Rule sheet for Al's Garage Band Goes on World Tour (Alvin G



Rule sheet for Al's Garage Band Goes on World Tour (Alvin G. 1992)

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Author: Al Kuester

Version: 1.0

Introduction:

First true pinball machine produced by Alvin G. Co., after the head-to-head games they made.

Other Contributors and Acknowledgements:

Matt Elder

Abbreviations used here:

Pf=playfield

Mb=multiball

Eb=Extra ball

Overview/comments:

The theme of the game as suggested by the artwork, audio and modes is a rock band on a world tour from the metal era of rock hence the artwork and colors.

Playfield artwork is rather garish, some of the colors border on eyesore but it looks more pleasant in low-lighting. Backglass is real glass with some mirroring in spots, very nice. Cabinet fits the theme nicely as it gives the appearance of baggage or a passport that has been stamped from locations all over the world.

Playfield Layout

Flippers and slingshots retain a standard configuration. Plunger is the common large button auto-plunger.

I'll start at the left and go clockwise around playfield.

-Left Inlane:

Standard return lane gets fed from the exit of the Guitar playfield. Extra Ball insert can be lit here which alternates from right to left inlanes.

-Left Outlane/Feedback Ramp:

Kickback here, when ‘Feedback’ insert is lit, kicks balls up the Feedback ramp into the Guitar playfield and can be relit by completing the T-O-U-R standups just above the slings. Default kickback behavior is on at start of ball 1 and then memory from ball to ball as to what state it was in at drain. There is a Special insert that can be lit here too.

-Upper Playfield/Guitar:

This is accessed one of two ways. Either from the Guitar lane VUK under the guitar which feeds the ball down the neck of the guitar (This VUK is accessed from either a weak orbit shot via a top entrance just to the left of the spinning ramp or from shooting under the guitar into the VUK.) or from the Feedback ramp on a kickback which enters from the left side of the body of the guitar. It is a pachinko style pf with three posts that feed into the M-I-X lanes and empties into the left inlane via a wireform.

-Tour Standups:

Two targets located just above the slingshot to the left of the orbit entrance. (There are four of these in total with the other two located in identical position on the other side of the pf.)

-Left Orbit:

Flows around to the right orbit back to the flipper, very smooth shot when made and very repeatable. Weak shots will fall into either the Guitar VUK or the pops. Has in insert showing an airplane flying up the orbit.

-Guitar Lane/VUK to upper pf:

Shoot under the guitar into the VUK to collect one of three values as indicated by the inserts at the entrance to this shot. They are ‘Lame’, ‘Twisted’ and ‘Metal Monster’.

-Kicker:

Under the guitar pf and just in front of the band member standups there is a kicker of the slingshot variety to send the ball back into the pops.

-Band Member Standups:

These are located just in front of and to the left of the spinning CD ramp. From left to right are Dr. Skins, Stitchy and Delmore Each has an insert in front of them ‘Extra Ball’, ‘3 Million’ and ‘1 Million’.

-CD spinning disk Ramp/Piano keys:

This is the ‘money’ shot of the game. You can shoot this shot from either flipper and it’s not as easy as it looks. When made the ball drops into a metal box in the backboard which is then shot out via a wireform to the right side VUK.

-Extra Ball/Solo Standup:

Target located just in front of and to the right of the CD ramp. Collect extra ball or Solo value here.

-Pops:

There are three of them in a standard configuration located in the upper right area of the game. They each have a band member plastic mounted on top of them which are Al, Stitchy and Delmore. (Dr. Skins plastic is located in the back left corner of the game)

-Video Mode Ramp:

Located in front of the pops. Enter this ramp to spell rocknroll, start video mode or lock balls for MB.

-Right Orbit:

Flows around to the left orbit back to the flipper, not as smooth as the left orbit due to the fact that there is rubber on one side of this orbit from the rubbers by the pops. Weak shots will fall into either the Guitar VUK or the pops. Has in insert showing an airplane flying up the orbit.

-Ball Lock VUK:

This is fed from either the Video Mode ramp or the wireform coming from the CD ramp which dumps the ball into the Video Mode ramp. Balls are kicked up into a wireform which feeds the right inlane.

-Tour Standups:

Two targets located just above the slingshot to the right of the orbit entrance. (There are four of these in total with the other two located in identical position on the other side of the pf.

-Right Inlane:

Standard return lane gets fed from the ball lock VUK. Extra Ball insert can be lit here which alternates from right to left inlanes.

-Right Outlane:

Standard outlane with a Special insert that can be lit here.

Gameplay Features and Scoring

-Startup/Skill Shot:

DMD shows four point values 1M, 2M, Jackpot, 3M, 4M in this arrangement. An arrow moves back and forth across each value and you need to launch the ball into play to try and score the skill shot jackpot. Skills shot jackpot values are static: ball 1=5M, ball 2=10M and ball 3=15M. All extra balls score at whatever ball level you are at i.e. if you earned an extra ball on your second ball the skill shot jackpot for that would be 10M. Balls launched into play after locking a ball do not get a skill shot opportunity.

Once launched the ball shoots up a wireform and onto the spinning disk CD ramp which is spinning during this sequence. The ball exits out the bottom front of the disk to the pf, I have yet to see the disk spin a ball back into the backboard area on ball launch. Once the ball is in play the disk stops spinning until you have enabled locking balls for MB at which point it begins to spin again and spins throughout MB also which makes hitting the jackpot shot up over the spinning disk a challenge!

-World Tours:

There are 5 of these indicated by the white circle inserts in the center of the pf. You collect World Tours by visiting various cities around the globe. The cities are Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, London, Moscow, Sydney and Tokyo.

There are three methods of collecting World Tour cities:

A full orbit

An orbit shot that drops into the pops

Completing the piano key targets in the CD disk area.

The World Tours collected are as follows and collected in this order:

World Tour: Award: Cities visited:

3 Million Dollars 3M points Moscow and London

Blazin Bonus Hold Bonus hold Tokyo and New York

Light Music Video Mode Lights Video Mode at ramp Rome, Sydney, New York

Instant Metal Multiball Starts 3 ball MB London, Paris, Rome,

Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney

and Los Angeles

Brain Damage 3 ball MB. Everything is lit Chicago, New York, London All modes running and Paris, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo jackpot at CD ramp. This Sydney and Los Angeles

Tour once completed lights

the CD ramp which must be

shot to start Brain Damage

Also of note is if consecutive orbit shots are made sometimes different cities are collected than listed. This is trivial and does not affect advancement of World Tours. Also it seems that on the later tours you are awarded two cities at a time for subsequent consecutive orbit shots, this did not seem to apply to the first couple of tours which are only two cities. (as yet unconfirmed)

-Guitar Modes/Lane:

These are timed modes that last 25 seconds, value of each starts at 1M and are started when the ball goes into the guitar VUK when the Metal Monster insert is lit. They are indicated by the four green guitar inserts just above the flippers. If the Metal Monster insert is not lit then either ‘Twisted’ or ‘Lame’ will be lit which needs to be collected to build up to Metal Monster. Order of inserts is Lame, Twisted and Metal Monster.

Guitar Mode: Scoring:

Super Skins Hit the pops for 1M a hit

Trippin’ Targets Hit any target for 1M a hit

Rockin’ Ramps Each ramp shot adds 3M

Lightning Loops Each ‘complete’ orbit scores 3M

Once the active guitar mode is timed out the insert at the guitar lane resets to ‘Twisted’ the first time requiring two shots to start the next guitar mode. After the second guitar mode is played the insert resets to ‘Lame’ every time thereafter, thus requiring three shots to start remaining guitar modes.

Once all four are completed the three inserts in front of the guitar lane (Lame, Twisted and Metal Monster) are lit and a countdown starts where the guitar VUK is worth 100M and begins to count down rapidly to 1M until it is collected or times out. Also, once all guitar modes are completed the EB on the inlanes is lit which alternates from left to right inlane.

-Band Members:

One of the inserts in front of these three standups, before any have been hit, flashes for a few seconds each and then move to the next insert. It starts with the 1M insert, then the 3M and then EB. This continues until any one of the three inserts has been hit, when this happens it locks in the value of this bank of targets at whichever value was flashing at the moment they were hit. Getting all three band members scores at the value that was locked in with the first hit. Once collected the inserts begin flashing again until a value is locked in again.

These standups also are used to enable locking balls towards MB. The first time you complete these three targets lock is lit. Subsequent MB’s require completing the row of targets twice to enable locking balls for MB.

-Ramp shots:

The ramps have multiple functions. Spelling ‘RocknRoll’, record a song, locking balls for MB and restarting MB (only from the CD ramp) when you scored no jackpots and drain back to one ball.

ROCKnROLL:

Any ramp shot will add a letter to this; the inserts are just above the World Tour inserts in the center of the pf. Once this is spelled for the first time in a game all pf values are doubles for a time period. The second time you spell this pf values are tripled for a time. These letters hold over form ball to ball.

Record a Song:

Shots into either ramp when not lit for lock or MB will show an animation of a reel-to-reel tape recorder and an audio clip “Record a song”. First shot scores 1M, second shot 2M and so on up to 5M which is the top value for this. This point value resets ball to ball.

Locking balls:

Once enabled by completing the band member standups either ramp can be shot to lock a ball, the third ball locked starts MB.

-Multiball/Jackpot:

Once you have locked two balls you can shoot either ramp to start MB the first time. The CD ramp shot is lit for jackpot which starts at 10M and counts up as you keep at least 2 balls in play. If you try to hold/trap balls on a flipper the jackpot amount will begin to count down. Cool! Jackpot maxes out at 50M. Once you collect a jackpot the next jackpot is worth the original amount +1 and this keeps progressing. i.e. If your first jackpot is 20M, the second collected would be 40M, the third would be 60M and so on. You can collect the jackpot as many times as you are able until you are down to one ball. Unsure if there is a cap on the max for a jackpot amount. Subsequent MB’s can only be started by a CD ramp shot once two balls are locked.

-Video Mode:

It is qualified by either completing M-I-X on the Guitar pf or completing the 3rd World Tour. This is lit at the right ramp and indicated by a red light on the sign on the entrance. The video mode is a drum solo and consists of you beating the flipper buttons as fast as you can. A good score on video mode is in the 15M range; so far the highest I have gotten is 22.6M

-Pops:

These build the Solo Bonus and can also advance cities on World Tour if they are the next thing hit after and orbit shot drops into them.

-Orbits:

100K per orbit, unless the plane orbit insert is flashing then the orbit scores 1M. This insert can be started flashing by either a completed full orbit or when the ball comes through the inlane this activates the appropriate orbit for 1M. The flashing is timed and expires within a few seconds.

-Extra Balls:

Default is 3 max per game; I set my game to 2. As stated above the EB is lit by hitting the band member stand ups when Dr. Skins is flashing to lock in that value, then completing the bank to light the EB target. Also, there is an Extra Ball light on the inlanes that can be lit by completing the Guitar modes.

-End of Ball Bonus:

Pretty basic and not very lucrative to the scoring in this game. Multiplied by the number of times you spelled M-I-X that ball.

Playing Strategies

This game is all about the multiball when it comes to points. So getting MB or Brain Damage started (AND making the CD ramp shots to collect jackpots) are the key to huge scores. Also a good idea is to trap the ball on the right flipper and wait for the band member standup to flash on Extra Ball and lock that in, it’s pretty easy.

DMD stuff:

Shows the city names as you collect them in various fonts.

Musical notes appear when you hit any of the keys in the spinning disk area.

Band members pictures appear when the associated target is hit.

During video mode you the drummer plays as fast (or slow) as you can smack the flipper buttons.

-Quotes/Sounds:

Starting a game gets an introduction from an announcer “Introducing Al’s Garage Band!” with a crowd cheering. Players 2-4 get a cymbal crash for each additional player. The game has a groovy little tune playing the whole time that is pretty catchy. Also notable is that during Brain Damage the music changes to something completely different.

Hitting a band member target states that band member’s name:

Stichy, Dr. Skins, Delmore and there is no target for Al thus he gets no love in the sound dept.

Hitting any of the keys in the spinning disk area plays a mini keyboard jam.

Tilting:

Warnings get an old lady saying “Turn that down!”

Actually tilting gets a girl groupie giggling sound effect.

After losing the ball:

Down the right outlane it says “Uh, don’t quit your day job kiddo”

Down the left outlane it say “Ever think of flippin’ burgers?”

After losing the ball when the ballsave gives it back:

The DMD shows Hold On and the game yells “Free Bird!” Another game owner felt the quote was “Feedback”. I always felt it was saying freebird but it is muddied and maybe on purpose to disguise the freebird use as that may have cost $ to use.

Game over after Match sequence:

Operator adjustable, you can have an old lady (seen on the left slingshot) say; “I’m calling the police!”

Solo Standup:

This produces a clip from Gloria the groupie saying “Oooo, it’s the band!”

The various World Tour cities as collected are said in a voice that sounds native to that region. i.e. Paris sounds like a French guy, New York sounds like a cabbie, Tokyo sounds Japanese, etc.

Other callouts are voiced by what would best be described as a ‘stoner’, like Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Hardware:

Standard size cabinet and backbox, some complain is not well made but mine is solid. Auto-plunger button on front mounted lower than B/W games and the start button is lower as well. No extra ball/buy-in button.

This game has something called ‘Bump-buttons’. They are small coils mounted below the flipper button inside the cabinet with wires attached that push against the back of the flipper button during Mb to give some feedback. Doesn’t accomplish anything really as far as actual game play but a cool little feature nonetheless.

Board set seems decent enough, only needed to replace a couple fuse holders when I got the game. Sound board did flake out on me though and need repair. The game has nice bass in the sound especially in the pops AND this game uses the fabulous BSMT2000 chip. Yep, sure does have Brian Schmidt’s Mouse Trap in there!

-Easter Eggs and other Nice Stuff:

None known

-Cows:

None known

- end -

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