Pinball Arcade - Attack from Mars (Rule the Universe cleared)
7It's been quite a while since I put one of these out. During then, Farsight Studios lost the Bally and Williams rights to Zen Studios. I suspect these events means Farsight's days are numbered, since Pinball Arcade is the raison d'Γͺtre of the company. It's a shame to see what is clearly a labor of love lose what helps it sell the most, but honestly, Farsight's programming and management are not very good, and it's probably in better hands with Zen, whose business sense is far more competent.
As for this table, Attack from Mars is from Bally, released December 1995. Pinball sales were on a decline at this point. Arcades were shutting down too, with the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 having been released and video games experimenting with 3D gameplay. So what did Bally do? Drastically inflate your score! No, this did not get non-fans coming in to play.
For the record, this machine has no relation to the Mars Attacks! movie, despite the close proximity of their releases. It may have drawn inspiration from the trading cards and comic books but nothing confirms that.
Attack from Mars is set in the 1950s, and Earth is undergoing a global invasion by martians intending a takeover. To my knowledge, there is no player character; you finish tasks to advance the story. There are six main goals to achieve before reaching the wizard mode, and they are, from left to right as the circles right above the flippers:
Super Jackpot - Lock 3 balls in the center-left lane, the one with the three green triangle lights, to start regular 3-ball Multiball. During then, the Multiball lane, the two ramps, and the left and right orbits are lit for one Jackpot each. If you can get all 5 Jackpots, the Super Jackpot will become available and move left to right between those five paths. Shoot the path the Super Jackpot is on to score it and clear this goal. This is easier said than done, and it helps to have the scoop for the flying saucer open so the ball can be safely deposited onto the right flipper, which has access to more shots than the left.
Super Jets - Hit the pop bumpers, located on the upper right, 100 times total to clear this goal. That's it. This carries over between balls, and balls get there from the plunger, so as long as your game is long enough, you'll likely get this one.
Martian Attack Multiball - There are four little plastic martians on the edges of the playfield. Two are to the left and right of the central 3-bank, and the other two are on the far left and right. Together, they cover a set of 7 stand-up targets spelling out M-A-R-T-I-A-N. Hit all 7 of them and put the ball in the Stroke of Luck scoop, and the martians will start wiggling. Hit any target below a martian to get them to stop, and once all four stop, a 2-ball Martian Multiball will begin, and you clear the goal. You might as well play Martian Multiball, as it can stack with anything else in the game, including other multiballs.
Total Annihilation - Total Annihilation is a third multiball mode, and you begin this by shooting both ramps and both orbits 3 times each, except when a multiball mode other than Martian Multiball is active. The left orbit's theme is Capture, the left ramp's theme is Big-O-Beam, the right ramp's theme is Tractor Beam, and the right orbit's theme is Atomic Blaster. You clear the goal once Total Annihilation begins.
Conquer Mars - This is the most difficult goal. See that central 3-bank? Hit all three parts of it, and it will lower, and the DMD will show a flying saucer attacking one of five famous landmarks: Eiffel Tower in France, Brandenburg Gate in Germany, the Leaning Tower in Italy, London Bridge in England, or the Statue of Liberty in the U.S.A. (Note that the narrow choice of locale.) You then have to hit the targets by the saucer 3+3x times, x being the number of flying saucers destroyed so far. I recommend starting multiball modes when the 3-bank is down: The saucer targets are pointed right at the drain, and you'll probably lose a lot of balls otherwise. Destroy all five saucers to start Attack Mars, in which you must lower the 3-bank once more, then shoot the scoop beneath the saucer 10 times to clear the goal.
5-Way Combo - Clear this goal by shooting a ramp, lane, or orbit 5 times in quick succession. You'll probably get this unintentionally.
Once all 6 goals are met, shoot the Stroke of Luck scoop to begin Rule the Universe, the wizard mode. It's your standard one, with a maximum-ball multiball (4 in this case) and every mode active at once. Your goal here is to score at least 5 billion points before losing every ball. If you do, the humans will, well, rule the universe, and you get another 5 billion points. After this, Conquer Mars and Super Jets are automatically cleared.
The next table will be Time Machine, the one from Zaccaria Pinball. (Unsurprisingly, there has been more than one pinball machine named Time Machine.) This will be played not through Pinball Arcade, but Zaccaria's own digital library.
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