VP8 Williams SS Recreation The Getaway: High Speed II (Williams, 1992) VP8 v2.2

(From Kevin Martin Rulesheet)

Objective Of The Game
Relight the Kickback.

Just kidding. Actually, you're supposed to start Multiball by running red lights, and then collect Jackpots to escape from the pursuing police.

Important Things
This is a glossary of the shots and features that will be referred to during the discussion of the game. If you haven't seen the machine, this will probably only confuse you. Just take it on faith. But then, if you haven't seen High Speed II by now, you truly live in Pinball Hell.

Flippers
There are three flippers, the usual two lower ones, and an upper right flipper which is really only useful for shooting the left loop. The right flipper button flips both right flippers at the same time - there is not a two-stage mechanism to allow for holding one ball on the bottom flipper while shooting a Jackpot with the upper flipper. This is a disappointment compared to almost every other three flipper Williams game (Whirlwind, for example). (Note: the newest revisions of the machine do offer a two-stage control mechanism for these flippers, and also raise the upper flipper automatically as part of a ball search.)

Plunger/Shifter
This is an up/down shifter in place of the usual spring plunger. It's an autolauncher, and where the ball lands in play depends entirely on its strength and the angle of the playfield. It should go around the Left Loop and come to the upper right flipper. All too often, though, it doesn't make the loop and ends up screaming towards the Right Outlane.

Left Loop
This is a loop hit from the upper right flipper. It loops around to the same flipper. There is a Loop Champion for this shot.Jet

Bumpers
There are three Jet Bumpers at the top center of the playfield, above which the two Orbit shots and the Left Loop pass. The Jet Bumpers always increase the Helicopter Bonus value, cumulative across all balls of all simultaneous players.

Stoplights
There are three rows of sensors, representing traffic lights. Each has three targets: red, yellow, and green. Each target has a light in front of it. One row runs vertically to the right of the jet bumpers. The other two rows lie along the entrance to the Left Loop.

Supercharger
This is a large triangular loop mounted above the Jet Bumpers. There is a steep ramp on the lower left portion of the playfield which leads into the Supercharger. Whenever the Supercharger is "active", optical sensors and electromagnets inside a faux engine part accelerate the ball through the loop repeatedly. There is a diverter in the far upper left corner of the Supercharger which will feed the ball to the Left Inlane.

Left Orbit
This is the long shot up the left side of the machine and around to the upper right flipper.Right Orbit
This is the long shot up the right side of the machine and around and down the left side. It is essentially the reverse of the Left Orbit, and the same non-directional sensors are used to detect both shots.

Tunnel
This is the saucer in a short lane just to the left of the Right Orbit shot. It has a one-way gate to the right of it which should keep the ball from entering the Tunnel from the Right Orbit. Unfortunately, a powerful shot may bounce out of the saucer without registering. The saucer kicks out to the right and feeds to the upper right flipper.

1-2-3 Targets
These are two rows of sensors, one row above each outlane, turned inward at roughly a 30 degree angle. Hitting the 1, 2, or 3 target on either side lights that target on both sides, and targets which haven't been hit will flash. Hitting all three before they time out (about eight seconds?) will relight the Kickback, whether or not it is already lit (no stacking the Kickback, though). On some machines (L-2 or L-5 and possibly P-1), the 1-2-3 Targets will also increase the Supercharger Boost value by 1M for each hit.Left Outlane

There is no rubber on the lane divider on this side. There is a gaping metallic scoop on this outlane, and a Kickback which should kick the ball into the Tunnel. There is a Special light here.

Kickback
This is just an excuse to have a gaping left drain. Normal machine settings do not relight the Kickback at the beginning of each ball. Hit the 1-2-3 targets to do this.Left Inlane
Going through this lane lights the Freeway on the Right Orbit. If the 2X RPM light is lit (as it is at the beginning of each gear until collected), the Right Orbit will award two RPM increments if hit while the Freeway is still lit (in fact, the grace period may be even longer).

Slingshots
These are the usual two above the flippers.Right Inlane
Going through this lane lights the Freeway on the Left Orbit. If the 2X Freeway light is lit (same as 2X RPM), the Left Orbit will award two Freeway increments if hit in time (except on Lock Shots, when it will award only one).Right Outlane
There is a thin metal lane divider on this side. There is a Special light in the Outlane.

Back Ramp
This is in the far back right corner of the game, and it comes down only when a Lock or Jackpot is lit. A firm and dead-on shot around the Left Orbit or Left Loop will go up this ramp and down to the Hideout on the right side of the machine.Hideout
This is the small house on the right side of the game, above the playfield, where locked balls are stored. When Multiball begins, any balls here are fed into the Right Inlane, and others are fired from the auto-plunger.

Free Ride
There isn't really a playfield feature for this, except the large flashing light at the center drain. If it's lit or has just gone out, you should get the ball back, autolaunched from the plunger lane. The length of time this is lit varies widely according to machine configuration. Balls which are launched after making a Lock are NOT subject to Free Ride! (Except for a bug on some machines...)

Gears
There are five gears your car can be in in High Speed II, and your current RPM value in your current gear determines your speed (displayed on the score display most of the time). You begin the game in 1st Gear, and advance to higher gears by collecting RPMs or through random awards from Burn Rubber (see section on the Tunnel). The RPM shots are the Right and Left Orbits, which are always lit except when you have finished a Gear and not yet shifted to the next Gear (this includes during Supercharger Mode). On most machines, the Speed Millions shot (which can be lit on the Left Loop) will also award an RPM increment, along with Million Plus.

Completing 1st Gear requires one RPM shot. Completing 2nd requires two. Completing 3rd requires three, 4th requires four, 5th requires five. On some machines (this is almost certainly operator-settable), going through the gears on subsequent attempts requires significantly more RPM shots for each Gear, making it much more difficult to collect Gear Awards a second time through.

The Gear Awards are awarded as soon as you make enough RPM shots to finish a Gear (or when the Gear is spotted by Burn Rubber). They are:

* 1st Gear - 3 Million
* 2nd Gear - Hold Bonus
* 3rd Gear - Light Video Mode
* 4th Gear - Supercharger Mode
* 5th Gear - Light Redline Mania

Before you can collect any RPMs for the next higher gear, you must shift up (moving the shifter either direction works, and the game doesn't mind if you shift with your knee). Shifting up (when lit) relights Burn Rubber. Note that if Burn Rubber is already lit, relighting it will essentially waste a Burn Rubber. See "Tunnel" for details on Burn Rubber.

Shifting up increases your Bonus Multiplier, to 2X, 4X, 6X, and 8X. The Multiplier resets if you do not have "Bonus Held" on the current ball.

You cannot shift up from 4th Gear until a couple of seconds after Supercharger Mode is over. If you drain during Supercharger Mode, you cannot shift up (to increase your Bonus Multiplier) until the next ball.

You don't have to shift up from 5th Gear. After Redline Mania is collected and over, the game will (should) shift back into 1st Gear for you.

Left Loop
The Left Loop is normally not lit for anything. If you light a Lock, you can shoot this Loop to make the Back Ramp for the Lock. If you go around this Loop once, the Speed Millions will be lit. It will also be lit after any Tunnel Shot. Speed Millions starts at 1M, and remains lit for about six seconds (not counting grace period?) for 2M, and so on. The Loop Champion is the person who has obtained the highest value on this award. Note that the game does NOT suspend Speed Millions when it autolaunches a ball into play, although it does momentarily lift the ramp and suspend the Lock, if lit. This means that with a liberal Free Ride setting, you can get a couple of free Speed Millions if you dare let the ball drain quickly.

On most machines, Speed Millions also count as RPM shots, unless RPMs aren't currently available (we're at the top of a Gear). If they don't, they become considerably less appealing to me. This is a very difficult shot on most machines, especially for repeated shots - the sweet spot is very narrow.

High Speed II machines can develop a strange neurosis. During Multiball, they may award an indefinite Free Ride, usually three or four minutes worth. It seems like you would want to shoot for Jackpots and Super Jackpots during this time, but the better choice (on a machine which properly launches balls around the Left Loop) is to let all balls drain as quickly as possible. Free Ride will autolaunch them, and they will count as Speed Millions and towards the Loop Champion. You can probably get about thirty consecutive Loops this way before the game tires of it, which will almost certainly get you Loop Champion (I'm certain that this how someone got 32, by far the highest I've seen - I've only done seven), and it's worth about 450M.

Freeway
Going through either inlane at any time lights the Freeway on the appropriate Orbit (Right for Left Inlane, and vice versa). The Freeway Value starts at some value from 1M to 4M, depending on the game's settings and the percentage of Extra Balls recently awarded. If you complete the Freeway values (the fifth value is 5M+light Extra Ball), the Freeway will restart at 1M on subsequent balls; otherwise, it restarts at the original value. In order to collect the 5M+light Extra Ball award, you must increase the Freeway value during a single ball. You can do this on every ball and collect an Extra Ball on every ball (theoretically).

Making either RPM shot lights the Freeway shot on that side, encouraging repeated Orbit shots. This is much easier on the Right Orbit than on the Left. Note that the 2X Freeway light on the Right Inlane will award two increments if you hit the Left Orbit in time.

After collecting 5M+light Extra Ball, the Freeway is worth 5M whenever it is lit through the rest of that ball.

Redline Mania lights an Extra Ball and sets the Freeway to 5M. If you do this before lighting an Extra Ball via the Freeway on that ball, you cannot light it afterwards.

Stoplights
The Stoplights are a holdover from High Speed (so are the Freeway shots on the Orbits, and the Tunnel, and the Kickback...) At the beginning of the game, the green lights are flashing. You must hit or spot all three of these before you can receive credit for hitting any yellow or red lights. Lighting the green lights will light one Lock (on the Back Ramp via the Left Orbit or Left Loop), as will lighting all yellow lights and all red lights. You can light more than one Lock before collecting any of them.

For the first multiball, hitting either the Tunnel or the Supercharger (lit or unlit) will spot one of the current unlit Stoplights (starting with the topmost bank, I believe). This doesn't happen on any subsequent Multiballs, although there may be an operator-settable option for it.

During Secret Mania, Supercharger Mode, and any variety of Multiball, all nine stoplight targets will be flashing. Hitting all nine will normally light the Extra Ball, and they will be flashing again. I believe there's some sort of limit, here - once recently I hit all nine and there were only vague explosion noises and the lights reset without lighting the Extra Ball. And Keefer claims he got 50M for completing the stoplights.

Supercharger
During normal play, the behavior of the Supercharger is very different for different ROM revisions. Early machines (generally P-1 ROMs, I think) will increase the Supercharger Boost value by 1M for every 1-2-3 target that gets hit, and completing 1-2-3 will relight the Supercharger (as well as the Kickback). The Supercharger Boost value in this case maxes at 10M. I understand that the newest machines (L-2 and L-5) also have this rule set! I think this makes the 1-2-3 targets far too important.

On (L-1) machines, the 1-2-3 targets have nothing to do with the Supercharger (they're important enough already for the Kickback). The Supercharger is lit with a 3M Boost value initially, and nothing changes that value. Once collected, hitting the inactive Supercharger (just the left ramp to feed to the left inlane) twice will relight the Boost. The Boost values are 3M, 5M, 7M, 9M, 11M, 13M... indefinitely, cumulative over the course of one player's game. The graphics sometimes do not correctly indicate the total amount awarded, however. During Multiball or other times when the Supercharger does not offer Boost values, hitting it counts for the ramps needed to relight the Boost. I believe you can stack these - if you need three ramps to relight the Boost, and you hit eight, it will remain lit after the next time you collect it. The number of ramp hits required to relight the Boost increases indefinitely.

There is a Supercharger Mode at the end of 4th Gear. This is 20 seconds during which all flashing shots (loops, orbits, Tunnel, banks of targets) score 5M, and the Supercharger scores 5M-PLUS. That is, the first time through the Supercharger is 5M, the next 10M, and so on, to a limit (?) of 25M. These values are counted in your Supercharger Mode total, and the next Supercharger Mode restarts the Supercharger at 5M. The Supercharger total is notoriously inaccurate - it tends to display the points you scored plus points that were scored in Supercharger Modes of previous players in previous games. It wraps around at 255M (it's an 8-bit counter), and then displayed totals are 4M, 9M, etc.

On some machines, the Supercharger does not stop at 25M during Supercharger Mode. Go figure.

Hitting an inactive Supercharger (ie, the left ramp by itself) awards the Speed Bonus, which is your current speed x 1K points. If you've just finished 5th Gear, you may receive 0,000 points for this, which is rather amusing but harmless.

During Multiball, the Supercharger behaves very differently. See the section on Multiball for details.

Strange behavior from the Supercharger... depending on the tuning of the optical sensors and electromagnets in your game, the Supercharger may either be a bit slow (no big deal) or a bit fast. If it's a bit fast, a ball that loops many times may come around to the upper left before the diverter can open the left return ramp. This will send the ball back down the ramp, either towards the center drain or towards the top of the right slingshot.

During Multiball, you can get more than one ball into the Supercharger at a time. This easily causes collisions which can send balls flying across the playfield. On some (older) machines, this can send balls flying into the back of the playfield, where there's a nice hole which lets them land in the bottom of the cabinet with a thoroughly depressing "thud".

Tunnel
The Tunnel is where Burn Rubber is collected, the Helicopter Bonus is collected, Video Mode is collected, the Extra Ball is collected, Tunnel Shots are counted, and balls can be held for roughly eight seconds during Multiball.

You begin the game with zero Tunnel Shots. Every time you hit the Tunnel, for whatever award, you are credited with a Tunnel Shot, cumulative over the course of one player's game. Collecting some adjustable number of Tunnel Shots (usually 8, but possibly as high as 14) will light the Special lights on the outlanes. Both outlanes light and they remain lit until your game ends or either one is collected. Another Special will be lit at an additional fifty Tunnel Shots beyond the first Special. On most older machines, lighting any Special in a multiplayer game will make that Special unavailable to the other players. This is true for all subsequent Specials, which are lit at every next fifty Tunnel Shots.

Burn Rubber is a random award like those found on many Bally and Williams games. It is lit at the beginning of the game, and every time you shift up after completing a Gear, it is relit. The first time you hit it, you will see an animation of a map, with a marked path headed towards your random award. The map includes such stops as "Chicago" and "Smallville", but you'll never collect these awards - they're just window dressing. Subsequent Burn Rubber awards will simply be displayed without a map. Awards include:

* Relight Kickback
* Bonus Held
* 1M, 3M, 5M, 10M
* Lite Lock
* RPM
* Freeway
* Spot Gear
* Video Mode
* Multiball
* Extra Ball
* Special

Some of these awards become "invisible" if hitting the Tunnel also completes the current Stoplight color and lights a Lock for you; the machine will display the stoplight status and "LOCK IS LIT" instead of the award. Luckily, most of the awards obscured in this fashion are RPMs and Spot Gear (never Video Mode, for example).

Sometimes the "RPM" award is labelled "2X" on the display. This may be when the Left Inlane is lit or has been triggered but not yet timed out.

If Multiball is awarded, Multiball begins immediately, launching any locked balls you or any other player may have, and autolaunching the other balls (for a total of three) from the plunger lane. See Multiball.

Spot Gear is an especially nice award when you've just gotten into 5th Gear. It saves you quite a few RPM shots. On the down side, if you haven't lit the Extra Ball on the Freeway values yet, you'll now have to go to a special effort to light it, while avoiding the reasonable temptation to just go ahead with Redline Mania.

The Extra Ball can be lit on the Tunnel by completing the Freeway Values, hitting all nine Stoplights during any Mania or Multiball, or by collecting Redline Mania. Contrary to my earlier beliefs (and again, this may vary from machine to machine, like everything else about High Speed II, including its name, its playfield layout, and its tachometer!), any number of Extra Balls can be lit here at one time.

The Extra Ball takes precedence over other awards, except the Helicopter Bonus. Next is Video Mode, followed by Burn Rubber, if lit. If nothing is lit and there is nothing else to be displayed at the time, you will see an animation of your car driving into a tunnel, followed by a display of current number of Tunnel Shots and number needed to light Special.

For information on the Helicopter Bonus, see the section on Multiball.

Video Mode
Video Mode is lit by completing 3rd Gear. It remains lit until you collect it. If you go all the way through to the end of 3rd Gear again without collecting it, it does not "stack". It can also be awarded at random by Burn Rubber, although I believe it will not do so on the same shot that collects a lit Video Mode.

In Video Mode, you steer your car across three lanes filled with slow-moving Volkswagen Bugs. Your current Gear determines the speed at which this happens. You start in 3rd Gear. If you shift up to 5th Gear immediately and complete Video Mode, you will collect roughly 26.5-27.5M easy points. Completing Video Mode in 4th Gear is worth roughly 16-20M points. It's worth the trouble to improve your skills to do Video Mode in 5th Gear. Note that 1st Gear is almost impossible!

The best and most common strategy is to straddle the line between the leftmost pair of lanes. You can steer by holding the flipper buttons in (pressing more than one will give precedence to the most recently pressed button); there is no need to tap them repeatedly. If the machine is set up for it or has been giving out very few Extra Balls recently, there will often be an Extra Ball target in the far lane, instead of one of the Bugs. It's more or less impossible to see this target and head for it; if you expect it will come up, you may wish to anticipate its appearance (usually about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through the Video Mode). Just drive through it to collect it.

Multiball
Multiball is mostly the point of High Speed II. Although you can do very well simply by hitting RPMs, Freeways, collecting Gears and Burn Rubbers, you'll find that it's hard to avoid lighting Locks, and they can get in the way if you don't collect them. With a well-setup machine and careful play, Multiball can be very lucrative. Besides, it's extremely cool.

There are three ways to start Multiball. The "normal" way is to light all three Locks and lock all three balls. Another way is through a random award from Burn Rubber, which I believe is much more likely if the machine has been having very few "normal" Multiballs during recent games. The third way is to collect Redline Mania after completing 5th Gear. See the section on Redline Mania for information on what makes it different from other Multiballs.

The first lock provides an animation of your car pulling up to a scantily clad female (presumably a hitchhiker) on the highway. She usually says, "Nice wheels" or "Nice car" and you say "Hop in".

The second lock provides an animation of your car screeching to a halt in front of Donut Heaven, where one to four police cars are parked. If there are three... read the section on Secret Mania.

The second "normal" Multiball is slightly different. On the first lock, your car pulls up in front of Donut Heaven, and Car 504 says, "This time I'm gonna nail that dirtbag." Functionally, everything's the same, but this gives you twice as many chances to start Secret Mania.

Later Multiballs have no hitchhiker - just quick animations of Donut Heaven.

When you have the red light completed and two balls already locked (virtually or actually), the game will repeatedly flash "RUN THE RED LIGHT". When you lock this third ball, there is an animation of your car tearing through a red light at which Car 504 is parked.

"Dispatch, this is Car 504. Suspect ran a red light, over."
"Roger, 504, apprehend 'em."

During Multiball (slightly different for Redline Mania), ten loops through the Supercharger are required to light the Jackpot, which is always worth 25M. Putting a ball into the Supercharger will make it loop ten times. If you put another ball in far enough to hit the lower optical sensor, the game will think there are two balls, and will loop the ball(s) for twenty loops. If you actually have two in there, this usually registers twenty-one loops. If you send the ball past the first optical sensor and then it trips it on the way down as well (assuming any running balls don't get in the way), the game will think that all three balls are in there, and you will receive thirty loops before the ball(s) are returned. If you hit the Supercharger during Multiball and the diverter fails to operate properly, the ball will return to the Left Inlane, and you will be immediately credited with having made ten loops.

Note that the game can be tricked into thinking there are three balls in the Supercharger even when you have only two balls in play!

On subsequent Multiballs, lighting the regular Jackpot will require ten more loops for each time you have collected it previously. The maximum number of loops required to light any Jackpot is twenty. The maximum number of loops required to light any Super Jackpot is fifty.

When you light the Jackpot, the back ramp comes down and is worth 25M. Collecting the Jackpot will enable you to shoot the Supercharger to light the Super Jackpot. This will always require at least twenty loops. The Super Jackpot is (or should be) 50M, followed by 75M, 100M, and so on without limit (I know of 675M, and have personally collected 175M). Note that you must keep at least two balls in play while lighting and collecting Super Jackpot.

"Dispatch, this is 504. Suspect got away."
"He WHAT?!"
"HE - GOT - AWAY!!"

"504, you are authorized to use lethal force."
"Damn, they're shootin' at us!"

If all but one ball drain while you are still shooting to light or collect the regular Jackpot, you will have 20 seconds (configurable?) of Getaway Time, during which you can light and collect the Jackpot as normal. There is an extremely brief grace period for the Super Jackpot - if a ball is found in the Hideout just after the other balls have drained, you will be awarded a Super Jackpot of "base value", which may be less than the lit value if you are in Redline Mania. It's all very complicated and inconsistent, but Keefer thinks he understands it. Bug him at "keefer@rahul.net" about this.

Hitting a ball into the Tunnel during Multiball will credit you with a Tunnel Shot, and the ball will sit there for roughly eight seconds. When it does kick out, you have a relatively clean shot at the Jackpot on the Left Loop (top flipper). If you are in Getaway Time, the ball will kick out immediately so that you can shoot for the Jackpot (well, if it isn't lit right then, you can't really shoot for it...).

Hitting all nine Stoplight targets during Multiball, as in Secret Mania, will light the Extra Ball.

There is a Free Ride on Multiball on most machines, although it is usually very short. (There's a bug, though, described above...)

After you have collected the regular "Getaway" Jackpot and while you still have at least two balls in play, shooting a ball into the Tunnel will award the Helicopter Bonus. This is when a police helicopter tries to follow you into the tunnel, and crashes into the mountain. I've seen the Helicopter Bonus up to 75M, so this can be significantly more valuable than the Getaway Jackpot itself. Yes, points for blowing up police helicopters. I guess it's "OK" because they shoot at you first, right? Copkiller, indeed.

"Where'd he go?"
"He went in the tunnel--"
"HEY! LOOK OUT!!"
<<crash>>
"Chopper, you out there?"

Redline Mania
Redline Mania is lit by completing 5th Gear. It's the red light on the Supercharger entrance. Hit the Supercharger to collect it. It awards the following (not necessarily in order...)

* 10M
* Extra Ball is Lit
* Freeway at 5M
* All Targets 500K
* Kickback is Lit
* Jackpot is Lit
* Super Jackpot at 100M
* Multiball

Redline Mania is a normal Multiball, except that no loops are required to light the initial Jackpot, all targets are worth 500K, and the Super Jackpot begins at 100M (with no corresponding increase in the number of loops required to light it). It's generally best to collect Redline Mania after lighting the Extra Ball on the Freeway, because you cannot light it after collecting Redline Mania. Because the Super Jackpot is so much more valuable in Redline Mania, it's very important to get the regular Jackpot out of the way, preferably on one of the two free shots you'll get (either from the Hideout or the auto-plunger, depending on whether or not any balls were actually locked), and then shoot for lighting and collecting the 100M Super Jackpot as if it were the regular Jackpot.

If you've previously collected a 100M Super Jackpot or higher, the starting value for the Super Jackpot in Redline Mania will be 25M more than the highest collected Super Jackpot value.

Secret Mania
Secret Mania is essentially a Frenzy mode that was thrown into the game, and it isn't integrated very well (IMHO). Any time you see the animation of your car in front of Donut Heaven and there are three police cars parked there (the number seems to have some pattern, and it also seems to be random - go figure), shift Up and Down a couple of times quickly. This will give you 20 seconds of Secret Mania, during which all targets are worth 500K, as in Redline Mania.

In Tournament Mode, there are always three cars at Donut Heaven.

There are several problems with Secret Mania. First of all, the lighting scheme is extremely tricky for twenty seconds - all lights flash in alternating pairs. You may find it difficult to even survive Secret Mania. Second, it's not especially point rich. The most I've heard of is about 21M, and that's still less than a simple Video Mode, and Video Modes have no risk associated with them at all.

Worst of all, the game becomes confused about the state of the locks for Multiball after Secret Mania, especially in a multiplayer game. Typically, the machine completely resets the Stoplights to flashing green, although it remembers where you were on locks. It's not uncommon to see the game saying "RUN THE RED LIGHT" while the green Stoplights are flashing. Run the green light, I'd say.

The advantages of Secret Mania are that you can light an Extra Ball by completing the stoplights, and you essentially get another lock lit for free... sometimes.

It's possible to get the game into a state where Locks are lit but the Back Ramp won't come down to accept the balls. This is frustrating, to say the least. Another glitch is that after one player has a Multiball, other players may find that balls they lock, although counted, are always fed to them out of the Hideout, whether that is appropriate or not. This can be a bit startling if you've turned away to sign autographs or whatever

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