Man the proto playfield was so much nicer looking.

Your close on multiball. After the first Jackpot, there is no time limit to lock the first ball, time starts after that. It's an amazing timed mode that "levels up" the difficulty, which I find only Iron Man also does.

I'll write a mini review of the rules later. It's an acquired taste, but an amazing game

I'm glad Dan will take a first pass at the rules which I'm sure will include some of his strategy. Thing about VND is that you can play either the multiball strategy, mode strategy or a hybrid of the two and each has its nuances. For example in multiball, the jackpot shot is a gimme (center ramp) which qualifies the double jackpot (the two locks) which as Dan points out, you have to get the second lock within 20 seconds of getting the first otherwise the first locked ball is kicked out and you have to relock. Getting the double jackpot qualifies the two super jackpots but again you only have 20 seconds to get them both. If you don't you have to go back and requalify the super by once again getting the double jackpot. If you get both supers you then can bang on the center ramp four times for jackpots then I assume double jackpots four times (never got beyond the four post-super jackpots so that's a guess.)

It sounds easy but with the speed and lightness of the glos, it's not.

I'll save my multiball strategy for another post.

viperrwk

No, the cycle repeats - Double Jackpot reopens, get it and Supers reopen. Rinse, repeat.

Although realistically, in about 2000 games, I have managed to repeat that I think a total of three times, so good luck rinsing and repeating. More to come after later tonight.

Edit: Almost forgot, there is also a realistic different strategy, which I'd call the 'playfield' strategy, where hitting shots without anything running helps you along. For instance, you hit the orbits to spell V-I-P-E-R, and your Jackpots go up.

All right, here goes, rule overview...

VND is perhaps the only game that I actually think is underrated in pinball, but it's underrated because when you play them on route, they suck hard. In home use, with regularly cleaned GloBalls, the game is awesome.

When the game starts, you have two roll over "skill shots", an H and a P. You have to pay attention to see which one the ball is going to go down, although half the time on any machine the up post rejects the ball down the orbit instead anyway. If you get the right roll over, you get an extra bonus X.

The shots that the game has are as follows (order always the same unless noted):

Left standup - Rotates between Light Post Save, 2 Miles and 5 Miles.
Left Orbit - Rotates between spell VIPER, 2 Miles and 5 Miles.
Left Ramp - Used to start modes when lit, use Cell Phone (for Mystery) when not.
Left Lock - Locks the ball.
Left Raccoon - A deadly standup.
Center ramp - Stupid easy ramp shot.
Right Raccoon - Same as the left.
Bridge Out Ramp - A little skip into the pops ramp that gives you Caution (250,000), Warning (500,000) and then Bridge Out. Bridge Out changes with how many times you've achieved it, I know the first is 1 Million, and somewhere in there is an extra ball.
Right Ramp - 1 Shot Triple Scoring, 5 Miles, 2 Miles - always starts with 2 Miles. Note - 1 Shot Triple Scoring is ONLY for points and does not triple your mileage (one of the few things I wish was different.)
Right Orbit - Like left.
Right Standup - Like left.

There are six modes, when lit, started on the right ramp. They are:

Drag Race - Pound the flipper buttons fast enough to win the race.
Invitational - Hit the orbit to go to different cities and score points.
Hitchhikers - Hit a sequence of shots to score points and potentially light a surprise.
Lights Out - Playfield lights go out, blacklights go on, hit anything with a snake head (all of the shots above except coons and locks) to relight the playfield and score points.
Pedal to the Metal - Come on, you're only going XX miles an hour, my grandmother drives faster than that! Hit the lit shots to drive faster.
Slash's Snake Pit - Hit the ramps to advance points, you can't hit the same ramp twice in a row. Bridge Out does not count as a ramp. Center ramp is only worth 1M. Sides are worth 2M.

There is also a Mancow or something Wizard Mode, never been there.

To relight the modes once played, you need to drive 20 miles. You do that by continually hitting the stand ups or ramps that give you miles until you have enough. It's harder than it sounds because you can ONLY advance miles when nothing else is running. Advancing miles gives you the miles and 500,000 points. There is a "Miles Driven" champion set at 80. It's nearly impossible to beat, but fun to play the game just for miles sometimes.

Raccoons are lit with the inlanes, and the opposite side one will jiggle around for a few seconds. If you successfully hit a raccoon after an inlane three times, you will start raccoons. Hit them both three times in 20 seconds (I think) and you get a whopping 1 million points - but you also get an extra ball. No matter what, if you hit a raccoon the center post raises for a second... UNLESS you hit it too fast, in which case for whatever reason the Sega targets do not register, and you get an amazing impossible SDTM drain. Which I think is part of the charm of the game. Hitting the coon's not dead on is important to you keeping your ball *and* having the shots register. Also, note - this is NORMAL GAMEPLAY with these targets. Weird, but again - I find it charming.

When you light the Center Post, you can raise it by hitting the Ball Launch button. This is often overlooked by people with this game, but is quite important as MANY shots feed SDTM. But, you can prevent them by hitting the side targets before starting modes. If you start modes, they lock you out of the side targets.

Multiball you get by lock one ball in each ball lock. After that, the game will turn on the blacklights, shoot both balls back into play, and shoot two more balls into play. The center post raises for a decent amount of time. Your first goal is to hit the center ramp for 5 Million. This unlocks the two ball locks for 10 million, but if you don't relock the second ball in time the first gets kicked out. With more than two balls, it's tough. Collect those, and it opens the left and right ramps for 15 million, which if you successfully hit the center ramp reopens for three 5M jackpots before the sequence restarts with the side locks. If you don't collect both supers - and it's tough, you go back to the relock ball challenge, and if I recall right if you hit one Super then only the other is lit when you get back to it.

On Flow - The game is really cool in the way of flow. For instance, if you get it going with Slash's Snake Pit, you hit the center ramp, feeds left inland for a shot at right ramp, feeds right inlane for a shot at left ramp, feeds right flipper for a shot at center ramp, etc. When you pull this off, it feels AMAZING, but only the center ramp is easy to hit, so comboing it more than once or twice is near impossible. The game's flow is incredible though, and when you get it going with the settings right (Glo Balls in it, STEEL BALL SETTING ON!!) it's just stupid fast. Faster than Iron Man fast, easy.

Oh yeah, and the center ramp gives you SNAKE (100,000), RUMBLE (200,000) and ROLL (lights combo), which because it is so silly easy to hit are almost worth nothing. The only thing is that if you get Roll and then hit the right ramp, you light Double Scoring in the left inlane. Roll over that, and you get double scoring for the next 20 seconds. Unlike just about everything else, when double scoring is going on, the game doesn't tell you, but after about 15 seconds you hear it beeping down and it tells you "DOUBLE SCORING! 7,485,390!" or whatever you got.

A few other random things - When you start most things, everything else locks out. The exception to this is that Raccoons keep running under whatever is going on, although often will no longer be shown on the DMD (a good strategy for 'coons is to start the mode and then start multiball, and use the 15 seconds with the post save to just shoot them and hopefully earn an extra ball). The Bridge Out ramp does not lock out during multiball, but will not tell you what you're getting on the DMD (just sound), so except Extra Ball you never know.

********

The ways to play:

Personally, I find VND has four strategies you can use to play. I sort these into Multiball, Modes, Miles and what I'll call "Balanced". Here's the nutshell:

Multiball - You just care about starting the multiball over and over and doing as well as possible. The problem is that the shots are dangerous, especially after a ball is locked, and the multiball mode is really hard to score highly in. I'd guess my average is around 15M for multiball, and it's worth a lot more if you can do the sequence in full. This isn't usually my strategy.

Modes - Modes are worth about 16M when completed, with two exceptions that are worth 10M. Modes are TOUGH to complete, but when the multi is only averaging 15M, if you can tack on 50M in modes, you're doing something right. Drag Race is the best mode to play because it's a guaranteed 10M if you can hit the flippers fast enough (actually, a surprisingly good challenge, unlike every other 'hit the flippers' video mode I know of) and will return your playfield in a state with everything unlocked.

Miles - Miles are worth 500,000 per shot and something or another in bonus, so shoot the shots to advance your miles over and over and over and over. In doing so, you can make your bonus X like 8X, and you can get surprisingly decent scores like this. Playing like this and getting your Multiball Jackpot to increase to 7M means your next jackpots are 14M and then 21M for Supers, which makes it more lucrative. You need to also AVOID modes so you don't lock yourself out. Oh, and this gives you shots at both double and triple scoring opportunities too.

Balanced - The goal is to get the ball under control, hit the side targets to light the center post, and then play the modes as you can, using the center post to help save the ball. I will generally try to start the multi once like this, but once you've started it once stop shooting for it because the risk outweighs the reward. If you start a mode and you don't have the center post lit, or you use the center post, you try catching and cradling and timing out the mode. Then immediately relight the center post and continue on.

To me, the genius in VND is that all of these strategies work and are nearly equal in risk / reward. It's darn near impossible to just catch a ball in the flipper because they are light so they bounce into the slings which are near certain side drains, so timing out modes is super dangerous even, far more than if you try doing it in something else.

I mix up my personal strategy a lot. I find that I have the most success either going for "Balanced" or "Miles" even though the game makes you think that "Multiball" would be the best way to go. I accidentally reset my audits a few months ago when I was doing some work on mine, but according to my machine with the plays since then, average ball time is 45 seconds, game time is 3:15. I have set two high scores, these are the only high scores I have ever set on the machine, they are: 212,373,380 (holy crap game, I think I made a post about it) and 168,273,530. If you set up your game right, good luck matching those.

A few final random notes:

- Viper doesn't say Compete in Local Tournaments like most pins do, it says "Compete in Local Autocrosses"
- The game seems to have video converted to DMD like what Stern did with SM and IM (for instance) years later.
- Music is by Slash.
- VND is the last credited game to Joe Kamikow.
- VND has a tribute in memory of Joe Dillon on the attract mode. I have always been confused about this - Joe Dillon was the Williams General Manager for years. Prototype RFM playfields had a similar statement on them too. Strange for the competition to THAT publicly tribute him.
- Sega had the Viper property licensed FOREVER and couldn't figure out what to do with it. Mini-Viper was created in 1996 (but never produced), and there is a DE branded Viper translite from who-knows-when before that.
- The idea behind the Glo-Balls was that glow in the dark air hockey was all the rage in the late 90s, and so they thought they could get this into the same places. The game instead was a disappointment from what I understand in the way of sales. They made a MILLION ramps and playfields however, as both are still plentiful today. On the flip side, I'd LOVE to find some NOS Raccoons, as those are IMPOSSIBLE to find. Have some? Contact me.

All right, that's all folks. Hope someone finds this some day and enjoys, it took a while but the info should be out there somewhere!

Dan -
Nice start - PM sent.

viperrwk

Amazing write up. Just ordered new set of ROMS as I'm currently running 1.01. And have new glo balls to install, but will do that after new rubbers have been installed, and playfield has a good cleaning.

Any Viper experts know where the ball trap update gets installed? Can't find any info, and I thought the one I ordered would have instructions. But it does not. Any help would be appreciated.

Yea.. That's what I figured it was for. I replaced that with shipping tape, and it worked great. It'll keep the ramp flap down, and come off easily when it's needed.

Hey whysnow, there's a few call outs for you on the predator thread

Your the douche that called everybody out now people are responding and you tuck your tail up and avoid the thread, I'd take you up on your terms but you have nothing that interests me.

To be fair to misfitdart he may not have known it is a club thread because it has not been moved to the club subforum yet (hello mods?)

However once whysnow pointed that out to him misfitdart should have taken it to PM, thus his thumb down (which I almost never do and pretty much don't care for this sort of sh!t that permeates Pinside these days.)

Now to make this a constructive post about the machine:

Yes exactly - the original glos can get chewed up and eventually the plastic surrounding the steel core splits rendering the ball unusable.

With the way the ramps are it's a total PITA to shop.

I think I have the instructions though finding them might be a challenge. IIRC the kit goes in the pops area but I don't think I installed it when I shopped mine. Every once in a while the ball gets stuck up there but a little nudge always gets it out.

viperrwk

Where can you buy the ball trap update?

Yes - BAA sells it - http://bayareaamusements.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=GS-VND500-6322-01

I have it but did not install it. There was also never a service bulletin issued for it. Still looking for the doc I have (honestly can't even find the box which has the kit.) Not having it has never been an issue for me.

However, for a route game it might be worthwhile to keep people from banging on the machine the few times the ball might get hung up...

viperrwk

I'm not sure if my machine had this kit or not, but I never had a stuck ball up there.

It was just exceedingly slow coming out of the pops. I think this is one of the reasons I was able to let it go. I really didn't like how the feed from the pop felt....

What does the kit do? I've honestly never seen it before...

Thanks for the replies guys. I have not had a ball get stuck yet. And I did get my kit from BBA. Thinking of ordering an LED kit for the playfield next paycheck. Enjoying this pin a lot.

Good to hear about not getting stuck. Interesting about the slow out of the pops.

I believe this is a machine design thing. The wire form leading from the pops to the orbit lane is very shallow. The reduced weight of the glo-balls combined with the shallow angle makes the balls come out quite slowly.

Can someone else with a VND comment? Is it the same on your machine?

Yes, it's about the only slow place on the machine.

Yes - agree this is a design issue. The only ways into the pops is either through the inlanes or the jump ramp. And the only real exit is out the right ride back to the orbit where the ball just falls back down to the playfield.

The pops action itself can be pretty intense because of how close they are and the lightness of the glo. The problem is the action has to play itself out for the ball to get out of that area - there's no way for the pops to kick the ball back to the playfield and interact with other parts of the game. However, given how fast the game is and how multiball can be a handful, having a ball trapped up there kicking around gives the player a chance to manage other shots for a while.

Nonetheless agree that it is a weak part of an otherwise very flow-oriented playfield layout.

viperrwk

I would send you mine if I could find it. IIRC there's nothing unusual in it - you likely already have all the parts. For expediency's sake I would email Patrick Powers at Stern with the P/N (500-6322-01) and see if he has a digital copy of the instructions which should also have the parts listing. If he does and he emails it to you, shouldn't be a big deal to make the kit yourself.

BTW the part is no longer live on BAA's site.

viperrwk

Modern Pinball got one in. Those in or visiting NYC an check it out. I'll recommend that they get new balls.

pm sent

Here is an updated rules sheet derived from Dan's original work. I will not comment on strategy in this post but will do so later.

If anyone sees any issues with this let me know. I will confirm and revise.

viperrwk

Viper Night Drivin’ Rule Sheet
By goatdan and viperrwk
31 Oct 2014
V1.12

(Based on CPU ROM 2.01)

Playfield Description (from left to right)

Left outlane – special (when qualified) Callouts include "Let's pull over" and "Brutal".

Left inlane – ball goes under static red Viper toy. Energizes right Raccoon, launches Double Scoring when qualified.

Left standup - Rotates between Light Post Save, 2 Miles and 5 Miles. Resets after every ball to Light Post Save. Hits to the standup when Light Post Save is lit adds to end of ball bonus.

Left orbit - Rotates between Spell VIPER, 2 Miles and 5 Miles. Resets after every ball to Spell VIPER. Orbit shots when Spell VIPER is lit adds to end of ball bonus.

Left ramp - Used to start modes when Notepad is lit, ball is diverted behind the Mancow Morning Madhouse billboard and locked; use Cell Phone (Dial, Send, Mancow Mystery Caller) when not. Retains state from ball to ball.

Left lock - Locks the ball; also used for Alien Abduction mode.

Left Raccoon - A deadly standup.

Center ramp - Stupid easy ramp shot into Devil’s Mountain. Awards Extra Ball when qualified. Retains state from ball to ball.

Right Raccoon - Same as the left.

Right lock - Locks the ball.

“H” and “P” inlanes – completing both inlanes increases the bonus multiplier.

Pop bumpers (3) – standard, changes the Notepad (mode) with each pop hit.

Bridge Out Ramp – Jump ramp into the pops that gives you Caution (250,000), Warning (500,000) and then Bridge Out award. Retains state from ball to ball.

Right Ramp - 1 Shot Triple Scoring, 5 Miles, 2 Miles - always starts with 2 Miles. Note - 1 Shot Triple Scoring is ONLY for points and does not triple your mileage (one of the few things I wish was different.) Retains state from ball to ball.

Right Orbit - Like left.

Right Standup - Like left.

Right inlane - ball goes under static white Viper toy. Energizes left Raccoon, enables One Shot Triple Scoring when qualified.

Right outlane – Like left.

Center post – when qualified by hitting either the left or right standup, user can raise center post with launch button to stop SDTM drains. Machine will also automatically raise post under certain gameplay conditions.

Modes aka "Notepad"
In the center of the playfield is a notepad which has seven different modes. From bottom to top these are:

Drag Race
Invitational
Hitchhikers
Lights Out
Pedal to the Metal
Slash’s Snake Pit
Mancow’s Morning Madhouse (wizard mode)

How Modes Work
The first mode checked on Notepad at the start of a game is always Drag Race. The ball cycling through the pops changes which mode will be selected next. Each hit moves the check one spot up the Notepad. AFAIK, there is no way to manually select a mode. The flashing check on the mode indicates which mode is next. A solid lit check indicates a mode has been played (regardless of whether or not you scored any points in the mode or even completed it.) There is no repeating of modes until the entire notepad, including the wizard mode, is checked off. The selected mode carries over to the next ball until it is changed in the pops. The sequence in which you complete modes does not matter.

At the start of the game, the Notepad is qualified and a shot up the left ramp is diverted behind the billboard and the selected mode on the Notepad is started. When the mode is finished (whether you successfully complete it or not), to relight the Notepad requires making shots to either the two standups or orbits to “drive” 20 miles. After driving 20 miles the Notepad is again qualified, a shot up the left ramp is again diverted behind the billboard and the selected mode on the Notepad is activated. You can ONLY advance miles when a mode or Multiball is not running. Advancing miles gives you the miles and 500,000 points. There is a "Miles Driven" champion set at 80. It's nearly impossible to beat, but fun to play the game just for miles sometimes.

If you start a mode and don't make any of the mode's shots, at the end of the mode Mancow or his sidekick (I don't know which) says "I find it disgusting!" If you score any points in the mode, the girl says "Yeah baby!" And if you complete the mode, you get an "Awesome man!" callout.

Modes are exclusive. You cannot start a mode while Multiball is running. You cannot start a second mode while the first mode is running however, you can start Multiball while a mode is running. If you do, the mode is suspended until Multiball is completed. When Multiball is finished, the mode that was running when Multiball was started will resume where you left off.

Mode Details
Max points in a mode are anywhere from 10m-16m points with one exception noted below. Mode descriptions (from bottom to top) are as follows:

Drag Race - video mode. Max points 10m. Hit the flippers as fast as you can to win the drag race.

Invitational - 40 second mode. Max points 15m. Make a total of five orbit shots - 1m for the first shot, 2m for the second, 3m for the third, etc etc. It does not matter whether it is a left or right orbit shot. Interesting side note about Invitational - the cities chosen for this mode are the cities where the first five Viper Owners Invitationals were held. And the inclusion of the last one (Las Vegas) might have been an Easter Egg at the time because I'm not 100% sure if the location for that invitational was publicly announced when the software was written.

Hitchhikers – 25 second mode. Max points 15m. Four selected shots (flashing snake head), first shot scores 2m, second 2.5m, third 3m and last 3.5m with 4m bonus. Completing Hitchhikers is also the first half to qualifying Alien Abduction (see below).

Lights Out - 40 second mode. Max points 10m. shoot 6 of the 7 snake heads to light them up. Sequence does not matter.

Pedal to the Metal - 40 second mode. Max points 11,100,000. Shoot lit shots (green snake heads) to go faster.

Slash's Snake Pit - 40 second mode. Shoot the center and left and right ramps. 1m points for a center ramp shot and 2m for the left and right ramps. You cannot make the same shot twice in a row for the points. While this is a 40 sec mode, the timer stops when you make a ramp shot. Unlike other modes where you need to complete a certain set of shots at which point the mode just ends, this mode is all about making the ramps. So if you get on a roll and keep making combo ramp shots this mode will continue to run. What this means is that there is no limit to the number of points you can score in this mode.

Mancow's Morning Madhouse (wizard mode) - after completing the rest of the notepad, qualifying Notepad by driving another 20 miles and making the Notepad shot starts Mancow's Morning Madhouse. This is an untimed multiball all-jackpot mode and runs as long as more than one ball is in play. The goal is to make every shot (Mancow says "Shoot everything!") indicated by the green snake head three times to "win" the game. The first time you make a shot it is worth 1m points, the second time 2m and the third 3m after which the snake head is extinguished. Completing this mode (haha yeah right) initiates a special animation after which a message comes on the screen that says "To Be Continued" and stays there. There is no more scoring to be had until after all the balls drain.

Modes not on the Notepad
Mancow's Mystery Caller - awarded after hitting the left ramp four times when the Notepad is not qualified. Awards either 1m points or Multiball (never seen any other award). MMC and Notepad may both be qualified. If so, the machine will award the MMC first then the Notepad mode. If the award is Multiball, it will start the Notepad mode after Multiball is completed.

Alien Abduction – 20 second mode. Two steps are necessary to fully qualify this mode. First step happens after successfully completing the Hitchhikers mode which lights the Alien Abduction insert. Second step happens AFTER a multiball round is completed. It is not necessary to get a jackpot in multiball to enter AA mode. After completing multiball, with the Alien Abduction insert lit, the screen will say “Shoot left lock” and the 20 second timer will start. You have that much time to shoot the left lock three times. Max points 16m. Don't be distracted by the animations...
I believe there’s a bug here - I'll leave it to others to find it for themselves.

Raccoons – 25 second mode. After passing through an inlane when the Raccoon light is lit, the opposite side Raccoon will begin to jiggle for about 4 seconds. If you hit the Raccoon while it is jiggling it advances towards the Raccoon mode and scores 250k points (and adds 100k to your end of ball bonus). If you successfully hit a raccoon after an inlane three times, you will start Raccoons. The goal is to hit both jumping raccoons three times each. You get 100k for entering Raccoon mode so even if you don’t hit a single Raccoon you will come out of the mode with 100k. The first Raccoon hit is worth 100k, second 150k, third 200k, etc.

There is a bug in Raccoon mode. Successfully completing Raccoons the first time should result in a total of about 2,450,000 (1,450,000 for the six Raccoon hits and another 1m bonus) and an extra ball if you have extra balls enabled. However, the first time you complete it you will score a total of 10m points. If you complete Raccoons any time after that, you will score a total of 2,450,000 points. To get to Raccoons a second time requires five inlane/Raccoon hits, third time six, etc etc.

No matter what, if you hit a raccoon the center post raises for a second... UNLESS you hit it too fast, in which case for whatever reason the Sega targets do not register, and you get an amazing impossible SDTM drain, which I think is part of the charm of the game. Hitting the coon's not dead on is important to you keeping your ball *and* having the shots register. Also, note - this is NORMAL GAMEPLAY with these targets. Weird, but again - I find it charming.

Raccoons and Stacking
Raccoons is the only mode that can be stacked with other modes on VND provided it is started first. It does not lock out the other targets on the playfield. While Raccoons is running you can hit the standups and orbits to drive more miles, complete the H & P inlanes to increase the bonus multiplier, hit the jump ramp for the Caution, Warning and Bridge Out awards, start a mode if Notepad is qualified or start Multiball. Raccoons will continue to run while you do these other things. For example you will hear the Raccoon music running while Multiball is active (as opposed to the normal Multiball music). Once Raccoons has stopped in Multiball, the regular Multiball music will play. You cannot start Raccoons after a mode or Multiball begins.

Other Shots
Spell VIPER - Every time a shot is made where Spell VIPER is qualified, it adds a letter to the word Viper. The first time VIPER is spelled, it increases the jackpots to 7m, 14m & 21m, second time it is 9m, 18m, 27m etc.

H & P Inlanes - The "H" and "P" inlanes are controlled by lane change on the flippers. If you change lanes on the plunge (closest thing to a skillshot) to make sure the ball rolls over the lit lane, you'll get the bonus multiplier increase. Every time you complete the H and P lanes the bonus multiplier increases. I don't really consider this a skill shot because of how the autolauncher bricks the ball so often. Additionally, I don't know if this is a bug, a problem with my machine or by design. If you roll through an unlit lane, and don't hit the pops after going through, that lane won't light up. What I usually do is use the lane change to make sure the ball is going through the unlit lane and then give the machine a nudge to make sure it engages the pops to qualify the lane.

Bridge Out Ramp - A little skip into the pops ramp that gives you Caution (250,000), Warning (500,000) and then Bridge Out. Bridge Out changes with other shots in the game being made but it’s unclear exactly what those shots are. I know the first Bridge Out award is 1m, and somewhere in there are also awards for 10m and an extra ball.

Combo Shot/Double Scoring - Shoot the center ramp three times – the first time gives you SNAKE (100,000), RUMBLE the second time (200,000) and ROLL third time (lights combo), which because it is so silly easy to hit are almost worth nothing. After making the ROLL shot, if you IMMEDIATELY combo this with a right ramp shot without hitting anything else you light Double Scoring in the left inlane. Since the combo shot is timed, a delay in hitting the right ramp or hitting anything else on the playfield will result in the message “Combo Missed”.

After lighting Double Scoring, rolling through the left inlane initiates Double Scoring which doubles all scores (including Multiball jackpots) for 20 seconds. When double scoring is active, the game doesn't tell you, but after about 15 seconds you hear it beeping countdown for five seconds and when completed the display shows "DOUBLE SCORING! 7,485,390!" or whatever you got.

One Shot Triple Scoring - When one shot triple scoring is qualified on the right ramp (every third shot on the right ramp), making the shot qualifies one shot triple scoring on the right inlane. Since the right ramp returns the ball to the right inlane, making the ramp shot essentially makes triple scoring active for the very next shot. Triple scoring only applies to points and not to miles. So if you advance miles on your very next shot, you will score 1.5m points but only the actual miles . You cannot activate triple scoring in modes or in Multiball.

Note: Honestly, this is a stupid design and there was probably something else imagined for triple scoring which ultimately did not fit into the rest of the ruleset, making this shot feel almost like an afterthought. Since it is a one shot and is limited in when it can be used, it has little effect on gameplay.

Multiball
Multiball is started by locking two balls (one each) in the ball locks. At the start of the game both locks are qualified and a shot into the lock will lock the ball. When Multiball starts, the game will turn off the GI (but not the backbox tube), turn on the blacklights and shoot both balls back into play as well as the other two balls in the trough for a four-ball multiball. The inserts will flash indicating the jackpot shot. The center post raises for a decent amount of time as a ball save but even if you drain, as long as the center post is up, the machine will launch the ball back into play. Your first goal is to hit the center ramp for 5 Million. This qualifies the two ball locks for the double jackpot worth 10m. As long as you have more than one ball in play, there is no time limit to how long you have to lock the first ball for the double jackpot, but if you don't lock the second ball within 15 seconds after locking the first, the first ball gets kicked out and you will have to lock two balls again to get the double jackpot. With more than two balls, it's tough.

Collecting the double jackpot opens the left and right ramps for 15 million each for the Super Jackpots. You have a total of 15 seconds to get BOTH Supers, which if you do, it reopens the center ramp for three 5M jackpots before the sequence restarts with the side locks, then the Supers again. Completing the sequence a second time reopens the center ramp for five 5m jackpots before the side locks open up then the supers. Complete it again and the center ramp opens for seven, then nine, etc. etc. If you don't collect both supers - and it's tough, you go back to the relock ball challenge. However if you lock both balls again, both Super Jackpots are once again qualified since you have to hit both in 15 seconds to reopen the center ramp - no credit if you previously hit one of the Supers.

After the first Multiball, it takes two shots to each lock to lock the ball for the next Multiball. After that it’s three shots, for the next and then six shots to lock each ball for Multiball. As a result, the Multiball strategy does eventually play out in favor of the mode strategy.

The only other things of consequence that are active during Multiball are the H & P inlanes. Everything else is locked out (the clue is what lights are lit on the playfield.)

End of ball bonus
The end of ball bonus is calculated from the following shots:

Standup target hits when Light Post Save is lit (not in modes) – 100k each

Orbit shots made when Spell VIPER is lit (not in modes) – 100k each

Raccoons hit to qualify Raccoons mode (not in Raccoon mode) – 100k each

Miles Driven – 20k per mile.

The minimum Bonus given is 100k if no other bonus shots are made during a ball. Only the Miles Driven bonus is carried over from ball to ball, all others are reset. The bonus multiplier for the skill shot or completing the H & P lanes is reset on every ball, it does not carry over.

Yes there is - missed it in all my cutting, pasting and editing. I have added it above and modified as necessary.

The triple scoring is really a waste of a shot - see reason above. It doesn't really play into my strategies.

Looking forward to the ROM!

viperrwk

Powered up my VND last night and after about 3 or 4 minutes of play the DMD went "blank" and had a couple of horizontal lines in the middle of the display. The game still worked as usual but no display. Any one else had this problem? Any ideas where to start looking for the problem? Thanks for any help.

Seems like a bad display panel. Did you check voltages?

viperrwk

Hope you figure it out. There is a display on ebay right now for $300.00 if you determine you need a new display. Not mine , just giving you info.

I doubt it's a new display that is added, but for general information...

$165 new on Pinball Life - http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=164

Thanks for the replies guys! I'll start by checking the voltages. It seemed like the display went blank when the machine warmed up, so the panel may be the culprit.

Got VND that I bought back and played some games last night. Game was exactly as described and no problems. Thanks Tamoore. Great Pinsider.

Not sure how it would hold up in the long haul:

http://store.tapirback.com/raccoon-plastic-replica-f3526/

viperrwk

I think you can still get the mechs with the rods. I'd get another set and superglue these little guys to the rods after cutting a hole in their butts and hope for the best.

viperrwk

Just finished installing an LED kit from Cointaker. Looks great. Now that I have the ramps partially pulled, I'm thinking of pulling the rest and cleaning the playfield. And while I do that, did we ever find out about the ball trap kit? I do have one, and haven't gotten any balls stuck, just curious if I should install now or wait.