textfiles/games/worldcup

Rules to Bally WORLD CUP SOCCER
v 1.0     
by Greg Dunlap
gdd@rci.ripco.com
-----------------------------------
 
Special thanks to Bowen Kerins for clearing up a lot of questions, 
making corrections and being an all around swell guy!
 
These rules are probably pretty stable at this point as the game comes
close to going into production.  
 
PLAYFIELD LAYOUT
----------------
This is sort of left to right
 
Left Outlane - Has a kickback which is relit by hitting Light 
Kickback Target.
 
Left Inlane - Has a rollover which lights the Light Magna-Save 
target.
 
Magna-Save - Ah yes! The return of the Magna-Save. But not quite 
the same implementation as in Black Knight or Jungle Lord or the 
other 70s Williams two-levels. The Magna-Save is just above the tip 
of the left flipper, and is set to save a STDM drain. By punching an 
extra button at the left, you activate the Magna-Save which sucks 
the ball into place above your flipper so you can catch it. At least 
thats the theory.
 
Slingshots - The return of the standard slingshot, no more of this 
trapezoid shaped junk like Demo Man or ST:TNG.
 
Light Kickback Target - This is lit by rolling through the right 
inlane. Hitting it lights the kickback.
 
Left Spiral - This is your standard spiral. When a city is lit, it 
scores the city and sends the ball all the way around and shooting 
out the other side. Otherwise a one-way gate drops down and the 
ball falls into the rollovers / pop bumpers.
 
Left Ramp - This ramp normally shoots the ball around in a loop and 
back to the right flipper. If you hit a second consecutive ramp shot, 
a diverter closes and sends the ball over to the left flipper. The left 
side of the ramp holds the locking mechanism, implemented here in 
excellent fashion. If lock is lit, the ball always goes to the left ramp 
lock area from either ramp. I should also note that around the spot 
where the ramp is about to curve back towards the right flipper, 
there is a little hole so that if you don't shoot your ball strongly 
enough, your ball will fall down into the pop bumpers without 
scoring the ramp. The ramps are used to lock balls, collect tickets, 
relight jackpots, and for points during Ultra Ramps.
 
Striker Targets - Striker is this little dog who is the mascot of 
World Cup Soccer and he has three standup targets on the 
game. One on each side of the left ramp, and one in front of the jet 
bumpers at the upper right. Hitting a dog target lights a letter in 
the word "STRIKER." When you light all seven letters, you get 10M 
and the Striker Scoop is lit.
 
Light Free Kick - This is a saucer. Falling in it lights the Free Kick 
standup target. 
 
Tackles - This is a row of three standup targets (think about Cousin 
It / Superdog and you get the idea.) Hitting one of them when lit scores
10M. 
 
Assist - Another saucer, at the upper left, just in front of the goal. 
When the ball falls into the Assist saucer your goal gets lit (or 
nothing changes if its already lit) and you can shoot the ball 
straight in by punching a flipper. Pretty great.
 
Star Rollovers - There are four rollovers (yes rollovers!) leading towards
the goal. Light a rollover by rollingover it. Light all four and goal is lit.
 
GOAL! - This is really great. At the upper left corner of the 
playfield there's this wide hole (picture ST:TNG's Neutral Zone if it 
was as wide as all three targets.) In front of it is this plastic goalie 
who moves back and forth. You shoot the ball past the goalie and 
into the goal. Its tougher than it sounds - he's good! When you hit 
the goal the machine yells "GOAL!" and there's a great animation 
and the crowd cheers! Hitting the goal when its not lit will score the 
Striker Scoop award when you haven't collected a Striker award yet. 4 lit
Goals lights a TV award. 
There are also a couple of modes which run along a theme of hitting 
the goalie, which I find really amusing.  Goal also serves as the 
multiball jackpot. 
 
Striker Scoop - This is a small little scoop in the back middle of the 
playfield, to the right of the goal. Hitting it when lit serves up a 
seemingly random Striker Award. This also serves as the Extra Ball 
shot. 
 
Jet Bumpers / Rollover Lanes - Three bumpers and two lanes. 
Lighting both lanes lights the left spiral to collect a city. Jet 
Bumpers are pretty standard three-in-a-triangle-shape. During 
normal play, the jets are worth 1OOK a pop and add one thousand 
fans for each pop.  At 25,OOO fans, the jet value becomes 1M / pop
for the rest of the ball.
 
Soccer Ball - Theres this great big half-a-soccer ball which spins at 
super speed when the goal is lit and during multiball. The thing is, 
the ball is made of RUBBER! This causes A) much bounciness on the 
upper part of the playfield and B) some pretty extreme spins on the 
ball. 
 
Free Kick Target - When lit from one of the Free Kick saucers, this 
target awards 10M. It stands right in front of the spinning soccer 
ball.
 
TV Award / Final Draw scoop - When lit for TV award, this gives out 
a TV Award. There are currently four TV Awards. Also serves to start
multiball when lit for Final Draw. 
 
Right Ramp - Same as left ramp, except this ramp always feeds the 
left flipper and there are two holes which can drop your ball to the 
bumpers instead of just one. Serves same purposes as left ramp.
 
Light Free Kick saucer - There is another Light Free Kick Saucer to 
the right of the right ramp. See above. 
 
Light Magna-Save target - When lit, hitting this target lights the 
Magna-Save. This target is lit by rolling through the left inlane.
 
Right Inlane - Rolling through this inlane lights the Light Kickback 
target.
 
Right Outlane - There is a special light here, which is lit at the end of
multiball (see MULTIBALL below.)
 
Plunger / Skill Shot - First off, this game has a real plunger. You 
remember...you pull it back and it springs the ball out? The skill 
shot is like one of those loops on roller coasters. You shoot the ball 
up the loop, and it falls into one of three dividers which each have a 
light. When you start they are all flashing. Falling in one of the 
flashing ones the first time scores 5M. Then only two are flashing. 
Hitting another flashing one scores 10M. When you hit the last 
flashing one you spot a city for 30M!
 
 
RULES
-----
GOALS - For some reason, hitting goals is the funnest thing in the 
world. You start each ball with the goal lit (at least you do on the 
machine I play.) Shooting a goal scores 10M, adds 5M to fun with bonus and
starts an "Ultra" round. There's some great sounds here. When the goalie
blocks a kick you get "What a great save!!!" The voice reminds me a lot of
the voice in Banzai Run. You relight the goal by lighting four stars on
the playfield. There are two ways to light a star: A) Hitting the dog
target in front of the pop bumpers (called the "Header" target) lights an
unlit star B) By rolling over them! Yes, first the return of Magna-Save,
now the return of rollovers! What a great game. After each goal, you are
awarded an "Ultra" mode. There are four Ultra modes (explained below) and
each one lasts for the length of your ball or until you score 30M on the
mode, at which time you are given a 10M bonus and the mode ends.  The
modes you currently have lit are indicated by four lightning bolt-shaped
lights on the right side of the playfield. 
These modes do not add to your score during the normal game, they 
are only used for fun with bonus.
 
	Utlra Ramps - About what it says. Shoot ramps for 5M per 
ramp.
	Utlra Spinner - Ditto, to the tune of 1M a spin.
	Ultra Jets - This is a pop bumper bonus. Pop bumpers are 
upped to 2M a pop.
	Utlra Goalie - Nail the goalie! One of two Hit the Goalie modes, 
these are completely hilarious. Hitting the goalie scores 5Ma shot. 
 
TV AWARDS - Shooting four goals lights the TV award. Hitting the 
TV Award scoop awards it. Currently there are four TV Awards. A TV Award
is a timed mode (these were 20 or 25 seconds) for bonus scoring. Simply
starting any TV Award is worth a cool 25M. They are awarded in order as
opposed to randomly. 
	Big Goal Round - Shoot three goals within the time limit for 15M,
15M and 30M.
	Extra Ball Round - Extra Ball lit for 20 seconds. If you hit the
extra ball, then the Striker scoop is worth 50M for the rest of the time
limit.
	Hit The Goalie! - Same as above except timed. Hitting the 
goalie is worth 10M, shooting the goal raises the goalie value by 
10M. Still totally great.
	Where's Striker - Shoot any of the dog targets to try and find
Striker. First hit scores low points, second scores medium points, third
finds Striker and scores big points. I still haven't gotten this yet so I
can't be more specific. 
 
 
STRIKER AWARDS - Htting a Striker dog target scores 1M and adds a letter
to the words "STRIKER." Spelling the word Striker awards 10M and lights
the Striker scoop. It is also lit at the start of the game. The first
Striker award may be collected freom the goal if the goal is not lit.
Shooting the Striker scoop gives out a random award. The ones I've seen
are set forth below.
	Extra Ball - Guess.
	Multiball - Starts multiball at rank 15 (see below.)
	20 million - Another toughie.
	Super Free Kick - Makes the free kick target worth 10M + 5M 
per consecutive hit for a certain amount of time.
	Penalty Kick - Gives you a shot at the goal with the goalie not 
moving and leaning out of the way. hit the goal for 30M.
	Three Cities - Gives you your next three cities (see below.)
	Unlimited Kickback - Kickback lit for the rest of the ball!
	Three Goals - Adds three goals to your total, complete with three
Ultra rounds too.
 
MULTIBALL - OK, there are four spots with flashing arrows 
labeled "BUILD" in front of them - left spiral, left ramp, right 
ramp and Striker scoop. There is also a big soccer ball painted on 
the playfield with the words Strength, Stamina, Skill, Speed and Spirit on
it. Shooting a build shot lights one of the words on the ball on the
playfield. When you light all five, lock and multiball are lit. Shoot a
ramp to lock the ball, shoot the Final Draw scoop to start multiball. Now
when you start multiball you are given a team to play, based on your rank.
Your rank is determined as follows - Every two shots to a lit goal
advances you 1 rank, and if you lock a ball before starting multiball you
advance 4 ranks (since multiball is lit as soon as lock is lit.) You beat
a team by shooting the goal (this is your jackpot,) and then get to play
the next team by shooting a ramp (relighting jackpot.) There are fifteen
teams, with the following ranks and jackpot values:
 
#15	USA			20M
#14	Russia		20M
#13	South Korea	25M
#12	Saudi Arabia	30M
#11	Morocco		35M
#10	Austria		40M
#9	Canada		45M
#8	Holland		50M
#7	Italy			55M
#6	Great Britain	60M
#5	Sweden		65M
#4	Spain		70M
#3	Australia		75M
#2	France		100M
#1 	Germany		250M
 
 If you drain before hitting a jackpot, shooting a ramp or the Final Draw
scoop will restart multiball where you left off. If you start Multiball
again, you are advanced two ranks. For your match against #1 ranked
Germany, the Special is lit on the right outlane, the jackpot is worth
250M and after you hit it, the ramps and goal are lit as Victory Laps
worth 50M a piece! After five laps, the Victory Laps swirch off between
left ramp and goal.  One more thing, the Assist saucer works during
multiball, but best of all, its programmed not to miss. 
 
CITIES - There are eight cities on the World cup tour - Chicago, 
Dallas, Boston, New York / New Jersey, Orlando, Washington DC, San 
Francisco, Detroit and LA. There are three different ways to collect
cities. 
	1) Left Spiral - Shooting both ramps or lighting both rollovers 
lights the left spiral with a yellow arrow labeled "TRAVEL." 
Shooting the spiral at this time awards your next city. Actullly, 
scoring the spiral doesn't award the city, setting off the spinner 
does. And you CAN score it backwards! I have had two cities lit, 
shot the spinner for the first one, and when the ball didn't make it 
all the way up it fell back down and lit the second one!
	2) Striker Award - There is a Striker award which gives you 
your next three cities.
	3) Skill Shot - Hitting all three flashing lights awards your 
next city. 
Chicago, Dallas and Boston are worth 10M. New york, Orlando and Washington
are worth 15M. San Francisco, Detroit and LA are worth 20M. Travelling to
any city also lights the Tackle target, worth 10M when hit. Several cities
have modes associated with them, as 
outlined below. 
 
	Boston - Boston Tea Party Mode - A hurry up. Starts at 40M 
and counts down to 10M. Shoot spinner to collect.
	Washington D.C. - Extra Ball - Lights Extra Ball
	L.A. - World Cup Final -  After travelling to L.A., shoot the
Final Draw hole to start the Final Match against Germany! This is really
great. 5 ball timed multiball against Germany for 45 seconds. You plunge
the balls yourself (manual plunger remember) and goals are worth 75M.
Every once in a while Germany will score a goal. If you end the 45 seconds
with more goals than Germany you get a bonus of 500M!!!! Yowza! If you end
in a tie, overtime is started and the first team to score a goal wins.
 
BUY-IN - You can buy an extra ball for 1 credit up to three times. 
When you buy in, all four ultra modes begin lit! There are separate 
high score tables for x number of buy-ins, but I haven't sorted them 
out yet. Hell, I haven't even sorted out the ones for ST:TNG yet.
 
BONUS - Bonus is awarded as outlined below
5M per goal
Ultra Modes are scored however you did.
5M per city.
 
STRATEGIES / TIPS
------------------
	My strategy these days comes down to two things - Cities and Extra
Balls. The two kind of go together. First off Cities. Getting all the
cities takes you to the final round, potentially worth endless points.
Anything more than five goals against Germany will pretty much guarantee a
win, and 5 goals + a win gains you 875M! WHOAH! So get good at that left
spinner shot. Also get good at the right ramp, since you can't light
TRAVEL without it (unless you go to the rollovers.) 
	There are also lots of opportunities for extra balls - three so
far, and none of them is that tough. You're gonna need them so pick them
up ASAP.
	The final thing is if you've ever wanted a game on which to
practice slap saves and/or outlane nudging, this is it. About 7 of 10
balls are lost down the middle, making constant slap saves a neccessity.
And the outlanes are nice and bouncy, perfect for practicing getting down
just the right push to save a ball. BTW bangbacks are possible from the
left, but they're not easy. Rumor has it the biff bars are getting raised
in the production version too, which will make it even tougher. I can't
see how you would bang back from the right - there's way too much hardware
over there and you would hurt your hand way too badly. 
	
 
And thats about the size of it. I think the reason I like this game so 
much is its lack of gadgets / new technology. Its sort of a step back 
from the more recent pins. A real plunger, Magna-Save, and 
rollovers. Think about this, when was the last time you played a 
WMS pin WITHOUT an upper flipper?? Well, okay I forgot about 
Indiana Jones, but I never played it very much. This freaked me out 
the first few times, every time I hit a spiral I was looking for 
another combo shot from an upper flipper. Also, since the game's 
modes are only secondary really, you spend more time planning out 
your game and really PLAYING as opposed to Piano -> Slot -> Piano 
ad infinitum. Most of all, the game is challenging and yet still fun 
as all hell, I'm sure it will be a big earner for Williams, kudos for 
everyone on the design team.