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Revenge from Mars

Williams, 1999 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Revenge from Mars in the Pinball Genie app →

Revenge from Mars looks strange at first, because half the playfield is a projected video image and the targets you shoot live behind it. Look at the machine while the projector is idle and note where the centre target bank and the flat mini ramp actually sit. After that it reads like any other Williams game of the era, and a generous one — extra balls replace replays by default, so a good game runs a long time.

There is no start-mode shot

This is what confuses new players. A mode is always running. Nine of them split into three groups — Fuel, Weapons and a middle Saucer group — and you pick your starting group with the curved action buttons around the flipper buttons. Take too long and the machine picks for you. Finish a mode and the next one in that group starts immediately. The Saucer group only unlocks once the other two are done, and an unfinished mode waits for you across a drain.

Nearly every mode ends the same way. Do enough damage and the flat mini ramp in the middle of the playfield rises with a red light on it, and one shot across it flings the ball onto a shelf while the finishing animation plays. Learn that shot early — it closes modes, Martian Attack, Bonus Wave, Mothership and the wizard mode.

Flawless, and the nine saucer lights

Finishing a mode is not the same as acing one. Do exactly what the screen asked and you get a Flawless rating, worth one of nine saucer lights painted at the centre of the playfield. Finish any other way and it still ends, just without the light. In Martian Happy Hour, blowing up all three kegs ends the mode instantly and costs you the light if martians are still standing.

You do not have to ace all nine modes. Four other routes exist, and mixing them is faster:

Missiles are the quiet scoring engine

While a mode runs, the orbits and ramps hand out missiles, and missiles do damage inside whatever mode you are playing — so a red circle on a shot you already made is never wasted. Your first missile of a ball is 500,000 and each one after adds 100,000, so twelve deep into a long ball you are collecting over a million a shot. The value resets each ball, which argues for building it inside one good ball. Twenty missiles lights an extra ball at the scoop, thirty pays five million, and fifty lights another.

The skill shot worth taking

The plain skill shot rolls the launched ball into the lit top lane for 500,000, climbing 100,000 each time. The Super Skill Shot is better: hold the left flipper button while you launch, the ball skips the lanes and lands on your left flipper under control, and any ramp or orbit inside roughly ten seconds pays a million plus 200,000 on every repeat — and spots three missiles free.

Four multiballs, all different

Hypno Multiball

Not on any instruction card. It appears in the Stroke of Luck pool after two or three awards or several completed modes. The playfield goes dark and a large spiral appears with a beam integrity percentage. The centre targets grind it down over roughly fifteen hits while the smaller spirals add balls and short ball saves, then the mini ramp finishes it. First completion is an extra ball; the second is fifteen million.

Attack Mars

Four requirements: all nine saucer lights, all three Bonus Wave multiballs, and Mothership Multiball. The centre shot then starts a three-stage assault worth over a hundred million on the final shot alone, and unlike some wizard modes the balls do not drain between stages. The real difficulty is steering with the action buttons while still flipping — three ships lined up and shot in the middle, four targets steered to their destinations, then the Big Brain. Practise the buttons during ordinary modes so it is not a new skill when it counts.

How Revenge from Mars plays

Revenge from Mars is a projector-lit Williams sequel where one of nine modes is always running and the curved action buttons put aiming in your hands. Light all nine saucer lights, win the three Bonus Wave rounds and Mothership Multiball, and reach Attack Mars, the score-doubling finale.

The loop

  1. One mode is always running -- shoot its red-arrow shots to do damage, and repeat a red-circle shot for missiles that damage the mode for free.
  2. Do enough damage and the centre mini ramp pops up with a red light; one shot across it finishes the mode, and finishing exactly as asked earns a Flawless and a saucer light.
  3. Steer the two top rollover lanes with the flippers for your bonus multiplier, and complete the four return lanes to light Stroke of Luck at the scoop.
  4. Lock balls at the capture lane for Capture Multiball, clear the seven martian targets for Martian Attack, and finish a whole mode group for a Bonus Wave multiball.
  5. Light all nine saucer lights, clear the Bonus Wave rounds and play Mothership to open Attack Mars.

Reading the lights

  • Mode Arrows & Circles (shot arrows) — lit: One of the nine modes is always running, and it flags the shots it needs with a red arrow, while a red circle marks a shot you have already made that still pays missiles on a repeat. · then: Shoot the red arrows to do the mode's damage. A circle shot is never wasted -- repeat it for missiles, which hurt the mode for free and are worth five hundred thousand rising a hundred thousand each within a ball. Finish a mode and the next one in the group starts on its own.
  • Mini Ramp Finisher (mode) — lit: The centre mini ramp lies flat and dark through most of a mode, then pops up with a red light once you have done enough damage -- almost every mode in the game ends on this one raised shot. · then: One shot across the raised ramp plays the finishing sequence and ends the mode. Finish exactly the way the screen asked for a Flawless rating, worth one of the nine saucer lights; finish any other way and it still ends, just without the light.
  • Saucer Lights (status) — lit: Nine red lights ring the painted saucer at the centre of the playfield, and they hold from ball to ball -- this is the largest single requirement for Attack Mars. · then: Bank lights from more than one source -- a Flawless mode, the first Super Jackpot of a Capture Multiball sequence, the fifteen-item Bonus Wave award, martian counts in Martian Multiball, or a lucky Stroke of Luck draw. Light all nine, and with the Bonus Wave rounds and Mothership done, Attack Mars opens at the centre.
  • Top Rollover Lanes (lanes) — lit: Two lanes sit above the jet bumpers and only one is lit at a time; rolling the lit one advances your bonus multiplier, and both have to be collected to bump it. · then: Watch which lane the ball is heading for and slide the light to meet it; completing both advances the bonus multiplier, and the jets keep batting the ball back up for repeated tries. A plain launch also feeds these lanes for the skill shot. · control: Either flipper button: one tap of either flipper button swaps which of the two top lanes is lit, so you can move the light to meet whichever lane the ball is drifting toward and collect both (in flight, as the ball comes down through the jets toward the lanes)
  • Stroke of Luck Lanes & Scoop (lanes) — lit: All four return lanes -- both inlanes and both outlanes -- are rollovers that count toward Stroke of Luck; a lit one is still needed, so even a ball heading for an outlane can buy you something. · then: Complete all four rollovers to light Stroke of Luck at the upper right scoop -- a random award ranging from five hundred thousand up to an instant multiball. Glance at the three lights under the scoop first, though: should Extra Ball or Martian Attack be showing there instead, that is what a shot collects. · control: Either flipper button: one tap of either flipper button steers which return-lane rollovers are lit, so you can guide the light to whichever lane the ball is dropping into (as the ball drops toward the inlanes and outlanes)
  • Martian Targets (shot arrows) — lit: Seven martian targets ring the playfield -- three on the left, three plus one on the right, and the seventh by the target bank; each lit target is one still standing. · then: Knock all seven down and Martian Attack lights under the scoop. Start it, kill the two wiggling martians -- a Martian Bomb from the launch button drops one outright -- and the mini ramp raises to start Martian Multiball, where every shot is a million-point martian kill.
  • Capture Lock (shot arrows) — lit: The capture lane flips between two states -- dark, it lights Capture and kicks the ball up to the jets; lit, it banks a Capture and spits a ball back down the right ramp -- so a single lock eats two shots at the one lane. · then: Shoot it in pairs, three locks over, to open Capture Multiball and its saucer shooting gallery. Gun down ten saucers to raise a bigger ship, and five hits on that bank the Super Jackpot plus a saucer light. If you are left with a single ball while the big ship still hangs there, the multiball refuses to end until you finish it off.
  • Bonus Wave Multiplier (multiplier) — lit: Finishing a whole mode group starts a four-ball Bonus Wave round built around collecting items, and a floating 2X hovers over one of four shots -- the centre, both ramps and the lock. · then: Cover all four positions to promote the multiplier to 3X with every spot free again, up to a 5X ceiling. Ramps and orbits carry the richest items; the fifteen-item award is a saucer light, and forty items banked across the whole game opens Mothership Multiball. · control: Action button: the curved action buttons around the flippers nudge the floating 2X from shot to shot, so you can park it on one you can actually make; landing the doubled shot scores it twice and frees the 2X to move on (throughout the Bonus Wave multiball)

Lane change: the flipper buttons move the lit lane. Either flipper button swaps which of the two top rollover lanes above the jets is lit, so you can slide the light to meet whichever lane the ball is drifting toward and collect both -- completing the pair advances your bonus multiplier. The same flipper move slides the lit return-lane rollovers that light Stroke of Luck at the scoop.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Hold the left flipper on launch for the Super Skill Shot -- the ball bypasses the rollovers, loops the left orbit down to your flipper, and any quick ramp or orbit pays a million plus three free missiles. Then learn the one mode already running and finish it Flawless for your first saucer light. — Super Skill Shot, How The Modes Run, Collect Missiles
  • Building — Bank missiles toward their extra balls, lock at the capture lane for Capture Multiball, clear the seven martian targets for Martian Multiball, and finish a mode group for a Bonus Wave round -- steering its 2X with the action buttons. Take Stroke of Luck whenever the return lanes light it. — Capture Multiball, Martian Multiball, Bonus Wave Multiballs, Stroke of Luck
  • The big one — Attack Mars is the finale. Light every one of the nine saucer lights, clear all three Bonus Wave rounds, and beat Mothership Multiball; the centre shot then opens a three-stage assault you steer with the action buttons -- the closing Big Brain shot alone can top a hundred million and double your whole game. — Attack Mars, The Nine Saucer Lights, Mothership Multiball

The Action Buttons on Revenge from Mars

Curved buttons wrapping halfway around each flipper button, one per side.

This is the game that puts aiming in your hands. A curved button hugs each flipper button, and they steer whatever is happening on the projected screen — picking your opening mode group, cycling targets, sliding a multiplier around. The catch is that you are pressing them while you are still flipping, and that split attention is the real skill the game is testing. The square launch button is worth a mention too, because it spends a Martian Bomb during Martian Attack.

Goals in Revenge from Mars

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

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