Introduction

This is version 2.0 of my Guide to The Addams Family pinball game. No major changes have been made from the previous version, although there is more detailed information about a few things, including preliminary information about TAF Gold, the 1994 collector's edition of the game that has been produced.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome. You can send e-mail to gt6139a@prism.gatech.edu Credit to those people who have contributed in some way to this guide appears at the end.

These rules describe play on normal default settings and on machines without broken diverters or faulty switches. See the section on "Defaults" for a listing of defaults and operator-settable options. See your operator if anything's broken :-)

This is a special version of this rulesheet formatted especially for the World Wide Web. Your comments on this new presentation of the rules are also welcome.

The Addams Family is a trademark of Williams/Bally, Inc. This rules sheet is, however, entered into the public domain. You may freely copy and distribute it as long as you do not alter any of its contents, including this disclaimer.

Starting the Game

This information is provided for newcomers to pinball who may be unfamiliar with the machines. Insert coins into the machine to accumulate credits. The display will show the number of credits you've put on the game. Press Start once for each player in the game; you may play up to four players at once, and you may add players until the beginning of ball 2. Do not press Start thereafter until all players have finished their games; otherwise, all players' games will be aborted and a new, one-player game will start.

On the newer Addams Family Gold Edition, you may buy an extra ball at the end of the game for 1 credit. All game features and scores resume as they were at the end of the game.

General Playfield Description and Basic Rules

This section contains the basic game rules, shot by shot. Specific rules about timed rounds, multiball, and other major game features will come later.

Million Plus Ramp (Side Ramp):
Each left ramp shot scores 1M, 2M, 3M, etc. up to a maximum of 10M*; this value resets at the beginning of each ball. Each shot also lights a letter in THING if THING has not yet been completed, spots the first unlit GRAVE target, lights the electric chair, and feeds the ball (with a properly working diverter) to Thing's Flipper. This ramp is also used to collect Stars when lit via the left loop, and to score Super Jackpots during multiball. This ramp has a gate which scores 5130 points in both directions and loudly fires the ramp diverter.

Bear Kick Ramp (Center Ramp):
Each center ramp shot awards 1 Bear Kick (2 when lit via the near left inlane), lights the Electric Chair if it is not lit, and returns the ball down the right inlane. When Thing Flips is lit, it sends the ball to Thing's flipper instead. Extra balls and free mansion rooms are awarded at various numbers of bear kicks. This ramp has a gate which scores 5130 points in both directions. It is also the "V" grave target. See "Bear Kicks".

Electric Chair (Left Sinkhole/Kickout):
Located just above the left flipper. When the yellow lamp is lit, it awards the currently flashing Mansion Room and kicks the ball back out, hopefully to the left flipper. When the red lamp is lit, it begins Multi-Ball(TM). The right inlane lights the chair for a mansion room temporarily; either the center ramp or the left ramp lights it permanently. On normal settings, the Electric Chair is lit at the beginning of each ball. (Note: for the remainder of the rules sheet, to say that the "electric chair is lit" means that the yellow lamp above the electric chair is lit.)

Swamp Kickout (Right Sinkhole/Kickout):
Awards mansion rooms whenever the Electric Chair ordinarily would (i.e. the yellow lamp is lit). Kicks the ball back out, hopefully to the right flipper. This shot is also the "E" target in GRAVE. Shots to the vault, Thing's box, and the swamp are fed here.

Swamp (Side Wide Sinkhole):
Located along the right side of the playfield, just below the upper right flipper. Scores the Graveyard Value during normal play, or five times the Graveyard Value when lit by sending the ball through the opto just below the mini-flipper. The swamp locks balls when lit. Balls exit the swamp through the swamp kickout.

Train Wreck Target (Back Left Corner Target):
This shot is most easily made from the upper right flipper. Located to the right of the Million Plus Ramp, it scores 1M ordinarily; at certain levels, it scores 5M and a "Train Wreck". Each Train Wreck prevents the Graveyard Value from resetting at the beginning of the next ball. On normal settings, four Train Wrecks lights an extra ball. The first Train Wreck takes 2 hits; the second takes 3 hits; and so on up to a maximum of 6 hits per train wreck.

Graveyard Jet Bumpers:
Advances the Graveyard Value by 10K for unlit bumpers, 20K for lit bumpers, and 30K for flashing bumpers. Bumpers are advanced by any of the unlit GRAVE targets (see below). The Graveyard value is initially 1M at the beginning of each ball (unless it has been held by a Train Wreck), and increases to a maximum of 4M. Each jet bumper hit also changes the currently flashing mansion room, moving from left to right first, then bottom to top.

GRAVE targets:
The two targets "G" and "R" are located just beneath the jet bumpers. "A" is to the left of the Bear Kicks Ramp. "V" is not a standup target but instead is the center ramp. Likewise, "E" is the swamp kickout entrance. Complete GRAVE to score the GRAVE bonus of 2M, 3M, 4M, etc. to a maximum of 10M for the duration of the game. Each unlit GRAVE target also advances a jet bumper. Any shot to the Million Plus ramp will spot the first unlit GRAVE target.

Cousin It (Standup Targets):
Four standup targets above the Electric Chair most easily hit by the upper right flipper, though it can be hit from the lower right as well (think Superdog targets from Funhouse); it ordinarily just produces a sound effect, "It, old man!", and scores 250K points. It is used mainly in the Cousin It round.

Bookcase/Vault (Target/Sinkhole):
The bookcase is a large target to the right of the bear kicks ramp. Each bookcase hit spots a letter in GREED; spell GREED to open the vault (a sinkhole behind the bookcase). During multiball it also adds to the jackpot value. The vault is used to lock balls, start Multi-Ball(TM), score Quick Multiball jackpots, and relight the Super Jackpot. Two lamps are above the vault -- the red lamp is lit whenever multiball start or quick multiball jackpots are lit; the green lamp is lit whenever the vault is open to lock a ball.

Thing Ramp:
This is a small metal ramp to the left of the Bear Kicks ramp that feeds the ball to Thing's Eject. There are two lamps above this ramp -- the green lamp indicates that a shot here will lock the ball, and the yellow lamp means that "Thing Bonus" is lit. Thing ramp shots also starts Quick Multiball and Thing Multiball, and is lit to collect extra balls.

Thing's Eject:
This eject is used to score the Skill Shot, and when lit starts Quick Multiball or Thing Multiball, restarts Multi-Ball(TM), locks balls, awards THING bonus, or awards extra balls. It is usually made during game play by shooting the Thing ramp (see above), but all Thing awards except the skill shot can be collected from either.

Thing (Gimmick Hand):
Yes, Thing himself! He resides in a box and occasionally comes out to pick up a ball in Thing's Eject, using a magnet. When he does, the ball is either carried away to the swamp, or Thing reappears and releases the ball in the eject.

Adv X Lane (Left Loop):
This is a lane that runs from the back of the jet bumpers around the machine to the upper right flipper. When "Adv X" is lit via the right inlane, shooting this lane in either direction advances the bonus multiplier from 1 to a maximum of 5, valid only for the current ball. Regardless, shooting the lane through the bumpers to the upper right flipper lights "Lite Star" on the Million Plus Ramp. This shot is part of all combos. The lit "Adv X" times out in a few seconds.

The Power:
The infamous magnets beneath the playfield. Two distinctive Williams lightning bolts in the middle of the playfield and two bright side flashers start up when the Power is active. The Power wreaks havoc during the Seance round, when Mansion Multiball is lit, and during Mansion Multiball.

Near Left Inlane:
Lights "2 Bear Kicks" on the center ramp. This award times out in a few seconds. It is always lit.

Far Left Inlane:
Lights "Thing Flips" on the center ramp when lit; a center ramp shot will then be diverted to Thing's flipper for an automatic flip towards the swamp. The ramp times out in a few seconds. The inlane is not always lit; see "Thing Flips" for more details.

Right Inlane:
Always lights "Adv X" lane for a few seconds, and if the Electric Chair is unlit, lights it temporarily for a few seconds.

Swamp Millions Targets:
Whenever 5X Graveyard is lit, these targets award 1M points each. There are three targets, two below and one just above the entrance to the swamp. These targets time out just as 5X Graveyard does, and can be hit multiple times until it does. They also help Thing determine how well he's autoflipping.

Left/Right Outlanes:
When lit they score "Special" (on normal settings, this is a replay). "Special" can only be lit by Touring the Mansion, and normally only one outlane is lit at a time.

Skill Shot

Each time a ball is placed in the plunger lane, you have a chance to score the "Skill Shot". Hit the ball into Thing's eject for 2M the first time, then 3M, then 4M, and finally a maximum of 5M. These values increase for the duration of the game. Balls which do not land in the eject may circle around into the Jet Bumpers on a hard shot, miss the eject but still land in that area on a close shot, or fall into the swamp on a soft shot. If the ball misses the eject but does not touch any playfield switch, you may safely let it drain and get the ball back. In other words, you cannot score zero points on a ball (without tilting). The switch in the plunger lane near the swamp and the one just above the plunger do not count since they score no points.

Bear Kicks

The number of Bear Kicks accumulates throughout the game. You begin with 1 Bear Kick; each center ramp adds 1 to this value, or 2 when the "2 Bear Kicks" light has been lit via the near left inlane.

At a certain level of bear kicks, an extra ball will be lit at Thing's Eject. This value normally reflexes according to recent game play, but it is usually around 8 or 9. It is no less than 6 bear kicks, but apparently it has no maximum.

At 15, 25, 35, and 45 bear kicks, mansion rooms are spotted. The currently flashing mansion room will be awarded as if you had hit the electric chair or the swamp kickout, and happens even if the electric chair is not lit. Mansion rooms are not spotted during any of the multiballs; when the multiball finishes, one more center ramp shot will spot the room. (I'm not sure if you can stack mansion spots or not.) If you shoot the lit electric chair or swamp kickout before the room is spotted, that room will be announced before the one that was spotted. The "?" panel cannot be spotted by bear kicks.

Another extra ball is available at 50 bear kicks. This value does not reflex according to game play, but may be manually adjusted by the operator.

Mansion rooms are also spotted at 55, 65, 75, 85, and 95 bear kicks.

On the 99th bear kick, and every bear kick after that, a "Super Bear Kick" is scored. This is just 5M points, a neat animation showing "Super Bear Bonus", and a few booms off the sound board. At this point, no more mansion rooms can be spotted, no more extra balls can be lit via the ramp, and "2 Bear Kicks" has no effect.

Each bear kick ramp shot will display the cumulative number of bear kicks so far and announce the next level to be reached for an extra ball or mansion room. There is no hint to Super Bear Kicks before reaching it on the 96th, 97th, and 98th bear kicks.

THING Bonus

Million Plus ramp shots spot a letter in THING (spelled just beneath your score on the backglass). On normal settings, you begin the game with T-H-I already spotted. Complete THING to light THING Bonus at Thing's Eject (indicated by the yellow lamp). THING Bonus starts at 5M the first time, 10M the second time, up to a maximum of 15M. T-H-I is only spotted once (if at all). Shooting this award causes Thing to come out of his box, but the ball is set back down into the eject when the animation finishes.

"Lite Star" is lit whenever you shoot the left orbit. It remains lit until either it times out in a few seconds or you miss the left ramp shot from the upper right flipper. When this lamp is lit, the left ramp also lights a Star on the backglass. You can light up to two stars in this fashion, and when you collect the Thing Bonus, each star is worth 5M. This value does not increase.

On very early prototypes, the yellow lamp above the Thing Ramp was also lit to lock balls since there was no green lamp. Also, early versions carried over the value of the Million Plus ramp from ball to ball by default. Wow!

THING Flips

Whenever Thing Flips is lit in the far left inlane, shots to the bear kick ramp are sent down the left chute to the left mini-flipper. Thing will flip the ball for you; hopefully it should land in the swamp most of the time. The machine uses artificial intelligence and maintains data from previous flips to determine how it's doing. It tries to maintain a success rate between 40% and 60% (while normal players usually average around a 25% success rate), though on properly maintained machines it can be almost perfect all of the time.

The Swamp Millions targets are lit, so if Thing misses you may be able to pick up some points there. The standard Graveyard timer is still in effect, so Swamp 5X will remain lit for a few seconds on a miss. If Thing misses but hits some swamp targets, the machine tries to recalculate things for the next flip based on the landing of the shot (high or low).

After three complete misses, the machine will throw out all the data and start from scratch. There is also a menu option that will let the operator manually throw out all of the data.

Thing Flips is not lit in the far left inlane during multiball, multiball restart, or Thing Multiball countdown.

Multi-Ball(TM)

The first step in getting to multiball is lighting locks. You light locks by spelling G-R-E-E-D (hitting the bookcase the appropriate number of times). On your first multiball, the first switch you trigger each ball spots a letter. You can also gain a "cheat" GREED letter by tilting. When G-R-E-E-D is spelled, the bookcase opens and the vault is revealed.

If the ball happens to go into the vault while the bookcase is closed, GREED will automatically be spelled, the bookcase will open instantly, and the first ball is locked. This is called a "dirty pool". I like it.

For the first multiball, Thing's Eject and the Vault will lock your first ball (indicated by the green lamps). Lock one ball to serve another to the plunger, unless no balls are in the trough, in which case one will be kicked out from the Swamp Kickout. You may lock this second ball in Thing's Eject, the Vault, or the Swamp. Locking two balls lights both the Electric Chair and the Vault (the red lamps) to release all balls and begin Multi-Ball, and also turns on the Power magnets.

Once the third ball is locked, all balls will be released. The first and third balls will come from the Swamp Kickout; the second will come from either the Electric Chair or the Swamp Kickout, depending on where the last ball was locked.

The initial jackpot value is 10M. Shoot the Train Wreck target to collect the Jackpot. Shoot the Million Plus Ramp to score the Super Jackpot (for the first multiball, this is a Double Jackpot.) After collecting a Jackpot or Super Jackpot, the vault will open; shoot a ball in the vault to relight the Super Jackpot.

During multiball, bookcase hits and center ramp shots add 1M to the jackpot, up to its maximum value of 25M. By default the jackpot value increases until it is awarded, between multiballs and multiball restarts. Once the jackpot is collected, the jackpot value resets to 10M. You can continue to collect Super Jackpots as long as you can keep two balls in play.

If you fail to collect a Jackpot, you can restart multiball by shooting Thing's Eject within 20 seconds. During this time no mansion rooms or stars can be collected, Thing Flips is not lit, and all center ramp shots will be sent to the right flipper. The Power is not active during multiball restart.

Restart is a two-ball multiball, and begins immediately after plunging the second ball into play. The skill shot here can set up a pretty easy shot at the Train Wreck target and the Left Ramp. Both the Jackpot and Super Jackpot are lit after the restart. However, if you can't hit Thing's Eject, well, "sorry old man", multiball ends. There is only one restart per multiball.

Mansion rooms, Stars, Swamp 5X, and Thing Flips cannot be collected during this and any other multiballs.

For the second and subsequent multiballs on normal settings, you must spell GREED via five bookcase hits, and only the Vault will lock balls one and two. The third can be locked in the electric chair or the vault on the second multiball, but only the Vault will be able to lock ball three to start the third multiball. Super Jackpot is three times the base Jackpot value for all but the first multiball.

In a multi-player game, it is possible for one player to "unlock" another player's locked balls. For each unlock, the swamp will be lit to relock the ball. This is regardless of difficulty settings or which level of multiball you are playing. The ball can be easily locked again just by plunging softly so that the ball falls right into the swamp from the plunger lane; it's a nice fix to the "stolen balls" problem common in manual plunger games.

Mansion Rooms

There are 13 rooms in the Addams' mansion that can be collected by shooting either the electric chair or the swamp kickout when the yellow lamp is lit. The chair is normally lit at the beginning of each ball, and is relit by shooting either the left or center ramp.

The next mansion room to be awarded will be flashing; rooms that have already been awarded will be solidly lit. The jet bumpers change the currently flashing room. The last mansion room, denoted by "?", is only available after all of the other 12 have been collected.

At the beginning of the game, and after the mansion is reset because you completed all of the rooms, either "Mamushka" or "Cousin It" will be the currently flashing room.

The total number of mansion rooms collected over the course of the game is counted and contributes to your end of ball bonus. Unlike Bear Kicks, you start the game with zero mansion rooms.

Mansion rooms can also be spotted (i.e. awarded for free) by hitting the bear kick ramp enough times; see "Bear Kicks".

When the twelve rooms have been collected, the Question Mark is lit in the Attic. Collecting the "?" starts "Tour the Mansion" (see below). You do not have to relight the electric chair/swamp kickout via the ramps or the right inlane in order to collect this award. You can't spot "?" via Bear Kicks; surpassing a level that would normally award a mansion room just wastes that opportunity whenever "?" is the only room left.

Each mansion room is described in more detail below.

Mansion: 3 Million
Awards 3 million, and on normal settings, spots the 6M mansion room if it has not yet been collected. For the purposes of end-of-ball bonus, the spotting of the 6M panel by this award is not considered to be an earned mansion room.

In "The Addams' Family Gold Edition", this panel has been replaced by Pugsley and Wednesday's Trap Door. See the section called Metacommentary for more information about TAF Gold.

Mansion: Graveyard at Max
Advances all jet bumpers to flashing status; each jet now advances the Graveyard value by 30K until the end of the current ball. At the beginning of the next ball, all jet bumpers will return to unlit status.

I'm not sure if this award affects the Grave targets at all, but the normal way to advance jet bumpers is by hitting Grave targets.

Mansion: Hit Cousin It
This is a 20 second timed round, during which all targets score 200K. Each hit to Cousin It, however, increases the target value by 50K, and scores 2M points.

The timer used in this and all other timed rounds will stop whenever any ball in play is in an eject or a tunnel. This means that rounds which continue into regular multiball tend to last a lot longer than 20 or even 30 seconds. It will also stop temporarily during a ball search but then restarts again.

Also, the target value is scored for every switch tripped, so the ramps and sinkhole shots will always trip more than one switch.

Your Cousin It bonus is initially credited with 1M points at the start of the round.

Mansion: The Mamushka
This is a 20 second timed round during which all targets score 250K. There is no way to increase the target value.

Your Mamushka bonus is initially credited with 1M points at the start of the round.

Mansion: 6 Million
Awards 6 million points. On normal difficulty settings, it also spots the 3M mansion room if it has not yet been awarded.

Mansion: Quick Multiball
Lights Quick Multiball at Thing's Eject. This remains lit until it is collected (by default). You cannot lock balls at Thing's Eject or collect the Thing Bonus while it is lit. It becomes unavailable temporarily during any multiball or multiball restart.

Shoot Thing's Eject to begin. Thing will take the ball and send it to the swamp kickout; another ball will be served to the plunger unless two balls have been locked, in which case it will come from the Swamp Kickout. During Quick Multiball, the Vault will be open and will score 5M points. This value increases by 1M each time "Vault Millions" is collected or the center ramp is hit, up to a maximum value of 10M.

There may be some problems with this round or Thing Multiball whenever Tunnel Hunt is running; see "Mansion: Tunnel Hunt".

If Thing Multiball is counting down while Quick Multiball is lit, Thing Multiball only will be started instead.

Mansion: Tunnel Hunt
This is a 20 second timed round in which you should shoot the three tunnel shots: the electric chair, the swamp (or swamp kickout), and the vault. They may be shot in any order. The first scores 5M, the second is worth 10M, and the third is worth 15M.

The round starts with the quote "Look darling, just what we've been searching for" by Morticia. The quotes for each tunnel searched are: 1st tunnel: "Perhaps it's in here."

2nd tunnel: "There it is."

3rd tunnel: "Just what we've been searching for."

If the electric chair is lit, hitting the electric chair during Tunnel Hunt will also award another mansion room. (Same goes for the swamp kickout.)

If the vault was previously lit for lock, you will not be able to lock balls during Tunnel Hunt. It will relight at the end of the round. Once the vault has been hit, it will close. If Quick Multiball or Thing Multiball is running, it may or may not close (hopefully it won't, of course).

Plunging a ball into the swamp while Tunnel Hunt is running does not give credit for the tunnel. Hitting the bookcase during Tunnel Hunt when the vault should be open will not convince the game to open it.

Mansion: Seance
This is a 20 second timed round during which the next three ramp shots (either Million Plus or Bear Kick ramp) will score 5M, 10M, and 15M each. The Power magnets are enabled throughout the round.

The round starts with Gomez saying "Seance ... knock three times." Successive ramp shots will then producing one, two, or three knocking sounds followed by Gomez saying "Once", "Twice", or "Thrice ... well done."

Bear Kick ramps will always feed to Thing's mini-flipper, except when Thing Multiball is counting down. Thing Flips is still possible during Seance.

Mansion: 9 Million
Awards 9 million points. Wow.

Mansion: Thing Multiball
Much like Quick Multiball, this is a count-down award lit at Thing's Eject. Hitting this immediately scores 15M, but this value counts down quickly to 3M before it expires. There is a short grace period once the timer reaches 3M. Shoot Thing's Eject to score the value immediately and set the value of the vault during Thing Multiball. During the countdown, *all* bear kick shots will return the ball to the right inlane, no matter what. Thing Flips inlane is not lit during the countdown or the actual multiball.

A second ball is sent to the plunger if possible (see "Quick Multiball" for details if this is not the case), and multi-ball play begins as soon as it is plunged, in the same manner as Quick Multiball. However, the value of the vault is fixed and cannot be increased.

If Thing Multiball is counting down while Quick Multiball is lit, Thing Multiball will be started instead, and Quick Multiball cannot be collected until Thing Multiball ends.

If you have spotted Thing Multiball by bear kicks, you can shoot Thing before the mansion fanfare finishes. However, you will NOT be awarded the instant 15M points. The vault value is still fixed to 15M and an otherwise normal Thing Multiball continues.

Mansion: Raise the Dead
This award starts a 30 second timed round in which hits to the jet bumpers add to your Raise the Dead bonus. The bumpers will all flash, even though this award has nothing to do with the normal status of the jets (unlit, lit, and flashing). Shoot each bumper four times to score 3M points; each bumper hit is also worth 100K also. The Raise the Dead bonus begins at 2M.

Whenever one of the bumpers is hit for the fourth time, it becomes solidly lit. The dot matrix will show you a grave for each of the bumpers and how many more times each bumper needs to be hit.

When all bumpers have been hit four times, the round ends immediately. You can, however, continue to collect 100K per hit for bumpers which have already been hit four times until the round is over.

Mansion: Extra Ball
This mansion room simply lights an Extra Ball at Thing's Eject. Under normal settings, it will remain lit until collected.

Tour the Mansion

Whenever the 12th mansion award has been collected or started, the electric chair will be re-lit automatically and the "?" will be flashing. Shooting the chair (or swamp kickout, of course) will start "Tour the Mansion", which is as follows:

All of the mansion rooms become unlit. Basically, Tour the Mansion has a lot in common with Whirlwind in that the mega-award is simply to re-award everything (almost everything, actually).

50 million points is awarded (as clearly indicated by Gomez). The 3M, 6M, and 9M rooms light up at this point.

"Special" is lit in the outlanes. By default, these outlanes are "hard", meaning that only one of them is lit at a time, changing whenever a slingshot is hit. Quick Multiball lights up now, even though it has nothing to do with Specials.

The Graveyard is maximized (all jet bumpers flash). The corresponding room is lit.

An extra ball is lit at Thing's Eject, and the EB room is lit. This is a temporary extra ball, which must be collected before you drain or it will go away.

Each of the remaining room rounds is started one at a time, in the following order: Mamushka, Hit Cousin It, Seance, Tunnel Hunt, Raise the Dead, and Thing Multiball. The first five are all timed and end as soon as the timer expires or you drain. Thing Multiball ends if you fail to start the round (as usual by shooting Thing's Eject), or if you do start two-ball play, when you return to one ball.

Any rounds running when the Tour is started continue to run during the Tour. It is extremely distressing if you have to contend with the Power during the Tour because you had started the Seance round before starting the Tour.

If you reach a number of bear kicks that would ordinarily spot a mansion room while Touring, that free room is wasted. It does not carry over to the next mansion, nor does it affect Tour the Mansion in any way.

If you complete all of the above, the Tour ends quietly. For the remainder of that ball, you will be unable to collect mansion awards.

The extra ball lit by Touring is "hard" by default; it must be collected on that ball or it will disappear. Likewise, "Special" will also be unavailable after the ball ends.

Any Mamushka, Cousin It, and Raise the Dead bonuses collected before Touring carry over into the Tour, i.e. your base totals for the round are what you had before you toured, plus the 1M or 2M normally given for starting the round.

Previous versions of this guide said that "?" isn't really considered a mansion room since it isn't added to the count as part of your end- of-ball bonus. This is wrong: starting Tour the Mansion awards one mansion room just like all of the other rooms. Each mansion round played during Tour the Mansion, however, has no effect on this counter.

End of Ball Bonus

Bonus is calculated at the end of each ball as follows: 100K for each bear kick, up to the maximum 99.

500K for each mansion room, with no apparent limit. The display has trouble with values over 99, though.

The sum of the above is multiplied by the bonus multiplier, from 1x to 5x.

Any Mamushka, Cousin It, and Raise the Dead totals are added.

Scoring 20M or more in bonus generates a quote from Gomez: "Who says you can't take it with you?" However, the quote will not be delivered unless you played at least one of the timed rounds during the ball.

Combos

There are two 3-way combos, worth 5M each:

Right inlane, Adv Bonus X loop, Million Plus Ramp

Adv Bonus X loop, Million Plus Ramp, Swamp

And one 4-way combo, worth 10M:

Bear kick ramp, Adv Bonus X loop, Million Plus ramp, Swamp

Scoring the 4-way combo also awards the points for the 3-way combo (since the first 3 of the 4 forms one of the 3-way combos). This makes the 4-way very valuable: 15M + bonus X advanced + at least 1M from the ramp + at least 5M for the 5X graveyard value + 5M for the Star when you collect Thing Bonus.

Defaults

The following information was taken from The Addams Family manual, courtesy of Jonathan Deitch (musjndx@gsusgi2.gsu.edu). It is a list of game features that can be altered by the operator. Normally these are left alone, but adjusting the overall difficulty of the machine or setting games to 5-balls will change a lot of these.

1. Extra Ball Percent: desired % of games in which the first Bear Kick extra ball should be collected. This value is used internally to reflex the number of bear kicks required. Range is 15-40% It can also be set to FIXED such that the first bear kick extra ball level does not reflex. Default is 25%.

2. 1st Bear Kick extra ball level: set 1. to fixed and this option will set the number of bear kicks required for the first extra ball. Default is 8.

3. 2nd Bear Kick extra ball level: This value ranges from 30-99 and does not reflex. Default is 50.

4. Train Wreck Extra Ball Available: Default is to award extra balls at a certain number of train wrecks.

5. Bear Kick EB Memory: Default is to hold between balls.

6. House EB Memory: Default is to hold between balls.

7. Train Wreck EB Memory: Default is to hold between balls.

8. Last Thing Lock: This is the final multiball level on which Thing will lock balls. Default is for the first multiball only. This value ranges from 0-5.

9. Last Swamp Lock: This is the final multiball level on which the Swamp will light to lock ball two. Default is for the first multiball only. The value ranges from 1-5.

10. Last Chair Release: This is the final multiball level on which the electric chair can be shot to start multiball. Default is for the first and second multiballs. The value ranges from 0-5.

11. Jackpot Carryover: When set this retains the value of the jackpot until it is hit; when off, the jackpot will reset at the end of each multiball or multiball restart. Default is to carryover jackpots.

12. Million Plus Memory: Default is to reset the value of the Million Plus at the end of each ball. Change this and scoring would become atrocious.

13. Million Plus Maximum: Default upper limit of the Million Plus is 10M. This value can range from 5M to 20M.

14. Thing Multiball Start: This value can range from 10M to 20M. Default starting value of Thing Multiball is 15M.

15. Room from Swamp: Default is to award mansion rooms from the swamp kickout.

16. Free THING Letters: Up to 5 THING letters can be spotted at the beginning of the game. Default is 3.

17. Raise the Dead Hits: The number of hits per jet bumper can be set from 3-9. Default is 4.

18. Train Wreck Hits: By default, 2 hits are required for the first Train Wreck. This value can range from 2-4. Successive train wrecks always require 1 more hit up to the maximum of 6.

19. Special Memory: By default, specials disappear at the end of the current ball.

20. Train Wreck Memory: By default, the train wreck hits count carries over between balls.

21. Quick Multiball Memory: By default, Quick Multiball will remain lit between balls until it is hit.

22. Tour EB Memory: By default, the Extra Ball lit during Tour the Mansion will disappear at the end of the current ball.

23. Tour Difficulty. Default is a medium setting, in which the 6M and 3M rooms will spot each other. On the hard setting, each must be collected separately.

Problems

While this game is perfect in many ways, none is completely immune to problems or failures. Here are some of the more common problems:

Balls can get stuck inside the swamp, on the swamp, on top of Thing's box, on jet bumpers, and on the circular plate that the bookcase sits upon. The machine will perform ball searches until it finds the missing ball -- firing all the jet bumpers, spinning the vault, etc. *but* it will not fire the swamp kickout if a ball has been locked there at first. Eventually, if the ball has not been found, it will serve a new ball in the plunger lane, or if no balls are in the trough, it will try to fire one from the swamp kickout.

If you tilt, it will end the current ball, but the next ball won't start until it finds the missing ball(s). The only solution short of removing the stuck ball at this point is to power cycle the game and start over unless you have locked balls; it will kick out ALL locked balls after two or three ball searches. However, once these drain, if the ball is still lost the problem can easily resurface.

If you abort the game and start a new one, when pressing Start the game will let you know if a pinball is missing and try to find it a couple of times, but eventually it will give up and play with what's available. There are only three balls installed in the machine; it will function even if only one is available (though obviously multiball loses its meaning :-)

The only diverter is located in the upper left corner where the two ramps meet. If it gets stuck, you may find all balls going to the same spot -- either the mini-flipper or the right inlane. This may or may not be a "problem". I've also heard of balls getting lodged back there somehow.

If the machine decides that there are faulty switches (because they haven't been hit in a while), it will try to compensate. If one of the ramp switches is bad, the other ramp will award both of them. If the bookcase won't open, you can lock balls at the Thing Ramp. If Thing can't pick up the ball from the eject, then it will just remain there. I'm sure that there are many more that I haven't seen.

Quotes

Someone has already taken care of this for me. A list of all the quotes is currently available from the r.g.p. FTP archive on pinball.cc.cmu.edu, as /Quotes/taf.quotes

Music

The following is a list of the musical pieces in The Addams Family:

Addams Theme: Played at the beginning of your first ball until you plunge the ball into play. Also played during attract mode and the explanation of "Tour the Mansion."

Normal Game Theme: Played during normal game play, when no special rounds are active.

Mamushka Theme: Played during the Mamushka round.

Cousin It Theme: Played during Cousin It round.

Tunnel Hunt Theme: Played during Tunnel Hunt round.

Seance Theme: Hardly music, but played during Seance round.

Raise the Dead Theme: Played during Raise the Dead round.

Thing Multiball Countdown Theme

Quick/Thing Multiball Theme: Played during quick MB rounds.

Multiball Release Theme: Played while two balls are locked and you're trying to lock the third for Multiball.

Multiball Theme: Played until you score your first jackpot.

Jackpot Theme: Played after you score a jackpot UNTIL YOU END THAT BALL, even after multiball is over, or until you start multiball again. It's a souped-up version of the Addams Theme.

It's also the Enter Initials Theme.

Multiball Restart Theme: Played while Thing Multiball restart is lit, it's just one particular part of the Addams Theme being played over and over. The same music is also played while the features of "Tour the Mansion" are being explained.

Cows

Like most Bally/Williams pinballs, there are cows in this game (or at least images of them). During attract mode, there is a sequence of flipper button/start presses that will cause the cows to come up during attract mode. There is also a sequence that causes the game's credits to appear with rather loud accompaniment.

Using the notation L=left flipper, R=right flipper, and S=start button:

Cows: 7L, 1S, 14R, 1S, 20L, 1S

Credits: 13L, 1S, 1R, 1S, 2L, 1S

These sequences only work for L-1 machines and later, and sometimes you may have to power cycle the game to get it to work. Also, there can't be any credits on the game at the time, since hitting the start button would thus begin a game.

Metacommentary

The Addams Family was released in 1991, and was designed by Pat Lawlor, creator of Whirlwind, Funhouse, and later, Twilight Zone and Road Show. It was, of course, inspired by the television series of the same name. Since then, it has become the number one selling pinball of all time, surpassing such classics as "Eight Ball Deluxe".

To commemorate this noteworthy accomplishment, in the spring of 1994 TAF was placed back onto the production line -- 2500 "Gold Edition" machines were made, mostly for collectors and not distribution. There are differences between the new TAF Gold and the original, such as:

Gold-colored lockdown bars, jet bumper caps, vaults, and Thing boxes.

More quotes have been added; none have been removed.

A new game feature called "Cousin It's Lost items". Some of the mansion rooms contain hats, hairbrushes, keys, etc. worth bonus points and even extra balls and specials.

The 3M mansion room has been replaced by "Pugsley and Wednesday's Trap Door". It scores 3M but serves as a link to another one of the mansion rooms. Because of this, it does not automatically spot the 6M mansion room anymore.

For more detailed information on TAF Gold, see Keith Johnson's rulesheet.

Conclusion

This "Addams Family" guide has been brought to you by Brian Dominy (gt6139a@prism.gatech.edu) but with the help of many others. Thanks to Kevin Martin, Jonathan Deitch, David Hammett, David Stewart, Mark Cook, Keith Johnson, Tom Capek, Brian Toothman, and all others who have contributed in one way or another. Enjoy!

"Rest in peace."