Safe Cracker (1.8) - MAME machine

Pinball published 28 years ago:

Safe Cracker © 1996 Midway.

TECHNICAL
Midway WPC-95
Model Number: 90003

Main CPU: Motorola M6809 (@ 2 MHz)
Sound CPU: ADSP2105 (@ 10 MHz)
Sound chip: DMA-driven (@ 10 MHz)

TRIVIA
Released in April 1996. 1,148 units were produced.

This game was originally supposed to be based on the Monopoly board-game, but Midway was unable to secure the licensing rights for the game. Ironically, Pat Lawlor (who designed Safe Cracker) would produce the Monopoly pinball game for Stern Pinball in 2001.

The red button can be found on the backglass held out through Bob's getaway rental van. It is also seen on one of the tokens that are awarded from the machine.

One of the '?' awards is a cow head.

One of the Candy 2000 codes is MOO, which gives you a Vault letter.

The letters BCM can be seen in the animation for when you enter the board game via the cellar entrance. The letters are to the far right on the DMD and can only be seen in the beginning of the animation. In the same animation you can see a DOHO on the sewer lid.

UPDATES
REVISION 1.0 (changes from prototype 0.91):
Date: April 29, 1996

• Initial release to production.
• Ordered Lamp Test implemented
• Conditions of the optos at powerup are tested to help determine if the 12V supply is not working.
• Added the continue/quit choices back to the board game.
• Defaults: On for GERMANY, off for USA.
• Increased the duty cycle of the ramp divertor slightly to compensate for divertors that were not able to hold the mechanism in when flash bulbs were firing.
• Changed the token spitter process(es) to not log audits for vended tokens during test mode. During test, error cases are cleared out, but no feature audits are chalked.
• Added more specific token errors to the user-report for each particular side, empty and consecutive misses. Also, made sure not to report token system errors if the tokens are turned off via the feature adjustment.
• Added more robust code to the token releasing code to help with broken switch(es), and to help the operator better diagnose what the game thinks is wrong.
• Reworked logic when you reach the vault to handle cases where tokens are allowed but the mech is marked jammed. The player now will get a REPLAY if permissible, with a magic credit powerup, if the feature has been enabled.
• Changed the sequencing of the REPLAY effect if you win one as you reach the vault.
• The 'magic token accept timers' are totally functional. Both flippers or the start button will speed up the timer. Credit button presses while the timer is running will be eaten. Once the last token is inserted, a display effect of the 'credits' flavor is launched to tell the player that their last token was credited.
• Implemented a family mode adjustment. If the adjustment is set, the cop will not get shot at during the beginning of assault mode.
• The lamp effect for a whole drop bank shot during TNT multiball no longer uses the wheel lights. This is so players can see that the mode is adding time.
• Left kicker now spots a drop target if an entrance is not lit.
• Player's wheel position is now restored each ball during multi player games.

REVISION 1.1
Date: May 6, 1996

• Added French language text translations.
• When a magic token is set to give the player a credit, the free-play percentage audit is now chalked when the token is inserted.
• Added an adjustment to make the knob-numbers random during spins. Some players were able to pick their numbers entirely too often, which made the odds of success much too high. Choices are YES (random) and NO (sequential). This adjustment factory sets to YES (random).
• Changed the replay system so that scores accumulated during Assault on the Vault are not counted in the auto replay percentaging database.
• Fixed message and choreography when a token is won from the gift lady or '?' game. In version 1.0, these cases would say 'free credit' instead of 'free token', and wouldn't wait long enough for the token to be released.
• Patched a bug in the lamp effect system that would sometimes cause the game to crash when the assault mode jackpot shot was hit.
• New rule added for 'call guard'. This is now a random chance of the guard letting you into the board game for free.
• Fixed the coil test for the ramp - it got broken in version 1.0 when the duty cycle was increased.
• Removed the 'guards moved' from bonus and status.
• Added a basic top trough test.
• Filled in the sound test table.
• Hid all token adjustments when the tokens are turned off.
• Disabled token-input when the tokens are turned off.
• Added 'number of board games played' audits: these audits tell how many players played the board game exactly 1,2,3 or 4 times in the same game.
• Collecting the "assault from all sides" award in assault mode now awards vault letters.

REVISION 1.2
Date: May 13, 1996

• Put in support for new German speech.
• Fixed the screens for the tests of the auxiliary lamps.

REVISION 1.4
Date: June 11, 1996

• Added support for more printers through the optional serial port.
• Completed Spanish translations.
• Made the factory default for French have the maximum tokens per player set to 1.
• Added the adjustment A.1.14: REPLAY AWARD which allows the operator to turn off replays.
• Attract mode now shows the number of tokens available in the vault jackpot.
• Added 2 new feature adjustments:

LOCK FOR BANK - This adjustment determines whether the player must lock a ball before playing the board game.
YES: player must lock at least 1 ball before break in
NO: player must only complete drop banks to break in
Default is YES
START BANK LIT - This adjustment determines whether the bank is lit for a break in at game start. Default is NO
Implemented adjustment A.1.16 which allows match to award credits or tokens. NOTE: Tokens paid out by Match are NOT included in A.2.21: 'TOKEN PAYOUT %'. The match percentage is governed by adjustment A.1.19: 'MATCH FEATURE'.
When match is set to token in the 'N' version of the software, the match percentage is fixed at 5%.

• Fixed a condition in token multiball which could allow a player to win more tokens than were available in the vault jackpot.
• Changed logic so that if the token tubes run out or become jammed in the middle of token multiball, the player will get points as a substitution.
• Changed the minimum allowed value for adjustment A.2.7: 'TIMER STARTS AT' to 15 minutes.
• Fixed a problem where under some conditions, the game would not allow you to change adjustments.

REVISION 1.5
Date: August 2, 1996

• Adjustment A.2.22 (MAGIC TOK. ACCEPT) has been modified to allow the token to be used for BUY-IN. The BUY-IN setting allows tokens won during a game to be used to extend the current game.
• Changes made to reset the board game if the game is tilted while playing the board game.
• The audit for matches now properly chalks an audit for match when the match gives a token.

REVISION 1.6
Date: September 13, 1996

• Changed some strings for German games.

REVISION 1.7
Date: November 25, 1996

• Removed sound tests 13-17 for German sound ROMs. The kickback pauses the game timer during kicks. Explode, Cyberdog, and Alarm mode timers now pause during 'Computer Disabled'.
• Enhanced the "Bribe Guard" rules using donuts.

REVISION 1.8
Date: April 22, 1998

• Fixed a problem where the drop difficulty (adjustment DROP SEQUENCE NUM. was being used at game start instead of each player's first ball. This resulted in the adjustment.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Enter MOO in the high score list to hear a cow.

STAFF
Concept, Design, & Playfield: Pat Lawlor (PML)
Software, Design: Matt Coriale (MAT)
Art: John Youssi (JY)
Mechanix by: John Krutsch, Carl Biagi
F/X: Dean Grover, Lyman F. Sheats Jr.
Dots by: Adam Rhine, Brian Morris
Sounds & Music: Dan Forden (DAN)
Production By: The Entire Williams Electronics Games Staff

Special Thanks: Stephanie Coriale, Samantha Grover, Joanne Faux

CONTRIBUTE
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