Independence Day Pinball Rule Sheet
Version 2.2 4/10/98
Compiled By Robert Macauley
HTML conversion by Chris Bonney
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The following is an attempt at a rule sheet for Sega's (alias Data East's)
latest creation Independence Day. First the legal stuff. Independence Day,
ID4, and any other reference to the movie is copyright 20th Century Fox
and I don't need any hassles from them so just imagine tm after each
mention of their name. Sega are licensed to release the ID4 pinball.
Multiball and I guess several other features mentioned here are copyrighted
by somebody out there. This is of no interest to me (I just play the games,
I don't own em). This rule sheet is released as freeware and as such may be
used in any manner you wish, just as long as no profit is made from it's
use and we still get some credit for it's existence. And now on with the
show.
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The Story So Far
In the beginning it was a dark and cold night when something caught my
eye as I was driving home. In the front window of a local machine
operator's showroom I saw it: the Independence Day pinball. After
drooling on the window for a while (not a good look I admit) I
didn't give it much more thought at that stage.
The scene now shifts to mid September while playing Theatre of Magic.
I was told that ID4 was on site at an indoor sports Centre and I
decided to check it out. It wasn't there when I arrived but was
back on site 3 days later. After 2 hours playing the idea for this
sheet was born.
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Changes for this Version
Section on League Mode and Wizard Mode added. All text moved to the
left a fair way to allow all words to appear when printed. Sorry to
anyone who printed copies of version 1.0 and found it hard to read.
I'm new to all this. Bragging section added. Some new awards
added. A little bit of a tidy up. This version should be the last.
The Movie
Saw it, liked it but thought it was a little over the top in the
realism department but entertaining none the less. At least now some
modes in the game make more sense.
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Playfield Layout
Starting at the drain and going around clockwise:
Outlanes- Normal. They seem reasonably forgiving. Can be lit for
Special.
Inlanes- Normal. Always lit for Light Combo.
Flippers- 2 lower and 1 upper on the right like Getaway. All normal
length.
Slingshots- Normal size and shape.
Area 51 targets- 3 targets in the same spot as the relight kickback on
Getaway. Lighting all 3 lights Alien Scan.
Left Orbit- Standard orbit shot. When lit for combo the ball loops
right around. Unlit shots feed to the bumpers. Orbits advance the
bumper value. Also awards Hurry up and jackpot.
Left Ramp- Awards 5M, 10M and 20M towards Red Alert and awards
jackpots. Weak shots fall back into a sinkhole behind the lock. Feeds
to the right flipper.
F-18 targets- 3 targets in the same spot as the Itt targets on Addams
Family. Light all 3 to start Hurry-up.
Upper Orbit- A loop shot like on Getaway, shot from the upper flipper.
Awards Rockwell 1947 which is 5M + 5M per loop. Also starts Area 51
Multiball and awards Area 51 jackpots in this mode.
Yellow Target- Spots an ID4 lane.
Combo Target- A smaller version of the train wreck on Addams Family.
Awards combo jackpot when lit. When not lit spots one of 5 or 6
Aliens. Spotting them all awards 50M.
Lock- An Alien head which opens when hit to reveal a sinkhole. Shoot
the hole to lock the ball. Also awards the first jackpot.
Alien Ramp- Feeds the ball to above the upper flipper. Lights Extra
Ball at 5 ramps and awards it at 6. Also awards 10M at 10 ramps, 15M
at 15 ramps and 20M after 20 ramps. I assume this continues on in this
manner. Also awards jackpots.
ID4 Lanes- 3 lanes set at a slight angle which are hard to see at
times. Light all 3 to advance bonus X to a max. of 10X.
Green Alien Targets- 3 targets spaced between the lock and the ramps.
Light all 3 for 10M.
Right Ramp- Spots 5M, 10M and 20M towards Red Alert. Also awards
jackpot. Feeds to the right flipper.
Jet Bumpers- 3 bumpers in the usual triangle formation. Each hit
advances the hurry-up value.
Right Orbit- Same as the left except it doesn't award Hurry-up.
Computer Virus- A sinkhole similar to the altar on Dracula but in a
lower position. Each shot advances the virus by 20%. Reaching 100%
lights the right orbit for 100M.
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Rules and Modes
Not really much in the way of modes thankfully:
Red Alert- 3 shots up the left an right ramps starts Red Alert. This
is a Payback Time type of mode where each shot up the 2 ramps is worth
50M for 30 seconds. This can be worth a lot.
Hurry Up- Light the upper 3 bank to start hurry-up. The bumpers
advance the hurry-up value from a minimum of 20 mil. Each hit
increases the value by 250k and each orbit shot increases this by 50k.
After lighting hurry-up you have 30 seconds to shoot the left orbit to
freeze the value. After you hit the first shot, each shot to the left
orbit awards that value again until the timer expires. Each hurry-up
requires you to complete the 3 bank an additional time.
Area 51- Light the lower 3 bank to light Alien Scan. Hit the bank
again to collect. Alien Scan awards include: Light Area 51 Multiball,
Alien Frenzy, 50M and Hold Bonus. There must be other awards.
Area 51 Multiball- The Centre orbit starts the mode. Each shot to the
loop awards a jackpot which starts at 50 mil. Hitting any flashing
target advances the jackpot value to a maximum of 90M. The green
targets add a ball the first time they are hit. Ends when 1 ball
remains.
Combos- The left and right return lanes light the orbits for combos. A
combo is worth 5M and increases by 1 mil per shot. This also lights
the combo target for a combo jackpot of 15M.
Multiball- Hit the alien to open the lock. Shoot the sinkhole to lock
the ball. Locked balls are fed to the right flipper from a vuk like
the one on Jurassic Park. Each lock must be lit individually but
Multiball is lit at the start of ball 3 if you haven't had it.
Lock 3 balls to start Multiball. The aim is to score as many jackpots
as you can. The first jackpot is a shot to the lock worth 40M. This
lights the orbits for double jackpot 80M. The 3rd wave of jackpots are
the 3 ramps for triple jackpot 120 mil. During the triple jackpot wave
hitting the Area 51 targets adds a ball once for each target. Getting
all 3 triple jackpots lights the combo target for super jackpot 160M.
After collecting the super jackpot the values reset to 40 mil and the
cycle starts again, however balls can't be added in wave 3. For
subsequent Multiballs the Alien must be hit an additional time to open
the lock. There may be a limit but it is at least 5 hits for each
lock.
Rear Sinkhole- Weak shots up the left ramp fall back into a hole. This
advances the date starting at July 2 and gives a quote from the movie.
I can't work out if there is any significance to this. The dates
advance one day at a time up to July 4, then shows July 4 (later)
before going on to July 5 and awarding 25M.
Bonus Count- As far as I can tell the end of ball bonus is worked out
like this:
Area 51-- 1 mil per hit
Alien Bonus-- 1M per Alien ramp
ID4 Bonus-- 1M per rollover.
Alien Frenzy (1M jets) if started
All X bonus X value (max. 10X)
I could be wrong as it all happens so quickly.
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Random Notes
All modes pause during Multiballs. Therefore it is not possible to
have more than one thing going at a time.
The Extra Ball and Replay animations are good. EB shows the White
House exploding while Replay shows the building in L A where the party
was happening in the movie. Most animation is OK but I'm not sure
about the word Multiball appearing on the Alien ship.
The double jackpot plays a very bad Elvis impersonation from the
movie. Below the bottom flippers are a pair of Alien eyes which light
up when you flip. White lights for a flip and green lights if you hold
the flipper. this is a nice touch.
The ball can be launched by pressing both flippers which is not very
nice. I hope this can be disabled.
Sometimes on an outlane drain you get the animation of a fat lady with
pigtails hitting a high note. This is a reference to the movie and a
saying It's not over until the fat lady sings. Not a bad touch.
Most games these days display the anti drug message just say no to
drugs. ID4 displays the message Just say no to Alien Invasion.
The last person to get super jackpot gets their name on the high score
table as the ID4 Super Jackpot. It feeds the ego but thats about all.
Is it my imagination or does the 20th Century Fox logo in attract mode
look like Pox not Fox. No legal action please.
The 4 player game is a team game like Baywatch or Batman Forever. Bad
Idea
There is no grace period for scoring jackpots, all modes end
immediately the timer reaches zero and ball save ends as soon as the
light goes off.
A shot to the right orbit before getting the first jackpot adds 5
million to the jackpot values. It's a hard shot during multiball and
not worth the effort.
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Wizard Mode and League Mode
Holding in the left flipper button when you press start enables League
Mode. I don't know what the difference is to regular play but I
can't see anything yet. Holding in the right flipper enables
Wizard Mode. The only difference I can see here is that it takes 3
hits to open each lock the first time and I think 6 hits the second
time. There must be other changes but I wasn't playing too well
at the time so I haven't found any. During one game I had 2.9M at
the start of ball 3 but hadn't had multiball. Despite that the machine
didn't light lock 3 which was not very nice at all. This could be a
feature but I'm not sure.
Quotes
Just a few from memory:
Hurry-up-- Kick the tires and light the fires big daddy.
Start of Multiball-- All right Mr President here we go.
Double jackpot-- Thank you very much. (Done in an Elvis voice)
Destroy Alien ship-- In the words of our generation..UP YOURS!!
Red Alert-- I have GOT to get me one of these.
100M in a mode-- You da man big daddy.
July 2-- They're gonna kill us all.
July 4-- Today, we celebrate our Independence Day.
Match-- Look at you. Ship all banged up.
Game over-- Now thats what I call a close encounter.
Start of Extra Ball--Enjoy this Extra Ball it may be your last.
Tips
Not much to think of really. Red Alert is the only really high scoring
mode, although the game is fairly big on points. If you can master the
left ramp and the machine allows you to pass the ball to the right
flipper, keep shooting the left ramp for 20 mil per shot. This ramp is
as narrow as the one on Indy so be careful.
Death Saves are definitely possible especially on a right outlane
drain. In fact this is the first machine that I ever successfully
pulled off a Death Save on.
Milk the hurry up value for all it's worth. This tip was observed by
Koi Morris at the Flip Out '96 tournament. His discription is as
follows.
1. Shoot the left orbit when combo shot is not lit on that orbit.
2. This feeds the ball to the bumpers and increases the bumper advance
value by 50k. You may want to shake the machine a bit to keep the ball
in the bumper area.
3. When the ball eventually leaves the bumpers, hold the right flipper
up and the ball should roll along the raised flipper and go to the
left flipper.
4. Raise the left flipper and the ball should roll off the left
flipper and go to the right flipper for a trap or a catch.
5. Shoot the orbit again over and over as much as possible. Koi
suggests collecting the hurry up at 500M+. Light the hurry up and
collect it as often as possible within the time limit. I've also been
able to let the ball bounce from the left flipper to the right or do a
drop catch and shoot either the right orbit or the alien ramp from the
left flipper. Balls coming off the alien ramp can also be passed to
the left flipper this way as the ball is travelling at the same speed
as if it had come out of the bumpers. So far I haven't built the value
up to 500M but I'm working on it. The only problems with trick is that
at first it takes a while to build the value up and it is annoying if
you start hurry up after all that work and drain without collecting
all the points.
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Bragging
My best so far is 6.7 Billion. My best Red Alert total is 750M.
Highest hurry-up collected is somewhere near 250M
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Shameless Plug
If you have any corrections or additions please e-mail them to me via
chrisb@enternet.com.au and I may include them in a later version. Any
contributors will be credited and receive their name in lights.
Thanks to:
Chris Bonney - chrisb@enternet.com.au
Koi Morris - KMorrissww@aol.com
