History Main / TropesInPinballGames

** In many games from Creator/DataEast, if the player gets to the last ball without having started multiball yet, the game will start multiball immediately after launch.
** In more modern tables, if a particular target is out of order, it will be picked up by the game eventually and substituted for a similar target if a particular objective normally requires that target to be hit.

*** ''Pinball/WhoDunnit1995'': "Second Chance Slots" by going down an outlane, which sometimes starts the slot machine. If the left reel and center reel display the same image, the game serves another ball, which you get to keep regardless if you finish the Second Chance.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: In modern pinball games, multiball locks are usually colored green, "shoot this shot" arrows are colored yellow, and extra ball lights are colored red.

** Can be [[InvertedTrope inverted]] with balls bought with buy-ins. The extra bought ball will usually have a relatively long ball saver, and many of the game's features lit.

* DoWellButNotPerfect: "Nining-out" a game is a popular SelfImposedChallenge, especially on older games. That is, getting a score as close as possible to without going over the maximum that can be displayed. A score that's slightly over a million points on a six-digit display probably will not save, though some games are nice enough to save this as the maximum displayable score.

** On some machines, especially early DMD machines, the requirements for a certain feature (for example, the number of ramps to light an extra ball) might "reflex", varying based on how many times the shot gets made.

** A lot of the post-1995 Williams/Bally games also have a Midnight Madness mode if you start a game at midnight. Later becomes a RunningGag InsideJoke, with machines like ''Pinball/TheatreOfMagic'' having a non-secret mode called Midnight Madness. Still later, even virtual pinball would join the fun, with ''VideoGame/SorcerersLair'' adopting this name for the Wizard Mode.

* FanService: Though it depended on the subject matter, many machines featured artwork of scantily clad females for no other reason than to have scantily clad females all over the machine.

* GoneHorriblyRight: This happened to Creator/WilliamsElectronics in TheNineties; although pinball remained a popular money-maker in various public venues, distributors and retailers weren't buying new games -- because the games they had bought in earlier years were still [[MadeOfIndestructium working fine]] and making money. Williams realized that their only way out was to invent a new form of pinball that would make existing games look antiquated by comparison; the result was the "Pinball 2000" platform and ''Pinball/RevengeFromMars,'' which superimposed video displays over the playfield.

* LastChanceHitPoint: ''Pinball/WhoDunnit1995'' has a variation of this; either outlane can be lit to start the slots when the ball drains. Matching two of the reels ([[DoWellButNotPerfect but not all three]]) will give a Second Chance, where a ball is plunged back in and shooting one of the lit shots will match the third reel. Whether you match the third reel or not, it won't count as a drain and you get to keep playing on the same ball. Getting Multiball on the slots will save you from ending the ball too.

* LuckBasedMission: Still very much prevalent today, as even a wizard playing their favorite game can really [[{{Pun}} drop the ball]] every once in a while, though there is quite a skill component on the mechanical side (being able to shoot shots) and knowledge component on knowing the table's rules. However, pre-1947 pinball games were almost entirely luck-based, as they had no flippers, and the notion led to pinball's ban for over twenty years.[[note]]See the {{Pinball}} page for more details.[[/note]]

* SmartBomb: Data East games ''Pinball/{{Jurassic Park|DataEast}}'' and ''Pinball/LastActionHero'' have a Smart Missile feature (activated by a button on the back of the gun-shaped plungers) that has various effects depending on the mode that is currently running, but most of the time they have the effect of collecting all lit shots.

** Lately, even Jersey Jack, however, is beginning to drift toward its own "score inflation" trend that puts scores more in-line with Stern games. Pinball/TheGodfather has a potential ''100x'' shot multiplier [[note]]Achieved by combining the 10x playfield multiplier with a 10x inlane shot multiplier[[/note]] that expert players have used to potentially score ''billions''. And Pinball//EltonJohn seems to have settled in a spot where good games are in excess of 100 million.

** Some games have a solenoid in the left outlane known as a "kickback" or "laser kick": If the ball would otherwise drain down there, the solenoid will propel the ball back into the main playfield. Furthermore, should the kickback backfire or otherwise fail to malfunction, there is still a standard ball saver that will kick in if that happens. These aren't active all the time, of course. Some other games have a "virtual kickback," where the ball drains as normal but the game immediately provides another ball as if there was a kickback. A few games have a mode that begins when a ball drains down an outlane, where the game gives another ball and asks you to clear a TimedMission--clear it, and the game continues as if it never drained. Let time run out, and the flippers freeze, voiding the ball. Examples of this last one include:

* SongsInTheKeyOfPanic: Variant -- tables of the late 1970s-early 1980s often had the music rise in pitch and/or tempo the longer the ball was in play in an attempt to distract the player. It rolled back around to the original tune after a while. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neNiMNH1MHk This]] 1979 ''Flash'' machine is a good (annoying) example.

* ArrangeMode: Many pins have a "Tournament Mode" that {{nerf}}s some of the higher-scoring elements and disables extra balls.

** Some games have a solenoid in the left outlane known as a "kickback" or "laser kick": If the ball would otherwise drain down there, the solenoid will propel the ball back into the main playfield. These aren't active all the time, of course. Some other games have a "virtual kickback," where the ball drains as normal but the game immediately provides another ball as if there was a kickback. A few games have a mode that begins when a ball drains down an outlane, where the game gives another ball and asks you to clear a TimedMission--clear it, and the game continues as if it never drained. Let time run out, and the flippers freeze, voiding the ball. Examples of this last one include:

** Capcom's 1996 pinball ''Pinball/{{Breakshot}}'' has the appearance of pinball from TheSeventies, even simulating electromagnetic score reels on the DMD.

* EveryTenThousandPoints: Virtually any pinball machine will give you a "replay" (or sometimes an extra ball) for reaching a certain score, known on most games as the "replay value". Older pins usually have several of these.

** A few designers have attempted to create pinball games that are time-based, such as ''Pinball/JamesBond007, Pinball/SafeCracker,'' and ''Pinball/FlipperFootball.'' Needless to say, none of them managed to catch on with the mass market.

* EndlessGame: Almost every pinball. Averted by a few games like ''Pinball/JamesBond007, Pinball/SafeCracker'' and ''Pinball/FlipperFootball'', which use timed play.

* ContinuingIsPainful: Bonuses, missions, combos, multipliers, and such reset if you lose a ball, unless the table has a "multipliers held" or similar function you can enable to preserve them for your next ball.

* LuckBasedMission: Still very much prevalent today, as even a wizard playing their favorite game can really [[IncrediblyLamePun drop the ball]] every once in a while, though there is quite a skill component on the mechanical side (being able to shoot shots) and knowledge component on knowing the table's rules. However, pre-1947 pinball games were almost entirely luck-based, as they had no flippers, and the notion led to pinball's ban for over twenty years.[[note]]See the {{Pinball}} page for more details.[[/note]]

** To an even lesser extent, the [=SuperPin=] line of Williams/Bally games such as ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone'', ''Pinball/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', ''Pinball/IndianaJonesThePinballAdventure'', and ''Pinball/DemolitionMan''.

* MiniGame: "VideoMode", a basic VideoGame controlled with the flipper and plunger buttons. Smaller playfields on the table (such as ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone''[='s=] "Battle The Power" section, or ''Pinball/BlackKnight's'' upper playfield) also count to a degree.

* SelfImposedChallenge: Quite common in tournaments to reduce play times, or to make an otherwise [[GoldenSnitch one-shot game]] more balanced by {{Nerf}}ing that shot. Turning off extra balls is almost always done, and sometimes the software will be set to harder-than-normal settings. Other adjustments include putting extra-wide posts on the entrances of ramps and other shots to make them narrower (or in some cases, blocking them off or disabling their switches entirely), using "lightning" flippers (1/8 of an inch shorter than normal flippers) on games that don't normally use them, making the playfield steeper, replacing the normal balls with [[Pinball/TheTwilightZone powerballs]], or putting extra-bouncy rubbers on flippers. Most competitions, or games set for competition practice, will have their tilt sensors turned up very high as well.

** Pinball has been subject to this for some time, with the growing sophistication of computer-controlled rulesets and the boom in private collectors fueling the trend. When ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone'' was released in 1993, it was lauded as the most complicated pinball game ever made. It was surpassed ten years later by ''Pinball/TheSimpsonsPinballParty'' and ''Pinball/TheLordOfTheRings,'' which were in turn eclipsed by 2013's ''Pinball/TheWizardOfOz''. Home collectors relish these complex rules, as they help ensure that their multi-thousand-dollar tables will provide years of gameplay to discover all of the secrets and strategies possible.

** ''Pinball/FunHouse'' was the first to do this. Rudy, a talking ventriloquist head, will frequently compliment players for good shots, tell players about scoring opportunities, and tease players during the course of each game. He even nicknames the individual players.

** ''Pinball/TheChampionPub'' takes this to [[UpToEleven ridiculous extremes]]. The normal Jackpot is worth 100K. Then there are double, triple, quadruple... all the way up to Octuple Jackpot, Super Jackpot, Mega Jackpot, Ultra Jackpot, Turbo Jackpot, Maximum Jackpot, Cow of a Jackpot, and Jackpot Deluxe. That's '''15''' jackpot levels.

* UnusualUserInterface: Pinball is this trope. Rather than directly controlling a character, you knock a suicidal silver ball into targets by hitting it with electro-mechanical paddles

* EasterEgg[=/=]EverythingsBetterWithCows:
** Easter Eggs are often referred to as "cows"; actual bovine references are an industry RunningGag, first popularized by Creator/WilliamsElectronics and later adopted by other creators for fun. [[EverythingsBetterWithCows See the page]] for an extensive list.

* RecycledInSpace:
** Williams has done an inversion of this twice with ''Pinball/AttackFromMars''. ''Pinball/AttackFromMars'' has a space theme with martians invading Earth. Its SpiritualSuccessor ''Pinball/MedievalMadness'', which features a very similar playfield layout and gameplay, has a medieval theme as the title would suggest.
** ''Pinball/MonsterBash'', which could be viewed as another SpiritualSuccessor to ''AFM,'' has a horror/rock theme.
** Stern's ''[[Pinball/SpiderManStern Spider-Man]]'' pinball is also very similar in design; it was designed as a homage/tribute to Creator/BrianEddy and ''Pinball/AttackFromMars''.

*** ''Pinball/WHODunnit'': "Second Chance Slots" by going down an outlane, which sometimes starts the slot machine. If the left reel and center reel display the same image, the game serves another ball, which you get to keep regardless if you finish the Second Chance.

** ''[[Pinball/WHODunnit WHO dunnit]]'' has slots which give out various awards, as well as a roulette mini-game where you can bet your points. Unlike ''Jack*Bot'', you actually are wagering your already-earned score, making this a rare example of a pinball game where you can ''lose'' points.

** Even with modern dot-matrix displays, the score displays on some games will usually roll back to 0 if they go over the maximum number of digits that can be displayed. Most dot-matrix games will roll over at 10 billion points; ''[[Pinball/WHODunnit WHO dunnit]]'' and ''Dirty Harry'' are examples of games where this is not very hard to do. The high score tables usually can display the full scores though.

* LastChanceHitPoint: ''[[Pinball/WHODunnit WHO dunnit]]'' has a variation of this; either outlane can be lit to start the slots when the ball drains. Matching two of the reels ([[DoWellButNotPerfect but not all three]]) will give a Second Chance, where a ball is plunged back in and shooting one of the lit shots will match the third reel. Whether you match the third reel or not, it won't count as a drain and you get to keep playing on the same ball. Getting Multiball on the slots will save you from ending the ball too.