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Demolition Man |
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Demolition Man Rules (LA-4 ROMs) By Jonathan Deitch and Brian Dominy. HTML Conversion by Brian Dominy. Anything and everything that Williams might consider to be their legal property is, in fact, quite likely their legal property .... in particular, according to the back of the manual, Williams, Lane-change, and Multiball are trademarks of Williams Electronics Games and Demolition Man is a trademark of Warner Bros. Demolition Man is the Williams pin to immediately follow Star Trek:TNG... and it is a widebody game. It is a *five* ball game, and has lots of stuff on the playfield. It has as many gizmos as Judge Dredd but has a much better design. In many ways, it's what Judge Dredd could have and should have been. The most distinguishing features are two handles mounted about six inches forward of the flipper buttons on the sides of the case sticking out above the surface of the topglass. The handles each have a trigger button which acts as a flipper button, and a thumb button on top used by some modes. There is not, so far as we know, a video mode, a special award, or any major major bugs .... so far. Playfield Description and Layout Flippers: There are two standard-length flippers at the bottom, and one upper left flipper at the bottom of the left loop. There isn't much space between the two bottom flippers, thankfully. Slingshots: The left slingshot is standard, but with a slight angle at the top to make the left inlane larger at the top. The right slingshot is shaped like ST:TNG slings at the top, but much narrower. It's more like a standard slingshot with a flattened top. Left Inlane: When lit, this inlane lights the Access Claw on the right ramp. Retina Scan: This is the leftmost shot of the game. The ball passes through a gate and into an eject that feeds the left inlane. If hit hard enough through the gate, it will hit the captive eyeball. Car Crash: Located to the left of the retina scan is the Car Crash target. Triggering the switch causes two miniature cars to crash. This is supposedly a "new feature." The ball will rocket off this target, but there's a ballsaver if it goes STDM. Left Loop: This loop is just to the right of the upper flipper. It feeds to a sinkhole when hit hard enough; otherwise, the ball passes behind the top ramp into the MTL rollovers. This shot can be lit to start multiball and award extra balls, otherwise it awards a mystery bonus. Lights are, from bottom up, Extra Ball, Start Multi-Ball, Explode, Jackpot, Combo arrow. Left Ramp: Directly to the right of the left loop is this ramp which always feeds to the left inlane. It can be lit for "Quick Freeze" and the "Car Chase" round. Lights are, from bottom up, Quick Freeze, Car Chase, Explode, Jackpot, Combo arrow. Upper Rebound : This is a three inch piece of rubber forming the left wall of the Center Ramp that is stretched across a switch ... hitting the rubber activates the switch, just like the left and right 110 switches on Whirlwind. Center Ramp (the ACMag): Located at the very top of the playfield, it is a wide ramp (three pinball widths wide) that is triggered only by a gate. Balls drop immediately and roll either down the left loop or into the MTL rollovers. The center ramp has a Jackpot lamp and a Combo arrow. The Center Ramp is bounded on the left by the Upper Rebound and on the right by the left jet bumper. Top Sinkhole: This shot awards a mystery bonus when nothing is lit; it awards multiball and extra balls when lit. This shot is most easily made from a left loop shot; occasionally, however, a ball will bounce in there from a lucky center ramp shot. MTL rollovers: In the top right corner are three rollovers which advance the bonus multiplier. Balls leave the rollovers into the jet bumpers. These are very hard to see from the player's point of view. Especially the leftmost (M) rollover. Jet Bumpers: There are two regular jet bumpers and a top slingshot which scores the same as a jet bumper. They advance the Retina Scan value. The left jet bumper can also be hit from the center ramp -- it acts as the right wall of the center ramp. Underground: This is a sinkhole to the left of the jets and to the right of the center ramp, with the opening on the left side. It is an easy shot from the upper left flipper, and it can also be made with a little luck from either of the lower flippers. The Computer and Demolition Time are awarded here. The Underground has a Jackpot lamp and a Combo arrow. The ball is returned, via a VUK to the right ramp habitrail. The Computer and Demolition time are indicated by yellow and blue lights mounted over the Underground entrance. Side Ramp: This is a small, twisting, and difficult ramp just below the Computer. It is used for the skill shot. The Side Ramp has a jackpot lamp and a Combo Arrow. Right Ramp: This is a tall ramp similar to the right ramp in Judge Dredd. It has a diverter which normally sends the ball to the right inlane, but it can send the ball to the Cryo-Claw when that feature is available. It's also used during the Car Chase round, and to score Super Jackpots. Lights are, from bottom up, Claw Ready, Car Chase, Explode, Jackpot, Combo Arrow. There is a Super Jackpot light mounted over the ramp. Right Loop: This shot feeds the ball past the MTL rollovers and all the way around to the upper left flipper. If it doesn't make it (ie: weak shot) the ball will fall into the MTL rollovers. Lights are, from bottom up, Explode, Jackpot, Combo Arrow. Right Inlane: When lit, this inlane lights the left ramp for a "Quick Freeze." Right Rebound : This is a three inch piece of rubber on the right side of the playfield, just above the right outlane. Just like the Upper Rebound, it is rubber stretched across a switch. Outlanes: There are posts on the inlane/outlane dividers, but they are very dangerous due to the crazy spins the ball tends to have. DM is shipped without rubber on these posts. There are no "Specials" or other awards in the outlanes. Standups: There are 5 yellow standup targets scattered about the playfield, like those in TZ. However, these targets are very important to game play. One is located directly below the upper left flipper; another is to the right of the left ramp; two more are angled to the left of the right ramp; and one is to the right of the right ramp. Cryo-Claw: This is the game's big gimmick. An "elevator" carries balls from the right ramp up to a magnetic claw which the player controls with the two gun triggers. The claw can be positioned and the ball dropped into one of 5 lanes, each starting a different "mode" (I use that term loosely). Depending on the mode chosen, the ball will return to a different position. There are four Multiball status lights stacked on top of each other dead center above the flippers and a set of four "Freeze" lights for locked balls in a gentle arc left to right across the lower middle playfield. The Ball-Saver is indicated by a pair of small red inlays just above each flipper. Lastly, each flipper has an anti-biff bar under it ... like it's possible to bang a ball back into play on a wide-body game with the new drain setup ... The Skill Shot is made by hitting the launched ball (assuming it makes it all the way around to the upper left flipper) up the side ramp from the upper left flipper. This is in actuality the first lit Combo shot and as such is worth 5million. The second made skill shot is worth 10mil, etc. Made skill shots increase the value of subsequent combo shots. Combos are the most important part of Demolition Man ... A combo is any sequence of the seven major shots when lit by its flashing red arrow. In a really neat feature, unlit shots lite the next shots in sequence ... in other words, you can keep hitting shots one after the other and the game will keep lighting the proper shots in sequence. Any major shot will light whatever shots can easily be made from that shot. Ie: Left inlane lights right ramp, right loop, AcMag ramp ... Right inlane lights Left orbit, Left ramp ... Right orbit (or AcMag/left roll) lights Computer and Side Ramp, etc. This is *not* as easy as it sounds ... Each combo awards a set value depending on how many shots you have hit in sequence ... 5M for the first, then 6M, 7M, etc. with no apparent limit. The scoring reverts to 5M when the lit flashing shots time out. You can make other shots in the meantime and the combos will remain lit. The skill shot increases the base combo value by 1 million. The side ramp will score "Double Combo" as the second part of a right loop/ side ramp combo. Four of the combo shots (left and right loop, left and right ramp) also have "explode" lites which award 10million a shot. Explodes are lit by hitting an *unlit* underground hole (i.e. not lit as a combo; it may be lit for Computer or Demolition Time). The Retina Scan also starts a "Explode Hurry Up" round which makes use of these lights. See Retina Scan for details. The Combo shots lite the Computer every 10 combos and an extra ball at 12 and 50 combos. The 12 combo extra ball is percentage adjustable. The Computer @ 10 combos is operator adjustable to 6,8,10,12 combos. Defaults are 10 combos/computer and 12 combos/extra ball. The Computer is accessed via the UnderGround shot and is lit by a yellow lamp immediately above. Lit every 10 combos, the Computer is a random award like the Camera on Twilight Zone. Awards seen so far :
This is the eyeball shot on the left side of the playfield. Shots that knock the captive eyeball into the upper target award the Retina Scan value. At certain numbers of Retina Scans hits, Explode Hurry Up is activated. It takes 1 hit for the first Hurry-Up, four for the next. All four Explode ramps are lit at a value of 15M that begins counting down. Hit any explode lamp to collect and add 10M to the value for the next Explode shot. The round times out when the countdown reaches 5M (or higher if you've collected a few of the shots). An extra ball is lit at three Retina Scans. Retina Scan shots feed to the left saucer which drops the ball into the left inlane. Placed immediately above the Retina Scan, the Car Crash contains two captive cars (yes, that's right ... captive cars) behind an impact target. Hitting the target adds to the Car Crash value and lights an additional Car Crash light. Hitting the target with three lights lit award the Car Crash value. Car Crash is worth three, then six, then ten million (for 1/2/3 hits) and is doubled if the top car hits the target at the end of the captive lane. Car Crash lights Car Chase on the left/right lamps. The Car Crash target has a terrible habit of deflecting the ball straight down the middle, but the software does compensate with a short duration ball saver. (Which, I'll warn you, can be turned off in LA-4 ROMs) It's also quite easy to shake the cars across their opto switches if your tilt is liberal enough. The top lock is accessible via the left loop and a lucky center ramp shot. It awards multiball and extra balls when lit and a mystery value when unlit. Mystery values include :
MTL Rollovers light an increasing bonus (2x, 3x, 4x, 5x) multiplier. They are *very* hard to see because of the two big ramps in the way. Getting the 5x bonus multiplier lights the extra ball on the left loop. Each completed MTL rollover sequence lights Access Claw. The Jet Bumpers increase the Retina Value. It starts at 5M and goes up 100K per jet. There are two Jet Bumpers and one slingshot ... the slingshot counts as a jet bumper. Jet Bumpers award 500k a Pop. The Claw is the other major important feature of Demolition Man. It awards five different modes culminating with a 'wizard award' of Demolition Time. The Claw is accessed via the right ramp when lit. Completing the MTL rollovers lights the left inlane which then lights the claw on the right ramp. The five claw award (from left to right) are : Start AcMag -- this mode returns the ball to the left inlane. Repeated center ramp shots award an increasing value just like Judge Dredd's excellent Safe Cracker mode. Animation is an increasingly bizarre range of objects being blown to kingdom come. Awards are 5mil to 12.5mil, then 6mil to 13.5mil, adding 1million for each successful center ramp shot. Lock Freeze -- This is a simple award, not really a mode. Lock freeze locks as many flashing Freeze lamps as you need to light multiball, or starts a multiball if lit. When you Lock Freeze to start a multiball, it starts the multiball with one *additional* frozen ball. VERY HANDY. The ball is returned to the saucer above the left inlane. Prison Break -- This is an award/shoot mode that's very quick. The ball is dropped above the upper left flipper. You are awarded 15million. A reflex shot into the Underground doubles this, a reflex shot into the side ramp triples this. Prison Break also lights Car Chase which is an alternating ramp award very similar to PayBack Time on T2. Awards are 5 million per successful ramp. Super Jets -- The Jet Bumpers are lit for 25 hits at 1million per hit. Each yellow target adds to the number of hits left. The Ball is dropped directly into the jet bumper area. Capture Simon -- The ball is dropped down a tunnel and served to the right ramp just like the Underground. The seven major shots are lit for 5mil each for three shots. Each 5million award is added to a 25million award for completing all three shots for a total of 40million. All Claw mode awards increase the second time around. This is the award for completing all five Claw Modes. It is accessed via the Underground which is lit via a blue light. All major shots are lit for 15million and stay lit. That's right -- all shots remain lit for as long as you keep more than one ball in play. Completing the five yellow targets adds a ball and increases the jackpot award by 5mil. Losing a ball decreases the award. All shots are totaled for a "Demolition Time Total" like LITZ is and is a separate high score table entry. Demolition time starts with an outright 50million point award. And some very, very neat sounds/animation ... These are similar to Twilight Zone's Greed targets. They are worth 1million plus 1million per number of hits (resets on each ball). Maximum of 20 hits. Depending on machine settings, One, Two, or Three sets of targets must be completed to light Quick Freeze, depending on whether Quick Freeze is set to easy, medium, or hard. Demolition Man has *four* multiball modes ... each of which has a variable number of balls. Ball locks are lit by lighting Freeze lamps via the yellow targets ... Balls are then locked via the left ramp or Claw. Multiball is started by hitting the top lock via the left loop or, sometimes, a lucky shot up the center ramp. Multiball can also be started, if all required balls are already frozen, via the Lock Freeze mode on the Claw. Fortress Multiball -- Requires one frozen ball. Jackpots are Center Ramp, UnderGround, Left Ramp. Then the Right Ramp is lit for a Super Jackpot. First three are normal jackpots, Super Jackpot is a Triple Jackpot. Base is 20mil to 35mil based on number of frozen balls and the yellow targets add 2mil to the base value. After getting the Super Jackpot, the center ramp relights to start over again. During the second go-round, more shots are required before the Super Jackpot is lit ... mainly, the left and right loops are added as Jackpot shots. Museum Multiball -- Requires two frozen balls. All shots are lit for jackpots. Once all jackpots are made, the right ramp is lit for the Super Jackpot. Base value is 25M (minimum since you froze two balls), jet bumpers add 1million. Wasteland Multiball -- Appears to function exactly like Fortress with larger jackpots (because of more freezes) and more than one jackpot can be lit at a time. Cryo-Prison Multiball -- All Jackpot shots are lit and ADD to the Super Jackpot which is lit for repeated shots to the right ramp. The regular Jackpot shots do not award Jackpots, though ... they *just* add to the Super Jackpot. Note that after shooting a Super, you have to shoot a regular Jackpot shot to relight it ... and you can't collect another Super Jackpot until the animation from the current one finishes. Interesting note -- Super Jackpot shots go to the Claw where they are returned to the left inlane. For the purposes of the DJ, all super jackpots count as jackpots. Then, all the jackpots are added up like this :
(# Fortress jackpots + 1) * 15M + Therefore, the minimum DJ you can get is 90M, if you didn't get a single jackpot. Also, if you start another multiball (Fortress) when the DJ is lit, it goes away (just like draining)! After you complete Cryo-Prison multiball, and hopefully collect the Demolition Jackpot, you start over with Fortress Multiball. Bonus count consists of 10mil for each claw visit, 1mil for each combo, and a bonus multiplier. Bonus can be speeded up by pressing both flippers. Note: you can repeat claw modes and each claw visit, NOT each lit claw award, scores 10M in bonus. There is a special trigger award ... see the spoilers for more details. Game Notes As I've noted in many posts, this game has *weird* physics. I've seen balls clear the entire playfield in the air ... roll in circles ... hit a wall and bounce 20 inches to clear a metal wall ... and worse. There is lots of rubber, lots of spin, and we all know what that ends up with. Animation is superb, and the L-1 sound ROMs are an exceptional improvement over the old P-1 ROMs. This game has the best sound other than Star Trek TNG I've heard ... for music alone, I think its actually better than STTNG. Ball play is fluid, albeit frenetic when the ball goes on one of its physics bending tricks. Shots lead fluidly from one to another. There doesn't seem to be a big scoring flaw in the game and scores seem to be stabilized in the 1 to 5 billion range. While this is still high, it's considerably better that STTNG's absurdly high scoring. Cows and Secret Awards There are a few secret awards from the triggers ... All combos made by using the triggers as flipper buttons award an additional 1 million at fun with bonus.
There are also three cows so far :
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