Pinball Arcade - Elvira and the Party Monsters (Jackpot earned, 3 Million Shot scored)

Описание: This was a rather humble and soon forgotten release in 1989 and sold about 4,000 units. At that time, it was nothing to write home about. Nevertheless, this was enough to get a sequel, Scared Stiff. That's the reason why I'm showing all these old-timey pre-DMD machines right now: There are a lot of sequels, spiritual successors, and reused characters that will come up in the 90's, and this is one of them.

Elvira is Cassandra Petersen's persona for a number of different TV series and specials, the most famous of which is Elvira's Movie Macabre, in which she would provide snarky commentary to horror B-movies, much in the way MST3K would later do with science fiction. (Not to be outdone, Data East made a pinball machine of Tales from the Crypt, but that's a story for another day.) Supposedly, Petersen herself is a pinball fan, which made this license relatively easy for both Bally and Farsight, being one of the licensed machines that didn't need a crowdfunding campaign.

Dennis Nordman designed this one. A characteristic of his are twisty, winding ramps, which you will later see in Whitewater and Dr. Dude and which he shares with John Popadiuk, though whereas Popadiuk likes themes about performance and magic, Nordman is about, well, everything else (which, for some reason, often rapidly becomes outdated). Nordman has an unfortunate history of companies he works for removing him for reasons beyond his control, whether it be buyouts, mass layoffs, or attempts to do really weird stuff that confuse executives. (He invented the rhythm video game long before PaRappa the Rapper, for instance.) He currently works with Heighway Pinball.

Not part of Nordman's bag of tricks, but something devised pretty anonymously, was a new flipper design, with ridges along their lengths. Supposedly, this would help skilled players know where exactly on a flipper a ball should be to flip and aim at things, but no one cared. Most can either eyeball it, have developed nudging skills to prevent drains, or rely on rhythm. (Robert Gagno, the top-ranked Canadian player, does not even look at the flippers when he plays.) The ridged flippers were discontinued by 1991 and were mockingly called "carrot flippers" due to a resemblance to those vegetables. Coincidentally, orange-colored ones meant to resemble carrots were used later that year in Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball (which is not in Pinball Arcade due to the rather high licensing fees).

Elvira and the Party Monsters doesn't really have any theme besides a Halloween-themed party centered on our sultry host, nor does it have any specific goal for the player. Hence, I'll go for the two most reliable sources of points, and the two that will immediately jump out at a player not familiar with the machine due to their placement on the playfield: Spelling "ELVIRA" and playing multiball. The former will lead to the 3 Million Shot (which is a big deal considering you might not even reach three million points without it or multiball), and the latter is worth only 1 million points but has some pretty hefty follow-up too.

To start a multiball, you'll have to lock three balls at the skull on the far left. For your first multiball, the lock will always remain active. That is, each time you send the ball into the scoop inside the skull, it will lock a ball, and the third time you do so, multiball will begin. Once multiball starts, your goal is the Jackpot, which is fixed at 1 million points. To do so, shoot one ramp, and the other one will be lit for a Jackpot. Either order will do; I did left then right because shooting the left ramp is easier for me. You can only get one Jackpot per multiball (a far cry from some of these other later tables you might have seen), but once you get that Jackpot, every successful ramp shot for the remainder of that multiball is worth 250,000 points. After the first multiball ends, each lock must be activated by hitting the three JAM drop targets (left of center).

The 3 Million shot becomes available once you spell out Elvira's name. Each letter becomes available on the left ramp each time you finish any set of targets or switches on the playfield besides Barbecue (two red circles left of center). To my knowledge, JAM, BAT (top-right rollovers, right above the bumpers), and Wake the Deadheads (the four stand-up targets on the lower left) will work. You can tell the left ramp will earn a letter when the light depicting Elvira turns on. However, it turns off if you shoot something else related to the targets before the left ramp. Once her name spells out completely, the skull on the left will then be lit for 3 million points for the next 20 seconds. If you drain, or you don't make it in time, the R and A unlight and you have to get those letters again to try again. Letters carry over across games, and when I started this one, the first four were already lit. It's not an easy shot to make, and it's a lot of trouble!

Next up will be Safe Cracker.