The rules card I made for the Helen translite actually makes it a bit easier to understand I think, because you can easily see which shots you're supposed to be making for each song. I can never remember since I don't own it, and it's hard to glance down at the stock rule card quickly for that info.

there is an awesome rules sheet

http://pinballarcadefans.com/showthread.php/4761-For-Those-About-to-Rock-AC-DC-Premium-LE-v1-65-Ruleset

Read this.
Play your pin about 100 times.
Read this again.

Repeat until you understand everything, then contact me so I can have you explain some of it to me.

THAT'S why you keep a game like ACDC. So simple and yet so complex. Perfect balance in my opinion.

Lyman and Ritchie. Amazing!

Keep it. Sold mine exactly 2 weeks ago today, going to buy another tomorrow.

Oh yeah, same here. Sold mine after 9-10 months. Went without it for about 3 months. Bought another that's going nowhere!

Besides all those emails you sent me about Helen, and getting the custom light kit for her, you want to see that all going in person don't you?

Crank that puppy and play it loud! Gets the pinball blood up like no other pin.

I hear you on the mode based gameplay as I had gotten rid of my Congo a long while back just because of that. But looking at your collection, since you have so many mode based games, AC/DC looks like a good mix to your current line-up. To me, AC/DC is all about getting that hi-score, whether it be an overall score, song score, jackpot score, etc. But if you're looking for something to "complete," aside from getting encore, there's really nothing else to beat that I can think of.

took me awhile to figure it out, now i think the game is awesome.
play it more, read the everything about it, watch videos, it's worth it!

Ac/dc and Woz are the only locks in that group, imo!

If you get a little tired of it change out the song selection. Nothing like a little Thunder Road from the Boss to bring it back to life.

If you're mainly playing TNT and Thunderstruck, I can see how you might be frustrated. Those are easily the most dangerous shots in the game. Try playing some safer songs, like War Machine, Rosie or You shook me. You won't get as frustrated.

Search here for things like "song request", "jukebox" and "song jackpot" and you'll find plenty of reading. If you really want to learn the game.

No doubt, TNT is the worst, yet coolest, with the TNT flasher mod, I'll play that song just to watch that dynamite go off. Play all the different songs and like Phish says, one way to play it is to play the lowest song champion at a time and try and beat those scores and go from there.

Don't forget to sub out those crappy songs with good stuff you like

Man, AC/DC gets so much love I'm not a fan of music pin's but I'm really reconsidering on the basis of a deep rule set. I'm not a LOTR fan but enjoyed my time with that pin because of the gameplay and rules. Is AC/DC going to fall into that category??? I played the pro and it didn't do anything for me but maybe it's time to give it another chance.

You can customize what songs play in the game, is it within a list or something you can manually transfer to the game?

rock and roll train is a good one for newer players shoot the ramps in combo

With pinball browser you can put whatever songs you like in there. That's what makes it so great on top of the ruleset and shotmaking. Bing Crosby to Jimmy Buffet to Bruce Springsteen, whatever floats your boat. It's awesome!

I only have TNT, Back in Black and Highway to Hell left. And I never play the last two.

Getting ready for the next change up….

There are some parts missing.. but if stern will ever finish them? who knows. The parts that are in are complete, so its not like it drops out on you.

Game play can be broken down into two portions...
Multiballs
and
Song Jackpots

Multiballs can be stacked before starting.. and you can use the bell to multiply jackpots. Stacking multiballs increases the jackpot values. Complete drop sets to enable album, complete ramps to start jam, complete loops to start tour. There is a add-a-ball if you complete all the song shots during MB.

Song jackpots are basically... make song shots to increase jackpot.. shoot canon when lit to collect jackpot. If you drain, song jackpot resets. Bell multipliers multiply song jackpots as well for the big points. Each song has a different qualifying shot(s) that when made light the other shots for bigger boosts in song jackpot values.

Complete the fire inlane rollerovers 3 times to like the canon. Hit the bell 3 times to get 2x multipler, 3 more times before timer expires to get 3x. After getting 2x, each hit on the bell resets the (20?) timer.. when timer expires, multipliers reset to 1x.

Make enough song shots to relight the jukebox.. hit the jukebox to change songs if you want. Playing all the songs gives you 'encore' which is the wizard mode payoff.

Everything else beyond that are finer points. Trying to collect big song jackpots and timing the bell multiplier is the challenge of this game that keeps people coming back for more over and over.

most boring pinball ever, which was so hard for me to say for so long as a life-long AC/DC fan. But after being bored time after time with a thoughtless pin it should be easy to let it go. There's plenty of great pins out there. No reason to hang on to such a bad one.

Troll much?

If you found ACDC boring, you should have asked a grown-up for some change, put it in the machine, and hit the start button.

There's great reason as to why this pin hit top 5 and continues to rise in the ranks on Pinside top 100

Yup, that's pretty much how everyone who understands ACDC would sum it up, "thoughtless". Totally no strategy or rules to it all. lol Lyman.

Oh wait, no one would say that.

Me thinks Zuel is looking for a good deal on an ACDC pin?

helen-do-it-for-me.jpg

Excuse me, I am a "troll" because I have an opinion about a pinball machine? If you revisit the title of this thread it was implied that it's author was looking for people with an opinion. I voiced mine. So now I am a "troll".
Being a grown-up means being able to handle other peoples opinions even when they aren't yours. Maybe you will figure that out one day. People come here to talk about pinball. If you can't handle that then move on, little man.

I think it was your exaggerated statement of "most boring pinball". I'm not a huge fan of ACDC, but it's faaaar from most boring pinball ever!

Fine then, let's do it your way:
"Most boring pinball ever" -hardly. Great music (so long as you don't hate the band of course), awesome lighting, and great risk/reward decisions (when to cash in on the jackpot), as well as ramps with great flow, combos, cool toys, and 3 multiballs that you can stack or play individually.
So no. Not the most boring pinball ever.

"Thoughtless rules" -please contact Stern immediately. They've been looking for someone better than Lyman Sheats and apparently you've now made yourself known to the pinball community.

"No reason to hang on to such a bad one" -see ranking of Pinside Top 100. Specifically number 5. Few actually agree with how the rankings are weighted, but you're welcome to read the reviews of many who would not refer to this as "a bad one", and especially not "such a bad one".

"Little man" -I'm over 6 foot 5.

Your turn.

Would love to see a list of pins you feel are more exciting to play.

Meh, I love playing mine, but I think it's the music and the working of the crowd noises when you hit jackpots that builds up the fun more than anything.

I'm starting to get a bit of a gripe with the game as of late. I love playing it, but the rules are becoming more shallow to me than ever before. I know that's a bold statement, but hear me out:

The rules on paper, when reading the walkthrough someone made, appear outstanding, and they are. But when you play, really, you are doing the one thing for that song that opens up all the jackpot shots, shooting through all those, and moving on to the next song to try to complete them all. Do you really care honestly about how each calculate the points, which again is done very well, but really, 4-5 jackpot shots in each are in the same ballpark as any other song, yes there are things that change that but are you really trying to go for that, or are you hitting what you have to and attempting to start another song?

Of course you are trying to combine each mode with a MB, but this comes down to the easiest and more safest path which is hitting the ramps and starting Jam MB, then doing the song mode.

This in the end, comes down to a very similar play for each mode: do the thing that lights the jackpots for all shots, hit the ramps, start Jam (maybe mixed in with the other MBs when they become lit), and playing out the MB, in which at the end, the mode usually has made the 8 shots, rinse and repeat (I hate that term, but true) with the next song. You don't have much difference at all in the modes, so although there are 12 modes, you are doing the same basic stuff for each one.

The key is loading up the song JP, and hopefully cashing out with a 2x, but really, tell me you all aren't doing the same thing as this.

Again, great rules, phenomenal when you read through them, but 90% are lost in the subtle nature they are executed and even acknowledged by most.

this might help

http://papa.org/2012/12/03/acdc-tutorial-2/

Can't argue with you, though I've personally not found this to be the case.
I say this simply because there are at least 3 different strategies whenever you turn the game on.
1) multiballs. get as many as you can and while in each multiball, build that multiball jackpot by hitting the combos, targets, or loops (depending which multiball you're in)
-or use the multiball to keep hitting shot notes to build the jackpot that way
2) song notes to build jackpots for high scores
3) song notes and jukebox to advance to the next song

As simple as those all sound, when I was at a friends place yesterday, we spent a few minutes discussing various strategies around whether to stack all three multiballs or use them individually. Then we decided to play a few games to put things to the test. After 3 2-player games, neither of us scored more than 20,000,000 OR started ONE multiball.

To me, simplifying the rules is like saying: Ferrari's are boring. Get in the car, turn the key, floor the gas pedal. Nothing to it.

Apparently some of those who like the band still don't care much for the song selection in the game.

I don't like the band AC/DC. I would never own an AC/DC pin because I don't like the music or the artwork (on any version of the pin). But I'm sure the gameplay is good because Lyman is really good.

Nothing near as dangerous about Thunderstruck as TNT. Learn to backhand the chicklets off the ramp shots. When you do it right you can actually nick the targets, get credit, and hit either the bell or make the ramp as well.

It's hard to imagine ACDC as a boring pin.

Only when you're moving it.

Personally I feel like simplicity or repetition in how I play AC/DC has more to do with my lack of full understanding of the rule complexity and general lack of creativity.

I think your comments beg for someone to start an AC/DC strategy thread to include strategies for each song, when to change the song and start which new song at which stage in the game, how to utilize and maximize super modes, and the million other ideas I'm too dense to consider.

I'm sure collectively Pinsiders could cover a lot of ground many of us haven't thought of.

You put it well. I agree, the song you pick is more crucial in determining Song Bonus (different than Song Jackpot, earn-able during Album or Tour MB, collects current Song Jackpot but DOES NOT reset it) than anything.

I'm under the impression that they're working on AC/DC code (there were examples of this at tournaments), and I'm excited to see what they come up with.

But try to get MB's loaded up for each MB. If you have a change song lit and a MB lit, don't hit the MB, change the song and start the MB for the next mode.

on all games strategy depends on are you going for score or wizard mode

Jam is only a part of the setup. Rarely the primary strategy. Can't collect a song jackpot in Jam.

You're missing a lot. The beauty of AC/DC is in the number of ways you can attack it. When it made it's first appearance at PAPA, only Bowen had figured out the biggest exploit (since fixed). He walked up to the qualifying game and kicked everyone's ass badly. Guys watched what he did, then started doing what he did. The number of possible strategies for AC/DC is almost endless. That's what you want in a home game and a tournament game.

You made no mention of song or tour order in your post. Knowing those is critical. hint: TNT is good for both Album and Tour multiball. Play AC/DC with players that are better than you and you'll learn more. Guaranteed.

I didn't get the impression that the original poster (who I was replying to) is doing a lot of backhands. While safer from a backhand, they're still dicey. War Machine, Rosie and You shook me are all much safer.

I just opened my Prem last night/early this morning (yay)! I only have a handful of games on ACDC, and have really no idea what the heck is going on?! I love the music (I had already changed my song list and ordered the jukebox mod from Leon weeks ago). I think the music will keep it in my collection for a long time….I do worry about not having a mode based game as those are the ones that seem to appeal to me more.

For the new guy (a fellow Canuck!) who just joined the ACDC army.
Check out the link above and it'll help explain the game -though you may wish to digest it a little bit at a time. It's a lot to take in all at once.

I can see where you are coming from. The reality is 9 out of 10 games I play I am shooting for a high score, and for me that means a pretty shallow strategy. For me it always boils down to stay in Thunderstruck the entire game and shoot for the safe jam multiball (or sometimes tour if I am only one or two shots away). Once in multiball, keep hammering the bell and the ramps to get the cannon ready for the song jackpot. When jackpot is ready try to make sure the bell is multiplied before sending it up the ramp for the jackpot. Rinse and repeat - especially rewarding if you can get more than one song jackpot per multiball. Sounds pretty boring and shallow, but I'm totally addicted to it because of the big jackpot risk/reward. Games that force me to play more modes/rules sit around collecting dust so complexity doesn't always mean more fun.

You might think I am crazy for picking Thunderstruck, but after long experimentation I've found it builds the best song jackpots (well at least on my pro). You never actually purposely hit a Thunderstruck target, but you end up hitting piles of them anyway, especially in multiball, where I flail instead of cradle - you end up hitting dozens of them and also collect lots of combos. Only time I cradle in multiball is when the song jackpot is lit and I need to get the bell multiplied and then go for the cannon shot. Anyway this often gives me 300-500m point games (best is 876m so far), and that's mostly song jackpot.

I do still appreciate the other depth of the rules though, because the other 1 out of 10 games, I try to get to and finish encore mode (which I doubt I ever will). I can see your point if playing this way, as all 12 song completions are very similar - collect the 8 easiest song requests and get the jukebox. Not too much variety there compared to some other games (I think this is where the premium would be more fun giving the proper hell modes). But I still enjoy it a lot. For me, playing like this is mostly to practice having to hit every shot on the table instead of just the half dozen you need for scoring big points. As others mention, it's also fun to try and beat your best song champion scores.

I have to admit I still don't understand the song/tour order subtleties for boosting score - that's getting a bit too complex for me to want to figure it out and I'm not sure it made a pile of sense to include such a specific thing to the rules. But maybe it's simpler than I think it is and I'm just not getting it.

I like acdc and I really like the way it pulls in the ladies and players at shows. I was at california extreme last year and had a great time playing and watching the players, many of them the few female attendees.

There was an attraction to acdc that no other machine had, that was last July 2013.

I am of the mind however if you don't like it, sell it and get another pin. You can always obtain the game again later.

People don't really seem to like that the song bonus is based on the album/tour chronology, but at least it's based on something. There are other games that do similar things, like RS with the souvenirs.

Anyway, I'll try to explain the song bonus as well as I can.

The Song Bonus IS your Song Jackpot (what you collect by shooting the cannon shot). The only difference is, when you score the Song Bonus, your Song Jackpot value does NOT reset. It is scored by starting Album or Tour jackpot. You score regular jackpots by completing a target bank, or shooting an orbit, respectively. Every time you do that, you advance an album/tour in their chronology. When you score the album/tour that your song corresponds with, the Song Bonus is scored.

A simple strategy I employ: If I have a large Song Jackpot built up, and the ability to change the song, I'll try to choose something early in their career, usually TNT. By doing this, when you clear that first target bank, you are scoring the value of the Song Jackpot (but again, without it resetting).

So, you can really score the Song Bonus and then the Song Jackpot to score some really quick points...but you should really avoid doing it the other way around if you can.

What if you are playing a much more recent song, and then start Album multiball. You hit, say 6 target banks, and do not get the bonus.
You drain back down to 1 ball, and change songs to say TNT. You start another album multiball...
Can you get the song bonus, or is it lost, since you've already passed the TNT chronology (3 target banks required I believe)?

It is already past and the only way to get High voltage again is to collect all the albums and start over . You have to think and know the albums to master AC/DC . The best mode to play for huge points is Hell Bells , bar none !

It would be great to have the song bonus order on one of the rule cards... I made a post in another thread for the number of song jackpots needed, but I have no artistic talent/patience..