Hostile Dragons - Can You Survive?

Stern’s Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant’s Eye wasn’t the first pinball machine to be based on the RPG – it had a Bally pinball machine released during the brand’s surge of popularity in the 1980s. The Bally Dungeons & Dragons machine was designed by Ward Pemberton during his first year back at the company, and shares similarities with his first design for the company, Fathom, while including the “flex save” mechanic from his Hardbody design that was released a few months earlier. Both this table and Fathom revolve around starting multiball as often as possible and taking advantage of the playfield multiplier, while also making sure to keep increasing the end-of-ball bonus.

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Dungeons & Dragons, despite its low production run of 2,000 units, has become a fan favorite in recent years thanks to the table’s excellent music for its era and its unique geometry on the top half of the playfield that encourages bounces into the two Dragon’s Lair saucers from the bumpers. As a result, this table encourages adapting to different playstyles more than any other table from its era and scoring is heavily dependent on the machine’s setup – it might be easier to hit the side ramp on some copies than it is on others. While it might not have the depth of the recent Stern release, the Bally machine deserves to be recognized as one of the more underrated 80s pinball machines.

About Bally’s Dungeons & Dragons Pinball

Defeat a dragon by extinguishing its flame through sword, dust, and shield damage, all the while teleporting balls and releasing them during 2 and 3-ball multiballs. Based on the tabletop RPG of the same name.

• Manufacturer: Bally Midway
• Release Year: 1987
• Designer: Ward Pemberton
• Code: Rehman Merchant
• Art: Pat McMahon, Larry Elmore
• Music / Sound: Michael Bartlow

Playfield Overview

The layout of Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most unique layouts of the 1980s featuring a very non-traditional bottom half, and an upper half that largely encourages bounces from the bumpers to hit the shots there. The left lane and blue “shield” targets are connected to each other in that shooting the left lane when all the “shield” targets have been completed will relight them all. The left lane feeds one of the teleport targets if it is raised, or if it is lowered, sends the ball into the upper bumper area.

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The side ramp is the most difficult shot on the machine and on some copies, is nearly impossible to hit consistently. It can only be reliably hit when the ball is plunged, or with a very strong shot from the upper flipper. Shooting this ramp is integral to high scoring as it collects the mystical million when lit after completing the bell tower drop targets, increases the dungeon level playfield multiplier temporarily, and starts multiball immediately. The red “sword” targets are located near this ramp and relit by hitting the ramp when all have been completed.

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The upper half of the playfield is unique as it contains four bumpers, two Dragon’s Lair lanes that the ball might bounce into, and a hidden lane that feeds the upper flipper and relights all the standup targets if any are unlit. The two Dragon’s Lair lanes start multiball if a ball is locked in the teleport target near either saucer and collect the current flame bonus.

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The right side of the playfield is all about targets. There are four yellow “dust” targets on this side of the playfield, a teleport target located under the right ramp, and three bell tower drop targets that gate the entrance to the right ramp. The drop targets can only be accessed if a ball is already locked under the ramp, and shooting either the teleport target or any right ramp shot will relight the dust targets if they are all unlit. When all three drop targets are down, the player can shoot all the way through the ramp to set up the side ramp mystical million shot. An upper flipper is also located at the entrance of this ramp shot to assist in hitting the side ramp or the “sword” targets.

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Though the bottom half of the playfield contains slingshots and flippers as expected (this is the first Bally release to use the slightly longer “carrot” flippers), the inlanes are very different from usual! The inlanes form a half-circle with a gate at the bottom that can be activated either by rolling through the star rollovers when they are flashing, or by pressing either secondary flipper button. Expert use of these magic save gates are required to keep the ball in play!

Scoring on Dungeons & Dragons is typical for its era with 1M being an “average” score, and 5M+ being considered above average. The score rolls over at 10M and the game will not compensate for any scores above this rollover value.

Getting Started with Bally’s Dungeons & Dragons

• Shoot the teleport targets to lock balls. Every time multiball is started with more than one ball locked, more shots to the teleport targets are required. Shoot either of the flashing Dragon’s Lair lanes or the side ramp to start multiball. Magic saves will always be active during multiball.
• Extinguish the dragon’s flame by shooting the blue, red, and yellow targets (shield, sword, and dust). Each lit target unlights one of the bonus diamonds, and end-of-ball bonus is equal to the amount of unlit diamonds.
  
  • Completing a flame essentially serves as “super bonus”. You can earn up to 1,260,000 points in bonus, with the maximum super bonus being 1,050,000 after fully extinguishing three flames.
• Increase the dungeon level / playfield multiplier by shooting the side ramp. The multiplier increases by +1x to a maximum of 5x, and every time 20 seconds expire, the multiplier will decrease by -1x. The multiplier applies to all scoring outside of mystical millions and flame bonus.
• Shoot the bell tower drop targets to light the ramp exit behind them for mystical million. To score the million, use the upper flipper to quickly make a reflex flip up the side ramp. The drop targets will stay lowered for the rest of the ball once all have been completed.
• Use the secondary flipper buttons to activate magic saves. If the player’s score is under 200k or multiball is active, balls that pass through the star rollovers will be automatically saved. Earn additional auto-saves at the left or right outlanes by completing the shield or dust targets respectively.

Skill Shot

The skill shot involves plunging the ball up the side ramp with enough strength to roll through the switch at its apex, but less strength than a full shot to the side ramp would require. Rolling through the switch twice in a row, once with the ball heading through it and again with it exiting the switch, will score 100k.

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If the skill shot is enabled, the side ramp will not advance towards anything it normally does, like advancing the dungeon level, restoring the sword, or starting multiball.

Multiball

Multiball takes less priority on Dungeons & Dragons than other machines of its era. It is best used as a utility to help extinguish the dragon’s flame more easily, as described in the section below.

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Lock balls by shooting the teleport drop targets located at the left lane and right ramp. Every time a multiball is started with more than one ball locked, more teleport shots will be required to start it, which release the ball out of the teleport target on the other side. The number of required teleport shots is saved if a 2-ball multiball is started while trying to start 3-ball multiball.

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To start multiball, the player can either shoot the side ramp, which releases all locked balls and is the only way to start 3-ball multiball, or hit any flashing Dragon’s Lair lane, which will release the ball at the teleport target near it. All scoring during multiball works the same as it normally does, but the magic saves at the outlanes will always be enabled without having to press the secondary flipper buttons like normal.

Extinguishing the Flame & End-of-Ball Bonus

The biggest source of scoring on Dungeons & Dragons is extinguishing the flame, which acts as end-of-ball bonus but behaves differently from many other tables of its era and can be a bit difficult to explain. Remember: bonus is determined by the number of *unlit* diamonds, not the ones that are lit.

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There are three banks of colored standup targets that unlight one flame diamond when any lit target is hit. From left to right, these are the “shield” (blue), “sword” (red), and “dust” (yellow) targets. Every time all the targets in a bank are completed, they must be relit by hitting a flashing “restore” lane. The left lane restores the shield, the side ramp restores the sword, and the right ramp restores the dust. There is also a hidden lane near the upper flipper that restores all weapons, but the ball can only bounce into here from lucky bumper bounces or after hitting the right dragon’s lair saucer.

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There are a total of 20 flame diamonds totaling 210k in bonus, and once all 20 are unlit, the progress will reset but the flame you extinguished will be saved as “super bonus” that will carry over from ball to ball, similarly to how Fathom would carry over bonuses that surpassed 55k. The first flame awards “2x flame”, which adds two completions of the full flame to your current bonus. The second flame awards “3x flame” which behaves similarly but adds 3 completions of the full flame, and the third flame awards “5x flame” for a maximum of 1,050,000 as the maximum super bonus. The bonus and current flame progression are automatically held across the entire game.

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You can also score the current flame bonus by hitting any Dragon’s Lair lane, but this does not account for super bonus, only the currently unlit flames.

Dungeon Level / Playfield Multiplier

The playfield multiplier has limited use as it doesn’t impact the game’s largest sources of scoring, the flame bonus described above and the mystical million described below. However, it still can be used effectively, most notably on the standup targets (5k per lit target and an additional 5k for completing all the ones in a bank), the awards for hitting each drop target, and the 100k for shooting the full right ramp.

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The playfield multiplier increases by +1x every time the side ramp is hit (so long as the skill shot isn’t available). By default, it lasts for 20 seconds, and then will decrease but only by 1x instead of immediately reverting to base scoring (for instance, if 3x was active, it would decrease down to 2x). The maximum playfield multiplier is 5x after hitting the side ramp four times, once while each playfield multiplier is running.

Bell Tower Targets, Extra Life & Mystical Million

If a ball has been locked at the teleport target under the right ramp, the player can access the three linear drop targets located in front of the right ramp. Each target scores, from front to back, 10k – 25k – 50k. The drop targets remain lowered for the rest of the ball but reset when the ball drains.

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Extra life is Dungeons & Dragons’ extra ball equivalent and can only be scored by shooting two bell tower drop targets in quick succession. The number of drop targets required to light extra life varies based on the current ball number; on ball 3 only the front target has to be lit to qualify extra life at the middle drop target, but on ball 1, the back drop target must be hit to qualify extra life at the right ramp exit. Extra life is only lit for about 10 seconds before it can no longer be collected during the current ball.

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Mystical million is the highest scoring shot in the game outside of maximum flame bonus, but also the absolute toughest. To score the million, the player must shoot past the right ramp exit (which scores 100k) after completing all three drop targets, then immediately shoot the side ramp from the upper flipper to score the million. The player can collect as many mystical millions as they can from this method until the ball ends and the drop targets reset.

Magic Saves

The magic saves are the biggest learning curve on this table, but players who master them can keep the ball alive and maximize their scoring. Located near the lower flippers, magic save automatically activates if the star rollovers are flashing and the ball rolls through them, but normally the player will have to use the secondary flipper buttons to activate the magic saves manually. Pressing either button activates a gate on the same side as the button, which allows the ball to pass through the outlane heading straight towards the nearby flipper.

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Magic save automatically activates if the player has a score under 200k, or is currently in multiball. The player can also earn auto-saves at the left or right outlane, respectively by completing the “shield” (blue) or “dust” (yellow) standup targets – each completion awards 1 auto-save.

Noah's Strats

• Scoring on Dungeons & Dragons is largely dependent on if your copy allows you to hit the side ramp or not. If the side ramp is feasible, prioritize going for mystical million by shooting the right teleport target and then completing the bell tower drop targets above it.
• If the side ramp can’t be hit reliably, focus on getting 2-ball multiballs from the Dragon’s Lair lanes near the bumpers, and make a stronger effort to shoot the colored standup targets to extinguish the flame.
• The most consistent ways I’ve found to hit the bumpers involve shooting the left lane while a ball is being held by the teleport target near it or shooting the red “sword” targets to bounce into the bumper and hope to get some bounces into either the dragon’s lair saucers or the “restore all weapons” lane. Make sure to keep track of where the ball is bouncing and prepare to nudge or slow down the ball if it is headed towards the flippers from the bumpers.
• Use multiball to complete the standup targets. Only go for the lit targets during single-ball play if you have one left to complete the set, as shooting the “restore” lanes is tougher during multiball due to this table’s unusual layout.
• Even if you can’t score the mystical million consistently, the right ramp is still worth a sizable amount of points thanks to the 100k for making a full shot to the ramp exit, and can help set you up for reflex flips from the upper flipper if the ramp shot was too weak.