From: "Charlie Trent" <
[email protected]>
Medieval Madness Game Faq
Created Friday June 26, 1998 by Charlie Trent (MED)
Medieval Madness satires the world of Knights and Damsels, taking into
account the comedies of Monty Python, as well as the usually goofy array
of jokes from the same people who developed Mars Attacks. It possesses
a very large cast of characters, each one supported by the DCS sound
system. Everything is really crisp, from game play to the voice acting.
The game itself is extremely addictive. If you thought that Adams
Family or Elvira was cool, you are going to think that Medieval Madness
is downright sexy.
Contents
1.The Ball Launch
2.Hurry-ups
3.Extra Ball
4.Ramps
5.Trolls
6.Madnesses
7.Multiball
8.Merlin’s Magic
9.Super Jets
10.F-I-R-E
11.Video Mode
12.Destroy the Castles
13.Battle for the Kingdom
14.Replay
15.Good Tricks
16.Bad Tricks
17. Special Thanks
1. The Ball Launch: There are two ways to do the launch. The default
way is just to push the launch button, and get the skill shot bonus.
The second way is to hold the left flipper and press the launch button,
which activates the super skill shot mode. In normal skill shot mode,
you have to send the ball through the lit top lane(of which there are
two lanes), which can be changed by pressing the flipper. This earns a
plus 5x bonus.
The super skill shot sends the ball past the top lanes and directly
through the orbit and onto the board. Your job is then to direct the
ball through one of four ramps. After the ramp is accomplished, you
earn a hurry up, which, if completed, could earn up to one million
points.
2. Hurry-up: The hurry ups occur when a madness is accomplished, after
the multiball madness has ended, or a super skill shot, or through
Merlin’s Magic. They generally start at 1 million and steadily decrease
as time passes. Thus, the sooner you make the shot, the more you earn.
When the hurry-up ensues, you must hit the front of the castle. After
10 successful hurry-ups, extra ball will be lit. You can also compound
hurry-ups such that if the first hurry-up is still running when you
achieve a second one, the total points will be 3 million, and with three
hurry-ups together, the total score earned will be 5.5 million.
However, a compounded hurry-up will still be worth only one hurry-up.
So if you want to earn the extra balls, you might not want to compound
the hurry-ups.
3 Extra Ball: There are six ways to collect extra balls: destroying
castles(at least two castles), completing castle multiball’s royal
treasure, hurry-ups(at least 10 hurry-ups), Video Mode, Royal Madness,
and, of course, Merlin’s Magic. When extra ball is lit, you must send
the ball into Merlin’s solenoid to collect the ball.
4. Ramps: There are many ramps on the table. Each ramp is pointed out
with an arrow, which blinks at certain stages in the game.
Joust: This ramp is unelevated and circles through the back of the
table (orbit). You can access the ramp from the left or right side.
After three successful jousts you earn a joust madness. And three joust
madnesses earns Joust champion.
Catapult: This ramp is located off the left wall of the machine, and is
one of the hardest ramps to aim for. After you get the ball in the
catapult solenoid, the video will scroll through a list of five items:
bowling ball, cow, chicken, cat, and skull. The score received for
earning the madness depends on which item is picked. A exceptionally
strong shot in the catapult solenoid will achieve two catapult hits.
After three catapult hits, the catapult madness is earned. Three
catapult madnesses earn you the title of Catapult ace.
Dragon: This ramp is the hardest one for me to accomplish. The angle
of elevation on the ramp is such that you need a good hard shot to
consistently get the ball up and around the ramp. The ramp itself is
located on the right side of the board and has a red dragon suspended
above it. The third successful dragon run slays the dragon. After the
dragon is slain, you rescue the princess and earn the Damsel madness.
Having accomplished this three times earns you the Defender of Damsels.
Peasant: This ramp is located on the left side of the board. It is, in
my opinion, the easiest ramp to accomplish with consistency. The
positioning of the ramp with respect to the right flipper offers a lot
of flexibility on shot timing.
5. Trolls: Trolls emerge from under the playing field after you hit the
troll bumpers a variable amount of times. Defeating both trolls earns
the Troll Madness. Three Troll madnesses earns Master of Trolls.
Trolls are humorous, but probably the most obnoxious thing on the
playing field, as they necessitate repair more than anything else on the
field. If you hit the troll bumpers enough, you can earn Troll Bombs,
which automatically hit the Trolls. The other way to earn them (other
than Merlin’s magic) is to combo a hit off the troll which ends in
Merlin’s solenoid. The ball has to ricochet off a troll and land in the
saucer. The troll bombs are accessed via the ball launch button.
6. Madness: The madnesses are as follows: Joust, Peasant, Catapult,
Damsel, Troll, Multiball, Barnyard, and Royal. When any of the
madnesses like Joust, Peasant, Catapult, Damsel, or Troll are lit, and
the ball is sent into Merlin’s solenoid saucer, an event occurs called
Multiball Madness. In Multiball madness, jackpots are earned by hitting
the ramps and sinking the ball into the broad side of the castle. The
value of the ramp depends of which madness have been obtained. Each
ramp jackpot depends on whether or not a madness was obtained on it.
For example, you got Peasant madness, but not Damsel, so each time you
get the ball up the Damsel ramp you get less than for each time you get
the Peasant ramp. Pretty simple stuff. But, getting the ball in the
broad side of the castle is generally the best way to go, as it
consistently offers more points.
Barnyard madness is probably the least seen, least achieved madness.
Its difficulty isn’t that great, but it’s really tedious. It is
obtained by getting each item from the Catapult (bowling ball, cow,
chicken, cat, and skull).
Royal Madness occurs when you get the ball in Merlin’s saucer solenoid
after earning all four ramp madnesses, as well as Troll madness. In
Royal, you have to hit each of the lit targets twice, and then send he
ball into the broad side of the castle. The time is limited in this
event, so one has to be focused. After either success or failure, the
madnesses become unlit, and you can earn Multiball madness again. The
reward for successfully completing Royal madness is that you light extra
ball, and earn a heap of points. The music is really cool here too.
7. MultiBall: The types of multiball I know of are Castle Multiball,
Multiball Madness, and Barnyard Madness. Many other Bally/Williams
games, like Junk Yard, have a "Midnight Madness" to reward players at
the stroke of mid-night, but I can’t confirm such.
Castle Multiball occurs after three ball locks have been awarded.
These can be obtained mainly through hitting the broad side of the
castle. When in Castle Multiball mode, the ball must be sent up either
the Peasant ramp or the Dragon ramp five times. Each time a ramp is
completed, a knight is killed. After five, you must send the ball into
the broad side of the castle to receive the royal treasure and receive
the royal treasure, and light the extra ball.
Barnyard and Multiball Madness are explained in the Madness section.
8. Merlin’s Magic: This can good or bad. It is a double edged sword,
and, after getting pretty far into the game, there isn’t much it can
offer you. Through Merlin, you can will just about any award,
theoretically. Usually, people get "Lower Drawbridge" or "Award Lock."
If you are really doing bad, the computer has a sympathy regulator,
which will give "Light Extra Ball," but that would be the computer’s way
of taunting you, right. Merlin’s magic can be re-lit by hitting the
three stand up bumpers on the right wall of the playing field.
9. Super Jets: After sending the ball into the bumpers (which sit in
the upper right hand corner orbit, behind Merlin), the ball bounces
between bumpers, in the orbit, as the Video shows two knights fighting.
Each bump registers a jet hit. After a certain amount, you receive
"Sooo-per Jets."
10. F-I-R-E: Each time the ball falls through one of the four bottom
lanes, by the flippers, the leaf switches are hit and register the
corresponding letter. When all four letters are lit, FIRE is spelt, and
you receive a plus 2x bonus multiplier.
11. Video Mode: After you receive F-I-R-E at least 8 times, Video Mode
will ensue. In Video Mode, you are a knight with a pitch fork that has
to save the children from falcons. If a falcon swoops down and flies
off with a child, you lose. You move left and right with the flippers,
and kill falcons by hitting both flippers simultaneously while right
underneath a bird. Surprisingly fun, despite being so primitive.
12. Destroy The Castle. There are six castles each maintained by a
different character: Duke of Bourbon, Sir Psycho, Lord Howard Hurtz,
Francois Du Grimm, Earl of Ego, and the King of Payne. After defeating
the first five castles, you get the opportunity to fight the King of
Payne. As you progress through each castle, the castles become harder
to destroy. After defeating two castles, extra ball is lit. After
defeating all six castles, you are given the chance to Battle for the
Kingdom.
13. Battle for the Kingdom: After becoming Joust Champion, Patron of
Peasants, Catapult Ace, Defender of Damsels, and Master of Trolls, as
well as destroying all six castles (Castle Crusher), you commence the
Battle for the Kingdom. The time is limited. You have to hit all the
flashing targets like in Royal Madness, as well as destroy the castle.
If you win, the game is over, and you will be one of the fine, few
people crowned as Lord of the Realm. If you lose, well, all castles
return and you keep playing. It’s not bad to lose, since you can earn
more points.
14. Replay: Two ways to get this: earning it through getting a certain
amount of points, or getting on the top five list for the game. The
prior is generally easier. But what in this world is worth doing that
isn’t hard.
15. Good Tricks:
Death Save: As the ball slides down the far right lane toward the
drain, you hold the left flipper and push the machine real fast right
before the ball falls in the hole. Depending on the tilt setting of the
machine, you can pull this move off with impunity. How you move the
machine is up to you. But I warn that kicking the right leg is real
bad, even if it gets the job done. Try leaning right into the left
side. Otherwise, you may unknowingly alert your pinball repairman that
it is time to set the machine on feather tilt, which really sucks.
Flipper stuff: Depending on how fast the ball comes down the left lane,
if you hold the left flipper, the ball should shoot into the right
bumpers and fly into the Catapult. I don’t recommend depending on this
technique too much. Its success is fickle.
Look at the flippers and see where the ball leaves (from the flipper)
when you actually hit it up a ramp. You will see that you can hit
certain ramps in a consistent manner if you keep hitting the ball from
those spots. Since not every machine is exactly the same, I can’t
really tell you where to hit the ball off the flipper. But generally,
Right Flipper:
bottom of flipper sends into Catapult or into left orbit for Joust
between bottom and middle sends ball up Peasant ramp
middle should hit ball into broad side of castle
between middle and top should hit castle gate
top should send ball into Merlin’s saucer
The left flipper is kind of goofy. I rarely depend on it for anything.
Which explains why I am still a two bit Pin Baller after two years of
regular play.
16. Bad Tricks: During the Multiball, it is possible to put two or more
balls into the Catapult. This could be a disaster, especially if you
are expecting a huge bonus. In this scenario, you will most likely have
to tilt the machine in order to free the balls.
Throwing the machine out the window is also a bad trick. Well, really
it’s a double edged sword. You feel really great when you do it. And
you know that you have finally kicked the machine’s butt. However, you
kind of ruin the game for the others, which is obviously selfish.
When you have a credit in the machine during your game, and you press
the start button after the first ball, the machine starts over and
releases your first game. Not really a good idea, unless you don’t want
people to see you on your third ball with less than three hundred
thousand points.
17. Special Thanks:
In writing this FAQ, I have to thank
->all the people on the third floor of the University Center at Carnegie
Mellon University, who play this game with me: Miguel, Debraj, Devon,
Steve G, and sometimes Brad.
->Williams Electronics, for consistently creating pure Pinball pleasure.
->H.Lazar and son, for taking so much money from me over six months of
game play. You’re the most benevolent blood sucking leech. Muchas
Gracias…
"Medieval Madness" is a trademark of Williams Electronics Games, Inc.,
"Attack from Mars" is a trademark of Midway Manufacturing Company, Inc..
Multi-Ball is a trademark of Williams Electronics Games, Inc.
"Elvira" and "Addams Family" are also trademarks of something completely
unrelated to me.
