Silver Ball Century: Silverballoween
It's almost Halloween, an excellent time for pinball! This bonus episode of Silver Ball Century is a pin-golf competition on 13 spookily-themed virtual pinball tables.
Your score on each table is the ball number where you accomplish the goal (in a 5-ball game), or 6 if you don't accomplish the goal. Add up your best 10 scores (which gives some leeway in case some of the VPXes don't work for you), and the lowest total wins.
I'll be starting at 9pm Eastern Time on Halloween (moved from the day before because our internet went down), on twitch.tv/arborelia. You can submit your scores up through Halloween night. Winner gets a gift sub!
Tables to set up
For this episode, I'm linking a big zip of tables and their settings, which is not the way I usually do it, but 13 tables is a lot to set up and I want everyone to have the best chance to be able to play all the games. Here's the zip, which I'll take down after Halloween.
The zip file also contains nvram settings to set the games to 5 ball. Read the "what-to-do.txt" inside for specifics on where to put the files in it.
Pingolf goals
I'm including brief guides to most of these games. For more information about how to play these tables for high scores, look them up in the always useful Pinball Primer.
(I will remember to edit this post to include a link to where to post scores. Maybe.)
Hole 1: Dracula (Stern, 1979)
Score 150,000 points.
Hole 2: Gorgar (Williams, 1979)
Shoot the Snake Pit for 50,000 points. Gorgar will say "ME HURT" when you light the Snake Pit by hitting 1-2-3-4 or spotting them with the inlanes, then say "ME HURT" again when you collect the 50k.
Hole 3: Haunted House (Gottlieb, 1982)
Have 5x bonus lit, or have 4x bonus and Extra Ball lit.
You gain a bonus X every time you move to the upper or lower playfield and hit a target. Draining out the left side of the upper playfield goes to the lower playfield, for +2X overall. You can light Extra Ball by completing a drop target bank on the upper or lower playfield.
Hole 4: Bone Busters Inc. (Gottlieb, 1989)
Start a 3-ball multiball.
You do this by locking balls in three different locks and then shooting the center jump. The upper left lane says "Light Random Lock". Note that one of the locks is in the left outlane.
If you play a Bonus Round and get a 3-ball multiball, that counts as ball 5.
Hole 5: Elvira and the Party Monsters (Bally, 1989).
Score 3 million points. Collecting a multiball jackpot or an ELVIRA hurry-up will get you there, among other things.
Hole 6: Class of 1812 (Gottlieb, 1991)
VPX by UnclePaulie. (The zip also contains an older version by UnclePaulie if the new version doesn't run for you.)
Score 5 million points.
Making a lit shot in multiball is worth a million, the skill shot is worth a million, and Grover's Millions on the right standup targets will also get you there.
Hole 7: Creature from the Black Lagoon (Bally, 1992)
VPX by VPin Workshop or arconovum.
Start the film.
Collect F from spelling K-I-S-S in the left lane, I from hitting snackbar targets and the snackbar scoop, L from completing the top lanes, and M from the right lane, then lock a ball in the left or right lane.
Hole 8: Mystery Castle (Alvin G., 1993)
Start Doom Mode or collect 7 items.
Shoot a ramp marked "ITEM" to collect an item. Sometimes it will want you to make a lit shot or play a mode before lighting items again. You can time out some modes. Don't time out the skull, though - make one of the lit shots to get Doom Mode and win.
Hole 9: Bram Stoker's Dracula (Williams, 1993)
Start any multiball, or collect a bats and rats bonus.
Castle multiball involves hitting flashing standup targets to light the left ramp for a lock (temporarily). Coffin multiball involves shooting the right ramp a lot. Mist multiball involves shooting the left ramp 5 times, or getting it lit for free on your last ball, then shooting the mystery scoop, then hitting the magnetized ball that moves across the playfield.
The default table angle is so steep it makes the left ramp nearly impossible. I've included an .ini that sets the "difficulty" to 15%, decreasing the table angle to something that feels playable. You can also do this with the F12 menu.
Hole 10: Freddy (Gottlieb, 1994)
Defeat Freddy in a nightmare, or start Nightmare 5.
You can start a nightmare when "awake", including on the plunge, by shooting the ball into the furnace when its gate is down.
Hole 11: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Sega, 1995)
Score 250 million points.
Spelling "FRANKENSTEIN" on standup targets starts a frenzy that's worth a lot of points. You can always get the 20 million skill shot if you're quick.
Hole 12: Scared Stiff (Bally, 1996)
VPX by Mikcab, modding a version by Shoopity.
Start "Scared Stiff" mode.
Light the six "scenes" via table features, then shoot the crate.
Hole 13: Monster Bash (Williams, 1998)
Light 5 monsters and/or instruments.
That is: if you collect an instrument by completing a monster mode, you get to count both the monster and the instrument toward the total of 5.