RULES SHEET: JACK*BOT
* Last Modified: October 21, 1995
* Written by Mark Phaedrus (phaedrus@halcyon.com)
* Jack*Bot, Multiball, and most of the other capitalized words I use
are probably trademarks or registered trademarks of Williams
Electronics, Inc., who disavow any knowledge of my existence.
Under Construction (yeah, and what Web page isn't?)
This document was written from memory in a poorly-lit room smelling
slightly of damp paper and containing no pinball machines whatsoever.
The facts and opinions contained in this document should be considered
fictional, and any resemblance to actual facts and opinions is purely
coincidental. (Of course, if you insist on mailing corrections to
phaedrus@halcyon.com so they can be included in the next release, I
don't suppose I can stop you.)
Credits
This version was written by me, Mark Phaedrus. Nobody else was any
help at all. Scientists have speculated that this may be because this
is the first version and nobody else knew about it. Further research
is needed.
Recent Changes
10/17/95: In the beginning the document was void and without content.
And the Writer said "Let there be text." And there was, and it was
good, or at least passable.
10/21/95: Tried a revolutionary new technique; brought pencil and
paper to the arcade, and wrote things down. (I find that kneeling down
and writing things on a paper on the floor during Casino Run adds an
extra element of tension to the game.) Revised the Keno card rules,
the MK3 Hint and More Time awards during Casino Run, the Multiball
Jack*bot values, the Poker awards, and the bonus count rules. Added
more bugs; added Neat Stuff section.
Summary
The object is Jack*Bot is to score points. Simple as that. Next
section.
Well, okay, there are a few more things that can go here. There are
two key ways to rack up points. You can do it the slow-and-methodical
way, by opening the visor, starting Multiball, and racking up the
jackpots--er, Jack*bots. Or you can do it the quick-and-adventurous
way, by playing the four casino games, preferably cheating on as many
as possible, then playing the Casino Run for big points (or no points,
as the case may be). Personally, my advice is "all of the above".
Playfield
If you've played Pinbot, you'll know your way around this playfield;
it's almost exactly the same as the original Pinbot playfield--it's
the rules that stir things up. As usual, we'll start from the lower
right and work our way around clockwise. It may help to look at the
playfield picture on the Pinball Archive at pinball.cc.cmu.edu.
* Plunger
+ An old-fashioned manual plunger. Balls shot up the ramp can
wind up here. Leads to the Vortex.
* Hit Me
+ A touch target just above the right inlane/outlane area;
shoot it from the tip of the left flipper, or hit it with a
lucky bounce off the slingshots. Each hit of this target
deals a card into your blackjack hand (don't confuse these
with the cards in your poker hand). Normal blackjack rules
apply (face cards count as ten, Aces count as one or eleven,
etc.). Hit Me hits score 1M for each point in your blackjack
hand; for example, if you already have an Ace in your hand
(11 points), and you shoot Hit Me and get dealt a six
(bringing your hand to 17 points), you get 17M. If you hit 21
exactly, you score 50M, and your hand starts over the next
time. If you "bust" (go over 21), you get nothing, and your
hand still starts over next time.
Hit Me also lights for Jack*bots during Multiball, and for up
to 75M points during Hurry Up.
* Inlanes/Outlanes
+ Talk about a trip down memory lane... Inlanes and outlanes
the same size, with actual rubber on the post between them.
Neat. Any or all of the inlanes/outlanes can be lit for Extra
Ball; the flipper buttons move the lit lanes around.
* Flippers
+ The usual two, in the usual places. There's a center post,
though the gap between the flippers is narrow enough that
it's usually possible to save the ball without the center
post anyway.
* Slingshots
+ Standard, just like the flippers.
* Poker Targets
+ A bank of three drop targets, on the left side of the
machine, below the ramp entrance. During regular play, one of
these three targets is lit (the lit target changes every few
seconds); hitting that lit target, without hitting either of
the others first, advances the bonus multiplier. (If you hit
an unlit target first, you lose the chance to advance the
bonus until the targets reset--see below.)
About five seconds after you hit a target, the target bank
resets. If you can hit the other two targets before this
happens, a poker card is spotted, and the target bank resets
immediately.
A rebound from here to the row targets is a 15M "BANKSHOT".
* Cashier Target
+ This target is under the ramp entrance; during modes in which
it's available, the ramp entrance flips up to reveal it. It
collects the bonus during Cashier mode, collects the Solar
Jets award, doubles some Game awards, relights the Game
Saucer (but not after the first Casino Run), and can be lit
for Jack*bots during Multiball.
* Ramp
+ The ramp entrance is on the upper-left. The ramp is not
always available, since the ramp entrance can flip up to
reveal the Cashier target. Starts lots of modes; relights the
Game Saucer. Lots of interesting things happen on the ramp.
See the rules section for more info.
* Game Saucer
+ A narrow lane between the ramp and the Visor, at the upper
left. Starts Games, as you could probably guess from the
name. Also relights Jack*bots during Multiball, and spins the
wheels during Casino Run.
* Visor
+ A bank of 5 touch targets, dead center at the top of the
playfield. It can be lowered to reveal the Eyes. Hitting
Visor targets lights the Keno Lights to open the Visor and
eventually start Multiball. Visor targets can also be lit for
Keno awards.
* Eyes
+ Two locks, normally blocked off by the Visor. Balls are
locked here to start Multiball, and they score Jack*bots
during it. Shots here also spin the wheels during Casino Run.
* Keno Lights
+ A 5x5 grid of lights, just below the Visor. Each target on
the Visor corresponds to one column of Keno lights; each
target on the other bank corresponds to one row.
These lights are lit by Visor and row target hits. They open
the Visor to start Multiball; they can also light Extra Ball.
In addition to these lights, there are five arrow-shaped
lights, one for each column on the Keno card; these give Keno
Awards while filling the Visor.
* Row Targets
+ Another bank of five targets, just below and to the right of
the Visor. This bank doesn't move, though, unless the game is
badly out of order.
Hitting these targets lights Keno lights.
* Vortex
+ The plunger leads to this spiral, with three holes. At the
start of the game, the first and third holes are worth 10M;
the second hole is worth triple this amount, permanently
raises future skill shot values by 5M, and advances the bonus
multiplier.
Hitting the ramp, or collecting "Vortex at Max" as a Keno
award or during Casino Run, can raise the skill shot value;
"Add Vortex X" awards from these same sources can raise the
Vortex multiplier. The second hole is always worth 2x more
than the first and third holes; so advancing the multiplier
changes the awards from 1x-3x-1x to 2x-4x-2x, then 3x-5x-3x,
and so on.
Unless you get the "Vortex Value Held" award, the Vortex
value resets to 10M between balls; the only increase that
does not reset is the +5M increases from made skill shots.
The Vortex value can never be higher than 50M.
These skill shot awards change during Multiball and Casino
Run.
Whether or not you make this shot, it leads to the Solar
Jets.
* Solar Jets
+ A set of three bumpers at the top right of the playfield. The
Skill Shot leads here; so can the ramp. These bumpers advance
the Roll the Dice value, and build the points during Solar
Jets mode.
Rules
The usual pinball rules apply; one to four players, three balls per
player by default, hit the start button once for each player, try not
to slam-tilt, etc., etc. See the Funhouse rules sheet for more info.
:-)
Each ball starts with a skill shot. A ballsaver activates for about 6
seconds at the start of each ball. Bought extra balls have a ballsaver
for about 30 seconds.
There are basically two tracks to follow in this game (though both can
be pursued at once); going for Multiball, and going for Casino Run.
Going for Multiball
To start Multiball, you first have to complete your Keno card to open
the Visor, then lock two balls in the Eyes behind it.
Filling the Keno Card
At the start of the game, and each time you finish Multiball, the 25
Keno lights are unlit. (Actually, the game flashes them in pretty
patterns, but if a Keno light isn't lit solidly, it doesn't count.) To
advance towards Multiball, you have to light all 25 lights to open the
Visor.
The first time through (before starting Multiball in a game), the
rules here are very simple. Hitting one of the five Visor targets
lights that target's entire column on the Keno card; so only five
target hits are needed to complete the card. The five row targets are
ignored. If you hit two Visor targets at once, the game will only
credit you for one of them; on the brighter side, if you hit a Visor
target you've already hit (so its column is already complete), but you
haven't hit one of the targets next to it, the game will light one of
those columns instead. So you can only "waste" a Visor shot at this
stage if the target you hit and both adjacent targets are already
completed.
The second time through (after starting Multiball the first time),
things get a bit more complicated. Now, both the Visor targets and the
row targets are used. Hitting a Visor target lights the bottommost two
unlit Keno lights in its column; hitting a row target lights the two
leftmost unlit Keno lights in its row. Hitting a target whose row or
column is already filled is a waste. So somewhere between thirteen and
fifteen target hits are needed to finish the card. On the bright side,
the game will count multiple target hits this time. The best approach
is to bank balls from the left flipper off the row targets and into
the Visor targets; this can get the ball ricocheting around the
targets, racking up seven or eight of them before falling back
out--I've seen the card filled with as few as three shots from the
flippers this way.
Sounds hard? Well, there's a way out. At the start of each Keno card
(when you haven't hit any of the targets yet), the game flashes one
row or column of lights at a time--first the rows from the bottom up,
then the columns from the left to the right, then back to the rows.
Hitting the flashing row of column's target immediately completes the
card, opens the Visor, and awards 50M for a job well done. (But
there's a catch to this too: when the game starts requiring you to
fill the card once for each ball [after the second Multiball], there
is no flashing row/column for the second card--you have to do it the
hard way.)
Keno Awards
While you're filling the Visor, one of the arrow-shaped lights just
below the Visor will usually be lit; the light works its way from left
to right, then skips back to the left. Hitting the Visor target that's
lit gives a "Keno Award". The award is displayed on the scoreboard,
and some of them are announced through the speaker as well; it's a
pity the rest of them aren't, because the moment when a ball is
rebounding off the Visor is a bad time to be looking at the
scoreboard. :-)
The Keno awards I've seen are: 25M; Add Vortex X; Vortex At Max;
Vortex Held; Add Poker Card. Before you start Multiball the first
time, if the Game Saucer is unlit, the Keno award will always be "Game
Saucer Lit". If your score is below 300M on ball 3, head for the Keno
awards; the first one you get will nearly always be "Extra Ball".
Locking Balls
Once you complete the Keno Card, the Visor will open, exposing the two
Eye locks. For the first two Multiballs, all you have to do then is to
lock a ball in each Eye to start Multiball. From then on, things get
harder; locking the first ball closes the Visor, requiring you to fill
another Keno card to reopen the Visor to lock the second ball.
In multi-player games, the rules can get a bit more complicated. If
you're trying to lock your first ball, but another player has already
locked one, you have to lock yours in the Eye he didn't use; the ball
in the other Eye will then be kicked out, and you need to lock that
one as well to start Multiball. If you lock one ball, then another
player "uses it up" by starting Multiball or Casino Run, the game
still remembers that you had one locked, and Multiball will start when
you lock another ball in either Eye. (This still may not be the best
thing for you, though, since 3-ball Multiballs are impossible this
way.)
While you're trying to lock balls, hits to the row targets will still
fill in two lights at a time in their rows on the Keno card. If you
actually manage to fill in the Keno card a second time this way before
starting Multiball, you light one of the more tedious Extra Balls in
pinball history. :-) (Fifteen hits are needed--or ten if you take
advantage of the Keno game.)
Multiball
Completing the Visor, then locking two balls in the Eyes, starts
Multiball.
The first Multiball is a two-ball affair; the two balls in the Eyes
are kicked out. If only one ball is locked when you start Multiball,
because another player stole one from you, the second ball is served
to the plunger instead; this is a bonus for you, since it lets you
start the Multiball with a skill shot instead. Making the skill shot,
by hitting the second hole on the Vortex, awards a Jack*bot instead of
the usual skill shot value.
The second and subsequent Multiballs are three-ball affairs (unless
another player stole a ball from you); a ball is always served to the
plunger for a skill shot to start the Multiball.
During Multiball, Jack*bots are lit at the Eyes, at the Cashier
target, and at Hit Me. The first Jack*Bot you score in a game is 50M;
future Jack*bots increase in value by 25M each time, so that the
eleventh Jack*bot is 300M. Then the value starts advancing by 50M for
each Jack*bot, so that the fifteenth and final Jack*bot is 500M.
Collecting a Jack*bot unlights that location; at least one location
will always be lit--if you collect at all four places, the Cashier
target will be relit, and the lit location will move from
left-to-right (to the left Eye, then the right, then Hit Me, then back
to Cashier) each time it's collected.
Hitting the Game Saucer relights all four Jack*bot locations. If you
hit it when all four are already lit, it scores a Jack*bot instead.
Collecting Jack*bot at one of the Eyes, then hitting the other Eye
(lit or not) within a second, scores a Super Jack*bot instead--this
triples the points (so a Super Jack*bot can be as high as 1.5B).
Multiball ends when you're down to one ball in play; there's about a
three-second grace period during which a Jack*bot can still be scored.
If you lose a Multiball without scoring any Jack*bots at all, there's
a 10-second restart period; hitting the Eyes or the Game Saucer before
the time runs out restarts a two-ball Multiball with a skill shot at
the plunger. Sorry, only one restart per Multiball.
After Multiball is over, the Visor will remain open until the game
satisfies itself that the ball's in a place where it won't get caught
behind the Visor when it closes. The ramp, the Cashier target, the
Game Saucer, the rubber below the Game Saucer, the Poker Targets, and
the Solar Jets will all trigger the Visor to close. As soon as the
Visor starts closing, the Keno card will reset (with a row or column
flashing for an instant Visor re-open), ready for you to start
refilling it.
Mega Visor
Once you score 15 Jack*bots, with Multiball still in progress, you
enter the Mega Visor round. The Visor closes; the object now is to
re-open it. The row targets are ignored; only the Visor targets
themselves count, and each hit spots one light in the column you hit,
with 50M awarded for each light spotted. Twenty-five hits are needed
to complete the card--on the bright side, that means 1.5B points
scored along the way.
What happens when you fill the Keno card again and re-open the Visor?
I don't know, okay? I had to drive thirty miles uphill both ways to
the nearest arcade with a Jack*Bot just to write this rules sheet, and
between the gas money and the leg braces for little Bobby, I just
haven't been able to afford to get the darn thing open, all right?
Fine, leave me wallowing in my shame. Geez.
Going for Casino Run
To get a Casino Run, you first need to play all four Casino games. You
start games by hitting the Game Saucer when it's lit during
single-ball play; if it's not lit, hitting the ramp or Cashier target
will relight it, as will the Keno awards the first time through.
Before you get your first Casino Run, the Game Saucer will always be
lit at the start of each ball; for your second and subsequent ones,
you'll always need to hit the ramp or Cashier to relight it. (Also,
the Cashier target stops relighting the Game Saucer; you need to make
actual ramp shots.)
The Games
There are four games to play. The left flipper changes which one is
lit, so if you can trap the ball on the right flipper, you can choose
the game you want before hitting the saucer to collect it.
Being the resourceful and morally corrupt robot that you are, you can
cheat at all of these games (or at least try), by repeatedly hitting
the Extra Ball button during the game's title screen. The results vary
from game to game. The quotes when the cheat succeeds are worth the
price of admission. "LOOK--HALLEY'S COMET." "Where?" "FOUR ACES." "I
saaaw thaaaat..."
Many game awards can be doubled. After the game's score is determined,
the "Double or Nothing" screen is displayed. Hitting the left flipper,
or sitting there frozen in the headlights for ten seconds, lets you
keep the current game score; hitting the right flipper instead gives
you about 20 seconds (a slow count of 10) to hit the Cashier target to
score double the game's value--you get nothing if you miss. Starting
Multiball before the timer runs out will also award the doubled
value.
* Pinbot Poker
+ This game uses the poker hand displayed at the center of the
playfield. The Poker Targets, Keno awards, Casino Run, and
Slot Machine can all light cards in this hand. (Completing
the hand the first time lights an Extra Ball.) Points are
awarded based on the value of the hand--10M for a measly
single deuce, 15M for an ace or ace-deuce, 20M for one pair,
30M for two pair or three of a kind, or 50M for a full house
(all five cards). In addition, a flat 50M is scored for each
hand that you've already filled. The resulting total can be
doubled.
+ This game is one of the easiest to cheat at; Pinbot pulls an
extra Ace from his sleeve. ("Ace of Clubs?") This can give
you the normally- impossible four Aces, worth 149M! (Yes, you
can still double this to 298M.)
* Slot Machine
+ This one is about as straightforward as it gets; the slot
machine reels spin and spit out a random (or is it?) award,
which is what you get. Awards I've seen include: Multiball;
Add 10 Cards (adds two complete hands to your Poker total);
Hurry Up (shoot Hit Me for 75M, with the value counting down
to a minimum of 15M); Collect Bonus (exactly as it would be
at the end of the ball, including cheating); Vortex at Max;
Hold Vortex Value.
Occasionally, the Slot Machine decides to screw you, and
generates a random "big points" award, generally between 25M
and 40M. At least you can double these.
+ This is the hardest game to cheat at, for reasons that should
be obvious when you see what the cheat does. The initial spin
brings up a lame award (usually Add Vortex X; occasionally
Hurry-Up or a big-points value); Pinbot slams the reels, and
they jump to Extra Ball Lit. It's extremely rare for Extra
Ball Lit to come up without cheating.
* Roll the Dice
+ This game revolves around your "Dice Game Wager", which
starts each game at 3M, and goes up by 100K for each hit of
the Solar Jets. Two dice are rolled; the laws of mathematics
being what they are, this gives a number from 2 to 12. This
number is multiplied by your Dice Game Wager, and that's how
many points the game is worth. This value can be doubled.
+ This game is the easiest to cheat at; Pinbot simply flicks
the dice to 12 ("BOXCARS...").
* Keno
+ This game revolves around your Keno card. Six random squares
are picked; you get 5M for each of those squares that you
have lit, plus 5M just because you're you. If all six squares
are lit, you get 50M. 25M is added for each card you've
previously filled.
If you have five or fewer squares filled in when you start
Keno, the game spots the entire center column, to give you a
reasonable chance at some matches. (However, Keno still isn't
a good mode to shoot for if your Keno card is empty; not only
will you not get many matches, but the spotting of the center
column will eliminate your chance to hit a flashing
row/column to fill the card immediately. On the brighter
side, Keno is a great game to play if you're actually trying
to get the extra ball from filling the Keno card while the
Visor is already open; if you play Keno while the card is
still nearly empty, the center-column spot reduces the number
of hits you need to fill each row from three to two, saving
you five hits.)
+ This game is moderately difficult to cheat at. If you cheat,
Pinbot simply slams the entire card, resulting in "25
MATCHES--99M", plus 25M for each filled card. (This does not
actually spot all the Keno lights...)
Casino Run
As soon as you play the fourth Casino game, the Game Saucer lights for
Casino Run; you do not need to relight it. Hit the Game Saucer to
start the Run.
A pretty impressive animation sequence starts the Run off. The Extra
Ball button "lights for cheating" during the entire sequence, but the
only effect I've noticed is that the cow moos if you hit the button
enough times at the start of the animation--pressing the button after
that does not seem to have an effect.
Casino Run is a 1-ball timed mode, lasting for 45 seconds (more or
less). The object is to build your Casino Run bank as high as possible
before cashing it in, without letting time run out and without being
bombed out of the mode.
Your Casino Run bank starts at 100M. An extra 4M is added for every
switch hit during the Run. (So those Solar Jets can actually be pretty
lucrative--but don't forget, the timer is running...)
During the Run, the ramp is flipped up; the Cashier target doesn't do
anything unusual. The object is to hit the holes (the Eyes, or the
Game Saucer); each hole shot, including the shot to the Game Saucer
that starts the Run in the first place, gives you a spin of the
wheels. (If you've ever watched The Joker's Wild, you'll feel right at
home here...) After each spin, you have the option of taking the
current contents of your bank (which ends the Run), or risking it and
letting the Run continue. (Don't sit there too long and think about
it; if you take more than 10 seconds or so, the game will
automatically choose the "Collect Bank" option for you, and the Run
will be over.)
If you lose a ball during the Run, or even within a couple of seconds
after the clock hits zero, don't panic. You'll get the ball back at
the plunger, for the low price of 5 seconds off the Run timer. If
there's at least 10 seconds still on the timer, making the skill shot
adds another 10 seconds; if there's 9 seconds or less, making the
skill shot collects your bank and ends the Run.
Having a ball already locked in an Eye when the Run starts is a
double-edged sword. On the one hand, as long as it's there, it blocks
a potential shot to make a spin. On the other hand, if you drain with
a ball in the lock, you don't take the usual 5-second penalty;
instead, you automatically get another spin, and then the ball is
kicked out of the Eye to continue play.
In addition to the normal high scores, there's a single high score for
"Casino Run Champion"; it defaults to 1B. Being the Casino Run
Champion awards an extra credit; so know the Casino Run Champ value,
and when your bank reaches it, mentally add a special to the bank.
(Generally, this translates into "Take the bank, you fool!")
Casino Run Spin Awards
Unlike the Slot Machine game, each of the three reels gives its own
award on each spin during the Run. Possible values of each reel are:
* Points--anywhere from 15M to 50M (in 5M increments), or 75M, or
100M, 125M, or the occasional 150M. The points are added to your
bank.
* Light Extra Ball--this goes into your bank too.
* Special--this also goes into your bank.
* Vortex X--adds a skill shot multiplier immediately.
* Bonus X--increases your bonus multiplier immediately.
* Vortex at Max--raises the skill shot value to 50M immediately.
* Poker Card--adds a card to your poker hand (which can wind up
lighting the extra ball as well).
* Jack*Bot--The points are scored immediately; they don't go in your
bank.
* More Time--adds 15 seconds to the Casino Run clock. Will not raise
it above 45.
* Cow!--yes, an actual Super Stunt Cow is added to your bank,
shipped straight to you from the Williams dairy. (Actually, this
promotion was found to violate certain federal laws concerning
shipments of assault cattle across state lines, so you'll have to
settle for an automatic Special instead. Sorry.)
* This Award Intentionally Left Blank--blank spaces often come up on
one or two reels. Very little excitement potential here.
* No Bomb--A bucket of water. No cash value. Just like those
adventure games, you'd better pick it up; it's bound to come in
handy sometime.
* Bomb--This kills your Casino Bank, ends the Run, spits in your
face and laughs at your car. Well, unless you happen to have one
of those buckets of water lying around (see? Told you it would
come in handy), in which case the Bomb and No Bomb cancel each
other out and leave you with no damage beyond a vaguely nervous
feeling. Or unless you were prudent enough to hit the Extra Ball
button like there was no tomorrow while the reels were spinning,
in which case Pinbot will reach out and thwack the offending bomb
into another award. Be careful! Cheaters do occasionally fail to
prosper--only bombs on the center reel can be bonked away (though
that's where the vast majority of them turn up), and I've never
seen it work more than once during a run. If you hear "I'M
BUSTED..." or "Oh no..." while the wheels are spinning, you'll
know that you've worn out your welcome...
* MK3 Hint--This award may only come up if you hold down both
flipper buttons while the wheels are spinning. (There's a code in
MK3 that displays the text "HOLD FLIPPERS DURING CASINO RUN", and
I never got the MK3 Hints until I started doing this. Actually, I
hit the Extra Ball button until just before the first wheel stops,
then switch to holding down the flippers.) Immediately after the
spin completes, the display briefly shows a single position from a
MK3 code, which is probably for the upcoming Ultimate version; so
far I've only seen two positions: blank--Raiden--blank--blank--Yin
Yang--blank. Those of you (like me) who barely recognize the
characters in MK3 will still want to root for these hints to show
up; in addition to showing the hint, it also awards an automatic
Extra Ball. So I guess an MK3 Hint is like a Cow, but not quite
as valuable. :-)
More Rules
Ramp Rules
The ramp leads to a maze of posts. While the ball is in these posts,
the skill shot value goes up by 1M every 2 seconds, with a maximum
increase of 8M per trip through the posts, and a maximum skill shot
value of 50M.
From the post maze, the ball can go one of three places (not counting
the occasional unlucky bounce back out onto the playfield without
hitting anything):
* Solar Jets hole
+ If the ball falls through this hole and into the bumpers, it
triggers Solar Jets mode. The ramp flips up; you have about
20 seconds (a slow count of 10) to hit the Cashier target to
score the Solar Jets value, which starts at 40M and goes up
by 4M for each bumper hit. Starting Multiball before the
timer runs out will also score the Solar Jets award.
* Plunger lane
+ This triggers another skill shot.
* Return lane
+ This track returns the ball to the right inlane. It gives one
of four awards, whichever award is lit at the time the ball
hits the right inlane switch. The first lit award is normally
Light Extra Ball, and the lit award normally changes every
two seconds; since the ball usually takes somewhere between
three and five seconds to clear the maze, this makes 25M and
Cashier the most likely awards, with Mega Ramp less likely,
and Light Extra Ball least of all. However, if you're doing
badly on ball 3, the machine may start with Cashier lit
instead, making Mega Ramp and Light Extra Ball the most
likely awards.
o Light Extra Ball
# Pretty self-explanatory; lights one of the
inlanes/outlanes for Extra Ball.
o 25 Million
# Again, pretty self-explanatory.
o Cashier
# Lights the Cashier target to collect 2x your
current bonus value. (This 2x replaces the bonus
multiplier; it doesn't add onto it--so your bonus
multiplier doesn't factor into the Cashier award at
all.) You have about 20 seconds (a slow count of
10) to collect; starting Multiball before the timer
runs out also collects.
o Mega Ramp
# Lights the ramp. Shooting it within five seconds or
so awards 50M. The return lane award is
automatically frozen at Mega Ramp again; if you
collect it again and shoot the ramp again, you get
75M, then 100M, and so on.
Bonus
At the end of every ball, you get bonus from three areas:
* Cards--3M for each Poker and Hit Me card you've collected during
the game.
* Vortex Value--whatever the current skill shot value is (without
the multiplier), that's what you get. This will be between 10M and
50M.
* Dice Game Wager--whatever your current wager is, you get.
The entire bonus then gets multiplied by the bonus multiplier; this
will be between 1x and 5x. (Remember, the bonus multiplier is raised
at the Poker targets.)
If you press Extra Ball repeatedly during the bonus count, Pinbot may
cheat on the bonus multiplier; this gives you an extra bonus X. (Yes,
you can go to 6X this way. Yes, you can cheat here on the Collect
Bonus award from the Slot Machine too.) Your bonus multiplier must be
at least 2x for cheating to have a chance to work; if it's 1x, you
just lose.
Extra Balls
Extra balls abound on this machine. With two exceptions, all of these
light an inlane/outlane for Extra Ball; use the flipper buttons to
move the light to where the ball is.
* Completing the first Poker hand.
* Completing the Keno Lights with the Visor already open.
* Collecting one on the Slot Machine, usually by cheating.
* Collecting "Light Extra Ball" in your bank in Casino Run.
* Collecting an MK3 Hint during Casino Run. (This one is automatic;
it doesn't light an inlane/outlane.)
* Pity Extra Ball: Collecting the first Keno Award of ball 3 with
your score under 300M. (This is automatic too.)
* Collecting "Light Extra Ball" from the return lane on the ramp.
(The Return of Pity Extra Ball: This is much easier on ball 3 with
a score under 300M.)
Bugs/Misfeatures
The software I've seen for this machine is extremely solid. There's
only a few minor glitches I've run into:
* If you start Multiball while the animation for an Extra Ball is in
progress, the Multiball animation is never displayed, and
Multiball starts immediately. If this is the second Multiball,
this isn't so bad; but if it's the first, if you've stepped away
from the machine to watch the show, your first sign that something
is amiss may be the sight of the balls streaking towards the
drain...
* If you cheat on a Casino game, and take the resulting points
(without doubling), and make replay as a result, the Replay
animation is sometimes skipped, and the ball winds up just sitting
in the Game Saucer for ten seconds or so--presumably waiting for
the nonexistent Replay animation to finish.
* If you get Collect Bonus on the Slot Machine, and you successfully
cheat during the bonus count to get the extra multiplier, the ball
sometimes kicks out of the game saucer a few seconds early--as if
it were kicking it out at the time the bonus count would have been
over if you hadn't cheated. It doesn't sound the usual "here it
comes" effect when it does this, so it can catch you off-guard.
* If you hit the Poker Targets just after they've been reset after a
time-out, the game will assume that the target reset failed and
just reset them again, without awarding any points (or any bonus
multiplier increase, if you hit the lit target). This happens even
if the target you hit wasn't one of the targets that needed to be
reset.
* A few people on the net (myself included) were complaining that
the buy-in screen doesn't show you the information you really need
to know--the replay score, or the high score you're shooting at.
Someone at Williams was obviously listening; the buy-in screen now
shows that. Unfortunately, it doesn't show it until there's 1
second left on the buy-in clock. If there's no credits in the
machine, this isn't as much of a problem (you can just hit the
Extra Ball button without inserting any money first, to reset the
clock); but if there are credits there, you just have to read the
replay/high score, compare it to your current score, and make the
decision of whether or not to buy-in in the 0.8 seconds you have
left. :-)
* Normally, if a ball drains without hitting any scoring switches,
you get it back. On most machines, it's easy to tell--if your
score is flashing, you haven't hit any switches yet, so you can
let it drain safely. Unfortunately, on Jack*bot, the screen is
filled by the skill shot graphics, and you can't see your score.
So you can plunge a ball, have it come up short of the Vortex
hole, dribble back through the Solar Jets while only hitting the
rubber below the Jets (which doesn't end the skill shot or remove
its graphics), drain, and go straight from skill shot graphics to
Fun with Bonus. Disconcerting.
Neat Stuff
Here's some neat things to try.
* During the attract mode (which tells you about
cheating--"REPEATEDLY PRESS EXTRA BALL WHEN FLASHING"), wait for
the "IN MEMORY OF JIM JOOS JR." screen (it can take a few
minutes). Notice that the Extra Ball button is flashing. Press it.
Watch. Very classy.
* Get a high score. Wait for the initial entry screen to come up.
Watch the Keno card as you enter your initials. Very nice. Reminds
me of the old Stop-and-Score days. :-)
