Frank Thomas' Big Hurt

Gottlieb, 1995 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Frank Thomas' Big Hurt in the Pinball Genie app →

Big Hurt is a narrow-body baseball machine with a four-ball multiball and one of the largest single awards in pinball hiding inside its trading card system. It is also a game where the correct strategy is unusually clear, which makes it worth learning deliberately rather than by feel.

Reading the playfield

A wide metal ramp dominates the centre, and where you hit it decides everything. Left of centre goes to the left gap, dead centre to the home run hole, right of centre to the right gap. Fall short and the ball drops into the warning track, a trench that spits it out to the left flipper or into the pop bumpers depending which way it rolls. A moving glove guards the top of the ramp, and the ramp's centre section raises to expose the signs behind it.

Around the outside sit a left field loop and a right field loop, a left scoop that lifts the ball onto a habitrail feeding the upper left flipper, a captive ball, a three-target drop bank, and a right hole that starts rounds. Above the pop bumpers are a Load Bases lane and the Big Hurt pothole.

The one habit that matters

Shoot the right loop every single time it flashes. That is the jackpot builder — ten million a shot, and the value carries between balls. It starts flashing after you shoot it, after a home run, after the ball rolls left out of the warning track, and after the left inlane. Raising the jackpot before you reach the 7th Inning Stretch is what turns that multiball into a serious score, because the double jackpots there pay off the number you built.

Innings, catches and the loop ladder

• Innings: the left gap advances one, during single-ball play outside a mode. Each inning adds a hundred million to the super jackpot, which tops out at nine hundred million after the ninth. Finishing the sixth starts the 7th Inning Stretch automatically.
• Catches: a firm hit on the glove is a catch worth a million and re-lights Start Round; a weak one is a single worth a hundred thousand. Ten catches lights a timed extra ball at either loop, twenty pays fifty million, thirty pays a hundred million and lights the right orbit for the same. End-of-ball bonus is a million per catch.
• The left field loop: its ladder climbs by a factor of ten each shot — 500,000, then 5 million, 50 million, 500 million, and finally one billion points. Each hit flashes the value briefly and a repeat both raises it and resets the timer.

Rounds

Rounds start at the lit right hole, and a glove catch re-lights it afterwards. Four of the six are multiball rounds. Golden Glove counts every glove hit as a catch, weak or firm, which makes it the fast route to the Catches board. Frank's HR Derby wants the home run hole. Steal Home is timed and single-ball: left scoop, then centre drop target, for twenty million, thirty, then an extra ball plus forty. All Stars is a ramp grind worth 450 million for all nine players. Frank Thomas Cards lights both orbits. Night Game moves two lit shots around the five majors, and each one completes an inning. Complete all six and World Series lights — four thirty-million shots, then a super jackpot at the home run hole.

Multiball

Regular multiball comes from Players Choice or a bullpen award, and its sequence is strict: home run for the jackpot, an orbit, then home run again inside five seconds for the double, then orbit and home run once more for the super. Miss the five-second window and another orbit simply restarts the timer and raises the ramp — the sequence is delayed, not lost. Third and fourth balls join after the first and second home runs.

Trading cards, and the sixteen

Cards come from steals, the Cards round, bullpen awards, and three at a time from a left outlane drain. At the end of the game they pay ten million each, which is a trap — trading them in at the right hole is worth far more. The trade table climbs from a flashed left field award through advancing innings, jackpots and an extra ball, and then hits the one that matters: exactly sixteen cards doubles your entire score. Not fifteen, not seventeen.

• Trade ten to twelve the first time for the extra ball, then work back toward exactly sixteen.
• Steals are the only source that pays one card at a time, so they are how you land on the number precisely.
• Stay out of the pop bumpers when you are close — a bullpen award of three, five or ten cards will overshoot and cost you the double.
• If you do overshoot, take a super jackpot trade rather than chasing thirty cards, and start climbing back to sixteen.

Small things worth knowing

Use the manual plunger before the game launches for you, and plunge softly — the ball drops into the Big Hurt pothole for a letter, then feeds the pops and comes back neatly onto the right flipper. At Players Choice, take the award that is not the GRAND SLAM letters, or the list stalls and stops offering multiballs. And every combo ends on the same pair, left scoop into centre drop, which is also how you collect walks and steals.

Goals in Frank Thomas' Big Hurt

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

• Skill Shot skillshot · Medium

  The plunge is pitched at the upper left flipper. Hold the flipper up and the ball kicks off the captive ball and settles back down onto it, giving you a clean look at the raised drop target — which pays a home run for 10M, or a grand slam for 40M with the bases loaded.

  Reward: 10M home run or 40M grand slam

• Use The Manual Plunger strategy · Easy

  During multiball and in modes that do not divert the ball, get to the plunger before the game auto-launches and plunge softly. A weak plunge drops into the Big Hurt pothole, and from there the ball goes through the pops and neatly onto the right flipper.

  Reward: A BIG HURT letter and a safe feed

• Complete Innings progression · Medium

  The left gap advances the inning during single-ball play outside a mode. Every inning raises the super jackpot by 100M, and finishing the sixth starts the 7th Inning Stretch. This is the single most valuable repeat shot in the game.

  Reward: +100M super jackpot per inning

• 7th Inning Stretch multiball · Hard

  Finishing the sixth inning starts a four-ball multiball. The left loop pushes the jackpot up 10M a shot, and the right loop or a ramp shot past the glove adds a letter to BIG HURT — spell it and you collect a double jackpot.

  Reward: Jackpots and a double jackpot

• Build The Jackpot strategy · Medium

  The jackpot opens at 20M and carries between balls. During ordinary single-ball play, every flashing right loop adds 10M. The right loop flashes after you shoot it, after a home run, after the ball rolls left out of the warning track, or over the left inlane.

  Reward: +10M per flashing right loop

• Super Jackpot Value multiplier · Hard

  The super jackpot is 100M multiplied by innings completed, so it tops out at 900M after the ninth. It can be collected in regular multiball, in World Series, or by trading in the right number of cards.

  Reward: Up to 900M

• The Billion Point Loop combo · Hard

  The left loop starts at 500K and climbs a full order of magnitude each time: 500K, 5M, 50M, 500M and finally one billion. Each shot flashes the value for a short window and a repeat hit both raises it and restarts the timer.

  Reward: 500K climbing to 1,000,000,000

• Catches And Glove Awards strategy · Easy

  A firm hit on the glove is a catch worth 1M; a weak one is a single worth 100K. Catches also re-light the right hole for Start Round. They accumulate all game and pay out again at the end of every ball at 1M each.

  Reward: 1M each, plus 50M and 100M milestones

• Start A Round mode · Medium

  Rounds start from the right hole when it is lit. Finish one and a catch on the glove re-lights the hole for the next. Four of the six rounds are multiball rounds, so a round in progress is rarely a bad time to also chase jackpots.

  Reward: Access to all six rounds

• The Six Rounds progression · Medium

  Each round wants one specific thing. Learn which shot pays before it starts, because most of these are short and most are multiball, which is exactly when there is no time to read the display.

  Reward: Completing all six lights World Series

• Regular Multiball multiball · Hard

  Chosen at Players Choice or handed out as a bullpen award. The sequence is strict: home run for the jackpot, then an orbit, then home run again inside five seconds for a double jackpot, then orbit and home run once more for the super.

  Reward: Jackpot, double jackpot, super jackpot

• Grand Slam Derby multiball · Hard

  Spell GRAND SLAM off the two large signs behind the ramp, or take the letters from bullpen and Players Choice awards. The round is a four-ball multiball where every home run shot counts as a grand slam and pays 40M.

  Reward: 40M per home run, four balls

• Spell BIG HURT progression · Medium

  Every trip into the pothole adds a letter. Completing the phrase collects a double jackpot, which is why a soft plunge into the pothole is worth so much more than it looks. During the Stretch the right loop and ramp add letters too.

  Reward: Double jackpot

• Trading Cards strategy · Medium

  Cards come from steals, the Frank Thomas Cards round, bullpen awards, and three at a time from the left outlane. At the end of the game they pay 10M each, but trading them at the right hole is worth far more.

  Reward: Jackpots, extra balls, or a doubled score

• Exactly Sixteen Cards secret · Hard

  The card exchange has one award that dwarfs everything else on the machine: exactly sixteen cards doubles your entire score. Not fifteen, not seventeen — sixteen. If you are carrying a big score and sitting near that number, stop everything else and get there.

  Reward: Your whole score, doubled

• Bullpen Awards strategy · Medium

  The bullpen hole pays whatever the bumpers have currently selected, and the selection rotates on every bumper switch hit. The list is fixed and each award is removed once taken, so the pool improves as the game goes on.

  Reward: Extra ball, cards, innings, jackpot, multiball

• Players Choice strategy · Medium

  A lit right gap stops the ball and offers two awards, picked with the flipper buttons. One side is always two GRAND SLAM letters. Take the other side — picking the letters again just re-offers the identical pair and stalls the list.

  Reward: Multiball, doubles, innings, hurry-up extra ball

• Combos combo · Hard

  Every combo in this game funnels into the same two-shot finish. The first shot of a chain is unlit and only lights the next, so scoring starts on shot two: 20M, then 40M, then 80M. Touch any other switch and the chain dies.

  Reward: 20M, 40M, 80M

• Walks And Steals combo · Medium

  The left scoop into the centre drop target is a combo and a base advance at once. It collects whatever the scoop had lit — a walk first, which then starts steal flashing. Repeat before it times out and you get a steal and a trading card.

  Reward: A runner on base plus a trading card

• World Series wizard · Hard

  Complete all six rounds and World Series lights. It is a timed single-ball wizard mode: left loop, left gap, right gap and right loop for 30M each, and once all four are down the home run hole opens for the super jackpot.

  Reward: 30M per shot plus the super jackpot

• Chase The Champ Boards progression · Medium

  Beyond the high score list, this machine tracks four separate specialist boards. Beating any of them lets you put your initials in and pays a credit, and the running totals are visible on the status display while you play.

  Reward: Initials plus a credit per board