Pulp Fiction is a 2023 pinball table designed by Mark Ritchie and released by Play Mechanix and Chicago Gaming Company.
Based of the hit 1994 film and made at the behest of Quentin Tarantino himself, the game serves as a throwback to the tables of the '80s, from its alphanumeric display and retro-inspired sound package to its approachable single-level playfield and simple but deep ruleset.
This pinball machine contains examples of:
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Jackpots are referred to as "Payoffs".
- Cap: While the display can only physically hold seven digits, the game has many ways of displaying scores that would be eight, or even nine digits. When you cross 10,000,000, the ones digit becomes the "ten-millions" digit (e.g. a score of 12,345,670 is depicted as "2,345,671"). If you manage to cross 100,000,000, the digits will start making shimmering effects.
- Golden Snitch: As allued to above in Cap, the main path toward huge scores is through playing Scenes, but also taking advantage of the last ten seconds of each scene. If you shoot the scoop during that countdown, all points in the scene are re-awarded again. A well-played mode can score over a million points (and then a million more), but that's only where the fun begins. Every subsequent mode you manage to score a re-collect will also re-award all previous cumulative mode collects again. And that can be multiplied by Big Kahuna too.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Collecting all five cast members is required to start Cast Chaos.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: The soundtrack for The Shot is a faint heartbeat, with "Son Of A Preacher Man" fading in and out of the background.
- Match Sequence: The players' scores are shot repeatedly, leaving only the second digit. One final gunshot reveals the match number.
- Score Multiplier: The Big Kahuna Bonus multiplies all scoring when collected (maximum of 3×-6× depending on table settings). Increasing the Bonus is done by shooting both Big Kahuna Bonus targets above the bumpers, followed by a shot to the Bullseye Magnet trigger target.
- Skill Shot: Plunge the ball into the top saucer when all five arrows are lit. Alternatively, hold the left flipper whilst plunging and shoot one of the lit Payoff shots for a Super Skill Shot. Both award 100,000 points, so its a choice of what kind of shot you want to go for.
- Spelling Bonus: P-U-L-P F-I-C-T-I-O-N lights Pulp Fiction Frenzy.
- Wizard Mode:
- Playing through all four main Scenes lights "The Shot", a four-ball multiball with the Roll Scene drop target lit for high-scoring Payoffs.
- Playing The Shot, Cast Chaos and Pulp Fiction Frenzy, alongside earning Super Payoffs in Briefcase Boogie and Pawn Shop Panic lights "Divine Intervention", a lengthy and difficult six-phase multiball. The first five phases earn you 1 million points each, and finishing the final phase will double your score.
