Pinball Arcade

Pinball Arcade

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The Pinball Arcade: Twilight Zone
By touch grass and 1 collaborators
You're traveling through another dimension; a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wonderous land whose boundries are that of imagination. Your next stop: The Twilight Zone.
I hope that's not a copyright.
This guide will teach you how to play a Bally classic and the best pinball machine ever produced: Twilight Zone. It will go over mutliball, the Powerball, Powerball Mania, the Powerfield, door panel modes, and the wizard mode. Don't worry; this is not a cookbook, so don't break your glasses.
I'm gonna get sued here soon.
Please excuse me if I drift too much into the actual pinball machine. I'm an expert pinball player myself IRL; I've been to a few tournaments, and I already own two beautiful pins myself. So, if you notice this, I apolagize, but that shouldn't change much on the gameplay of TZ on The Pinball Arcade. Play a real game. Play pinball!
Also, I am left handed, so I may confuse right with left, but that shouldn't change much. Oh, everything's all backwards!
Great. Now Stern's gonna sue me.
   
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TZ Basics
Playfield
Twilight Zone consists of four flippers: two at the lower level, one to the right of the middle playfield, and a small one to the right of the upper playfield. In the top right of the game, you'll notice a small playfiled called the Powerfield. This has two magnets on the left and right of the bottom portion and a hole at the top and bottom. The game has many toys, such as a working clock showing the times of modes, a piano, and a working gumball machine that dispenses pinballs. by default, the gumball machine holds three pinballs, including the Powerball (See "Powerball" for more information). There are two orbits, two ramps, one set of three jet bumbers, two slingshots, dual left inlane, dual plunger lane, and many magnets across the playfield. The game holds 5 pinballs and one Powerball.
Game Rules (Default)
Twilight Zone is a three ball game, replay at 250,000,000, Two warnings (in the adjustments section, this will read three, but that includes tilting), and buy-in is set off. Piano and Slot Machine are both lit at ball start. There is no ball saver at start.

Sound and Display
This game uses a Williams standard DMD, and does not have DCS Sound System. Twilight Zone has no video mode (although I believe they could have easily done one about Nightmare at 20,000 Feet). Voices were NOT by Rod Serling, for he had died nearly twenty years earlier (although Bally still needed a license). Sound and music was by Chris Granner.
Mutiballs
Multiball
Multiball locks are lit by spelling GUM-BALL via the left and right ramps. The first multiball requires GUM-BALL spelt once to lite all locks, the next requires you to lite two locks, and the third requires lighting the release. After the first lock of the first multiball, the left ramp is lit for the release, but for a jackpot value of only 15,000,000. It is a 3-ball multiball, where-in the jackpot is the piano, which, unless started early, starts at 40,000,000. The jackpot can be increased by 5,000,000 for each lit greed target hit. The re-lite is the camera. The jackpot can be doubled by the Powerball.

Powerball Mania
Powerball Mania is started by loading the Powerball back into the gumball machine (see "Powerball" for more information). It's another 3-ball where the jackpot is the top exit on the Powerfield and every switch scores 250,000. The re-lite is the left ramp. An interesting bug to note is that in the production of TZ, Bally didn't have the money to have the top exit of the Powerfield register for a jackpot, so they used the next shot down: the camera. If you shoot the camera while there's a ball in the Powerfield, you still get full credit, and this bug was seemingly carried over into The Pinball Arcade.Here's a tip: use the time in the jackpot animation to shoot the camera and score another jackpot, if you have any other balls in play, since the game will not kick out any balls during jackpot animations. Your score from Powerball Mania is AWARDED IN BONUS, so watch that nudging, pal. Unfortunately, this is not affected by mutipliers, so you won't be getting any billion point bonuses from that.

Fast Lock
Fast Lock is one of the door panel modes. It counts down from 15,000,000 until you hit the lock, which starts yet another 3-ball multiball with the lock being worth the value of the start. Interesting note, during the hurry-up you hear five quotes from five earlier Lawlor pins: The Addams Family, Funhouse, Whirlwind, Earthshaker, and Banzai Run, in that order. Upon starting Fast Lock mutiball, you will get the multiball music of the pin the quotes you were hearing are from. These are the quotes you will hear:
The Addams Family: Cousin It blabbing. Hitting lock: Cousin It: "Aaaah!".
Funhouse: "Hey, it´s only pinball!". Hitting lock: Rudy: "Gulp...ptooey!".
Whirlwind: "Return to your homes!". Hitting lock: "Do not panic".
Earthshaker: "It´s sunny drive time!". Hitting lock: "Ooh, Gimme shelter!".
Banzai Run: "Welcome race fans!". Hitting lock: "Go for the hill!".

As any good pinball player should know, most mutliballs are best played under control. Remember to use skills such as trapping, dead bounces, cradel seperations, and take advantage of the grace period during jackpot animations to regain control.
Notable Features
Powerfield
The Powerfield is a small elevated playfield in the top left of the game. It has two "Magna-flips"; magnets activated by the flipper buttons that propel the ball sparatically. You gain points by hitting rebound switches on the Powerfield, which is doubled for defeating the Power; shooting the ball into the top exit. Defeating the Power will also award a door panel. The best part is, if you drain out of the Powerfield, the ball goes straight to the jets, and we should all know about those damn TZ jets. You access the Powerfield via the right ramp which is lit for Battle the Power either by hitchhikers, door panels, or camera awards. Like most everything in this game, your score from the Powerfield is in bonus. "Never underestimate The Power... in The Twilight Zone."

Gumball Machine/Powerball
Behind and a bit to the right of the Powerfield is the gumball machine. This contains and dispenses pinballs, including the Powerball. spelling GUM-BALL will lite the gumball machine as well as locks, and eventually dispense the Powerball. The Powerball is a ceramic pinball, which moves much faster, is much lighter, and is uneffected by the game's magnets. The left orbit is lit for Powerball loops, at 10,000,000 each. The greed targets add 5,000,000 to the Powerball payoff, which is awarded when the Powerball is put back into the gumball machine. You can also lock it for a chance to score double jackpots in multiball. Once you reload the Powerball, Powerball Mania will start. If you drain the Powerball, eventually it will be put back into play from the trough.
Skill Shot
Above the plunger lane, you'll notice three sections colored red, orange, and yellow. Plunging this normally will award a point value and lite bumbers. But it is generally not advised, since it fires the ball straight into the bumpers. This can be worth more valuable awards in Super Skill Shot mode.

Town Square
The Town Square is located in the bumpers. The bumpers increase the value, which is collected by shooting a hole in back of the bumpers. If Dead End is lit, it will be worth twice the value, and enough Dead Ends will award an extra ball or 100,000,000 points. The camera can also award a 3x Town Square.
Door Panels
Town Square Madness
A mode where every switch scores an amount of points increased by the bumpers.

Lite Extra Ball
You guessed it: Lites an extra ball.

Super Slot
Slot machine scores an amount between 15 and 20 Million.

Clock Millions
Every hit to the clock target between the two ramps scores the hour on the clock times 1,000,000. Hit it six times to hear Rudy yell "Quit playing with the clock!"

The Spiral
Shots to the spiral loops score an amount of points.

Batle the Power
Lites the Powerfield.

10 Million
Awards an amount of points. I speculate this amount to be 10,000,000, but I'm not sure.

Greed
Lit greed targets add 5,000,000 to total.

The Camera
Lites the camera a few times.

Hitch-Hiker
Awards 2,000,000 per hitch-hiker and 2,000,000 for every hitch-hiker that ball.

Clock Chaos
Clock Chaos is much like Clock Millions, except the clock starts on 6, and starts going backwards. Each hit to the target awards the hour times 1,000,000, and reverses the clock. It goes faster with each hit, and the mode ends when the clock hits 12. Since it reverses each time, this can technically be an unlimited mode, although it caps at 255,000,000. The animation shows a cute little robot from an episode of The Twilight Zone turning the crank on a clock, and when you hit the target, a pinball hits the robot and the back of his head, and the robot kills it with lasers. The robot makes funny blargh sounds and "Pop Goes the Weasel" plays throughout the mode. I have no idea...

Super Skill Shot
The left ramp feeds the manual plunger lane, where you can get awards from the three skill shot switches, and 10,000,000 for those and the scoop. Red skill shot lites the Powerfield, yellow lites the outlanes (extra ball on left, special on right, slings rotate which is lit), and yellow lites an extra ball at the lock.

Fast Lock
Starts Fast Lock hurry-up. See "Mutliballs" for more information.

Lite Gumball
Lites the gumball machine, believe it or not.

***SPOILER ALERT***
DON'T TOUCH THE SPOILERS DON'T TOUCH THE- sorry about that, I trust you know that reference by now. Anyway, this next section may contain spoilers that you may not wish to see at this moment, so you I warn. Don't touch them.
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Lost in the Zone
Lost in the Zone is the wizard mode, achieved by lighting all door panels. It is a 6-ball multiball, also the only multiball that isn't a 3-ball. This is a sixty second frenzy mode where EVERYTHING IS LIT. The Powerfield scores a 50,000,000 jackpot (or the camera, wink wink), greed is lit, clock is lit, town square and dead end are lit (simutaneously?), slot machine is lit, hitch-hiker shot's worth 2,000,000, town square madness is lit, and left ramp scores 10,000,000. There's a countdown starting at the last five seconds, and once the clock strikes 12, everything stops, all balls drain and are loaded into the gumball machine while your total is displayed. It could take a while until the balls are loaded, so be patient. A good LITZ is upwards of 300,000,000, and the best one yet will be displayed as it's own high score on the high score table. It's also the most fun and awesome thing in the game.

Those times when you shoot the Powerball onto the Powerfield...
Overview
Twilight Zone is an incredibly fast, fun, and challenging game, it's definately one of, if not the best, by Bally/Williams, and that of all pinball. (Don't listen to those Pinsiders, they try to brainwash you into thinking that MM is the best. I'm not saying Pinside is bad, I love Pinside, I'm just saying the majority think MM is the best- and they're wrong.) Anyway, Twilight Zone is a great collector's game and tournament game, and always fun to play.
12 Comments
touch grass  [author] 9 Apr, 2021 @ 6:52pm 
I believe, due to copyright reasons, Farsight had to remove a bunch of Bally/Williams tables. I believe there's another pinball emulator out there that has these machines, though. If you're looking for one in real life, you'll have to check Pinside or other places online (such as eBay or whatever they have now).
￴ ￴ ￴ ￴ ￴ ￴ ￴ ￴ 9 Apr, 2021 @ 1:23pm 
I know I am 7 years late, but how do you get the twilight zone pinball machine?
19x19 21 Dec, 2014 @ 1:52pm 
thx
JoeJean (Qc) 14 Oct, 2014 @ 3:21pm 
The most bugged pinball of them all, lol, how to turn an all time classic pinball into utter garbage... Well done, way to make money off unsuspecting people.... You get an A for backstab...
Max (MDR) 20 May, 2014 @ 7:13pm 
One thing to add on the Extra Ball door panel: If you earn ANY extra ball, either through Robots, Super Skill shot reward (Outlanes lit or EB Lit), or by reaching Replay, it will light the EB panel for you, and you will lose the chance to get that reward lit through the piano or slot until you either end the game or you get Lost...in the Zone!
DrsIrPeeWee 19 Apr, 2014 @ 5:18pm 
THX
boarding 18 Jan, 2014 @ 4:07am 
Nice
76561198053419361 23 Dec, 2013 @ 8:27pm 
A Bit long, but a good guide.
dyl4n 14 Nov, 2013 @ 5:30pm 
Holy crap
touch grass  [author] 9 Nov, 2013 @ 9:08pm 
Yeah, but that wouldn't make for such an unnecessarily long guide.