secret jackpot. Instead of taking the secret jackpot immediately when the first multiball starts, wait until you successfully shoot the Underground with one of the balls autoplunged to the upper flipper, and then quickly take your secret jackpot, which will collect the center ramp jackpot, lighting the Underground jackpot to be immediately collected. If you miss the Underground shot, you’ll need to shoot the center ramp anyway to feed the upper flipper, so no need to use your secret on it

Learned that demo man trick from @seedees years ago and have been using it ever since! Very handy

Yeah that’s a good one. It’s like the move I like to pull in AC/DC playing TNT. When the dangerous center target is lit, shoot a ramp, hit VIP, and spot the center target then immediately lock in the hurry up value on all shots.

In TSPP, there are awards if you complete several running hurry-ups at once. One of them I believe is Light Itchy (& Scratchy).

Yep. The total number of hurry ups determines what happens when you finish the last one.

1 or 2 hurry ups: nothing
3 hurry ups: Advance Itchy (open targets or count lock … can’t remember if either of these is willing to start the multiball, but I think they are)
4 hurry ups: Advance Couch (score 1 lock)
5 hurry ups: Light EB
6 hurry ups: Light Special

In Banzai Run, it’s well known that completing the three “ABC” standup targets on Banzai Hill will double the value of the next Cycle Jump. But did you know that you can also double the value by shooting the captive ball, and then making the Cycle Jump? It’s true! And really impractical because you’re more likely to drain, but still, it’s an option.

2 is “max something” IIRC. Things like ramp value, chalkboard value, etc. Never got a display effect to display that, though. Of course, they’re all pretty stealth as-is.

And light extra ball when jackpot is lit!

Never noticed since I never shoot for it, heh. Good catch, though.

Also, for fun and profit, catch the ball after the jackpot and continue to shoot the captive ball for victory laps!

On Cirqus Voltaire, there’s a feature at the ramp called “Spot Marvel” that instantly collects one of the 9 Marvels required to qualify Join the Cirqus. Most of the time, Spot Marvel will simply give you credit for having completed the marvel without awarding anything else. However, a few marvels have different rules when it comes to this:

• The Boom Balloon marvel will also raise the Boom Balloon for the standard amount of time.
• The Acrobats marvel will also qualify Acrobat Spins at the orbits.
• If Highwire Multiball is the last marvel required to qualify Join the Cirqus, and the Spot Marvel shot that collects it is also the third lock for Highwire Multiball, an interesting thing happens: the game will display the Highwire Multiball intro animation, but only release one ball and allow you to start Join the Cirqus. After the mode ends, you can start Highwire Multiball and collect it’s marvel with just one shot! This is particularly useful later on when it becomes harder to light the Locks.

Another fact: most features can’t be stacked with Ringmaster Battle, due to how lucrative of a mode it is. But there’s one exception, and that’s the Side Show modes! Specifically, Go for the Hat Trick and Popcorn Mania. The former is actually a really bad idea because it’ll prevent you from making shots to the Ringmaster during Ringmaster Battle, but the latter might be worth the time and effort. Considering it’s a random award though, don’t be surprised if it just gives you “Big Points” instead…

what happens if you have stike an ark 1 away as well? and what rom? with what stacking setting?

This is not completely true, it is actually +1 and +2 base multiplier (from rollover lanes). Max is 5x for a nice 250m ransom…times a 5x playfield promotion for the 1.250b actual max ransom value.

Deep cut may be that you can do a right ramp - warehouse for a free jackpot if the ball trickles out of the gun during multiball start. Pull the gun during ball save for a free skill shot if you missed the first one.
/Johan

Aha! That makes sense. I didn’t test the Triple Triple but it sounds like it would just be 5x… not quite as busted but still cool!

Dirty Harry is the coolest game
Forgot to mention the most important deep cut, tilt for an extra badge.

Is that why multiball is usually set to hard for tournaments? Same bug as TAF?

In TZ, when you have a ball on the upper playfield during powerball mania, you can trigger a jackpot by shooting under the upper left flipper. (And then you can still score the jackpot with the ball already on the upper playfield, so back to back 50m shots without needing to relight).

A lot of people know this. I just discovered for the first time last night that you can do the same trick with the Dead End shot, as it will also register a Powerball Mania JP when you have a ball on the upper playfield.

Maybe someday I’ll try to go for the trifecta: one under mini flipper, one in Dead End, and one via the upper playfield.

If I remember correctly hard is the way to go. The game should also be set to hard to light mode and don’t spot bullets in the left ramp.

SWEDISH PLAYER LIKES DIRTY HARRY . . . NEWS AT 11!!!

Sooooo . . . tell me your thoughts on Indy 500. Asking for a friend

There’s another variation of this. During normal multiball, if you shoot one ball into the piano and then quickly jam another one into the slot machine, you will get “JACKPOT DOUBLED BY POWERBALL”. When the game sees a ball at the piano and then one at the slot without triggering the prox in between, it assumes you used the powerball. Saw this happen at Pinburgh finals a couple years ago.

Acdc. No one goes for the triple MB, but if you do, there’s a cool feature I didn’t know about.

There’s a triple MB jackpot that lights at the bell after you collect one of each type of JP. Seems to be the value of the three jackpots combined and then some. You can definitely increase it. Maybe more JPs before hitting the bell. I was getting over 3mm for these before multipliers. Pretty good if you ask me.

Well, there’s one important thing: You have to hit the opto at the top (preferably without the ball going in) for any of those to register as Powerfield Jackpots.

There’s another case that scores, too. Balls ejected from the Gumball machine.

There is/was a situation that would cause a ball to get ejected early at the start of LITZ. I don’t remember what did it, but if it happens, get that ball up the right ramp immediately and trigger that top opto because every ball out of the Gumball will be JACKPOT… JACKPOT… JACKPOT.

These are on 1.4 ROMs with stacking enabled (not the home ROMs).

If Strike an Arc is one shot away, then it won’t start because Join the Cirqus cuts it off. Instead, the next ramp shot made after Join the Cirqus ends will start Strike an Arc.

I love this thread

No Good Gofers:

• Even if the Gofers just went into their holes, you can make a shot towards either ramp shortly after and either Bud or Buzz will taunt you. If you hit them during this time, the other Gofer will comment on the situation (ie. if you manage to hit Bud, Buzz will pop up and tell you about how he’s the only one who can hit him). You can hit the other Gofer during this period and quickly lower your total strokes by 2 instead of 1.
• If you manage to score a Hole in One off of the golf cart, and the cart shot is the one that will start Cart Attack (ie. every 3, 18, etc. hits), all scoring during Cart Attack will be doubled! This is a quick way to earn lots of points early on but considering how rare a rebound off of the golf cart into Hole in One is, don’t count on it…
• Speed Golf is the only cart award that can’t be stacked with anything else, likely because of how lucrative it is. If you make the final cart hit required to start Speed Golf during Multiball, it’ll simply be skipped with no compensation, so try and avoid hitting the cart until you’re back in single ball play.

Balls in the normal multiball lock always get released about 10 seconds before the gumball machine is emptied (about halfway through the intro display effect). You basically get one shot at it.

Some interesting rules with the “Wheel Values” in Safecracker that most people wouldn’t realize unless they used the awards in very specific circumstances:

• “Light Lock” typically spots all of the drop targets required to light the Lock at the ramp. However, if Lock is already lit when the award has been collected, it’ll virtually lock a ball for you. If you’ve already locked 2 balls and then collected “Light Lock” again, it will allow you instantly enter the board game through the main entrance. This can be helpful later on when you have to make shots to the dangerous left drop targets to light additional entrances.
• “Call Guard” either allows you to enter the board game through the main entrance or awards $100k. The chances of entering the board game are weighted severely higher at the start of the game compared to later. Along with this, if you collect “Call Guard” while the Alarm hurry-up is active, it’ll always award $100k. Don’t waste it!
• “Light Deposit Window” is a random award, equivalent to making the lit Teller shot. TNT Multiball can be awarded from the Deposit Window, and if it’s awarded to you during an Alarm hurry-up, the hurry-up will temporarily end and restart once TNT Multiball has ended. You could potentially get two TNT Multiballs in a row if this happens! Also, “Blender” is worth $50k, not nothing like you think it would be.
• “Disable Computer” supposedly affects only the timer until Sudden Death and nothing else, but this is false; activating this award during any timed mode (ie. Alarm hurry-up, Explosives, etc.) will freeze the timer for the mode ALONG with the ball save timer. Along with this, if you happen to collect this award WHILE the computer is disabled, 20 seconds will be added to the frozen timer.

Two things I’ve found out about in Bowen’s World Cup Soccer tutorial: an exclamation point bonus in Big Goal Round (getting all three goals in 3 seconds, which gives a fourth shot worth 60M) and a Striker’s Revenge TV mode. No idea both existed, but haven’t gotten both yet.

Three goals in three seconds? That doesn’t seem physically possible.

Shadow, WCS and Corvette have joined the ring… #swedendreamlineupforpresident

Sounds like video mode in GoT

doesn’t the timer pause once the ball is in the net?

It is possible to get 3 goals in 3 seconds. I’ve done it and my son’s done it (with 19 still on the clock!)

Must be some serious timer pausing at work. I’d expect the timer to pause while the ball is held in the VUK, but the remaining ball travel— scoop -> flipper, 3x flipper-> net + VUK -> flipper— is hard to imagine happening in three seconds of actual time.

On Star Trek The Next Generation, if you select a Mission through Command Decision and you’ve already collected all of the available Artifacts in six of the seven Missions, you will be forced to play the one mission you haven’t played yet instead of being able to choose one yourself. If you’ve collected all of the Artifacts, then you will be forced into choosing Final Frontier if Command Decision is shot.

Just tried this (successfully) for the first time this past weekend. So cool. thanks for sharing it!

Interesting rules about the Multiball in Creature from the Black Lagoon and how it affects single ball play. Some of these are relatively well known, some aren’t.

• If Multiball is activated during any timed mode (ie. Unlimited Millions, Mega Menu, Snack Attack), the mode won’t run during Multiball; instead, the mode will pause, and then after Multiball has ended, it will resume with a restart on the timer and all scoring. Unlike in Judge Dredd, where the mode points are scored in Bonus, you collect the points from modes here during the course of the ball, so you can potentially chain together two valuable Unlimited Millions rounds in a row. There was a bug in older ROMs where Snack Attack would start at 10 billion if Multiball interrupted it, but this was thankfully fixed.
• If a Jackpot hasn’t been made during Multiball, the Snackbar is much easier to light, as you can simply shoot the Snackbar directly to get credit for hits to the menu targets, which tend to be really dangerous on some games.
• If you activate Multiball for the first time in a game and then activate it again on the same ball, the playfield multiplier progress will carry over between Multiballs. This means it might be preferable to focus on getting 4x Playfield during your first Multiball, then spend your second Multiball going for the Jackpot & Super Jackpot.
• Although the Creature Feature at the left ramp is disabled during the Multiball Restart period, you can still collect Movie Madness (or Monster Madness, if applicable) at the right ramp. Why? Because I dunno. Just ignore it.

Multiball-end is restarting the modes was-running at multiball-start. Fresh timer, fresh mode state. Move your car phase 2 is the only one that “resumes”. But that is because it by design inherit states from Move your car phase one. Which caused it to be broken after a multiball interruption.

The playfield multiplier is not inherit from a previous multiball. It is a Creature cup completions account that is incorrecly not reset. The playfield multiplier is set equal this account on increment. If post-inc is less/equal 4.

Example. You finish a multiball at 2x. Next multiball, same ball-in-play, will start off at 1x. By first Creature cup completion you are now at 3x.

All these issues are fixed in the latest mod ROM release. Snack attack too, as you mention.

“fixed”

Road Show has some really interesting rules relating to Super Payday that don’t seem to be brought up that often:

• The value for each switch hit during Super Payday starts at 1M and increases by 500k for each shot made during the mode where the locks are active. For instance, if you were in Seattle and you made two ramps before starting Super Payday, each switch hit would be worth 2M.
• If you manage to lock one ball and fail to lock the second one, the first ball will immediately be kicked out and the mode timer will pause to allow you to play the mode as a 2-ball Multiball. This might not seem like much at first but unlike Super Payday, you CAN increase the value of each switch hit here by making the required shots. If you make enough shots you could potentially score some ridiculous points by doing this.

Unrelated: During either 2-ball Multiball mode (Nashville or Kansas City), if both balls drain at once near the start of the mode, a ball will automatically be put into the plunger lane for you! Not sure if this is intentional or not but it sure is kind.

The order of the awards from the top saucer in Demolition Man in competition mode:

(gives secondary award on right if the first award is already active)
Bonus Multiplier Held -or- Ratburger 2M
Add Bonus X (also will relight Access Claw on left inlane)
Retina Scan Grows +2M
Standup Value Held -or- Ratburger 2M
Access Claw Enabled (lite left inlane) -or- Big Points 1M
Access Claw Enabled -or- Big Points 1M
Quick Freeze Enabled (lite right inlane) -or- Big Points 1M
Quick Freeze Enabled -or- Big Points 1M
U-Look-Gr8-Today
Combo Added
… repeat from top

In addition to the Big Points 1M and U-Look-Gr8-Today, Ratburger is another award place where you can use the thumb buttons for “Rats at 8”, an extra 8M I think (haven’t really seen this one mentioned).

that is the ball saver for them

Here are all of the handle combos that can be activated to award certain amounts of points and animations for top lock mystery awards:

• Big Points (1M): If both thumb buttons are pressed you’ll get “Eat at Joe’s” and 5 million. If both thumb buttons AND both triggers are pressed, you’ll get “WAG” and 10 million.
• Ratburger (2M): If both thumb buttons are pressed you’ll get “Rats at 8” and 10 million.
• U-Look-Gr8-2Day: If both thumb buttons are pressed you’ll get “Feel Great” and 10 million.

As a result you could be getting 10 million for almost every top lock award…

Monopoly has a 4-way combo award similar to some of Pat Lawlor’s previous games (ie. Addams Family). Shooting the railroad ramp, the center ramp, the right ramp, and then Roll & Collect will award a million, advance you four spaces across the board in addition to what you roll off of Roll & Collect, and if it’s lit, advance to the next unlit railroad.

This one is actually pretty useful. A million points is non-trivial and with the possible exception of the center ramp, all those shots build to, relight, or cash in something of value.

The Monopoly 3 and 4 way combos were removed in V3.02 and later.

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle has a hidden bonus in the Save Nell mode that’s basically impossible to get. If you manage to knock down all five drop targets right at the start of the mode before the timer even starts, you will light an Extra Ball (the first time the bonus is collected) in addition to however many points you’d typically score from Save Nell (25M or 50M). After the Extra Ball has been lit once through this method, you’ll instead receive an additional 25M for collecting this bonus.

A lot of players seem to have trouble when they enter the normal Multiball mode on Monopoly. The only Jackpots in the Multiball are available at the side ramp and, later, at the Electric Company scoop. However, there is a way to set yourself up for a quick Jackpot right away. Normally, when the right ramp is shot to start Multiball, the ball is held in the plunger lane and then plunged to the bumper area; instead of having it be plunged for you, plunge so that it enters the Roll & Collect shot, and then trickles down to the upper right flipper. This will allow you to collect your first Jackpot right away, setting you up for further Double Jackpots.

There’s a similar rule on Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory where you can manually plunge balls to collect any lit Jackpots at the Camera ramp. It’s especially important in Gobstopper Multiball where the Camera ramp is a Double Jackpot.

It looks like you have to be fast on the draw here - the games I played are quick to plunge balls in the shooter lane.

They’re quick, but if you can do it fast enough, you can consistently make those Double Jackpots early on. Muscle memory is really important here.

White Water & priorities:

• There are two ways to spot Hazards that you haven’t collected yet; either after enough Disaster Drops or by completing the Bounceback standup targets after it’s already been lit. The hazard spotted is in the same order as the Traveling Hazard. For instance, if the Bounceback targets are completed to spot a Hazard while both Disaster Drop and Boulder Garden are lit, then Disaster Drop will be spotted. The best way to use this feature is spotting shots like No Way Out or Bigfoot Bluff, both of which lead to important features that you might want to use at more important times (Whitewater Multiball & 5x Playfield, respectively).
• If “Advance Raft” is qualified at the Whirlpool, be sure to save Bigfoot Bluff for last if it’s lit - it’ll award you the points for completing your current Raft AND the points for the one that was completed!
• After you’ve maxed out the Whitewater Jackpot by completing enough Rafts, the priority of the game should NOT be Vacation Jackpot - it should be trying to go for Whitewater Multiball as many times as possible. The Jackpot maxes out at 70 million, meaning a Triple Jackpot is 210 million and 5x Jackpot is 350 million. These values outweigh the Vacation Jackpot by a ton.

A 5x jackpot may be capped, depending on the code

5x Jackpot maxes out at 350 million on the most recent code. It doesn’t multiply the 2x or 3x Jackpots.
Still… it’s a pretty massive amount of points.

BSD: If you drop out of Mist MB and are able to shoot back into the lit Mist hole in the back before the game is able to reload the previously drained one, your new Mist MB will start immediately (so you won’t need to shoot it off the magnet to begin the multi-ball).

yes indeed. as soon as you make the shot starting the multiball, you better be measuring up your skill shot. it seems to launch it a split second after the ball settles in the shooter lane. (this may be configurable, but the default setting is pretty snappy)

In Star Trek, if you are about to complete a row for 1M, and you are in Galactic Away Team mode and Double Scoring, and you drain, the mode will complete and the “3 in a row” award given before Double Scoring ends. You get 2M.

This means that theoretically you could have the last ball cradled, and the only sure thing to do to win the match, is to immediately drain. I would love to see that recorded on camera.

EDIT: It also works when “Only One Target Left” even if not in Galactic Away Team mode.

This may be the deepest cut yet. I don’t know if I’d want to be doing bonus calculations and million point window calculations during a match, but if I ever do, it’ll be on Star Trek with double scoring away team line completion in the balance.

It’s at least been considered on Tron which will double your whole bonus if you drain with 2x running.

Lost a women’s world championship match this year thanks to that double scoring bonus

and Jungle Lord

Here’s a pretty deep (yet very useful) cheat on The Shadow:

If you finish the last scene in your 2nd+ Khan mb, AND you’ve already played shadow mb and completed the battlefield, Final Battle will be ready during khan multiball.

If you shoot the saucer, you will be in Final Battle, but unlike the usual ‘down to single ball, out of the fun’ version, this bug will let you continue with just a single ball, untimed.

Oh man! The one time I completed Final Battle I had one shot left and was down to one ball and it didn’t end, so I shot it and finished. I always assumed it was a trough glitch but I wonder if it was actually this.

Speaking of Final Battle: the Start Mode and Start Khan MB saucers will both spot a lit shot, but only after they’ve been shot once (i.e. if they’re unlit, they’ll spot a shot).

Tried this but did not succeed at Expo on a Tron LE with one drop left to go.

While poking around Sopranos, I found a code to get into the service menu without the keys on most(?) Stern WhiteStar games. The memory protect switch in the coin door prevents you from changing anything, but maybe a fun parlor trick if you want to check on the settings or something.

8L 1R 9L 1R 4L 1R 5L 1R (spells “HIDE”)
The game should play a sound (depends on the game)
then:
1L 1R 2L 1R 3L 1R. Then press R again and hold it for a few seconds.
It will pop into the service menu

Two for Beatles:

Normally the lit EB lane alternates with slingshot hits. In MB play, however, it locks into the left lane.

If you did not complete level 5 on your two ball MB, after playing the Help MB, you will be able to select the 2 ball at the beginning of future balls until you have completed level 5. This means you are probably smart to avoid jackpots during the regular MB, and concentrate on drop targets to light extra balls and build bonus multipliers.

some places with card systems in an custom coin door may not have the memory protect switch setup.

Diner:

The extra ball that’s lit from successive left ramp shots increments each time you collect it. However, because your progress on the left ramp is held until the shot times out, you can easily collect a ton of Extra Balls without much effort.

ie. The first Extra Ball is at 5 ramp shots, and the second one is at 10 ramp shots. If you collect the first Extra Ball before reaching the 10 ramp shots threshold, you’ll light the Extra Ball again upon reaching it. If you pass the threshold before collecting the Extra Ball, you’ll have to make the shots manually.

Harley Davidson (1991). An interesting exploit on this game, and possibly others that have lock stealing, is you can restart a game after locking a ball. So you can get a jump on multiball for a fresh game.

spinner on car hop is lit at plunge time and appears to stay lit until you hit another switch.

While doing this I noticed a number of “proprietary” audits… wonder what audits would be so secretive they wouldn’t want revealed without a key?

Speaking specifically for Mystic, this is true if you complete the card with all the same icons (to get the 72k bonus), at which point the card clears. You are however, able to refill the card which, if done with at least 1 different icon, does result in a higher total bonus (72k + 3k per lit insert). So, your max possible bonus is (72k + 3k x 9 inserts) x 4 bonus X = 396k.

Doesn’t the card reset when you fill in all 9 inserts, regardless of whether the symbols match? This would mean max possible bonus is (72k + 3k x 8 inserts) x 4 bonus X = 384k.

No, it only resets when they all match. By not resetting if they don’t match, you have the opportunity to convert any mixed verticals to matching. It may reset if you match just the verticals, I’d have to check that, but if there’s any vertical that isn’t a set, it won’t reset the card.

Ah, right. It’s been a while.

I think that’s a setting. Once you fill a card with any combination of symbols you’ll get a new card. Pretty sure that’s how it works at the one on location by me.

they show up in the full menu as well (left over debug or other code from the last games that the code is based on?)

On Star Trek the Next Generation the only mode that will stay active during Borg multiball is Q. If you already played Q, you can still start it a second time through command decision as a rerun. Lots of points will follow with minimum effort.

I couldn’t find that setting in the manual, just whether or not the card progress carriers over ball to ball (which of course could just be wrong in the manual).

But I have confirmed the following (with the settings on my game):

1. Cards full with mixed symbols do not reset, and you can continue changing the lit symbol as long as the column isn’t a full match (at which point the symbol goes out and the arrow lights for 2k/drop).

2. If all three columns are matches, but not all three the same (2 pyramid columns, 1 eye column), you get locked out of progressing bonus. The card will not reset, items on the board will not change (all lit for 2k/drop), and you cannot gain more super bonus.

How’s that for a deep cut on a game you’re probably never going to play in a tournament?

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Good info and Mystic gets used in tournaments all the time!

@pinbwzrd had it in INDISC if i recal right

Yep!

Awesome! I’ve only seen 1 other copy, and it was unplayable.

Not only in tourneys, but in Italy, they apparently think Mystic isn’t already difficult enough. smh

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On Eight Ball Deluxe, play as players 2 or 4, there’s a bug in the factory software where it counts an extra bonus step for the 8 ball on racks 2 and beyond (63,000 per rack instead of 56,000)
Doesn’t happen for players 1 and 3. Bugfixed rom available on ipdb.

We play Mystic every week in the Kickback weekly. Playfield resets every ball, but line bonuses remain. Is this the normal setting, or the difficult setting? Used to play one that didn’t reset the playfield. Either that was easy setting or this is the hard setting

The “super bonus” holding over for lanes completed is a game feature and not a setting. There is a setting for lit pyramids or eyes to carry across balls but that’s about it.

I also think completing the grid, once super bonus is maxed, resets the grid, so Colin is correct about the maximum collectible bonus. The grid will never reset so long as the super bonus is not maxed though, since lines could still be completed to advance them. In the @aobrien5 example above, bonus has not yet been maxed. Once that light is at 72, the grid clears once all targets have been collected regardless which item they were lit for.

I love Mystic.

I was wrong, just checked and the grid seems to stay even at max bonus, as long as you don’t complete it. If you do complete it, it collects all the lines and then resets the grid to start filling in again. In addition, if you lock in one line of pyramids, then fill in the rest of the grid with eyes, it will not collect and you are unable to clear it during the ball in play and will get those points only in bonus.

I think the proper strategy is to try and avoid locking in a line and instead finishing the entire grid to collect the 72k with the ball still in play. It will not be multiplied by the multiplier however, you will only get the 3k per target. Or just shoot for spinners and stars if they’re scoring well.

Whenever the grid is filled completely (doesn’t matter with what), it resets for the next ball, but the super bonus stays. It IS multiplied by the bonus multiplier.

The special for the super bonus only lights on the NEXT ball with 72k lit (makes sense, because if you complete the whole matrix in one ball, that’s 72k super bonus)

My strategy is to complete the entire grid with the SAME symbol, and lock in the line. That way, when I’m on the wrong symbol, shoot the locked in targets instead, since it won’t change the symbols already on the board, and they are worth 2k per.

Mystic is a great game, AFAIK the sound package wasn’t reused in any other bally from that era… some of the sounds you start to pick up from game to game and it takes a bit away from it I think. Plus I think it has some of Kevin O’Conner’s best backglass artwork.

If you were responding to my post above, I was talking about the case where the super bonus was at max and the grid was then completed again during the same ball. This will collect the grid without the multiplier and then un-light the grid. Only the bonus collected at ball drain is affected by the bonus X amount.

Of course completing the grid with the same symbol is the best strategt but once that’s been done once, or the max bonus is at 72k, it seems like completing the grid again is actually a lower scoring potential since you’ll collect it at 3k per light instead of 3k x bonus X. So actively attempting to keep as much of the grid lit without completing it, then shooting other high value shots makes the most sense to me.

You don’t actually get any additional points for completing/clearing the grid. Just whatever the drop was worth.

There’s nothing like the max bonus/multiplied full grid bonus count down.

I did a ball test this morning and it awarded points for the full grid once it was completed again. Maybe this is a setting of some sort if specials and EBs are disabled? I have my game on novelty because people were getting way too many replays at the location.

Yeah, you may have gotten a special value.

Can you post exactly what you did so I can try and duplicate it on mine, or at least so I can look in the code to see if it’s a bug? Dip settings, etc.

My grid only resets on the next ball, but some combo of settings might induce it. Sounds bad if it does!! I have extra balls and specials set on (and 7 digit code, but that wouldn’t affect the grid, that’s back end stuff)

If this doesn’t explain, maybe I can make a video? I took the glass off, knocked down all 9 targets to max the grid, the grid reset, I knocked down all 9 targets again to max the grid and it awarded some points (for special) and cleared the grid. I then locked in mismatching rows and it did not clear the grid and it was not possible to clear the grid on that ball. I then tried a full grid with no matching rows and was able to change all symbols to match upon which time the grid cleared and points (for special) were collected. I can take a pic of my dip switch settings also, but not before I get back to the location monday.

Edit: just looked at the manual again, it must be awarding the points for Special when the grid is maxed a second time. The Mystic Novelty setting is either replay specials everywhere, extra balls everywhere or points everywhere. It would be nice if you could turn off specials and keep EBs.

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So you’d want specials to pay the points, but leave the extra balls on, right? That seems to be a common error thing in early bally games, the lack of granular control over awards like this. But it was early days and easy enough to fix

You cleared the grid with all the same symbol? I’ll try this later today and see what I get. It’s very possible that I’m misrembering what happens. I’m usually happy to get the 72 and double/triple knocks. I know I’ve got the reconstituted source code for Mystic laying around somewhere and can make the extra ball mod relatively quickly… can you test?

That all matches my testing. I can check settings on mine.

Happy to test but I don’t have a rom burner so I’d have to order one or have someone do me a favor. I really should have a rom burner though, if you have recommendations on something inexpensive lmk.

Minipro866CS (you have to look specifically for this version, it was replaced by the 866II, which will not burn above 16volts which many of the early eproms need, i.e. 2732 for this era machine).

I have to apologize too as the behavior is exactly as you were describing, I had some kind of brain fart and forgot that the matrix will clear the first time. I don’t think it’s a bug though, since you don’t get any score for it, but you have banked the 72. I can see where it might be a bit unfair since if you had the 63 lit for instance you’d get the symbols on the matrix, AND the additional 63k, which you get screwed out of if you get the 72.

I could easily make it give you the 27,000 you would get for having the full matrix completed, although having it multiplied might not be a good variant? I mean, it’s “fair” but I don’t know because it’s a large-ish change to the game… thoughts?

I think this is the best way to start a decent amount of time of double trouble 2x scoring on Scared Stiff as you enter the wizard mode:
-Save the monster’s lab (jets) as your last tale to complete, but have it close to being finished.
-Start double trouble off the spider wheel.
-Shoot the loop to get the last jets you need to complete the Monster’s Lab tale.
-Start Scared Stiff wizard mode.
I’m wondering if the double trouble timer runs during the wizard mode animation and pre-talking (just like the 5x timer continues to run during WH2O multiball start), or if it freezes.

Want to play a BONUS wheel mode during trip multiball? You can!
-Have bonus mode ready to go at the mini metal ramp.
-Timing is tricky here, but if you hit the mini ramp to start BONUS round and collect the vowel needed to light the “solve puzzle” light on the same shot, BONUS round will start, and the solve puzzle light will come on.
-Hit that mini ramp again during BONUS round to start trip multiball to stack them together (if trip is in the prize bank of the selected contestant, or if the puzzle is the flashing prize puzzle).
The timing must be right to make that vowel collect the one that gets the solve puzzle light to light, but this is a fun one to take advantage of! I like doing this a lot.

Want to play a BONUS wheel mode during TWO STACKED trip multiballs ? You can!
First, Follow Andrei’s steps above for your first puzzle.
Then, once the first puzzle has been solved and the first trip MB starts, shoot the left Wild Card shot to collect your second wild card, which will be “Solve Puzzle”. If you are in tournament mode, the second puzzle always awards a trip MB, so a second trip MB will now start when you hit the mini ramp! Depending on where your trip JPs are, some shots will award both trip JPs at once (and they can be double and quadrupled, too. (As an aside, Is there a better call out in all of pinball than Maria’s quadruple super jackpot scream during her trip MB ?)).

I would also note that there is nothing keeping you from stacking the normal MB in with all of this. In pre-6.0 code, it was easier because you could stack regular MB in after Trip MB started by completing the green targets, but from 6.0 on, the green targets are used for an extremely difficult add-a-ball, so if you don’t have regular MB ready when you start Trip, you are locked out of the stack. However, if you have regular MB ready to go at the start of Andrei’s instructions, you can play both AND a bonus mode, and bring in the second Trip.

And, If your BONUS mode happens to be Wheel Frenzy during all of this and you fail to score at least 100 million on the triple stack then you are definitely doing something wrong, lol!

Big Buck Hunter:

The stand up target for the Bird shot is a “minor” switch that will not automatically qualify the playfield. It will make the “shoot again” light start blinking, but not actually qualify the playfield. So you can short plunge and hit that Bird target enough times to start a multiball before having a valid playfield, provided you can control the return from it without hitting a sling or inlane.

@cayle we need a gif for your reaction hearing this information

Sorry if that’s slow to load. Bad at making gifs

[Not sure this one is deep, but it’s clear a bunch of people don’t know about it…]

On Getaway, after you lock a ball, the Speed Millions light will be blinking quickly and expiring soon. Launch as quickly as you can when the ball enters the shooter lane to pick up free RPMs before the light goes out.

Even less deep: If I’m one or two lights away from having a lock ready (first MB only?), I’ll at least consider shooting the left ramp to spot them.

First MB only on default settings.

not only does it stay active during the multiball (whereas all other modes pause), but if i recall correctly, it never times out either. the mode will continue to run as long as your multiball is still going. that’s why you can rack up silly points by combining the two.

Beatles: during All My Lovin MB, if you’ve lit the jackpot, and you drain a ball during ball-save, you can manually plunge the saved ball, and it will collect your jackpot at the top magnet. But if you aren’t quick enough, and let the ball auto-launch, it will not collect the jackpot.

Mousin’ Around:

It’s well known that if you make the right ramp or left ramp twice and then shoot the far right target, you get 15 seconds of double scoring. The most common application of this is using it on the Million spell-out to award 2 million instead of 1 million. But did you know that you can also use double scoring to double the Multiball Jackpot value?

If you shoot the right trap (ONLY the right trap) first during Multiball, it will lower and allow you to make the target behind it. Shoot the right ramp (or left ramp!) twice while the left trap is still raised and then make the target to start double scoring. Then, shoot the left trap, and make the right ramp again to collect your double Jackpot for up to 10 million points!

If anything is done out of sequence you’ll miss the chance to score your double Jackpot. Double scoring can’t be started when the Jackpot is lit because it’s scored at the right ramp; however, if you’re able to shoot the left ramp twice, it can be done. Good luck…

It’s a fairly specific sequence to master but once you have it down, you can easily score tons of points during Multiball. Just remember to max out your Jackpot value by completing CHEESE enough times.

iirc, isn’t it two ramps in a row, then target for 2x? (not 1 ramp)

Deep cut here is that you can actually shoot the left ramp twice in a row (in or out of multiball) then the target to start 2X.

Added, thank you!

Correct. And for clarity, I’m pretty sure you can’t shoot one of each ramp for your two ramps in a row. In other words, you can’t combo L ramp into R ramp to light the dead-end for 2x scoring, correct?

This is correct. Either left ramp twice or right ramp twice. No combos here.

“This is correct. Either left ramp twice or right ramp twice. No combos here.”

Someone able to confirm this?
I sold my mousin, but, iirc, you can do this.

Yes, it can be any combo of two ramps (edit: left or right, not center!)

On South Park, before you plunge the ball, you can use the flippers to change the target that’s lit for the skill shot before making it.

Raise your hand if you never knew you could do this, I discovered it on accident.

Not sure if it works in competition mode but if you just scroll through all the screens in the status for Wonka it awards you anywhere from 100 to 10000 points.

Apparently in Munsters if you trap up during a mode and try to time it out, the timer stops after like 6 seconds. Apparently if you cycle through the whole instant info screens, when back to the main screen, the mode timer will run again for another 6 seconds. I haven’t had time to test this myself.

Ah, is that one of the gumball achievements?

Not sure

I used this to help me win a game on Diner at INDISC, and when I watched the stream archive of the game, the commentators didn’t know this deep cut of the very useful knowledge: completing EAT top lanes lights each of your ramps to serve Food (each ramp then spots one complete drop target bank – to help you on your way to Dine Time).

See, to me that’s kind of amusing since anyone should notice FOOD lights upon EAT completions within a few games. Guess I assume anyone with any time on Diner knows this. I’d consider looping the left ramp to add Dine Time millions to be deeper, heh. Maybe even the (up-to-1.5M) Grill Bonus for completing drops?

Deepest cut on Diner is probably the 1M drops complete bonus during Dine Time lit, but I can’t ever think of a reason why you should be going for this over shooting for Dine Time. Cool sound, though.

Yes it does, anyone can do this.

Yes, it is. Possible to get a Golden Ticket from it as well. Your best bet, though, is to wait until you have a playfield x going before collecting your status report gumball.

Rollergames has a similar feature where you can complete SKATE and WAR during Sudden Death for 1 Million.

When you could simply go for the Wall for 1 Million, though… what’s the point?

Pretty sure SKATE WAR is 2M, AND ends the mode. But since you can get the mode-ending 2M bonus for like 6 ramps as well, yeah what’s the point.

I think a case can be made for SKATE WAR when you have a target or two left, though.

Huge (to me) if true! I must remember to test this next week at league. Dang I wish this was posted 12h earlier haha

Always put 1.0 in your AFMs (the Total Annihilation value caps at 500M) and go for those billion-shots: 500M TA + 500M victory laps.

There’s one of those rare 1.0 AFMs around in Stockholm. It’s not in great shape (I’m happy with 15B on that machine), but I will give the 1B-shots a go, soon.

In Rescue 911, the Emergency Room 20 million award absolutely lies and gives 10/15 million instead. When you hit the shot enough times, you get bored enough to look at the finer details of life

What ROM V2?

Willy Wonka:

The four Computer Ticket modes (“Dots, Dots, Dots”, “The Candy Man”, “Unlimited Kickback”, “Wonka Bar Craze”) are unlike any other modes in the game because they share the same timer AND the base values for each shot made increase if more modes are active (in addition to the base value being incremented by other game features). Starting another Computer Ticket mode while one is already active will reset the timer to its maximum, and collecting “Add Time” will add time to the timer for the stacked modes.

The music / SFX for these modes also become more hectic depending on how many modes are currently running. Ideally you want to get all four of the modes, and then bring them into any Multiball for big points.

Speaking of Computer Awards, I’d love to have a list of which achievements are required for certain awards…

In JJPOTC, after playing the first regular difficulty At World’s End Multiball, you must shoot each shot twice to re-light the Multiball. If a shot is hit once, it will light up in red but will be faint compared to a complete shot.

Balls plunged that trigger the right orbit switch also spot the orbit for modes, Stranger Tides combo shots, At World’s End progression, etc.

@keefer, another thing - it seems that the left loop (the one that qualifies Black Pearl modes) also spots the right loop. Is this the game playing “as intended” or is it a switch error I should get our tech on?

It’s not as intended, but it’s a bug not a switch problem.

I believe the basic issue is that the ball is going by the magnet with enough speed that when it wants to engage, the ball leaves the opto, then gets sucked backed onto the magnet triggering the opto again. I’ll be suppressing the 2nd hit when the magnet is firing.

Dont know if its common knowledge, but on Stern Iron Maiden (premium), if you just started hallowed be thy name and already have lit mummy lock, shooting the left ramp will complete two hallowed shots in one: First the ramp shot, then when the ball is dropped into the mummy lock it will award the second hallowed shot which is the captive ball.

No biggie, but the more shots you get “for free” the better

Does anyone know if this is a deep cut or a series of malfunctioning machines?

On Congo, I’ve heard two reports and I have also experienced that AMYs later in the game always divert to the volcano, making you shoot the left orbit from the right flipper instead of the easy loop shot. Can someone confirm or deny this?

I’ve seen this, too, but only when I’ve successfully completed Amy multiple times [I think it was after the third completion]. It would appear to be a programmed way of limiting exploitation of the Amy mode.

Owned a Congo and yes, after one or two completions (can’t remember which), you get all volcano feeds instead of easy staged loops to make it harder.

Could it just be after you’ve done a Super Multiball?

Ask and ye shall receive (somewhat). I streamed Congo tonight.

Played two Amy modes, and they both worked normally. Then played Super Multiball. My third Amy started diverting balls shot into the volcano out of the top of the volcano and back to the right flipper. Subsequent Amy modes worked the same way.

So, I guess I can’t say for sure if it’s the 3rd time, or after Super Multiball. Unless you’re going all out Amy, it’s pretty likely that you’d have played Super Multiball by the time you get to your third anyway.

Game starts here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/543508159?t=54m47s

First Amy: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/543508159?t=56m45s

Second Amy: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/543508159?t=1h2m

Third Amy: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/543508159?t=1h13m10s

There was at least one or two other Amy modes, but they worked the same, so I’ll leave those as an exercise for the viewer.

I tested this last week and couldn’t get it to work…anyone else have success? (No time was removed at all)

On Batman 66, you can indefinitely freeze timers during the main (Villain) Multiball by shooting a ball into the Mystery for an award and then constantly shooting Jackpots. Mystery awards are a lower priority animation than the Jackpots, and all timers freeze until the Mystery award is collected.

Technically it can work for any Multiball, but Villain Multiball has longer Jackpot animations and more convenient ways to collect them (alternating ramps, left ramp to scoop, etc)

This also applies to ball-save timers, too, iirc. And also applies to many other recent Sterns (not necessarily just Mystery causing the Multiball ball-save timer freeze).

These are both also true - there’s a few games where this doesn’t apply (GotG on mode timers for example), while others don’t have the animations to exploit with.

Comboing out Villain Multiball (shots never un-light) is the peak version of the exploit that I’ve seen. “Add Time” provided an extremely long ball lock for legal single ball Multiball play as well as froze the Playfield X timer it was working on for way longer than 15 seconds!