Collect letters corresponding to the lit arrow by making the center standup target or either star rollover. If the arrow is pointing at an already lit letter, use one of the star rollovers or the spinner to move its position. If you light all 8 letters in GoldBall, you will instantly receive an extra ball with a physically golden-colour ball, and all scoring with the golden ball in play is tripled, including collecting the end of ball bonus three separate times. The most valuable feature in the game beside the Goldball letters are the 1-2-3 standup targets in the upper right, which give bonus advances and multipliers plus eventually a repeatable 100,000 points.
There are 5 top lanes. The leftmost four spell Play. All four of these lanes score 5,000 points and a bonus advance. Roll through an unlit lane to light it. Lit lanes can be rotated via lane change with the right flipper only. Spell Play once for 50,000 points; twice for an extra ball; three times for a special. After three completions, the cycle repeats, so that the 4th completion is 50,000 again, 5th is extra ball again, etc. Both the progress on the current set of Play lanes and the number of completions of Play can be carried from ball to ball, but by default they are not.
The rightmost top lane has a single star rollover in it. This rollover scores 5,000 points and a bonus advance, and also lights the letter in Goldball corresponding to the currently lit arrow. If the golden ball is in play and this star rollover is the first switch hit during the ball, it will award an instant special.
Hit an unlit target to light it. Whether lit or not, targets score 500 points and a bonus advance. Completing 1-2-3 awards 2x bonus the first time; 3x bonus the second time; 100,000 points and a special the third time; 100,000 points the fourth time and thereafter. All progress on 1-2-3 targets and awards resets after every ball.
In the center of the table are inserts spelling Goldball and an arrow pointing to each individual letter. The top star rollover, the right side star rollover, and the center standup target will all score 5,000 points and a bonus advance, light the letter corresponding to the lit arrow, and move the arrow to the right one position. Nothing special happens if you make one of these targets when the arrow is pointing at an already-lit letter. There are several ways to change the lit arrow's position without spotting a letter. The left orbit spinner gives 1,000 points and 1 arrow movement per spin; the standup target above-left of the bumpers moves the arrow 4 positions; the left in lane moves the arrow 3 positions; and the standup targets on either side of the center gold standup target move the arrow 1 position. Your goal is to light all 8 letters in Goldball. The simplest way to do this is by hitting the center standup target 8 consecutive times to get every letter in sequence, but since this target is such a large center drain risk, the ball frequently ends up out of control or hits one of the arrow advance features.
Completing the word Goldball awards 100,000 points the first time, 200,000 points the second time. a special the third time, and 200,000 points the fourth time and thereafter. Any completion of Goldball will instantly give an extra ball where the golden pinball will be in play. When the golden ball is on the playfield, all scoring is tripled- including collecting the entire end of ball bonus with multiplier three separate times. Any completion of Goldball while the golden ball is in play will award an instant special on top of the previously listed award.
The rules described in the previous paragraph are the second revision rules for getting the golden ball in play. In the first revision rules, the extra ball with the golden ball in play is an entirely luck-based feature rather than a skill based one. Operators could set the golden ball to appear anywhere from 1% to 15% of the time (in 2% increments). The second edition code replaced the 1% option with Skill Feature, making it so that the only way to get a turn with the golden ball was to spell Goldball. The options for 3%-15% are still present in the second edition.
As a side note, only in the second version code does the upper star rollover award a Goldball letter.
On the left side of the table bottom, the in and out lanes are reversed. The out lane is closer to the flipper and falls straight down, while the in lane is closer to the edge of the table and arcs back toward the flipper. The out lane scores 3,000 points and a bonus advance. The in lane scores 3,000 points and a bonus advance plus moving the lit arrow by three positions.
On the right side, there is no in lane; just flipper, then a slingshot at a shallower angle than typical, then the out lane. The out lane scores 3,000 points and a bonus advance.
Bonus is advanced by top lanes, star rollovers, in/out lanes, 1-2-3 targets, and the center spot letter standup target. A single bonus advance is worth 3,000 points instead of the standard 1,000. Max base bonus is 90,000 points. The first two completions of the 1-2-3 targets on a ball increase the bonus multiplier to 2x, then 3x. If the golden ball was drained, the end of ball bonus (including 1-2-3 multipliers) is collected three times, meaning the max golden ball base bonus is 3x 90,000 = 270,000 points and the max full bonus is 3x 3x 90,000 = 810,000 points. There is no mid-ball bonus collect. Bonus multipliers can never be carried from ball to ball.
In competition/novelty play, specials score 50,000 points and extra balls score 25,000 points. Collecting a special or extra ball with the golden ball does not give three free games or three extra balls, but I have not confirmed for sure whether the 50,000 point special or the 25,000 point extra ball get their values tripled.
Progress on the Play top lanes and collected awards can be carried from ball to ball.
When the golden ball is in play, the game can light two arrows for Goldball letters to make completions easier.
Progress on the current set of 1-2-3 targets can be held over, but completion awards never can be.
The special for completing Goldball can occur after the second time through instead of the third.
The 1-2-3 special can be awarded at the third completion rather than the fourth.
Base bonus can be carried over from ball to ball.
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