The Timeshock! Rulesheet, v0

One quick game,
 Then just one more;
  Then another,
   More and more,
    Outside the light
     Fades into night:
      Look at clock =
       T!.

Please, everyone, send me updates like mad. The email address (humanified to avoid spam-searches) is:

shocked [at] antelope [dot] demon [period] co [full-stop] uk

Somewhere, sometime, existed a scientist who was the proud owner of a Time Crystal. While doing whatever futuristic scientists do with Time Crystals, they managed to break it. This had the effect of creating a Timeshock! - a widening wave of anti-time, which threatens to destroy the universe if it completes its trip back from the future to the dawn of time.

The scientist, realising the crisis, quickly hacked together a time machine, and set out to find where in time and space the four parts of the time crystal had gone. Once they have all four parts, they will be able to return to the Dawn of Time, and smash the crystal a second time, creating a second Timeshock! - which will cancel out the first.

For those who played The Web, the following features leap at you:

- The setup interface is a lot nicer.


- There's an operator mode. You can adjust gameplay parameters. However, a lot of the parameters are marked as "Locked" initially, so you can't change them; presumably there is some way to unlock them (various ways have been mentioned: score 1B+, take GC, get Wizard award, play for X hours...?)

- It runs in much higher resolution and colour depth.

- The bonus count music is a lot more mellow.

- The announcer is even more strange. Whilst Web boasted the Evil French Woman, the Blade Runner Lift Woman and the Muppet Animal Bloke, Timeshock! has only one announcer - a female announcer who appears to have been connected to an emotion randomizer. Quotes are listed when non-obvious. The best quote so far, though, is the tilt: "Don't they have pinball in your time?"

Usual drill... left to right whistle-stop tour. We'll get to the complex stuff in a moment.

Left Outlane: Yes, there is one. It contains the S light of SCAN.

Time Machine: Mounted to the left of the left outlane and above it. It is the ball tank which holds locked balls. Balls are locked in it via an arm mechanism which picks them up from a habitrail (which comes down from the spinner). Balls are ejected through a gate, over the left outlane and into the left inlane. Just like Indiana Jones, there is a post near to the gate, and some outlane drains can be saved by this post. When a drain is saved in this way, you score 5M.

Left Inlane: Totally ordinary, except it has the C light of SCAN.

W target: The W in W-A-R-P, on the bridge between the left outlane/inlane and the orbit.

Left Orbit: One end of the orbit which curves right around the back of the machine. Lights features in strict order.

Left Ramp: Used to light the Time Machine. Feeds back to the left inlane.

M-A-G targets: Face directly right on a bank just next to the left ramp. One half of M-A-G-N-E-T.

Left Side Ramp: Above the M-A-G targets and facing right, similar to the Demolition Time shot.

Spinner Lane: Just to the left of the Time Crystal, this lane feeds into the Jet Bumpers, or may direct the ball to a habitrail to the Time Machine if lock is lit.

A target: The A in W-A-R-P, just to the left of the crystal.

Time Crystal: Slapbang in the middle top of the playfield, a big green rotating crystal. Its entrance is guarded by two rubber posts, a little like the skull shot on No Fear (except that you can see the enterance - but it makes it quite a tricky shot). Does lots of wonderful things.

R target: The R in W-A-R-P, just to the right of crystal.

N-E-T targets: On the right of the R, facing down and to the left. The second bit of M-A-G-N-E-T.

Bumpers and lanes: Two lanes with a set of jet bumpers above them. The two lanes lite when rolled through and award bonus multiplier when both are lit. Holding both flippers shuts off the jet bumpers if you want to get the ball out quickly in a time-limit mode.

Right ramp: Also used to light the Time Machine. Feeds the right inlane.

Right orbit: Used to collect and score the Quickshot feature. Feeds right round to the left orbit.

Upper-right flipper: Usable to hit the M-A-G targets and the left upper ramp.

P target: On the maximum right of the playfield, the P in W-A-R-P.

Right inlane: Has MagnoSave!! Hit the MagnoSave key to activate a magnet above the inlane and pull balls out of the outlane. It must be relit once it's used. Also contains the A of S-C-A-N.

Right outlane: Guess there has to be one. Doesn't do anything nice, apart from containing the N of S-C-A-N.

First, select Novice or Regular mode. Novice mode gives you 120 seconds of unlimited-ball play. Regular mode is a 3-ball standard game. I bet there's a hidden Wizard mode or similar in there somewhere.
The plunger shoots up the Left Side ramp and round to the left inlane. Either the Left Orbit, Ramp, or Spinner will be lit. Shoot for the skill shot, 5M.
To enable the "Secret Skill Shot", hold both flippers while the ball is in the plunger lane. In this mode, the plunger magically becomes a manual plunger. Plunge and try and hit the "A" target of M-A-G. The award is apparantly 2.5M, less than the standard skill shot (?)

Use the flippers to cycle lit S-C-A-N lanes between the inlanes and outlanes. Spelling S-C-A-N lights the Scanner at the Crystal. The scanner is a random award. Known awards are:
• Light Lock
• Start Exploration
• Video Mode
• Find The Cow (?)
• Small Points (500K - even less than The Web. Note: If you collect Small Points, hit both flippers to collect "Very Small Points - 60")
• Boost Multipliers (generally by 3x)
• Spot W-A-R-P target
• Special
• Advance Time Drive
• Light MagnoSave
• Advance Quickshot
• 30 second Ball Saver
• Very big points

  The scanner starts the game lit. A counter is increased each time you relight the scanner: every 5? scanners (may reflex? I've seen it at 7), a Super Scanner is lit. Super Scanner is similar to the Super Random features on lots of old Data East tables; two random options are chosen and you get to pick one of them. However, the options are different, and better:

• Special
• Super Jets
• Light all locks
• Spot empty continents

The two lanes above the bumpers advance the bonus multiplier by 1x each time. An extra ball is lit at 25x. (Yes, you read that right - 25x.)

When Super Jets is not active, each jet bumper hit counts down towards light it. 100 hits are required first time. The number of hits is not held normally, but there's a "Hold Jets" available from the left orbit awards.
When Super Jets is active, every jet hit is worth 333K?

M-A-G lights the next award on the left orbit: N-E-T lights the next award on the right. Spelling MAGNET completely lights MagnoSave (how'd you guess? ;) )
Shooting the Left Orbit collects the highest lit award. The awards are: Hold Multiplier, Hold Jets, Light Video Mode, 4-Ball TimeWarp, and Light Extra Ball (it says Mystery on the playfield, but it's been Light EB every time I've gotten it). If you hit the Left Orbit and no award is lit, you get a Paradox Award, a random points award in the style of Odd Change. (Check: Tournament mode presumably changes this.)
Shooting the Right Orbit collects the highest lit award. The only awards on the Right Orbit are Quickshot awards: Quickshot 1x, Quickshot 2x... up to Quickshot 5x. Quickshot counts down from 10M * quickshot multiplier; shoot the Right Orbit to collect the countdown value, plus a "Souvenir". "Souvenirs" include pinballs, mobile phones.. and almost certainly change with the timezone. The manual says souvenirs combine to grant special features, but I haven't found any yet..
If you make a quickshot, and the NEXT quickshot above it was lit, then that other quickshot mode immediately starts as a "Double Quickshot". (I think).

If you complete all the Left Orbit awards and Quickshots, Quickshot Mania starts. For 45 seconds, hitting any M-A-G-N-E-T target starts a Quickshot counting down from 10M. Right orbit collects it. (Details?)

Spinning the Spinner awards letter(s) in the "Lock-O-Meter" (the five triangular lamps spelling "L-I-T-E-Lock" near the Spinner). A couple of spins are needed for each letter. Once all of them are lit, the Spinner locks balls in the Time Machine. Each lock awards 5M. Lock three balls to start Time Machine Frenzy.
However, you might actually (gasp) want to use the Time Machine to Travel in Time. To do that, you do exactly the same thing, but you must activate the Time Machine first. Shooting a ramp pumps power into the time machine. For the first Time Travel, each ramp puts in 20%; for remaining Time Travels, each ramp puts in 10%. After shooting any ramp to power up the Machine, you must use the OTHER ramp for the next power up. At the start of each ball, both ramps become available again.
Each ramp also lights the other ramp as a timed shot to award a Ramp Way, worth (3-5M?). Ramp Ways count up, although you won't see the count-up unless you carry on shooting Ramp Ways when the time machine is at 100% (because the time machine animation overrides the Ramp Way one). You will, however, hear the announcer call "Two Ways", "Three Ways", "Four Ways"..
The manual claims that Ramp Ways also power the Time Machine up faster, but I haven't seen this. There ARE combos on this game as well (I've scored one or two), but I'm not sure where they are.
If you have powered up the Time Machine, then when you lock three balls, you'll be asked what period you want to travel to. The periods available are:

Period	Requirement
The Present Day The Distant Future Ancient Rome The Prehistoric Age (unknown) The Dawn of Time	None None 1 Tachyonium 4 Crystal Fragments

To go to Prehistory, Rome, or (unknown), you need to connect Tachyonium from Explorations. The Dawn of Time is the Wizard award (Timeshock! Frenzy), and you must collect all four Crystal Fragments from Time Machine Frenzy to get there.
Once you've selected a period, you have to shoot the Time Crystal to start the Time Machine. Lean back and watch the *AWESOME* pyrotechnics. (Have somebody standing by to catch your jaw first time.) Immediately after your Travel, Time Machine Frenzy starts with 4 balls rather than 3.
Your Time Zone determines the music played (!). It also changes the Explorations you will have available. Most importantly, however, you can collect only one Crystal Fragment from each Time Zone.

Three- or Four- ball multiball(tm) - four-ball if you took a trip through time immediately before starting it, three- if you didn't. Both ramps are lit for Jackpot. Collecting a Jackpot lights the opposite ramp for Double Jackpot for a limited time; collecting a Double lights the opposite ramp for a Triple. Each Jackpot also spots a Continent (Double spots 2, Triple spots 3). Jackpots start at 10M and steadily increase.
When all seven Continents are clear, you have found a Crystal Fragment. Shoot the Crystal to get the Fragment (50M), and the Side Ramp for a Super Jackpot. (Fluctuates?)
After a multiball in which you got a Crystal Fragment ends, shoot the Crystal to lock the Fragment into place. The ball will be piped to one of the miniature Fragments around the playfield - which one it goes to is determined by your Time Zone. Locking a fragment is worth 50M.

Spell W-A-R-P (hit the letters in strict order) to light "30 second Time Warp" at the Crystal.
(Guess: There's a "Master of Time" award. Spell Warp again gives you more time, and beat the master of time level to get the rating? Or is it the time you complete the Timeshock! Frenzy in? The reason for this is that 120 seconds is the manual-given time limit on Timeshock! Frenzy.. I think it'll be a while before too many people see that ;) )
Time Warp is 2-ball multiball. For the first 30 seconds (or more?), spelling W-A-R-P again or shooting the left side ramp adds another ball, and any balls you drain will be relaunched.
The Warp Jackpot starts at 10M. It goes up by 1M every time you hit a W-A-R-P target, (and 1M every time you hit a M-A-G target??). Initially, the jackpot multiplier is x1; spell W-A-R-P to increase the multiplier. (Side ramp does..?) The Crystal collects the jackpot.
After one Jackpot, the Jackpot multiplier goes to x0 (ie, unlit). Spell W-A-R-P to put the multiplier to x1 and relight the Jackpot.
Time Warp, it seems, can be started almost any time. It can be started during an Exploration. It can even be started during Time Machine Frenzy. However, you cannot AFAIK lock balls for any Frenzy during Time Warp.

Shoot the Upper Ramp in normal play. This explores a Continent. If you find Tachyonium there, an Exploration starts. If you don't, you just count up a Continent. There are 7 continents and 2 will contain Tachyonium. Which two is determined by your Time Zone. Completing all five of the empty Continents awards 25M "big points". If you finish all continents, they wrap around again.
Note: The usual way to get to the flipper to hit the Upper Ramp from is the Spinner or the Left Orbit, but the Left Orbit will leave the ball moving a bit too fast. The manual states "Trap the ball on the right flipper and press the left flipper button" to disable a lit lock on the Spinner to enable you to get to the upper flipper.
So far, the only Explorations I've seen are in the Modern Era. The manual has a list of them, but since I could only repeat the descriptions of the other ones here, why bother?
The backglass animation on these Explorations is *AWESOME*.
Starting any Exploration appears to award 1M (this may also be true for an empty Continent).

Present Day

Channel Tunnel (Europe): 60 seconds. Shoot the Right Orbit to start mining. All the time you're mining, your score and the mode percentage rises. But if you were slow making the Right Orbit shot, you might find you won't have enough time to mine through. In this case, you can shoot any ramp or the spinner to speed up the mining laser. When the laser is through, you'll be told you found the Tachyonium; you must now shoot the Left Orbit to safely get the Time Machine out of the Chunnel.

Mount Rushmore (North America): ["Get UP there.."] The three Ramps are lit. Clear off all three, then hit the Spinner for the final climb and the Tachyonium ["THERE it is!"]. If you run out of time, you fall off Mount Rushmore.... owwwch. (Points value? I know the whole exploration is worth 100M, but it doesn't state the exact points value of each climb.)

Ancient Rome

Chariot Race, Pyramid(?)

Distant Future

Power Plant, Robot War

Prehistory

Dinosaur Stampede, Volcano

Pops up at the Crystal as the third Left Orbit award. The game also sometimes seems to light it at odd times (scanner? 3rd ball sympathy?) Shoot the Crystal for the video mode.
The aim of the mode is to fly the Time Machine down a cylinder, collecting Clowns faces (1M apiece) and avoiding mines. The Time Machine can take 5 hits from the mines before the Video Mode ends. The twist is that the cylindical tube is affected by gravity. If you want to get the awards near the top of the tube, you need to build up your momentum by swinging back and forth in the bottom, or you won't be able to climb the sides of the tube. But if you're swinging back and forth, you'll hit more mines.
Sometimes you do more than one video mode on a single trip (stacking??)

Bonus

The end of ball bonus:
(25k * Scanners + 50k * Ramp Ways + 100k * Continents + 250k * Souvenirs) * Multiplier

Well, there's lots of stuff I'm missing. But I know other people WILL get this game.. :) Tell us what you find.

Many thanks to Ade and Champie for making this wonderful game, and for not releasing it until after my finals :)