Keefer's Guide to Fish Tales

Keefer's Guide to Fish Tales
============================

V 1.3.2 - 10-Jun-95
-------------------

*** FINAL VERSION ***

This rules compilation is freely distributable. I retain any and all rights
to this guide. You may even take this guide and change it or use it in
other manners and then redistribute it as long as it remains freely
distributable and this policy is stated at the beginning of it. No charge
may ever be made for distributing this guide and no one may make a profit
from it. Please send any comments/updates/suggestions/corrections to:

[email protected]

Fish Tales is probably a registered trademark of Williams Electronics, etc.
etc. So there.

No holds are barred in this Guide. I'm going to talk about EVERYTHING I
know about. If you really want to learn all the undocumented features
yourself, then stop reading!

Important Things
----------------

This section describes key elements and/or shots to be made in Fish Tales.
They will be constantly referred to in the play discussion.

Rod - This is the auto-plunging device on Fish Tales. It's a little fishing
rod handle with a button on the top of it. Hit the button to launch
the ball. You also use the button during video mode to launch
torpedos. Really.
Autocast - This is a timed device designed to protect you from instant
drains. While it is flashing, you will get any ball back that
you lose, instantly. If the game sees it hit an outlane
microswitch, you'll get the next one before it even finishes
draining! If you can death-save the ball you lost, you can have
a mini-multiball. It is on briefly when a ball is launched from
the Reel during a multi-player game, even though it isn't lit.
Long Cast - This is the right looping shot, exactly like the Chase Loop in
Terminator 2. Making this shot when lit scores million+, and
lights the next thing on the captive ball. If this shot is not
lit, then the upper left gate will be closed, and the ball will
go into one of the LIE lanes.
LIE lanes - Spell LIE to increase your bonus multiplier up to 7x. After
7x, each LIE made will be worth 5M, 10M, 15M, then 20M for then
on (until you lose the ball (unless you had bonus held)). Don't
forget you can change which lanes are lit with either flipper
button, so you should never repeat a letter.
Boat - This is the inclined plastic figure right in the center of the game.
There are 3 shots: The left ramp, the right ramp, and the captive
ball. Because it is inclined, it is harder to hit the ball than on
most other games with one (like Earthshaker). Any one of these 3
shots counts as a "boat shot" during Rock the Boat.
Captive ball - The captive ball is trapped in the middle of the boat. A
dead-on shot will send it up to the top, where there is a
target that it can trigger. If you don't hit it hard enough,
it won't hit the switch. Only hitting the switch has any
effect and counts as a captive ball hit.
Eject hole - This shot is equivalent to the Escape Route shot on T2. You
usually get it by shooting up the left side, through the
spinner, and into the hole. However, whatever it is lit for,
you can still get it if it just happens to plop in there (if
it's bouncing around the LIE lanes, for example). This is
where you collect the regular Jackpot, the Fish Finder, and
Video Mode.
Fish Finder - If you hit the Fish Finder, you are given ("randomly") one of
several awards from points to multiball to light extra ball.
Video Mode - Lit by hitting the 2nd value on the captive ball. Shooting the
eject hole will start it, and you have to shoot boats with
water skiers going across the screen at 3 different distances.
Stringers - There are 2 targets on the left and right sides near the
slingshots which have a 3-part fish in front of them. Hitting
either target spots one of the segments, and a whole fish lights
a Stringer, which is one of the 4 big fish with lights in them
on the lower part of the playfield, just under the boat. This
also lights the spinner for "Stretch the Truth" for 10-15
seconds. 4 Stringers starts the Feeding Frenzy.
Spinner - Located on the left lane shot. Note that any spinner award
(Stretch the Truth or Monster Fish) just needs to barely get it to
go around to get credit. Also note that hitting the spinner from
the wrong direction (as from a Long Cast) DOESN'T count.
Stretch the Truth - When lit, scores 1 tale (for end-of-ball bonus, and
the current set of 4 is displayed under the stringers)
per Stringer you have hit before the award times out.
The value of your fish ranges from 0-5M per fish. 4
tales starts a 30 second Rock the Boat.
Feeding Frenzy - There are 4 purple fish you need to hit. One on each of
the ramp shots, one along the Long Cast, and one at the
spinner. You have 15 seconds to hit a fish for 5M points.
Doing so gives you another 15 seconds to hit the next one,
etc., until you have 15 seconds to hit the last fish for
20M points (a total of 35M).
Rock the Boat - For a certain amount of time (20 seconds from the captive
ball award; 30 seconds for 4 tales), each boat shot counts
10M (including U-turns).
Monster Fish - Right under the boat is a string of 6 fish (a "school" of
fish - look closely!). Each time you make a LIT ramp shot,
you light another fish. Getting all 6 lights the spinner
for the Monster Fish award, which is a hurry-up award.
Caster's Club - A fairly hard-to-hit shot where you shoot balls to lock
them. The balls don't even stay here; the game kicks them
up a habitrail which leads to the reel all the way on the
left side of the game.
Reel - Nothing really important, except this is where balls are stored. It
can spin to accept new balls, or to let a ball out to have it kicked
back into play. Balls kicked out go around the top of the machine
and out a habitrail aimed for your left flipper.

What Lights What
----------------

The left return lane ALWAYS lights the Long Cast. (The light is always on.)
Also, shooting the ball up the right loop while Long Cast is NOT lit will
light Long Cast (seemingly until you make the shot). After making a Long
Cast or lighting it from the left return lane, it will time out after 10-15
seconds or so. (So I'm not TOTALLY sure...) The first Long Cast you make
scores 1M points, then 2M, etc. maxing out at 5M. As stated, each long cast
lights the next highest value on the captive ball that isn't already lit.
You can light all of the values before collecting any of them if you wanted.
If your current value is about to time out, and you go through the left
return lane, it will relight for the full amount of time again, and KEEP the
current value.

The right return lane lights Fish Finder when lit. It starts the game lit,
and will remain lit until the Fish Finder is collected. When you go over
the microswitch, you have around 15-20 seconds to shoot the eject hole. If
you get it, the right return lane will go off. To relight it, spell LIE
(this is non-cumulative; i.e. you can't spell LIE 3 times and expect to get
3 Fish Finders in a row). The right return lane will NOT be lit during
multiball and if Video Mode is lit. If it goes off for one of those
reasons, it will come back on when it can.

The left and right ramps start the game lit, so you get 1 "free" shot at
each side. After that, shooting the right ramp OR going through the right
return lane will light the left ramp, and vice versa. The point is to
alternate ramps, shooting the left ramp from the right flipper and the right
ramp from the left flipper. It is fairly easy to backhand the ball up the
ramps too, so if the left ramp is lit and the ball is on the left flipper,
you should be able to make it up. Depending on the machine, it may even be
easier to backhand! Making 6 LIT ramp shots lights the Monster Fish.

The two Stringer fish targets are lit at the start of the game, too. After
completing the first one, it'll stay unlit until you complete the other one.
The targets then alternate sides upon completion of each Stringer.

You can light the extra ball 1 of 2 ways: Hitting the Fish Finder, or as
the 4th award on the captive ball. The extra ball is just to the left of
the Caster's Club, and is probably the hardest extra ball target to hit
yet. You may THINK you have a shot at it from the left flipper, but the
bottom right of the Boat is in the way. The only way to aim for it is to
backhand it from the right flipper, and even then it's not terribly easy.
Depends on your machine. The one I played on the most you had to make an
absolutely direct hit on it because I think it may have been a little
flaky, but I also have played on one where it wasn't too bad.

To light the special, you have to complete the captive ball awards (get
instant multiball), then hit the captive ball a certain number of times
after that, usually (and probably is the default) 4 more hits. The special
is collected on the outlanes, is always lit on both of them, and stays lit
the entire game. However, you have to light the special ON THAT BALL, or
you lose the chance to light it until completing the next set of captive
ball awards.

The Stretch the Truth spinner shot usually shots all 5 lights lit, but
every time you spell LIE, the lowermost light will go out (until only the 5x
is left). The spinner will then just circulate between the lit choices.
Thanks to all the people who pointed this out to me, even though I figured
it out the day I originally posted this message! Oh well. %)

Misc. Scoring
-------------

The Fast Cast is scored by hitting the Caster's Club (or the drop target
when it's supposed to be up) right after a Long Cast or ball launch (not an
Autocast, though). The first Fast Cast is worth 2M and goes up 1M each
time you get it. Fast Cast maxes out at 10M.

The captive ball awards are:
1. Hold Bonus (1M) - self-explanatory; holds your bonus and multiplier.
2. Video Mode (2M) - lights the eject hole for Video Mode.
3. Rock the Boat (3M) - Rock the Boat for 20 seconds.
4. Light Extra Ball (5M) - What do you think?
5. Instant Multiball (10M) - immediately starts multiball.
Note that you can only get one award per hit, no matter how many are lit.
The numbers in parentheses are the amount of points you get for that award.
Also, whether or not the captive ball is lit for the next award, hitting it
scores "Grab Yer Gear" which is 1M x the highest lit award (excluding
instant multiball, which is Sell Yer Gear as described below). If nothing
is lit (as is the case for the ball after completing the captive ball), you
get 500K.

After getting Instant Multiball, the captive ball becomes worth 5M points
per hit, going up 500K per hit (so the 3rd hit is worth 6M). The maximum
value on the Sell Yer Gear award is 10M.

The Fish Finder awards are:
1. Light Extra Ball
2. Super Jets Lit - each jet bumper (the 3 under LIE) scores 500K!
3. Instant Multiball
4. Inc. Captive Ball - lights the next value, like hitting Long Cast.
5. Bonus x - lights the next bonus x value.
6. 1-5 million - varies each time.
Fish Tales is *EXTREMELY FAIR* about the Fish Finder. If you keep hitting
it, and you haven't gotten the extra ball from it all game, it will
eventually light it no matter how well you are doing when it does. It will
never light bonus x if you are at 7x already. Nor will it award the captive
ball increase if it's already maxed (at instant multiball).

The first Monster Fish you get will start at 20M and work its way down by
100K each 1/10th of a second, stopping at 5M. At 5M, you have 5 more
seconds to try to get it. If you don't get it, it stays at its current
value the next time 'round. If you DO get it (no matter when or for how
much), the next time it'll be worth 10M more, up to a maximum of 50M. The
amount per 1/10th second the score decreases goes up too, by 50K. There is
some time before the countdown actually begins, so it IS possible to get the
full award (unlike, say, Super Death Star in Star Wars where you can never
ever get the full 50M, which IMHO is totally stupid).

The 6 ramps leading up to the Monster Fish are worth 500K, 1M, 1.5M, etc.,
up to 3M. So lighting a Monster Fish is worth 10.5M.

If you make a ramp shot that doesn't quite have enough uumph to make it all
the way up a ramp and it comes down the other side, you get 1M points for a
"U-turn." The U-turn is a valid shot for Rock the Boat!

Each fish you've caught (hitting the Stringers) awards 250K bonus at the end
of each ball, cumulative through the game. Each tale told (hitting Stretch
the Truth) scores 500K at the end of the ball for every ball.

There is a bonus cap of 3M for any given ball. Of course, this can be
multiplied by 7, for a total of 21M, plus how many fish and tales you have.

If you get hold bonus, then everything is held over to the next ball. If
you had 7x bonus, then whatever value the LIE lanes were when you drained is
the value they are worth the next ball.

During Video Mode, each ship closest to you that you hit gets you 500K, each
ship in the middle distance scores 1M, and each ship farthest away scores
1.5M. Be sure to lead your targets a little bit. You have 20 seconds and
20 torpedos. Always go for the far boats, since you need to hit a certain
number of them to get the extra ball to come out (it always comes out on the
back row). If you score between 15 and 19 hits (inclusive), you get a 10M
bonus. If you're a perfect 20/20, you get a 20M bonus!

Fish Tales can be configured to NOT give extra balls in video mode. To
replace this, the game will offer you BS instead of EB. The BS stands for
"Big Score" and is worth 20M points.

If you were really fast in killing the back boats, and the EB/BS comes out,
but you MISS it, it may come out a SECOND time if you have enough time left
for that to happen. Usually 1 boat will pass in the back before it comes
out again. So don't give up if you miss it, and hold on to that last
torpedo!

You can use the flippers to shoot off torpedoes as well as the rod button,
though the game won't tell you that you can do that. It works a lot better,
I think. One person has written me that video mode will only last for that
ball on his machine. However, on most it will stay on until you get it.
Video Mode can NOT be "stacked," i.e. can only be lit once at a time. If
it's lit and you shoot the "Light Video Mode" again, you wasted it.

There's an amusing bug involving Video Mode... If you tilt the ball, then
it wanders up into the ball trap where Video Mode is lit, you'll be able to
play Video Mode, even though you're in tilt mode! Cool. :) There's some
other bugginess about tilt mode like being able to get the music to play (or
keep playing or something). Nothing else major like the Video Mode bug,
though.

During the course of the game, various things will swim by in the
background (various fish, turtles, snails, mermaids...). One of them is a
skeleton fish. If you slam on the cast button many times (like 10), then
you'll get "Russ' Fishbone Bonus" which scores 10 points. It looks pretty
cool, though. NOTE: Please do NOT post this to the Net! Keep it to
yourself if you've bothered to read this guide. Consider it my present to
you for enduring it. :)

Multiball
---------

The main goal in multiball is to get jackpots! Nothing else really matters.
However, some people have taken issue with this statement, and so I offer a
couple more ideas: Hit the captive ball a lot at the start if it's lit and
especially if it's a drain shot on your machine. Autocast will save you.
Also, Rock the Boat can be worth an awful lot of points if you can keep the
balls going around the ramps.

To light a jackpot, shoot a ball into the Caster's Club. The game yells "Up
to the top for jackpot!" Your next goal is to shoot the eject hole within
15 seconds (there's a timer on there!) to score it. The jackpots are worth
20M, then 30M, then 40M. The tackle box shows you which one you're on
(flashing) and which ones you've gotten (lit).

Completing the Stringers during multiball adds 1M to the jackpot. (Wow!)
Notice, though, that the Stringers are also flashing during Feeding Frenzy
and Rock the Boat. I'm not sure what they do here, but I think they add 1M
to the jackpot when they're completed as well.

If you have 3 balls out, the Caster's Club will flash for "Doubles Jackpot."
Shooting another ball in here at this time does just that, and resets the
timer at 15 seconds. If it times out, though, BOTH balls are shot back at
you and you have to start all over. If you lose the third ball, then one
ball is shot back at you, and you shoot for a single jackpot. Any other
shots at the Caster's Club are blocked by the drop target (and it keeps
coming up).

After getting all 3 jackpots in the tackle box, the fun really begins. The
captive ball becomes lit for the Super Jackpot, and I DO mean Super! Every
time you hit the captive ball, you get 100M points, until multiball ends.

Don't worry; you needn't get all jackpots in 1 multiball in order to get to
the super jackpot. Whichever jackpot you are on is remembered through the
whole game. If you lit the super jackpot, but never hit the captive ball,
then the next multiball the captive ball will still be lit for the next
multiball until you've hit it at least once.

Of course, it'd be anticlimatic to have to go back to the 20M, 30M, 40M
jackpots, now, wouldn't it? Well, after going through an entire jackpot
sequence (i.e. you've gotten at least one SJ), all of the jackpots become
worth minimum 2x their original value! INCLUDING the captive ball super
jackpot! And you can still double the jackpots, so you can make major
amounts of points on this game. And it keeps increasing with each completed
sequence. The multiplier will go as high as 6x (yes, I've gotten a 600M
super jackpot). Why it goes up to 6 I know not (just seems like a strange
number).

If you get a Super Jackpot when the next-to-last ball is registering in the
trough, you'll get an additional 100M for the SJ. The reason for this is
probably because the jackpot multiplier kicks in as soon as the ball is
registered, but just before the final SJ points are awarded to you. I don't
know that for sure, but a way to confirm it would be to see if getting a
600M SJ gives you 700M or not.

Note that during multiball, the Boat can still be hit for lighting the
Monster Fish. Always be listening for the distinctive roar the game makes
if you're not paying very close attention how many ramp hits you have. Also
the captive ball can be hit for whatever it's lit for, and it can still be
advanced via the Long Cast.

Oh - one other thing about multiball... If you shoot a ball up each ramp at
about the same time (at any rate before the previous one hits the return
lane), you get 5M points for a "Double Cross."

"Properly-Set-Up Machines"
--------------------------

Fish Tales is probably the least tolerant of any game to incorrect alignment
of any kind. On a lot of machines, there is a little bitty piece of rubber
at the end of the left loop which, if the ball is travelling against the
left side as it usually does, will cause the ball to go straight down the
middle of your flippers. Also, the upper-left gate seems to cause a lot of
problems for people. If you look closely, you can see that it is a one-way
gate that should always allow the ball to go through from left to right.
However, there is a little rod that the game can control and open the gate
when it wants. It should ONLY open for right-to-left shots when the Long
Cast is lit, or when you are launching a ball from the plunger (not
necessarily for an auto-launched ball during multiball, though). If the
gate is always open, this is not really a bad thing except that it makes it
a bit harder to get LIE, since the ball will never stop on its way around
the Long Cast. HOWEVER, if the gate is always CLOSED, you are in big
trouble. This is because you can't advance the value of the captive ball
except to get lucky on the Fish Finder. If your gate is always closed, or
if the rubber at the end of the left lane is screwing your balls, then
complain to your operator! The game is not worth playing in these cases.

Another problem that I recently discovered is the Caster's Club drop target.
The game is supposed to be able to drop the target when it needs to. When
does it need to? Well, for example, if you get instant multiball while it
is up, it should go down to allow you to light the jackpot. I've played a
game where the machine couldn't retract it, and it took 2 hits at the
Caster's Club just to light a jackpot, then to double it, etc. It is next
to impossible to get a jackpot when this happens. Out of 6 games, I
managed 1. It's hard enough to light it, but when the drop target goes up,
it really hurts things. THE ONLY TIME IT SHOULD COME UP is when you have
gotten a jackpot during the last multiball or during multiball to block the
2nd or 3rd ball from going into the Caster's Club when 2 or 3 balls are in
play.

Strategies
----------

You can usually get replays just by going for the Monster Fish bonuses. If
you are good at the ramps and making the spinner shot, I highly recommend
it. But after the replay, you're going to have to go for multiball.

At any rate, if you have a Monster Fish lit, ALWAYS ALWAYS go for it. If
you don't get it, the Fish value won't increase, and you'll be stuck right
back where you just were. Even if it's at 5M, try to get it because the
potential for the next Fish is so great. Of course, once you're at 50M, it
doesn't really matter as much if you miss the low value.

When shooting for the Monster Fish, keep a careful eye on how many fish in
the school you have at the moment. I NEVER shoot the final fish from the
right flipper, because that wastes time (and points) needed to get the ball
to the right flipper from the left. Be sure to check your parity right
after making a ramp shot. If you've just shot an even-numbered fish from
the right flipper, shoot something else from the left, like the Long Cast if
the captive ball isn't maxed out yet, the Caster's Club otherwise.
Likewise, if you shot an odd-numbered fish from the left flipper, shoot for
the Fish Finder from the right. Basically, keep careful track and you'll
get the most Monster for your money.

If you're in multiball, try not to get Instant Multiball from the captive
ball. It's a total waste, especially if you hit it right at the beginning
of normal multiball. If you have 2 balls locked and Instant Multiball lit,
always try for regular multiball first, since getting Instant Multiball
means no locked balls after you lose them.

In Rock the Boat, go for the ramps and not the captive ball. They're both
much easier and much safer to shoot for, though obviously not as fast. A
couple people have had the idea that backhanding the ball up the same ramp
is a good idea. I agree. Backhanding the ramps is generally easier than
shooting the far one, and you can get into a pretty good groove this way.

One person says that going for the captive ball on Rock the Boat is a good
idea if you have both extra ball and multiball lit. You risk a drain on the
extra ball, but then you can hit the captive ball again for multiball and a
potentially very rewarding Rock the Boat.

For Feeding Frenzy, don't get the Boat fish right away. Try for the harder
looping shot ones first. If you get low on time, shoot a Boat fish, then
use the next time to try for the looping ones again. Note that you only
need to hit the Boat ramp sensor to get a fish and NOT the actual ramp
sensor. So if you got a U-turn, you'd get both Boat fish. For the left
fish, all you need is barely touch the spinner, and the right fish is the
microswitch just before the LIE lanes.

The most important shot to master (and the one that needs the most practice)
is the Caster's Club. If you can get it down, then you'll do very well. Of
course the captive ball and Long Cast are very important in conjunction as
well. There are several machines around that let you backhand the Caster's
Club from the right flipper. The only machine that I've been able to do
this on so far is a PAPA tournament machine.

Don't aim for the Stringers. Just let the ball hit them as it pleases.
If you have nothing better to do, or are really close to Feeding Frenzy or
Rock the Boat, then go ahead and try for them. The reason I say this is
because they are often drain shots. Some people always go for them anyway
(if nothing else than to get Biggest Liar!) for the Feeding Frenzy and Rock
the Boat. Rock the Boat is usually worth it, but Feeding Frenzy is only
worth 35M. It's up to you.

Find out which LIE lane the ball goes up the most from the Jets, and keep
that lane the unlit one. (This is almost always the I, from what I've seen
and heard.) You'll be much more likely to complete it faster if you avoid
duplicate letters this way.

Thanks!
-------

Here is a list of people to thank for comments/additions/corrections. The
order is who mailed me first, then the order at which they appeared on
r.g.p.

Chris Crywalt ([email protected])
Jens ([email protected])
Bowen Kerins ([email protected])
David Stewart ([email protected])
Christopher Hartman ([email protected])
Mark Phaedrus ([email protected])
Joe Schwartz ([email protected])

Thanks to these individuals for making this guide a more definitive
reference (and the world a better place!).

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