Dr. Dude
Bally, 1990 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.
Open Dr. Dude in the Pinball Genie app →Dr. Dude has a short rulebook and one very good idea in the middle of it. Collect three Elements of Coolness, mix them together in a contraption suspended above the playfield, and cash in a multiball. Around that sits a three-shot Reflex sequence that rewards a steady hand, and a scoring quirk after multiball that most players never notice.
The layout
From the lower left: a short curved lane holds the Magnetic Personality target, with a magnet halfway up that catches the ball when the target registers. Above it the Left Lane runs from the bumpers to the Left Saucer, the award hole for the whole game. Centre playfield is the Ramp — very steep, right flipper only — with the Heart of Rock 'n Roll standup to its right. Three bumpers and a lone Top Target sit above. On the right: six REFLEX standups, the gift-wrapped Gift of Gab saucer, a half-orbit Right Lane fed by the plunger, and four drop targets facing left.
The Mix Master hangs above the playfield: a six-sided cage with a spinning disc inside and nine standups around its sides, colour-coded in three banks of three. The ramp is the only way in. There is no kickback on either outlane, so ball control matters more here than the shot list suggests.
The Elements of Coolness
Three Elements, three hits each. The first hit scores 5K, the second 10K, and the third collects the Element for 25K. Two things make this the friendliest progression here: the values hold between balls and nothing times out, and the colour-coded Mix Master banks spot Element shots for you — roughly five hits on a bank credits a shot to the matching Element. After an Element is collected you can keep shooting it; the value just cycles again.
With all three collected, the lock is one target away — but it must be a Mix Master target. Making the ramp alone does not light it; the ball has to hit something up there. Then take the lock at the Left Saucer.
Multiball, and the part after it
Multiball has one instruction: hit the Mix Master. The display counts down how many target hits remain before the jackpot — starting at 15, rising by 10 for every jackpot inside the same multiball. The jackpot is somewhere between 1M and 5M and looks random each time. Completing the four drop targets doubles whichever jackpot you are working towards.
Play it as ball control, not speed:
- As soon as one ball goes into the Mix Master, trap the other on the left flipper.
- Loop the ramp with the free ball. Only the right flipper can make the ramp, which is why the left flipper is the parking spot.
- Never send both balls up there — they hit each other instead of the targets and tend to come out together.
- Do not look away from a ball in the Mix Master; the post on the spinning disc can fling it out without warning.
Then the rule worth knowing: when multiball ends, everything scores double for as long as you keep that last ball alive. Awards even display at their doubled value. There is no restart shot, so that surviving ball is the whole prize — a Reflex round completed under double scoring can outscore the multiball that preceded it.
The Reflex round
Complete the six REFLEX standups (progress is remembered between balls) to light Reflex 1 at the Left Saucer. That lights Reflex 2 at the Gift of Gab, which lights Reflex 3 at Magnetic Personality. Complete all three and you collect the Reflex bonus, which starts at 500K and carries all game.
The timers are not equal, and that shapes how you play it. Reflex 1 waits indefinitely, so set the next shot up properly. Reflex 2 times out very fast. If you miss it, let the timer expire, get the ball under control, and start again from Reflex 1 — chasing it with an uncontrolled shot is how balls get lost, and a missed Reflex 2 relights Reflex 1 immediately anyway. Reflex 3 has a longer timer, usually good for two or three attempts, but missing it ends the round outright.
Two ways to grow the value: completing the targets again while Reflex 1 is lit adds 250K, and completing the sequence adds 500K. Reflex is still available during multiball, with far more generous timers.
Awards and small print
- Bag O' Tricks — a random award at the Left Saucer, lit at the start of every ball and relit by the drop targets. The pool runs from a joke ten points to Light Mix Master (spots every uncollected Element), Million Is Lit, Jackpot At Max, Bonus X At Max, Extra Ball and Special. Not available during multiball, though a drop completion there leaves it lit afterwards.
- Drop targets — the first three completions give 2x, 4x and 6x bonus, the fourth lights Million on the ramp, and every completion relights Bag O' Tricks.
- The Left Saucer stacks. Several awards can be lit at once and one shot collects all of them, so let them pile up.
- The sympathy extra ball — reach ball three having played badly and the game lights an extra ball at the Left Saucer. You still have to collect it.
- The Bag awards Elements in a fixed order: Magnetic Personality, Gift of Gab, Heart of Rock 'n Roll.
How Dr. Dude plays
Bally's personality clinic turns a hopeless nerd into the coolest cat in town, one Element of Coolness at a time. Gather all three Elements, work them through the Mix Master to light the lock, and cash the multiball jackpots that follow.
The loop
- Hit each of the three Element standups three times over -- Magnetic Personality, the Heart and the Gift -- and the values you bank hold from ball to ball, so the coolness build never slides backward.
- Shoot the steep ramp to feed the Mix Master, whose colour-coded target rings spot Element hits for you and, once all three Elements are in, arm the lock.
- Take the lit lock at the Left Saucer, then pour balls back into the Mix Master and count its targets down to a jackpot.
- Clear the four drop targets to climb the bonus multiplier and light a flat million out on the ramp.
- Keep the last ball alive once the multiball ends and every score doubles, which turns a Reflex round played right then into a fortune.
Reading the lights
- Elements of Coolness (status) — lit: A steady globe on an Element's surrounding plastic means that Element is collected and its value banked for the rest of the game, so a build here never slips backward. · flashing: A globe still flashing is an Element you have not finished; three hits -- worth five, ten and twenty-five thousand -- turn it steady. · then: Finish all three Elements, then put one more shot into a Mix Master target to arm the lock at the Left Saucer. Values keep cycling if you shoot a completed Element again, so there is no penalty for parking the ball on one while you set the lock up.
- Left Saucer Awards (status) — lit: Several awards can sit lit on the Left Saucer at the same time -- Bag O' Tricks, Reflex 1, the lock, an extra ball, a special -- and a single shot rakes in every one of them that is showing. · then: Rather than run to it the instant one thing lights, let a few awards stack up and take them together; the saucer kicks the ball up a habitrail back to your left inlane afterward. The lock needs all three Elements plus a Mix Master hit before it appears, while Bag O' Tricks is lit at the start of every ball and comes back off the drop targets.
- The REFLEX Round (mode) — lit: Sweep the six REFLEX standups and Reflex 1 lights at the Left Saucer; collecting it throws Reflex 2 over to the Gift of Gab, and that in turn hands Reflex 3 to Magnetic Personality. The three-shot chain starts at half a million and its value stays with you all game. · then: Reflex 1 waits for you, so set the Gift up before you take it; Reflex 2 times out fast, so a miss is better let go and restarted than chased with a wild shot. Finishing all three grows the value for next time, and a full round banked while the post-multiball doubling is still live pays enormously.
- Drop Targets & Bonus X (multiplier) — lit: Four drops facing left do a different job on each clear: the first three completions raise the bonus multiplier to two, four and six times, and the fourth lights a flat million out on the ramp. · then: Knock all four down from the left flipper, then collect the million on the ramp while it stays lit. Every completion also relights Bag O' Tricks back at the saucer, and one made during multiball doubles whatever jackpot you are currently chasing.
- Mix Master Jackpot (shot arrows) — lit: The steep ramp -- makeable only from the right flipper -- drops the ball onto a spinning disc inside the Mix Master, and the nine standups ringing it are colour-coded so red spots the Heart, yellow the Gift and green Magnetic Personality. · then: Outside multiball those target hits spot Element shots and, with the Elements done, light the lock. In multiball every standup takes one off the jackpot -- fifteen to start, ten more after each cash -- so keep feeding the ramp and let the disc rattle the ball around the targets for you.
- Top Target Award (status) — lit: A lone standup above the bumpers, and the backpanel lights over it cycle the target's value through a series of awards, live at every moment of the ball. · then: A full plunge runs the right lane and clips it before the ball drops into the bumpers, so watch the backpanel cycle and let the spring go when the value you want is showing. There is no lane to line up and no button to press -- this is your free skill shot on every ball.
Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.
Start scoring
- Ball one — Take the safe, repeatable points first. Clip the Top Target off a full plunge, build the three Elements (their values never reset, so it is progress you cannot lose), grab an early Bag O' Tricks, and clear the drop targets to climb the bonus multiplier. — Plunge Into The Top Target, The Three Elements of Coolness, Bag O' Tricks, The Drop Targets
- Building — Feed the Mix Master to spot the last Elements and light the lock at the Left Saucer, then lock up and start multiball. Park a ball safely on the left flipper while the other loops the ramp; two balls up in the Mix Master together just batter each other loose. — Work The Mix Master Targets, Light The Lock, Multiball, Hold One, Loop The Other
- The big one — The biggest points live in Mix Master multiball: count the ringed targets down to a jackpot worth up to five million and complete the drop targets to double it. Then keep that single ball alive when the multiball ends, because everything after runs at double value -- a Reflex round banked in that window is the exclamation point. — Multiball, The Drop Targets, Double Scoring After Multiball, The REFLEX Round
Does Dr. Dude have an action button?
Flippers, a start button and a manual plunger, and nothing else on the cabinet. The plunge runs the ball up the Right Lane; at full strength it reaches the Top Target and drops into the bumpers.
Goals in Dr. Dude
Every goal below is tracked step-by-step, with shot paths drawn on the playfield map, inside the app.
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A full-strength plunge runs the Right Lane and clips the Top Target before dropping into the bumpers. The target's value cycles through five awards on the backpanel lights above it, from 5K up, and it is live at all times — so the plunge is free money if you watch the cycle.
Reward: 5K up to the top of the cycle
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The Three Elements of Coolness
Magnetic Personality, the Heart of Rock 'n Roll and the Gift of Gab. Each takes three hits: 5K, then 10K, then 25K to collect it. Values hold between balls and nothing times out, so this is a build you can never lose.
Reward: Collecting all three opens the lock
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Nine standups ring the Mix Master in three colour-coded banks, one per Element. They spot Element shots, they light the lock, and during multiball every one of them counts down the jackpot — which makes them the busiest scoring surface on the machine.
Reward: Spots Elements, lights Lock, builds the jackpot
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Once all three Elements are collected, the lock is one target away — but it has to be a Mix Master target. Simply making the ramp does not do it; the ball must hit at least one of the nine targets up there before Lock lights at the Left Saucer.
Reward: Lock lit at the Left Saucer
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Simple and relentless: shoot the Mix Master as much as you physically can. The display shows how many target hits are left before the jackpot, starting at 15 and rising by 10 for every jackpot within the same multiball.
Reward: 1M to 5M per jackpot
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The whole multiball comes down to ball control. Trap one ball on the left flipper and keep the other one cycling the ramp. Two balls in the Mix Master at once is the failure case — they hit each other instead of the targets and often come out together.
Reward: A multiball that actually pays out
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Double Scoring After Multiball
The rule most players never notice. When multiball ends and you are back to one ball, every score is doubled for as long as you keep that ball alive — and awards are displayed at their doubled value so you can see it happening.
Reward: Everything worth double
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Three shots in quick succession. Clearing the REFLEX targets puts Reflex 1 on the Left Saucer; the saucer then sends Reflex 2 to the Gift of Gab; and that one hands Reflex 3 to Magnetic Personality. The value opens at 500K and rides with you for the whole game.
Reward: 500K and rising
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Shoot the Left Saucer for a random award. Every ball begins with it lit, the drop targets bring it back, and what comes out ranges from a joke ten points to a lit extra ball. Multiball locks it out — though clearing the drops during multiball parks it as lit for when the multiball ends.
Reward: One random award
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Four drops that do a different job every time you clear them. The first three completions give bonus multipliers of 2x, 4x and 6x, the fourth lights Million, and after that they simply pay points — plus they relight Bag O' Tricks every time.
Reward: 2x, 4x, 6x bonus then Million
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Two routes to the same thing: complete the drop targets for the fourth time, or draw Million Is Lit from Bag O' Tricks. Either way the ramp pays a flat million — and since the ramp is where you want the ball anyway, there is no cost to holding it.
Reward: 1M on the ramp
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The Left Saucer can hold several awards lit at once, and one shot collects every one of them. Instead of running to it the moment anything lights, let Bag O' Tricks, Reflex 1 and Lock pile up and take them together.
Reward: Several awards from one shot
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Hitting the Magnetic Personality target energises a magnet halfway up its lane that catches the ball. When it lets go the ball should roll onto the left flipper — but a lively slingshot can catch it on the way and fire it across the playfield instead.
Reward: Fewer surprise drains
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A quiet piece of generosity. If you reach ball three having played badly, the game lights an extra ball at the Left Saucer for nothing. Make sure you actually go and collect it — it is not awarded automatically.
Reward: A free extra ball
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