BK's PAPA 4 Strategy Guide
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Bally's Creature from the Black Lagoon
--- Tournament Settings ---
"Free Pass" (ball saver) is disabled.
The Snackbar targets do not rotate, as they usually do when a bumper is
hit. The Snackbar itself does not spot a Snackbar target when hit.
Awards from the Snackbar (when open) are always a specific point award
or mode, probably a 4M award or something.
During multiball, the scoring multiplier maxes at 3x.
Possibly, the Playground Award from the Slide will be fixed.
Possibly, the girl's location in multiball will be fixed and known, or
all three shots may be required.
Possibly, it may require more Right Ramps to light Snack Attack, Video
Mode, and Super Scoring.
Possibly, there may be no multiball restart.
In general, round timers will be shorter than usual.
No replays or extra balls. In general, Bly/Wms games do not give point
awards for doing something which would normally collect an extra ball
or special.
--- Skill Shot ---
Dropping the ball into the flashing PAID lane completes PAID for a
bonus multiplier and "L" toward multiball.
Plunging past the PAID lanes is a timed skill shot, which awards from
one to all of the letters in "KISS". After collecting "KISS" from this skill
shot, it will only spot one letter in "KISS" from then on.
--- General Strategies ---
Multiball: Light multiball by completing F-I-L-M.
F -- complete "KISS" by shooting the left sink four times, or
by the Skill Shot.
I -- shoot all four Snackbar targets.
L -- complete "PAID" by the top 4 rollover targets, or by the
Skill Shot.
M -- shoot the Slide (right hole) once.
Letters in FILM are worth 2M, 4M, 6M, 8M, and an additional 8M if you
light them in order. Once FILM is complete, either the left sink or right hole
will start a two-ball multiball.
During multiball, you must search for the stolen girl. The left sink,
Snackbar, and right hole are lit; shooting the correct hole finds the girl.
Then, shooting the Snackbar rescues her, and another Snackbar shot collects the
Jackpot. Then 25 bumper hits are required, after which the Super Jackpot
(twice the Jackpot) is lit at the Snackbar. The entire sequence (without a
Super Jackpot) is worth about 1OO million, 2OO if you get a Super Jackpot.
To make multiball more lucrative, the Left Ramp can be shot during
multiball. The ball is fed to a whirlpool saucer, and eight revolutions make
everything 2x for the rest of the multiball. Eight more make everything 3x,
the limit. Collecting a 3x Jackpot is worth at least 12O million, a 3x Super
Jackpot should be worth upwards of 3OO million.
Multiball is the way to go on this machine if you want a high score,
something competitive with the scores you can get on some other PAPA games.
Move Yer Car: Shoot the center shot five times to begin the round. Then the
center shot counts down from 8M to 3M; shoot it! If you're successful,
the center shot is then lit for 2x, 3x, then 4x the collected value,
all in the next 15 seconds. After the round ends, you must make eight
more center shots to start it again.
A perfect Move Yer Car is worth 8O million. Not as much as multiball,
but much easier to get to. Note that the center shot is makeable from either
flipper.
Slide Modes: The first shot to the right hole (the Slide) won't award anything
except a loud noise, but each shot after that starts one of three Slide
modes. In order, they are:
Mega Menu: 15 secs, each Snackbar target worth 5M.
Playground: a random mode starts -- usually it is Unlimited
Millions, which makes the Left Ramp worth 3M, 6M, 9M,
etc. for about 2O seconds. Big scoring potential.
Big Millions: Right Ramp 5M, 1OM, etc. for 1O seconds.
Each of these has a high scoring potential, especially Unlimited
Millions, which can be worth nearly 1OOM if done perfectly.
Right Ramp: Shots to the Right Ramp are counted. Reaching a number of ramps
lights an award.
4 Ramps lights Snack Attack, a slow hurry-up countdown from
2OM. Collect at the Snackbar.
8 Ramps lights Video Mode at the Slide. Punch with the
flippers. Worth 25M if you knock the guy out (easy).
12 Ramps lights Super Scoring at the Snackbar for 12 seconds.
Shoot the Snackbar to begin the mode, during which
-everything- is lit; both ramps for Millions, Snack
Attack, Mega Menu, and the whirlpool for 5M, 1OM, etc.
per spin. Potential for 1OOM or so during this mode.
Note that the right ramp can be shot from either flipper, and comes out
at full speed to the left. A good combination is Right Ramp -> pass to right
flipper -> Right Ramp -> repeat. The Ramp rounds are worth good points, but
definitely go for Super Scoring if you get anywhere near 12 ramps.
KISS loop: One strategy some people might use is to just keep shooting the KISS
shot over and over again. It's only worth 5OOK per shot, but hey.
--- Point-Specific Strategy ---
If you need... Try doing this!
5 million: Start the next Slide mode. Any of them open easy shots for at
least that much.
2O million: Start a Slide mode, or go for Right Ramps until a mode starts
from there.
5O million: Any of the above; also, go for a Move Yer Car round.
1OO million: Start multiball, or try the Unlimited Millions round from the
Slide.
2OO million
and over: Go for multiball. The scoring potential there is very high,
even though it's pretty difficult.
--- Techniques ---
Flipper Passing: A post transfer works pretty well on Creature; however, it may
be easier to make a shot that allows for a transfer. From the left,
the Snackbar kicks the ball to the right flipper. From the right,
either ramp works well -- the Right Ramp brings the ball to the left
flipper at high speed, and the Left Ramp allows you to transfer the
ball by holding up the right flipper.
Death Saves: Not likely -- as usual, it depends on the game's tilt sensitivity,
and games at PAPA tournaments tend to be quite sensitive. As an
advantage, Creature's end-of-ball bonus tends to be very low.
Bang Backs: Bang Backs have been done on Creature, but I really doubt they'll
be possible at PAPA.
Nudging: Depending on the sensitivity, it is a good idea to nudge the ball
around the whirlpool (during multiball), since it is worth a lot toward
jackpots. The inlane posts are metal, so nudging away from them is
pretty hard. In general, Creature is a ball-control game, so the ball
shouldn't be near the outlanes much to begin with.
--- Scoring ---
Average scores on Creature (A division) will probably be around 1OO
million, with the highest scores coming in around 3OO to 5OO million. In all,
Creature's a pretty low-scoring game, but it has the potential for a break-out
score from Super Jackpots.
High Scores to Date: Mark Conant (CA) 16.65 billion
Dave Stewart (PA) 2.53 billion
Bowen Kerins (RI) 1.67 billion
--- For More Info ---
If you need Creature's full rules, get Kevin Martin's rule sheet by
anonymous ftp. FTP rahul.net; go to the Pinball Archive (cd pub/sigma/pinball)
and type "get Rules/creature".
If you'd like to know the exact tournament settings for Creature, or
other information, it should be available at PAPA 4. I'll try to get the best
information I can before the tournament.
If there's anything you'd like to add to this, just contact me:
bowen@cardinal.stanford.edu. I'd especially like to hear a high score for the
list, since I don't like to put myself in the top three.
Hope this helps; other Strategy Guides should be around as fast as I
can dish 'em out.
Bowen Kerins
bowen@cardinal.stanford.edu
"It's dark in here!... I'm suffocating!"
