PlayStation

  News 
  Reviews
  Previews
  Hardware
  Interviews
  All Features

Areas

  3DS
  Android
  iPad
  iPhone
  Mac
  PC
  PlayStation 3
  PlayStation 4
  Switch
  Vita
  Wii U
  Xbox 360
  Xbox One
  Media
  Archives
  Search
  Contests

 

Pro Pinball: Timeshock! Rulesheet and Gameplay Guide

Company: Empire Interactive
Product: Pro Pinball: Timeshock!

I. Introduction

Pro Pinball: Timeshock! is the second pinball simulation in the Pro Pinball series from Empire Interactive. The first one, The Web, was the only pinball simulation that gave you the real feeling of a pinball machine until Timeshock! hit the market. With even improved physics, Timeshock! beats everything up to date.

This text, containing secrets, Easter eggs, and spoilers, was created by Jens Goering and is reproduced here with his permission. See below for a link to his full strategy guide.

II. How to Play the Table

  • Left Inlane: Contains the C of S-C-A-N. Scores 5K if you light the C, 1110 if you don?t. Complete S-C-A-N to light scan. Complete S-C-A-N five times to light superscan. The superscanner will be lit again when you complete S-C-A-N five times AFTER the last one was collected. The S-C-A-N-lights can be cycled with the flipper buttons. The S-C-A-N-lights are unlit at the beginning of a new ball.

  • Left Outlane: Contains the S of S-C-A-N. Same scores as above. Has a rescue gate leading to the inlane scoring the ?Lucky!? award of 5M, except in multiball play. If the ball goes through the left outlane nudge the table to the right at the moment the ball is besides the rescue gate. If you are lucky, you will move the pin left of the gate against the ball and this will send the ball through the gate.

  • Time Machine with Magnolock: If the middle orbit is lit for lock and you hit it, the ball comes here. Feeds to the left flipper through the rescue gate. (No ?Lucky!? award in that case) See time machine frenzy. The magnolock has three lights below. Flashing lights indicate number of balls ready to lock. Lit lights indicate locked balls (not necessarily the same as balls in lock).

  • W-target: The W of W-A-R-P. Each one scores 1K if unlit. Score if lit? Hittable from the right flipper. Often hit if you try to slingshot-pass from left to right and wait too long. Complete W-A-R-P in the right order to light time warp frenzy.

  • Left Orbit: Easily hit from the right flipper. Most balls going here hit the top scoop. Contains two switches so the machine knows in which direction the ball moves through the orbit. See awards, reverse combo and paradox award.

  • Left Ramp: Easily hit from the right flipper. Powers the time machine (see travel). Scores 100K and feeds to the left inlane. Also used to score ways (see ways). When you aim for this and you shoot too early, the ball will often hit the edge between the left ramp and the left target bank and go towards the center drain.

  • Left Target Bank (M-A-G): Easy to hit from the upper flipper. The G is usually hit when you shoot the middle orbit and hold the upper flipper up. Each target scores 5K. Light the next award in the left orbit if all three are hit. Re-lights MagnoSave if all six targets (M-A-G-N-E-T) are hit. The unlit M-A-G-N-E-T lights indicate the missing drop targets for MagnoSave. All targets are reset at the beginning of a new ball. In time machine frenzy, time warp frenzy and super time warp frenzy, the droptargets do not reset. After the first quickshot mania, completing a drop target bank becomes more difficult (This is not valid for multiballs). If you hit a target, you have to complete the whole bank within about 30s, otherwise the targets reset. Hitting any drop target resets the timer. MagnoSave becomes lit when all six drop targets were hit once. Due to this fact, the secret skill shot gets more important.

  • Upper Ramp: Easy to hit with a slow moving ball from the upper flipper. Harder to hit with a fast ball. Nearly impossible to hit any other way. Normally spots a continent for 1M. Feeds to the top scoop and starts an exploration if the continent contains one. Feeds to the right inlane otherwise. The plunger shoots the ball in the upper ramp but this is normally not scored. During multiball this is sometimes scored, if another ball triggers the first switch in the upper ramp and falls back out shortly before a ball is autoplunged. Sometimes a hit of the upper ramp is not scored during multiball if you hit it at roughly the same time as a autoplunged ball.
* When you aim for the upper ramp with the upper flipper and you hit the edge between the left drop target bank and the upper ramp, the ball often falls down to the base of the right flipper. Most of the time you can catch the ball on the right flipper, but sometimes the ball has a very strong counter-clockwise spin and rolls over the right flipper into the center drain. With a little practice, you should easily be able to recognize this behavior of the ball soon enough to flip fast with the right flipper to prevent the ball from draining.

  • A-Target: Easy to hit. See W-target.

  • Middle Scoop: Not quite so easy to hit because of the A-target and the R-target. Can be lit for scan, videomode, extra-ball and lock (crystal-lock, not the normal one). Sends balls directly to the right flipper. Scores 2500.

  • Time Crystal: Can be hit through the middle scoop if you succeed in collecting a crystal fragment in time machine frenzy. Cycles to feed the balls to the time zone lock points.

  • R-Target: Easy to hit. See W-target.

  • Bumpers: Score 10K (see superjets). Easy to send the ball here through the left orbit and top scoop. Can be disabled by holding both flippers up.

  • Bonus Roll-Over Lanes: Score 5K. Increase the bonus multiplier if both are lit. Can be cycled with the flipper buttons.

  • Top Scoop: Easy to hit through the left or right orbit. It normally feeds to the bumpers except during quickshot mania, ?Channel Tunnel,? ?Volcano,? ?Stampede,? ?Chariot,? and ?Pyramid? exploration and at the beginning of the ?Antimatter plant? exploration and quickshots. Here, the ball comes out of the left orbit. Scores awards and starts and scores quickshots.

  • Right target bank (N-E-T): Easy to hit from the left flipper. Each target scores 5K. Lights the next quickshot in the right orbit if all three are hit. See Left target bank.

  • Right Ramp: Easily hit from the left flipper. Powers the time machine (see time travel). Scores 100K and feeds to the right inlane. Also used to score ways.

  • Right Orbit: Easily hit from the left flipper. Balls going here hit the top scoop if a quickshot is available or active or if the ?Antimatter Plant? exploration is active, otherwise they come out of the left orbit.

  • Plunger Lane: This is where the ball comes from at the start. VERY hard to hit intentionally, but you never need to. No score.

  • P-Target: See W-target. Hittable with a moving ball from the left flipper.

  • MagnoSave: Hit the MagnoSave button to activate the magnet. Helps to keep balls off the outlane. Must be reactivated by shooting all M-A-G-N-E-T drop targets or using the secret skill shot. If you use MagnoSave and the ball comes to a total rest at the magnet, you can hold both flippers up to catch the ball on the left flipper. Use MagnoSave when you are not sure that the ball is going in the inlane or when you are not sure that you can keep it out of the outlane by nudging. Don?t use it too early to prevent the magnet from sucking the ball in the outlane.

  • Right Outlane: Contains the N of S-C-A-N. See left inlane.

  • Right Inlane: Contains the A of S-C-A-N. See left inlane.

  • Slingshots: Score 3,330.

  • Time Zone Lock Points: See time machine frenzy. There are four lock points:

    1. Prehistoric age lock point: Alpha light near the dinosaur
    2. Ancient Rome lock point: Beta light near the chariot
    3. Present day lock point: Gamma light near Mount Rushmore
    4. Distant future lock point: Delta light near the robot

III. Features and Rewards

  • Ball Saver: At the start of each ball, the ballsaver is active for 20s. It re-launches the ball if it drains. Only two saves are allowed per ball. This is not valid during multiballs. At the start of each multiball the ballsaver is active. The ballsaver can be randomly activated by scan or superscan. Only two saves allowed here, too.

  • Skill Shot: Try to hit the lit ramp or lane (left orbit, left ramp, middle orbit) at ball start for 5M. This value increases by 1M up to 10M for each successful skill shot or secret skill shot. Skill shot is also active when you lock a ball and launch a new one. Even when you lock a ball and an unlocked ball is in the magnolock, the magnolock feeds this ball to the left flipper and either the right orbit or right ramp are lit for skillshot. This happens when you start a new game while another one is in progress and you have locked balls or during multiplayer-games.

  • Secret Skill Shot: Press both flipper buttons for about a second while the ball is still in the plunger-lane to activate the Secret skill shot. The plunger becomes analogue and you score half of the actual skill shot value if you hit the A of M-A-G-N-E-T. If quickshot mania is lit, you get twice the actual skill shot value. In addition the next award and quickshot are lit and MagnoSave is reactivated if it was off. The secret skill shot can?t be activated when launching a new ball after locking, but after locking a fragment.

  • Bonus Multiplier: Light both bonus rollover lanes to increase the bonus multiplier by one. The flipper buttons switch the lit lane. The multiplier is set to at the beginning of each ball unless you had multiplier held at the previous ball. The first time you reach a bonus multiplier of 25, extra ball is lit.

  • Credits: Credits can be used to buy up to three buy-in-extraballs at the end of each game. If you do so, you can?t get a high score; instead you can get a buy-in high score. A maximum of three buy-in-extraballs are available per game. Credits are stacked up to 10. You can get credits during the game (when you reach the replay score), at the end of any game (with the probability of 1/10), with special as a scanner award and for achieving any highscore.

  • Super Jets: Hit the bumpers 100 times to increase the super jets level by one. The game starts with a super jets level of 0. The super jets level is reset to 0 at the start of each ball unless you have jets held. Jets held keeps the super jets level and the number of bumper hits needed for the next level. Maximum super jets level is three. Flashing bumpers indicate the super jets level. Lit bumpers indicate jets held. With super jets level one, every hit of a bumper scores about 1/3 of a million (3 bumperhits total 1 million), with level two 2/3 of a million and with level tree one million.

  • Awards: In the left orbit, the following awards can be lit (from bottom to top):

    • Hold multiplier
    • Holds the bonus multiplier to the next ball
    • Hold superjets
    • Holds the superjets Level and the number of bumper hits you need to activate the next
    • Light videomode
    • Super warp
    • Starts super time warp frenzy

  • Mystery: The first time you get this it always lights extra ball at the middle scoop. Any other time it starts super spinner if collected during multiballs or any mode (exept quickshots, which is not really a mode). If no mode or multiball is running, you get reverse frenzy.

  • Paradox Awards: If you shoot the left orbit with no award flashing you get the paradox award, which seems to be a random score (10 - 9,999,990). You don?t need to hit the top scoop. In tournament mode it always scores 99,990. Shooting the upper ramp when all continents are lit also rewards the paradox award.

  • Quickshots: The right orbit can be lit for quickshots by completing the right droptarget bank. Start a quickshot by shooting the top scoop through the right orbit. Shoot the top scoop through the right orbit again to collect the quickshot score and a souvenir. The faster you hit the more points you get. You get at least 1/10 of the original quickshot score for a successful quickshot. A started quickshot can be scored for nearly 20s. Shoot N-E-T to light the next quickshot. Scan or superscan can also light quickshots. The first quickshot starts with 10M. The second one starts with 20M, etc. More than one quickshot can be lit at a time, but only one can be started next. If you collect a quickshot and the next is already lit, you start the next one immediately with the double quickshot score. When every award is collected and every quickshot started, both orbits are lit for quickshot mania and after that awards and quickshots reset (the next quickshot starts again with 10M). The quickshot count freezes when the ball is in any scoop, the bumpers or in the plunger lane (happens, when the ball is saved by the ballsaver). Lock, videomode and scanner are disabled during quickshots.

  • Souveniers: With every successful quickshot you collect a souvenir. The kind of souvenir is determined by the number of the quickshot and the time zone you are in:

    • Prehistoric Age:

      • T-Rex tooth
      • The first wheel
      • Dinosaur egg
      • A baby pterodactyl
      • An asteroid

    • Ancient Rome:

      • Bronze sword
      • A tyrian toga
      • Death mask
      • A papyrus scroll
      • An ankh

    • The Present:

      • Magnet
      • Pinball
      • Mobile phone
      • Couch potato
      • A pint of milk

    • The Future:

      • Rocket board
      • A hologram projector
      • Ray gun
      • A Red Knight 3000
      • An anti-matter battery

A souvenir can be collected multiple times. There are pairs of souvenirs that can be combined. When you collect a souvenir that can be combined with one you already have, the announcer says ?hmmm.? Start the scanner (not the superscanner) to connect them and the announcer says ?Souvenirs combined? and you get a special award. You can have more than one pair of souvenirs ready to combine, but you can only combine one pair with one scanner.

    • All known combinations:

      • A mobile phone + the couch potato = Very big points (100/150/200M)
      • A bronze sword + a ray gun = Ultra jets (Bumperhits score 3M for 60s)
      • T-Rex-tooth + a baby pterodactyl = Ultra bonus boost (by 10-20?)
      • Papyrus scroll + the first wheel = Ultra spinner (3M/spin for 60s)
      • A pint of milk - A dinosaur egg = Find the cow. One of the orbits or the left or the right ramp is the cow target for the rest of this ball. There is no way to see which one. Hitting it scores 5M * Number of hits to a maximum of 25M. The cow target changes each time you collect it.
      • An asteroid + the hologram projector = Secret video mode. Much the same as videomode except that all awards are cows. You start in level one. You can play level 1-3 if you hit not more than 5 mines all together. The number of hits is taken over to the next level. Same scoring as video mode. Secret video mode does not end if you fail to complete a level.


-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ashley Perkins

Related Links:



Windows Alienware Systems Priced Below Competition Multiplatform AIAS Announces Speakers/Topics for 2005 D.I.C.E. Summit

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated