Try to always be in multiball. In single ball play, light the lock at the right scoop by collecting any lit passenger, then lock a ball in that scoop, then shoot the left loop to start multiball. During multiball, shoot the express lane 1 on the right scoop immediately followed by the express lane 2 on the left to score 300,000 points directly and increase the value of the ramps to 100,000 for the rest of the multiball.
If Jackpot is high, or during multiball after collecting the Express Lane, collect all of the passengers when lit to light Jackpot- Drac is the left scoop, Santa is to the left of the bumpers, Lola/Marilyn is the center drops, Gorbie is to the right of the bumpers, and Pinbot is the far right drops. When lit, Jackpot is scored at the Gorbie shot, but only stays lit for a few seconds.
Each revolution the ball makes within the Spinout cup advances the award. The award sequence goes 1,000 - 5,000 - 10,000 - 25,000 plus spot passenger - 50,000 - 75,000 - 100,000. An additional spin past 100,000 resets the award at 1,000, so if going for the max points, it's better to miss short than long. On default settings, the point value of the Spinout is multiplied by the current ball number, so try for 25,000 plus spot passenger early in a game and 100,000 later in a game. 300,000 points can be very significant on this game.
Completing the lanes advances bonus multiplier by 1x up to its maximum of 5X, and lights Raise Jackpot for 10 seconds. During Raise Jackpot, any switch in the game increases the jackpot by 2,000, or bumpers raise the jackpot by 4,000. The jackpot starts at 500,000 points and maxes out at 4,000,000 points. I believe that on custom code for tournaments, the jackpot is generally normalized to 1,000,000 points.
Three completions of C-A-B (aka reaching 4X bonus) lights an extra ball at the left saucer. As far as I have been able to encounter, extra ball cannot be set to have a point value, so it will likely be disabled for competition play.
Can be hit from below with a direct shot that goes to the left of the bumpers, or from above by shooting to the right of the bumpers in a lane that stretches around above the C-A-B lanes.
From below, the saucer can be lit for Collect Santa within the normal passenger sequence, Joyride when lit by the right in lane, and Airport Million when lit after completing enough ramps.
From above, this saucer scores Collect Gorbie when lit within the normal passenger sequence, or Jackpot when lit by completing all 5 passengers.
A small standup immediately to the right of the top saucer. After completing either set of drop targets (Lola/Marilyn or Pinbot), it will be lit for about 10 seconds. Hitting this target when lit earns Carry Passengers, which allows lit passengers to be carried to the next ball. Without scoring this target when lit, all passenger progress resets between balls.
This target is kind of in the middle of nowhere. It can be hit with a bounce off the upper left bumper through the C top lane, but it's hard to make this happen when it's lit. The most reliable way to hit this target is with a thread-the-needle backhand from the left flipper.
Left ramp sends the ball to the left in lane, and right ramp sends the ball to the right in lane. The ramps themselves are very long, so it takes an accurate, powerful shot to get all the way around. If the game has been on and constantly played for a long time, the flipper coils can get weak, making these ramps even harder than they already are. Rejects down the ramp tend to be very, very fast.
If a ball is locked, the left ramp is lit for Release, which starts multiball.
Going through either in lane lights the opposite ramp for Airport Advance; hitting a ramp lit for Airport Advance scores the current value (seen in the center of the playfield). The Airport value starts at 20,000 and increases by 20,000 each time, maxing out at 100,000. Collecting a 100,000 Airport also lights the Airport Million at the back left saucer (which can be timed or not depending on game settings). Airport value is generally reset between balls.
The center drop targets award Lola/Marilyn when lit during the standard passenger sequence, and the right drop targets do the same for Pinbot. When the first target in either of these banks is knocked down, the remaining targets must be finished within a certain time or the entire bank will reset- the time limit is 10 seconds by default for Lola/Marilyn and 15 seconds for Pinbot.
Completing either bank of drop targets, regardless of whether they are lit for their passenger or not, lights the Carry Passengers target for about 10 seconds.
The right saucer is where a ball is locked. The lock is lit to start the game, but for multiballs after the first, the lock must be lit by collecting any passenger. There IS lock stealing in this game- a player before you may have locked this ball, in which case you are one left ramp away from a pretty much free multiball.
During multiball, lock a ball here to start the Express Lane hurry-up.
The left saucer scores Drac when he is lit in the passenger sequence, Extra Ball when lit by completing C-A-B for a third time, and Express Lane 2 for a few seconds after a ball is locked in the right saucer during multiball.
This hole launches the ball up a habitrail that connects with the left ramp; shooting Drac can count for an Airport ride if the left ramp is lit for such, or for 100,000 points during multiball if the Express Lane has been completed during that multiball already.
As mentioned in earlier sections, multiball is started by:
During multiball, everything on the playfield can still be lit and scored, including collecting passengers and advancing the Airport value on the ramps. Unlike many games of this era and beyond, the Jackpot does not need to be collected during multiball.
The only multiball-exclusive scoring feature is the Express Lane. First, lock a ball in Express Lane 1 on the right, then within about 15 seconds, lock the other ball in Express Lane 2 (the Drac shot) on the left. Doing so scores 300,000 points immediately and makes it so all ramps for the rest of multiball are worth 100,000 each. There's no reason not to go for this, so make it first priority in multiball.
Passengers and the jackpot can still be collected during multiball, but if you're not confident you can collect the jackpot on the current multiball, leave Drac behind at the left scoop. When multiball ends, one passenger needs to be picked up to relight the lock; Drac is almost certainly the easiest passenger to pick up. It's usually best to pick Drac up and continue working toward the jackpot, though.
For the first jackpot, Gorbie and Pinbot are lit to start, and picking up a lit passenger lights the next in the order Drac, Lola/Marilyn, Santa. There will always be two passengers lit at a time until the first jackpot is collected. When the 5th passenger is collected, jackpot is immediately lit at the Gorbie shot for about 15 seconds. If the jackpot is not collected, Lola/Marilyn will need to be picked up again for another shot at the jackpot.
Once the first jackpot is collected, only one passenger will be lit at a time, and the order of passengers will be Santa - Pinbot - Drac - Lola/Marilyn - Gorbie. Just like before, failing the jackpot will require Lola/Marilyn to be collected again. When the second jackpot is collected, passengers will follow the first order again, but with only one lit at a time, and future jackpots will alternate which passenger order they use. Also, collecting a second jackpot lights a special alternating on one of the out lanes. Ignore this in competition play, as special is only worth 50,000 points.
Passengers score a tip of 20,000 when collected, and also add 20,000 to the bonus at the end of the ball. The bonus associated with passengers does NOT get multiplied by the lit bonus multiplier.
Bonus count starts at 1,000 points. Most drop targets and rollovers advance the bonus by 1,000 points. Collecting Santa or Gorbie lights the left or right in lane respectively for 3,000 bonus advance for the rest of the ball. Maximum bonus is 99,000 points. The bonus counter on the backglass will tick up the lower three digits to look like a taxi meter during the ball, but when the ball drains, whatever number is shown gets rounded down to the nearest thousand.
Bonus count and bonus multiplier are not carried from ball to ball. Progress on passengers is only carried from ball to ball if Carry Passengers is lit; otherwise, all 5 passengers must be collected on the same ball to light the jackpot.
Max bonus is (5x 99,000) + (20,000 x 5 passengers lit) = 595,000 points.
Interestingly, the only way to get all 5 passengers counted in the bonus burn down (and to hear the entire chord that plays during the count) is by draining while the jackpot is lit, since Lola/Marilyn gets out of the car if the jackpot is failed, and collecting the jackpot unlights all passengers so they do not count toward bonus. Credit is not given for collecting more than 5 passengers with a jackpot collect in between, unlike the tip in Diner.
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