1960s
2001
Always try and shoot the left and right gaps to get the ball to the upper playfield. Never shoot the center stand-up target bank. Use the slings located on the opposite side of the center stand-up target fixture to take out drop targets. Once a given colored drop-target bank is out, the corresponding colored saucer at the top will be lit for 300 points, so try and nudge it into lit saucer(s) using the slings and pop bumpers if the tilt permits it (you'll still get 100 points for lit pop-bumpers and the circular bulls-eye stand-ups to the northwest and northeast of the pop-bumpers regardless).
<Neil>
Game name
Strategy information <contributor>
1970s
Bow and Arrow
Shoot spinners to build up bonus, collect bonus at left upper saucer. If you have gate open on the right, it's worth shooting at: plunger shots can be worth up to 5K on the upper saucer, and some strategic nudging may give you a few bonus advances from the rollovers. <Don>
Dolly Parton
Shoot for the bumpers and try to get it to spell DOLLY, then go for multipliers. <Bowen>
When shooting the multipliers, best results are by using a backhand shot with the right flipper. First two inlines can usually be hit from a cradle, the last inline and standup target behind that inline can safely be hit this way: let the ball roll out nearly to the middle to end of the raised right flipper and as the ball gets to the end, backhand the ball to get that last inline and standup. Trying to hit the multipliers from the left flipper can lead to an instant middle drain on some machines.<Brian Bannon>
Olympic Hockey
Center bumper is worth 1000 when lit, and it's only lit when a puck is in the goal. So after scoring a goal (top bumper, top side lanes, various other targets), avoid the side lanes like the plague because that'll reset the puck. Once 1000 bumper is lit, shoot that thing as much as humanly possible. <Keefer>
Sharpshooter
Shoot only for the targets. Even when you light the 1000 spinner it's not worth changing strategy. Bonus multiplier carries over for the rest of the game, and at up to 5,000 per target it's where all the scoring is. The 50,000 point shot is also available, and if hit right from the bottom flipper will pass the switch twice (on the way up, and back on the way down) for a quick 100,000. This is a very hard shot, but worth trying for it if you're in a pinch. <Josh>
WIZARD
Plunge ball so it goes into the saucer. when ball kicks out of saucer rolls down right side and lands on left flipper, backhand ball through spinner and back up top. some machines you can dead bounce the ball off of left flipper to right flipper. if thats the case, shoot spinner with right flipper. rinse and repeat. flag 3 is double bonus. if u r brave, hit that target asap.
1980s
ANDROMEDA
knock down upper left drop target and shoot ball in lock. hit "release" target on mid left section of playfield. with 2 balls in play, send both balls back up top through the left spinner or left loop (where ball was locked). * you can steal locked balls from other players.
Bad Cats
Left ramp scores unlimited millions, but goes away as soon as you touch anything else. On ball 3 only, left ramp scores 20M after your first million (then unlimited millions again). That's 5 shots in a row. Next, jackpot maxes at 20M. To light jackpot, you need to spell BAD CATS. To spell BAD CATS you need to complete drop target banks (once per letter). Lot of work to light the jackpot. Alternatively, the Doghouse (lit by lit left inlane) might light it randomly. Probably worth it to shoot the Doghouse when you can. Jackpot is lit on the middle ramp, which is literally the only time you should be shooting it. Last big points is the Trashcan. Light up trashcan points by hitting the vari-target (fishbone). The trashcan will go from 10K (unlit) up to 500K. Lit right inlane will light 10x Trashcan scoring, so this shot can be worth 5M points. I doubt I'd shoot for this either unless I had it lit for the 5M. <Keefer>
Banzai Run
Choosing not to complete the Hill is often the best strategy, since the Red Hot shot gives an increasing number of points. If all opponents are collected, the Hill shuts down. Use the Hill like you would use the upper playfield on Black Knight 2000: if the ball is on the lower playfield and you're not sure what to do, go for the Hill. Laps are not useful unless they are Victory Laps or you are very close to the 25-lap Finish Line bonus. <Bowen>
Barracora
This game is all about BONUS (building it up, collecting it, building it up again, collecting it, etc). Each drop target bank you complete increases your bonus multiplier. Each set of drop targets banks you complete (left AND right) increases your Super Bonus multiplier. Super Bonus multiplier carries over ball to ball, Regular bonus multiplier does not.
Left 3-bank lights the left lock, right 5-bank lights the right lock. If you collect the right lock, and then drain, you continue play with that ball kicking out from the top. If you shoot the left lock it starts multiball (2ball if you don't have the right lock completed, and 3ball if you do).
In order to collect bonus you have to make it available. This is done by completing the 1-2-3 and 4-5-6 lanes opening up the top gate via the right orbit. Collecting your bonus clears your current bonus out so you can start building it back up.
The quickest way to build your bonus back up is via the spinner lane. Depending on how many letters you have in B-A-RR-A-C-O-R-A you get 1K added to bonus for each light you have. Letters are acquired via the drops, so you get all 8 pretty easily during a decent ball. Each shot to the spinner then builds up your bonus by 8K each shot. With the bonus maxing at 30K, you can build it up in 3 shots (plus the other various switches you hit).
Super Bonus X maxes at 5X, Regular Bonus also does. The biggest collect you can have is 750,000 points (30K X 5 X 5).
The Target Bonus area just to the left of the right loop is scored based on the two center targets (one is score value and one is a multiplier). The max is 250,000 (25K X 10). This Target Bonus resets after hitting the loop to score the bonus. Should your Target score be on the same level as your target multiplier, you can shoot the loop twice before it resets (this is at 5K/2X, 10K/3X, 15K/4X, 20K/5X, 25K/10X). <Josh Sharpe>
Cheetah
Ignore spinners and upper right three bank drop targets. Left spinner extremely hard to hit and only worth 1000 pts a spin. Most right spinners don’t have much action. Horseshoe spinner can lead to drains on some games. Upper right three bank is a timed shot and reward is not worth the trouble.
Complete 5-bank targets twice or three times depending on settings to lite collect bonus lane and raise bonus ladder to 100k. Bonus multipliers can be advanced by completing top drop target bank and middle right drop target bank-when lit.
Best way to get big scores:
Complete 5-bank in sequence to light collect bonus lane once or twice depending on settings, hit ball up left lane again and again. Hit middle three bank to add bonus up to 100k and complete bank when lit for bonus x advance. Depending on action in the pop bumpers, sometimes the middle bank is the best way to advance bonus x multiplier.
If left lane is hard to hit for any reason, keep completing 5-bank in sequence or middle drop target bank. Safest way to score points when left lane unavailable.<Brian Bannon>
Earthshaker
The center ramp is worth 50k to 100k per shot, plus 2 miles — no big deal, except at 99 miles every further ramp shot is 200k. If this ramp is easy enough, there’s no sense in playing for anything else. Only if the ramp shot is flaky or difficult should you try other strategies, and there the goal is the multiball jackpot. Quick multiball mostly just "happens", but when in doubt, hit the center ramp. <Bowen>
Lightning
Best way to score big points: Complete standup targets on upper and lower playfield to start mutliball play. Ball locks are easy and will usually happen without any real effort, not necessary to lock both balls for multiball. Once multiball is started, catch and hold a ball and hit the horseshoe for playfield multiplier up to 4x. Multiplier stays at 4x until last ball drains. Once playfield multiplier is maxed, keep hitting the spinner again and again. At 4,000 a spin, score can add up fast. You will need to hit the horseshoe to keep relighting the spinner.
Once you light the 4 yellow arrows on the playfield, collect the bonus multiplier at the horseshoe. Multiplier will advance to 5x and then resets down to 2x on next ball. Drops add bonus, too.
If spinner does not spin well or you get bad feeds from horseshoe, complete drop target banks in sequence to award red special for extra ball lit, completing targets in sequence a second time awards green special that can be set at 100k points.
Caution: Middle drop target can lead to center drains! Also, like other classic stern games, it is not unusual for balls to “hop” over raised flippers close to the inlane guides.<Brian Bannon>
Meteor
Knock down the top set of METEOR drop targets a couple/few times (to get bonus multipliers up) then concentrate on knocking down all of those same targets but one. Then, hit the spinner over and over (leaving that one target up...as it maximizes spinner value). The other banks of drop targets (1,2,3) get the bonus cranked up there. Do not tilt this game, bonus is worth way too much. <Andy> The drop targets on the end add more to the spinner than the ones in the middle, so ideally you want one of the middle four drops left before you wail on the spinner. But with a good spinner there is no need to wait too long. Spinner can be worth way more than bonus, although as Andy says, bonus is surprisingly big on this game. <Bowen>
Rolling Stones
R-O-C-K advances bonus multipliers 2X, 3X, 5X. Try for 5X on your 1st ball since they carry over ball to ball. Special (50K) is awarded each time ROCK is completed once you have 5X.
1-5 targets advances 20-40-60K bonus lites, also great to get to 60K on your first ball since they carry over each ball. Special (50K) is awarded each time 1-5 is completed after 60K has been achieved. Note: #5 target is a death shot.
Hoops are really only good for collecting the Special otherwise they just advance the 1-19K bonus.
Drop targets are not worth shooting for.
Collecting bonus in the top saucer becomes huge if you have 40 or 60K lit and 3X or 5X lit. You can keep collecting the bonus in the saucer but you have to knock down the target in front each time which can be a deadly SDTM shot (similar to EBD).
Setup notes: Dip Switches 6 ON, 7 OFF (all EB's & Specials score 50K except saucer EB is 25K), 31 OFF (3 balls per game), 8 OFF (no memory for R-O-C-K letters), 14 OFF (Hoops score independently), 15 ON (ROCK blip sound on), 16 OFF (no memory for 1-5 numbers), 24 OFF (no recall on saucer EB lite), 32 OFF (saucer drop target resets every time ball goes into saucer). There isn't a Dip Switch option to reset multipliers or the 20-40-60K bonus lites from ball to ball.
Raise outlane posts all the way up. Back leg 3" levelers all the down for max incline. Adjust sling switches close with white rubber. <MWM>
Seawitch
Ignore the spinner and loop, not that valuable and too hard to hit consistently on most games.
Drop target banks increase bonus multiplier up to 7x and must be completed in the following sequence. Middle bank, lower left bank, and then upper right bank, and again in that sequence until 7x is reached. Completing other banks out of sequence does add bonus but will not increase the multiplier until the correct bank has been dropped. On the most popular setting, once 6x or 7x has been reached the game will reset the multiplier on the following ball to 3x.
Use pop bumpers to help knock down the upper drop target bank, also pops are worth a 1000 pts a hit and can be very active. Don’t forget that stand up targets add bonus.
Best way to get big scores: Once you have knocked down the drop targets in a bank, the second and subsequent times knock down all targets in that bank but one, then knock down that last target to score the bonus + 1000. When bonus ladder is maxed at 39k, this is a great way to rack up big scores. This also means that while you do want to sweep the targets in any bank the first time, the second time always try to leave one target standing to score the bonus. You can keep scoring the bonus again and again until the ball drains and the bonus times multipliers is collected.
Easy to shatz the inlanes for extra balls, if they are on.
Caution for those that like to catch balls in a cradle. This applies to all Sterns with the wire guide inlanes and was a typical issue. It is not unusual for balls to “hop” over raised flippers close to the inlane guide, so keep that in mind.
Many balls hit by the upper left flipper into the middle bank can end up straight down the middle if you are not careful.<Brian Bannon>
Silverball Mania
Shoot the horseshoe. The horseshoe is worth 5,000 points AND a bonus multiplier AND collects a missing letter AND raises the kicker that saves center drains. It's ridiculous, honestly. The only other shot, points-wise, is the lit spinner for 1000/spin, and that's only if it is a real ripping spinner and you already have the kicker up. The center target is useless. Bonus is letters, which you can shoot directly but just get picked up from bouncing and horseshoes. Keep in mind you can save outlane drains into the up-kicker zone, and it scores points even if the kicker isn't available. <Bowen>
1990s
Attack From Mars
Posted by bowen on December 28th, 2009 | 12 comments
Hey, what’s up. This is the first of a quasi-irregular series on how to play Game X in a tournament. One of my goals is to describe how and why playing a competition game is different from playing a normal game. I’ve picked Attack From Mars, a well-known game where I feel tournament strategy is significantly different from arcade strategy.
Before you play: If possible, ask another player how the game is playing! For Attack From Mars, critical information includes the feed from the Stroke of Luck, the feed from the right loop (and whether the ball hits or activates the sling), and the return from a botched lock ramp shot — this return sometimes sends the ball directly to the right outlane, and sometimes straight down the middle. Also, if possible, watch another player on the game. Specifically, find out if a ball saver is active or not, watch for tilt warnings, and try to get a sense for how the other player is “missing” their shots. Does this player keep missing the lock ramp to the right? That’s good information to improve your own play.
Know the sucker shots: Each game has shots that are valuable but lead to drains. In arcade play, these are worth going for — they’re fun, they score points, and if the ball drains, no big deal, you can earn an extra ball. In tournaments, these shots are death. Outlanes are usually wider. Tilts are tighter. Required reaction time is faster. Basically, if you think the ball may drain from a successful shot to something, don’t shoot it unless it is absolutely critical to success. For Attack From Mars, this is the saucer. Do not shoot for the saucer unless the ball saver is on, you are in multiball, the drop target is down, or you need exactly that many points to win a head-to-head match. AFM doesn’t have other significant drain shots, but by the same argument, you should never shoot for the MARTIAN targets, even if there is only one left. The reward does not justify the risk.
Getting started: A key concept when playing a game for the first time is to have some success with shotmaking, and ideally get to multiball. In multiball, mistakes are penalized a lot less severely — unless you “double drain” the worst that can happen is you’re back in regular play. So, my target when playing AFM is to get to the regular multiball as quickly as possible. On plunges, if ball save is active, I go for Super Skill Shot (hold down left flipper) to try and open the saucer, otherwise make a regular plunge — bonus multipliers are actually pretty valuable on AFM, at least 5 million each. Then, shoot only for the lock and possibly the right orbit (a wide, safe shot to the bumpers) with the goal of getting the ball fed to the right flipper for a lock shot. By shooting consistently for the lock, confidence and accuracy on that shot increase quickly, and the lock shot is always very valuable on AFM. Find out early, too, if you can “hop” the ball from the left flipper to the right from a lock feed, as this decreases the number of shots you need to make to get to multiball.
During multiball: Multiball is a time to get used to other shot locations — specifically, the right ramp, which tends to be very difficult to get used to, and punishes a missed shot. I aim for the right ramp immediately, until it’s hit or until ball save shuts off. Beyond that, play the normal strategy of trying for a Super Jackpot. It’s not worth aiming for the saucer; probably a ball or two will bounce in there anyway. Ideally you should get at least one Super Jackpot, since that will raise the value of the next multiball immensely.
After multiball: There are really only two strategies worth trying for on AFM in tournament: multiball and Total Annihilation. Multiball is easier to get to (4 or 6 shots instead of 12) and awards about the same number of points. If you got a Super Jackpot in your first multiball, I suggest continuing to play for the regular multiball for the rest of the game: the first cycle of jackpots and Super is worth 650 million, but the second cycle is worth 1,150 million, the third is 1,650 million, and the fourth and beyond are 2 billion each. This is a lot of points! If you are good at multiball this is really the way to go, I feel, especially if the “hop” is working.
If instead you are a better single-ball player I suggest going for Annihilation, specifically the 1 billion bonus for Hurry Ups. To do this, shoot each of the four shots exactly twice before starting any Hurry-Up. Additionally, do not shoot an Annihilation shot as Super Skill Shot unless it is the last one, since you are forfeiting the chance of going for the 1 billion bonus. During Annihilation, shoot the orbits as much as possible. It is only necessary to shoot the lock ramp once to collect the building Annihilation Jackpot, which has no maximum value. So, ignore the lock ramp until there are two balls left in play, or unless the value is so large it can’t be ignored. Shooting the orbits frequently doubles the value of the actual Annihilation shot through bumper and multiplier points, and Super Jets (3 million per bumper) almost always begins during an Annihilation. Balls shot into the jets don’t come back for a while, which is a key strategy for multiball known as “parking a ball”.
Other advice: AFM is a game where you can easily lose track of your strategy, since all shots score decent points. Success in tournaments is often about efficiency — you will miss shots, and you will drain. So, you want every shot you take to be as valuable as possible. A “Fleeing Bonus” of 10 million is not that shot. A shot to the saucer is definitely not that shot. Get control, and advance toward multiball or Annihilation.
Nudging is not as significant on AFM as on some other games, but there are a few things to consider. One, the feed from the right orbit to the flippers often goes into the sling. If this is happening, consider bumping the side of the machine high on the right side of the cabinet, which pushes the ball off the railing. Frequently this stops the ball from going into the sling. Outlane saves on AFM are pretty difficult, and often involve banking the ball off the side wall. Saving a ball off the side wall takes practice, but basically involves a quick shove toward the side wall as the ball hits the inlane/outlane divider. This doesn’t come easy but can be a very satisfying save.
Score targets: If you need this many points… try…
Don’t panic, and remember that the T in MARTIAN is not a jackpot! I hope you found this helpful and let me know in comments what questions you have or what other games you’d like to see profiled.
- Bowen, former PAPA champion
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Do what you can to stack the three multsiballs. Mist is lit for free on ball 3 if you haven't lit it prior (5 loops) which can save a losing game.
Ball 1 - Try to start bats immediately (3 loops) and finish as fast as possible for a cool 50 million bonus every ball. Work on coffin, the fortuitous coffin lock, and note that every skill shot spots a coffin light as well.
Ball 2 - If you haven't already lit Mist I suggest not hitting your 5th loop unless you really think you can hit 15 loops before your game ends. The only exception to this is if a castle lock is lit, which you should always hit.
Ball 3 - If you're sitting at 4 loops go for the Mist immediately so you don't waste a freebie. Otherwise you hopefully stacked up your coffin and maybe a castle lock or two to start one of those multiballs. If you're nowhere near getting castle or coffin then get Mist to work on the others.
Bride of Pinbot
Shoot the left ramp. If billion is lit, shoot the center ramp. During mb, ideally you can bump balls to the right flipper to shoot left ramp. If not, consider shooting the center ramp (very dangerous) or the jet lane (then drop catch and shoot left ramp on exit). <Keefer>
Cactus Canyon
"Endless" Lost Mine Multi-ball AND Showdown* exploit (also see http://www.pinball.org/rules/cactuscanyon.txt)
Showdown by itself ain't bad either. Careful with Bounties, which may accidentally award locks. <Neil>
Junkyard
Shoot the DOG ramp, then play DOG video mode. Every completed DOG is 500k more than the last one, and there is no maximum. We can only hope this game is not selected for play in any tournaments! <Bowen>
Monster Bash
Complete all characters to go to "Monster Bash" wizard mode. Complete all modes to go to "Monsters of Rock" wizard mode. Both are worth huge points. During any multiball, all mode timers stop, making modes easy to complete. Use your bonus items: they give 1 free hit during modes. Hit Franksentein targets on angles to avoid center drains. Unless kickout is easy, avoid shooting the scoop unless it is lit for a mode or multiball. <andy> Mosh Pit Multiball is worth a good medium-points score, and requires only six shots to the center spinner to light. This is a reasonable starting strategy in match play, but not as valuable in a high-score qualifying format. <Bowen>
No Fear
Two words: Jump Ramp. If a challenge (mode) is not active, shoot the skull to start the next challenge, then shoot the left ramp and loop the jump ramp as much as possible. When you miss, the ball feeds to the right flipper, lather, rinse, repeat. Jump ramp combos are worth 5M+5M to 25M max, are also worth mode points in most of the challenges, and are game-cumulative end of ball bonus. When the challenge ends, try to start the next one ASAP. The only mode that screws this strategy is Downhill, where left ramp shots are diverted to the left flipper, so either complete this mode (just one right ramp shot) or time it out. You're really trying to get through the first 5 modes to get to the 3 "supermodes", No Limits, Fear Fest, and (especially) Meet Your Maker, all of which are multiballs, and all of which continue to benefit from the jump ramp strategy. (To relight "Start Challenge" on the skull for the supermodes, you must first shoot 6 shots to spell "No Fear" -- of course, might as well make those shots be the jump ramp.) Fear Fest will tell you to shoot the skydive for jackpot, but don't bother, jump ramp will also award jackpot. And EVERY jump ramp during Meet Your Maker is at least 200M points. If you can trap a couple balls on the left flipper and then work the jump ramp with the right flipper, it's easy to get many billions of points here. <Joe>
Whitewater
Nice opening sequence: plunge to upper playfield, shoot Insanity Falls to light whirlpool. When ball arrives at lower flipper, shoot lock (No Way Out). Once the ball ejects to the UPF, shoot whirlpool to start Whirlpool Challenge, which should be the initial boulder award if you didn't mistakenly hit any pop bumpers. It's a multiball, so plunge the ball to the UPF and shoot the whirlpool for your first award. If the Lost Mine kickout is properly aligned (lucky you!), hopefully you can bounce-pass the first ejected ball to your left flipper and cradle it there. The next ejected ball should be drop-catchable on the right flipper. At this point you should be able to use only the right flipper to shoot the lock then the whirlpool indefinitely for increasing points. --- Multiball miscellany: if possible, start 5x Playfield (boulder award) when Locks 1 and 2 are collected (solidly lit) and Lock 3 is ready (flashing). (Hard to control: pop bumpers control the flashing boulder award.) Then immediately shoot the lock to maximize your 5x multiball scoring. Nailing the jackpot (Insanity Falls) 3 times straight at the start of multiball is key, since jackpot multiplier for the entire multiball is equal to the number of jackpots you collected on the initial lock kickouts. I also like to hold the left flipper at the start of multiball: this will tend to bridge your successful jackpot shots over to the right flipper and buy you an extra second or so before you have to look at the lower playfield to handle those balls. <Joe>
Game name
Strategy information <contributor>
2000s
Spider-Man
Doc Ock is king. When in doubt, play for Doc Ock, since it is a fairly easily started multiball and it can be arrived at safely. Try backhanding the ball into Ock and you will be a happy multiballer. If opportunities present, start a mode just before Ock begins, and it should finish fairly easily (though you will have to manually track the shots needed for mode progress). The best "2x" and "3x" shots are Ock and the spinner. On skill shot, take the regular one, since the double-bumper points outweigh any opportunities gained from the super skill shot (side ramp plunge). <Bowen>
Game name
Strategy information <contributor>
2010s
Game name
Strategy information <contributor>
IFPA Games List (from website)
Remove a game from this list once you place it above.
OLD
Rancho
Doozie
Rocket III
Rockmakers
Old Chicago
Home Run
Quick Draw
Sky Jump
El Dorado
Big Indian
Lawman
Dogies
Royal Flush (1957)
MID
Evel Knievel
Skateball
Centaur
Fire
Addams Family
Fish Tales
Doctor Who
Solar Fire
Gorgar
Black Hole
Rocky
Haunted House
Alien Star
Nine Ball
Catacomb
Quicksilver
Freefall
Flight 2000
Embryon
Space Station
NEW
24
CSI
Batman
Family Guy
Pirates of the Caribbean
World Poker Tour
Lord of the Rings
The Simpsons Pinball Party
Sopranos
Medieval Madness
No Good Gofers
Scared Stiff
Dirty Harry
Champion Pub
Creature From the Black Lagoon
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Indiana Jones (WMS)
Terminator 2
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Getaway: High Speed II