"We spared no expense."note
Jurassic Park is a 2019 pinball machine designed by Keith Elwin and released by Stern. It is the third pinball table based on the Jurassic Park franchise, after the 1993 Data East game and Sega's The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997).
Primarily based on the original film, the player witnesses the beginnings of the titular park. Things go awry when rogue programmer Dennis Nedry deploys a virus that shuts down the park's systems, allowing all of its dinosaurs to run amok. You're tasked with tracking down and re-containing all of them, as well as rescuing the employees threatened by the various species the park has to offer. Along the way, you'll have the chance at obtaining Fossils (along with the benefits they bestow) and getting into various modes recreating familiar scenes from the film – including the ever-present, iconic Tyrannosaurus rex. After getting through all of them, the finale has the player make a bid to escape Isla Nublar before its volcano erupts.
Every version of the game has a "Jungle Adventure Vehicle" toy that acts as a Newton ball of sorts, as well as a "Raptor pen" section of the playfield, a small helicopter blade near the right side of the machine, and a T. rex head on the back end. The Premium and Limited Edition models add some upgrades to the latter three, most notably allowing the T. rex to move, eat, and throw the ball.
In late 2021, Stern announced a "Pin" edition meant specifically for use in homes. It is noticeably stripped down from the regular version of the game, featuring a different layout and less toys, but retains many of the primary features (CHAOS letters, a T. rex head, and so on). Notably, it's also the first commercially available pinball game designed by prominent streamer Jack Danger, who while not officially employed at Stern at the time of designing this, eventually accepted a full-time offer to join their game design team after its release.
Tropes:
- Achievement System: Fossils are awarded for completing specific tasks.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Since it's possible to fail to achieve a fossil and thus lose the opportunity to ever get it again, there are seven "wild card" fossils that will award one from the lowest available set.
- If Escape is activated during the ball save timer, it will remain lit.
- The first T-Rex mode on default settings will always be "Feed T-Rex" and it’s associated Multiball.
- Arrange Mode: Holding both flipper buttons when beginning a game starts the "Escape Nublar Challenge", where the player immediately begins in the titular Wizard Mode. It's also possible to select a "Competition" variant that removes randomness from the mode wherever possible.
- Ascended Glitch: "Invalid Frenzy" was added to the code after a bug that displayed an "Invalid" name for one of the Control Room modes.
- Bland-Name Product: One animation shows a Barbasol can labelled "Schmarbasol" near one of the park's computers.
- Book Ends: You start the game getting off a helicopter, landing at the main gate of Isla Nublar. One of your goals is to find a path toward the Visitors' Center. The final wizard mode has you backtrack your way from the Visitors' Center to the main gate, where you board a helicopter to get off the island.
- Brand X: The Jeep toy is officially referred to as a "Jungle Adventure Vehicle".
- Camera Abuse: Activating the ball save shows an Ankylosaurus launching a pinball straight at the camera, cracking it.
- "Pteranodon Attack"’s total screen shows one of the Pteranodons attacking the camera.
- The replay animation shows a Spitter spitting it’s venomous acid at the camera.
- Chekhov's Volcano: The premise of "Escape Nublar" hinges on the island's volcano exploding, necessitating the player escape.
- Combos: There are eleven specific sequences of shots that are recognized as "DNA Combos", which award at least 2 million points, add quite a bit to your end-of-ball bonus, and eventually help light an extra ball or award a fossil.
- "System Boot" from the Control Room modes revolves around making one of three shots, then shooting another shot directly after it as a combo. More points are awarded based on the difficulty of the shot.
- Creator Cameo: A picture of Keith Elwin smoking a pipe is taped to Dennis Nedry’s computer screen.
◊ - Demoted to Extra: Every human character (aside from Dennis Nedry) is either omitted entirely or relegated to voiceovers.
- Developer's Foresight:
- All the dinosaurs’ diets and aggression are based on how they behaved in real life.
- If the truck shot that starts Feed T-Rex rebounds into the bumper shot that starts Chaos Multiball, both modes will be stacked. This can also be done with Raptor Tri-Ball off of the Smart Missile.
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Goddamned Bats: The spitters of the Spitter Paddock invoke this by having the ability to stun staff and prevent them from being Rescued, making them a lot more tedious to capture than the other dinosaurs surrounding it. - Human-Focused Adaptation: Inverted – the focus is almost entirely on the dinosaurs, with Dennis Nedry being the only human character visually depicted.
- Luck-Based Mission: During "Escape Nublar", chance is the only factor in whether a particular path will be safe or not. That being said, while it's very rare to hit a bad path early in the mode, that likelyhood increases the further you are into it. Furthermore, selecting the "Competition" variant of the "Escape Nublar Challenge" averts this by making various random elements behave predictably.
- Match Sequence: A mechanical appendage turns over a dinosaur egg to reveal the match number printed on it.
- Mythology Gag:
- The game has a few allusions to Data East’s original pinball table, including the T-Rex toy, the "Smart Missile" feature (albeit in name only), the CHAOS Spelling Bonus, and the phrasing & rules of "Raptor Tri-Ball" (originally an attempt to write around Williams Electronics' trademark on the word "multiball").
- There’s also some allusions to the original film: Dennis Nedry’s “Ah-ah-ah!” screen shows up as a tilt warning and for every switch hit during "Invalid Frenzy", and using the ball save occasionally prompts a female voice to say "I think we're back in business!" (a quote from Ellie after restoring the park's power).
- The selection screen for the Control Room modes is directly taken from the hacking scene in the original film.
"It’s a Unix system! You know this!" - Non-Standard Game Over: Finishing "Escape Nublar" (or "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth", if you qualify for it) automatically ends the game, win or lose. Justified, since the mode concludes with a volcano erupting and undoubtedly wiping out any remaining life on Isla Nublar, and even if you did win the mode, you still left the island and thus concluded the story.
- Not Quite Starring: Impersonators of the original film’s main cast (including Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough, and Samuel L. Jackson) provide voices.
- Say My Name: Occasionally at the start of "Invalid Frenzy".NEDRYYYYYYYYY!
- Second-Person Attack: Several animations display dinosaurs attacking the camera (for instance, the first T. rex mode shows it eating a goat from the latter's perspective).
- Set Bonus:
- Fossils are grouped into four sets, and collecting an entire group awards an increasing amount of points and another reward (like an extra ball or an increased amber multiplier).
- The latest major code revision adds Trifecta awards. There are 11 dinosaurs in the game to capture, fossils of all 11 dinosaurs, and a unique combo named after each dinosaur. Collecting all three objectives for each dinosaur awards a large bonus.
- Shout-Out: The default high scores allude to several esteemed pinball players, including Jim Belsito (JPB), Paul Madison (PEM), and Neil Shatz (NES). (The latter, renowned for his ability to getting to the very top of the high score list, is fittingly made the default for the Grand Champion high score.)
- Skill Shot: Several of them.
- The standard Skill Shot is to immediately shoot the left ramp (for a minimum of 2 million points), which can be comboed into a Super Skill Shot by shooting the right ramp (doubling the initial point value), a Double Super Skill Shot with the side ramp (quadrupling the value), and finally a Triple Super Skill Shot at the right orbit (sextupling the value).
- There are also several Secret Skill Shots obtained by lightly plunging the ball and immediately hitting one of four shots.
- Furthermore, there's also the MXV Skill Shot (named after Stern employee Mike Vinikour) and the Ultra Super Skill Shot (which starts a hidden feature at the beginning of the game).
- Spelling Bonus:
- M-A-P allows the player to advance to the next paddock.
- T-R-E-X lights a T-Rex mode.
- C-H-A-O-S lights Chaos Multiball. Notably, each letter must be lit in sequence.
- Spinosaurus Versus T. rex: During "King of the Island Multiball".
- Terrifying Tyrannosaur: The various T. rex-centric modes generally show it in a fearsome light. The first mode on default settings, "Feed T-Rex", depicts it eating a goat via Second-Person Attack, then later modes escalate to things like chasing after the player's Jeep in "T-Rex Chase" and terrorizing the employees in "T-Rex Encounter".
- Wizard Mode: There are no fewer than four mini-wizard modes, one proper wizard mode, and a postscript mode of sorts.
- Reaching the end of the map by visiting paddocks leads to "Visitor's Center", themed around the raptors getting loose in the titular building. With two balls, the player must repeatedly make two shots to lure them into cold storage – they move to the left every time they're made, starting at the far right before ultimately getting to the far left (including the raptor pen). Once that's done, the balls must be locked and a hurry-up begins; the player must shoot the locked balls to trap the raptors in cold storage and end the mode (and start "Victory Targets" for added scoring opportunity).
- Finishing the main Control Room modes qualifies "Secure Control Room", where the player progressively shoots every major shot for a hurry-up before shooting the control room to conclude the mode. (The theme here is the raptors attempting to break into the control room.)
- "Invalid Frenzy" was added as a hidden fourth Control Room mode and as a random option from the Smart Missile in a post-release update. It's a multiball where the player must trigger enough switch hits to light the jackpot; upon collecting it, it relights for a jackpot worth thrice as much.
- Getting through all four T-Rex modes and spelling T-R-E-X once more starts "Museum Mayhem", a depiction of the original film's climax. Two shots (representing the raptors in the visitor center entrance) are lit, moving over to the left every few seconds. Shooting one lights the center target, which in turn lights the left ramp to finish off one of the raptors (as the T. rex comes in to kill them). Doing this twice will light the truck, which then lights the left ramp (representing the player making their escape) for 75 million points and a victory multiball.
- The actual wizard mode, lit by starting every mode above sans "Invalid Frenzy", is "Escape Nublar". The goal is to navigate back to the park entrance and reach the helicopter, while attempting to rescue any dinosaurs and staff along the way. There are two primary phases – one where the player must make every possible rescue (which is more difficult if they haven't previously captured the associated dinosaur species), and one where they make their escape by heading back to the entrance of the playfield map. Going in the reverse direction of your original path to the Visitors's Center is the fastest route, but you can earn more points by traveling a different (harder) path. You are given three "trucks" for this mode, with their fuel steadily depleting every second (with certain shots refueling it). Getting to the end leads to a final helipad hurry-up that gives a possibly massive bonus. However the mode ends, the player receives a Non-Standard Game Over.
- Alternately, successfully completing the three prerequisite modes and "Escape Nublar" will immediately start "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth", a 6-ball multiball that runs for 60 seconds (with unlimited ball save). This mode also concludes with a Non-Standard Game Over once time runs out.
