A glossary of pinball terms, objects, and slang, in alphabetical order.
A button, typically on the metal bar at the front of the game, that can be used for various purposes such as launching a ball into play, controlling a video mode, or earning credit for a shot. An action button is present on most very modern tables, but appeared at least as far back as Black Rose (Bally Williams, 1992).
An add-a-ball award in a game is a way to literally add another ball to the playfield during an existing multiball. This can be done to restore a lost ball, such as when a multiball that started as 3-ball but is now down to 2 gets its third ball back, or it can extend a multiball, turning a 3-ball multiball into a 4-ball one.
See also: multiball.
An add-a-ball game is a game, typically a single player game from the early 1970s, which does not have a credit counter, nor does it ever award replays for high scores or in-game achievements. Instead, it opts for extra balls, and usually includes a "Balls to play" display that counts down, allowing more than one extra ball per ball in play. It is the opposite of a replay game. Add-a-ball games were devised in the late 1960s as a way to skirt pinball's illegality in some cities and states, since the general ruling was that any table that awards a free game could be considered gambling, since a game has a set price; individual balls could not have a set price accordingly since a single ball is a variable percentage of a game.
Also called a Shatz or Shatz pass; a way to transfer the ball from one flipper to another by making a very, very late shot from the tip of a flipper that is intended to shoot the ball into the opposite in lane. The term Shatz is named after Neil Shatz, a competitive pinball player who mastered the maneuver in the 1990s. On some games, this is just a way to transfer the ball for a more ideal shot; on other games, such as The Amazing Spider-Man and Gorgar, it can be a strategy to intentionally alley pass back and forth to repeatedly collect whatever award is available from the in lane switches.
Sometimes abbreviated AN; a type of solid state game that conveys information through segmented displays capable of showing letters and some symbols. The 4 players' score displays can be separate, or combined into a one-line or two-line structure. Most games released between 1986 and 1991, inclusive, are alphanumeric games.
The part of the bottom of the table below the out lanes and out hole that the ball cannot access. This space frequently includes a rule card for the player's benefit, information about replay scores, the name of the game and manufacturer, and sometimes art related to the game itself. Tables from some manufacturers in some areas also include the ball in play number, a light showing if there is a credit in the game, or even the four players' scores in this space.
The vertically positioned wooden box at the back of a pinball game. Depending on the era and the game itself, backboxes may contain score reels, score displays, a computer, a DMD, an LCD screen, speakers, physical features that show a player's progress toward a goal, or even minigames that they player can interact with at certain times. The contents of a backbox are hidden from the player's view by the backglass.
A piece of glass in the backbox of a game that shows the name of said game, the company who made it, and some artwork relevant to the game's theme.
A shot made by pressing the flipper button when the ball is close to the base/hinge of the flipper rather than the tip, intended to hit something on the same side of the table as the flipper. The extent to which backhand shots are viable depends heavily on the strength and angle of the flipper being used and the position of the slingshot if there is one since it can block very sharp backhand shots. An extension of this idea called a rolling backhand can be done by flipping the ball away when the ball is on the top of the flipper but rolling downwards toward the base of the flipper.
A portion of a pinball game, typically its own mini-playfield, where a pinball descends through a board of pegs with no flippers, and where different awards are possible based on the route or ending position. Sometimes also called a pachinko playfield. The names come from French or Japanese flipperless predecessors to pinball in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries.
A shot that is easy to make, either in the general sense or for a certain player, such that someone can aim at this shot when the ball is out of control, knowing that if they succeed, they will be able to get a ball back under control. The term can also be used to describe a shot that acts as a transfer from one flipper to another in a case where a standard flipper pass is for any reason not reliable.
A brief period of time at the beginning of a ball (usually 5-10 seconds) where, if the ball drains, it will be returned to the plunger for the same player to keep their turn. First appearing on F-14 Tomcat in 1987 and gaining popularity in the early 1990s, it was designed as an anti-frustration measure to account for unlucky bounces/house balls, or to allow lesser skilled players to play for longer. While ball save is running, a light near the flippers often labelled Shoot Again will flash. Ball save can also be awarded during play as a reward or when certain other features, such as a multiball, begin.
When a ball is stuck somewhere in the game, or if a ball is cradled on a flipper for a very long time, a solid state game may enter ball search mode, which is just automatic activation of various mechanical pieces of the game in an attempt to free what the game thinks is a lost ball. If the ball search fails, the machine may shut off or a new pinball may be ejected.
A curved flipper designed to make it easier to trap a ball, present only on the Williams games Disco Fever (1978) and Time Warp (1979).
See End-of-ball bonus.
Not to be confused with an extra ball.
An additional ball, usually timed, given to players as a major award. Frequently, the length of a bonus ball can be extended by completing other objectives in a game. Bonus balls are generally played either immediately after a player's final conventional ball, or in proper turn by the players who earned them after all players have completed their conventional balls. A bonus ball can be a single-ball or multiball round. When the bonus ball's time expires, flipper power will usually be cut, immediately preventing the player from continuing to play.
A selection of inserts in the playfield that count off how much end-of-ball bonus is collected, usually in a constant interval of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, or 10,000. Typically only seen on electromechanical or early solid-state tables, since starting with the alphanumeric era, information about bonus was usually confined to the Status report.
A multiplier applied to some or all of the end-of-ball bonus. Games may have more than one multiplier that affects certain parts of the bonus. Every game is different regarding how to collect bonus multipliers, what the maximum multiplier is, and if or how the multiplier is carried from ball to ball instead of being reset for the player's next turn.
A round scoring target that the ball can bounce off of, awarding points. Most bumpers are "pop bumpers", also called "jet bumpers" or "thumper bumpers", which fling the ball away when the ball contacts them with enough momentum. The opposite of a pop bumper is a passive bumper, which is just something for the ball to deflect off of that does not actively send the ball away. Most bumpers have a light inside them; bumpers may be able to have a different value when not lit versus when they are lit (or, rarely, a third value for if they are flashing).
A way to extend a game by one additional ball at the price of an additional 1/2 credit or 1 credit for the purposes of working toward a high score. Buy-in balls typically have a longer ball save than standard balls and may light or start features on the table automatically. Machines may have separate high score tables for buy-in games versus standard games.
A pinball trapped in a certain small area of a pinball table that can be hit with the ball in play, with the intention of getting the trapped ball to hit a target or rollover switch in its small area.
An award that can be worked for across multiple players and multiple games. The most common implementation of this is to light a letter in a phrase on the backbox of the game when a certain goal is achieved, and then give a major award (frequently multiple free games) to the player who finishes spelling the phrase. In arcade play, these are designed to create an incentive to play a game, but they are typically disabled for competitive play or reassigned so that each player can make their own progress toward the award.
The term center post can refer to two similar objects: an always-present peg or pin between and slightly below the flippers that the ball is intended to bounce off of as a type of save, or a larger post that can be raised or lowered with the intention of completely preventing a center drain as a temporary reward. The peg variety is present on some tables from many eras, while the larger post variant was largely a feature on electromechanical tables that died out in the late 1970s.
A sequence in which a player makes multiple shots to one or more locations in quick succession without too much time passing in between, which commonly gives additional points. Combos can be identified by their length as Two way combos, Three way combos, etc.
Also known as a catch or a trap, a cradle just refers to the act of controlling a ball and slowing it to a stop by holding a flipper up until the ball settles at the base of the flipper. From here, the flipper can be lowered and the ball shot away at a low speed where aiming the shot is much easier. The post catch, live catch, and dead bounce all attempt to catch the ball in a cradle on one of the flippers.
The use of small flips intended to separate two or more balls that are being held on the same flipper during multiball.
See Tilt warning.
Also known as a dead flip or bounce pass, it is a control maneuver that consists of leaving a flipper down when a ball is travelling toward it quickly, typically with the intention of letting the ball bounce toward another flipper to further slow down or catch the ball.
Any of various methods of bouncing or shoving a ball back into play from beneath the flippers. This can include a strong nudge off of the trough gate, or a "bang back" that involves punching the machine to throw it between one raised and one lowered flipper. Death saves are very illegal in competition play and will result in a disqualification. Do not rely on them as a skill move. Death saves may damage the machine, and bang backs specifically could injure your wrist as well. A handful of games, most notably Data East's DMD games from around 1992-94, give a reward for a death save, but it still should not be attempted or relied on.
Commonly abbreviated as DMD. It is a small screen, usually 128x32 pixels but sometimes 128x16 or 192x64, that displays player scores, information, and basic animations. Almost all DMDs were monochrome, and the vast majority displayed shades of orange, but in the modern era, many games have been modified to have the DMD be a full colour display. Any game with a dot-matrix display is often classified as a "DMD game"; the vast majority of games released between 1991 and 2015 belong to this classification.
Also called the trough or out hole, the drain is the area at the bottom of the playfield below the flippers where a ball is considered lost if it enters there.
The process of losing a ball off the bottom of the table. Often sub-classified into a center drain or an out lane drain. If multiple balls drain at the same time such as during multiball, the phrase double drain or triple drain is used.
A way to instantly slow down a ball moving quickly toward the flipper, performed by holding the flipper up and releasing the button at the exact moment that the ball touches the raised flipper.
A target, usually plastic and square or vertical rectangle in shape, that falls down to "disappear" under the table when hit with enough force. A shot that travels nearly parallel to the faces of a set of drop targets might be able to hit multiple targets at once: this is known as "sweeping" the targets. A set of multiple adjacent drop targets is frequently referred to as a bank, or even more specifically, an x-bank, where x is the number of targets themselves. Awards can be given for knocking down specific targets, all targets, or for completing the targets "in order" by hitting them one at a time in a certain direction. Occasionally, standup targets will be present behind a set of drop targets. See also: inline drop targets.
A modification to a pinball table that became popular in the early 2020s wherein an operator attaches an earplug to a certain part of a tilt bob to cause it to stop swinging faster. This is most commonly done to decrease the amount of time players tend to wait and let a swinging tilt bob settle before starting their turn in a tournament, or to help prevent tilt-throughs.
Any game that is powered by motors and relays to operate features and count score, rather than a computer or other electronics. They are typically identified by the bells and chimes they use for scoring, the use of lights or odometer-style reels to count score, and their simpler rulesets compared to computerized games. Almost all games released between 1935 and 1977 are classified as EM games.
A major award given to a player, allowing them to take another turn after the current ball drains. Synonymous with the phrases "Shoot again" or "Same player shoots again". In most games released up until the early-1980s, players were limited to one extra ball per ball in play, meaning the current ball would need to drain and the extra ball would need to be used up before another could be earned. However, modern games or electromechanical "add-a-ball" games have the capability of storing or awarding multiple extra balls per ball in play, often to an operator-adjustable maximum. Under some game settings, the award called extra ball can be set to award points instead. In a competition or tournament setting, 4 things can be done with extra balls: they could be disabled outright, they could be set to a point value, they could be enabled with a rule in place that means you can plunge an extra ball and cannot use the flippers on them, or they could be left as-is (the latter typically only happens with certain single-player games).
Any of various types of long, thin, bat-like posts that the player can press a button to operate, where they will swivel around a point with enough force to be able to send the ball back up the playfield. In modern pinball, there are usually two flippers at the bottom of the table facing inward, with optionally one or more "upper flippers" on the sides for additional shotmaking. Modern flippers are typically 3 inches long. See also: mini-flipper, lightning flipper, zipper flipper, stage flip.
A hole in the playfield of a pinball table that scores moderate to high points, but ends the current ball, acting as a drain that is somewhere other than the bottom of the game. Gobble holes were common in pinball games of the 1940s and 1950s, but quickly fell out of favor around 1960 as pinball began to rebrand as a game of competition and skill rather than a form of gambling.
A brief period of lenience after a timed pinball feature ends where that feature or shot can still be used or collected. Most commonly seen relating to ball save, to account for the fact that a ball save timer may have run out when a ball was in an out lane and therefore was effectively dead without landing in the drain hole yet, or when relating to a timed mode.
A pathway raised above the playfield for the ball to travel on, typically after the ball enters a vertical up-kicker or reaches the top of a ramp. To be sure not to impact playfield visibility too much, habitrails are usually made of clear plastic or bent metal wires.
A ball that drains before the player gets a chance to flip it in any way. Usually just considered to be bad luck, but wiser discretion on a plunge or nudging as the ball comes down the playfield usually helps prevent them.
A brief timed mode that typically involves shooting one shot as quickly as possible. That shot will have a starting value, and the value will constantly decrease as the player takes longer to hit the shot, until the value reaches either 0 points or a predetermined minimum and the opportunity disappears.
Commonly called return lanes or flipper return lanes, they are lanes near the edges of the bottom of the table that direct the ball behind and underneath the slingshot or other post(s) in such a way that the ball is fed to the flippers.
Drop targets that are positioned one behind the other in a lane, rather than next to each other to form a bank. Inline targets typically give increasing awards as more are knocked down, since it is harder and requires a more accurate shot to hit a target in the bank of a lane relative to the front. Inline drop targets were patented by Bally in the late 1970s, and were most commonly seen on their games until the mid-1980s.
Sometimes called a lamp, it is a small light inlaid into the playfield that can turn on or off (or flash) to demonstrate scoring opportunities available to the player or rewards that they have already earned. Inserts on older games that have been used so much that the plastic at playfield level has started to warp are called cupped inserts, and they can occasionally affect the movement of the ball.
See Status report.
A setup of the bottom of a pinball table consisting of one out lane, one in lane, one flipper, and one slingshot on each half of the table, symmetrically. Referred to throughout the guide pages on The Pinball Primer as a "conventional in/out lane setup" due to its ubiquity. Debuted in 1965 with Gottlieb's Bank-a-Ball and its add-a-ball cousin Flipper Pool. The term "Italian bottom" came about in the late 1970s when European pinball distributors began asking manufacturers to ensure that it is possible to cradle a ball on any flipper so that people could stop to take a drink between shots.
The term jackpot can refer to any major scoring award in a pinball game. Most of the time, jackpots are exclusive to multiball play, and require making a shot or series of shots while at least two balls are still in play. Jackpots can be awarded in single ball play as well, though, usually as an end goal for a series of tasks. Jackpots that have been multiplied for any reason are typically called double jackpots, triple jackpots, etc.
See also: super jackpot, progressive jackpot.
A way to launch a ball back into play, usually from the left out lane. Almost always triggers automatically, but a few must be manually operated. Often a one-time use feature that must be reactivated.
A noisemaker that makes a loud pop or knock sound, most frequently activated to celebrate the awarding of a free game, or sometimes an extra ball. In games before credit wheels, the knocker was a way to alert the game's operator that the current player needed to be paid out for replay(s) they earned.
The ability to use the flippers to change which scoring features are lit. Most commonly used to move the position of lights in parallel lanes at the top of the playfield to make it easier to light (or unlight, if the game demands it) the set of lanes. Introduced with Firepower (Williams, 1980). Early examples of lane change can only use the right flipper. Some games have a "multi-lane change" where each flipper changes a different set of lights/features. Beginning in the mid-1980s, both flippers could be used for lane change, but both would move the lights in question in the same direction. Not until the early 1990s did the current norm of forward + backward lane change become popular.
See Kickback.
Sometimes called a zombie ball, and often shortened to just Lazarus or Laz, is a ball that drains between the flippers very quickly but at an angle that makes it so the ball bounces off the apron on one side of the out hole and back into play. If this happens on its own, which is possible, it is a legal maneuver in competition play, but if the player tries to force it to happen, it may be considered a death save instead and the player may be disqualified. A ball that returns to play by bouncing off a center post is not considered a lazarus ball, even if that post is technically below the flippers.
Short for "liquid crystal display", an LCD is a full-colour screen that more modern games use to display player scores and more conventional animations at high resolutions. Games that display scores on LCD screens are commonly called LCD games. The LCD screen itself, as mounted in the backbox, is sometimes called a television. The first LCD game was New Canasta by short-lived Spanish producer MarsaPlay in 2010; they became mainstream from other companies in the mid-2010s.
A type of flipper used on a handful of Bally Williams games between 1990 and 1993, so named because the flipper has a lightning bolt design printed on top. Lightning flippers are 2.875 inches long, 1/8 of an inch shorter than the conventional 3-inch flipper, and designed to make ball control more difficult and generally increase game difficulty. In recent years, some arcade operators, especially those that run tournaments, have modified some games that they feel are too easy or allow too long of playtime to have lightning flippers when the game did not originally ship with them.
A way to instantly stop a fast moving pinball, usually instantly cradling it on a flipper, that is performed by raising a flipper at the exact moment that the ball would contact it in its raised position.
"Locking" a ball refers to gaining credit toward starting a multiball. Locks can be physical, in which a ball is physically held by the table to be saved for when a multiball is ready, or virtual, in which the game simply tells the player how many balls are locked, and the locks themselves just serve as a depiction of each player's progress. Typically, locking 2 or 3 balls starts multiball.
On some pinball games that physically lock balls as progress toward multiball, it is possible to "steal" the other player's locks. This means that any balls that anyone locks serve as progress toward multiball for anybody, and a player other than the person who made the initial locks can release those locks to start multiball, forcing the original player to start over. Lock stealing is typically only seen on early solid state or alphanumeric games from about 1980-1990.
A form of save only available on certain machines that can be manual or automatic and uses a magnet to slow the ball, stop the ball, or change its direction. Most magna-saves are positioned directly above the mouth of an in lane and can be activated by the player to prevent a ball moving toward the corresponding out lane. If a magna-save is manually activated, it will be done by a button on the side of the machine cabinet separate from the flipper button. Other types of magna-save are auto savers that trigger when the ball rolls over a certain point in the playfield, or magna-saves that put the ball on the tip of a flipper for a shot or cradle instead.
A mechanic in which the game picks a random number and awards one free game for each player who matches the selected number with the least significant digit(s) of their score. This could be the ones digit on older EM games, or a multiple of 10 from 00 to 90 in most games starting from the 1970s where the last digit of a score is always 0. The match feature is designed to give an incentive to play. The success rate of the match feature can be set by operators on modern machines, and does not always have to equal 10%.
A shorthand term used to describe a shot whose value starts at a multiple of 1,000,000 points and increases by 1,000,000 each time, most often seen on various table of the early 1990s.
A shorter-than-conventional flipper, typically 2 inches long instead of 3. Until the early 1970s, it was common for all flippers in a game to be what are now called mini-flippers; on modern games, mini-flippers only exist as upper flippers or flippers on an alternate playfield, and never as the standard flippers at the bottom of the game.
Sometimes called a round, it is a (usually timed) alternate ruleset that increases the scoring value for specific shots or sequences of shots. Modes can be open-ended, where the goal is simply to earn as many points as possible from the presented scoring opportunites, or they can be completable, where shooting certain shots or scoring a certain number of points can "finish" the mode for the purposes of progression through the table.
See also: wizard mode.
A term given to any mode or feature that puts multiple pinballs on the playfield for the player to control at once. It is typically, but not always, achieved by "locking" balls first. Most multiballs have 2 or 3 balls; some may have 4 or 5; only very special multiballs on specific tables typically exceed 5, such as the 6-ball Chaos Multiball on Jurassic Park (Data East, 1993) or the 13-ball multiball on Apollo 13 (Sega, 1995). Multiballs typically come with increased scoring opportunities, such as a playfield multiplier, or a jackpot for making a shot or sequence of shots before draining back down to single ball play.
On some games, if a multiball is started but the player returns to single-ball play before achieving a major goal in that multiball (such as scoring a jackpot), they will be able to restart the multiball with just one shot, usually to a particular ramp or saucer. A multiball restart is typically timed, and usually cannot be taken advantage of more than once without re-qualifying the multiball the long way in between.
A very small passive bumper seen only on some EM games.
A slight movement of a pinball table in a direction designed to influence the ball's movement. Contrary to the belief of many people new to pinball, nudging a game is not cheating! Pinball tables are designed to take a little bit of movement from players, and nudging a table is frequently intended to help make shots and complete goals. The game will tell you if you are being too rough with it by dishing out tilts or tilt warnings. The intention of a nudge is not to lift or change the angle of an entire machine to get the ball to go where you want it: nudging is supposed to briefly move an obstacle toward or away from the ball to change the direction of its bounce. Most nudges are done side to side or upward by pushing one side or the front of the machine. Nudging is just as much, if not more, of an exercise in timing and close attention then strength.
A metal valve that a ball can only travel through in one direction, frequently positioned to force balls in particular directions at the top of a playfield or prevent a ball from re-entering the shooter lane.
A shot that is usually entered at the edges of the playfield that typically leads to the ball taking a long path around the back of the game, or "orbiting" the meat of the playfield.
The blank will be filled with the name of one of the shots in the game, e.g., "left loop out", "side ramp out", etc. This is said to indicate that a player will be focusing solely on the shot or startegy in question, hoping to repeat it until they have enough score to meet their goal or win a game.
Lanes typically on the far outer edges of the bottom of the table. These lanes funnel the ball to below the flippers and into the out hole.
A swiveling piece of wire that, as a reward, closes off an out lane to prevent a drain, instead funneling the ball back into an in lane (on either side) or the shooter lane (right side only). These gates are typically single use and will revert to their closed position once used.
The surface of a pinball table itself, where a pinball can roll around and interact with various obstacles.
A multiplier applied to any and all scoring in a game, with the possible exception of very major awards such as jackpots. Frequently, playfield multipliers are either timed or only available during multiball play.
If a player plunges a ball and that ball ends up in the drain without hitting any targets or scoring any points, that ball will be returned to the shooter lane at no penalty, because the playfield was not validated- nothing was hit, so the game has no proof that the plunge (or indeed the game's attempt to move the ball from the drain to the shooter lane) was successful. This can be used to allow players to discard a plunge that did not reach the intended outcome. Exact mechanics on when and how this works vary from game to game; sometimes, it is a trick that can be utilized on any ball, while on some EM games, it can only be performed on ball 1 or not at all.
A mechanism that launches a pinball into play, sometimes called a shooter. Many games do this with a player operated spring-loaded plunger rod that is pulled back various amounts, then let go to send the ball up the playfield, but some games just use a simple button that kicks the ball into play with the same speed every time once pushed.
A way to cradle a ball on a flipper by raising the flipper as soon as the ball touches the edge of the flipper after rolling down through the in lane, with the intention of "shooting" the ball directly at the near slingshot post on that side of the game and forcing the ball to choke up on the raised flipper.
Also called a post pass, it is a way to transfer the ball from one flipper to another. It is executed by taking a ball trapped on a flipper and flipping extremely early to send the ball into the post that forms the corner of the slingshot on the same side of the trap. The intention is to give the ball enough momentum that it will bounce over and able to be caught by the opposite flipper. It is the safest type of flipper transfer, as a failed attempt will almost always just lead to the battle settling on the same flipper where it already was, but it is also the most dependent on table geometry, as the post transfer will work differently on every table based on the exact position of the slingshot post, and it may be entirely impossible on many games.
A ball that comes down an in lane or out lane incredibly quickly- so fast that a player may not react fast enough to flip when they want to from an in lane, or so fast that a player never had a chance to nudge a ball away from an out lane- is a power in/out lane.
A type of jackpot, typically seen on alphanumeric games of the late 1980s, that builds up a little bit with each game played, and whose value grows across many games until it is won. Effectively, it is a carryover award worth a variable and increasing amount of points. In competitive play, these are usually disabled or replaced with an alternate setup of jackpot that does not favor players who happen to be playing a machine when the progressive jackpot is high.
A sloped surface that a ball can be shot up so that it can reach an alternate playfield area or be transported on a habitrail to a different part of the game.
A free game. Replays are most commonly awarded from Specials, by reaching certain predetermined scoring thresholds, or by a win on the end of game Match feature.
Any game that is able to award replays, or free games, as a reward. Almost all games released post-1975 are replay games; the term only exists to contrast add-a-ball games.
A threshold for scoring at which a free game is earned in honor of the player's success, equivalent to earning an extra life in an arcade video game. Replay scores can be seen on the DMD/LCD display on modern games, or on the info card on the apron for older games.
Any way to get the ball into the shooter lane to plunge it to the top of the playfield for a second or more time on the same turn. This most frequently occurs when a new ball is put into play after a ball is locked, but can be an intentional outcome of a direct shot as well, often through a one-time-use gate of some kind.
A revenge game is when a player who just performed poorly on a game in a tournament plays a 1-player game on the same machine immediately after the scores have been entered, to get additional practice, ensure they understand the rules, etc.
A literal round button that a pinball can roll over and depress, scoring points. Rollover buttons can frequently affect the speed and direction of a ball's movement. See also: Star rollover.
A small bent piece of wire that pops up through a slot in the playfield, usually present in a lane not much wider than the pinball itself. The ball rolls over the wire and presses it in, activating a switch for scoring.
The act of scoring so highly in a single game of pinball that the machine being played cannot, or is programmed not to, display the player's full score. Depending on the era and specific game, this may occur at any place value from 1,000 points to 100,000,000,000 points. Doing so multiple times in a game is very rare on all but very specific or very easy tables, and can be called a double roll, triple roll, etc.
A wheel of targets positioned vertically that partially poke out of the playfield such that only a few of the possible panels are visible at a time. The panels are often numbered or distinctly labelled, and the rewards for hitting a panel often depend on what the panel says and which position it was in. Games with a roto-target will also have a way to spin the roto-target, changing which faces are visible on the target mid-ball.
A small cupped area in a playfield that the ball can be shot into, then kicked out of in a particular direction. While the two terms refer to the same concept, most people will consider a scoop to be larger or deeper than a saucer, frequently causing the entire ball to temporarily drop below playfield level. Scoops were also frequently called sinkholes in the past, but this term is used less in the 21st century.
Abbreviation for "straight down the middle", referring to a center drain that did not touch either flipper on the way down. Typically, the only way to prevent a drain in this case would be with a slap save or slide save.
A plunge that is intended to put a ball into play at the absolute minimum strength possible. This frequently requires forfeiting a skill shot or other scoring opportunity, but can often bring the ball to the flippers more slowly and safely, or even allow for a chance at a replunge via playfield validation if it goes wrong.
A skill shot refers to any special scoring opportunity available on or immediately after the plunge that introduces a ball to play. Most skill shots are either timing based, so that the ball reaches a certain point at a certain time, or a precise-power plunge, so that the ball enters a certain lane or hole without going too far beyond it. Sometimes, a skill shot refers to a shot made with the flippers within a brief period of time after the ball is plunged, instead. The phrase skill shot is also retroactively applied to older tables that do not necessarily actively point out such a thing, but have an ideal plunge result (such as a particular lane or saucer at the tip of a table).
Some tables also have a super skill shot, which is another skill shot that acts as either a harder-but-higher-reward alternative to the standard skill shot, or an extension of a conventional skill shot with an even larger award that is eligible to be collected only after the standard skill shot is made.
Also known as a ski jump, the ski pass just consists of holding a flipper as the ball comes down an in lane with speed, using the raised flipper as a ramp so that the other flipper can be used to cradle the ball or make a shot.
An extremely violent tilt that causes the entire game in progress to end for all players, and sounds an alarm on most solid state machines. Often occurs by striking the coin door or lifting the table up during gameplay. If done on purpose, a slam tilt will pretty much immediately get you thrown out of an arcade or disqualified from an entire tournament; rarely, though, slam tilts or game resets can happen inadvertently due to a game malfunction.
A particularly hard sideways nudge, typically performed by "slapping" the side of the machine, to try to get a flipper to touch what would otherwise be a SDTM drain.
A dramatic extension of a slap save that physcially moves the table, putting the feet in a different position then they were before the move. Almost always ends with the player earning at least one tilt warning.
A type of kicker, typically near the flippers and shaped like a triangle, that scores a few points and actively flings the ball away.
A state of suspended animation during play in pinball where the ball repeatedly bounces back and forth between two slingshots, making it very uncertain where it will go or how to get it back under control.
A solid state table refers to any pinball machine that uses electronics and computers to keep score and operate table features. Technically, almost every table released from about 1977 onward is a solid state game under this definition, including the most modern games. However, when people refer to the "solid state era" or "early solid state" games, they are typically referring to the first generations of solid state game from 1977-1985 before the introduction of alphanumeric displays.
Frequently the largest major award available on a pinball table. It is designed to be difficult to achieve, requiring many successful shots to one or more targets or features in a game. The ambiguous name "special" stems from the fact that on almost all tables, operators can set the special to various different awards; most commonly, a free game, an extra ball, or a large point bonus. Some tables, especially those made outside of the United States, have multiple types of special that give different awards, usually differentiated by colour (standard specials are almost always red; orange is a common secondary colour). On American tables, specials are very commonly collected on a table's out lanes.
A shortening of spinning target, a spinner is a thin flat panel at the entrance of a shot lane attached to an axle. Hitting the target causes the axle and the panel itself to spin, with a switch awarding points to the player for each successive spin. A shot to a spinner, especially a well aimed shot that causes the spinner to rotate very quickly, is sometimes called "ripping" the spinner.
A turntable built into a playfield that spins with the intention of affecting the ball's travel in an unpredictable way.
On many games where a single flipper button controls more than one flipper, it is possible to press the button halfway in, so that only one flipper actually triggers. This is known as a stage flip, since only the first stage of the flipper leaf is activated. This can allow for cradling the ball on the lower flipper in a double flipper pair, or using an upper flipper freely during multiball while a ball is cradled on the same side's lower flipper.
A type of target that does not move in any way. It is frequently round or square, and often called a touch target, spot target, or bullseye target. Most standup targets are not much larger in profile than the ball itself. A variant of the standup target that is rectangular and somewhat wider than the pinball itself is sometimes called a pad target.
A round button with a raised piece shaped like a 10-pointed star. When a pinball passes over it, the star-shaped piece presses down, activating a switch and scoring points. The shape is designed so that in this process, the ball's momentum is affected as little as possible while the button still registers. Mostly seen on games released between the early 1970s and mid 1980s.
In most games beginning with the alphanumeric era, holding one or both flippers for a certain length of time will cause the game's displays to show you additional information about the state of the game. This can include things like your current bonus and bonus multiplier, your current in-game collectibles, or your progress toward certain modes or features such as multiballs. A common control scheme for this allows a player to trap a ball on one flipper, hold it there for a while, and then use the other flipper as a "next page" button to cycle through the information that the status report has to offer. Frequently referred to in games of various eras as Instant Info.
A method by which a ball is taken under the playfield, moved around, and brought back onto the playfield in a different location.
Can be used in the general case to refer to any large scoring amount, but as it is seen printed on a playfield, the term super bonus typically refers to a quantity or portion of end-of-ball bonus that is carried over to the next ball or for the rest of the game, most often as a reward for reaching a certain threshold.
An advanced form of jackpot, usually even harder to achieve than a standard jackpot, that typically awards the value of the jackpot times a multiplier (often 2 or 5). Alongside extra balls or Specials, super jackpots are among the most major of awards that a table can give for mastery level play.
A target seen on only a few games that actually swivels back and worth at the end of a motorized arm.
If a player in a tournament setting has what the tournament director perceives to be an insurmountable lead, they may be tapped out- typically, physically tapped on the shoulder by said tournament director- which means they should stop playing immediately in exchange for an automatic first place in the round for the sake of keeping the tournament on schedule. If a player gets tapped out and another player after them does make up the seemingly-insurmountable lead, they will typically also receive the same first place award as the tapped out player.
A way of transferring the ball from one flipper to another, executed by letting the ball roll down to the middle of the flipper, then performing a very fast partial flip that gives the ball just barely enough momentum to clear the flipper gap and land on the opposite side for a shot. The tap pass is the most dangerous form of flipper transfer, as a failed tap pass will either send the ball away to an unintended part of the table or be so weak that the ball drains. However, it can be done on any table without question since all it requires is two flippers, making it the most versatile if it can be mastered.
A person designated as a tournament's rules enforcer. Almost always abbreviated as TD. A tournament can have multiple TDs, and TDs can play in the tournament they are directing as long as there is another TD not in the same group. TDs make decisions based on IFPA rules for things like faulty machines, stuck balls, and rules disputes. They usually also have keys to games and can choose to remove games from the tournament pool.
Nudging or moving a machine too frequently or too strongly can cause a tilt. A tilt cuts off power to the flippers, turns off all lights in the game, and allows the ball to drain, disqualifying it from further scoring. The player's current turn immediately ends, but their extra ball(s) can still be played if they have any. Ending a ball by tilting also forfeits any end-of-ball bonus earned on that ball. On many games, a tilt may end the entire game, not just the current ball in play; "tilt ends game" was the norm until the mid-70s, and tables had an option to make a tilt end the game until the early 1980s..
A 360-degree pendulum inside a pinball machine that swings freely within a metal ring. If the bob touches the ring, a tilt warning or outright tilt occurs. The bob is usually cone shaped and can be adjusted up or down, making it easier or harder for the circuit to complete. A tilt bob is said to be "tight" or "loose" if it is set high or low respectively, corresponding to a more or less sensitive tilt setting respectively.
On games without a tilt warning, especially from the 1970s and 80s, a particularly hard tilt on one ball may cause the tilt bob to swing so much that the next ball tilts as well before any points can be scored on it. If this is done to void another player's ball in a tournament, even by accident, it is grounds for disqualification from that round.
A way for a machine to tell the player that the nudge or movement they just did was just a little too strong. Typically identified by all of the lights in the game blinking, a sound effect being played, and the word Danger or Warning appearing on the display for AN/DMD/LCD games. Traditionally, two warnings are given, and on the third, the game tilts, though the exact number of tilt warnings given is frequently operator-adjustable. Rarely, additional tilt warnings can be given to the player as a reward. A single nudge or table movement can give multiple warnings. If a player is able to continue playing after receiving tilt warnings, they are described as "playing on one/two dangers". Games from the EM era do not give tilt warnings, and will just tilt the player at the first sign.
To time out a mode or feature is to intentionally let it expire, usually by just holding the ball on a flipper until a clock runs out or something on the playfield unlights. This is done to avoid low-value or dangerous shots that stand in the way of greater or safer rewards.
A mechanical object incorporated into the playfield that reflects the game's theme. So named because the first table to contain one, Space Shuttle (Williams, 1984), used genuine children's space shuttle toys on their playfields, at least during development.
A situation in which a bumper causes the ball to repeatedly trigger a lane of some sort, usually caused by the lane in question being perfectly vertical and sitting directly above the center of a pop bumper. Coupled with lane change, up-and-down action can make it possible to complete entire sets of lanes in just a single trip to that part of the playfield. So named because the ball goes up and down the lane repeatedly.
Sometimes spelled vari-target, it is a target that can be pushed in various amounts and activate different switches, giving more or better rewards for shots that are strong and direct so that they push the target in more.
A timed mode in a DMD or LCD game that does not involve the pinball at all, and instead requires the player to use the flipper buttons to play a short video game on the in-game display to receive an award.
A saucer that pops the ball upward away from the table surface, usually to put it on a habitrail or upper/alternate playfield.
A walkoff occurs when the last player in a game (conventionally player 4) has enough score that they theoretically do not need to play their final turn. It is so named because that player can, in theory, plunge the ball and then walk away and still win the game. Some players may deny the walkoff and play their final ball anyway for practice, but this is considered a faux pas if the player in question already has a very large lead or if their continued play would delay the rest of the tournament.
Many scoring features in pinball award different scores when they are "lit" versus when they are not. For bumpers, the bumper itself will light up, but for most other types of targets (such as drop targets, standup targets, spinners, ramps, or scoops/saucers), "being lit" refers to the status of an insert light in the playfield near the scoring feature, rather than the feature literally being lit up itself. An extension on this idea is "when flashing", where a target or shot that is flashing can have a different scoring value than a lit one; this is most commonly seen with bumpers.
A term used to describe any game whose physical cabinet and playfield is wider than other typical games of its era. The variant term "ultra-widebody" is sometimes used to refer to widebody games from the late 1970s and early 1980s that are dramatically wide, sometimes as much as 30-40% wider than a conventional game. Widebody machines are more expensive to produce but provide more space for playfield design features and more varied shots.
A finale mode to a game that features very large rewards and very high scoring, typically only available to players who have completed every other major or semi-major goal in a game. It is so named because, in theory, only a true pinball wizard should be able to reach it; the term "pinball wizard", then, was coined by The Who in the 1969 song of the same name that was part of the album Tommy. Wizard modes are frequently multiball modes, but not always. Sometimes referred to as an "everything is lit" mode, since that's usually the case. Many people consider The King's Ransom from Black Knight 2000 (Bally Williams, 1989) to be the first wizard mode, but in practice that acts more like a carryover award; the Mega Door Bonus from Whirlwind or Super Frenzy from Funhouse (both Bally Williams, 1990) are more in line with the spirit of a true wizard mode, with the concept becoming more fleshed out in the DMD era.
A pair of flippers that, as a reward, can be "zipped" together, meaning they are moved closer together and rotated slightly to form a barrier blocking the center drain. The flippers can still be used as normal while they are 'zipped', but due to how they are rotated, shotmaking with a zipped flipper is usually much different than with a conventional flipper.
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