Adrian's Guide to
Indiana Jones the Pinball Adventure
Version 2.3
This rulesheet has been compiled and is maintained by me (Adrian)
with a substantial amount of input from a lot of r.g.p readers and
is kept on the pinball archive at rahul.net. If you find anything
that is incorrect or missing, mail me and I'll make an effort to
include it.
Disclaimer: The usual; Indiana Jones the Pinball Adventure is surely a
a trademark of Williams Electronic Games Inc., and is
licensed from Lucasfilm. Multi-Ball is also a Williams
trademark.
Preliminary Notes:
The machine I play, and consequently what this sheet is largely
based on, is running L-6 ROM's which is the latest revision I've
heard of. There are a lot of differences between the various
revisions which suggests that the initial P-x ROMs were riddled
with bugs. Wherever possible I have tried to list the
differences in the software, but I doubt I know them all so
don't be surprised if your mileage varies from what is written
below.
As well as the software differences, it should also be noted
that nearly everything is operator settable making it almost
impossible to compile definitive rules although I understand
that some of these settings have disappeared in later ROMs.
Although game play is fairly straight forward, there is a lot
to be uncovered in a prolonged game. I doubt you would be able
to say you had got everything until you had at least 3B points
racked up.
Playfield Layout
Note that this is a widebody machine of the same proportions as
The Twilight Zone. I will only state briefly what is there for now,
more detail will be contained in the description of play.
Starting from the left flipper and going anti-clockwise things on the
playfield are as follows:
- Left Inlane/Outlane
- The inlane lights Hand of Fate when lit and Special
can be scored from the outlane when lit. As is common with most
current machines the outlane can be adjusted but nowhere near as
far as on TZ.
- A-D-V Targets
- A group of three stand up targets - the first of three such
groups which spell out the word ADVENTURE.
- Left Orbit
- Depending on the mode the player is in, a shot around here
will either continue around and feed back to the right flipper,
or be stopped by a gate at the top of the playfield.
- Mode Saucer
- Just to the right of the orbit is a short (2") tunnel with
a saucer at the end. This is where Modes, the Hand of Fate and
Extra Ball are collected when lit.
- ADVENTURE Playfield
- The Indiana Jones equivalent of TZ's Battle the
Power, this is a raised section of playfield which can be
tilted left or right by the flippers to guide the ball over
some of the 8 rollovers and collect The Pit or Extra Ball. It takes
at least two shots to the upper playfield to score all the
rollovers.
Beta cabinets have metal walls on this section - production ones
have red plastic walls.
- Left Ramp
- Fairly steep ramp feeding to the left inlane via a habitrail.
Used extensively by the Modes and to light the Jackpot shot in
Multi-Ball.
- E-N-T Targets
- Three drop targets spelling the ENT bit of ADVENTURE.
Between them, they cover a Raise Jackpot target and the entrance
to the Lock/Hurry Up.
- Raise Jackpot
- A small target located behind the E-N drop targets used
during Multi-Ball, Dogfight and others.
- Lock & Hurry Up
- A sinkhole located behind the E-N-T targets which can be
shot with just the 'T' down.
- Pop Bumpers
- The traditional triangular arrangement of 3 situated behind
the sinkhole and under the left ramp. The ball can be fired up
back through the I-N-D-Y rollovers or leave down from the left
orbit or down from the Captive Ball.
- I-N-D-Y Rollovers
- Behind the Pop Bumpers. Spell INDY to advance Bonus X
and light a Friend. Lit rollovers can be moved left/right by the
flippers.
- Captive Ball
- A lane just to the right of the 'T' leads to a single drop
target which protects the captive ball. Hit the ball for Quick
Multi-Ball and Super Jackpot.
Note: The Captive Ball has two switches, one at the front and
one at the back. The one at the back generally awards higher
points but not much else.
- Right Ramp
- Another steep one. Used a lot by the Modes and can be lit
for Jackpot and Path to Adventure. Normally feeds to the right
flipper but will go to the left from Jackpot and Adventure.
- Right Orbit
- Used mainly during certain Modes. Works in the same way
as the left orbit.
- U-R-E Targets
- The third group of targets making up ADVENTURE. These
face opposite the A-D-V targets and are also the stand up type.
- The Idol
- Sort of like a horizontal version of FT's fishing reel, this
is where up to three locked balls are kept. Balls released from
this go across the right outlane to the right flipper.
There is a sound effect of an elephants' trumpet before each
ball is released - very useful during Multi-Ball.
- Right Inlane/Outlane
- Same as the left, the inlane lights Hand of Fate
and the outlane is good for a Special when lit. The divider
for these two lanes has a one-way gate at the crook which allows
balls fed from the Idol to get to the flipper, and at the crook
of the outlane there is a post which will give skilled players
to opportunity to bounce the ball back into the inlane. It can
be opened up a loooonnnggggg way though (further than TZ's left
outlane!!).
- Flippers/Slingshots
- Just the two of each in the usual places - flippers
are full length and apparently will stay that way as the machine
is not shipped with the small ones. Also, the gap between them
is quite small.
Playfield Awards
- Skill Shot
- There ain't one ..... :)
- I-N-D-Y Rollovers
- As with most things in IJ, the INDY rollovers serve
more than one purpose: increasing the bonus multiplier, lighting
Indy's Friends and (of course) scoring points. Completing them
increases BonusX (2x, 4x, 6x & 8x) and lights one of Indy's
Friends (see Orbits: below), and relights the inlanes for Hand
of Fate. Once you have reached 8x, subsequent INDY's are worth
a 10M 'Maximum Bonus' award (not P-3 ROMs) but there is a twist :)
At 8x, Extra Ball is also lit at the Mode Saucer. Collecting it
(or a 'Max Bonus') will cause BonusX to be reset to 1x on the
next ball. This is probably the easiest way to get lotsa EB's.
- Super Pops
- Enough hits on the pop bumpers will start Super Pops where
all hits are worth 1M each. 75 hits is the magic number, but it
is (of course) operator settable. Once lit, Super Pops is active
until end of ball which could lead to monster scoring. Each
successive Super Pops starts after 50 more hits than the previous
one (ie 125, 175, 225 etc).
- Narrow Escape
- Scores 1M after a right outlane drain which is saved
through the gate to the inlane. Second Narrow Escape is worth
2M, third 3M and so on. This value is held throughout the game
and apparently has no limit (Kevin has had it up to 52M!).
Note: The game recognises a Narrow Escape when the first rollover
in the outlane is hit, but not the second. Therefor, it is quite
common to score it even when you actually drain - especially when
that post is open to the max. Also, it is possible to trip the
outlane switch while the ball is deciding which lane it is going
to go down - this will also score a Narrow Escape
- Orbits
- Left and right orbit shots are worth 1M + (2M x Lit Friends) when
lit. This provides a minimum of 3M per loop since you get one
free Friend lit and a max of 11M per loop. Consecutive lit
loops are worth 2X, 3X, 4X the base with no known limit (7x is
the highest I've heard of). If you are good at loops, you can
get some pretty huge scores from lit loops .. :)
- Loop Jackpot
- This could also be called a 'Friends Jackpot' and is
scored in the following manner: Light all friends from the INDY
rollovers (lit Friends are denoted by a flashing light between
the slingshots), shoot lit loops to light each Friend solidly
(as opposed to flashing) then shoot the right ramp to collect
the jackpot. Scoring is the total of all lit loops collected
before the Jackpot is collected, to a maximum of 200M. The base
at the start of the game is 5M. If you fail to collect the Loop
Jackpot before the end of the ball when you light it, both the
Friends and the Loop Jackpot value are reset (value becomes 0M).
Note: If the right ramp is lit for Multiball jackpot and Friends
jackpot, one hit will collect both but only the animation
for Friends is displayed..
- Ramps
- Making a lit ramp is worth 1M and lights the alternate ramp
via the inlane. Hitting alternating ramps in succession
will score 1M, 2M, 3M, 4M and so on....
- Dogfight
- Shooting left and right ramps when lit will also spot a green,
winged light (seen amongst the Mode lights on the playfield).
Completing all six will start a Dogfight. Hurry Up is lit and
counts down from 40M, shoot the sinkhole behind the E-N-T
targets or the Raise Jackpot target to collect.
Note: The countdown will not start if the T target is still
standing so it is possible to score the whole 40M in
the same way that you might get a 'You cheat Dr Jones',
or hitting the Raise Jackpot.
- Quick Multi-Ball
- Three successful shots to the the drop target protecting
the Captive Ball will cause it to stay down and the captive
ball be lit for 2 ball Multi-Ball for 20 secs. During this
Multi-Ball shoot the Captive Ball to collect items.
Drop target hits are worth 1M, 2M, 3M for the three hits.
There are five items which can be collected from the Captive
Ball during Quick Two Ball Multiball as follows:
- The Idol of The Incas (10M)
- The Diamond of Shanghai (15M)
- The Remains of Nurhachi (20M)
- The Cross of Coronado (25M)
- The Fish of Tayles (30M)
Each subsequent hit is worth a 40M 'All Treasures Collected'
score with the first of these lighting the outlanes for Special.
If you do not get all the treasures on the first 2-Ball, they
remain spotted next time you get the Quick Two Ball.
Note: A good solid hit on the Captive Ball which causes the back
switch to close adds an extra 10M to the above values. This is
also sometimes called the Totem Multiball.
During Quick Multi-Ball, all values on the Path of Adventure are
doubled. I don't know if this includes the Pit value.
- The Hand of Fate
- Lit from the inlanes and scored by hitting the Mode
saucer. Lighting the inlanes is done by collecting INDY. If it
is not collected at the saucer within a certain time it will
timeout. The inlanes start out lit for 'Light Hand of Fate' at
the beginning of each ball.
The animation is similar to the Mystery award on
WhiteWater and is displayed twice - first showing a list of 4
awards and then choosing and awarding one of them. The list of
4 is selected from a larger list which includes:
- 10M points, 20M points, Lite Extra Ball, Eternal Life,
- Quick Multi-Ball, Bonus X, Dogfight, Loop Person,
- Lock Ball, Lite Path , Super Pops.
Notes: Loop Person spots one of Indy's friends, and the Eternal
Life timer is operator settable. Lock Ball will increment
the count of balls locked regardless of whether there are
balls in the Idol or not.
If Light Extra Ball is on the list of 4, it is always the
one which is awarded for some strange reason.
- Path of Adventure
- The letters from the word ADVENTURE can be spotted in
on of two ways: either a direct hit on the corresponding target,
or a hit on any of the three groups (ADV, ENT, URE) once that
group is lit which will spot the next unlit letter. To explain
the latter, if you have ADV_Ent_uRe, a hit on the ADV bank will
spot 'N' for you. The 'Raise Jackpot' target will spot a letter
if ENT are down.
Completing all the ADVENTURE targets lights the right ramp for Path
of Adventure. When complete, shooting the right ramp gets you with
the chance of playing on the raised mini-playfield. The objective
here is to tilt the field left and right in an attempt to steer
the ball over the lit rollovers (indicated by yellow lights) or
into one of the holes (The Pit & Extra Ball). The number of lit
rollovers increases by one each time you complete the Path
without collecting The Pit, up to a max of 6.
Awards are as follows: First set of rollovers completed lights
Extra Ball. Subsequent completed Path's light and then raise
the Pit value by 25M to a max of 150M. Each lit rollover is
worth 5M with a further 1M for each time you completed ADVENTURE
without actually playing PoA. (limit of 10M per rollover)
Once you have collected The Pit, PoA is still lit, but now the
lit rollovers are traveling (this is new for L-3) - I assume
the value of The Pit is reset. Hitting the first set of
traveling rollovers relights the EB hole on the raised playfield.
Path of Adventure will remain lit until the 15 sec timer expires,
or you drain. Complete ADVENTURE again to relight.
The Modes
It would have been nice to see these with a better definition than just
Mode - some sort of big concept that they are based around. Admittedly,
I can't think of anything that might fit the bill though.
Anyway, there are 12 of them based on significant scenes from the three
movies (4 modes for each movie) which are displayed in the big open
space in the centre of the playfield. They are collected by hitting the
Start Mode saucer which is always lit unless there is another Mode or
Multi-Ball running (it needs to be - the shot is harder than TZ's Slot
Machine IMHO).
There is a 5M bonus just for starting any of the 12 Modes which are
listed below in the order you would read them off the playfield:
- Castle Grunewald
- Hit the drop target, then pound away at the Captive
Ball for points. Scoring is 5M, 10M & 15M for the three hits
required for you to 'escape' from the castle making a total 35M
(5M for starting) for the round.
In L-5 revision, nailing the Captive Ball so that it hits the
second switch doubles the score for that shot (ie 10, 20 & 30M).
- Tank Chase
- Animation of Indy on a horse chasing a tank. Orbit value
starts at 15M and counts down to 5M. Each loop gets Indy a bit
closer to the tank and enough of them will get him onboard to
to destroy the tank for a 30M end of mode bonus.
Note: The loop does not actually need to be completed to count.
Early ROM's would count a loop if the two rollovers in the
lane were hit in quick succession. Therefor you could get
a loop credit from a ball leaving the pop bumpers on the
left. Later revisions require that the bottom rollover
be hit first.
- Three Challenges
- Shoot the right ramp for the Path to Adventure raised
playfield. Challenges 1,2 & 3 are completed by hitting all lit
rollovers for 10M, 20M & 30M respectively. All lit rollovers
have to be hit during one pass of the Path to collect the
points. This is pretty easy since they are usually in a row on
one or other side of the Path (although Keefer claims to have had
two next to each other on opposite sides!).
The switches which are lit depends on whether The Pit has been
collected or not; if not, you will have to hit 1, 2 & 3 switches
for the Challenges; if it has, you will have to hit traveling
lights but there is a bug here which makes it pretty useless at
this point anyway (see Bugs: below)
- Choose Wisely
- Animation of the knight telling you to choose wisely.
Five identical chalices are displayed, you are told which is
the genuine article then you have to keep your eye on it
while they are shuffled around. Then select using the flippers
and choose by pulling the trigger on the gun (the plunger).
Worth 5M if you blow it, 20M bonus if you get it right.
Classic animation if you get it wrong ...... ;)
Subsequent attempts are at different speeds and buggy (see Bugs:
below).
- Monkey Brains
- Rather gross display of a monkey's head with the brain
exposed to the world and steaming happily. Hitting ramps and
orbits scores 8M each and allows you to eat some brain (yuk!).
The animation for this mode is quite entertaining if you are
that way inclined, and the BUUUURRRRRPPPP sound effect is one
of my favourites. This is a timed Mode with no end of Mode bonus.
Note: See Tank Chase note regarding loop scoring.
- Steal the Stones
- Shoot the right ramp for a chance to steal the
Stones (yellow flashing lights) from the raised Path of Adventure
playfield. Each stolen stone is worth 5M and there is a 20M
bonus for collecting all 8.
Second time round, the last 4 stones float and you need to hit
the last 2 of these on one pass to complete the Mode.
- Escape in the Cart
- Video Mode animation of Indy going through a mine
in a cart. Use the flippers to choose which way to go to
avoid the barriers - make 25 correct decisions to complete the
mode and escape. Scoring is 5M plus 1M for each correct turn
and 10M bonus for getting half way and 30M for completion. Note
that the cart gets faster and faster the more turns you make,
and there are minor bugs here too (see Bugs: below).
- Survive the Rope Bridge
- Timed round in which Indy is trying to cross
the bridge. Successive ramp shots will move him further along
and score 10M each. Four ramps are required to get him across,
and a fifth to cut the rope. An Extra Ball will be lit at the
Mode saucer if you complete the round.
- Get the Idol
- The objective of this Mode is to steal the Idol by
shooting the lock sinkhole. This is complicated by the ENT
targets which keep resetting and getting in the way. Each reset
is accompanied by a quote as follows:
- Start Mode: There's nothing to fear here.
That's what scares me.
- First hit : Throw me the whip.
- Second hit: Throw me the Idol.
- Third hit : Give me the whip.
- Fourth hit: Adios, senor.
After this, the targets remain down to expose the sinkhole.
Scoring is 5M for 1 target, 10M for 2, and 20M for a sweep of
all 3. Collecting the Idol is worth 20M, ends the Mode and
locks a ball for Multiball.
It is possible to collect the Idol while the targets still
stand (ie a 'You Cheat' lock) but there is nothing special
awarded for doing this.
- Streets of Cairo
- Shoot the ramps and orbits to search for Marion under
boxes (she's under the one the monkey is screeching on) - 10M each
if Marion is not underneath. Finding Marion alters the display
to show Indy being menaced by a sword wielding Arab type - score
the Mode saucer to have Indy shoot him for a 20M bonus. It is
also possible to blast the Arab by pulling the trigger on the
plunger although that is only worth a paltry 2M points. There
is a total time for this mode, so the sooner you find Marion, the
longer you get to shoot the Arab, although you can rack up some
serious points by deliberately shooting the boxes she is not
under (this has changed for L-6 where you can only collect each
box once).
- Well of Souls
- Hectic 6 ball Multi-Ball during which successive shots
to the lock sinkhole are worth 2M x balls-in-play. Balls remain
locked in the sinkhole for a short time before getting thrown
back into play. After six shots into the sinkhole, the ENT
targets will start to reset for each hole scored making
subsequent shots a lot harder - it also helps if you start this
Mode with the drop targets down.
Animation is of Indy in a room full of snakes which he torches when
you hit the hole. This Mode lasts while there is more than one ball
in play and thus there is no bonus for end of Mode.
Get the Medallion: Video Mode in which the flippers aim Indy's gun
left and right to shoot bad guys in a the Raven Bar for 1M each
(firing is automatic). An EB appears after enough bad guys have
been toasted as does the Medallion (20 hits), shoot them to collect.
The round ends when you either collect the Medallion (for 15M bonus)
or the baddies shoot you enough (a lot like Video Mode in T2).
Second time round you need to hit 25 baddies to get the
Medallion to appear which (I'm told) is almost impossible.
Note: In the animation, this is called the Raven Bar Video Mode.
During the Modes a shot to the Start Mode saucer during a Mode is worth
a 1M Mode Bonus and the Captive Ball drop target is worth a 2M Mode Bonus.
The exceptions to this are Streets of Cairo (after finding Marion),
Castle Grunewald and the VM Modes (Choose Wisely, Escape the Mine and
Raven Bar/Medallion) when the ball is locked there.
As with Twilight Zone, the scores from these rounds are added to your
bonus at the end of ball and can be pretty big.
A neat thing about these is that it's not the pop bumpers which alter
the next lit one, but the ramps. Therefore, a skilled player should
be able to select the mode he/she wants by shooting the appropriate
number of ramps to light the required Mode and then collecting it.
Completing all 12 of the above lights Start Mode for:
Eternal Life MultiBall (Wizard award)
Completion of all 12 Modes awards the player with a 6 ball MultiBall.
Eternal Life is on for about 30 secs and balls are pumped out onto the
playfield. Every switch (except the outlanes) are lit for 10M each.
Collecting ALL switches including the PoA ones scores 1B and relights
all the switches for another go.
It would appear that this feature is one of the buggiest on the game.
Sometimes it will give the animation for the 1B but not the points,
and it will often leave the Path of Adventure playfield confused.
Combination Shots
There are no (known) combination shots on Indiana Jones. I suspect this
is due to multiple ramps/loops having other functions (ie Dogfight and
Friends Jackpot)
Extra Ball
This game is one of the most liberal when it comes to Extra Balls. Even
on 'hard' settings you can fairly easily get 5, and on most games they
seem to be unlimited. Also, all lit EB's are remembered between balls.
There are at least five ways of getting an EB from Indiana Jones:
Note: There are different Operator settings which allow different
numbers of available EB's. For example, some settings only allow
1 EB to be collected using the first method above (INDY rollovers)
whereas in others this is unlimited.
Multi-Ball
Multi-Ball on Indiana Jones is somewhat reminiscent of that on
FishTales.
- Briefly it's
- Lite Locks - Lock 3 balls - Multi-ball: shoot left
ramp to light jackpot, right to collect it (repeat twice) - Super
Jackpot: Lit from left ramp, collected by hitting captive ball.
- Locking Balls
- Shoot the E-N-T drop targets to open a path to the
sinkhole and lite the Lock. Balls can be locked with none of
the targets down and gets you the quote "You cheat, Mr Jones"
from Shorty and 5M.
- Multi-Ball
- Once 3 balls have been locked, you get an animation of our
hero being chased by a huge rolling boulder and Multi-Ball
starts. The 3 balls are returned from the idol to the right
flipper in fairly quick succession and Eternal Life is on
for a few seconds. Eternal Life is only on for the first
Multiball though.
- Jackpots
- There are three of them; The Ark, The Stones and The Grail
which are worth a base of 20M, 30M & 40M respectively. This base
can be increased in one of two ways: First, there is 'raise
jackpot total'. Shooting Start Mode adds 2M to it, the Captive
Ball target adds 3M, the Captive ball adds 5M (10M if you
really nail it and hit the back switch) and the Raise
Jackpot target adds something (anybody know how much?).
Second, shooting balls into the sinkhole will multiply the
(base + raise jp) value: 1 ball gets you 2x and lights Jackpot if
not already lit, and 2 balls gets you 3x.
Balls fired into the sinkhole remain in the Idol until one
of the following occurs:
- You collect the Jackpot. Balls are released and Jackpot
Multiplier is reset.
- You have no balls left active on the playfield. The next
ball is released from the Idol - Jackpot multiplier remains
unchanged.
- 20 second timer expires. Balls are released and Jackpot
Multiplier is reset.
Lighting the jackpot is done by successfully shooting the
sinkhole or making the left ramp. Collecting jackpot is done by
shooting the right ramp.
- Super Jackpot
- Collect all 3 Jackpots and Super Jackpot will be lit at
the Captive Ball. There are 3 levels: 80M for the Arc, 90M
for the Stones and 100M for the Grail, each one being lit from
the left ramp. The raise jackpot total applies to these, but
they cannot be multiplied and each one after the third seems to
be worth around 105M-115M.
In short:
Jackpots are worth: (base + raise jackpot)*(balls in Idol + 1)
Super Jackpots are worth: base + raise jackpot
Jackpots will remain spotted until you have collected at least
the first Super Jackpot and that multiball ends. Then you start
from the Ark Jackpot again on the next multiball.
- Multi-Ball restart
- There ain't one ..... However, if you do drain two
balls, the Jackpot remains lit until the timer expires (see
notes). (But the Super Jackpot never remains lit and has _no_
grace period.)
Notes: There are some significant differences between P-x and L-x for
Multiball:
- The ENT drop targets reset at the start of Multiball and every
time a ball gets sent to the Idol (2x & 3x multiplier) in L-x.
This behavior can be set in L-x with the Easy Multiball option.
- Super Jackpot values for P-x are 100M, 125M & 150M
If the Friends Jackpot is lit, the regular Jackpot will still be
collected by a shot to the right ramp (so will the Friends) but
only the animation for Friends jackpot will be displayed.
Multiball cannot be started during Toem Multiball (quick 2-ball)
Starting Multiball will suspend any Mode which is running which
uses the Path of Adventure, but a nasty bug rears its head then.
Hints, Tips, Strategies
The first thing to note here is that the scoring, at least during the
early stages of a game, is well balanced. Most of the Modes have an
effective limit of about 60M, there are no excessive Jackpot shots
like the 1.2B Davros on DrWho and you have to work at getting good
points from Multi-Ball (unlike Dr*c!) by shooting the sinkhole and
targets which raise the jackpot value.
Another thing is that there are no redundant shots - everything is
useful either directly or indirectly toward some major award.
However, some shots are certainly more important than others; the Start
Mode hole for example is probably top of the list - if you can't hit it,
you can't play any of the special Mode rounds, you can't collect Hand
of Fate or Extra Ball if lit among other things. I would probably put
the Lock sinkhole as second best shot to learn and then the ramps.
Given the above, it is therefor almost impossible to have a definitive
game plan. However, here are some ideas:
- Shoot the E-N-T targets followed by alternate ramps until
Dogfight is lit. Shoot the sinkhole to collect Hurry Up
(Dogfight) and lock ball 1. Repeat for second ball, but take
the time to shoot Start Mode for Raven Bar VM when lit (to get
an EB). Same again for third ball then play Multi-Ball for
Jackpots.
- Shoot ramps to select required Mode and light Hand of Fate.
Shoot Start Mode to collect. Shoot sinkhole to collect any
Dogfights which are lit as a result of ramp shots.
- Shoot ADVENTURE targets to light Path of Adventure, shoot
right ramp and play PoA, shoot right ramp and play PoA, shoot
right ramp .... etc. (lots of points and at least 1 EB there).
Collect The Pit when you feel like it.
- Concentrate on Multi-Ball. This is probably the easiest way
to score big points and the way most people will choose, but
IMHO not the best and certainly not the most fun.
- If it's lit, shoot for it ......
(for people who can't make up their minds ... :) )
I expect that gameplan for most people will be largely determined by
which shots they are best at. There are certainly some good points to
be had from the Modes and some help toward EB's too so if you can hit
the saucer this would probably be the way to go. Alternately, if the
right ramp is not a problem for you, Multiball is probably best.
To help you decide what to go for, the following is a rough guide to
where the big points are:
| Jackpot | 60M+ (with 3x multiplier) |
| Super Jackpot | 80M+ |
| The Pit (PoA) | 150M (upper limit) |
| Loop Jackpot | 100M+ |
| Dogfight | 40M (upper limit) |
| Modes | 35M+ (practical upper limit of 90M with an average of about 50M) |
| Eternal Life Multi-Ball | 1B (if all switches hit or 10M/switch) |
One useful hint is to try to avoid starting any Multi-Ball while you
have Path of Adventure lit since this feature remains active and it is
pretty tuff trying to control the raised playfield and keep several
balls in play at the same time. The problem is not so much that balls
up there are hard to control, but that once you have got one up there
you have to keep doing it or else PoA will time out and you will have
wasted it.
Another useful tip regards saving balls from a right drain. As the ball
rolls down the outlane, nudge the machine to the RIGHT which should
knock the ball onto the outlane post (no matter how far open it is)
from which it will rebound through the gate. BTW - you are probably
thinking I've lost the plot here, but I assure you it works for me - I
probably would not have included except somebody else mentioned it too.
Any Multiball is useful when Super Pops are running.
Try to start Multiball when Cross the Rope Bridge is going since, with
all those balls flying around, it's apparently pretty tuff NOT to get
the EB lit. Of course this could be related to some bugs which have
been observed involving ramps during Multiball.
Bugs
More like 'Killer Cockroaches' than bugs .... :)
I used to think the software on this game was pretty good. However,
recent Net traffic has shattered that illusion so I have now decided
to give the software problems their own section...
Hardware problems with recent machines have already been noted by several
folks; the software, if anything, is worse! The bulk of these seem to
involve the Path of Adventure playfield and its associated Modes.
Fortunately for the casual player, they will not be exposed to many of
them since they only pop up after the first Eternal Life Multiball.
The following are bugs known to me (in no particular order):
- Sometimes, the game will award you the Billion from Eternal Life
Multiball but not actually give you the points!
- Escape in the Cart only awards 49M if you complete it when it
should be 55M (25 tunnels + 30M escape bonus). The Halfway
Bonus is awarded after only 10 tunnels too.
- In Multiball, The Ark is actually mis-spelled as 'arc'.
- Occasionally two of the winged lights which indicate progress
toward Dogfight will be flashing at once. This usually happens
after Hand of Fate awards Start Dogfight.
- The monkey in Streets of Cairo will sometimes sit on the gap
between two boxes and screech his head off.
- Shooting the left orbit in Streets of Cairo will often award
both of the boxes on the left of the four.
- Choose Wisely on level 3 is so slow the chalices only get
switched twice.
- Choose Wisely on level 4 causes a ball search which will often
cost you the ball in play (it's kicked out of the saucer while
the flippers are dead).
- If you have collected The Pit already, Three Challenges will
only give you 5M (Mode Start bonus) coz the rollover switches
don't register.
- Hand of Fate will give certain awards when it should not (ie
2 Ball awarded during Well of Souls!). It then ignores these
awards.
- In L-x software, if the Gun Trigger function has been set to
cancel the Buy-In, it will only work sometimes, and never if
the last ball was Tilted (it simply clicks and doesn't cancel).
- The current Path Mode gets suspended when you start Multiball,
but during Multiball, shooting ramps still alters the selected
Mode. Kevin Martin suffered this when he started Multiball
during Three Challenges and ended with Steal the Stones
spotted! (This bug applies to these two rounds only but can
cost you a chance at any other round.)
Misc. Stuff
These are the odds and ends I couldn't find a logical place for in the
above, or bits of interest:
- Plunger
- Automatic variety in the shape of a six shooter. No skill shot!
- Sound & Graphics
- The best sound I have heard in a Williams game so
far. The graphics also are, at least, comparable to Dracula
and TZ.
- Replay
- Nice animation of a whip being cracked and the appropriate
sound effect which tends to drown out the traditional 'Thwack'.
- EB Buy-in
- Extra Ball buy-in is an optionally settable by the operator.
When activated, you can buy a 'Super Ball' for 1 Credit.
Note: Certain software upgrades on prototype cabinets cannot use
EB buy-in since the software expects to find a dedicated
button for this function. (software in beta's used the
trigger on the gun. L-5 onwards has this fixed).
- Super Ball
- This is the ball you just paid a whole credit for. Eternal
Life is lit for about 20 secs, Path of Adventure is Lit, and
the next Mode is started. Eternal Life Multiball does not count
as a Mode for this (ie it won't start automatically if you have
all 12 Modes spotted already).
- Cows
- Finally spotted one Wed 18th August 1993. It's in the Shoot Again
display when you start an extra ball. Six hiro .... heiro ....
haro ..... hirogl ..... pictures are displayed as a background
to Shoot Again - the top right one is a cow (well, looks like
to me... :)
Not on P-3 ROM's though.
- Saves
- I suspect Death Saves are possible, but then anybody who
can do them should be good enough to nudge the ball back
into the inlane through the gate. It's fairly easy to bounce
the ball away from the in/outlanes anyway.
- Avian Balls
- A hard hit on the drop target in front of the Captive Ball
will occasionally get the ball fired over the E-N-T targets!
Shooting the E-N-T targets will occasionally shoot the ball
over the left slingshot with about a 50/50 chance of it landing
either on a habitrail or in the outlane (more common from a left
flipper shot). On later software (P-4+) you will get the ball
back the when this happens.
- Fun
- I spotted this in r.g.p. for Louis Koziarz who noticed
that after a power cycle, pressing the flippers will get a
random sound effect which is sometimes a loud BUUURRRRRPPPPP!
(from Monkey Brains). This only appears on P-4 ROMs though.
This also happens after a power cycle and then pressing Start.
No longer happening at full volume in L-6, but the sound FX
still occur if you press the buttons.
- Credits
- The following have contributed to the above in some way or
another:
| Joel Iott | Jonathan Deitch |
| Cameron Silver | David Stewart |
| Steve Baumgarten | Mark Phaedrus |
| Bowen Kerins | Kevin Martin |
and, in fact, most of the r.g.p. regulars .... Thanx .. :)
---------------------------- The End ----------------------------
Editor's Notes
- HTML added by David Gersic dgersic_@_niu.edu
- E-mail addresses have been expunged to prevent web-bot spamming, and Web links have been updated where possible.
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