At 5x it drops to 2 shots lit for the multiplier. At 10x it drops to one shot lit.

If you're playing as R2D2, those thresholds are 7x and 14x instead.

Yes, it resets back to 3 if the multiplier times out and drops to 2x.

There is a points advantage to the old stacking behavior, where you can stack a planet's fourth mode (multiball) with a mode from another planet. This behavior became not allowed by default in a code update, but there is a setting to restore it. The points advantage is indirect via the multiplier; the multiball doesn't change the points for the other mode, but the additional ball launches will hit the multiplier targets.

There is no points advantage to the current stacking behavior, where you can stack modes from two different planets, but they run independently and don't affect each other. Stacking just helps you progress through multiple modes at the same time.

There is a setting to disable stacking completely. You never really need this setting, since you can just choose a single unstacked mode every time if you want to, but it's there if you want to enforce it.

I don't know what setting it is. I don't own a SW (though have one on order for the August run), just remembered from reading this thread.

I'll take a guess as to why it's there: to validate the playfield when you go for a FORCE skill shot and miss high. If that switch wasn't there, there's a pretty good chance you could let the ball no-switch-drain and try again.

Well, so you're actually trying to make the Force shot with skill instead of just wishing for a lucky rebound.

Most likely the flipper is triggering that switch just by vibration in general. Bend its contacts a bit farther apart and that should solve it.

I think what makes it possible to backhand the DS ramp (and the left orbit) is adjusting the flipper alignment upwards by a millimeter or two. I don't have firsthand experience with SW, but doing that helped significantly on my AIQ, particularly for backhanding Thor which needs about the same force and angle.

Most of the problems can be fixed in a home environment. SDTM drains from the center loop, right orbit, and Tatooine scoop can be fixed by tweaking the ball guides and flipper and eject power. The premium hyperloop ramp can be adjusted too if shots aren't making it cleanly.

The big problem that can't is when the ball goes plunger -> standups -> left outlane. You can avoid this on manual plunges by plunging softly to the Force targets or flippers, but during multiballs, it's going to happen unavoidably. Some find that tolerable, some don't.

Much of the fun of the game comes from zipping the multiplier around to the lit shots. If you like that (I do), you'll love SW. Some find that too video-gamey and just want to shoot balls without the extra labor.

I believe it's to validate the playfield when you go for a skill shot at the FORCE targets and miss high. If not for that, it would be easy to no-switch drain on purpose to keep trying again.

I hold the unpopular opinion there: The hyper loop is a noisy distraction that just gets in the way and makes gameplay worse. It's an overgrown ball lock. I was never impressed by Getaway's Supercharger either. I have no need for balls zooming around if there's nothing I'm going to do with them. It looks cool at first, but I was tired of it after an hour of playing on location. If you like it, sure go ahead and get a premium, I just wouldn't for myself.

Right, if it's not the coil stop, then the likely problem (particularly at this time of year) is that humidity has swelled the playfield wood so the flipper is sticking on it. To fix this, you adjust the flipper so that it has more up-and-down wiggle room on the shaft that it rotates on.

The big thing to tweak with a Premium is the hyperloop wireform that goes into the Death Star. There is an adjustment point where the height of the ramp can be changed vertically. You want this as high as you can go without balls hitting the roof of the DS, in order to make more clearance underneath it for balls coming up the fork ramp.

I don't know firsthand - I don't have one myself (got one on order but it's a pro not premium), just repeating what I remembered from upthread.

The punishing part is that there can be cheap drains, from balls exiting the center loop and both orbits. In a home setting, this can often be mitigated by slightly adjusting the ball guides and flipper power.

The other punishing cheap drain is when balls go plunger -> standups -> left outlane. This is hard to mitigate. Some say you can adjust the ball guide at the plunger to hit farther right on the standups. You can also install some kind of larger post or blocker on the outlane. Or increase ball-save times or even balls-per-game.

Has anyone heard of a Pro model coming in yet? I have one on order but no news, are they going to skip straight from SW Premium to 007?

I joined the club today too! Although with a Pro; the premium hyperloop is just a noisy distraction

Not sure about Stern, but for Williams, it was 30 games without a switch being activated to flag it as bad. STTNG's Borg ship was the most notorious. Same situation, a difficult shot that occurs only within a specific multiball.

Day one with my Pro:

gc 7b (resized).jpg

Blew up one particular ball. With the multiplier at 40x, I got a 500M video mode, 1200M hyperspace hurryup, plus a lot of activity during a big stack of Tie Fighter and Victory multiballs together. Also tacked on +5% score twice after that for 300M each, and the last ball's bonus was 500M and held.

Question: Where is the Millennium Falcon flasher? In the flasher test menu, listed as number 177. I went to this in the test menu and I don't see anything flashing anywhere. All other flashers and LEDs and GI work. (Pro model if that makes any difference.)

Day five on my Pro:

gc 15b (resized).jpg

All factory settings including the outlanes. As Luke, racked up 11b and won Jedi Multiball, then switched to Han who started with the multiplier already at 40x, and I hit another Hyperspace hurryup for 2 billion, then a 40x video mode and a bunch of bonus.

Question: What exactly is Luke's character power? The Tiltforums rulesheet says he can add-a-ball, but I don't seem to see that working. The button doesn't light up or do anything in Hyperspace or Tie Fighter multiballs. During planet/Victory multiballs, he can get it from the Force targets but that's the same as everyone else. There's also references early in this thread to Luke getting a free completion of the Force targets, but I don't see that happening either. It's hard to sort out what's current and what only existed in early code.

I'm not so sure about that (except Leia, that's known.) What you're describing are the ball-start options for each character, not the ongoing power. All of those come from ball-start options: Luke is always offered the Jedi rank up option, R2 is always offered +3 shot multiplier, Han is always offered Light Escape from Boba Fett. But if you don't choose that particular ball-start option, none of that happens. I'm trying to know the ongoing powers for Luke and Han.

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This is what the game shows on the info screens. I guess the only ongoing powers that Luke and Han really have are the increased scoring during those modes? And "Strong with the Force" is only a thematic description, it has nothing to do with the Force targets in-game. I think the Tiltforums rulesheet is just wrong or outdated in saying that Luke has an add-a-ball power. I don't think he does.

Yes, there is a significant fix for that. Balls coming up the fork ramp may be hitting the underside of the wireform above it, where that goes into the Death Star. There is a nut to adjust the vertical height of that wireform. You want this as high as it can go without balls on the wireform hitting the ceiling of the Death Star, so that there is more clearance underneath it for balls coming up the fork ramp.

Chewbacca shows up briefly in one spot. When you win Lightsaber Duel, the movie clip is Han climbing into the Falcon's cockpit, alongside Chewie. That's pretty much the only time you see him in the game, though.

Bit off topic, but I'm curious, what about GOTG makes it bolted to the floor? It seems like a perfectly decent game and I'm thinking about getting one eventually, but it doesn't stand out in any particular area, like the intensity and replayability of Star Wars or the character and humor of Deadpool or the depth and flow of the Elwin games.

My Pro from the last run came with the extra post as well. No idea why. The post at the bottom of the Force targets is already there on the Pro.

They're in the middle position from the factory. I haven't moved mine. High of 39 billion. I do have the tilt bob loose and easy slide saves on a hardwood floor.

I've never had my Pro crash or reboot. Reports seem to be that it only happens while logged in to Insider, which I don't do on mine.

I'm perfectly happy with my Pro. I think the premium hyperspace loop is just an overgrown ball lock that makes the game harder both to play and to maintain. I don't need to see a small plastic Death Star open up. And I'm fine with the plastic ramps too - I like that sloppy or soft shots have a bit of flex and give instead of clunking off hard.

My Hyperspace MB is 23.something. Pro model if that makes a difference. The way to go big is to stack Hyperspace with a planet multiball and have Hyperspace carry over into the victory multiball as well. Biggest would be if you saved several add-a-balls and kept using them each time you're about to lose the victory MB.

Specifically during the planet multiballs (fourth mode of each planet), not Hyperspace or TIE multiballs. Hit the Force targets 5 times total; they come back up after each hit, and if you go about 10 seconds with no hits you have to start over. Add-a-balls earned from different planet multiballs stack until used, and they can be used in any multiball including Hyperspace and TIE.

Yes - specifically what you want to do is use the add-a-ball just as you drain so you're about to lose the multiball.

Note that you would have more than one add-a-ball for Endor only if you earned one in a different planet multiball beforehand and didn't use it then.

With any flippers, you can adjust the alignment upwards and it will help make that shot. There's a SW Premium near me on location that has the left flipper adjusted way up (close to 3 mm above the centering indicator), and it can backhand the fork ramp pretty reliably.

FYI, Guardians doesn't make you start modes over - pick the same mission again and you continue your progress where you left off. (Deadpool, BKSOR, Godzilla, Beatles also do this.)

In Star Wars, yes once you start a mission you're in it forever until you successfully complete it. (Led Zeppelin also does this.)

Hitting 4 white shots starts Boba Fett. Choosing it at the plunge lights all shots white, but doesn't get you closer until you shoot the shots. And if you light them, but then start a mission, and shoot a shot that was white, that clears the whiteness but doesn't count towards Boba Fett if it was your 3rd or 4th white shot.

And yes, nice bonus, my high is 2 billion. The easy way to get a huge bonus is to play as Han and drain repeatedly during Lightsaber Duel, since under that condition Bonus Held will always be one of the plunge options and can be chosen repeatedly.

I never noticed the insert, but I can answer the last part. Check the rulesheet on Tiltforums for Jedi multiball behavior, that's current after I updated it last month. It starts with 2 balls and completing each set of blue shots adds a ball.

Don't drain the ball, just put it in the plunger lane. While the high voltage lockout is off, the ball won't be plunged until you close the coin door.

The ones up top increase your bonus X, like every other machine ever.

The ones down bottom advance towards Hyperspace Hurry-up, it lights every 4 completions (lights the yellow arrow at the left orbit and right ramp, shoot either to start the hurryup.)

The "different every time" awards you're seeing are most likely the random pop bumper awards, not either set of lane rollovers.

This happens regularly thanks to a software bug. If you use an add-a-ball (earned by completing Force during one of the planet multiball modes) just before another ball drains (so the add-a-ball ball-saver just came on), both of those balls will be kicked into the shooter lane before it plunges them.

If that's not the case (and it wouldn't be if you're talking about single ball play), the most likely culprit is the shooter lane switch not registering, so the game thinks the ball didn't make it there and tries again.

The max 4 billion is possible, if you do it during a planet multiball mode, so that one ball can start the hurryup and another can complete it instantly.

Star Wars's game structure only makes sense when you know how GOT works and that it came first from the same designers. The house mission stacking in GOT is very thematic in that all the houses are always doing their different things, then Star Wars copied it even though it makes no sense thematically there to play different scenes from different movies at the same time. And the multiplier in Star Wars came about because people liked the idea of GOT's combo multipliers but found it too complicated and hard to execute, so it was simplified into a single player-controlled number for SW.

Is the machine updated to recent code? There were a number of tweaks and fixes to the timing of those posts.

GOTG has a simple version of a multiplier system too - you can light a multiplier on each particular shot for the rest of that ball, and any shot made in a combo also scores x2. (There's also Groot MB, but multiplied scoring during multiball has existed forever.)

For SW's multiplier for video mode - yes it needs to be on the Hoth shot before you start the video mode. Unless you're playing the video mode as the Hoth 1 mission instead, in which case the multiplier needed to be on the shot that started the mission (could be any of Death Star, Endor, Hoth, Tatooine, even though the mission is Hoth.) Yes, this is confusing.

Also, be aware that the multiplier spread will narrow as the value gets higher - it shrinks from a spread of 3 shots to 2 at 5x, then from 2 shots to only 1 at 10x. This means that a shot you thought was lit for the multiplier can become unlit. Always put your multiplier so that the *leftmost* one is at the shot you want to stay multiplied at the moment.

I did it once on mine, Jedi Multiball twice in a game with two different characters. Nothing special happens, the second one just behaves the same as the first. It might be cool if you got something like Mandalorian's permanent playfield multiplier, but SW doesn't have anything such. At least it doesn't end the game after the wizard mode like Jurassic and Godzilla.

FWIW, I've never seen this happen, across dozens of times stacking Hyperspace MB with other things. It may occur only on the Premium. I have a Pro.

Someone said far upthread that they thought this was the problematic sequence: During a mini wizard planet multiball, start the Hyperspace Hurryup. While that is running, finish winning the planet multiball to start Victory Multiball, so that the hurryup is still running when Victory MB starts. Then complete the hurryup and that's when the game holds the ball forever. I don't know if this is accurate, just repeating one report that sounds plausible.

Oh maybe it's the other way around - only happens on the pro not the premium - because the pro traps the ball on making a hyperspace hurryup but the premium doesn't because it goes into the hyperloop. I might just be lucky having never seen it on my pro. And we don't get many reports of it because everyone has premiums instead.

There are significant reasons. It's very drainy, particularly right from the plunge into the left outlane, and on the exit from the Hoth entrance down the middle. The mode stacking makes no sense thematically. The multiplier system takes some explaining and feels too video-gamey rather than pinbally. And the layout, although fast, is standard and boring. All these (besides the layout) can be fixed or learned in a home environment, but yeah Star Wars can be very off-putting for a casual player who just bangs out a few games on location.

The TIE fighter area is by far the most common source of rogue screws, and uses several of that black type, look around there.

I think those are the switches for the hyperspace loop, and the game can think they're not working if you don't get a ball into hyperspace in a certain number of games. Just putting any ball through there clears that error if they are indeed working.

I've got a recurring problem with mine. The lightbulbs in the spotlights that are mounted to the slingshots keep falling out. The left one has done this several times and the right one just also did today. Anyone else ever get this happening? Anything to do to get the bulbs to stay in there?

Do you mean the small metal sheet with a semicircular cutout? They are there on mine, but they seem to sit below the bulb. Is that little sheet supposed to be in front of the bulb to hold it in? How do you get that to stay in place, I guess just bend it?

The Pro model is noticeably easier, since you don't have to make the tough hyperloop ramp shot for the missions that require it. I get quite a bit deeper into the game playing pros on location rather than premiums.

Hot damn, last night I had the game of my life. 48 billion!

star wars 48b gc (resized).jpg
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This is on all standard settings, including the standard outlane positions. I do have the tilt bob loose, and the machine is on a hardwood floor for easy slide saves which I do frequently. And this is on a Pro model, which is substantially easier than the premium, for hitting all the death star and hyperspace shots without having to get up that fork ramp.

Played as Luke, started with Light Tatooine Missions, and shot Death Star, Endor, and Hoth until they were all lit too. I drained once on the first mission stack (Endor 2 + Tatooine 3.)

Then I played a nigh-on *perfect* game from there. I went all the way through all the rest of Luke's missions, Lightsaber Duel, and the four planet multiballs - including all four victory medals - all on the same ball and without ever even losing the multiplier! Including Death Star 1 which scored 3 billion with all the shots at 40x. Plus some stacks with Hyperspace and TIE multiballs, and also several hyperspace hurryups and video modes also all at 40x (never missed having the multiplier in place for any.) And collected three EBs along the way.

The last tasks were Jedi Training and Escape from Boba Fett. Now I drained twice (both brutal kicks into the left outlane) while shooting the shots to light Fett, but at least I got to take Jedi Training for each of the next two plunges. I got Fett done (with a low multiplier), then won Jedi Multiball to reach a total of 24 billion, with two balls remaining after the current one (on ball 2 with one extra.)

R2-D2 is always my choice of second character to play after Jedi MB. In fact I don't play him first so he can be played second. He's got the best path to quick points when you aren't expecting to reach Jedi, with short mission stacks to get to the planet multiballs. His weakness is Jedi Training, particularly on the second loop with fewer instances of TIE and Hyperspace MBs to hit the training targets. But his big late-game strength is that +5% Score is high on his awards list and is usually available.

I won Lightsaber Duel (it was lit right after Jedi MB and at 40x again), lit all the missions (at 40x, this gives 200m per shot!), then drained twice while working on R2's mission stacks (Hoth 2 + Tatooine 1, Hoth 3 + Tatooine 2.) But now on each plunge I took +5% Score for nearly 1.5 billion each time.

I started my last ball at 30 billion game score, played and won Hoth 4 and Tatooine 4 again, plus more video modes and hyperspace hurryups at 40x again, including one for just over 2 billion. Then I nailed the big scoring for Death Star 1 again, all the shots at 40x for another 3 billion, and crossed 40 billion with the last shot of that. I even won Death Star 4 again including the victory medal, though didn't get that for Endor 4 this time.

The game ended when once again I drained while trying to light the shots for Boba Fett. I actually tilted, when I had to make a slide save; I knew I was already in double danger, but that came out of pure instinct, so I lost my bonus. But I don't mind, I'm pretty sure it wasn't enough to matter for anything (to cross 50 billion total, would have needed 1.3 billion bonus, and it wasn't quite *that* high.)

Grand Champion 48,721,122,470
Luke Champion 24,520,170,460
R2-D2 Champion 23,750,951,200
Death Star Champion 5,133,401,200

(Funny that the Luke and R2-D2 scores don't add up to the GC score, there's a half-billion missing somehow, but I don't think I'm going to bother reporting that bug to Stern, hah.)

It depends on what you pick on the plunge. Jedi Training which is Luke's top option scores points immediately. Lighting a set of missions also does. R2's top option of +3x shot multiplier doesn't score points.

This finally happened on my Pro just now. This was the sequence: Destroy the Death Star multiball running (not yet Victory mb). Hyperspace Hurryup started, with 1 to go for Hyperspace MB. At almost exactly the same instant, I completed the hyperspace hurryup and TIE fighter multiball also started. I'm fairly sure that TIE happened first by a split second. I think the TIE hurryup wasn't involved, it just started from regular TIE hits. I don't remember if the display ever showed the score for completing the hyperspace hurryup, but I don't think it did, so the hurryup might not have been officially completed. The Death Star held the ball indefinitely, including as I won Destroy the DS and the multiball changed to Victory (with TIE still stacked.) It released the ball once all other balls drained and the game was back to normal play.

Xaqery in case this helps anything for you. I guess you already stopped this by disabling the hyperspace/planet stack completely, although it's a shame if that stack is now completely impossible for the sake of this bug. (I didn't update code past 1.22 yet.)

But I like stacking multiballs more than I hate bugs. This is nuking the house to kill an ant. Just fix the bug the right way, put in a check to see if the DS is ever holding the ball while Hyperspace MB isn't running because TIE is instead.

Yeah, navigating around Lightsaber Duel is part of the strategy of the game, unfortunately. I try to avoid any of the planet multiballs until I've gotten through LSD so I know it won't be in the way.

I also got another variation of this. Same sequence: a planet multiball running, Hyperspace Hurryup started, then TIE multiball started, then I completed the hyperspace hurryup (this time that happened a few seconds later, not at the same instant.) Except - the ball that completed the hyperspace hurryup rocketed through so fast that it didn't get captured. The Death Star twin post raised to try to hold the ball - and stayed raised all throughout the planet and victory multiballs. So this was the same behavior as when it holds a ball indefinitely, just without the ball this time. While in this state, it was impossible to get credit for the Death Star shot for the Victory jackpot and therefore to collect the medal (it is possible when a ball is held, by newtoning it up to the switch.)

Right. Probably moot for home owners who will probably update, but of course there's a lot of location machines that never will.

Of course scoring is all over the place for different machines... but in recent years, Stern has been fairly consistent about it. Modes or hurryups score a few million per shot and a few tens of millions total, a good multiball is also a few tens, the replay score is also a few tens or low hundreds, a billion total is a big accomplishment, and wizard modes score half a billion to a billion or so. This has been around the same ballpark since about Game of Thrones and maybe back to AC/DC or so. (Godzilla might be getting on the borderline of pushing the numbers a bit too far again.)

Star Wars and TMNT are the two big outliers. SW of course because of the multiplier; the base scores are scaled down to like 1M per shot or jackpot, but that scales up to 20-40M with the multiplier. Then TMNT from the same rules programmer kept the low bases but doesn't have any big multipliers. It really shouldn't make a difference but it does, the scoring in TMNT really could have used another digit and it wouldn't feel so psychologically punishing. TMNT got where it is in part because of Munsters between it and SW, which splits the difference; Munsters also has low base values but a lot of multipliers, and TMNT inherited the former but not the latter.

The multiplier in Star Wars isn't luck. You feel like you want to leave it in place most of the time, and if you happen to get a multiplied shot, great... but that's not how to blow it up on the high end. You want to zip that multiplier around to each and every lit shot, every time. It takes quite a bit of physical coordination and practice that's outside the usual set of pinball skills.

The one biggest thing to plan ahead with the multiplier in SW: Every time a multiball ends, get the multiplier to the center loop shot as fast as you can if at all possible. Video Mode is very likely going to be lit there after the multiball was banging on the Force targets, and if you don't get that X in place right away, you know the ball is going to wander in there accidentally.

Yeah, there's something really weird about the angle of that shot, it messes with your perception. I get the yips on it all the time and can't hit it at all... then an hour later I'm nailing it just fine.

I'm always more consistent hitting it by backhand from the left flipper. (except a premium when the fork ramp is raised, but even that is possible on some machines, including the premium on location nearest me.)

Yes, from a full cradle on the left flipper. It's always possible when the fork ramp is down (or on a Pro without it.) On some machines, it's possible with the premium fork ramp raised. The key is that the flipper needs to be adjusted upwards so its resting position is a couple millimeters above the usual centering indicator. There's a premium on location near me that's deliberately adjusted to make that possible. The flipper also has to be perfectly snappy and strong, not weak from a bad coil stop or overheating or anything else.

From the right flipper, the fork ramp should be 100% makeable from a cradle, without needing a rolling ball or a shove or anything. If it's not makeable, then that flipper is too weak and needs repair (most likely the coil stop.)

The other problem with the fork ramp shot is the height of the wireform above it that goes into the death star. Sometimes incoming balls are hitting the underside of that. There is a nut at an adjustment point to adjust that height. You want it as high as it can go without balls on it hitting the ceiling of the death star, to make more room underneath it for balls incoming up the fork ramp.

I mean, I can do it routinely on the premium that's near me. I didn't set up that machine, am I supposed to not do that shot?

The flipper alignment isn't a constant from the factory. Different individual machines can vary by several millimeters. Stern's assemblers aren't perfectly accurate. Some Star Wars premiums can backhand the fork ramp straight from the factory. We've had a few reports of that in this thread over the years. It's uncommon but some copies of the game do happen to have the left flipper aligned high enough. I think it's pretty hard to argue against adjusting other copies of the game to do what at least some are capable of; that's nothing like an outlane blocker or precision flippers or whatever else.

There is a software piece here. If you choose Jedi Training at ball start (which is the default first choice for playing as Luke), that also awards a completion of the Force targets.

It's never normal for just the E to count as the whole thing, so you do have a problem - but be aware of that first part.

Oh yeah, that too. The skill shot isn't exactly all the time - but it's not timed, it lasts until any ball hits any Force drop target - so yeah you can get a Force completion in one hit, even quite some time after plunging.

One other detail - Any completion of the Jedi Training targets also spots a Force bank completion (this is why Luke's ball start award counts for that), so that's another way to get Force unexpectedly.

This is sometimes normal - it depends on the number of modes your character had to complete for this planet - if the planet multiball is the 3rd mode (after 2 regular modes), the planet multiball starts with 3 balls. (They shouldn't appear in the shooter lane at the same time though.) If you're sure that this should just be a 2-ball planet multiball, then yes that's a trough eject problem.

There is a software bug that puts 2 balls in the shooter lane consistently under a different condition. It happens if you use an add-a-ball (which activates the ball saver) just as another ball drains - the ball-saved ball and the added ball both get served to the shooter lane before it plunges either. I wonder if this might also be happening at the start of TIE multiball, if you lose the original ball just as the ball saver activates.

I kept everything at factory settings, except the thresholds for the extra balls from missions and TIE fighters, which I set to the defaults (5 and 80) instead of auto-increasing. Playing well shouldn't punish me by making those harder, and I could just play bad games on purpose to make it decrease again.

If you can select your ball-start award and the game doesn't auto-plunge, most likely nothing is wrong. Some of the ball-start awards do give points, which will be added as soon as the ball hits the switch up the shooter lane. Jedi Training in particular does this and shows up on Luke's menu. I think the light-mission choices and +5 Tie fighters also award a few million. I can't think of anything that would award almost 100 million just from the plunge, though there might be something that can.

One possible cause of phantom switch hits while the ball is still in the plunger lane is if the spinner is still spinning after a fast drain - do you have a really slick spinner?

For physical switches, take a look at the one above the Force targets, behind the rubber there. This triggers no game features, but it's often gapped really tight so vibrations trigger it.

The points from the ball-start awards are all indirect. Lighting missions gives points because lighting missions always gives points from any method. Jedi Training gives points because a Jedi level-up always gives points. +5 Tie fighters gives points because Tie fighters always give points. Doing this is consistent with the rest of the game; it's not really intentionally designed to give points for plunging, it's a knock-on effect of whichever game feature you chose.

Besides the switch I mentioned, other common culprits on any game are the slingshots and in/outlanes, though you'd probably notice if they were triggering. Also the spinner, if it's still spinning from a previous ball, or if it happened to stop in the upside-down position and then dislodged itself.

Nobody has figured that out. It depends on how many missions that character has at that planet (more points if there are fewer missions, since you don't have as much opportunity to get points from the missions), but also a lot of other variables that nobody ever figured out how to get consistently. Also the shot multiplier applies on the playfield for the first 2 shots per planet but not for the 3rd. 70 million for lighting missions isn't unusual.

I own a Rush and I don't get the love for it either. I think it all comes from the music and energetic vibe. The flow isn't nearly as good as it looks; the time machine is at an awkward angle, the only real flow shots are spinner/loop - upper flipper and the standard right ramp. It's fun, but it's merely solid and not any world-beater. I think the love for it comes all from the media package.

TMNT isn't as hard as people claim. It's a standard fan-plus-upper-flipper layout. The only hard part is that the right ramp feeds the upper flipper at high speed and that's not common on machines so people aren't ready for it. I think most of TMNT's perceived hardness comes from the low scoring. Add another zero to the numbers and it would be considered perfectly average like say GOTG. (TMNT's scoring is low because of Star Wars from the same programmer; SW's scoring is low because you get x40 multipliers on top of everything, but TMNT kept those low base values without that multiplier.)

You're in the Star Wars thread so of course you'll get fans, but I'll give a bit of the opposite opinion. I had a Star Wars Pro in a smaller collection, and it lasted me about five months until I had enough and traded it out. The code is wide but not deep - there's the wide variety of characters and missions, but going for high scores becomes one-dimensional since it's only about the multiplier. Other than the hyperloop and maybe video mode, it's difficult to achieve anything satisfying for casuals. Lightsaber Duel and Escape from Boba Fett can be particularly aggravating - those modes get in the way all the time, and casuals won't make five or six shots on a tight timer to win them.

You're in Mechanicsville VA - there's a Star Wars Premium on location at Center of the Universe Brewing in Ashland, you and the wife should go check it out there.

Of course, getting one doesn't mean you're married to it forever, you can always resell it and it's a very marketable title to find a buyer for.

One other suggestion - if you want a Star Wars game that's more approachable for casuals, there's Mandalorian also.

Mando isn't liked among pinheads, but it is fairly decent for casuals. Whack up the middle a few times to get multiball, great for casuals even if pinheads find it boring. Same for the mini-playfield - it's fun to bat the ball around in there for casuals, even if finishing all the encounter stuff gets samey and grindy for experts. Missions are easy to start - actually the big difference from SW is that Mando if you drain the mission ends and you move on, while in SW you're stuck in the same mission until you finish it.

I don't know of a good Mando on location near us in VA to try. Richmond Pinball Collective had one but I think they sold it. There's one here in Williamsburg but it's always in terrible condition.

Good luck, but I doubt you'd find a premium for under 8k. Remember the NIB price for premiums is now 9699. And Star Wars is a title people tend to hold on to (notwithstanding me trading mine.)

It's low, something like 325,000 or so, maybe something like +100k per combo in the sequence. Even with the multiplier it doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

What hiker2099 said. Your shot is hitting the underside of the rail that goes into the death star. You need to raise that wireform up. You want it as high as it can go without balls already on it hitting the ceiling of the death star.

Except you can't just cradle and run out the timer - it will pause for inactivity if you don't hit any switches. But yes, it does end unsuccessfully if time runs out before you complete all the shots.

I have to throw in the dissenting opinion there: I don't like the precision flippers on the various machines I've played with them. Yeah they hit harder, particularly for shots that need power like the hyperspace ramp or Captain Marvel... but the hardness makes it significantly more difficult to do any soft and subtle moves to gain control of a ball. They may help intermediate players but they limit the skill ceiling on the high end for all the other moves you do besides hitting the ball hard. (Particularly controlling multiples in a multiball.)

Yes, R2 is by far the most superior character. In addition to easy access to the two Death Star multiballs, his other missions also stack perfectly, Hoth 2 + Tatooine 1 and Hoth 3 + Tatooine 2 also share almost identical shots. And the multiplier means you score more along the way. And all of his missions use only safe shots, there's nothing where you have to bang on the Force targets or do Tie Fighter hurryups.

R2 does have the weakness that Jedi Training can be hard to make, since he doesn't get any 4-ball planet multiballs and it doesn't come up for his start-of-ball awards. So it can be hard to make it all the way to the Emperor battle, but if you don't expect to make it that far then there's really no downside to R2.

My scoop always went to the right flipper, after turning down the power. With the power high, it would go all over the place. Ritchie answered once that it's intended to go to the left, but if you have it consistently going to the right, don't mess with it

One other option is to quickly grab the manual plunger and beat the autoplunge by short-plunging to the flippers. I trained myself to do that on my SW and could make it work fairly consistently (60% or so) if I kept my attention and reacted quickly. I do the same on Stranger Things, also Godzilla and Foo Fighters to come out the mecha/rock-meter lane controllably, and on Rush to the upper flipper.

1k plays will mean just the coil stops. It's more like 10k plays when you need a rebuild kit.

Shoot either the left orbit or right ramp when the hyperspace hurryup isn't lit to raise its value for the next time. This includes during multiballs; if you hit those a lot during a multiball then it's common for the next hurryup to start at over 50M. 100M is the max, before the multiplier.

Right.

Well... everything scores a ton if you do it at 40x...

Video mode at level 3 will score 1 billion at 40x if you get a perfect streak of 209 or more asteroids. My highest is 240-some for about 1.2 billion.

The perfect 4 billion hyperspace hurryup is possible if you do it during another multiball, so that one ball starts it and another completes it at the same instant. (In latest code, you can't stack planet and hyperspace MBs together, but I think you can still do just the hurry up.)

I think 500 is the most common guess, but yeah there weren't many. I'm not sure if there were some more in the most recent build run around August last year.

The big thing to adjust is the vertical position of the wireform going into the death star. You want it as high as it can go without balls on it hitting the ceiling of the death star. If it's too low, balls coming up the fork ramp will hit the underside of it. There is a nut at its mounting point that you can loosen to move the wireform to adjust it.

Backhanding the death star fork ramp from a catch is doable with standard flippers. There's a SW premium on location near me that can do this. The key point is to adjust the flipper alignment up pretty high, approximately so the lower edge of the flipper is aligned at the dot rather than the center of the tip.

I don't like precision flippers. They hit harder, but that's all they do, the stiffness makes them much worse at subtle moves to catch and gain control. The slight give of a plastic flipper is actually pretty important for the right feel to be able to catch and control balls.

The large red asteroids move slower, so it's more tricky to navigate around them. That's all they do, but that is enough of a curveball.

(Although what the video mode really needed was some stuff to pick up and collect, so you have something to do on the occasions when you hit it without the shot multiplier which makes it a total waste.)

Longest run continuously, pretty sure yes. Not quite if you count vaults, Spider-man came out in 2007 and was vaulted in 2016.

Ashram56 is right and said it better than I could. Games up through WPC and Whitestar are repairable because it's all bare hardware - we know the purpose of every single wire and pin and circuit trace and disassembled bit in the ROM, we can literally see the bits going in and out of the CPU and the other boards. That's nowhere near true for Spike, where most of the communication is in software, with who knows how many layers of operating system and communications bus and compiled software code.

Look at video game consoles for a comparison. Nobody is producing Playstation 2 or Wii motherboards to replace on units that fail, and the supply of working units is starting to dwindle. At most what we're doing is encapsulating those into emulators that can run abstractly from underlying hardware. Maybe that could happen with Spike 2 eventually.

Flipper fade might be an issue for backhanding the hyperspace ramp with standard flippers. Other than that, it's not an issue on Star Wars, all the ramps are shallow enough that even hot flippers hit them easily (including a forehand to the hyperspace ramp, and of course everything on a Pro.)

Heck, you could even argue flipper fade is an advantage since you'd rather have softer rebounds and exits off the 3-bank and u-turn.

You're not alone, I significantly prefer the Pro on Star Wars, and in fact on almost every title. The premium mechanicals (on many games) are cool but often just get in the way and make the game harder.

Also second the other post about preferring Pro artwork. AIQ and SW have the same problem, the premium artwork is too heavy on the bad guys, I want to see the heroes.

Star Wars can be brutally unfair, with plunges rebounding from the 3-bank directly into the left outlane, over and over again. Also exits from the orbits and center loop can go SDTM. All of this is adjustable in a home environment but does hurt the game's rating from location players.

The other adverse part is the shot multiplier. You're almost spending more effort on playing "move the multiplier" than on playing actual pinball. Some consider this infuriating and distracting, particularly when you hit the video mode without the multiplier which makes it a total waste.

Top 50 is probably about right for Star Wars. It's polarizing; there are good reasons to like it and also good reasons not to like it.

Your friend's machine may be well-adjusted so that the unfair drains don't happen or at least not so much. Maybe he even put in a bigger outlane post like people sometimes do with this game. Star Wars isn't extremely difficult if you're not getting the bad drains. I'd say Star Wars is still at least somewhat harder than Mandalorian, although that's mostly because Mando is on the fairly easy side.

Sure, you can play SW without moving the multiplier at all if you want. And you'll be scoring 1/40th of the people who do. I've put up 10 billion GC scores on five different SWs on location, and you absolutely must be aiming the multiplier as much as possible to do that.

My Star Wars never did plunger - standups - left outlane either. It would go much farther left than that, usually hit the wall at the entrance to the left orbit, or sometimes the Force targets. But this varies a lot from machine to machine, and I've seen many on location that do go straight to the left outlane. When playing SW on location, I always try to short-plunge directly to the flippers to get control that way.

But on top of that, this is the confusing part: The 3rd and 4th white arrows must be made while nothing else (missions/multiballs) is going on to count. If the white arrow is made while something else is running, it unlights and doesn't count.

And Han's ball-start "Light EFBF" award doesn't actually light the mode, it just lights all the shots for white arrows, but if you then start something else and shoot the white arrows during it, they unlight and you don't actually get EFBF.

(I'd nominate this as Dwight's worst moment for coding. He wanted a mode that could surprise you anytime like Boba Fett would, but pinball players don't want random surprises, so he ended up with a hacky mess of rules for it that nobody understands.)

Yes. In the newest code (I forget what version but sometime in 2023), a save by the gate on the premium (not on the pro) gives you another skill shot. (Which can be worth a few hundred million of bonus when it gives like +10 bonus x.)

I'd also say less than 7k for a routed and scuffed machine, also less if the older build lacks Insider. The market is way down everywhere, even most HUO premiums are in the 7500 range now except for the biggies like Godzilla and Elvira.

Just the rapidly flashing multiplier arrows, plus the audio warning. And the display (at the top center) will reset back to 2x, but when that happens, you've still got a grace period of about three seconds to refresh it.

Nobody knows for sure, but the most common guesses are either 500 or 1000.

They do not carry over like that. They reset at the start of a ball. However there's the skill shot there, if you hit the one roving lit target, it counts as completing all of FORCE.

Note that the playfield lights (when the skill shot isn't active) don't follow the individual targets - they follow how many total completions you've made. If the lamps for F O R are on, that means you completed them three times (the third lights video mode) and are working on the fourth (double multipliers.)

The qualifications for the final wizard mode Jedi Multiball, which is the emperor battle: complete (just play) all four planet mini-wizard multiballs, reach Jedi Master, kill 100 TIE Fighters, win Lightsaber Duel, and win Escape from Boba Fett.

The game shows your progress towards this at the end of any ball where you completed at least one of the tasks, and you can also page to it in the status screens.

It's just the thematic description for the green-arrow shots for that mission, which are the left loop, left orbit, right loop, right ramp.

Right, that's correct. To state it a bit differently: the common problem is that balls coming up the fork ramp hit the underside of the wireform that goes into the death star. You want to raise the wireform as high as it can go without balls already on it hitting the ceiling inside the death star.

I've played two premiums on location that could backhand the death star fork ramp from a cradle, with stock flippers. It has to be set up right (strong flippers, clean and fast, flipper alignment fairly high), but I think it's intended to be doable. Ritchie makes all sorts of backhandable ramps (including the right ramp on SW itself), and he would surely be able to adjust the geometry to prevent it if he intended to.

Can you find one on location to try? There are a fair number of SW Premiums on location, I've played at least five here and there. They aren't always in great condition to make the hyperloop reliably, but you can try. Or have you ever played a Getaway? You get some of the vibe from the supercharger there.

I'll give the opposite opinion from the other replies, I think the Pro is fine. The hyperloop is a noisy distracting ball lock, it doesn't actually help gameplay and just makes it harder, and can be a headache to adjust and maintain. Getaway's supercharger never impressed me either, it just makes your ramp shot take ten times longer to return.

In case you're serious: the hyperspace loop is just a noisy distracting ball lock that makes completing shots and modes harder. I owned a pro and never once wanted a premium instead. You do you but that's my opinion

The 2022 run did have IC, I bought mine then. All runs of all games since IC was introduced have it.

I haven't seen it in Star Wars, but have in Game of Thrones, and I agree with this there, it just interrupts what you were doing and doesn't make any other progress and minimal scoring, so it's not really that exciting.

I think it's 1M for big points, 5M for bigger, 10M for biggest, and that can be multiplied if you had the multiplier active on the scoop before the ball landed in it. (It doesn't work if you move the multiplier there while the mystery is flashing; there were some reports that that worked but that was wrong.)

R2's passive power is a longer timer between hits needed to refresh the multiplier, and also that the multiplier stays "wider" up to higher numbers (it narrows to two shots at 7x and one at 14x, compared to 5x and 10x for the other characters.)

Yeah, Han is the easiest to get to the planet multiballs besides the Death Star. For completing the game all the way to Jedi Multiball, the tough part for both Han and R2 is Jedi Training, since they don't (except for rare circumstances) get that as a start-of-ball pick, and may or may not ever manage it the normal way.

Another vote for Pro here. The premium hyperloop is just an overgrown noisy distracting ball lock. People say it's such a rush to get three in there... yeah, the reality is you're getting 0 half the time and no more than 1 most of the rest.

And yeah, the multiplier isn't math. The game does all the math for you. You just put it on whatever's lit that you plan to shoot next.

Yes, but you have to make a lot of shots.

Destroy the Death Star: shoot two ramps, then the DS, then either ramp, then the DS, then both ramps, then the DS. The DS shots are on a hurry-up timer and if it expires then you have to re-shoot the ramps for that phase.

Battle over Endor: shoot both ramps and the center loop, then the DS. This is also on a hurry-up timer and the whole sequence resets if you fail. (Hit the 3-bank to add time.)

For both of them, you don't have to do it before draining any balls, but you do have to stay in at least 2-ball multi. Note that completing the Force targets (5 hits total, they pop back up after each hit) gives you an add-a-ball by holding the action button. You can earn an add-a-ball this way in any planet multiball mode, and if you don't use it then it carries over to any other multiball, so you could also do the Tatooine and Hoth MBs to earn the add-a-balls and not use them, and then you'll have two additional available for the death star modes.

The throne room victory theme is also in the game. I think it plays when you win Destroy the Death Star, although it can be hard to hear with everything else going on.