Interesting information, thank you for sharing it!

A little OT of the original post but I'm curious if there are any known bugs or glitches in the Cyclone code?

The reason that I ask is that I recently purchased a Cyclone as my first pin and as part of shopping it I upgraded the game roms from L-4 to L-5.

On rare occasions I've noticed that I don't always get the correct multiplier if I hit the 100k skill shot. For example, I've very occasionally seen where I might get 100k x 1 even if it is the second ball or 100k x 2 if it is the third ball. The machine correctly knows that it is the second or third ball but doesn't apply the multiplier correctly.

One other occasional glitch that I've seen on my machine is that sometimes if I knock the ball into Boomerang hole it doesn't advance the x Advance multipier. This seems to happen very occasionally if I visit the Boomerang a second time shortly after having been there and having the x Advance register.

Does it sound like I may have some issue(s) with my game that I need to track down or have other Cyclone owners seen this behavior in their machines?

Thanks for replying. I didn't have the game very long before I swapped out the L4 ROM for the L5 but I seem to remember the multiplier glitch with the skill shot happening when I had the L4 ROM in there as well.

With the boomerang glitch, I don't believe I saw this until I rebuilt my flippers a couple of weeks back.

Everything seems to be working well with my Cyclone except for these couple of minor glitches.

At some point, I'll take your suggestion and put the L4 ROM back in and see if the glitches remain. If so, then maybe its time to do a little debugging and follow up with a dedicated thread here.

It sounds like the skill shot may not be a glitch but a misunderstanding. If you over shoot the ball on any plunge....it doesn't count toward the multiplier. Ex: You over shoot the first ball and it goes all the way up to the rollovers. The next shot will then only give you 1x if you do hit a skill shot hole and the 3rd ball will only give you 2x if you hit a skill shot hole. The ball has to hit a skill shot hole or it does not add on to the multiplier.

As for the boomerang. The left return lane lights it. There is an insert in front of it that lights in advancing the bonus X is available. I run L-5 roms for years and never noticed any glitches at all. If you have it lit, hit the hole and still don't get it...you might want to check your switch.

Duh,

I feel like such an idiot but you are 100% correct DugFreez.

I was unaware that over shooting the skill shot holes would not count the ball towards the skill shot multiplier but that makes perfect sense now.

On the boomerang not registering, I think you've explained that one away to my ignorance as well. The occasional times that it is not registering are likely because it hasn't been lit yet by going through the left return lane. I thought that it would always advance any time the ball was hit there.

Thanks for taking the time to explain some of the nuances of the machine that were lost on me as a casual player who just recently purchased Cyclone as my first pin.

Viperrwk,

I would definitely be curious as to what differences you find between the L4 and L5 ROMs just out of curiousity. Please do report back here if and when you have a chance to compare the two.

Thanks to both yourself and DugFreez for your help!

I don't have a Cyclone anymore to experiment with but the rule sheet says something I don't understand:

To advance your Bonus X, shoot the boomerang hole. This is where the ball gets kicked out from the Spook-House. It will only advance your Bonus X when it's lit, and you can re-light it by the return lanes. Or, even simpler, shoot a ramp, or the Ferris Wheel.

I can understand that hitting the Ferris Wheel will relight it (since it dumps the ball to the left return lane), but I don't ever remembering a ramp shot relighting it. Both ramps dump the ball to the right return lane (which lights the Ferris Wheel) or the pops if its a weak Comet shot.

Can someone report back and let me know if a ramp shot does indeed light the Boomerang?

PS: The game does a different little tune at the end of ball bonus add up if you get it all the way up to 7x. I had the game for many years before I ever did that.

DugFreez,

To answer your question, I just finished playing a couple of games and, yes, the Comet and Cyclone ramp shots which dump to the right return lane will also lite the X-Advance if it is not lit.

Since it starts the game lit and almost always increased the X-Advance when I hit the boomerang shot I guess I never really paid close attention to the fact that it becomes unlit when you hit the shot.

Glad to know that both of the things I thought might be glitches are actually part of the ruleset.

Thanks again to you and Viperrwk for your responses!

viperrwk thanks very much for this info! I have been wondering if I should bother to update the ROMs in my Cyclone - they are pretty early, I think L1 or L2.

Please keep us posted on your progress - and I know I for one would be interested in seeing the snippets of disassembled code or at least the memory addresses of any ROM differences documented here for posterity.

While we're on the subject of the Cyclone rule set, does anybody know what shot or shots increase the end of ball bonus? It seems like even if I get the multiplier up to 4x or 5x, my bonus is still pretty puny, so I would like to know what I should be shooting for to increase the bonus amount.

Thanks, BadBrick

Did anyone ever figure out the differences, if any, between game roms L-4 and L-5? I'm currently running L-4 and am curious to know if there is any reason to go to L-5.
Appreciate the help.

Great. Ill do the upgrade. Thanks!