Safe Cracker is a 1996 pinball machine by Pat Lawlor and Williams Electronics (under the Bally label), with art by John Youssi. The game revolves around a bank heist, where you must avoid guards and sneak into the vault to crack the safe and get rich.
It is very different from most pinball machines — the playfield is noticeably smaller, allowing it to fit in places a conventional pinball machine couldn't go, and the backglass is rather large. Players do not have a finite amount of balls, but instead have a set time limit to get into the Vault, whereupon a board game begins on the backglass. The player (and the computer, playing the security guards) rolls the dice in hopes of getting a good space. Making it to the safe in the center ends the game, and the player is rewarded with a Magic Token that rolls out of the backglass.
Players could keep playing to collect the twenty different token designs available. Alternately, players could use the tokens to play "Assault on the Vault", where they have 90 seconds and four balls to hit as many targets and shots as possible in order to break into the vault once again. A third use — intended in the design but never actually promoted — was for adult-oriented venues to let players redeem tokens for free drinks or other rewards.
The game was promoted as the first in the new "Token-Pin" series; unfortunately, it failed to catch on and the idea was never expanded upon. Fewer than 1,200 tables were made, and the ones that are still in good condition today are highly sought after by collectors.
Pat Lawlor's later Monopoly pinball would make use out of the board game idea.
A digital version was available for The Pinball Arcade until the licenses for the Bally and Williams tables expired on July 1, 2018. Another digital version is currently available for Pinball FX3, along with a remastered version that includes the typical Zen Studios flair.
No relation to the two video games.
"Tropes: The stuff dreams are made of!":
- 555: The backglass shows that Bob's Getaway Rental can be reached through 555-FAST.
- Angry Guard Dog: One of the board game's spaces is a guard dog. Landing on it (without a biscuit) summons a robot guard dog who chases the player out of the vault to the playfield, and he has 20 seconds to shoot any entrance to get back in.
- Land on it again if you defeat it and it will display an "Out of Order" sign and award you a bonus.
- Anti-Frustration Features: If you drain the ball immediately after Sudden Death begins (within at least 5 seconds), you are given a Close Call and you can shoot again.
- Arrange Mode: Assault on the Vault, which is started by inserting a Magic Token rather than a conventional coin. You have 90 seconds and 4 balls to score as many points as possible.
- Bank Robbery: The theme of the game.
- Bound and Gagged: One of the guards becomes this when you lock a ball.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Keeping in theme with the concept of breaking into a bank vault, your score is represented in dollars.
- Company Cross References:
- The CANDY 2000 sometimes quotes FunHouse (1990):
CANDY 2000: "I'm not happy with you now."- The pile of explosives seen in Explode Frenzy is recycled from Red & Ted's Road Show.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the board game, you can only roll up to 5 spaces. The guard can roll up to 6 spaces. This can lead to the guard catching you on his first roll.
- Computer Voice/Advanced Tech 2000: The CANDY 2000 security system.
- Creator Thumbprint: Pat Lawlor's trademark red button is on the backglass, held out of Bob's Getaway Rental van. One of the Magic Tokens also has it.
- Dirty Cop: As noted below, you can bribe the guard with points to get past him.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Donuts can be collected to distract the cops.Guard: "Donuts: The stuff dreams are made of!"
- Dynamic Difficulty: The difficulty of the vault board game is affected by how well you play the pinball table.
- Easter Egg: Booting up a game on October 24th plays a birthday greeting for "Amanda and Ryan".
- When entering the bank through the cellar, DOHO can be seen on the manhole plate.
- Energy Weapon: An exclamation point on the board game instantly kicks you out, with an animation showing a person stepping on a laser beam and being electrocuted.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The animation for when you enter the board game via the cellar entrance has "BCM" (Brian Morrison's initials) hidden on the far right at the very beginning.
- Gold Fever: The Vault, and in this case, big money.
- Further invoked during Assault on the Vault: When the Vault is penetrated, 24-karat gold bars show up on the display after the doors guarding it are blasted down.
- Gotta Catch Them All: A Real Life example: this poster
advertises the twenty different varieties of Magic Tokens. In The Pinball Arcade, there are 26 different kinds. - The Guards Must Be Crazy:
- You can bribe the guard with points to get past him... but he'll arrest you if you lower the amount too much.Guard: "You've got to be kidding!"
- Similarly, the robot guard dog will chase you out of the vault, unless you have a doggie biscuit to distract him.
- You can bribe the guard with points to get past him... but he'll arrest you if you lower the amount too much.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The guard dog is intended to be a hazard that the player is meant to avoid; if landed on (and the player doesn't have a dog biscuit on them), the player is ejected from the board game and their position on the board spins around rapidly, with only 20 seconds to re-enter the bank. However, once the player does re-enter, they resume at the position they were at when they made the shot, so a skilled player can use the guard dog to jump ahead several spaces, putting distance on pursuing guards and even landing themselves within arm's reach of the vault.
- The Alarm space can be a milder version of this, depending on whether or not the cellar entrance is closer to the vault door than whatever entrance the player used to get in initially.
- The Infiltration: Before you can crack the safe, you must get to it first. There are three different ways of doing this: the roof, the cellar, and the front door. These are also the three ways to Assault the Vault.
- Light Is Good: Light emits from the Vault room if VAULT is spelled and the board game is completed.CANDY 2000: "Vault penetration is imminent!"
- Luck-Based Mission: Once you make it to the board game, it's all up to the roll of the die. Prepare to get screwed by the Random Number God a lot.
- New Game Plus/Post-End Game Content: "Assault On the Vault".
- No Fair Cheating:
- Tilting does not drain your current ball - it instead starts Sudden Death regardless of your time. If you're already in Sudden Death, however, it does drain the ball.
- Trying to use balls with special properties (the Thing ball for example) are deemed illegal in The Pinball Arcade version of the table and will deny you getting any Tokens.
- Oh, Crap!: Invoked by both the Candy 2000 and the robber at certain points in the game. Candy 2000 says this during any multiball mode when adding extra time, while the robber says this if a bad event occurs during the board game.
- Pinball Scoring: Unlike Johnny Mnemonic, a great play session of Safe Cracker will be in the 5-10 million point range.
- Player Nudge: If you get kicked out of a board game without a required item (Gate Key or Teller Note, for instance), it tells you to bring said item the next time you break into the bank.
- Press Start to Game Over: One of the random mystery rewards on the board game is an "Advance Cop" space. One possible value is 5 — this means the guard can catch you ON YOUR FIRST ROLL.
- Safe Cracking: It's in the title.
- Spelling Bonus:
- Spelling V-A-U-L-T starts Token Multiball. Have fun playing pinball and catching ejecting tokens at the same time.
- Spelling A-L-A-R-M on the spot targets disables one of the four alarms in the bank.
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Spiritual Successor: Pat Lawlor's later Monopoly game uses the same board game format. - Stuff Blowing Up:
- During TNT Multiball, Explosion Frenzy, and Assault on the Vault.
- Also if the teller decides to ruin your run by giving you a Money Bomb.
- Timed Mission: Instead of a finite amount of balls, this game instead opts for a time limit and infinite balls.
- Wizard Mode: "Assault on the Vault" could count. One could also make a case for Token Multiball, given how difficult it is to achieve.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Invoked by the Guard when attempting to bribe him money and trying less.
- Zonk:
- One of the items the Teller gives you is a blender, which is completely useless.
- Events on the board game that can kick you out (but not involving the guard) are also included.
