Bad Cats

Williams, 1989 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Bad Cats in the Pinball Genie app →

Bad Cats is a single-ball game from the tail end of the eighties and it plays like one — no modes, no wizard mode, no multiball. What it has instead is four value ladders running at once, and two awards big enough that everything else is decoration. Learning this machine is mostly learning which ladder to climb.

The layout

The Tiger Ramp runs up the far left, over the top, and empties into the right inlane, with a five-target drop bank beside it. The centre holds the Fishbowl Ramp, the linear Fish target, the Trash Can eject saucer just left of it, and the spinning SEAFOOD wheel. On the right are a three-target Milk Bottles bank and the Doghouse scoop. Three top lanes spell TOY and feed the jet bumpers, with the barbecue flashlamp in the middle of them.

The Tiger Ramp, and the award nobody tells you about

The Tiger Ramp is always lit for something, and the value climbs on consecutive shots: 50,000, 100,000, 200,000, then a million with no ceiling on repeats. The unusual part is that this ramp does not time out. Trap the ball, take a breath, shoot again — you lose nothing. What resets you is touching any other scoring switch, and the drop targets beside the ramp entrance are the usual culprit.

There is also a 20 million lamp on that ramp that the instruction card never explains. It lights only on your last ball, and only after you have climbed consecutively from the base value all the way up to the million. That is the single biggest award available in normal play, and it is worth planning your last ball around.

The Fish target and the 10X Trash Can

The Fish target is linear, meaning the harder you hit it, the higher the award it lights. Those awards belong to the Trash Can, not the Fish target — hit the Fish and the Trash Can becomes worth 25,000, 50,000, 75,000, 100,000 or 500,000 instead of its empty value of ten thousand. The lamps time out one at a time, roughly twenty seconds each, stepping down the ladder while you dawdle, so the Trash Can shot should follow immediately.

A lit right inlane arms the 10X multiplier at the Trash Can, and that is where the numbers get serious: 100,000, 250,000, 500,000, 750,000, a million, or five million in a single shot. The Tiger Ramp empties straight into the right inlane, which pairs the two shots naturally.

• One inlane is lit at all times, and collecting it moves the light to the other side.
• Left lit means the Doghouse is lit for a wheel spin; right lit means 10X at the Trash Can.
• Slingshots, the two rubber switches, and possibly the bumpers can all shuffle which side is lit without you doing anything, so check before committing.
• The Trash Can's own lamp is switched off at the start of every ball, but the Fish and 10X lamps are not — so a loaded Trash Can still pays in full even though it looks dark.

S-E-A-F-O-O-D

The wheel in the middle of the playfield is a cat fishing in a pond, and whichever of eight fish lands in the net is your award: ten thousand, fifty thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand, a BAD CATS letter with twenty-five thousand attached, Lites Jackpot, Spin Again with a hundred thousand, an extra ball, or a Special. You spin it by shooting a lit Doghouse, and the Doghouse is lit either by a lit left inlane or simply by shooting it while dark — so a mistimed shot costs you the trip, not the award.

The carry-over jackpot

Bad Cats has a progressive jackpot that does not reset when your game ends. It sits on the machine, growing by roughly a tenth of every player's score, until somebody collects it. It opens at a million and can reach the region of twenty million, and the backglass lamps give you a rough reading of where it stands. To light it, sweep the drop target banks — each completed bank awards a letter of BAD CATS — then take the Fishbowl Ramp. One shot collects it, after which it drops back to a million. Reading those backglass lamps before you put money in is a real advantage.

Bonus, and the friendly stuff

Bonus is built the old way: nothing carries between balls, and BAD CATS letters count for nothing at the end. Switch traffic is what pays. The ramps are quietly the best of it — five thousand for the Tiger Ramp switch, fifteen thousand for the Fishbowl Ramp — with ten thousand for the Bird bank or the Trash Can, twenty thousand for the Milk Bottles, and thirty thousand for any outlane on the way out. The top rollover lanes step the multiplier from 2X to a maximum of 7X, and the bonus caps at 999,000.

Two last mercies. The skill shot is a randomly chosen flashing top lane worth 120,000, a doubled bonus and a lit barbecue — lane change will not move it, so your plunge decides it. And on your last ball both outlanes light for Curiosity Spin, turning a drain into a free spin of the wheel and, if your game came in under the machine's average time, often a consolation extra ball too.

Goals in Bad Cats

Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.

• Skill Shot skillshot · Medium

  One of the three top lanes is chosen at random and flashes. Send the ball through that lane and you collect 120K, a doubled bonus and a lit barbecue. Lane change does not move the flashing lamp, so this one is decided entirely by the plunge.

  Reward: 120K, 2X bonus, barbecue lit

• Light The Barbecue multiplier · Easy

  The flashlamp in the middle of the bumpers is the difference between 500 points a hit and 5,000. Get it from the skill shot, or light it by clearing either drop target bank. Bumper time with it lit is genuinely worth having.

  Reward: Jet bumpers go from 500 to 5,000

• The Tiger Ramp Ladder combo · Hard

  This ramp is always lit for something and the value climbs on consecutive shots — 50K, then 100K, then 200K, then a million with no cap on repeats. There is no timer at all, so you can trap up and take your time, but any other scoring switch resets you to the bottom.

  Reward: 50K climbing to 1M, unlimited

• The 20 Million Lamp secret · Hard

  There is a 20M lamp on the Tiger Ramp that the instruction card never explains. It only lights on your last ball, and only after you have climbed the ramp ladder consecutively from its base value all the way to a million. One collection per game.

  Reward: 20,000,000

• Fishbowl Ramp Ladder progression · Easy

  The centre ramp pays 30K, then 50K, then 100K, then an extra ball. On factory settings it is lit at the start of every ball until you have taken the extra ball, and one extra ball per ball is the limit. If it goes dark, a cleared drop bank relights it.

  Reward: 30K, 50K, 100K, extra ball

• Spell BAD CATS progression · Medium

  Every clean sweep of either drop target bank awards one letter. Seven letters lights the jackpot on the centre ramp. There is no limit to how many times you can do it in a game, but the letters have to be earned again from scratch each time.

  Reward: Lights the jackpot at the Fishbowl Ramp

• The Progressive Jackpot multiplier · Hard

  This jackpot does not reset between games — it carries on a machine until somebody collects it. It starts at a million and grows by roughly a tenth of every player's score, so a busy machine can be carrying eight figures. One ramp shot takes it.

  Reward: 1M up to roughly 20M

• S-E-A-F-O-O-D mode · Medium

  A lit Doghouse spins the wheel. Light it by passing through a lit left inlane, or simply by shooting the Doghouse while it is dark. Once lit it stays lit for about twenty seconds, and the wheel has eight possible prizes.

  Reward: Up to 250K, a Special, an extra ball or a lit jackpot

• Curiosity Spin secret · Medium

  On your last ball both outlane lamps light together. Drain out either side and the game spins the SEAFOOD wheel as a parting gift — and if your game came in under the machine's average time, it will hand you a consolation extra ball on top.

  Reward: A free wheel spin, and possibly a ball back

• Fish Bone-Us combo · Medium

  The Fish target and the Trash Can are one shot in two parts. Hit the linear Fish target hard and it lights an award ladder — 25K, 50K, 75K, 100K or 500K. Those lamps time out one at a time, about twenty seconds each, so shoot the Trash Can immediately.

  Reward: 10K empty, up to 500K loaded

• The 10X Trash Can multiplier · Medium

  A lit right inlane arms the 10X lamp at the Trash Can, and that turns the Fish ladder into the biggest single shot on the playfield: 100K, 250K, 500K, 750K, 1M or 5M. The Tiger Ramp empties into the right inlane, which pairs the two nicely.

  Reward: Up to 5,000,000 in one shot

• The Trash Can Carry-Over secret · Medium

  The Trash Can light goes out at the start of every ball, which makes the shot look dead. It is not. The Fish and 10X lamps are not reset, and those two are what actually control the award — so a loaded Trash Can from last ball still pays in full.

  Reward: Last ball's Fish and 10X values, kept

• Move The Inlane Light strategy · Easy

  Exactly one inlane is lit at any time, and collecting it moves the light to the other side. Left lit means a Doghouse spin; right lit means the 10X Trash Can. Slingshots, the rubber switches and even the bumpers can shuffle it, so check before you commit to a shot.

  Reward: Control over which award is armed

• Complete T-O-Y multiplier · Easy

  The three top lanes step the bonus multiplier every time you complete them, from 2X up to a ceiling of 7X. The Center Lane curves up into the same rollovers, so you have two different ways to feed them.

  Reward: Bonus multiplier up to 7X

• End-Of-Ball Bonus progression · Easy

  Bonus here works the old-fashioned way: nothing carries between balls, and BAD CATS letters count for nothing at the end. What counts is the switch traffic, and the multiplier from the top lanes. The whole thing caps at 999,000.

  Reward: Up to 999,000 x your multiplier