Here's what I have at this point, getting close to completion with the basic VP 9.9 build and undergoing refinement and flipper playtesting. The two main things left to finish are the left orbit area to and from the magnet, where the spinner will be housed near the entrance, and the centre shot. Making a regular shot that loops around the right would be easy; the problem so far is in trying to house another lock at the top of the shot that has enough space to reliably kick out a ball when another approaches it, without risk of the other ball falling back down the centre. At one point I was looking at an up-kick hammer lower down that balls could drop into, but couldn't make enough room to fit the necessary requirements. You'll notice the centre is one of the tighter shots; this is intentional since either flipper can access it and I don't want an easy repeatable loop with a stop-start element, when there is a perfectly good repeatable orbit on the game already.
A few notes:
Captive ball chamber houses the requested in-lines, rather than the lock shot on the right, since I didn't want to copy Fathom. Instead the upper flipper feeder will encourage players to keep shooting it with three seperate features; the rollover chain, the status of which is tied to the scattered standup targets; the eject pocket at the top; and the guard target in front. Giving this target a trip coil means the in-lines don't need them; also, because the in-lines aren't in the proximity of the lock, they aren't automatically tied by default to any rules concerning multiball start, although that option still exists. Once the locks are active shoot the single drop, then shoot the top right lock behind it, shoot the lock that will go in the centre shot, then either shot to the magnet, which will release all three balls to feed to a different location.
Pop bumper area can be entered from several ways; the shooter lane, the magnet drop, the top lanes, the upper right flipper, and from various target rebounds. This will give plenty of bumper action wth multiple potential exits including a feed to the left flipper. The exposed bottom pop also negates the need for a left slingshot and should give the game a more distinct feel of its own. Dual inlanes on the left allow for a bounceback outlane in addition to this that doesn't require a gate. A ball that rolls up when caught by the left flipper should bounce quite cleanly off the inlane post and come straight back.
Also, in keeping with the early-80s feel, different post types are being kept to the minimum where possible; star posts, mini-posts and spacer spools for holding plastics and gates.
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