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The "Frontier" pinball machine, released by Bally in 1980, is a distinctive game designed by George Christian with artwork by Greg Freres, Margaret Hudson, and Kevin O'Connor. This solid-state machine has a theme inspired by the rugged American wilderness, featuring detailed depictions of wildlife and frontier life.
The same machine, made under a different name by a different manufacturer: licensed copies, conversion kits, and re-releases.
| Name | Manufacturer | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Frontier | Bell Games | 1981 |
shoot the inline drop targets on the left, then up top through the spinner on the right, and try to get the ball to fall into the collect bonus saucer at the top right. If you have a lot of predators completed, especially a full set [45K lit], get the bonus multiplier up to 4X via the drop targets on the right.
Ideally, alternate; mild bias towards Left for spinner
High
Whichever top lane you have the fewest of. Alternately, if shots to the top have a strong tendency to fall into a particular lane, try to get one of the other ones on the plunge.
Frontier is big on bonus, but two kinds of bonus, built in slightly different ways. For both the Frontier and Predator bonuses, you need to collect A-B-C lanes or standup targets to advance base bonus. For the Predator bonus, each of the 15 predator lights is worth 3000 in bonus. The A lane and left standup advance the left column, B and the center standup the middle column, C and the right standup the right column. Once you have all 5 in any column, you can’t advance further until completing the other columns. When you finish all 15 lights, the 45,000 bonus light will come on and you can begin scoring more predators; you can get one more complete set of 15 for a maximum base bonus of 90,000. Your bonus multiplier for the Predator bonus is advanced by completing the right side drop target 3-bank, up to 4X, so you can get up to 360,000 in Predator bonus. Frontier bonus is linked to Predator bonus in that both rely on hitting lanes and the standups, but in this case, your Frontier base bonus is advanced by finishing a set of 3, i.e. one of each letter / predator. Each set adds 10K in Frontier base bonus up to a maximum of 60K. The bonus multiplier for this is advanced by making shots to the left inline drop targets The first left inline drop target lights the spinner on the right and opens the collect Frontier bonus gate at the top right of the game. The next three shots advance the Frontier bonus multiplier to 2X (2nd drop target), 3X (3rd drop target) and 4X (standup target at the top left). Each drop target and the back standup target on the left also open that Frontier collect gate. Both Frontier and Predator base bonus progress is held from ball to ball, so the sooner you build them up, the better. Building and repeatedly collecting the Frontier bonus during the ball is the route to big scores. Once you have the top collect gate open, shoot the ball through the spinner and try to nudge its rebound off the top left cushion so that it falls into the collect chute. The collect saucer can also be scored if the ball squeezes through the gap to the bottom left of it beside the right bumper, even if the gate is not open. When the ball is bumping around in that area, encourage it to do so! Collecting the Frontier bonus closes the gate but does not reset the bonus value. Shoot a target at the upper left to reopen the gate to enable another chance to collect. The fact that your shots to collect bonus will be going through the lit spinner helps, too, since you can often get 30,000 for a good spinner shot. At the end of the ball, you collect both the Frontier bonus and the Predator bonus; note that the Predator bonus is _only_ collected at the end of the ball. Key feeds are the rebound from the left inline drop targets and the drop-off from spinner shots that don’t go all the way to the top but fall back through the spinner.
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1980 edition with parts list and playfield drawing
Cabinet wiring, sound module and display board on 17x11 sheets
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