World Cup Soccer (Lx-2) - MAME machine

Pinball published 30 years ago:

World Cup Soccer © 1994 Midway Mfg. Co.

TECHNICAL
Midway WPC-Security
Model Number: 50031

Main CPU: Motorola M6809 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound CPU: ADSP2105 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chip: DMA-driven DAC

TRIVIA
World Cup Soccer was released in July 1994. 8,743 units were produced.

UPDATES
Version L-1
Date: July 7, 1994

• Initial release to production.

Version L-2
Date: July 7, 1994

• Enhanced display refresh logic to compensate for some display driver boards sometimes 'freezing up'.
• Fixed German buy-in pricing.

TIPS AND TRICKS

• Playfield Layout:

Kickback: Left outlane has a kickback. Kickback is relit by passing through the right inlane, which lights the Light Kickback target for 5 seconds, then hitting the light kickback target before it times out. Note that the goal/striker scoop and Skill shot feed the right inlane.

Magna-Save: The Magna-Save is just above the tip of the left flipper, and is set to save a straight-down-the-middle drain. By hitting an extra button next to the left flipper button, you activate the Magna-Save which pulls the ball into place above your left flipper so you can catch it. When the magna-save is not lit, the left inlane lights the magna-save target on the right, just above the slingshots, for 5 seconds; hit it before it times out to relight the magna save.

Left Orbit/Spinner: When a city is lit, the spinner scores the city and sends the ball all the way around and shooting out the right-hand side. Otherwise the ball is diverted into the roll-overs. May be lit for ultra-spinner or build soccer ball.

Left Ramp: A diverter sends the ball either to the right flipper, pop bumpers, or left habitrail. The left habitrail locks the ball if lock is lit, otherwise returns the ball to the left flipper. When the diverter sends the ball to the right, a soft shot lands in the pop-bumpers, while a harder shot goes to the right flipper. The ramp may be lit for ultra-ramps, build soccer ball, re-light jackpot, collect half-ticket, and lock ball.

Striker Targets: Striker is the mascot of World Cup Soccer '94, and he has three stand-up targets on the game. One on each side of the left ramp, and one in front of the jet bumpers at the upper right. Hitting a Striker target spots a letter in the word STRIKER. Spell STRIKER to score 10M and light the Striker scoop. Note that hitting the goaltender also spots a letter in STRIKER. Hitting the upper right Striker target also spots a Star Rollover.

Light Free Kick: Two saucers, one on middle left and other on middle right of playfield. Falling in it lights the Free Kick stand-up target for 10 seconds.

Tackles: This is a row of three stand-up targets. Scores 10M when lit.

Assist: Another saucer, at the upper left, just in front of the goal. When the ball falls into the Assist saucer your goal lites and you can shoot the ball into the goal by hitting either flipper. If goal was already lit when you landed in the saucer, you score 2 Goals, otherwise score just 1 goal.

Star Rollovers: There are four rollovers leading towards the goal. Light a rollover by rolling over it. Light all four and goal is lit.

GOAL!: At the upper center of the playfield there is a goal, with a goalie who moves back and forth. You shoot the ball past the goalie and into the goal. Each goal starts an Ultra Mode. Score 4 Goals to light the next TV award. Goals are also used to establish rank for the first multiball (Section 5) and as the jackpot in multiball.

Striker Scoop: Scoop in the back middle of the playfield, to the right of the goal. Hitting it when lit serves up a random Striker Award. Also collect Extra Balls here.

Rollover Lanes: Lighting both lanes flashes the next city.

Jet Bumpers: During normal play, the jets are worth 1OOK a pop and add one thousand fans for each pop. At 25,OOO fans, the jet value becomes 1M / pop for the rest of the ball.

Soccer Ball: Spins whenever goal is lit. No points for hitting it.

Free Kick Target: When lit from one of the Free Kick saucers, this target awards 10M. Also used in Super Free Kick Striker Award.

TV Award / Final Draw scoop: When lit for TV award, this gives out a TV Award (Section 3). Also serves to start multiball when lit for Final Draw. If TV and Multiball lit, multiball has precedence.

Right Ramp: Always feeds the left flipper or rollover lanes for a soft
shot. Can be lit for all the same things as left ramp.

Right Outlane: There is a special light here, which is lit after defeating Germany in Multiball.

Plunger / Skill Shot: This game has a manual plunger. Hit a flashing slot to score 5M, 10M, or 30M, depending on whether there are 3, 2, or 1 slots flashing respectively. When you hit the last flashing one you also spot a city and reset all slots to flashing for next time.

• Ultra Modes: After each goal, you are awarded an 'Ultra' mode. There are four Ultra modes, and each one lasts for the length of your ball or until you score 30M on the mode, at which time you are given a 10M bonus and the mode ends. The modes you currently have lit are indicated by four lightning bolt-shaped lights on the right side of the playfield. These modes do not add to your score during the normal game, they are only used for fun with bonus.

The 4 ultra modes are the following:
Utlra Ramps: About what it says. Shoot ramps for 5M per ramp.
Utlra Spinner: Ditto, to the tune of 1M a spin.
Ultra Jets: This is a pop bumper bonus. Pop bumpers are upped to 2M a pop.
Utlra Goalie: Nail the goalie! One of two Hit the Goalie modes, these are completely hilarious. Hitting the goalie scores 5Ma shot.

End-of-ball is awarded as 5M per goal and 5M per city obtained so far in the game, and the total of your Ultra Modes on that ball.

• TV Awards: The TV (center scoop) starts the game lit, and every four goals relight it. The TV awards are stackable, which means it can be lit for more than one award. Shoot the center scoop to start the timed TV Award mode (these were 20 or 25 seconds) for bonus scoring. Starting any TV Award is worth a cool 25M.

There are 4 TV awards, always awarded in the following order:
Big Goal Round: Shoot three goals within the time limit for 15M, 15M and 30M.
Extra Ball Round: Extra Ball lit for 20 seconds. If you hit the extra ball, then the Striker scoop is worth 50M for the rest of the time limit.
Hit The Goalie!: Same as above except timed. Hitting the goalie is worth 10M, shooting the goal raises the goalie value by 10M. Still totally great.
Where's Striker: Shoot any of the dog targets to try and find Striker. First hit finds somebody (watch the display to see who!) and scores low points. The second finds somebody else and scores medium points. The third hit finds Striker and scores big points.

• Striker Awards: Hitting a Striker target or the goalie scores 1M and adds a letter to the word STRIKER. Spelling STRIKER awards 10M and lights the Striker scoop. It is also lit at the start of the game.

Shoot the Striker scoop to collect a random award. The first Striker award may also be collected from the goal if the goal is not lit. In normal play, awards are random. In tournament play, awards are always given in the same order, with the Penalty Kick being the first one.
The possible Striker Awards are the following:
Extra Ball: Guess.
Multiball: Starts multiball. This award is only (and always) awarded on ball 3 if you have not yet had multiball in that game. The award starts you off at a very low jackpot value, so it is not the preferable way to start multiball.
20 million: Another toughie.
Super Free Kick: Makes the free kick target worth 10M + 5M per hit for about 45 to 60 seconds.
Penalty Kick: Gives you a shot at the goal with the goalie not moving and leaning out of the way. hit the goal for 30M.
Advance Three Cities: Gives you your next three cities, regardless of whether or not they are already flashing.
Unlimited Kickback: Kickback lit for the rest of the ball!
3 Goals: Adds 3 goals to your total, and start 3 ultra rounds.

• Multiball: The left spiral, left ramp, right ramp and Striker scoop have arrows labeled BUILD in front of them. When flashing, shoot it to light one of the words Strength, Stamina, Skill, Speed and Spirit to the soccer ball drawn on the playfield. Light all five to light lock. Shoot either ramp to lock the ball and light Final Draw scoop to start multiball.

Start multiball by shooting final draw. You start multiball at a certain rank. For the first multiball, your rank is determined as follows:
Every 2 goals advances you 1 rank, and if you start multiball from the Final Draw scoop instead of via a striker award you advance 4 ranks. You beat a team by shooting the goal (this is your jackpot,) and then get to play the next team by shooting a ramp (relighting jackpot.) There are fifteen teams, with the following ranks and jackpot values:
15 USA 20M
14 Russia 20M
13 South Korea 25M
12 Saudi Arabia 30M
11 Morocco 35M
10 Austria 40M
9 Canada 45M
8 Holland 50M
7 Italy 55M
6 Great Britain 60M
5 Sweden 65M
4 Spain 65M
3 Australia 75M
2 France 100M
1 Germany 250M

If you drain before hitting a jackpot, shooting a ramp or the Final Draw scoop will restart multiball where you left off. In subsequent multiballs, your initial rank is 2 places higher than the last team defeated in the previous multiball.

If you defeat #1 Germany, you score 250M, the Special is lit at the right outlane, and the ramps and goal are lit as Victory Laps worth 50M a piece. After five laps, the Victory Laps then alternate between left ramp and goal. On subsequent multiballs, you start with #2 Germany (because you are now #1), and if you defeat Germany again, you get another 250M and go into the victory lap. The only difference this time is that the Special does not light up.

The Assist saucer works during multiball, but best of all, its programmed not to miss, and automatically relights the GOAL for the next jackpot (even if you did not relight it via a ramp).

• Cities: There are 9 cities on the World cup tour: Chicago, Dallas, Boston,

New York, Orlando, Washington DC, San Francisco, Detroit and LA. An unlit city means you do not yet have a ticket. A city that is flashing means you have a ticket, which was obtained by shooting both ramps or collecting both rollovers. Travel to a city by shooting the spinner.
A city may be spotted by completing all three flashing shots on the skill shot. If the city was already flashing, then it makes the next unlit city flashing. The Striker Award may also award advance 3 cities, which marks the next three cities as travelled (regardless of whether they were flashing or not lit).
Travelling to Chicago, Dallas and Boston score 10M each. New York, Orlando and Washington score 15M. others score 20M. Travelling to any city also lights the Tackle target.
The following cities also have awards associated with them:
Boston: Boston Tea Party: A hurry up mode: starts at 40M and counts down to 10M. Shoot spinner to collect.
Washington D.C.: Lights Extra Ball
Los Angeles.: World Cup Final: After travelling to Los Angeles, shoot the Final Draw hole to start the Final Match against Germany. Five ball timed multiball against Germany for 45 seconds. You must plunge the balls yourself and goals are worth 75M. Every once in a while Germany will score a goal. If you end the 45 seconds with more goals than Germany you get a bonus of 500M. If you end in a tie, overtime is started and the first team to score a goal wins. The first time you reach the world cup final, Germany will score about 3 to 5 goals. The second time, Germany may score as many as 7 or 8 goals.

• Known Problem in World Cup Final: In the world cup final, if you shoot too many goals at a time (e.g. you have two or three balls in the goal at once) only one of them will register. This is due to the design of the goal and the placement of the sensor. Should this happen during tournament play, then tough, you lose out on those points. Best thing to do is not shoot the goal for 2 or 3 seconds, and let the machine clear out all the balls from the goal, then start shooting it again.
• Tournament Settings: No extra balls. TV award extra ball round scores 50M. Striker Scoop awards always in same order, with Penalty Kick the first one.
• Scoring Level: Grand Champion scores on WCS typically range between 3B and 6B. In tournament mode, it is expected that the top A division player may score about 1B to 2B, and the average game be on the order of 300M-500M. In the B and lower divisions, top scores will probably be about 800M-1B, with an average score around 200M.

STAFF
Playfield Concept & Designer: John Popadiuk (POP)
Software & Designers: Matt Coriale (MAT), Larry DeMar (LED) (DAD)
Mechanical Designer: Jack Skalon
Music and Effects: Vince Pontarelli (V P)
Dot Animations: Eugene Geer, Scott Slomiany (Scott Matrix)
Artwork: Kevin O'Connor (K O)
FX Software: Craig Sylla

CONTRIBUTE
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