Back to the Future (Data East, 1990)

Quick strategy synopsis

Early in the game, shoot the left ramp all day. Combo shots to the ramp score increasing points and eventually extra ball. Any shot to the ramp gives DeLorean letters, and spelling DeLorean qualifies unlimited millions on both ramps for a few seconds. If the right flipper isn't strong enough to make the left ramp, or if DeLorean Millions has been played so much that it's too short to be meaningful, work toward multiball by completing the DMC drop targets to light locks at the upper left saucer- in multiball, completing DMC again lights jackpots at both ramps.


Shots and table features

Skill shot

The skill shot requires shooting the left ramp without hitting any other switch in the game besides the right in lane. To help this, always full plunge the ball so that it is fed to the right in lane; a short plunge sounds the ball horizontal and out of control.
The skill shot is randomly worth 100,000 points times the ball in play, Double your Score, Take Highest Score, or Extra Ball. The points is by far the most common outcome; Extra Ball only appears on the final ball of a low scoring game, Take Highest Score only appears in a multiplayer game, and Double Your Score has less chance to appear the greater your score actually is. Take Highest Score sets your score to be equal to the current leader's score.

Ramps: Skyway and DeLorean Millions

Any shot to other ramp during both single ball play and multiball scores a letter in DeLorean. Spelling DeLorean starts DeLorean Millions, where both ramps are worth a repeatable 1,000,000 for a limited time. The first DeLorean Millions lasts for 12 seconds, and each subsequent play lasts 2 fewer seconds, with a minimum of 6 seconds on the timer. It's difficult to get more than two 1,000,000 shots during DeLorean Millions once the timer has as low of a starting value as 6 seconds, but early on this mode can be worth 4 or 5 million if you don't drop the combo. There is absolutely no grace period on the DeLorean Millions timer; the instant that the display stops showing the DeLorean Millions information, any ramp that registers will start working toward the next spelling of DeLorean.

A shot to either ramp scores the currently lit Skyway value. If no Skyway lights in the center of the table are lit, a shot to a ramp is worth 25,000 points. Both ramps direct the ball to the right in lane. A ball through a lit in lane will unlight that in lane and increase the Skyway value for about 10 seconds. Making a ramp relights the in lanes to allow the Skyway value to be increased further. In practice, this means consecutive ramp shots have increasing value: 25,000 - 50,000 - 75,000 - 100,000 - 125,000 - light extra ball. After lighting the extra ball, the time before the Skyway value resets gets shorter, giving less of a grace period on missed ramp shots.

Locks and multiball

The D-M-C drop targets in the back center of the game score 10,000 points each when knocked down. Completing the bank lights a lock at the saucer in the upper left of the game. For the first multiball, multiple locks can be lit at once if the bank of drops is completed multiple times before a lock is made. For the second multiball, you must make a lit lock before another can be lit. For the third multiball and onward, only one lock can be lit at a time, and the D-M-C drop targets will reset themselves if they are not hit in order from left to right.

Locking a ball scores 25,000 points. Multiball is started when 3 locks are made. The game does have physical locks, but multiball locks cannot be stolen by other players. If there are already 2 balls in the lock but a player makes a lock that is not lock 3, one ball already in the lock will be spit out. If player X has made 1 or 2 locks but another player starts multiball on their own, player X will receive 1 or 2 instantly lit locks to get back to where they were.

During multiball, priority 1 is to complete the D-M-C drop targets. Doing so qualifies the two ramps for jackpots for the rest of the game. There are three independent jackpots on each ramp, worth 500,000, then 750,000, then 1,000,000 points. Collecting all three jackpots on both ramps awards an additional 1,000,000 points and resets the jackpots (but you do NOT need to complete the D-M-C targets again). Further completions of the D-M-C targets during multiball score 100,000 points. All other features of the game are in play during multiball. Jackpot progress is carried across multiballs for each player, so you do not need to go back and recollect jackpots if you only made it part of the way to the extra 1,000,000.

Clock Tower saucer

The Clock Tower saucer in the upper right of the game is deceptively dangerous in just about every way possible: it's a narrow shot, the saucer is shallow and balls can reject out, and the return kickout can be dangerously close to the center drain. Putting a ball in this saucer scores the flashing award, which can be any of these 7 things: