Special thanks to Bowen Kerins for clearing up a lot of questions, making corrections and being an all around swell guy!

These rules are probably pretty stable at this point as the game comes close to going into production.

Playfield Layout

This is sort of left to right

Left Outlane

Has a kickback which is relit by hitting Light Kickback Target.

Left Inlane

Has a rollover which lights the Light Magna-Save target.

Magna-Save

Ah yes! The return of the Magna-Save. But not quite the same implementation as in Black Knight or Jungle Lord or the other 70s Williams two-levels. The Magna-Save is just above the tip of the left flipper, and is set to save a STDM drain. By punching an extra button at the left, you activate the Magna-Save which sucks the ball into place above your flipper so you can catch it. At least thats the theory.

Slingshots

The return of the standard slingshot, no more of this trapezoid shaped junk like Demo Man or ST:TNG.

Light Kickback Target

This is lit by rolling through the right inlane. Hitting it lights the kickback.

Left Spiral

This is your standard spiral. When a city is lit, it scores the city and sends the ball all the way around and shooting out the other side. Otherwise a one-way gate drops down and the ball falls into the rollovers / pop bumpers.

Left Ramp

This ramp normally shoots the ball around in a loop and back to the right flipper. If you hit a second consecutive ramp shot, a diverter closes and sends the ball over to the left flipper. The left side of the ramp holds the locking mechanism, implemented here in excellent fashion. If lock is lit, the ball always goes to the left ramp lock area from either ramp. I should also note that around the spot where the ramp is about to curve back towards the right flipper, there is a little hole so that if you don't shoot your ball strongly enough, your ball will fall down into the pop bumpers without scoring the ramp. The ramps are used to lock balls, collect tickets, relight jackpots, and for points during Ultra Ramps.

Striker Targets

Striker is this little dog who is the mascot of World Cup Soccer and he has three standup targets on the game. One on each side of the left ramp, and one in front of the jet bumpers at the upper right. Hitting a dog target lights a letter in the word "STRIKER." When you light all seven letters, you get 10M and the Striker Scoop is lit.

Light Free Kick

This is a saucer. Falling in it lights the Free Kick standup target.

Tackles

This is a row of three standup targets (think about Cousin It / Superdog and you get the idea.) Hitting one of them when lit scores 10M.

Assist

Another saucer, at the upper left, just in front of the goal. When the ball falls into the Assist saucer your goal gets lit (or nothing changes if its already lit) and you can shoot the ball straight in by punching a flipper. Pretty great.

Star Rollovers

There are four rollovers (yes rollovers!) leading towards the goal. Light a rollover by rolling over it. Light all four and goal is lit.

GOAL!

This is really great. At the upper left corner of the playfield there's this wide hole (picture ST:TNG's Neutral Zone if it was as wide as all three targets.) In front of it is this plastic goalie who moves back and forth. You shoot the ball past the goalie and into the goal. Its tougher than it sounds - he's good! When you hit the goal the machine yells "GOAL!" and there's a great animation and the crowd cheers! Hitting the goal when its not lit will score the Striker Scoop award when you haven't collected a Striker award yet. 4 lit Goals lights a TV award. There are also a couple of modes which run along a theme of hitting the goalie, which I find really amusing. Goal also serves as the multiball jackpot.

Striker Scoop

This is a small little scoop in the back middle of the playfield, to the right of the goal. Hitting it when lit serves up a seemingly random Striker Award. This also serves as the Extra Ball shot.

Jet Bumpers / Rollover Lanes

Three bumpers and two lanes. Lighting both lanes lights the left spiral to collect a city. Jet Bumpers are pretty standard three-in-a-triangle-shape. During normal play, the jets are worth 1OOK a pop and add one thousand fans for each pop. At 25,OOO fans, the jet value becomes 1M / pop for the rest of the ball.

Soccer Ball

Theres this great big half-a-soccer ball which spins at super speed when the goal is lit and during multiball. The thing is, the ball is made of RUBBER! This causes A) much bounciness on the upper part of the playfield and B) some pretty extreme spins on the ball.

Free Kick Target

When lit from one of the Free Kick saucers, this target awards 10M. It stands right in front of the spinning soccer ball.

TV Award / Final Draw scoop

When lit for TV award, this gives out a TV Award. There are currently four TV Awards. Also serves to start multiball when lit for Final Draw.

Right Ramp

Same as left ramp, except this ramp always feeds the left flipper and there are two holes which can drop your ball to the bumpers instead of just one. Serves same purposes as left ramp.

Light Free Kick saucer

There is another Light Free Kick Saucer to the right of the right ramp. See above.

Light Magna Save target

When lit, hitting this target lights the Magna-Save. This target is lit by rolling through the left inlane.

Right Inlane

Rolling through this inlane lights the Light Kickback target.

Right Outlane

There is a special light here, which is lit at the end of multiball (see MULTIBALL below.)

Plunger / Skill Shot

First off, this game has a real plunger. You remember...you pull it back and it springs the ball out? The skill shot is like one of those loops on roller coasters. You shoot the ball up the loop, and it falls into one of three dividers which each have a light. When you start they are all flashing. Falling in one of the flashing ones the first time scores 5M. Then only two are flashing. Hitting another flashing one scores 10M. When you hit the last flashing one you spot a city for 30M!

Rules

GOALS

For some reason, hitting goals is the funnest thing in the world. You start each ball with the goal lit (at least you do on the machine I play.) Shooting a goal scores 10M, adds 5M to fun with bonus and starts an "Ultra" round. There's some great sounds here. When the goalie blocks a kick you get "What a great save!!!" The voice reminds me a lot of the voice in Banzai Run. You relight the goal by lighting four stars on the playfield. There are two ways to light a star: A) Hitting the dog target in front of the pop bumpers (called the "Header" target) lights an unlit star B) By rolling over them! Yes, first the return of Magna-Save, now the return of rollovers! What a great game. After each goal, you are awarded an "Ultra" mode. There are four Ultra modes (explained below) and each one lasts for the length of your ball or until you score 30M on the mode, at which time you are given a 10M bonus and the mode ends. The modes you currently have lit are indicated by four lightning bolt-shaped lights on the right side of the playfield.

These modes do not add to your score during the normal game, they are only used for fun with bonus.

• Utlra Ramps - About what it says. Shoot ramps for 5M per ramp.
• Utlra Spinner - Ditto, to the tune of 1M a spin.
• Ultra Jets - This is a pop bumper bonus. Pop bumpers are upped to 2M a pop.
• Utlra Goalie - Nail the goalie! One of two Hit the Goalie modes, these are completely hilarious. Hitting the goalie scores 5Ma shot.

TV AWARDS

Shooting four goals lights the TV award. Hitting the TV Award scoop awards it. Currently there are four TV Awards. A TV Award is a timed mode (these were 20 or 25 seconds) for bonus scoring. Simply starting any TV Award is worth a cool 25M. They are awarded in order as opposed to randomly.

• Big Goal Round - Shoot three goals within the time limit for 15M, 15M and 30M.
• Extra Ball Round - Extra Ball lit for 20 seconds. If you hit the extra ball, then the Striker scoop is worth 50M for the rest of the time limit.
• Hit The Goalie! - Same as above except timed. Hitting the goalie is worth 10M, shooting the goal raises the goalie value by 10M. Still totally great.
• Where's Striker - Shoot any of the dog targets to try and find Striker. First hit scores low points, second scores medium points, third finds Striker and scores big points. I still haven't gotten this yet so I can't be more specific.

STRIKER AWARDS

Hitting a Striker dog target scores 1M and adds a letter to the words "STRIKER." Spelling the word Striker awards 10M and lights the Striker scoop. It is also lit at the start of the game. The first Striker award may be collected from the goal if the goal is not lit. Shooting the Striker scoop gives out a random award. The ones I've seen are set forth below.

• Extra Ball - Guess.
• Multiball - Starts multiball at rank 15 (see below.)
• 20 million - Another toughie.
• Super Free Kick - Makes the free kick target worth 10M + 5M per consecutive hit for a certain amount of time.
• Penalty Kick - Gives you a shot at the goal with the goalie not moving and leaning out of the way. hit the goal for 30M.
• Three Cities - Gives you your next three cities (see below.)
• Unlimited Kickback - Kickback lit for the rest of the ball!
• Three Goals - Adds three goals to your total, complete with three Ultra rounds too.

MULTIBALL

OK, there are four spots with flashing arrows labeled "BUILD" in front of them - left spiral, left ramp, right ramp and Striker scoop. There is also a big soccer ball painted on the playfield with the words Strength, Stamina, Skill, Speed and Spirit on it. Shooting a build shot lights one of the words on the ball on the playfield. When you light all five, lock and multiball are lit. Shoot a ramp to lock the ball, shoot the Final Draw scoop to start multiball. Now when you start multiball you are given a team to play, based on your rank. Your rank is determined as follows - Every two shots to a lit goal advances you 1 rank, and if you lock a ball before starting multiball you advance 4 ranks (since multiball is lit as soon as lock is lit.) You beat a team by shooting the goal (this is your jackpot,) and then get to play the next team by shooting a ramp (relighting jackpot.) There are fifteen teams, with the following ranks and jackpot values:

#15     USA             20M
#14     Russia          20M
#13     South Korea     25M
#12     Saudi Arabia    30M
#11     Morocco         35M
#10     Austria         40M
#9      Canada          45M
#8      Holland         50M
#7      Italy           55M
#6      Great Britain   60M
#5      Sweden          65M
#4      Spain           70M
#3      Australia       75M
#2      France         100M
#1      Germany        250M

If you drain before hitting a jackpot, shooting a ramp or the Final Draw scoop will restart multiball where you left off. If you start Multiball again, you are advanced two ranks. For your match against #1 ranked Germany, the Special is lit on the right outlane, the jackpot is worth 250M and after you hit it, the ramps and goal are lit as Victory Laps worth 50M a piece! After five laps, the Victory Laps switch off between left ramp and goal. One more thing, the Assist saucer works during multiball, but best of all, its programmed not to miss.

CITIES

There are eight cities on the World cup tour - Chicago, Dallas, Boston, New York / New Jersey, Orlando, Washington DC, San Francisco, Detroit and LA. There are three different ways to collect cities.

1. Left Spiral - Shooting both ramps or lighting both rollovers lights the left spiral with a yellow arrow labeled "TRAVEL." Shooting the spiral at this time awards your next city. Actually, scoring the spiral doesn't award the city, setting off the spinner does. And you CAN score it backwards! I have had two cities lit, shot the spinner for the first one, and when the ball didn't make it all the way up it fell back down and lit the second one!
2. Striker Award - There is a Striker award which gives you your next three cities.
3. Skill Shot - Hitting all three flashing lights awards your next city.

Chicago, Dallas and Boston are worth 10M. New york, Orlando and Washington are worth 15M. San Francisco, Detroit and LA are worth 20M. Travelling to any city also lights the Tackle target, worth 10M when hit. Several cities have modes associated with them, as outlined below.

• Boston - Boston Tea Party Mode - A hurry up. Starts at 40M and counts down to 10M. Shoot spinner to collect.
• Washington D.C. - Extra Ball - Lights Extra Ball
• L.A. - World Cup Final - After traveling to L.A., shoot the Final Draw hole to start the Final Match against Germany! This is really great. 5 ball timed multiball against Germany for 45 seconds. You plunge the balls yourself (manual plunger remember) and goals are worth 75M. Every once in a while Germany will score a goal. If you end the 45 seconds with more goals than Germany you get a bonus of 500M!!!! Yowza! If you end in a tie, overtime is started and the first team to score a goal wins.

BUY-IN

You can buy an extra ball for 1 credit up to three times. When you buy in, all four ultra modes begin lit! There are separate high score tables for x number of buy-ins, but I haven't sorted them out yet. Hell, I haven't even sorted out the ones for ST:TNG yet.

BONUS

Bonus is awarded as outlined below

• 5M per goal
• Ultra Modes are scored however you did.
• 5M per city.

Strategies / Tips

My strategy these days comes down to two things - Cities and Extra Balls. The two kind of go together. First off Cities. Getting all the cities takes you to the final round, potentially worth endless points. Anything more than five goals against Germany will pretty much guarantee a win, and 5 goals + a win gains you 875M! WHOAH! So get good at that left spinner shot. Also get good at the right ramp, since you can't light TRAVEL without it (unless you go to the rollovers.)

There are also lots of opportunities for extra balls - three so far, and none of them is that tough. You're gonna need them so pick them up ASAP.

The final thing is if you've ever wanted a game on which to practice slap saves and/or outlane nudging, this is it. About 7 of 10 balls are lost down the middle, making constant slap saves a necessity. And the outlanes are nice and bouncy, perfect for practicing getting down just the right push to save a ball. BTW bangbacks are possible from the left, but they're not easy. Rumor has it the biff bars are getting raised in the production version too, which will make it even tougher. I can't see how you would bang back from the right - there's way too much hardware over there and you would hurt your hand way too badly.

And thats about the size of it. I think the reason I like this game so much is its lack of gadgets / new technology. Its sort of a step back from the more recent pins. A real plunger, Magna-Save, and rollovers. Think about this, when was the last time you played a WMS pin WITHOUT an upper flipper?? Well, okay I forgot about Indiana Jones, but I never played it very much. This freaked me out the first few times, every time I hit a spiral I was looking for another combo shot from an upper flipper. Also, since the game's modes are only secondary really, you spend more time planning out your game and really PLAYING as opposed to Piano -> Slot -> Piano ad infinitum. Most of all, the game is challenging and yet still fun as all hell, I'm sure it will be a big earner for Williams, kudos for everyone on the design team.

Document written by Greg Dunlap gdd@rci.ripco.com
Document converted to HTML by David Gersic dgersic@niu.edu