Here comes a good ol' classic from the good ol' days, plus an updated version with some tweaks & upgrades.
Notably, this table has an unusually deep ruleset for a classic original. I find the ball-flow and layout excellent, hearkening back to the Black Knight series in particular. The sounds and music are also superb, taking you right back to the classic Doom series, assuming you had the good fortune to enjoy it back in the day.
Indeed, with a bit of reworking, I don't think it's a longshot to suggest this game would make for an excellent, real-world manufactured table, and an easy hit with a whole generation of fans. --Ike
Notably, this table has an unusually deep ruleset for a classic original. I find the ball-flow and layout excellent, hearkening back to the Black Knight series in particular. The sounds and music are also superb, taking you right back to the classic Doom series, assuming you had the good fortune to enjoy it back in the day.
Indeed, with a bit of reworking, I don't think it's a longshot to suggest this game would make for an excellent, real-world manufactured table, and an easy hit with a whole generation of fans. --Ike
RULE CARD:This rulesheet has been made as part of the work on the Doom 2 pinball game, primarily as an internal document to keep track of all features, but also in a style that makes it fully usable as a guide for anyone who wants to learn the rules or get tips at how to play better. Don't read it if you want to discover the details of this game for yourself, but use it as a reference if you want to find out more about a certain feature. There is no list of all objects and their placement, so it is assumed that you have seen the game.
Main goals
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The most important and biggest-scoring features of this game can be summed up in four groups:
* Beating the Doom 2 monsters: There are eight boss monsters, displayed on the backglass. Kill them for modes and big points, and to advance to tougher monsters. The ultimate goal is to beat the last boss, the Icon of Sin (end boss of the videogame) and thereby activating Ultra Violence MegaMode.
* Multiball: There is a regular three ball multiball, with a jackpot that builds during the game. Activate locks and lock balls to start it. This is indepentent of the boss modes, and can be combined with them for higher scores.
* Cyber Demons and Powerups: Load the shotgun and hit the Cyber Ramp to shoot at the Cyber Demon. Five shots kills a cyber, and cybers are counted throughout the game. Killing cybers lights Powerups, which enhances scoring, especially during boss modes.
* Frags and Barrels o' Fun: The Frag lane collects frags, which leads to increasing levels of Barrels o' Fun, a mode that can give very large awards to the skilled.
These features interact and combine in many ways, and there are plenty of other features as well. It is the many combinations that make this pin fun.
Skill shots
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When a new ball is launched into play, Item Mode is activated (see below for a full description). This means you can choose between four differnt awards to aim for.
Respawn
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As you start a new ball, the respawn light between the flippers will be blinking for a period, indicating that the ball will be launched back into play if lost. Just before this times out, it blinks faster. Respawn can be lit during the game as well. It is lit at the start of multiball, and some other modes. The invulnerability powerup that can be collected at the powerup ramp, is a long-lasting respawn (almost a whole minute on regular settings, see Powerup Ramp) that does not end until it's time is up. When the ball is held still at the lock or powerup hole, and there is no other balls in play, the respawn timer is paused (does not apply to the start-of-ball respawn).
If the respawn light is constantly lit, you have an extra ball (or several, they can be stacked). All extra balls are collected on the upper playfield, when Extra Ball is lit there.
Item Mode
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Item mode is activated by the Powerup Hole (at the end of the right-most shot), and it is also activated at the start of each round. For a brief period of time the two left shots (frag and boss lanes) and the two right shots (cyber ramp and powerup lane) will award an item. Each shot has it's own reward, indicated by the item drawing below the lights at that lane, and they are:
* Frag lane - Keycard: Opens the door to the Massacre room, where you can score a lot of points (see Massacre Room). It stays open until used, or until the ball ends.
* Boss lane - Blue armor: Activates the right armor kickback.
* Cyber ramp - Ammo bag: Gives the ammo bag award, which will keep the Cyber ramp active and the shotgun shell targets up (see Cyber Ramp).
* Powerup lane - Green armor: Activates the left armor kickback.
Also, a hit gives 500,000 points. If you already had the award in question, this is your only reward. Collecting an item or hitting any other of the main shots will end Item mode, and so will draining the ball, even if Respawn is active. Unless the machine is set to Hard, item mode is reactivated every time the ball is released from the powerup hole, except when it just awarded an Item. On Hard difficulty, you must use the awarded item before you can restart item mode.
In-lanes, out-lanes and bonus
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Each of the four in/out-lanes has a rollover trigger that lights a light. Together they spell D-O-O-M, and lighting all four advances the bonus multiplier, up to a maximum of 8X. Continuing to spell D-O-O-M will then either spot powerups at the powerup hole or award points. Lit lanes are changed with the flipper buttons.
The trigger in the left inlane also activates quick-lock, and the lock will be lit for five seconds (see Lock and Multiball). The right inlane activates double-frag, lighting the frag lane for two frags instead of one for a few seconds.
Both outlanes have kickbacks that shoot the ball back up into play when lit (armor kickbacks). They are usually activated by making the appropriate shot during item mode (see Item Mode). They stay lit until used, even between balls (on regular settings). Since kickbacks are easy to light and provide good security against losing balls, it is a good idea to make an effort to keep them lit as much as possible.
H-I-T Targets and Bumpers of Death
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The Bumpers of Death are five jet bumpers in the upper right part of the playfield, reachable from above by the frag lane and from below directly from the left flipper. The bumpers are very valuable when they have "power", that is, when they're on. The lava underneath each bumper is lit when that bumper is powered up. Hitting a powered bumper plays battle sounds and awards 25,000 points. Each time it is hit, the power is decremented, and when the power is used up the lava goes dark, the bumper's strength is reduced and it will score next to nothing. When you start a new game, each bumper is given some power, but this is quickly used up. With 25k at each hit, getting the ball in a properly powered field of bumpers can be very lucrative.
There are several ways of powering up the bumpers. The main way is the H-I-T targets. Hitting all three H-I-T targets (so H-I-T is spelled) powers up all bumpers by substantial, somewhat random, amounts. A bumper being powered up will flash. Also, hitting the cyber ramp will power up each bumper as the ball moves over them, but only enough for a few hits each. Some other ways of powering up the bumpers are described in the rest of these rules.
The H-I-T tagets have two regular awards. In addition to powering up the bumpers, spelling H-I-T lights Award at the lock, for a random award to be collected there. It stays lit until collected or until the ball ends.
Frag Lane and Barrels o' Fun
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The Frag lane is the leftmost lane, starting right above the shell targets. It goes underneath the upper playfield and ends up in the upper right corner of the table, at the bumpers. It is quite easy to hit, and can be hit indirectly by balls bouncing of the shell targets. Normally, the lane awards one frag, but the right inlane lights it for two frags for a short time (the frag light is blinking). The frag count starts at 1, it is not reset between balls, and each frag gives 100,000 points at the end of ball bonus.
The Barrels o' Fun mode (BOF for short) is started at the frag lane when enough frags have been collected. The number needed is dependent on the game settings, both on difficulty and number of balls. On regular difficulty it is 12 for three-ball games and 15 for five-ball games. So if, say, 12 or more frags have been collected, the ball is captured in the frag lane, BOF is started, and the ball is released back out the entrance to the frag lane. At the start of BOF, ten barrel-shaped targets, known as the barrel targets, pop up on the upper part of the main playfield. Hitting a target makes it go back down with an explosive noise, and your goal is to remove all barrels before the mode times out. Hit barrels can come back up again (they respawn), so it can take more then ten hits to finish the mode. Be carefull during BOF mode. Hitting barrels in the middle of the playfield means it's easier then usual to lose the ball. Keep cool.
BOF is started at each increment of 12 frags (12, 24, 36, etc), or whatever the increment the table is set to. So it doesn't get harder to start it, but the mode gets harder to win for each time it's finished successfully. The first BOF is BOF level 1, and the barrels have a low respawn frequency. Each barrel hit counts 1 million to the mode total, but removing all barrels before the time is up gives a big bonus to the score, dependent on how much time was left on the timer. So the way to get big scores is to finish fast. Beating level 1 BOF will light Extra Ball on the upper playfield, and so will finishing any odd-numbered level (3, 5, etc.). If you manage to beat BOF at one level, the level will increase by 1 for the next BOF. At higher levels, the time is the same, but the respawn frequency is higher and the scores are bigger. At level 2, each barrel is worth 2 million, and the time bonus is also doubled. At level 3, each barrel is worth 3 million, and so on, to a maximum of 5 million. Finishing early at higher levels can give massive scores, but it is also very difficult, as the barrels keep coming back up. You'll need to use the powerups to stand a decent chance at higher levels (ses Powerup Hole), for instance the Invisibility powerup will greatly reduce the respawn frequency (this doesn't have to be a good thing, if you still don't manage to finish quickly, its better to hit more barrels).
The BOF timer pauses when the ball is held up at a hole or the Massacre room, as descriped at their respective chapters in this text. In addition, the game is kind enough to pause the timer when the ball is on the upper playfield. During BOF, the frag lane will capture the ball and send it back out, to keep the ball from getting caught up in the bumpers (frags are awarded as normal). Barrels o' Fun will not start during a Boss mode or Icon Hurry-up, and of course not during BOF itself. The mode will then be ready and waiting at the frag lane. If you start a Boss mode while BOF is running, both modes will be running at the same time (the timer and messages of the Boss mode takes precedence over BOF, so BOF might disapear from the display). Some Boss modes raise barrel targets, this can make BOF harder to finish, and either way, it's best to finish BOF before starting something else. (Trivia: The BOF mode is named after a level in the Doom 2 videogame, and the music played during the mode is also played on that level.)
The frag lane also holds a secret. If the ball is traveling at just the right, very slow, speed, it can enter a secret passage under the upper playfield, going from the back and down to the lock area. This will award a special score, and some power to the bumpers. The ball will come out at the lock.
In item mode, the frag lane opens the massacre room.
Boss Lane
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The boss lane leads, by way of the blue ramp, up to the upper playfield. See Upper playfield for more on that area. The shot is harder to make than the frag lane shot, but can be done successfully with any one of the two main flippers.
In item mode, this lane activates the rigth armor kickback.
Massacre Room
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This is a chamber under the upper playfield full of slingshot bumpers. The entrance is to the left of the H-I-T targets, and is shaped like a small Doom-style door. It is only available when the door is open, and it starts out closed on each new ball. It is opened by hitting the frag lane in item mode (the yellow keycard). When the ball gets inside, it will be kicked back and forth between the slingshots there, and this will build up a kill rate. It will go on until the ball comes back out, and you want it to stay in for as long as possible to get the kill rate high. The kill rate is shown on the display, and in addition there are three lights outside the door that tracks your progress. They are lit at 50, 100 and 150 % and blinks when building to that level. Fierce battle noises are played when the slingshots fire. Unless there is more than one ball in play, timers will pause while the ball is busy in the massacre room.
When the ball leaves the chamber you are awarded a score based on the kill rate. This will be several million if you get a decent rate. Managing at least 100% will light Hold Bonus (see End of Ball Bonus); if it is already lit a powerup is lit at the powerup hole instead. If you get as high as 150%, extra ball will be lit on the upper playfield. This is only awarded once per ball, though. When the ball is out, the door will close again. Respawn will be lit at the drain for a short period, to prevent you from losing the ball if it comes out at high speed and goes straight down the middle.
If the ball enters massacre on a weak shot, it will most likely come back out almost immedietly. You need to get the ball in hard to get it properly inside. You can also use carefully timed nudging to keep the ball going on the slings, just be carefull not to tilt the table. The trick is to monitor the hits, either through the display, light effects or sound, and nudge the table whenever the frequency of the hits starts declining.
The door registers hits, but only awards 10 points, and it never scores in any modes, so it is never worth aming for.
Lock and Multiball
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The lock is to the right of the H-I-T targets. The ball is held by a saucer here, that can kick it back out or up behind it and into the innards of the machine to lock it. While the ball is held at the lock, timers are paused if it is the only ball in play. Hitting the lock always awards a lock score. This score depends on how many balls are locked and the number of jet bumper hits on the present ball, and locking a ball also awards one million points here. What else happens at the lock, depends on what is lit.
If Award is lit, you get a random award. It is lit by hitting the three H-I-T targets. The award is not collected during boss modes, to not disrupt the flow of the mode and spoil your concentration. When collected, it cycles through six different awards until it stops at one. These are the awards:
* End of Ball Bonus: Counts up the bonus like at the end of a ball, with multipliers and all. This can mean anything from very little to many million points. See End of Ball Bonus for more info on this.
* Bumpers Galore: Powers up the Bumpers of Death.
* Lite Powerup: Lights the next powerup at the powerup hole. See Powerup Hole for more info.
* Points: One score will be among the awards, this can be 4, 8, 12, or 16 million points. The smallest of these will only occur on the two first balls, while the largest will only occur on later balls.
* Quick Multiball: This will introduce one more ball to the playfield, possibly starting a special challenge. If no mode is running, the Quick Multiball Barrel Challenge will start. A ball is launched from the plunger, and the first ball is released from the lock. The barrel targets are raised, blocking the path to the lock. Your task is simply to return one ball to the lock without losing the other. To do this, you will have to knock down at least some of the barrel targets. Balls brought into play in other ways will also keep the challenge active, what ends it is only having one ball left in play. If you manage to complete the challenge by returning a ball, you will be awarded 15 million points, and any remaining barrel targets will be dropped. If you get the Quick Multiball award during a mode, like BOF, you will just get the extra ball in play to help you score, the challenge will not be started.
* 10 Frags: Advances the frag count with 10, possibly giving you enough frags to start BOF.
The lock can be lit to lock balls for the three ball multiball (that is after all why its called the lock). There are three yellow lights at the lock, and these will blink when the lock is lit, and be solidly lit when the corresponding ball has been locked. The first is for locking the first ball, the second is for locking the second ball, and the third is for starting multiball. A lock is lit by going around the upper playfield (the around lane in the top left). It will stay lit until used, even between balls (on regular settings). Locks can also be lit for a short time by the left inlane, and at the start of a round. Only one lock is lit at a time, you must lock a ball in order to be able to light the next lock.
Collecting the third lock starts multiball, and all three balls are delivered to the playfield in rapid succession from the lane behind the lock saucer. Respawn will be lit, so you won't lose balls right away. As multiball starts, the jackpot will be lit at the Icon of Sin on the upper playfield, and the forth flipper will be activated. Getting a ball into the icon to collect the jackpot is the goal of multiball. If you get to aim properly, hitting the icon with the flipper is very easy. The hard part is getting a ball onto the upper playfield and then flipping at the right time, all while handeling multiple balls. If you miss the icon shot, you get a new chance if you manage to hit the around shot with the other upper flipper. For more on the icon, see Icon of Sin.
The jackpot value is increased throughout the game. It starts at 25 million, and is increased by the around shot that lights the lock, by all major goals completed and by many other things. It is never decreased, and it has an upper limit of 1 billion points, so it is certainly possible to score big in multiball. The jackpot will stay lit until collected or until only one ball is left on the playfield. When it is collected, the jackpot and the icon flipper will be disabled again, the ball will come back out at the lock, and the multiball enters a different phase. Making the around shot will now relight the jackpot, so you need to get a ball back up on the upper playfield. Making the around shot while more than one ball is still in play, reactivates the icon for the jackpot. This sequence, alternating between the icon and the around shot, goes on as long as there is more than one ball in play, so there is no limit to the number of jackpots you can collect.
Should you drain all balls but one, thereby ending multiball, without scoring any jackpots, you will get one chance to start multiball again. The lock will be lit to restart for 25 seconds, and hitting it before it times out gives you back one more ball and starts multiball again.
Multiball can run in parallell with anything, including boss modes. Starting a boss mode does not end multiball, and you can start multiball during a boss mode. The extra balls can help you score in boss modes, and some boss modes have multiple balls themselves, bringing more balls to the playfield. Multiple balls are always cumulative, so you can have many balls in play at once. This is only limited by the number of balls in the machine. A mode that launches two extra balls on startup, will do so even if you already have three balls, giving you a total of five! Multiball continues as long as there is more than one ball on the playfield, no matter where the balls come from, so you can use balls from other modes and awards to extend multiball, like the random award Quick Multiball and the powerup sphere multiballs. Of course, you might want to avoid getting too many balls in play at the same time, as you will then lose some of them easily. Instead, you should try to only bring in more balls when you have no more than two left. One last point about multiple balls: All the smaller scores - the regular target and lane scores - are multiplied by the number of balls in play. This is always the case, no matter where the extra balls came from and what modes are running.
Cyber Ramp and Cyber Demons
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The ramp on the right side of the playfield is called the Cyber ramp (also known as the Shoot ramp), and the bottom part has a Cyber Demon graphic on the plastic. The ramp is easy to hit, and easy to loop, as the ball is returned to the left flipper, but it does not score much when it's not lit (50k).
On the left side of the playfield there are five drop-targets that resemble shotgun shells. Dropping these loads the shotgun, which translates into lighting Shoot at the Cyber ramp. When Shoot is lit, you shoot at the Cyber Demon each time you complete the ramp, and that is it's main function. Shooting the CD is indicated by the five little red lights in the middle of the playfield. Five shots completes the sequence and kills a CD, as there are five shotgun shells and five cyber lights. Each shot "uses" one shell, and Shoot is only lit as long as you have shells left. So if, say, four shell targets are dropped and two cyber lights are lit, the ramp is lit for two more shots. (This description is for normal settings, if the machine is set to Hard then Shoot will not be lit until all five targets are dropped.)
The basic score for a lit ramp is 100k, but shooting several times in succession gives big scores. The ramp is lit for one more million each time it is looped, as long as Shoot is still lit. This is indicated by the Million lights in front of the ramp. To get the additional millions, make sure to drop as many targets as possible before going for the ramp. If you hit the ramp after dropping just one target, you can't loop it, as you'll need to hit more shells after the ramp is completed once. The second, third and fourth shots are worth 1, 2 and 3 million respectivly, and if you manage to do all five shots in a row the fifth shot is worth 5 million, plus 1 million for killing the cyber. With each shot also giving the 100k, the total comes to a respectable 12.5 million for the whole sequence, so shooting cybers can be rewarding if you do it right.
In item mode, the Cyber ramp awards the Ammo bag. This affects the shell targets. The shotgun will be permanently loaded until a cyber demon is killed, so Shoot will be lit at the ramp until the current cyber is killed. The targets can be hit as usual, but they will come right back up again. This also makes hitting the Frag lane easier, as balls can go there after bouncing off shell targets. You lose the ammo bag when you lose the ball. Any targets you hit at least once will then be down when you start the next ball. Since you get the ammo bag at the cyber ramp, hitting it when item mode is active will reward both the ammo bag and a cyber-shot. As item mode is active at the start of the round, it is possible to start the game by looping the cyber ramp five times, killing a cyber and getting massive scores. This is the ultimate skill shot sequence!
In addition to 1 million points, killing a cyber will award one Cyber Demon and light the next powerup at the powerup hole (see Powerup Hole for info on the powerups). Cyber Demons killed are accumulated through the whole game, and each CD gives you 1 million points at the end of ball bonus. When a CD is killed, the shotgun shell targets come back up, Shoot is no longer lit, the ammo bag is reset, and so the whole process starts over for the next CD. The states of the Cyber Demon and shell targets are remembered for each player between rounds. Killing CDs is an important part of a successful game, as the powerups are very useful in getting good scores. The machine keeps track of the best Cyber Hunter in addition to the top five scores.
Collecting enough Cybers will start a special timed mode, the Icon of Sin Hurry-up. The first time it is started is when you kill your fourth cyber. The ball is caught at the saucer on the left side of the ramp's orbit, and the challenge is started (it will not be started if a Boss Mode is running, then it is delayed until the next time the cyber ramp is hit). The Icon flipper is activated, and the goal is to shoot the ball into the Icon of Sin before the time runs out. The time is quite limited, so it is a hard mode, but the reward is equally big, 30 million points. You get another chance when the tenth cyber is killed, and every ten thereafter. Cybers killed during Cyber Demon Hunt (see Doom 2 Monsters - Arachnotron) do not count, so the total number of cybers killed to start Icon Hurry-up may be different from 4, 10, etc. The status report at the start of each ball will tell you how many cybers you need.
Powerup Hole
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At the right side of the playfield there is a short lane leading underneath the plunger ramp. At the end of the lane, underneath the flasher behind the plunger ramp, is a sinkhole known as the Powerup hole. It is easy to hit, as it has a wide area leading the ball up the lane. It awards only 10,000 points, but it has two important purposes: starting Item mode, and most importantly, activating any lit powerups.
There are four powerup spheres, based on the ones in the computer game. Getting them are not worth much in itself, their power lay in the aid they provide. They each have their individual effects that can be very helpful, and using these effects right is an important part of this pinball and gives it a strategic dimension. They are especially useful during modes, and getting the right one during a mode can multiply your scoring several times. They are represented by four lights on the playfield next to the left slingshot. The powerup spheres are, in the order they are lit:
* Invulnerability (green): This powerup lights respawn for 50 seconds (on default settings), so any balls lost during this time will be launched right back into play. Useful for the Barrels o' Fun mode, since losing the ball is easier then, and during any other mode and multiball too, since you really don't want to lose balls at such a time. For the less skilled player, this is the best powerup for most modes.
* Invisibility (red): This powerup is a powerfull score enhancer. It is timed, lasting 50 seconds (on default settings). During this time, all the lower scores, like bumper scores and target scores, are five times as high as the normal, single-ball scores. And the Bumpers of Death do not lose power when hit while this powerup is active. So if no mode is in effect, the best use of this powerup is to make sure all bumpers have power, and get the ball in there as much as possible (think of it as a "Super Jets" mode in these contitions). Having multiple balls in play also increases the score multiplier, so this will make the scores even larger. But the best use of the powerup is in modes where it has special effects. In Barrels o' Fun the frequency with which barrels come back up is greatly reduced, making it much easier to finish. The effects during other modes are variable, not all modes will benefit, but some will benefit greatly. See individual descriptions, like the boss modes, for some info on this.
* Soul sphere (blue): This powerup simply gives you one more ball on the playfield, launched from the plunger. This can be very valuable during the boss modes and BOF, since more balls means more hits in the same amount of time. In higher levels of BOF, where the barrels come back up quickly, more than one ball is just what you need to finish off all barrels. And if you're running low on balls in multiball, this will give you a welcome addition. Having multiple balls in play also multiplies the regular scores of targets and lanes. Just be aware that timers don't pause when a ball is held still if you have more than one ball in play.
* Mega-sphere (brown): This is a more powerful version of the soul sphere. It gives you two more balls to play with, for a total of three if you had just one. In addition it lights both armor kickbacks, so you get good security against losing balls. The same goes for this as is said above about the soul sphere, only even more so. For the skilled player, who is able to handle three balls at once, this is generally the best powerup. Spoiler: Collecting both the Soul sphere and this at the same time is one way to activate a secret feature in the game.
Powerups can be lit in different ways, the most frequent one being the killing of a Cyber Demon (See Cyber Ramp above). The first powerup not already lit or taken is always the one lit. Lit powerups will blink slowly, powerups in effect will blink faster, and collected powerups are solidly lit. The slingshots alternates lit powerups, so you can try to select the one you want. Several powerups can be lit at the same time, all of them will then be activated when the ball is held at the powerup hole. Powerups are activated no matter what else is going on in the game. Used powerups can not be relit again until you've lit all the unlit powerups. If at least three powerups are used at the end of a ball, they will all be reset for the next ball.
When the ball is held at the sinkhole, and there is no other balls in play, timers for modes, invisibility and respawn are paused. The ball is released back down the short lane with enough force to just clear the right slingshot and land at the right flipper. It is possible to take full control of the ball when it's kicked out. If you want to shoot with the right flipper, make sure to hold the flipper in the up position when the ball is released, and it will roll up towards the inlane and come back down to the flipper at slow speed, for a controlled shot. If instead you want to shoot with the left flipper, let the right flipper be at rest, and the ball will bounce from the right flipper and over to the left, for a controlled shot. In this way, the powerup hole can be used simply to prepare for a good shot at one of the other lanes, or for gaining control of the ball.
The powerup hole is also the starter of the Item Mode. As the ball is released, the lanes/ramps will blink for some seconds with the chance of collecting one of the items as described in Item Mode. By taking control of the ball as described above, it is possible to aim at the item you want the most. When in item mode, the powerup hole activates the left armor kickback. When the ball is released after a hit in item mode, item mode is not restarted. If the machine is set to Hard, item mode is only started if none of the four possible awards are active, so it will not start if any kickback, ammo bag or Massacre are available. You must collect/use the previous item before you can restart item mode.
Upper Playfield
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Getting the ball to the upper playfield is done by hitting the boss lane, leading under the playfield and then up the blue ramp. This is where you fight the Doom 2 monsters and collect jackpots, using the two upper flippers. The upper flippers are both of regular size, both have about the same angle as the right flipper, and both are triggered by the right flipper button when active. The rightmost of the two has different colors than the other flippers, and is usually inactive. It is only used to shoot for the Icon of Sin, this feature is described in the next chapter. The rest of this chapter deals with the left side of the upper playfield.
The left, or regular, upper flipper is usually active, and used for two purposes. Above the flipper there is a series of yellow drop targets. These are the boss targets. When you drop one, you shoot at the current boss, and dropping them all means killing the boss (see Doom 2 Monsters). Below the flipper, the ball will drain back down to the main playfield, and you need to drop as many targets as possible before the ball goes back down. Shooting the targets hard, and shooting the right targets, will usually make the ball bounce back to the flipper, and you get to make a new shot. Note that killing a boss disables the flipper for the ball to leave the upper playfield and a boss mode to be started.
There is another shot to make with the upper flipper as well, and you should try to make this at least once each time the ball is on the upper playfield, at least when the lock isn't lit. There is a wide lane/ramp to the left of the boss targets, sloping slightly upwards and going around the back of the targets and back into the blue ramp leading to the upper playfield. This is referred to as the Around lane in this document. A kicker at the end of the short ramp shoots the ball into the blue ramp, making sure it always has enough speed to make it back to the upper playfield as long as it makes the around shot.
The around lane lights the lock to lock one ball. Only one lock can be lit at a time, so you must use it before you can light another. The around lane will also increase the Jackpot value, and add some power to the bumpers. When the ball comes back to the upper playfield, you have a few seconds to loop the shot. The shot will then award a higher score and increase the Jackpot by more then the original shot did, but this is not further increased by more loops, and it is not an important effect, unless you want to concentrate on building a big jackpot. The most important thing is lighting the lock. Also, the around shot is where extra balls are collected. Extra Ball can be lit in various ways, such as Barrels o' Fun and Massacre. It stays lit until collected, on regular settings it will stay lit between balls. Once collected, you will have an extra ball waiting for you, shown by the lit respawn-light just above the drain. You can have several collected extra balls at the same time, but you can only have one extra ball lit at the around lane. In multiball, the around shot will relight the jackpot.
The around shot is the only shot in this game that can be called hard. It is quite far to the left of the flipper, so you need to flip when the ball is right at the tip of the flipper, and it takes some practice to master it. Learining to use the upper flipper correctly, alternating between the targets and the around lane, is what the upper playfield is all about. The two main ways of getting big points, at least early on in the game, is boss modes and multiball. It makes for an interesting dilemma; should you aim for the targets or the around shot? If you make the around shot, the ball comes back to the upper playfield, and you can shoot at the targets. But it's easy to miss and have the ball leave, and then you don't get to shoot at the important targets. It's safest to go for the targets as long as there are some to hit, but then you might not get to start multiball.
Icon of Sin
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The Icon of Sin is a dominating feature of the game, a wall with a huge demonic head with a hole in its center. It is based on the final boss in the Doom 2 videogame. It is located on the upper playfield, and it has a special flipper in front of it. The flipper is used to shoot the ball into the hole in the Icon, and is only active when the Icon is lit for something. There is a small ramp between the flipper and the hole. The shot is really quite easy: just hit the ball straith up the little ramp, it's hard to miss. If the shot is hard, the ball might bounce back out, but then you usually get a second try. The challenge is getting the ball to the upper playfield, and then flipping at the right moment as the ball rolls over the flipper, possibly at high speed. Some of the uses of the Icon is multiball only, and requires you to keep the other balls in play at the same time. If you miss and the ball rolls down to the left upper flipper, you can aim for the around shot to get the ball back to the icon flipper, but this is a harder shot.
The Icon of Sin is the jackpot shot in the regular multiball. Jackpot is lit at the start of multiball, and it will stay lit until collected or until only one ball remains. A successful shot into the Icon will always result in the ball being returned at the lane behind the lock, so the ball will come out at the lock. After hitting the Icon, it will be unlit and the flipper disabled, and this is generally true not only for the jackpot but for other uses of the Icon as well. If there is more than one thing lit, everything will be collected by the one shot. After collecting the jackpot in multiball, it can be reactivated by making the around shot.
The boss mode Mancubus is also a jackpot multiball, here the jackpot must first be activated by hitting targets. The jackpot value starts at 25 million, but it increases a lot during the game, and the upper limit is 1 billion points! Both the regular multiball and the Mancubus awards the present jackpot value. There is also a third situation that activates the jackpot at the Icon: the Ultra Violence MegaMode started when all monsters are defeated. The multiball jackpot is part of this wizard mode.
Then there is the Icon of Sin boss mode. This is the final boss, and you need to shoot the ball into the Icon three times to defeat it, dropping boss targets inbetween to reactivate the icon flipper. See Doom 2 Monsters for more on boss modes. Icon hurry-up is yet another use of the Icon of Sin. This is started by collecting enough cyber demons, and you have a short amount of time to hit the Icon for an award. There is also rumored to be a secret award at the Icon...
Doom 2 Monsters
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There are eight Doom 2 monsters (also called bosses) to conquer, shown on the backglass. Once conquered, a boss mode particular to that monster will start. There's actually six regular boss modes, started after each of the six first monsters are killed. Beating the Archvile and Icon of Sin are special challenges in themselves. Finishing the Icon of Sin will start a final supermode, where just about everything is lit.
When you start the game, one of the monsters will be available on the upper playfield, to be fought by hitting the yellow drop targets. These are known as the boss targets, and dropping all of them kills the current boss. For the first boss, only three drop targets are up. The next one requires six targets, and after that each boss requires dropping nine targets. The Archvile and Icon of Sin are different, and are descriped later. When all targets are down, the upper flipper will disable so the ball rolls down to the ramp, where it is caught by a saucer. Here the ball will be held in place while the boss mode is started (watch the instructions on the display), and then released into play. All the boss modes are listed below, but first the advancement to later bosses is explained.
The first six bosses are battled at the boss targets as descriped above, and each have a mode as an award for killing it. The bosses are listed below in a standard order, but the order of the first six bosses varies from game to game. The earlier ones on the list tend to come before the later ones, for instance the first boss is always one of the first three. After the first boss mode is over, the next boss will only be activated at the upper playfield when you have done enough Shots. Shots are awarded at the lanes and other major shots of the game, and are counted throughout the game for this purpose. The shots that count, are: Frag lane, Boss lane, Cyber ramp, Powerup hole, Around lane, Lock and Massacre. The Boss lane and Around lane award two Shots (one when first triggered and one when entering the upper playfield). Massacre awards three Shots (when ending). All others award one Shot. Here is a list of how many Shots are needed to reach each boss. These are for Normal difficulty, Easy has somewhat lower numbers and Hard has somewhat higher numbers. Note that the numbers are _total_ shots needed, so Boss #3 requires 25 Shots in addition to the 20 needed for Boss #2.
Boss #1....................0
Boss #2...................20
Boss #3...................45
Boss #4...................75
Boss #5..................110
Boss #6..................145
Archvile (#7)............180
Icon of Sin (#8).........Started as soon as Archvile is finished
Shots are always awarded, no matter what else is going on, and they quickly accumulate, so the numbers are not as high as they may seem. If the next boss is not ready when you finish a boss mode, just concentrate on other aspects of the game for a while (like lighting powerups to use in the next mode), and the boss will come soon enough. The Archvile is always number seven, and fighting this boss is a bit different from the first six (see its description in the list below). Beating the Archvile always starts Icon of Sin right away, which can be considered a mode in itself.
The lights on the backglass tracks your status with the bosses. Solidly lit bosses have been killed, and the presently active boss is blinking (slowly when it is being fought at the targets, faster when its mode is active). Also, a sign above the boss targets shows the active monster. The status report at the start of each round will tell you who the next boss is. If no boss is active, it will also tell you how many more shots are needed.
Here is the list of the boss modes, with hints on how to get high scores. The hints include effects of the powerups, see Powerup Hole for general info on the powerups. In timed modes, the timer pauses when the ball is held still and when it's in a part of the game that is not used in the mode. The scoring of boss modes 1-4 in the list depends on the order in which you get them. They have a low-scoring version and a high-scoring version, and the two first you get of these will be the low-scoring versions and the two other will be the high-scoring versions (its not as complicated as it sounds, its simply so the later modes score more then the first ones). Also, an extra ball will be awarded for doing well in either the Revenant mode or the Pain Elemental mode, but only one of these. The other modes score independently of when you get them.
* Heavy Weapon Dude: The least exciting and awarding. It is a timed frenzy-mode, where your goal is simply to hit as many targets as possible before the time runs out. Each target hit counts towards a mode score awarded when it's over. The target value is 250,000 in the low-scoring version, or 500,000 if at least two other bosses have already been completed. The active targets are: Bumpers and Slingshots, HIT and Shell targets, DOOM rollovers, Massacre slingshots, and Barrels, if they happen to be up when the mode starts. This is the only mode that uses the massacre room, you can quickly score 50 hits in there, so its the best way to get a high score. But it must be open when the mode starts if you want it to be available, as Item mode is not startet during boss modes. The bumpers are another good way of gaining hits, and it's best if they are powered up before the mode starts. Multiple balls will be usefull, of course. The invisibility powerup doubles the hit score to 500,000 or 1 million.
* Hell Knight: Killing this boss gives you a timed hurry-up mode where you need to hit the central H-I-T targets. As the mode starts, eight barrel targets are raised (if Barrels o' Fun happens to be running, any of these barrels not already up will be raised, and they will be part of that mode as well). So first, you need to get rid of most of the barrels, to clear the way to the HIT targets. The target score starts at 3 million. It will decrease with time, but not until the first time a target is hit, or until some time has gone by, so you have some time to clear away the barrels. There are two versions of the mode, depending on how many other boss modes have been played. In both versions, a hit to one of the targets adds the current value to the mode total. In the low-scoring version, the value is always reset to 3 million when collected, and count down slowly from there. In the high-scoring version, 3 million is added to the current target value each time it is collected, making it larger for each time. But it will count down faster the bigger it gets, limiting its size. When the mode times out, the cumulative score is shown and added to your total score. Each hit will also power up a bumper, so powering up bumpers is a nice side-effect of this mode. The powerups are very useful in this mode. As long as the invisibility powerup is active, the target score will not decrease, or decrease more slowly at higher target values. Also, it is easy to lose the ball in this mode, so Invulnerability and extra balls come in handy.
* Revenant: In this timed mode, your goal is to hit the ramps and lanes: the frag and boss lanes, the cyber ramp and powerup hole, and the around lane on the upper playfield. There are two different versions of this mode, a simple version if the Revenant is amongst the first two bosses, and a more complex and higher-scoring version if several other bosses comes before it. In the simple version, each of the five shots adds one million to the mode total, so just go for whatever lanes you find easy to hit or good for repeating. In the other version, the lanes can be either blinking or solidly lit, and the idea is that the blinking ones are worth the most. The four shots on the main playfield start out blinking. Hitting a blinking lane scores 3 million to the mode total, and turns off the blinking. The top lane starts out solidy lit, and your first goal is to complete the four others to turn on this. Hitting the last lane when it's blinking completes the sequence for 5 more million. Hitting any of the five lanes when they are not blinking is only worth 1 million. When the sequence is completed, it will start over, with the other four shots blinking again, and you are also given ten extra seconds each time you complete it (and five each time you complete the first four shots). If an extra ball has not already been available in the Pain Elemental mode, lighting extra ball is an added award if you managed to complete the sequence at least once. If you have trouble hitting some of the shots, you might want to stick to hitting the ones you're good at, but for a good score (and that extra ball), you should concentrate on finishing off the blinking ones, since they give the most points and eventually restarts the sequence. Your best strategy would be to hit the boss lane last of the first four, as this leads to the upper playfield where the final shot is ready.
* Pain Elemental: This is a three ball multiball. Two more balls are brought in from the plunger before the original ball is released from its hold. Hitting the lanes and ramps, including the around lane at the upper playfield, is what scores in this mode (the same five shots as in the Revenant mode). The lane value is increased by everything else you hit (except Massacre targets), and can be made very large in this way. The scoring is dependent on how many other boss modes have already been played, like the above modes. In the low-scoring version (one of the first two boss modes) the lane value starts at 1 million, in the other it starts at 2 million, and the increase per hit is also double. The limit is 5 million in the low-scoring version, and twice that in the other version. The mode has a time limit, but no timer is displayed, and you get much more time than in other modes. But the mode will end when there is only one ball left on the playfield. Barrel targets will sometimes pop up during the mode to increase your chances of losing a ball, unless the Invisibility powerup is active. That powerup goes great with this mode, as it also doubles the effect of hitting targets. Getting more balls on the playfield is also good, as this will keep the mode running longer. If you managed to get the lane value up to it's maximum, extra ball _might_ get lit on the upper playfield. Lighting extra ball is awarded for doing good in either this mode or the Revenant mode, it is available in one, and only one, of these two modes. Generally, it is not awarded in the two first modes played, but after that it will be available in whichever one of these two modes comes first. If extra ball _could_ have been awarded in the first of these you play, but you failed to get it, it will _not_ be available in the other. If you watch closely when the modes start, you will be able to tell whether the extra ball is available or not
* Mancubus: This mode is a jackpot hunt, you get to shoot for the jackpot at the Icon of Sin just like in regular multiball. This is a two ball multiball, as one additional ball is brought into play at its start, but there is also a time limit. In addition to getting the jackpot, your goal is to increase the jackpot value. Just about anything counts as a hit for this purpose, both targets, lanes and the lock. Every hit increases the jackpot value. 20 hits activates the Icon of Sin for the jackpot, and you need to get a ball up on the upper playfield and use the icon flipper to collect it. After it is collected, 20 more hits will relight it again, and so on (the count to 20 restarts when the jackpot is collected, but all hits increase the jackpot value). Only having one ball left will end the mode, the jackpot will then be un-lit. As long as there is time left, hitting targets will increase the jackpot and count towards relighting it when not lit. You get quite a lot of time on this mode, so the jackpot can be collected several times. If the jackpot is lit when the time runs out, it will stay lit as long as there is more than one ball in play, to be collected once more, even though the mode is over. If regular multiball runs at the same time as this mode, the jackpot is relit both by hitting targets and by the around shot, but the icon shot only awards one jackpot, and jackpots are not stacked, so once collected it is always un-lit. The multiball powerups can help you keep this mode going, and the invulnerability does this too, but the invisibility is not helpful. This is a very diffucult mode to play without powerups. Losing one of the two balls means it's over, and getting jackpots isn't easy. But even if you don't get any jackpots, the jackpot value will be raised to new heights for all subsequent jackpots in the game.
* Arachnotron: Killing the Arachnotron starts the mode called Cyber Demon Hunt. As the name implies, you get to shoot a lot of cyber demons in this mode. You'll hear the steps of the Cyber Demon walking around as the time ticks down, a sound that will alarm any veteran Doom player. During the mode, all targets score a shot at the Cyber Demon, just like hitting the lit cyber-ramp usually do (massacre targets don't count, as usual). So five hits kill one cyber. In addition, completing the cyber-ramp scores five shots in rapid succession. Other lanes don't award shots. The display will show how many cybers you've killed and your progress on the current cyber. Note that the shotgun shell targets are reset at the start of this mode, and any progress made at loading and shooting a cyber before the mode started will be lost. When the mode ends, progress on the next cyber starts from scratch, no matter the state before the mode started and the state when it ended. Also, cybers killed during CD hunt does not count towards starting Icon Hurry-up. Every fifth cyber killed during the mode lights a powerup. You get 2 million for each cyber, so its the future end of ball bonuses and the powerups lit that is the most significant rewards. You can increase your cybercount a lot if you do good at the hunt, bringing huge bonuses for the rest of the game. Looping the cyber-ramp is a reliable way of getting shots, but the bumpers are where the hits are most plentyfull. Nothing special about the powerups, the multiball ones are good if you can handle all the balls.
* Archvile: When you've finished the first six boss modes, the next boss to kill on the upper playfield is the Archvile. Shooting him is not as simple as with the others. Mimicking this fiends ability to resurrect other monsters, the drop targets will sometimes respawn back up. So if you go a long time without getting the ball back up on the upper playfield, you risk having all the targets you dropped come back up again. There is nothing you can do to prevent this, you just need to get the ball to the upper playfield often. When all targets are down, the ball drops to the left ramp as usual, but this time the Icon of Sin mode is started.
* Icon of Sin: This is the final boss, and fighting it is a mode in itself. It will take some skill on the upper playfield to beat this one, and you'll get to use both flippers. To hit the boss, you need to shoot the ball into the brain of the Icon using the fourth flipper, and to beat it you need to do this three times. Each hit scores a massive 50 million the first two times, and 100 million on the fatal blow, for a total of 200 million. There's more to it than that, though. Fighting the Icon is complicated by it's ability to spawn lesser monsters, as anyone who completed the computer game knows. As the mode starts and the ball is released to the main playfield after beating the Archvile, a few boss targets will pop up. Additional targets will pop up during the mode at random intervals, as the Icon spawns monsters. Also, this will always happen when you try to enter the upper playfield. The icon flipper is only activated when all the targets are down, so when you enter the upper playfield you first need to hit targets. Only when they are all down are you free to make the shot at the Icon's brain. Having droppet the targets, you need to make the around shot to get the ball to the right flipper. Thankfully, making the Icon shot is not very difficult. It's taking out the drop targets and then getting the ball up to the icon flipper, all without losing the ball back down to the main playfield, that makes this a challenge. You have no time limits, but drop targets come back up with time, making the task harder. Getting the ball into the Icon drops it down under the upper playfield and releases it back out at the lock, and you'll need to get it back up to the upper playfield for two more hits. If the icon flipper is activated in other ways, like multiball, and you hit the Icon, it will only count as a boss hit if all boss targets are dropped at that time. If you end the round, the fight will continue where you left off on the next ball.
Finishing off the Icon of Sin starts a final wizard mode, the Ultra Violence MegaMode. This enables just about everything, and new balls are launched into play at regular intervals for the duration of the mode. The jackpot is lit at the Icon, and it should be real big by now, having completed the Mancubus mode. If you collect it, it can be relit with the around shot, like in multiball. The shotgun shell targets and cyber ramp shoot the cyber like in Cyber Demon Hunt, so make sure you hit them plenty. The H-I-T targets power up the bumpers like in the Hell Knight mode. All targets increase a lane score in addition to scoring big themselves. The lanes have a lane score like in Pain Elemental Multiball.
The maximum number of balls in play at once is 8. The Jackpot has an upper limit of 1 billion points.
When the Ultra Violence MegaMode is over, the Doom 2 bosses are reset, and you start fighting them over again from the beginning. The order will be different, unless the game has several players and the machine is set to Hard. Multiple balls from the megamode will stay on the playfield as long as you can keep them there.
End of Ball Bonus
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The basic end of ball bonus (first number showed in bonus routine) is based on the number of bumpers hit and major shots made during the round. When Hold Bonus is lit, this basic bonus is held over to the next round, and included in the next basic bonus, otherwise this value is reset between each round. If Hold Bonus is lit after the last ball, the basic bonus will be doubled (none of this is shown explicitly).
The basic bonus is multiplied by the bonus multiplier, up to the maximum 8x. Then 100,000 points are added for each frag, collected throughout the game. 1 million is added for each Cyber Demon. If you lost the ball after tilting the machine, no bonus is awarded.
Game settings
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The game can be set to three balls or five, and it keeps separate highscore lists for the two possibilities (for testing purposes, it can also be set to unlimited balls, the game then has no end and no highscores can be awarded).
The game also has a difficulty-setting, and can be set to Easy, Normal (factory default) and Hard. Here is a list of all the things affected by this setting:
* On Easy, both kickbacks are lit at the start of the game.
* Respawn time: The respawn grace period at the start of each ball and at the start of multiball gets somewhat shorter with higher difficulty.
* Powerup times: The time the invulnerability and invisibility powerups are active get shorter with higher difficulty.
* Mode times: The time the boss modes and the Icon of Sin Hurry-up are active also get shorter with higher difficulty.
* Target respawn: The frequency with which the monster targets come back up during the Archvile and Icon of Sin modes is higher on higher difficulty.
* Barrels o' Fun: The number of frags needed to start Barrels o' Fun rise with higher difficulty. The time of the mode is shorter on higher difficulty.
* On Hard, all shotgun shell targets must be dropped to activate shooting the cyber demon at the cyber ramp (except if the ammo bag item award is active).
* On Hard, Item mode is only started at the powerup hole when none of the item awards (kickbacks, massacre and ammo bag) are currently active.
* Boss activation and order: The number of shots needed to activate bosses rise with higher difficulty. In multiplayer games, the random boss order is different for each player on lower settings, but not on Hard. On the Hard setting, the boss order is the same for each player, to make it fair for competetive play, so this setting should be used for multiplayer tournaments. The boss order will then also be the same each time if the whole sequence is completed several times within the same game.
* New round: On Easy, the Massacre door stays open between balls, and the ammo bag award stays. These item awards are reset on other settings. On Hard, lit extra balls, locks and powerups not collected are lost when the ball ends. These stay lit between balls on other settings.
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