RULES SHEET: JACK*BOT

    * Last Modified: October 21, 1995
    * Written by Mark Phaedrus ([email protected])
    * Jack*Bot, Multiball, and most of the other capitalized words I use
      are probably trademarks or registered trademarks of Williams
      Electronics, Inc., who disavow any knowledge of my existence.

Under Construction (yeah, and what Web page isn't?)

  This document was written from memory in a poorly-lit room smelling
  slightly of damp paper and containing no pinball machines whatsoever.
  The facts and opinions contained in this document should be considered
  fictional, and any resemblance to actual facts and opinions is purely
  coincidental. (Of course, if you insist on mailing corrections to
  [email protected] so they can be included in the next release, I
  don't suppose I can stop you.)

Credits

  This version was written by me, Mark Phaedrus. Nobody else was any
  help at all. Scientists have speculated that this may be because this
  is the first version and nobody else knew about it. Further research
  is needed.

 Recent Changes

  10/17/95: In the beginning the document was void and without content.
  And the Writer said "Let there be text." And there was, and it was
  good, or at least passable.

  10/21/95: Tried a revolutionary new technique; brought pencil and
  paper to the arcade, and wrote things down. (I find that kneeling down
  and writing things on a paper on the floor during Casino Run adds an
  extra element of tension to the game.) Revised the Keno card rules,
  the MK3 Hint and More Time awards during Casino Run, the Multiball
  Jack*bot values, the Poker awards, and the bonus count rules. Added
  more bugs; added Neat Stuff section.

Summary

  The object is Jack*Bot is to score points. Simple as that. Next
  section.

  Well, okay, there are a few more things that can go here. There are
  two key ways to rack up points. You can do it the slow-and-methodical
  way, by opening the visor, starting Multiball, and racking up the
  jackpots--er, Jack*bots. Or you can do it the quick-and-adventurous
  way, by playing the four casino games, preferably cheating on as many
  as possible, then playing the Casino Run for big points (or no points,
  as the case may be). Personally, my advice is "all of the above".

Playfield

  If you've played Pinbot, you'll know your way around this playfield;
  it's almost exactly the same as the original Pinbot playfield--it's
  the rules that stir things up. As usual, we'll start from the lower
  right and work our way around clockwise. It may help to look at the
  playfield picture on the Pinball Archive at pinball.cc.cmu.edu.
    * Plunger
         + An old-fashioned manual plunger. Balls shot up the ramp can
           wind up here. Leads to the Vortex.
    * Hit Me
         + A touch target just above the right inlane/outlane area;
           shoot it from the tip of the left flipper, or hit it with a
           lucky bounce off the slingshots. Each hit of this target
           deals a card into your blackjack hand (don't confuse these
           with the cards in your poker hand). Normal blackjack rules
           apply (face cards count as ten, Aces count as one or eleven,
           etc.). Hit Me hits score 1M for each point in your blackjack
           hand; for example, if you already have an Ace in your hand
           (11 points), and you shoot Hit Me and get dealt a six
           (bringing your hand to 17 points), you get 17M. If you hit 21
           exactly, you score 50M, and your hand starts over the next
           time. If you "bust" (go over 21), you get nothing, and your
           hand still starts over next time.
           Hit Me also lights for Jack*bots during Multiball, and for up
           to 75M points during Hurry Up.
    * Inlanes/Outlanes
         + Talk about a trip down memory lane... Inlanes and outlanes
           the same size, with actual rubber on the post between them.
           Neat. Any or all of the inlanes/outlanes can be lit for Extra
           Ball; the flipper buttons move the lit lanes around.
    * Flippers
         + The usual two, in the usual places. There's a center post,
           though the gap between the flippers is narrow enough that
           it's usually possible to save the ball without the center
           post anyway.
    * Slingshots
         + Standard, just like the flippers.
    * Poker Targets
         + A bank of three drop targets, on the left side of the
           machine, below the ramp entrance. During regular play, one of
           these three targets is lit (the lit target changes every few
           seconds); hitting that lit target, without hitting either of
           the others first, advances the bonus multiplier. (If you hit
           an unlit target first, you lose the chance to advance the
           bonus until the targets reset--see below.)
           About five seconds after you hit a target, the target bank
           resets. If you can hit the other two targets before this
           happens, a poker card is spotted, and the target bank resets
           immediately.
           A rebound from here to the row targets is a 15M "BANKSHOT".
    * Cashier Target
         + This target is under the ramp entrance; during modes in which
           it's available, the ramp entrance flips up to reveal it. It
           collects the bonus during Cashier mode, collects the Solar
           Jets award, doubles some Game awards, relights the Game
           Saucer (but not after the first Casino Run), and can be lit
           for Jack*bots during Multiball.
    * Ramp
         + The ramp entrance is on the upper-left. The ramp is not
           always available, since the ramp entrance can flip up to
           reveal the Cashier target. Starts lots of modes; relights the
           Game Saucer. Lots of interesting things happen on the ramp.
           See the rules section for more info.
    * Game Saucer
         + A narrow lane between the ramp and the Visor, at the upper
           left. Starts Games, as you could probably guess from the
           name. Also relights Jack*bots during Multiball, and spins the
           wheels during Casino Run.
    * Visor
         + A bank of 5 touch targets, dead center at the top of the
           playfield. It can be lowered to reveal the Eyes. Hitting
           Visor targets lights the Keno Lights to open the Visor and
           eventually start Multiball. Visor targets can also be lit for
           Keno awards.
    * Eyes
         + Two locks, normally blocked off by the Visor. Balls are
           locked here to start Multiball, and they score Jack*bots
           during it. Shots here also spin the wheels during Casino Run.
    * Keno Lights
         + A 5x5 grid of lights, just below the Visor. Each target on
           the Visor corresponds to one column of Keno lights; each
           target on the other bank corresponds to one row.
           These lights are lit by Visor and row target hits. They open
           the Visor to start Multiball; they can also light Extra Ball.

           In addition to these lights, there are five arrow-shaped
           lights, one for each column on the Keno card; these give Keno
           Awards while filling the Visor.
    * Row Targets
         + Another bank of five targets, just below and to the right of
           the Visor. This bank doesn't move, though, unless the game is
           badly out of order.
           Hitting these targets lights Keno lights.
    * Vortex
         + The plunger leads to this spiral, with three holes. At the
           start of the game, the first and third holes are worth 10M;
           the second hole is worth triple this amount, permanently
           raises future skill shot values by 5M, and advances the bonus
           multiplier.
           Hitting the ramp, or collecting "Vortex at Max" as a Keno
           award or during Casino Run, can raise the skill shot value;
           "Add Vortex X" awards from these same sources can raise the
           Vortex multiplier. The second hole is always worth 2x more
           than the first and third holes; so advancing the multiplier
           changes the awards from 1x-3x-1x to 2x-4x-2x, then 3x-5x-3x,
           and so on.
           Unless you get the "Vortex Value Held" award, the Vortex
           value resets to 10M between balls; the only increase that
           does not reset is the +5M increases from made skill shots.
           The Vortex value can never be higher than 50M.
           These skill shot awards change during Multiball and Casino
           Run.
           Whether or not you make this shot, it leads to the Solar
           Jets.
    * Solar Jets
         + A set of three bumpers at the top right of the playfield. The
           Skill Shot leads here; so can the ramp. These bumpers advance
           the Roll the Dice value, and build the points during Solar
           Jets mode.

Rules

  The usual pinball rules apply; one to four players, three balls per
  player by default, hit the start button once for each player, try not
  to slam-tilt, etc., etc. See the Funhouse rules sheet for more info.
  :-)

  Each ball starts with a skill shot. A ballsaver activates for about 6
  seconds at the start of each ball. Bought extra balls have a ballsaver
  for about 30 seconds.

  There are basically two tracks to follow in this game (though both can
  be pursued at once); going for Multiball, and going for Casino Run.

 Going for Multiball

  To start Multiball, you first have to complete your Keno card to open
  the Visor, then lock two balls in the Eyes behind it.

   Filling the Keno Card

  At the start of the game, and each time you finish Multiball, the 25
  Keno lights are unlit. (Actually, the game flashes them in pretty
  patterns, but if a Keno light isn't lit solidly, it doesn't count.) To
  advance towards Multiball, you have to light all 25 lights to open the
  Visor.

  The first time through (before starting Multiball in a game), the
  rules here are very simple. Hitting one of the five Visor targets
  lights that target's entire column on the Keno card; so only five
  target hits are needed to complete the card. The five row targets are
  ignored. If you hit two Visor targets at once, the game will only
  credit you for one of them; on the brighter side, if you hit a Visor
  target you've already hit (so its column is already complete), but you
  haven't hit one of the targets next to it, the game will light one of
  those columns instead. So you can only "waste" a Visor shot at this
  stage if the target you hit and both adjacent targets are already
  completed.

  The second time through (after starting Multiball the first time),
  things get a bit more complicated. Now, both the Visor targets and the
  row targets are used. Hitting a Visor target lights the bottommost two
  unlit Keno lights in its column; hitting a row target lights the two
  leftmost unlit Keno lights in its row. Hitting a target whose row or
  column is already filled is a waste. So somewhere between thirteen and
  fifteen target hits are needed to finish the card. On the bright side,
  the game will count multiple target hits this time. The best approach
  is to bank balls from the left flipper off the row targets and into
  the Visor targets; this can get the ball ricocheting around the
  targets, racking up seven or eight of them before falling back
  out--I've seen the card filled with as few as three shots from the
  flippers this way.

  Sounds hard? Well, there's a way out. At the start of each Keno card
  (when you haven't hit any of the targets yet), the game flashes one
  row or column of lights at a time--first the rows from the bottom up,
  then the columns from the left to the right, then back to the rows.
  Hitting the flashing row of column's target immediately completes the
  card, opens the Visor, and awards 50M for a job well done. (But
  there's a catch to this too: when the game starts requiring you to
  fill the card once for each ball [after the second Multiball], there
  is no flashing row/column for the second card--you have to do it the
  hard way.)

   Keno Awards

  While you're filling the Visor, one of the arrow-shaped lights just
  below the Visor will usually be lit; the light works its way from left
  to right, then skips back to the left. Hitting the Visor target that's
  lit gives a "Keno Award". The award is displayed on the scoreboard,
  and some of them are announced through the speaker as well; it's a
  pity the rest of them aren't, because the moment when a ball is
  rebounding off the Visor is a bad time to be looking at the
  scoreboard. :-)

  The Keno awards I've seen are: 25M; Add Vortex X; Vortex At Max;
  Vortex Held; Add Poker Card. Before you start Multiball the first
  time, if the Game Saucer is unlit, the Keno award will always be "Game
  Saucer Lit". If your score is below 300M on ball 3, head for the Keno
  awards; the first one you get will nearly always be "Extra Ball".

   Locking Balls

  Once you complete the Keno Card, the Visor will open, exposing the two
  Eye locks. For the first two Multiballs, all you have to do then is to
  lock a ball in each Eye to start Multiball. From then on, things get
  harder; locking the first ball closes the Visor, requiring you to fill
  another Keno card to reopen the Visor to lock the second ball.

  In multi-player games, the rules can get a bit more complicated. If
  you're trying to lock your first ball, but another player has already
  locked one, you have to lock yours in the Eye he didn't use; the ball
  in the other Eye will then be kicked out, and you need to lock that
  one as well to start Multiball. If you lock one ball, then another
  player "uses it up" by starting Multiball or Casino Run, the game
  still remembers that you had one locked, and Multiball will start when
  you lock another ball in either Eye. (This still may not be the best
  thing for you, though, since 3-ball Multiballs are impossible this
  way.)

  While you're trying to lock balls, hits to the row targets will still
  fill in two lights at a time in their rows on the Keno card. If you
  actually manage to fill in the Keno card a second time this way before
  starting Multiball, you light one of the more tedious Extra Balls in
  pinball history. :-) (Fifteen hits are needed--or ten if you take
  advantage of the Keno game.)

   Multiball

  Completing the Visor, then locking two balls in the Eyes, starts
  Multiball.

  The first Multiball is a two-ball affair; the two balls in the Eyes
  are kicked out. If only one ball is locked when you start Multiball,
  because another player stole one from you, the second ball is served
  to the plunger instead; this is a bonus for you, since it lets you
  start the Multiball with a skill shot instead. Making the skill shot,
  by hitting the second hole on the Vortex, awards a Jack*bot instead of
  the usual skill shot value.

  The second and subsequent Multiballs are three-ball affairs (unless
  another player stole a ball from you); a ball is always served to the
  plunger for a skill shot to start the Multiball.

  During Multiball, Jack*bots are lit at the Eyes, at the Cashier
  target, and at Hit Me. The first Jack*Bot you score in a game is 50M;
  future Jack*bots increase in value by 25M each time, so that the
  eleventh Jack*bot is 300M. Then the value starts advancing by 50M for
  each Jack*bot, so that the fifteenth and final Jack*bot is 500M.

  Collecting a Jack*bot unlights that location; at least one location
  will always be lit--if you collect at all four places, the Cashier
  target will be relit, and the lit location will move from
  left-to-right (to the left Eye, then the right, then Hit Me, then back
  to Cashier) each time it's collected.

  Hitting the Game Saucer relights all four Jack*bot locations. If you
  hit it when all four are already lit, it scores a Jack*bot instead.

  Collecting Jack*bot at one of the Eyes, then hitting the other Eye
  (lit or not) within a second, scores a Super Jack*bot instead--this
  triples the points (so a Super Jack*bot can be as high as 1.5B).

  Multiball ends when you're down to one ball in play; there's about a
  three-second grace period during which a Jack*bot can still be scored.
  If you lose a Multiball without scoring any Jack*bots at all, there's
  a 10-second restart period; hitting the Eyes or the Game Saucer before
  the time runs out restarts a two-ball Multiball with a skill shot at
  the plunger. Sorry, only one restart per Multiball.

  After Multiball is over, the Visor will remain open until the game
  satisfies itself that the ball's in a place where it won't get caught
  behind the Visor when it closes. The ramp, the Cashier target, the
  Game Saucer, the rubber below the Game Saucer, the Poker Targets, and
  the Solar Jets will all trigger the Visor to close. As soon as the
  Visor starts closing, the Keno card will reset (with a row or column
  flashing for an instant Visor re-open), ready for you to start
  refilling it.

   Mega Visor

  Once you score 15 Jack*bots, with Multiball still in progress, you
  enter the Mega Visor round. The Visor closes; the object now is to
  re-open it. The row targets are ignored; only the Visor targets
  themselves count, and each hit spots one light in the column you hit,
  with 50M awarded for each light spotted. Twenty-five hits are needed
  to complete the card--on the bright side, that means 1.5B points
  scored along the way.

  What happens when you fill the Keno card again and re-open the Visor?
  I don't know, okay? I had to drive thirty miles uphill both ways to
  the nearest arcade with a Jack*Bot just to write this rules sheet, and
  between the gas money and the leg braces for little Bobby, I just
  haven't been able to afford to get the darn thing open, all right?
  Fine, leave me wallowing in my shame. Geez.

 Going for Casino Run

  To get a Casino Run, you first need to play all four Casino games. You
  start games by hitting the Game Saucer when it's lit during
  single-ball play; if it's not lit, hitting the ramp or Cashier target
  will relight it, as will the Keno awards the first time through.
  Before you get your first Casino Run, the Game Saucer will always be
  lit at the start of each ball; for your second and subsequent ones,
  you'll always need to hit the ramp or Cashier to relight it. (Also,
  the Cashier target stops relighting the Game Saucer; you need to make
  actual ramp shots.)

   The Games

  There are four games to play. The left flipper changes which one is
  lit, so if you can trap the ball on the right flipper, you can choose
  the game you want before hitting the saucer to collect it.

  Being the resourceful and morally corrupt robot that you are, you can
  cheat at all of these games (or at least try), by repeatedly hitting
  the Extra Ball button during the game's title screen. The results vary
  from game to game. The quotes when the cheat succeeds are worth the
  price of admission. "LOOK--HALLEY'S COMET." "Where?" "FOUR ACES." "I
  saaaw thaaaat..."

  Many game awards can be doubled. After the game's score is determined,
  the "Double or Nothing" screen is displayed. Hitting the left flipper,
  or sitting there frozen in the headlights for ten seconds, lets you
  keep the current game score; hitting the right flipper instead gives
  you about 20 seconds (a slow count of 10) to hit the Cashier target to
  score double the game's value--you get nothing if you miss. Starting
  Multiball before the timer runs out will also award the doubled
  value.
    * Pinbot Poker
         + This game uses the poker hand displayed at the center of the
           playfield. The Poker Targets, Keno awards, Casino Run, and
           Slot Machine can all light cards in this hand. (Completing
           the hand the first time lights an Extra Ball.) Points are
           awarded based on the value of the hand--10M for a measly
           single deuce, 15M for an ace or ace-deuce, 20M for one pair,
           30M for two pair or three of a kind, or 50M for a full house
           (all five cards). In addition, a flat 50M is scored for each
           hand that you've already filled. The resulting total can be
           doubled.
         + This game is one of the easiest to cheat at; Pinbot pulls an
           extra Ace from his sleeve. ("Ace of Clubs?") This can give
           you the normally- impossible four Aces, worth 149M! (Yes, you
           can still double this to 298M.)
    * Slot Machine
         + This one is about as straightforward as it gets; the slot
           machine reels spin and spit out a random (or is it?) award,
           which is what you get. Awards I've seen include: Multiball;
           Add 10 Cards (adds two complete hands to your Poker total);
           Hurry Up (shoot Hit Me for 75M, with the value counting down
           to a minimum of 15M); Collect Bonus (exactly as it would be
           at the end of the ball, including cheating); Vortex at Max;
           Hold Vortex Value.
           Occasionally, the Slot Machine decides to screw you, and
           generates a random "big points" award, generally between 25M
           and 40M. At least you can double these.
         + This is the hardest game to cheat at, for reasons that should
           be obvious when you see what the cheat does. The initial spin
           brings up a lame award (usually Add Vortex X; occasionally
           Hurry-Up or a big-points value); Pinbot slams the reels, and
           they jump to Extra Ball Lit. It's extremely rare for Extra
           Ball Lit to come up without cheating.
    * Roll the Dice
         + This game revolves around your "Dice Game Wager", which
           starts each game at 3M, and goes up by 100K for each hit of
           the Solar Jets. Two dice are rolled; the laws of mathematics
           being what they are, this gives a number from 2 to 12. This
           number is multiplied by your Dice Game Wager, and that's how
           many points the game is worth. This value can be doubled.
         + This game is the easiest to cheat at; Pinbot simply flicks
           the dice to 12 ("BOXCARS...").
    * Keno
         + This game revolves around your Keno card. Six random squares
           are picked; you get 5M for each of those squares that you
           have lit, plus 5M just because you're you. If all six squares
           are lit, you get 50M. 25M is added for each card you've
           previously filled.
           If you have five or fewer squares filled in when you start
           Keno, the game spots the entire center column, to give you a
           reasonable chance at some matches. (However, Keno still isn't
           a good mode to shoot for if your Keno card is empty; not only
           will you not get many matches, but the spotting of the center
           column will eliminate your chance to hit a flashing
           row/column to fill the card immediately. On the brighter
           side, Keno is a great game to play if you're actually trying
           to get the extra ball from filling the Keno card while the
           Visor is already open; if you play Keno while the card is
           still nearly empty, the center-column spot reduces the number
           of hits you need to fill each row from three to two, saving
           you five hits.)
         + This game is moderately difficult to cheat at. If you cheat,
           Pinbot simply slams the entire card, resulting in "25
           MATCHES--99M", plus 25M for each filled card. (This does not
           actually spot all the Keno lights...)

   Casino Run

  As soon as you play the fourth Casino game, the Game Saucer lights for
  Casino Run; you do not need to relight it. Hit the Game Saucer to
  start the Run.

  A pretty impressive animation sequence starts the Run off. The Extra
  Ball button "lights for cheating" during the entire sequence, but the
  only effect I've noticed is that the cow moos if you hit the button
  enough times at the start of the animation--pressing the button after
  that does not seem to have an effect.

  Casino Run is a 1-ball timed mode, lasting for 45 seconds (more or
  less). The object is to build your Casino Run bank as high as possible
  before cashing it in, without letting time run out and without being
  bombed out of the mode.

  Your Casino Run bank starts at 100M. An extra 4M is added for every
  switch hit during the Run. (So those Solar Jets can actually be pretty
  lucrative--but don't forget, the timer is running...)

  During the Run, the ramp is flipped up; the Cashier target doesn't do
  anything unusual. The object is to hit the holes (the Eyes, or the
  Game Saucer); each hole shot, including the shot to the Game Saucer
  that starts the Run in the first place, gives you a spin of the
  wheels. (If you've ever watched The Joker's Wild, you'll feel right at
  home here...) After each spin, you have the option of taking the
  current contents of your bank (which ends the Run), or risking it and
  letting the Run continue. (Don't sit there too long and think about
  it; if you take more than 10 seconds or so, the game will
  automatically choose the "Collect Bank" option for you, and the Run
  will be over.)

  If you lose a ball during the Run, or even within a couple of seconds
  after the clock hits zero, don't panic. You'll get the ball back at
  the plunger, for the low price of 5 seconds off the Run timer. If
  there's at least 10 seconds still on the timer, making the skill shot
  adds another 10 seconds; if there's 9 seconds or less, making the
  skill shot collects your bank and ends the Run.

  Having a ball already locked in an Eye when the Run starts is a
  double-edged sword. On the one hand, as long as it's there, it blocks
  a potential shot to make a spin. On the other hand, if you drain with
  a ball in the lock, you don't take the usual 5-second penalty;
  instead, you automatically get another spin, and then the ball is
  kicked out of the Eye to continue play.

  In addition to the normal high scores, there's a single high score for
  "Casino Run Champion"; it defaults to 1B. Being the Casino Run
  Champion awards an extra credit; so know the Casino Run Champ value,
  and when your bank reaches it, mentally add a special to the bank.
  (Generally, this translates into "Take the bank, you fool!")

     Casino Run Spin Awards

  Unlike the Slot Machine game, each of the three reels gives its own
  award on each spin during the Run. Possible values of each reel are:
    * Points--anywhere from 15M to 50M (in 5M increments), or 75M, or
      100M, 125M, or the occasional 150M. The points are added to your
      bank.
    * Light Extra Ball--this goes into your bank too.
    * Special--this also goes into your bank.
    * Vortex X--adds a skill shot multiplier immediately.
    * Bonus X--increases your bonus multiplier immediately.
    * Vortex at Max--raises the skill shot value to 50M immediately.
    * Poker Card--adds a card to your poker hand (which can wind up
      lighting the extra ball as well).
    * Jack*Bot--The points are scored immediately; they don't go in your
      bank.
    * More Time--adds 15 seconds to the Casino Run clock. Will not raise
      it above 45.
    * Cow!--yes, an actual Super Stunt Cow is added to your bank,
      shipped straight to you from the Williams dairy. (Actually, this
      promotion was found to violate certain federal laws concerning
      shipments of assault cattle across state lines, so you'll have to
      settle for an automatic Special instead. Sorry.)
    * This Award Intentionally Left Blank--blank spaces often come up on
      one or two reels. Very little excitement potential here.
    * No Bomb--A bucket of water. No cash value. Just like those
      adventure games, you'd better pick it up; it's bound to come in
      handy sometime.
    * Bomb--This kills your Casino Bank, ends the Run, spits in your
      face and laughs at your car. Well, unless you happen to have one
      of those buckets of water lying around (see? Told you it would
      come in handy), in which case the Bomb and No Bomb cancel each
      other out and leave you with no damage beyond a vaguely nervous
      feeling. Or unless you were prudent enough to hit the Extra Ball
      button like there was no tomorrow while the reels were spinning,
      in which case Pinbot will reach out and thwack the offending bomb
      into another award. Be careful! Cheaters do occasionally fail to
      prosper--only bombs on the center reel can be bonked away (though
      that's where the vast majority of them turn up), and I've never
      seen it work more than once during a run. If you hear "I'M
      BUSTED..." or "Oh no..." while the wheels are spinning, you'll
      know that you've worn out your welcome...
    * MK3 Hint--This award may only come up if you hold down both
      flipper buttons while the wheels are spinning. (There's a code in
      MK3 that displays the text "HOLD FLIPPERS DURING CASINO RUN", and
      I never got the MK3 Hints until I started doing this. Actually, I
      hit the Extra Ball button until just before the first wheel stops,
      then switch to holding down the flippers.) Immediately after the
      spin completes, the display briefly shows a single position from a
      MK3 code, which is probably for the upcoming Ultimate version; so
      far I've only seen two positions: blank--Raiden--blank--blank--Yin
      Yang--blank. Those of you (like me) who barely recognize the
      characters in MK3 will still want to root for these hints to show
      up; in addition to showing the hint, it also awards an automatic
      Extra Ball. So I guess an MK3 Hint is like a Cow, but not quite
      as valuable. :-)

 More Rules

   Ramp Rules

  The ramp leads to a maze of posts. While the ball is in these posts,
  the skill shot value goes up by 1M every 2 seconds, with a maximum
  increase of 8M per trip through the posts, and a maximum skill shot
  value of 50M.
  From the post maze, the ball can go one of three places (not counting
  the occasional unlucky bounce back out onto the playfield without
  hitting anything):
    * Solar Jets hole
         + If the ball falls through this hole and into the bumpers, it
           triggers Solar Jets mode. The ramp flips up; you have about
           20 seconds (a slow count of 10) to hit the Cashier target to
           score the Solar Jets value, which starts at 40M and goes up
           by 4M for each bumper hit. Starting Multiball before the
           timer runs out will also score the Solar Jets award.
    * Plunger lane
         + This triggers another skill shot.
    * Return lane
         + This track returns the ball to the right inlane. It gives one
           of four awards, whichever award is lit at the time the ball
           hits the right inlane switch. The first lit award is normally
           Light Extra Ball, and the lit award normally changes every
           two seconds; since the ball usually takes somewhere between
           three and five seconds to clear the maze, this makes 25M and
           Cashier the most likely awards, with Mega Ramp less likely,
           and Light Extra Ball least of all. However, if you're doing
           badly on ball 3, the machine may start with Cashier lit
           instead, making Mega Ramp and Light Extra Ball the most
           likely awards.
              o Light Extra Ball
                   # Pretty self-explanatory; lights one of the
                     inlanes/outlanes for Extra Ball.
              o 25 Million
                   # Again, pretty self-explanatory.
              o Cashier
                   # Lights the Cashier target to collect 2x your
                     current bonus value. (This 2x replaces the bonus
                     multiplier; it doesn't add onto it--so your bonus
                     multiplier doesn't factor into the Cashier award at
                     all.) You have about 20 seconds (a slow count of
                     10) to collect; starting Multiball before the timer
                     runs out also collects.
              o Mega Ramp
                   # Lights the ramp. Shooting it within five seconds or
                     so awards 50M. The return lane award is
                     automatically frozen at Mega Ramp again; if you
                     collect it again and shoot the ramp again, you get
                     75M, then 100M, and so on.

   Bonus

  At the end of every ball, you get bonus from three areas:
    * Cards--3M for each Poker and Hit Me card you've collected during
      the game.
    * Vortex Value--whatever the current skill shot value is (without
      the multiplier), that's what you get. This will be between 10M and
      50M.
    * Dice Game Wager--whatever your current wager is, you get.

  The entire bonus then gets multiplied by the bonus multiplier; this
  will be between 1x and 5x. (Remember, the bonus multiplier is raised
  at the Poker targets.)
  If you press Extra Ball repeatedly during the bonus count, Pinbot may
  cheat on the bonus multiplier; this gives you an extra bonus X. (Yes,
  you can go to 6X this way. Yes, you can cheat here on the Collect
  Bonus award from the Slot Machine too.) Your bonus multiplier must be
  at least 2x for cheating to have a chance to work; if it's 1x, you
  just lose.

   Extra Balls

  Extra balls abound on this machine. With two exceptions, all of these
  light an inlane/outlane for Extra Ball; use the flipper buttons to
  move the light to where the ball is.
    * Completing the first Poker hand.
    * Completing the Keno Lights with the Visor already open.
    * Collecting one on the Slot Machine, usually by cheating.
    * Collecting "Light Extra Ball" in your bank in Casino Run.
    * Collecting an MK3 Hint during Casino Run. (This one is automatic;
      it doesn't light an inlane/outlane.)
    * Pity Extra Ball: Collecting the first Keno Award of ball 3 with
      your score under 300M. (This is automatic too.)
    * Collecting "Light Extra Ball" from the return lane on the ramp.
      (The Return of Pity Extra Ball: This is much easier on ball 3 with
      a score under 300M.)

Bugs/Misfeatures

  The software I've seen for this machine is extremely solid. There's
  only a few minor glitches I've run into:
    * If you start Multiball while the animation for an Extra Ball is in
      progress, the Multiball animation is never displayed, and
      Multiball starts immediately. If this is the second Multiball,
      this isn't so bad; but if it's the first, if you've stepped away
      from the machine to watch the show, your first sign that something
      is amiss may be the sight of the balls streaking towards the
      drain...
    * If you cheat on a Casino game, and take the resulting points
      (without doubling), and make replay as a result, the Replay
      animation is sometimes skipped, and the ball winds up just sitting
      in the Game Saucer for ten seconds or so--presumably waiting for
      the nonexistent Replay animation to finish.
    * If you get Collect Bonus on the Slot Machine, and you successfully
      cheat during the bonus count to get the extra multiplier, the ball
      sometimes kicks out of the game saucer a few seconds early--as if
      it were kicking it out at the time the bonus count would have been
      over if you hadn't cheated. It doesn't sound the usual "here it
      comes" effect when it does this, so it can catch you off-guard.
    * If you hit the Poker Targets just after they've been reset after a
      time-out, the game will assume that the target reset failed and
      just reset them again, without awarding any points (or any bonus
      multiplier increase, if you hit the lit target). This happens even
      if the target you hit wasn't one of the targets that needed to be
      reset.
    * A few people on the net (myself included) were complaining that
      the buy-in screen doesn't show you the information you really need
      to know--the replay score, or the high score you're shooting at.
      Someone at Williams was obviously listening; the buy-in screen now
      shows that. Unfortunately, it doesn't show it until there's 1
      second left on the buy-in clock. If there's no credits in the
      machine, this isn't as much of a problem (you can just hit the
      Extra Ball button without inserting any money first, to reset the
      clock); but if there are credits there, you just have to read the
      replay/high score, compare it to your current score, and make the
      decision of whether or not to buy-in in the 0.8 seconds you have
      left. :-)
    * Normally, if a ball drains without hitting any scoring switches,
      you get it back. On most machines, it's easy to tell--if your
      score is flashing, you haven't hit any switches yet, so you can
      let it drain safely. Unfortunately, on Jack*bot, the screen is
      filled by the skill shot graphics, and you can't see your score.
      So you can plunge a ball, have it come up short of the Vortex
      hole, dribble back through the Solar Jets while only hitting the
      rubber below the Jets (which doesn't end the skill shot or remove
      its graphics), drain, and go straight from skill shot graphics to
      Fun with Bonus. Disconcerting.

Neat Stuff

  Here's some neat things to try.
    * During the attract mode (which tells you about
      cheating--"REPEATEDLY PRESS EXTRA BALL WHEN FLASHING"), wait for
      the "IN MEMORY OF JIM JOOS JR." screen (it can take a few
      minutes). Notice that the Extra Ball button is flashing. Press it.
      Watch. Very classy.
    * Get a high score. Wait for the initial entry screen to come up.
      Watch the Keno card as you enter your initials. Very nice. Reminds
      me of the old Stop-and-Score days. :-)

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