Austin Powers Rulesheet Version 0.99 (Mar/02/2003), by David Gersic

Rulesheet for Austin Powers - Stern

Version 0.99 - 2 March 2003
Author: David Gersic
Updates by: "supercat"

Disclaimer: Austin Powers is copyrighted and trademarked by somebody.

Playfield Layout:

As always, starting at the bottom and working clockwise.

Laser Canon: Along the top, left edge of the score card apron is a moving ball launcher. Balls are fed in from the left ramp. When enabled, the canon swings out to aim up the playfield. There is a "Fire" button on the lock down bar to fire the canon at the designated shot.
Flippers: Two standard flippers, right about where you'd expect to find them.
Left Inlane: A normal inlane. The left ramp dumps the ball here if it is not fed to the Laser Canon. Has the "H" of "S-H-A-G".
Left Outlane: A normal outlane. Has the "S" of "S-H-A-G".
MOJO Standups: Two standup targets.
Mini Me: A spinner with a plastic "Mini Me" figurine on it in place of the usual paddle. It is counterweighted and spins well when hit. This is at the entrance to the Left Loop, which leads all the way around to the Right Loop.
Fat Bastard Ramp: A short ramp leading to a toilet seat with Fat Bastard. The ball exits the toilet to the "Mini Me" lane to its left.
Big Frickin' Laser: The left ramp. Loops around behind Fat Bastard, down past Mini Me, and exits to the Laser Canon or the Left Inlane.
Left Standup: A small standup target at the left side of the entrance to the Time Machine ramp. Goes "beep" when you hit it.
Time Machine: Right in the centre of the playfield, there is a short ramp that leads up to a spinning disk with a pinball sized hole in the middle. Shots to this toy are stopped, then released out the back in to the Loop and returns via the Mini Me spinner.
Right Standup: A small standup target at the right side of the entrance to the Time Machine ramp. Goes "beep" when you hit it.
Dr. Evil: A motor driven (up/down) target shaped like the good doctor. When up, hit him with the ball to score ???. Comes up briefly at the beginning of ball, to show you that he's there.
Rollover Lanes / Skillshot: Two rollover lanes. At the beginning of a ball, one will be lit to collect the skillshot (Bonux 6X).
Pop Bumpers: Three. What's to say? They're pop bumpers.
Austin Powers Hole: A scoop beneath a large Austin figure. Drop the ball in the scoop and watch Austin spin. Has playfield lights leading up to it for ???.
Right Ramp: ??? Loops around the back, then down the right side and exits to the Right Inlane.
Right Loop: ???
Right Outlane: A normal outlane. Has the "G" of "S-H-A-G".
Right Inlane: A normal inlane. The Right Ramp dumps the ball here. Has the "A" of "S-H-A-G".
Ball Plunger: A combo-plunger. The player uses the manual plunger. The game can auto-launch balls to start multiball, ball savers, etc.

Rules:

As with many recent games, Austin Powers is a mode based game. Complete the major shots a number of times to start a mode related to that shot.

One of the most interesting features of the Austin Powers pinball machine is that each of the six main modes has a definite successful completion. During normal play, you may look at the lights for a mode to identify one of three states:

-1-

Mode has never been started. The red light for the mode will be dark while the lights below will indicate one of the following patterns [bottom to top]

Flash	Off	Off	Off	4 hits will start mode
ON	Flash	Off	Off	3 hits will start mode
ON	ON	Flash	Off	2 hits will start mode
ON	ON	ON	Flash	next hit will start mode

-2-

Mode has been started but not completed (i.e. 'failed'). The red light at the top will be lit, but the lights below will be as per -1-.

-3-
Mode has been completed. All five lights are lit solidly. Making the shot will award a "GROOVY" sound and graphic and award 1M, but have no other useful effect.

Completion criteria for each mode:

Mini Me
Complete the Mini Me spinner four times to start Mini Me Hurryup. Hit the Mini Me spinner again to lock in the value, then more times to collect that score. During this mode, the number of flashing lights below the "Mini-Me" lane will show the number of shots remaining.

Fat Bastard
Complete the Fat Bastard ramp shot four times to start Fat Bastard Multiball. This is a four-ball multiball with jackpots. Hit all six shots four times each during multi-ball. The number of flashing lights below each target shows the number of shots remaining. The fourth hit on any shot is worth Super Jackpot, but additional hits (until all six have been hit four times each) score nothing. Lots and lots of farting, too. There is a generous ball saver on the multiball start.

Frickin' Laser
Complete the Laser ramp shot four times to enable the Big Frickin' Laser. Up the ramp again to load the ball launcher. It swings out to aim at the playfield, and you hit the "Fire" button to shoot the laser into the Austin Powers hole. If you miss, you may try again immediately (without shooting Laser ramp four more times) by shooting the ramp within a short time limit. If you miss a second time, you can get one more chance by shooting the ramp quickly. A third miss ends the mode immediately.

Time Machine
A cool and simple ball catcher. Shoot the ramp up to the hole in the spinning disk. Four times and you start Time Machine multiball. This is a two-ball multiball with jackpot shots. Hit all six shots once during multi-ball. If the lights below a shot are lit, it will award jackpot. Otherwise the shot will be worthless. Making all six shots will relight all six.

Sub-drill
Shoot both ramps four times each within time limit. The number of flashing lights below each ramp shows the number of shots remaining.

Henchmen
Shoot all six shots once each during time limit. The top red light near each shot will be lit until the shot is made.

S-H-A-G
Spell "S-H-A-G" by collecting the letters from the in/outlanes. Starts SHAG Hurryup.

Bonus Multiplier
Collect the top two rollover lanes to advance the end of ball bonus multiplier.

Except for the multi-ball modes (Fat Bastard and Time Machine), making all the required shots will cause a mode to exit immediately. In the multi-ball modes, you may keep going after making all the shots as long as you keep more than one ball in play. If you've made all the shots, however, the mode will become unavailable as soon as you lose multi-ball. Note, btw, that if Time Machine is no longer available, shots to the Time Machine become dangerous since the ball-saver associated with them will no longer be in effect.

Starting the fourth mode will light extra ball. Starting the sixth mode will enable Virtucon multi-ball. I've not figured out the exact rules of this mode, but it's a multi-ball mode with a very generous (over a minute?) ball-save timer. Each of six shots will score a 'jackpot' the first time you hit it, and hitting all six will reset the targets so they may be shot again. As a big incentive for completing modes, however, any mode that you've completed may be shot any number of times for a double jackpot. So if you've completed all six shots during the Time Machine multi-ball you can simply start bashing away at the Time Machine during Virtucon multi-ball for lots of points.

Each shot in Virtucon multiball will start with the red light lit; the shots for completed modes will also have the remaining lights flashing. Making a shot will turn off the red light but if the other lights were flashing they will remain so (you need to make all six shots to re-enable shots for non- completed modes, so having the red light turn off lets you know you've made the shot even though, as indicated by the other flashing lights, you may still shoot it again for Super Jackpot.

Based on the backglass display, I believe that completing all six modes will enable Moon-base multiball. I have not managed to do that, however.

The game features a not-terribly-useful "MOJO" multi-ball. After spelling MOJO in the left-side targets (or having the multi-ball enabled via Mystery), the game starts a two-ball multi-ball in which the goal is to bash Dr. Evil ten times. Once this is done, Dr. Evil drops down and the six main shots become available. Hitting Time Machine awards Super Jackpot and caused Dr. Evil to pop up until you hit him ten more times, etc. Dr. Evil is worth 1M, then 1.1M, etc. so bashing him enough times can start to get a little bit lucrative, though not a whole lot (30 bashes yield 45 million).

A few notes on scoring: watching the display won't tell you where many of the points in the game come from. The skill shot is worth 6M plus, and each extra bonus X earned in the top lanes is 1M. More significantly, starting any mode for the first time yields about 10M, and completing any mode yields about 15M. A successful laser shot, for example, shows up on the backglass as being worth 3M, but is in fact worth closer to 30M.

The machine does seem to have some annoying quirks sometimes. It is very odd in when it registers Mini-Me and Time-Machine (or, all too often, doesn't). The left ramp sometimes fails to award an "H" letter since the ball sometimes skips over the switch. Hitting Time Machine during MOJO multi-ball shortly after the machine registers loss of a ball will sometimes award Super Jackpot and cause Dr. Evil to pop up again and stay up during normal play (poses a bit of an obstacle).

Mode interactions are rather interesting. During multi-ball, no other modes are ever allowed, but otherwise many modes may overlap.

Mini-Me
Does not prevent starting any other mode. Runs as normal during most modes, but timer is suspended during multi-ball.

Fat-Bastard
No other modes possible

Laser
Other modes locked out during try-again timer. This timer also locks out the SHAG lights. You can still score letters, but you can't see the lights to know how to shift the lanes (BOO!).

Time Machine
No other modes possible

Sub-Drill
Locks out Laser, but other modes possible. Runs as normal during most modes, but timer is suspended during multi-ball.

Henchmen
Locks out other modes except perhaps MOJO multi-ball.

Starting Mini-Me or Sub-Drill just before Fat Bastard can be very lucrative, since you have lots of time and four balls with which to repeatedly bash the shots that need repeated hits.

Ball Savers

The game includes two ball-savers in addition to the very long ball-savers on multi-ball. If the ball drains immediately after SCORING the time-machine (it must be an eligible target) during single-ball play, the machine will try once to relaunch it (if the relaunch attempt fails, you lose). Also, if you start the SHAG Hurryup with an outlane during single-ball play you'll get the ball back. Note that for that to work the system must recognize that you are in single-ball play. Being in two-ball play and having both balls go down opposite outlanes simultaneously starting the hurry-up does not qualify.

Since the "Shoot again" light stops blinking well before the end of the multi-ball ball-saver, I have found the best way to judge the expiration of the ball-save is to listen to the music. The music has an ABAC pattern, and the multi-save ends around the start of the C [for Time Machine, it's the ominous slow notes; don't know how best to describe other modes].

As for the other two ball-savers, if the ball drains immediately after SCORING the time-machine during single-ball play, the machine will try once to relaunch it (if the relaunch attempt fails, you lose). Also, if you start the SHAG Hurryup with an outlane during single-ball play you'll get the ball back. Note that for that to work the system must recognize that you are in single-ball play. Being in two-ball play and having both balls go down opposite outlanes simultaneously starting the hurry-up does not qualify.

Artwork:

Very bright and colourful artwork. As expected, it's 1960s cartoony with flowers, psychedelic swirls and Brittish flags. If you're in to the theme, you'll probably find lots of cool things to look at.

For some reason, there is a small plastic cat screwed to the inside of the cabinet, near the upper right hand corner of the playfield. It's too small to be easily seen by the player and serves no obvious purpose. The next version of the hidden cow maybe?

Sounds:

Lots of theme-specific comments, voice quotes, and such. A few random "beep" noises for the standup targets by the entrance to the Time Machine ramp. As with the artwork, if you are in to this theme, you'll find lots to like here.

Comments:

I give the Stern guys high marks for theme integration on this one. Despite the fact that I don't care for the theme itself, it's well used and the various voice quotes and sounds fit well in to the game. The toys are appropriate and the Time Machine ball catcher thing is both simple and cool. The artwork is loud, but appropriate and (IMHO) attractive.

This game might be set up a tad too easy, as I only paid for my first credit, played three games, and had to leave with a credit still on it.

A few people have commented on the playfield layout so far. Maybe it's me, but it seems a lot like AFM or MM to me. The shots are pretty much the same, and in the same order, as AFM. This isn't a bad thing, as AFM was a popular game, but there's no new ground being broken in playfield design.

Copyright:

The Austin Powers theme, artwork, intelectual property, and etc. are covered by copyrights and trademarks, and the original artwork and pinball machine are covered by copyright and trademark by Stern Pinball Inc. The author makes no claims on any intelectual property rights of Universal, Mike Meyers, Stern Pinball Inc. or anybody or anything else.