Rules

The object of the game is to Battle for the Kingdom (BfK). I haven't done this yet (but I got the BfK light lit up once). In order to do this, you have to light up the six blue dots on the playfield, they dots are located at the castle drawbridge entrance. The six blue dots are:

• Master of Trolls
• Defender of Damsels
• Patron of the Peasants
• Catapult Ace
• Joust Champion
• Castle Crusher

We'll get to these blue dots in a moment.

The playfield layout, as you can see in the picture above, has orbits (O) on both sides, ramps (R) on both sides, and a jump (J) over the moat into the castle, the castle drawbridge (D), and the saucer (S). From left to right, the order is:

O R J D S R O
^ ^

The little arrows indicate Troll switches (mentioned later).

On the lower right side of the playfield are three standup targets with stars. Hitting all of them lights Merlin's Magic (described later). In the inlanes and outlanes are fireballs, with the letters "F", "I", "R". and "E". I have not yet figured out what filling them in does, but I'm sure it's for good measure.

The saucer does many things:

• Trolls!
• Merlin's Magic
• Extra Ball
• Madness Modes

Trolls

Hitting the troll switches enough times lights the Trolls! lamp to the saucer. When you land in the saucer, both of the trolls will pop out of the playfield, and you must hit them 3 times each. If you do this, you set the Troll Madness light to blinking. If you rebound off a troll into the castle or the saucer, you are awarded Troll bombs, which are like the martian bombs in AFM.

To get Troll Madness Multiball, go into the saucer again. Now, one troll will pop up. Hit him once, and he drops, and the other pops up. And vice-versa. Keep banging away. Hit ten trolls, and you get the blue dot for Master of Trolls.

Merlins' Magic

Merlin's Magic is like Stroke of Luck. You get a variety of awards, from locking balls to troll bombs to starting madness multiball modes.

Extra Ball

There are lots of ways to light the extra ball lamp. The easiest is to destroy two castles (which we will get to later).

The Blue Dots

Let's talk about those blue dots again. Remember, they are:

• Master of Trolls
• Defender of Damsels
• Patron of the Peasants
• Catapult Ace
• Joust Champion
• Castle Crusher

Let's go over each on briefly:

Master of Trolls

By getting Troll Madness as described above, you light this dot.

Defender of Damsels

The ramp on the right has a dragon on it. The top of the ramp has a diverter which normally sends the ball back down to the right flipper. If you go up this ramp three times, the diverter opens, and a strongly hit ball goes straight back to the very right back of the machine where there is a damsel in a tower. She says some heavy attitude quote, and the ball is fed into the jet bumpers. Do this once, and you light the Damsel multiball madness light for the saucer. Do this three times and you light the Defender of Damsels blue dot.

Patron of the Peasants

The ramp on the left simply requires that you hit it four times, on the fourth time you light up Peasant madness. Do this sequence three times and you light up the Patron of the Peasants blue dot.

Catapult Ace

To the very left of the game, where the MAR standups in AFM were is an opening into a catapult. This is the same kind of mechanism that Taxi used for Drac. The first tow times you hit this, it just shoots the ball really fast around a very Taxi-like ramp and loop into the left flipper inlane. On the third time, you get a video mode where you pick the object to throw. I dunno what happens if you throw one of each object, but I expect something cool. After you do this sequence three times, you get your Catapult Ace blue dot.

Joust Champion

Both of the orbits are Joust orbits. By default they are open, so watch out! Very fast orbits indeed! It does not matter which direction you orbit, the third time you do this the gates close, the ball feeds into the pop bumpers, and you light Joust madness. Do this three times and you get the Joust Champion blue dot.

Castle Crusher

Think AFM saucers. Hit the drawbridge enough times to open it. Then hit the gate enough times to open it. Go into the castle to destroy it (very very cool effect!). Destroy all five normal castles, and you go against the King of Payne. Destroy his castle to light the Castle Crusher blue dot.

Madness Modes!!!

For each of the madness modes (Joust, Damsel, Catapult, Troll, Peasant) you get a multiball when you land in the saucer. If you have one mode lit and you enter the saucer, you get a two ball multiball. If you have two modes lit (such as Damsel and Joust) you get three ball multiball. The most balls out are four. The lanes that correspond to the madnesses, i.e. the Joust lanes for Joust madness score super jackpots, and the jump into the castle scores a double super jackpot.

If you complete all madness modes, you can go for Royal Madness, which is a single ball race to hit all the flashing targets. Do it, and you get an extra ball.

Miscellany

There are other things, but I am too tired of typing to do it right now. Plus, I'm bitter. I lit all the blue dots and was ready to Battle, when I promptly drained. Final score: 143,678,070. Drat again. Guess I'll hafta go back and "test" it some more!