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Mario Andretti | ||||||||||||
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The Free State Pinball Association's Guide to Mario Andretti Version 0.8 Rule sheet by Stephen Jonke with much help from Dan S. Yochelson Thanks also go out to all members of the Free State Pinball Association. Visit the FSPA's home page at: Yes, a blatant plug for the FSPA, and why not? :) Mario Andretti (MA) is a narrow body, 3-ball, racing themed game. Anything and everything that Gottleib Premier might consider to be their legal property is, in fact, quite likely their legal property. MA is a game that has grown on me. It's worth giving a few tries even if your first impression of it isn't so good. It has all the things you've come to expect from modern Gottleib/Premier games including wacky, but often clever and fun rules. Please email suggestions and errata. Version History
Version 0.1 (5/27/96) - Rough draft started. Playfield Description and Layout: This description begins at the center bottom and progresses roughly clockwise around the playfield.
Skill Shot: A manual plunger shoots the ball up a short ramp that leads to a captive ball. After hitting the captive ball the ball is fed to a habitrail that leads to the right inlane. Hit the captive ball with the plunged ball. The captive ball moves up a short path over 3 rollover switches and into a standup if plunged hard. You collect the award associated with the last switch touched on the way up. The awards are:
After collecting an award (except Crash and Burn) that award is no longer available until the other awards have also been collected. Races The primary goal of Mario Andretti is to win races and advance to the World Championship. There are 17 numbered car-shaped lights forming a race track in the middle of the playfield. Advance around the track by hitting lit yellow Mario shots (which also causes the spinning cars to rotate faster and faster), the spinning cars themselves, sling shots and/or pop bumpers. Complete a certain number of laps to complete a race and receive a Checkered Flag Award (see below.) The first race is 1 lap in length and all subsequent races are 2 laps. During each race making a shot lit green ("Pass") advances you one position. If you are already in 1st place then shooting a green shot advances the "pass bonus" by 5 million. Shooting a red shot ("Yield") drops you back one position. You start each race in 1st place - complete the race in 1st place to get "Victory Circle". Finishing three races in 1st place (three Victory Circle's) starts the World Championship (see below.) Finishing a race also gives an award based on your position at the end of the race:
Fuel & Pit Stops You start the game with 5 gallons of fuel. Each lap uses 1 gallon of fuel. If you run out of fuel you can no longer advance cars around the track until you "Pit In" by shooting the right hole. Sometimes Pit In will be lit before you completely run out of fuel and I'm not yet sure why this is. Either way you must shoot the right hole to make a pit stop. Shooting the right hole when lit for "Pit In" awards 3 gallons fuel and lets you continue advancing around the track. Fuel can also be collected during normal play via Track Awards, Mystery Awards, the Pass/Yield Round and the "Crash and Burn" skill shot award. Checkered Flag Awards Completing a race in any position gives you a choice between two awards/modes (except when you get World Championship). There are left awards and right awards which advance independently. Choose an award with the corresponding flipper button. If you don't select a particular award it will be offered again the next time. The sequence of awards is as follows:
Redline Round - 2-ball multiball round. This round starts with a skill shot - the top rollover switch (Race Strategy) is lit, making it gives you [???] After the skill shot multiball begins. Shoot the red "Tach" standups 5 times (each worth basically nothing) and then each subsequent tach shot is worth 50 million as long as multiball lasts. As soon as the tach is lit for 50 million the up post, left outlane kickback and right outlane diverter *all* become disabled, making this round a bit of a "sucker shot". Multiball - (see below) Race Strategy - (see below) Pass/Yield Round - interesting one ball mode. All the "light" shots are lit green. Hitting green lights ("Pass") advances the award and changes the shot to a red light ("Yield"). Collect the current award and end the round at any time by shooting the right hole. If you shoot a red light the round ends but you can still collect the current award at the right hole for a period of time. Here's the awards in order:
Spin Cars Round - lucrative 3-ball multiball round. This round starts with two skill shots in a row. The top rollover (Race Strategy) is lit. Getting it awards the double jackpots Race Strategy award if you haven't already received it (i.e. jackpots doubled for rest of ball!!) The second skill shot awards [???] After two skill shots multiball begins. Each time the spinning cars are rotated scores a jackpot. The Jackpot standup is also lit for jackpot. During the round shoot either side of the hairpin horseshoe, or the cars themselves to spin the cars and collect jackpots. This round can rack up serious points.
Multiball Multiball starts with three shots lit: left and right hairpin turn and the right loop. Each is worth 10 million points. Once all three are collected they relight and the "Tach" is added for 20 million each, plus the right standup (just above the right slingshot) is lit for Jackpot and stays lit even if hit. Once all the 20 million shots are collected they relight and the right hole is added. Each of these scores a Jackpot. After all 5 jackpots are collected the left ramp lights for Super Jackpot. After collecting the SJ the 5 shots relight for jackpot and then the ramp for SJ. Repeat. Your state in the sequence carries over between multiballs so that you don't have to recollect awards and jackpots you've already collected in a previous multiball. However, if you collect at least one Super Jackpot your next multiball starts over at the beginning. Jackpot can be collected via multiball, Track Award 3 and 16, Checkered Flag Awards, Hurry Up, skill shots and mystery awards. The jackpot value starts out at 30 million and is advanced by 5 million during normal play via shooting either side of the hairpin and then hitting the Tach before it stops flashing. It can also be advanced by random awards and Track Awards. Super Jackpot can be collected via multiball, World Championship, Checkered Flag Awards and mystery awards [???]. It begins at 200 million and is advanced 100 million by shooting the Stop Watch when it is flashing (see below). It can also be advanced by Track Awards and mystery awards.
Race Strategy
World Championship Start World Championship by winning 3 races. WC is a 3-ball multiball that starts with two skill shots with the top rollover (Race Strategy) lit. Making the skill shot awards [???] After both skill shots multiball begins. All major shots are lit to advance cars around the track. Each lap completed awards a Super Jackpot. Track Award At the beginning of each lap Track Award is lit at the right hole if it was not already lit (track awards are *not* stacked). Each car-shaped light that forms the race track has a number next to it. Shooting Track Award gives you the correspondingly numbered award:
After collecting a track award, Track Award cannot be collected again until the next lap. Mystery Award Mystery is alternately lit and unlit at the left ramp on slingshot, pop bumper and tach hits. If Race Strategy is lit at the ramp, Mystery will not be lit. Shoot the ramp when lit for Mystery to collect a random award:
Stop Watch The right loop is lit for Stop Watch when you shoot it or the left ramp when the right loop isn't lit for something else. Once lit it will remain lit until you start the Stop Watch or the right loop is lit for something else. When lit shoot the right loop to start the Stop Watch - a timer begins counting up. Shoot the right loop again to stop the stop watch. If you hit some other switch in between the round ends and you must relight it again. If you do make the shot you receive an award based upon your time:
In addition if your time is lower than the best time you win a free game - interestingly the game stops immediately to let you enter your initials rather than waiting for the end of the game. [Presumably the max Super Jackpot value is 900,000,000 like Big Hurt, et. al.] Champs There are several "champs" that MA keeps track of. I don't think these names are right, but the idea is:
Ball Saves Mario Andretti has unusual, very Premier-ean rules for ball saves. At the beginning of each ball the left outlane kickback, right outlane diverter and up post are all enabled for a fairly long period of time. During this time balls can be saved over and over again (however, if the ball slips past a raised flipper you won't get it back.) After this time expires the up post drops and one of the two outlane saves remains enabled. The left slingshot enables the right outlane diverter save and disables the left and the right slingshot enables the left outlane kickback and disables the right (like I said - very Premier-ean! :) The up-post is also raised for a short period of time when you shoot the right loop. In addition Mario Andretti has guaranteed ball time. If you have not had the minimum ball time it will repeatedly give you the ball back after your third ball until you do get the minimum ball time. Note that any extra balls you collected on your 3rd ball come first. Bonus End of ball bonus is:
At the end of the game you also receive:
Strategy [...] Editor's Notes
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