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Iron Maiden rules and play

Written by emo, published March 7th, 2011. No comments.

The Iron Maiden.

Introduction.

Several years ago Iron Maiden was at the top of my “most wanted” pin list. I hadn’t actually played the game but it looked interesting so from my PC I searched around Europe hoping to find one. Then I heard of one here in the UK and was invited to play it so travelled hours by car to play my dream game. I had a great day out but sadly I wasn’t very impressed with Iron Maiden and felt the game play didn’t live up to its looks. To be quite honest, I enjoyed playing the owners Pharaoh and Freefall just as much so when I returned home I decided to scratch it from the top of my list and re classify it as one of those games it would be nice to buy if one came along. I’m glad to say that several years later one has.

The game I now own was for sale at the 2007 UK pinball Cup Tournament, and IFPA World chanmpioships in 2008 so some readers may already have played it. It was clean but still needed a mechanical overhaul to address some problems, such as the fact that the ball didn’t make the left ramp. A more serious problem and the reason it failed to sell on the day in my opinion was that both back glasses (there are two a front and rear) were damaged. The front one had paint missing along the bottom and the back one had badly cracked and peeling paint. One area about the size of my fist was peeling so much that it had curled back to expose the white lamp board behind. Buying this game was a risk, as without good glasses it was potentially scrap. I was lucky with my glass repairs (see pics). Since writing this article I have managed to get a mint replacement rear glass from France so I’m pleased to report that all is now fine and dandy.

Iron Maiden was produced by SEI Stern in late 1981 and was one of their last mass produced games. It is a wide bodied; double level, 4 player game, which has always been surrounded by questions. The IPDB currently quotes production figures of 1200 but other suggested figures of around 600 and 800 are also commonly quoted, which means that it is a rare find. The games perceived rarity was reinforced by the fact that almost all games were exported to Europe. This makes it highly desirable in the US where most of the examples are games that have been imported back over the Atlantic.

The game was supposed to be a talker but mystery surrounds what became of the games speech ROMs. There are drawings, references and even a photograph of a board with German ROMs installed but as yet the real thing has not been found. Some speculated that the speech may have been cut to save money, while others still hope that one day ROM’s will be found but for the present it seems that Iron Maiden is destined to remain forever silent.

Iron Maiden is thought by some (including me) to be one of the most beautiful games of the early 80’s, which is the high praise as the 80’s is littered with beautiful games. A friend recently referred to it as “the game with the hot chick on the back glass”. Despite a slightly cold or alien appearance she does have all the right parts in the right places and seems to attract admirers from both sexes. I read a quote from artist Doug Watson, in which he said that Stern were great to work for because they allowed their artists a lot of freedom. This may help to explain the sci-fi theme of this game, which appears to be pure fantasy on the part of the artist and has no connection to the 80’s rock band with the same name. The artist is simply recorded as “Parkinson” on the back glass. According to the IPDB Parkinson only worked on two other pins, namely Viper and Hypnox. Both were Sterns and are rare, in fact Hypnox almost certainly doesn’t exist as allegedly it was only produced in prototype form.

Brian Poklacki was Iron Maiden’s designer. His other game Stargazer, is another rarity and is a very highly rated game so it’s a shame that the talents of both Parkinson and Poklacki appear to have been lost to pinball when Stern stopped producing pins a few months after producing Iron Maiden.

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Playfield layout.

Iron Maiden has an extra wide split level playfield, with skill shot and ball locking lanes up the right hand side.

The lower playfield is centred slightly to the left and has two standard sized flippers at the bottom, four in-lanes and the usual two out-lanes. Blue lamps spell out IRON MAIDEN when lit and span the lower playfield. The in-lanes contain the I,N,N,I scoring switches. The out-lanes award 10,000 points and nudgers will be pleased to note that there is no lane change. On the left are the 3 drop targets. Above these is a ramp with a spinner at its entrance that leads to the upper field.

Moving across the top of the lower playfield you have an entrance lane where plunged or locked balls, as well as drains from between the flippers on the top playfield can enter the lower playfield. To it right are 5 drop targets and then a strange little curved area that contains 3 stand-ups that spell A, D&E. You can see locked balls stored for multiball behind these drops. Next is another ramp up to the top playfield. A cunningly placed post at the bottom of the right ramp deflects balls that roll down across the playfield when they exit. Moving around to the right we have another two targets that are used to collect various awards extra ball and special and below these is a diverter that when opened will divert balls from the out-lane back into the plunger lane. There are also 2-5X bonus indicator lamps on the left and the bonus time indicator lamps on the right of the playfield.

The top play field is raised and slightly smaller than the lower one and contains two small flippers in the usual place. There are 3 stand-up targets on the left above the left ramp entrance lane that spell R,O,M and a 2nd bank of 5 drop targets along the top. This playfield has 4 exits points. The two on the top right of the playfield send the ball down lanes from which they can be fired back into play or diverted to the lock balls in the “ball walker”. They could be locked for multiball but if multiball hasn’t been earned yet, the ball walker will shuffle the balls along one space and release a ball onto the lower field. The other two exits are either down the right ramp or through the hole below the small flippers. There is also a large slingshot at the bottom and to the right of the flippers that helps to keep the ball action pretty fast.

The skill shot is interesting. A manually plunged ball will travel up a long lane on the right hand side of the playfield that contains 2 one way gates. These are used to defect deliberately weak shots that role back into ball locking lanes. From there they are fired either around to the ball walker or onto the top playfield depending on how far you have got through the game. The ball walker can either retain balls or release them onto the bottom playfield if the locks aren’t yet enabled. The shot to plunge for i.e. worth the most points is signalled by a blue arrow. If plunged too hard the ball will score nothing and just travel around and exit onto the bottom playfield. Ball locking is quite a complicated mechanical operation in that it can involve non return lanes, firing balls up lanes, diverters and the ball walker.

Game rules.

It’s this rule set that makes this game in my opinion, as it ensures that players need to use all their skills to pick out the appropriate targets required to gain those all important big bonuses. The game has 3 bonus systems that are spelling IRON MAIDEN, the 5X bonus and the Bonus Ball.

Upper and Lower 5-Target Banks:

Dropping all 5 upper or lower targets in ascending or descending order awards a dual bonus multiplier, plus an extra ball for ascending order or a special for descending order. To collect the dual bonus you must drop the centre target of the opposite 5-target bank. If the bonus is collected then each additional drop target hit increases the bonus value. If the targets are initially dropped in a random order then you receive a single multiplier bonus and no special or extra ball but each drop target hit still increases the bonus value as before.

3-Target Bank and Bonus Ball:

These are used to score points and accumulate bonus time for a bonus ball that is awarded at the end of the game. The bonus ball is continually returned into play until the time expires.

The first target dropped starts a timer which lights different bonus lights at 5 second intervals e.g. 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5. Knocking down all 3 targets awards the amount of bonus time indicated, plus 3000 bonus points. Each individual target scores 500 and each hit increases the bonus received.

The Spinner:

The spinner awards 200 points per spin and adds a further 200 points for each letter of IRON MAIDEN lit (2000 max for 10 letters). The IRON MAIDEN letters are lit by triggering the various stand up target and rollover switches around the playfield. The spinner value is increased by a further 3X when the 3X-WHEN-LIT arrow is illuminated. The arrow is activated by hitting the lower right target when indicated by the 3X-SPINNER-VALUE light. Just to complicate things a little this lamp alternates between on and off with each hit of one of the 3 slingshots.

Multiball:

To begin multiball, all letters of IRON MAIDEN must be lit across the lower playfield and all 3 balls must be in the ball walker. Once this is achieved all three balls are released and the extra ball spotting light will light on the lower right target of the playfield. To lock balls hit the locking lane indicated by a blue arrow. Achieving this will award 10,000 points and lock the ball. Note: If the whole word IRON MAIDEN is not lit, multiball won’t start and a ball will be released back on to the lower playfield.

Special at lower right and 5X bonus:

When the 5X BONUS MULTIPLIER lights, it also lights the SPECIAL at the lower right target. The special light turns on and off each time a slingshot is hit and can only be collected when lit. It awards 100,000 points or a credit depending on operator settings.

Note: The above covers the basics but as you get far into the game other awards become available such as “Spot Iron or Spot Maiden and Open return gate”.

Playing the Game.

There is a lot to think about when you play Iron Maiden. Start a game and a strobe light will begin to pulse in the backglass, accompanied by a low metallic beat. The first challenge is the skill shot where by carefully plunging the ball you can try and hit the lit shot from one the of three options available.

Once the ball is in play I go for the 5-drop target banks as they are they will raise the bonus and unlock other features. Having to get from one playfield to another to collect awards is fun. Hitting targets in order (see rules) is challenging and satisfying when achieved. The hurry up 3 drop target sequence is also fun, as is the bonus ball at the end.

Watch out for the special awards, in front of the drops and on the far right of the lower playfield. Hitting the ball lock lanes after spelling IRON MAIDEN on the top playfield is tricky to achieve with the small flippers and is equally likely to be the result of luck as skill. If you loose the ball there is an opportunity to lock the next ball from the skill shot but be warned, multiball on a double level game with no loops or bumpers can be a very short experience!

The key to the game is to get those drop target awards, including extra ball and to max out the Iron Maiden bonus by hitting the other targets and switches in the game so that all the other features such as the spinner and multiball become much more lucrative. Then it’s a case of keeping the ball alive and scoring for as long as possible. At the end of a good game you get two rewards. Firstly you get the bonus ball, accompanied by a countdown sequence and then a noisy bonus count at the end.

Overview.

Iron Maiden is jam packed with things to shoot at. Amazingly it has 21 targets, 13 of them drop targets and all are well integrated into play. One of the most pleasing aspects when playing is the way that players need to switch play between playfields to pick off individual targets, maximize bonuses and collect the awards such as extra balls. There is also the spinner, ramps, ball lock lanes and double in-lanes to go for.

The skill shot is interesting. At first glance the skill shot/ball locking lanes seem to take up a lot of space but the extra width of this game means that both playfields remains a good size and bigger than most other double level games. Iron Maiden is well specified as it has both a bonus ball feature and 3 ball multiball, which were both top features in 1981.

The sounds are good and as you would expect from a game this age. It has throbbing background sound and lots of sounds that are produced from the playfield features. It also has some cool tension raising sounds to indicate timed features and the usual Stern big bonus count at the end but just occasionally I feel something is missing e.g. when extra ball is ready to collect or balls can be locked. I guess that this is the result of that missing speech. Luckily the Playfield lamps help compensate and do a good job of both lighting the play field and telling you what to shoot for.

Iron Maiden is a bit of a monster in terms of size and at 26 years old it won’t suite everyone but it looks amazing and should please sci-fi fans and those who appreciate beautiful things. The rules will test players, which is something that I failed to appreciate the first time I played it. I now think it a solid and challenging game as well as a charismatic piece of pinball history.

Note: If anyone out there has a Stern speech board with Iron Maiden ROMs in it please get in touch. You could make some iron Maiden owners very happy!


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