Boomerang is the 4 player version. Flicker is the 2 player version. The two games have identical playfields and scoring despite the very different artworks and themes.
Collect A-B-C-D around the middle/bottom playfield to light all of the star rollovers in the captive ball lanes and get double bonus, then shoot the captive balls all day.
The top saucer scores 3,000 points and sends the ball down the lane to the right of the bumper area.
Any star rollover in the game will always give 1,000 points, and it will also give a bonus advance when lit. The rollovers within the captive ball lanes labelled A, B, C, and D only turn on once the corresponding letter has been collected from the lower playfield targets; the other four (one on each side of the bumper area, and the center one of each captive ball lane) are always lit.
A mini-thunderdome of sorts, with an almost complete circular wall. The spinner, the bumper, and each of the four standup targets surrounding the bumper score 100 points and advance the light around the half-moon lamps on the playfield. 10 advances of this light moves it back all the way to the left and advances the bonus. I don't recommend shooting to enter the thunderdome at all, but if you do, always enter through the spinner and be ready for the ball to exit very quickly through the spinner of the gap in the lower right.
Each captive ball lane has 3 star rollover buttons along the way and a red standup target at the end. In the left lane, the first star rollover is only lit when A is collected, the second is always lit, and the third is lit when B is collected. In the right lane, the first rollover corresponds with D, the second is always lit, and the third is lit when C is collected. The star rollovers always score 1,000 points each, but only the lit ones advance the bonus.
The red standup target at the end of each lane does nothing if it is not lit, and scores a special when lit; it is only lit when the base bonus is maxed out at 15,000 points.
The white targets always score 1,000 points, and they award the corresponding letter in A-B-C-D when lit. The yellow targets always score only 500 points.
Each letter in A-B-C-D lights one of the normally-off star rollovers in the captive ball lanes. Collecting all of A-B-C-D awards the double bonus.
Bonus is advanced at the in lanes, any lit star rollover, and every 10 hits to the spinner/bumper/targets in the thunderdome area. Max base bonus is 15,000. When the bonus count is 8, 10, 12, or 14 thousand, the left out lane will be lit for extra ball. When the bonus count is 9, 11, or 13 thousand, the right out lane is lit for extra ball. When the bonus count is maxed at 15,000, both out lanes will be lit for extra ball and both captive ball lane standup targets will be lit for special.
Double bonus can be given on any ball by completing the A-B-C-D letters. It is not lit for free on the final ball of the game. Max bonus is 2x 15,000 = 30,000 points.
Boomerang / Flicker has a conventional in/out lane setup. Slingshots score 10 points. Out lanes score 500 points, and can also be lit for extra ball as described in the previous section. In lanes score 1,000 points and advance the bonus.
Exactly one prototype of copy of Flicker with a solid state microprocessor board was made in 1974 and was the first solid state game ever made, even if it was never released to the public. The playfield is identical to the production EM version, and it appears that the scoring would have been as well, with one exception: supposedly, collecting A-B-C-D in order gave additional scoring on top of lighting 2x bonus (but how much additional scoring is not known).
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