Not to be confused with Time Machine (Zaccaria, SS, 1983).
Complete sets of red, yellow, and blue targets to light locks, then shoot the left or right ramp to lock that ball and go back a decade. Lock the third ball for multiball. During multiball, hit as many standup targets as you can to raise the jackpot before you collect it at the Starwarp ramp, since there's only one jackpot per multiball. If the pop bumpers are friendly and give you a lot of up and down action, take advantage of this by shooting the right orbit or center shot and try to complete as many top lanes as possible to collect big points, bonus hold, extra balls, spotted targets toward multiball, and letters toward the Starwarp million shot.
The left top lane is a triangle; the center is a circle; the right is a square. Roll through a top lane to light it. Lit lanes can be rotated with the right flipper only. Light all three lanes to advance the bonus multiplier toward its maximum of 5x and receive the currently flashing award on the back wall of the game. Lane completion awards include 25,000 points, 50,000 points, 100,000 points, hold bonus, instant extra ball, and 2x playfield. The 2x playfield lasts for 20 seconds and does not multiply jackpots or any Starwarp Ramp values. The awards do not progress in any particular order; rather, a probability distribution within the game decides which award is next. On default settings, there is a 5% chance it picks 25,000 points, 15% chance it picks 50,000 points, and 20% chance for each of the other four awards.
Each individual top lane also spots targets with the corresponding shape- triangle spots red targets toward the 1970s (first lock), circle spots yellow targets toward the 1960s (second lock), and square spots blue targets toward the 1950s (third lock/multiball start). Especially with the triangle and square lanes, it just takes one or two up-and-downs from the bumpers to light an entire lock from scratch if you are in the decade where such would be useful.
Each bumper hit scores 500 points if it is currently the 1980s, 1,000 points if it is the 1970s, 1,500 points if it is the 1960s, and 2,000 points if it is the 1950s. Also, each bumper adds 2,000 points to the Einstein Bonus, a mini-jackpot collectible by shooting a ramp immediately after rolling through an in lane.
You begin the game in the 1980s. Hit the three red standup targets, then the three yellow standup targets, then the three blue standup targets to light the three locks, which can be collected at either ramp. Targets you need for the next lock will be flashing; hit a flashing target to light it. Targets score 6,000 points when already lit, 15,000 points when flashing, and 3,000 points when unlit. You must finish a set before being able to work on the next one; the order is always red -> yellow -> blue. Targets can be spotted by any ramp, or by the top lane with the respective shape (triangle for red, circle for yellow, square for blue). Making the left or right ramps after completing a colour takes you back one decade and locks a ball. Lock three balls to travel back to the 1950s, which instantly starts 3 ball multiball.
During multiball, the jackpot is at the Starwarp ramp, and it's available right away, but you don't want to shoot for it. Instead, try to hit as many standup targets as possible before two of the three balls drain and single ball play resumes. The jackpot value is equal to 100,000 points, plus an additional 100,000 for every standup target hit during multiball, for a maximum of 1,000,000 points. The jackpot at the Starwarp ramp can only be collected once per multiball, so you want to build it up as high as possible before cashing in. Once the jackpot is collected, there's not much left to do in multiball. Supposedly, hitting all 9 standup targets twice each during a single multiball scores a special, but I have never seen this and cannot confirm it. You cannot make progress toward the next multiball's locks until single ball play resumes, so use the remainder of multiball to collect top lanes for points, 2x playfield, and other major awards (and also enjoy the music and the fact that they put an entire chime unit in a pinball game in 1988).
Each completion of the top lanes or any ramp shot spots a letter in Starwarp on the backglass. When Starwarp is completed, you are given 20 seconds to shoot the Starwarp ramp for 1,000,000 points. This can be collected multiple times per game, including during multiball, though it cannot be doubled by the 2x playfield scoring. The letters in Starwarp on the backglass can be set to reset between each ball, be held in memory for each player, or be shared across all players; the latter allows players to steal others' progress and take the million shot for themselves. Letters in Starwarp do not carry over between games, though.
The Einstein bonus starts at 25,000 points. Each pop bumper hit adds 2,000 points to the Einstein award, up to a maximum of 200,000 points. To collect the Einstein value, roll through either in lane, then shoot the opposite ramp within 12 seconds while it is lit. Collecting the Einstein pot resets its value to 50,000.
When it is not lit for anything else, the Starwarp ramp gives progress toward the mini-jackpot. Collect the #1 for 25,000 points; collect the #2 within 15 seconds for 50,000 points; collect the #3 within 15 seconds after that for 100,000 points.
Time Machine has a conventional in/out lane setup. The out lanes can be lit for an extra ball by advancing to multiball twice in one ball, or by completing the top lanes 6 times in one ball. Only one out lane will be lit at a time; use the right flipper lane change to switch which out lane has the extra ball. The in lanes light the opposite ramp (left or right, never the Starwarp ramp) for an Einstein bonus collect for 12 seconds.
There is a kickback on the left side, called the Laser Kick. It starts lit at the beginning of each ball and unlights once used. After being used, at least one of the left or right ramps will be lit for Lite Laser Kick, which re-enables the kickback. There is no way to upgrade the kickback into an infinite use Super Laser Kick, unlike many later Data East/Sega games.
I have not figured out what exactly increases the base bonus and by how much. Most likely suspects include top lanes, switches on ramps, standup targets, and in/out lanes. If there is a maximum base bonus, it is at least 138,000 points. Bonus multiplier is advanced by completing sets of top lanes. Max bonus multiplier is 5x. Bonus multiplier can never be carried from ball to ball. There is no mid-ball bonus collect. There is a Hold Bonus available as one of the top lane completion awards: this carries your base bonus over to the next ball to be built up further. If Hold Bonus is earned on the final ball of the game, your final bonus count will include a recollect of your final ball's base bonus with a 1x multiplier.
The game manual indicates an option to set specials to a score value for competition/novelty play, but the exact value is not listed and I have not determined it myself. There does not appear to be a setting that converts extra balls to points.
Some basic items in the game, such as pop bumpers, standup targets, and top lanes, can have their scores adjusted for easy or hard settings. The only one that bears mentioning here is that the number of points added to the Einstein bonus for each bumper hit can be set to 1,500 or 3,000 instead of 2,000.
On easy settings, timers are 22 seconds for Starwarp and 2x Playfield, 18 seconds for the mini jackpot, and 15 seconds for Einstein. On hard settings, these timers are 18, 12, and 10 seconds respectively. (Default values are 20, 15, and 12 respectively.)
On hard settings, the top lanes do not spot a letter in Starwarp when completed, and neither the top lanes nor the ramps spot standup targets.
The Starwarp can be set to any multiple of 100,000 points between 500,000 and 1,500,000.
On some copies of Time Machine, there are two switches on the Starwarp ramp, meaning this shot can spot two standup targets toward multiball and give two letters toward the next Starwarp. In this case, if the Starwarp ramp is shot with just 7 of the 8 letters lit, the first switch will qualify the Starwarp and the second will complete it. This two-switch setup does not appear to be the case on all copies of the game.
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