VP8 Williams SS Recreation Junk Yard (Williams, 1996) VP8 v1.0 WT MOD

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Rulesheet for JUNK YARD
A Williams pinball machine released in January 1997
(prototypes seen as early as November 1996)

Rulesheet Version 0.4
This rulesheet was written by /dev/joe (Joseph DeVincentis), Thanks to Mike Morrey, Andrew Norrish, "klex", Dwight Sullivan, Rob Rosenhouse, Greg Rosen, Matt Magnasco, and everybody on r.g.p for helping out.

Playfield Layout
There are two standard flippers and standard return lanes in the usual positions. The inlanes can be lit to start Crane Hurry-up. The outlanes have quite large openings, and each outlane can be lit separately for a "Ball Recycle".

Above the left out/inlanes there is a popper which returns the ball to the left inlane. Most of the shots that take balls under the playfield return the ball here.

On the playfield beside this device is a bank of three standup targets with blue lights in the playfield in front of them, which, when completed, lights the left outlane Recycle.

Above this there are two ramps with entrance side-by-side. The far left ramp leads to a toilet, which counts the spins the ball takes inside it before falling under the playfield. The inner ramp carries the ball around the back of the playfield toward a VW bus in the back right corner; a diverter can cause the ball to be temporarily held here or to return directly on a habitrail to the right inlane. This ramp also has an open side which allows slow shots to fall through to an area not otherwise accessible, which dribbles down into the hole in front of the dog. Lights in front of these ramps indicate various available shots.

In the center of the top of the playfield is this game's main feature. The "Crane" is a pinball hanging from a chain. (The test games instead have a metal rod or cable about 1/2 mm in diameter, which Williams suggests to replace with the chain. The game I play has the rod, which is now bent.) The chain hangs from a bar (which is decorated to look like a crane) that goes into the back wall of the game. This ball can be raised or lowered, to allow the pinball to pass under it, or block its path. The bar itself can move side-to-side and up-and-down slightly, in addition to the wild motion the ball has.

Around this, arranged in a semicircle, are 2 banks of 3 standup targets with an opening for another shot (which goes around a corner and under the playfield) between them. Above these there is a row of 5 larger "car" standup targets, with no gap. The crane ball can be hit into these higher targets. Several lights in front of the crane ball indicate shots available on the crane ball (by hitting it into the car standups) or in the opening behind it. There doesn't seem to be a name for this opening (in some mode, I forget which, the game calls it the alley, but the playfield calls the DOG scoop the alley), so I will call it the center shot.

Below the right side crane standups there is an up-scoop which usually drops the ball onto the bus ramp's habitrail to the right inlane, but a diverter can send it to the dog instead. The dog is a decoration just in front of the bus; when the ball goes to him, it falls into a hole in the playfield in front of him, and if the ball was supposed to be there, a video mode starts. Lights in front of the scoop spell out D-O-G. Just to the left of it there is a small standup target, the Toaster Gun target.

Below and slightly to the right of the scoop entrance, there is a sinkhole called the Sewer that can be entered from almost any direction. Lights in front of it indicate a variety of awards which can be available here, including Extra Ball and Adventures. The adventures themselves are indicated by a separate row of lights across the playfield, below the lights for the ramps, crane, and scoop.

Below the Sewer there is a bank of 3 blue standups; these light the right outlane Recycle and are similar to their counterparts on the other side of the playfield.

The plunger (which is a combination manual and autoplunger) shoots the ball through a spinner and into a sinkhole, which, like other holes on this game, takes the ball to the left inlane feed.



Junk
In the middle of the lower section of the playfield, in addition to lights for "shoot again" and autofire, there is a blueprint with 10 different pieces of junk marked with lights. Some of the pieces combine to make various contraptions.

The junk consists of: Hair dryer, toaster, cuckoo clock, television, weathervane, fishbowl, propeller, fan, bathtub, and bicycle wheels. The game begins with the toaster already awarded.

The combinations are:

Hair dryer + toaster = toaster gun
television + weathervane = radar
bicycle wheels + bathtub + fan = jalopy
fishbowl + jalopy = submerger
propeller + jalopy = flying machine
There is an extra ball awarded for collecting a certain amount of junk, which is on a percentage; on the game I play it's awarded on the third junk item.

Collecting all the junk lets you enter your initials as junk champion at the end of the game. The current junk champion's initials are shown on Spike's collar when each dog video mode begins.


Helpful hints
At various times during the game, an angel appears on the left of the DMD or a devil appears on the right, and they make some comment. Whenever you collect junk, one or both of them appears and advises you what to collect next. (If your first junk item is anything other than the hair dryer, both appear, the angel advising you to get the hair dryer and the devil advising you to get a part for the radar.) One of these also announces each time an invention is completed, or when an adventure starts.


End-of-ball bonus
At the end of each ball, you get a bonus which consists of some amount for each item of junk (varies from about 10K to 25K for different pieces), plus bonuses for completed contraptions (which replace the individual parts in the bonus count), plus 25K per Fireworks collected, plus some amount for each mode played. If you get to Outer Space, the Fireworks reset and the junk bonus is replaced by 250K for outer space, plus an extra 250K if you defeat Bob. All this is then multiplied by the bonus multiplier, which starts at 1x but can be increased by skill shots and otherwise, and is cumulative throughout the game. The multiplier maxes at 6x; when you do something that would normally advance it further, you get 250,000 points awarded instead.

The bonus count is slow, giving you time to look at all the pictures of stuff Williams filled the ROMs with, but you can speed it up by holding down the flippers (just pressing both doesn't do it).


Skill Shot
The skill shot consists of 5 possible awards on the DMD; one will be lit. Each spin the spinner on the plunger lane takes advances the lit award. The spinner on my machine is either flaky or rigged, because the spinner always stops with the same side showing (one side has a dog, the other an explosion), but I've seen the skill shot advance an odd number of times often. The first skill shot always has these awards in this order: Collect Junk, Super Skill Shot, Collect Junk, Bonus x2, and Collect Junk. Later other awards usually take the place of some of these. Here are the effects of the skill shot awards:


Collect Junk
awards the flashing Junk item. The left flipper advances the lit item counterclockwise so you can choose which one you want if you plan in advance. There are other ways to collect Junk that work the same way.

Super Skill Shot
the Sewer is lit for a short time for 250,000 points. If you hit it in time, the timer resets and it is worth 500,000 the next time, then 750,000, etc. up to 2.5 million.

Bonus X
The bonus multiplier is applied to the total end-of-ball bonus and is cumulative throughout the game. There are other ways to advance the bonus multiplier as well. See End-of-Ball Bonus.

Light Extra Ball
Does exactly that. The sewer is lit for extra ball until it is collected. All extra balls on this game stack, and stay lit even if you lose the ball. Sometimes if you miss this award, it will be in two slots (or more) the next skill shot.

Spot D-O-G
awards all the D-O-G letters on the scoop and lights it for video mode.

50,000 or 100,000 or other numbers
Scores that many points. This is accompanied by EM-style bell sounds. In games when I had already collected all the junk, and gotten several extra balls, the skill shot would have 4 or even all 5 of the awards just be points. I've seen 150K, 250K, and 500K in this situation.

Fireworks
Adds 1 to your count of fireworks collected, which is cumulative throughout the game.

Shopping
Awards Window Shopping (see below)

Light Time
Lights the Sewer for Time Machine.

Others?

Ball Recycle and Autofire
The outlanes can be lit (separately) for Ball Recycle. When a ball drains in a lit outlane, the ball is returned to the plunger, and you get another skill shot, and any modes which were going before continue. Ball Recycles do not time out; they are lit until collected, and collecting one does not turn off the other.

Autofire is lit for a short time at the start of each ball, for a longer time at the start of each multiball mode, and sometimes by a random award. Any ball that drains is returned to the plunger and auto-launched, and everything continues. It seems that the autofire light doesn't light up when autofire is lit at the start of each ball.

I don't know what happens if both are lit when the ball drains.


Window Shopping
This can be awarded from the Skill Shot, or the toilet ramp. Arrows on the DMD draw your attention to a set of windows in a building on the backglass; a light flashes randomly in the windows, and you press both flippers to stop the light and win the lit award:


Light Extra Ball

Free Game

Light Jackpot
The crane ball rises, and the center shot is lit for a jackpot, which starts at 1 million, but some things can add to the value of this jackpot. This award also stays lit until collected.

Collect Fireworks
Adds 3 to your Fireworks collected.

Toxic Waste
Nothing happens.

Great Toilet
Each spin the ball takes in the toilet adds 1000 points to the toilet jackpot, which is cumulative over the game. The toilet can also be lit for Window Shopping, or Choose Junk (which lets you choose any one of the 10 junk items you don't already have). It is also one of the five major shots for some modes.


Magic Bus
This is the second of the five major shots used in some modes. The bus ramp may be lit for Collect Junk, and/or Magic Bus. Each shot through the bus ramp also adds one Bus Ride, and various awards are given at certain numbers of Bus Rides. When it is lit for Magic Bus, the ball will be held at the top of the playfield, and an animation follows, with five awards shown, and then one of these is awarded. Most of the awards are pretty self-explanatory. The awards are:


Big Points
500,000 points.

Light Extra Ball

Light Jackpot

Light Multiball
Multiball is lit at the center shot, as if MULTIBALL had been completed.

Light Recycle
Lights just one of the two Recycles.

Collect Junk

DOG video mode
plays a video mode as if you had shot the scoop when lit.

Advance Bonus X

Autofire
turns on the ball saver for a short time

Light Time Machine

All of the above
when this appears, it is always the last item on the list, and it does sometimes get awarded.

D-O-G scoop
This is the third of the five major shots used in some modes. When D-O-G isn't lit, hitting this adds a letter to D-O-G. When D-O-G is lit, the diverter at the scoop sends the ball to the dog instead of returning it on the habitrail, and a video mode begins.

If you haven't completed the toaster gun yet, the mode is "Run from Spike". Press the flipper buttons rapidly to help your character run faster and escape from the dog. Rob Rosenhouse says if you manage to run fast enough in this mode, your characters gets "streaks of speed" on the screen as if he was running really fast, and a "bionic" sound effect like the Six Million Dollar Man.

If you have completed the gun, you play "Save the Girl" instead. A wall is shown with two openings, and the girl (only legs shown) runs back and forth behind the wall, chased by the dog. The left and right flipper buttons shoot toast at the respective openings. You need to hit the dog 3 times in 12 seconds to win the mode. You also have a limited amount of ammo, which seems to be a minimum of 12 for the first time you play Save the Girl, but it can be more if you've collected more toast during the game.

If you have completed one of these games previously, it gets harder when you play them again, later -- in Save the Girl, the girl and dog start taking erratic patterns, sometimes with the girl chasing the dog! Completing a video mode collects an item of junk, or awards 3 Fireworks if you have already collected all the junk.


Sewer
This is the fourth of the five major shots used in some modes. The sewer can be lit for several different awards.


Toast
Adds 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10 pieces of toast to your collection, and awards 10,000 points per piece of toast awarded.

Extra Ball
accompanied by an animation of the words Extra Ball on the DMD.

Time Machine
Starts one of five modes, see below.

Start Adventure
Starts the first lit adventure, see below.


The Crane
In normal play, each time the crane ball hits one of the car targets a letter is added to MULTIBALL. Also completing either bank of lower standup targets adds a letter to MULTIBALL, and completing both banks lights the return lanes for Crane Hurry-up. Normally the crane is lowered, blocking the center shot, but if the ball manages to go in there anyway, the "sneak in" awards some points and 3 MULTIBALL letters. Completing MULTIBALL raises the crane and lights Multiball at the center shot, and a siren goes off to let you know it is lit.


Crane Hurry-up
The hurry-up starts at 50,000 and counts down to 25,000 where it remains for a while before the mode ends. Hitting the crane ball into any car target collects the value and starts crane multiball, a 2-ball multiball. Each hit of a car standup or the lower crane standups is accompanied by a glass-breaking sound and scores the amount of points the crane hurry-up ended at.


Multiball
When multiball starts, there is a long animation, and the other balls are auto-launched. After the first half of the animation, when you go past the gate the rest can be aborted by hitting both flipper buttons. The crane ball is raised and the center shot is lit for jackpot. After 1 jackpot, the crane ball is lowered, and the center shot is lit for super jackpot, 3 million points. After a super jackpot, you can keep trying for more super jackpots. When the next-to-last ball drains and the mode ends, if super jackpot was lit the crane will lift for a moment, and you (might) have a clear shot for a Super Jackpot during the grace period -- this is not indicated in any way, besides the crane lifting, until you hit the shot. If super jackpot wasn't lit (that is, you never got the first jackpot) the center shot lights for a multiball restart instead.

A lot of stuff is turned off during multiball, including starting adventures, video mode, and just about anything that would normally hold the ball. However, it is possible to start multiball during some of the adventures; I've done it several times on the Radar adventure, and Matt Magnasco reports doing it in the Great Toilet adventure. When this happens, multiball and the adventure run simultaneously, with the adventure ending as normal when time runs out or you complete the 5 shots needed to finish the mode.


Time Machine
This is one of the most fun awards in this game. Time Machine can be lit by the skill shot or Magic Bus, and is also lit when you collect the Cuckoo Clock junk item, and is collected at the Sewer. A control panel appears on the DMD with the current date and time (32 days slow in the case of the game I play) and then it flashes and changes to another date, which seems to be one to several months after the release date of another game, which the mode is taken from. (Maybe it's the end of the production run? TAF is a March 1992 game according to the pinball database, but 12-14-92 is used here.) All these modes are timed on a fairly short timer. These dates are taken from Mike Morrey's post; I haven't checked them myself. In the Mamushka and Payback Time modes, the voices are faked, undoubtedly due to not having the contractual rights to reuse the original voice tracks in another game.


01-13-93
Move Your Car mode from Creature from the Black Lagoon: Shoot the center shot over and over again for increasingly large point awards, and more time.

08-31-91
Payback Time mode from Terminator 2: All the 5 major shots are lit for 1 million each, with a 10 million bonus for hitting all 5. This is easily the highest scoring award here. According to the Williams web page, this has been removed because it was out of balance with the rest of the game.

12-14-92
The Mamushka mode from Addams Family: All shots are lit for 100,000? points each.

02-14-99
Knight Mission mode: Dwight Sullivan (Wms project leader for Junk Yard) says this is not a Black Knight 2000 reference; the mode doesn't really resemble anything from that game anyway. Maybe it's really a reference to a game planned for the future? That would be cool. The center shot is lit for increasing awards, which are also added to the multiball jackpot.(?) This mode has the shortest timer of all; if you don't hit the first shot within about 5 seconds it turns off; if you hit the shot you get more time.

10-31-95
Saucer Attack video mode from Attack from Mars: Flying saucers descend in five columns, somewhat randomly arranged, and your gun is below the middle column, firing continuously, and the angle of the gun can be changed by holding either flipper. According to Andrew Norrish, sometimes the saucers can be replaced by cows by doing the right thing, but he didn't know what. According to some posts to r.g.p, the "cheat" that can be performed by hitting the launch button in AfM is available with the start button in Junk Yard, but this may not be in the prototype roms. There is disagreement over whether an extra ball can be awarded as well.
Greg Rosen posted that there is a Secret Mania when the Time Machine clock shows 3:33 by hitting both flippers.


Adventures
There are five adventures: Radar Adventure, The Great Jalopy Race, The Great Toilet Adventure, Air Tactical Combat, and Outer Space. The first four of these are lit just by having collected the junk required to build the Radar, Jalopy, Submerger, and Flying Machine, respectively. Outer Space is only lit when you complete the other four adventures and have collected all the junk. Whenever an adventure is lit, except during multiball and other adventures, the Sewer is lit for Start Adventure.

The toaster gun target is lit during all adventures if you have collected the junk to build the toaster gun; hitting it awards Fireworks at a cost of 5 toast. If you don't have enough toast, you get a click (and the word CLICK in huge letters on the DMD).

Each of the first four adventures is a long, timed, single-ball mode (though it is possible to start multiball during at least the Radar and Great Toilet adventures) and 5 specific shots are needed to "win" the mode and score a bonus.


Radar Adventure
Some of the major shots are lit; these change at random. Each shot hit awards Fireworks. The toaster gun target can also award fireworks as described above. Collect 5 fireworks within the time limit to get a lot of points (how many?) and end the adventure.


The Great Jalopy Race
All 5 major shots are lit; shoot each one once in the time limit to finish. Each one is accompanied by an animation of your jalopy halfway-flying past a "checkpoint" sign, and adds 1 to your fireworks.


The Great Toilet Adventure
All shots award the Great Toilet Jackpot (which starts at around 35,000, and increases 1000 for each spin the ball makes in the toilet, cumulative throughout the game, and it can increase during the adventure). The Sewer and Great Toilet award Fireworks; collect 5 fireworks to finish. The sound effects in this mode are great.


Air Tactical Combat
Hit the crane ball 5 times to finish.


Outer Space
You get a bonus of 50,000 multiplied by the number of Fireworks you collected, which is counted up on the display, followed by an extra 10 million if you had at least 20. Then there is an animation of a rocket blasting off and brief instructions.

The mode is a 4-ball multiball with continuous autofire. The five major shots are lit, and go out when shot, but will be re-lit after some time; clearing all 5 defeats Crazy Bob and ends the mode. When you hit one of the lit shots it scores over a million points; perhaps it's the multiball jackpot. The toaster gun target and the crane are lit for more Fireworks, but your fireworks run down over time. The mode ends and Crazy Bob escapes when you run out of fireworks.

When the mode ends, by either method, the flippers die and the game collects all the balls and serves up a ball at the plunger. The Fireworks and Adventures reset after Outer Space, but the Junk doesn't; you can start playing the adventures again and presumably get to Outer Space again, but I haven't done it.


Strategy
The biggest points in this game, by far, are in Multiball, the Adventures, and Outer Space. Multiball is fairly easy to start, but once you get complete the Jalopy it is easier to collect the rest of the junk and play the adventures. After you complete Outer Space, all the adventures are lit so you can play through these 5 modes over and over.

I first got good at Junk Yard when I learned to control the skill shot. A weak plunge will just give one or two spins, which is often exactly what you want -- I like to go for Collect Junk on the skill shot, to finish the junk faster, or just to get to the extra ball faster if I'm having a bad game.

The two left ramps can be lit for collect junk and choose junk; typically you should get each of these once and maybe the collect junk a second time in the course of completing the junk.

Note that you can use the flippers to move the flashing junk item before plunging the ball, so those "Collect Junk" skill shot awards are as good as "Choose Junk".

I try to avoid collecting the Hair Dryer junk item as long as possible, because it changes the video mode from "Run from Spike" to "Save the Girl". "Save the Girl" is more fun, but "Run from Spike" is easier, especially compared to the later levels of "Save the Girl" (each time you complete it, it gets harder the next time), and completing it awards a junk item. Obviously, you will eventually get the hair dryer. "Save the Girl" starts on level 1, no matter how many times you completed "Run from Spike".

The sewer is a very important shot on this game; it seems to be one that is quite hard to hit, like the Final Draw on World Cup Soccer. It's my opinion that the Super Skill Shot was done the way it is just to encourage players to practice this shot, because it is definitely a shot worth practicing. Adventures, Extra Ball, and Time Machine are all collected here, and some of the adventures will have the sewer lit as one of the shots (all except Air Tactical Combat).



References to other games (In addition to the obvious Time Machine ones)

One of the sound effects is from Earthshaker.

During Crane Hurry-up, the voice that says "Come on, Hurry Hurry Hurry" sounds like one of the voices from Dr. Dude (used for the Gift of Gab, among other things).

The Angel's voice is the same voice used in Safecracker, and both the Angel's picture and Devil's voice appear in Whodunnit?

The Super Jackpot animation is from HS2: The Getaway.

I know there are more here that I'm missing.

Matt Magnasco says it has a Midnight Madness (special mode that begins at midnight (if the game's clock is set correctly), interrupting whatever else was going on, provided a game was being played at midnight.


Hidden/misc stuff
Whenever you hit the crane into the car targets to add letters to multiball, the DMD shows a big crash with a word in it like CRASH! or SQUISH!, etc. One of these says DOHO!.

I haven't seen any cows yet. Somebody said saucer attack can sometimes, randomly, be cow attack, like in AfM.

There appears to be a magnet directly under the crane, as if to help stop the crane ball when it is flying around wildly, but it appears to not ever be used. The production games don't have this.

Click to expand...