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A Guide to SEGA's STARSHIP TROOPERS Version 0.9 as of January 18, 1998. by Karl Brostrom A lot of stuff in this rulesheet is copyrighted by either Tristar Pictures or SEGA Pinball, Inc. You know the drill. This version of the rule sheet should be fairly accurate (there were a few misconceptions in the previous version). Please keep in mind the rule sheet is based on pre-production software. Feel free to send comments and/or corrections to me. Extra special thanks to the following people for their help:
Changes from version 0.1
Contents
In the most clockwise order I could come up with:
There are three possible skill shots:
Six planets full of bugs, and you must kill 'em all. You attack the planets one at a time in a fixed order. There are four potential species to be annihilated; Warriors, Plasma Bugs, Hoppers and Tankers. The type of bugs and their numbers differ from planet to planet. To kill a bug, you simply shoot any flashing Bug standup. Each bug is associated with a color:
So, to kill a Hopper, you shoot for the flashing GREEN standup of your choice. Note that bugs can be killed only during regular play! When the game starts, Antilles is under attack. To get to the next planet, you must first eliminate all bugs. At first, plenty of Bug standups will be lit. However, as you kill more and more bugs the number of lit standups will decrease. The planets and their inhabitants, in order of appearance:
The point values for the different bugs increase as you move on to new planets. For example, a Warrior on Antilles is worth 100K, whereas a Warrior on Zegema Beach is worth 150K. Point values for Bugs on each planet:
If you shoot a Bug standup with the mini-flipper, that hit will count as two hits. Get good at shooting bugs with the mini-flipper; you will advance through planets much quicker if you do! It is possible to cheat the machine by flipping the mini-flipper after you've made a shot with one of the two regular flippers. Once all bugs on a planet have been whacked, you may try to capture the Brain bug. The Brain bug is represented by a huge standup target that pops up infront of the Recon Award scoop. To capture it, you must hit it a number of times (it's hard to miss). The first time you need one hit, the second time two hits, etc. Each hit is worth 1M. This is a timed mode (though I can't remember a timer being displayed); if you run out of time, the Brain bug escapes. I usually trap the ball and wait for the Brain bug to disappear; the risk you take shooting at it isn't worth a couple of millions. 4.5 Advance Planet vs. Planet Multiball Once the Brain bug is gone (doesn't matter if you captured it or let it escape), the Arm Nukes hole will be lit for Planet Multiball, and the Recon scoop will be lit for Advance Planet. They will remain lit until either shot has been made. A hurry-up, starting at 5M and counting down to 1M, is started at the same time; shoot the Recon scoop or the Arm Nukes hole to collect. You should try to advance to the next planet, unless you're already on the fifth planet (Planet P), in which case that option is unavailable. If you collect Advance Planet, you will return to regular play with a whole bunch of new Bugs to whack. Planet Multiball is an N-ball Multiball, where N is determined by the number of planets being nuked. All flashing planets fall victim of the nuke attack. The more planets you nuke simultaneously, the higher the point values during Planet Multiball, and the more balls you get. The idea is to advance to as many planets as possible before starting Planet MB. The following shots will be lit at the start of Planet Multiball: Left loop, Left ramp, Recon scoop, Right ramp, Right loop, Arm Nukes hole. You must make the first five Nuke shots to light Super Nuke at the Warrior. The Recon scoop awards a Double Nuke. The Arm Nukes hole will spot a Nuke for you and award the associated jackpot. Each shot has a flashing arrow or lamp labeled "Nuke" that will turn solid once hit. The point values depending on the number of planets being nuked:
Once the Super Nuke has been collected, all Nuke shots are relit for another go. This multiball can be worth a lot! After Planet MB is over, all nuked planets will be lit solid. (I believe it's actually called Live Fire Assault Range MB.) Shooting the Warrior a number of times will start Multiball. The first Multiball it takes 4 hits, second MB 6 hits, etc. As you shoot the Warrior target, it will move backwards. When only one shot is left to light MB, the Warrior will move back and forth to indicate this. The Multiball itself is a 4-ball MB. Both ramps are lit for jackpots; the jackpot value starts at 3M and can be increased to a maximum of 4M. You increase the jackpot value by hitting the Bug standups. All standups will be unlit at the start of MB; if you hit a standup, it will light up, and will not add points to the jackpot value anymore. Lighting all standups awards an Extra Ball (which I haven't been able to confirm, since one of the standups is broken on the machine I'm playing). You need five jackpots to light the Super Jackpot, which is worth a whopping 15M. The Warrior will at all times spot a jackpot for you, but will not award the associated point value. The Super Jackpot remains lit for 16 seconds. Once the Super Jackpot has been collected, or the timer has reached zero, the cycle repeats. If you fail to shoot any jackpots at all, a Multiball restart sequence will commence. You have some 15-20 seconds to get the ball into the Warrior sinkhole. You only get two balls in the restarted MB. To start Orbit Multiball, you must make two Orbit locks. To lock the first ball, you need to shoot three lit loops (the DMD will display the word ONE, with the collected letter flashing). The inlane switches light the opposite loop, for a period of around 5 seconds. The third loop shot will be caught by a magnet, and dropped into the Orbit MB sinkhole. The same applies for lock number two, with the only difference the word to spell is TWO. So, all in all, it takes six loop shots to start Orbit MB. This number does not increase. Note that making a lit loop shot does not unlight that loop, so it's fully possible to make 3 loops shots in a row for an Orbit MB lock! Orbit Multiball starts out as a two-ball Multiball. Both loops are lit for a 5M jackpot, and remain lit throughout Orbit MB. A successful loop shot will be caught by the magnet, dropped into the sinkhole and then kicked out from the Recon scoop. The first two loop shots will add a ball as well, even if the shot is made after the ballsaver has expired. Thus, a maximum of four balls can be in play. A Recon Award is a pseudo-random award collected in the Recon scoop. By shooting the left (STARSHIP) and right (TROOPERS) ramp you go to the next Recon Level. There are six Recon Levels (1-6). The higher you go before collecting at the scoop, the better the awards. The DMD will display four choices, and one of them will "randomly" be picked for you. The scoop is lit for a Recon Level 1 award at the start of each ball. The following awards are those I know of:
The awards have been known to move up or down a level. The major awards (such as Orbit MB, Double Scoring, Ramp Hurry-up) seem to not move, though. It is my experience that level 5 will always award Regular MB if you haven't had one already, otherwise Orbit MB. Level 6 will award 25M. Note that Regular MB and Orbit MB usually are worth much more than 25M. You'll sometimes be awarded a Recon Boost when you shoot the Recon scoop (only when it's lit for a Recon Award). This seems to be random, and can be very annoying if you're fishing after that lucrative Orbit MB and get 25M instead. You can be boosted any number of levels, I think. A more controlled way of boosting the Recon Level is to do a Recon Combo. I'm not 100% sure how this works just yet; if you shoot the Right ramp, Left ramp, Recon scoop you boost three additional levels. Or so I like to think, anyway. Could use some help here The awards described briefly:
There are at least five ways of collecting an Extra Ball. Of course, I haven't been able to collect all of them due to some weird Lyle settings. No Extra Balls for me. Anyway, here's a list of the EB's I know of:
Spoilers ahead! Close your eyes and think happy thoughts in case you want to find out just what happens at planet Klendathu for yourself. Once all five planets have been nuked and cleared from Bugs, planet Klendathu will be flashing. Shoot the Recon scoop to start the attack on Klendathu. You get unlimited balls for 30 seconds. To finish the mode, you must kill 9 Bugs of each species (all Bug standups are lit) and make all five Nuke shots. The Nuke shots are worth 5M a piece, the Double Nuke (collected at the Recon scoop) is worth 10M. I assume the Bugs are worth something as well, but the DMD doesn't display any information on that. If you manage to kill all the Bugs and make all the shots, you're awarded a 50M completion bonus. Note that once the timer has expired, the mode will continue with the balls still in play. I'm assuming the release software has induced a few changes to this mode; with beta software, the mode continues until *all* balls have drained. When the military dude is briefing you ("This planet has 8 Hoppers..."), press both flipper buttons. He will die a most gruesome death. (note how I cleverly avoided the word "bug") OK, so I've been playing a machine with beta software. I hope this has been fixed in the release software: It is possible to have Regular MB running with only one ball in play. All other shots you'd expect to be active during regular play are there as well. You can shoot jackpots and Super Jackpots forever and ever. How and when this happens is unknown to me. The first few times I played ST I quite simply ignored that extra flipper. Big mistake. In order to control the ball in ST, you'll need to use it. For instance, it's possible to drop-catch balls coming from the Recon scoop. It's also good for slowing down balls coming from the right inlane, and then catching it with the regular flipper. Shoot Bugs with the mini-flipper, or at least try to make the machine think you did! It makes advancing through planets so much easier! You may notice it's extremely hard (the word "impossible" comes to mind) to shoot the Arm Nukes hole with the regular right flipper. While it's possible to do a bank-shot from the left flipper, try this instead: Catch the ball on the regular right flipper. Holding this flipper up, flip the mini-flipper. If you're lucky (1 time out of 3 perhaps), the ball will land in the Arm Nukes hole. I assume the odds for success vary from machine to machine. Some thoughts: Go for Regular MB and Orbit MB - these can be worth huge amount of points. Wait with the Planet MB; try to nuke more than two planets at the same time. This implies that you at some time shoot for bugs, which can be a hazardous venture. Use the mini-flipper! Shoot the left and right ramp for Recon Levels. At level 5, you'll more often than not be awarded Orbit MB. Avoid level 6 - Orbit MB is worth more than 25M! My best so far is 656M, best Regular MB is ~150M, best Planet MB ~270M, best Orbit MB 95M. See you at PAPA! Editor's Notes
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