From: "Charlie Trent" <charlie_trent@hotmail.com> Medieval Madness Game Faq Created Friday June 26, 1998 by Charlie Trent (MED) Medieval Madness satires the world of Knights and Damsels, taking into account the comedies of Monty Python, as well as the usually goofy array of jokes from the same people who developed Mars Attacks. It possesses a very large cast of characters, each one supported by the DCS sound system. Everything is really crisp, from game play to the voice acting. The game itself is extremely addictive. If you thought that Adams Family or Elvira was cool, you are going to think that Medieval Madness is downright sexy. Contents 1.The Ball Launch 2.Hurry-ups 3.Extra Ball 4.Ramps 5.Trolls 6.Madnesses 7.Multiball 8.Merlin’s Magic 9.Super Jets 10.F-I-R-E 11.Video Mode 12.Destroy the Castles 13.Battle for the Kingdom 14.Replay 15.Good Tricks 16.Bad Tricks 17. Special Thanks 1. The Ball Launch: There are two ways to do the launch. The default way is just to push the launch button, and get the skill shot bonus. The second way is to hold the left flipper and press the launch button, which activates the super skill shot mode. In normal skill shot mode, you have to send the ball through the lit top lane(of which there are two lanes), which can be changed by pressing the flipper. This earns a plus 5x bonus. The super skill shot sends the ball past the top lanes and directly through the orbit and onto the board. Your job is then to direct the ball through one of four ramps. After the ramp is accomplished, you earn a hurry up, which, if completed, could earn up to one million points. 2. Hurry-up: The hurry ups occur when a madness is accomplished, after the multiball madness has ended, or a super skill shot, or through Merlin’s Magic. They generally start at 1 million and steadily decrease as time passes. Thus, the sooner you make the shot, the more you earn. When the hurry-up ensues, you must hit the front of the castle. After 10 successful hurry-ups, extra ball will be lit. You can also compound hurry-ups such that if the first hurry-up is still running when you achieve a second one, the total points will be 3 million, and with three hurry-ups together, the total score earned will be 5.5 million. However, a compounded hurry-up will still be worth only one hurry-up. So if you want to earn the extra balls, you might not want to compound the hurry-ups. 3 Extra Ball: There are six ways to collect extra balls: destroying castles(at least two castles), completing castle multiball’s royal treasure, hurry-ups(at least 10 hurry-ups), Video Mode, Royal Madness, and, of course, Merlin’s Magic. When extra ball is lit, you must send the ball into Merlin’s solenoid to collect the ball. 4. Ramps: There are many ramps on the table. Each ramp is pointed out with an arrow, which blinks at certain stages in the game. Joust: This ramp is unelevated and circles through the back of the table (orbit). You can access the ramp from the left or right side. After three successful jousts you earn a joust madness. And three joust madnesses earns Joust champion. Catapult: This ramp is located off the left wall of the machine, and is one of the hardest ramps to aim for. After you get the ball in the catapult solenoid, the video will scroll through a list of five items: bowling ball, cow, chicken, cat, and skull. The score received for earning the madness depends on which item is picked. A exceptionally strong shot in the catapult solenoid will achieve two catapult hits. After three catapult hits, the catapult madness is earned. Three catapult madnesses earn you the title of Catapult ace. Dragon: This ramp is the hardest one for me to accomplish. The angle of elevation on the ramp is such that you need a good hard shot to consistently get the ball up and around the ramp. The ramp itself is located on the right side of the board and has a red dragon suspended above it. The third successful dragon run slays the dragon. After the dragon is slain, you rescue the princess and earn the Damsel madness. Having accomplished this three times earns you the Defender of Damsels. Peasant: This ramp is located on the left side of the board. It is, in my opinion, the easiest ramp to accomplish with consistency. The positioning of the ramp with respect to the right flipper offers a lot of flexibility on shot timing. 5. Trolls: Trolls emerge from under the playing field after you hit the troll bumpers a variable amount of times. Defeating both trolls earns the Troll Madness. Three Troll madnesses earns Master of Trolls. Trolls are humorous, but probably the most obnoxious thing on the playing field, as they necessitate repair more than anything else on the field. If you hit the troll bumpers enough, you can earn Troll Bombs, which automatically hit the Trolls. The other way to earn them (other than Merlin’s magic) is to combo a hit off the troll which ends in Merlin’s solenoid. The ball has to ricochet off a troll and land in the saucer. The troll bombs are accessed via the ball launch button. 6. Madness: The madnesses are as follows: Joust, Peasant, Catapult, Damsel, Troll, Multiball, Barnyard, and Royal. When any of the madnesses like Joust, Peasant, Catapult, Damsel, or Troll are lit, and the ball is sent into Merlin’s solenoid saucer, an event occurs called Multiball Madness. In Multiball madness, jackpots are earned by hitting the ramps and sinking the ball into the broad side of the castle. The value of the ramp depends of which madness have been obtained. Each ramp jackpot depends on whether or not a madness was obtained on it. For example, you got Peasant madness, but not Damsel, so each time you get the ball up the Damsel ramp you get less than for each time you get the Peasant ramp. Pretty simple stuff. But, getting the ball in the broad side of the castle is generally the best way to go, as it consistently offers more points. Barnyard madness is probably the least seen, least achieved madness. Its difficulty isn’t that great, but it’s really tedious. It is obtained by getting each item from the Catapult (bowling ball, cow, chicken, cat, and skull). Royal Madness occurs when you get the ball in Merlin’s saucer solenoid after earning all four ramp madnesses, as well as Troll madness. In Royal, you have to hit each of the lit targets twice, and then send he ball into the broad side of the castle. The time is limited in this event, so one has to be focused. After either success or failure, the madnesses become unlit, and you can earn Multiball madness again. The reward for successfully completing Royal madness is that you light extra ball, and earn a heap of points. The music is really cool here too. 7. MultiBall: The types of multiball I know of are Castle Multiball, Multiball Madness, and Barnyard Madness. Many other Bally/Williams games, like Junk Yard, have a "Midnight Madness" to reward players at the stroke of mid-night, but I can’t confirm such. Castle Multiball occurs after three ball locks have been awarded. These can be obtained mainly through hitting the broad side of the castle. When in Castle Multiball mode, the ball must be sent up either the Peasant ramp or the Dragon ramp five times. Each time a ramp is completed, a knight is killed. After five, you must send the ball into the broad side of the castle to receive the royal treasure and receive the royal treasure, and light the extra ball. Barnyard and Multiball Madness are explained in the Madness section. 8. Merlin’s Magic: This can good or bad. It is a double edged sword, and, after getting pretty far into the game, there isn’t much it can offer you. Through Merlin, you can will just about any award, theoretically. Usually, people get "Lower Drawbridge" or "Award Lock." If you are really doing bad, the computer has a sympathy regulator, which will give "Light Extra Ball," but that would be the computer’s way of taunting you, right. Merlin’s magic can be re-lit by hitting the three stand up bumpers on the right wall of the playing field. 9. Super Jets: After sending the ball into the bumpers (which sit in the upper right hand corner orbit, behind Merlin), the ball bounces between bumpers, in the orbit, as the Video shows two knights fighting. Each bump registers a jet hit. After a certain amount, you receive "Sooo-per Jets." 10. F-I-R-E: Each time the ball falls through one of the four bottom lanes, by the flippers, the leaf switches are hit and register the corresponding letter. When all four letters are lit, FIRE is spelt, and you receive a plus 2x bonus multiplier. 11. Video Mode: After you receive F-I-R-E at least 8 times, Video Mode will ensue. In Video Mode, you are a knight with a pitch fork that has to save the children from falcons. If a falcon swoops down and flies off with a child, you lose. You move left and right with the flippers, and kill falcons by hitting both flippers simultaneously while right underneath a bird. Surprisingly fun, despite being so primitive. 12. Destroy The Castle. There are six castles each maintained by a different character: Duke of Bourbon, Sir Psycho, Lord Howard Hurtz, Francois Du Grimm, Earl of Ego, and the King of Payne. After defeating the first five castles, you get the opportunity to fight the King of Payne. As you progress through each castle, the castles become harder to destroy. After defeating two castles, extra ball is lit. After defeating all six castles, you are given the chance to Battle for the Kingdom. 13. Battle for the Kingdom: After becoming Joust Champion, Patron of Peasants, Catapult Ace, Defender of Damsels, and Master of Trolls, as well as destroying all six castles (Castle Crusher), you commence the Battle for the Kingdom. The time is limited. You have to hit all the flashing targets like in Royal Madness, as well as destroy the castle. If you win, the game is over, and you will be one of the fine, few people crowned as Lord of the Realm. If you lose, well, all castles return and you keep playing. It’s not bad to lose, since you can earn more points. 14. Replay: Two ways to get this: earning it through getting a certain amount of points, or getting on the top five list for the game. The prior is generally easier. But what in this world is worth doing that isn’t hard. 15. Good Tricks: Death Save: As the ball slides down the far right lane toward the drain, you hold the left flipper and push the machine real fast right before the ball falls in the hole. Depending on the tilt setting of the machine, you can pull this move off with impunity. How you move the machine is up to you. But I warn that kicking the right leg is real bad, even if it gets the job done. Try leaning right into the left side. Otherwise, you may unknowingly alert your pinball repairman that it is time to set the machine on feather tilt, which really sucks. Flipper stuff: Depending on how fast the ball comes down the left lane, if you hold the left flipper, the ball should shoot into the right bumpers and fly into the Catapult. I don’t recommend depending on this technique too much. Its success is fickle. Look at the flippers and see where the ball leaves (from the flipper) when you actually hit it up a ramp. You will see that you can hit certain ramps in a consistent manner if you keep hitting the ball from those spots. Since not every machine is exactly the same, I can’t really tell you where to hit the ball off the flipper. But generally, Right Flipper: bottom of flipper sends into Catapult or into left orbit for Joust between bottom and middle sends ball up Peasant ramp middle should hit ball into broad side of castle between middle and top should hit castle gate top should send ball into Merlin’s saucer The left flipper is kind of goofy. I rarely depend on it for anything. Which explains why I am still a two bit Pin Baller after two years of regular play. 16. Bad Tricks: During the Multiball, it is possible to put two or more balls into the Catapult. This could be a disaster, especially if you are expecting a huge bonus. In this scenario, you will most likely have to tilt the machine in order to free the balls. Throwing the machine out the window is also a bad trick. Well, really it’s a double edged sword. You feel really great when you do it. And you know that you have finally kicked the machine’s butt. However, you kind of ruin the game for the others, which is obviously selfish. When you have a credit in the machine during your game, and you press the start button after the first ball, the machine starts over and releases your first game. Not really a good idea, unless you don’t want people to see you on your third ball with less than three hundred thousand points. 17. Special Thanks: In writing this FAQ, I have to thank ->all the people on the third floor of the University Center at Carnegie Mellon University, who play this game with me: Miguel, Debraj, Devon, Steve G, and sometimes Brad. ->Williams Electronics, for consistently creating pure Pinball pleasure. ->H.Lazar and son, for taking so much money from me over six months of game play. You’re the most benevolent blood sucking leech. Muchas Gracias… "Medieval Madness" is a trademark of Williams Electronics Games, Inc., "Attack from Mars" is a trademark of Midway Manufacturing Company, Inc.. Multi-Ball is a trademark of Williams Electronics Games, Inc. "Elvira" and "Addams Family" are also trademarks of something completely unrelated to me.