A brief note about this game: TKO is an electromechanical game from March 1979. Only 125 copies were produced, and it is not known how many still survive; it is also not known how many were sold, as almost all copies were exported overseas. Only 3 places in the USA have a playable copy. TKO is the last of Gottlieb's famous wedgehead games, the last electromechanical game from a major American manufacturer, and one of the last single player commercial pinball games ever. The only way for most people to play one easily is as a digital recreation in VPX. TKO is included on The Pinball Primer not necessarily for being a rich, strategy-heavy game, but for being an interesting footnote in pinball history.
Shoot at anything that's lit for 5,000 points. Most things give an Advance when lit, which moves a light up the coloured zigzag ladder in the playfield and changes what features are worth big points. Using the right flipper to shoot up to the bumper area with the goal of collecting star rollovers is always a good idea. When the lit spot on the ladder is on white, a standup target on the middle-right of the playfield will be lit 1/4 of the time for extra ball.
Lit scoring features on TKO depend on which light is lit on the zigzag that runs up the table. Anything that is lit for an Advance will move the spot up the ladder.
Blue features do not depend on the colour of the lit spot directly. These are features around the table that alternate each time a 10-point switch is hit (which is really only the slingshots). Blue features include
Yellow feature is lit when the zigzag spot is in position 1, 5, 10, or 14. When Yellow is lit, the lower left saucers give one additional spot advance. This means the saucer not lit blue scores 500 points and one advance, and the saucer lit blue scores 5,000 points and two advances.
White features are visible around the game, and lit in zigzag positions 2, 6, 9, and 13. There are 4 in total, but only one is lit at a time; the lit white feature rotates each time a 10-point switch is scored. The white features are the middle-right side lane, the white standup target on the right, the right out lane, and the left in/out lane. White features score 500 points, or 5,000 when lit; the white standup target also awards an extra ball when lit.
Green features are only present on the bullseye targets in the upper right. When the zigzag spot is green, at positions 3, 7, and 11, both of these targets score 5,000 points instead of 500. Still, only the target lit blue out of these two awards a spot advance.
Pink features are lit at zigzag positions 4, 8, 12, and 15. When the lit zigzag spot is pink, pop bumpers score 1,000 points each instead of 100.
The red feature is the end of the line, at position 16. For the rest of the game, one of the two saucers will be lit for a special. The special light is within the saucer itself rather than a playfield insert in front of the saucer. Only one of the two saucers has a special at any given time, and these also alternate with 10-point switches hit. Once the special is lit, none of the other coloured features can be lit for the rest of the game (except for the alternating blue features, which continue to operate as normal).
5 star rollovers form a wide arc at the top of the table. All 5 are lit to start the game. Rolling over a lit star rollover scores 5,000 points and unlights it. Unlit star rollovers score 500 points. Unlighting all 5 star rollovers will reset them (turn them all back on) and award five advances of the zigzag spot.
To the left of the pop bumpers, the ball can go underneath the playfield plastic, where it will slowly roll into the vicinity of the two lower left saucers. The ball usually ends up going into one of the saucers, but not always. It's not immediately clear that this secret passage exists, so it warrants mentioning or you may be wondering where your ball went. No points are awarded for using this secret passage.
The left side of the bottom of the table on TKO is conventional. In and out lanes score 500 points, or 5,000 when lit. They are lit together as one of the possible scoring opportunities when the zigzag spot is white. The left out lane only also awards one advance.
On the right, the flipper backs up directly to the slingshot, but this is a passive slingshot that does not actively send the ball away. It still scores 10 points, though, which alternates many features of the game. The right out lane, behind the slingshot, is another 500-or-5,000-when-lit white feature.
There is no end of ball bonus.
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