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The Simpsons Pinball Party

Stern, 2003 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

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There's a lot happening on this table, but almost everything answers to one clock. Every timed system in the game — TV Modes, D'Oh Frenzy, the Treehouse of Horror rounds — shares a single 30-second countdown, and starting or resetting any one of them resets all of them. Learn to keep that timer alive and the rest of the machine stops feeling overwhelming and starts feeling like one long, connected run.

Feed The Timer

Lite Otto and the Krusty Orbit are the two shots worth memorizing — they're the fastest, most reliable ways to reset the clock back to 30 seconds, and there are at least twenty different triggers across the whole game that do the same thing. The timer pauses the moment the ball lands in the pop bumpers, and the Pop Target buys it back: 2 seconds off a bumper bounce, 5 from a clean flipper shot, 10 if you combo it right off the Cletus Orbit. It caps at 60 seconds, and reaching that cap the first time in a game is worth 2.5 million on its own. Keep this shot in your back pocket at all times — you're rarely more than two shots from a full reset.

Double Scoring And Seven TV Modes

Shoot the Krusty Orbit while Otto's window is open and one of ten zones around the table lights for double scoring — the bumpers, both orbits, both ramps, both loops, the Garage, and the entire upper playfield. It stacks with everything else running, including TV Modes and multiball, and stays doubled until the timer finally runs dry. Clear all ten zones over the course of a game and Otto turns into the door to something bigger.

TV Modes light from the Krusty Orbit and start at the upper playfield's TV Loop — tap the right flipper first to choose which of seven you want. Duffman, Homer's Day, Willie's Woes, Wiggum vs. Snake, Bart's Day, Krusty's Last Stand, and Stop the Monorail each ask for a completely different shot pattern, and each is worth roughly 2.5 million cleared. Finish all seven you've started in one timer run and every major shot on the table turns into a Victory points machine — 100K a shot for one completed mode, climbing all the way to 2.5 million a shot if you cleared the full set.

Hurry Ups, Daredevils, And The Rest Of The Main Game

Comic Book Guy lights a Hurry Up at one of six major shots, and hitting him again stacks a second one running at the same time — worth real money if you can chain three or more collections together. The Bully standups light a Daredevil Mode, started at the Captive Ball; each of the four types tracks a different family of shots toward 750K, paid out only at the end of the ball, so don't tilt while one's live. Off to the side, the Cletus Orbit hands out one of 26 named kids per shot, the Nuclear Value builds in the pop bumpers and collects at the Pop Target, and both the Garage and Springfield Elementary hide genuine grab-bag awards behind repeated shots.

Two real multiballs anchor the base game. Itchy & Scratchy Multiball needs the drop target bank cleared, the hole shot, the bank cleared again, then the hole a second time — pick one of four jackpot flavors with the right flipper first. Couch Multiball needs three balls locked on the upper playfield, after which eight shots pay Jackpots and the Couch ramp itself pays a Super worth five times the going rate. Collecting five Supers across the game — one for each family member — quietly counts toward something much bigger.

Six Hidden Doors

Nearly every major system in this game hides a secret finale behind full completion, and each is worth hunting down on its own:

Clear the first five of those — Mystery Spot, Alien Invasion, Secret Stash, Daredevil Mania, and Scratchy's Revenge — along with five Super Jackpots in Couch Multiball, and any hole shot in single-ball play unlocks the Super Duper Mega Extreme Wizard Mode, exactly as dramatically named in-game as it sounds. It's a five-ball round where every shot pays a growing Jackpot, either target bank strobes a 5x Super Jackpot, and locking a ball in the Couch multiplies whatever Super you're chasing for a short window. Getting there takes most of a great game, which is exactly the point — this table rewards depth over speed, and the six doors above are the map for finding all of it.

How The Simpsons Pinball Party plays

The Simpsons Pinball Party turns Springfield into one long timed party, where a single master clock keeps every mode you have started running at once. Feed that clock, clear the seven TV Modes and six big achievements, then drop any hole in single-ball play for the Super Duper Mega Extreme Wizard Mode.

The loop

  1. Shoot Lite Otto or the Krusty Orbit to reset the shared master timer, keeping everything you have started alive together.
  2. Light TV Modes at the Krusty Orbit and launch them up top at the TV Loop; finish a run of them and every major shot pays Victory points.
  3. Clear the Itchy & Scratchy drops for its multiball and lock three up the Couch ramp for Couch Multiball, while chasing Hurry Ups off Comic Book Guy.
  4. Tick the six achievements -- Springfield Mystery Spot, Alien Invasion, Secret Stash, Daredevil Mania, a Scratchy's Revenge super, and five Couch supers -- then drop any hole in single-ball play for the finale.

Reading the lights

  • The Master Timer (status) — lit: One clock runs every timed mode at once, and starting or resetting anything timed sets it back to thirty seconds, so as long as you refresh it before zero everything you have going stays alive. · flashing: The display counts down with a few seconds of grace once it reads zero -- do not panic at the flip to zero, but do not wait around either. · then: The quickest, most dependable resets are Lite Otto and the Krusty Orbit, with Springfield Elementary and the TV Loop as slower but easier backups; the bumpers pause the clock while the ball is in them and the Pop Target restores it, and pushing the timer to its sixty-second cap for the first time pays a bonus on its own.
  • TV Modes (mode) — lit: A lit TV Mode waits at the Krusty Orbit, and each one you light stays ready until you launch it from the TV Loop up top. · then: Light one at the Krusty Orbit, pick it with the right flipper, and send it up at the TV Loop for an instant award and a timer reset; finish every TV Mode you started in a single timer run and every major shot starts paying Victory points over and above its usual value. · control: Right flipper button: a tap of the right flipper scrolls which of the seven TV Modes you will get before you start it, so you can line up the one whose shots you are already hitting (a TV Mode is lit but not yet started)
  • Comic Book Guy Hurry Ups (shot arrows) — lit: Each Comic Book Guy shot lights a Hurry Up counting down at one of six major shots, and hitting Comic Book Guy again runs a second one alongside the first, raising the shared value but draining it faster. · flashing: Every lit Hurry Up ticks from its start value toward a floor, so collect the closest before it bottoms out. · then: Collect the lit shots before they expire -- each collect feeds value back to the ones still running -- and chain enough for stacking bonuses up to a Special at six; clearing all six opens the Secret Stash round on your next Comic Book Guy shot.
  • Itchy & Scratchy Multiball (mode) — lit: The three Itchy & Scratchy drops guard a hidden hole, and clearing the bank lights the hole -- after the first multiball, a hole shot only counts once the drops are down. · then: Shoot the lit hole to start the multiball and chase its rotating jackpots into a Super; play through all four flavors across the game and the next hole shot opens Scratchy's Revenge instead. · control: Right flipper button: before it locks in, a right-flipper tap picks which of four jackpot flavors you start, and Esophagus Now, which scores off every shot, tends to pay the most (the hole is lit to start the multiball)
  • Couch Multiball (status) — lit: The upper-playfield Lite and Lock standups arm a Couch lock, and the requirements tighten with every Couch Multiball you have played -- the first one lights all three locks automatically. · then: Lock three balls up the Couch ramp to start the multiball, work the eight jackpot shots, then cash a Super on the Couch ramp for five times the jackpot; five Couch supers across the game is one of the six achievements the final wizard needs.
  • Double Scoring Zones (multiplier) — lit: Shooting Springfield Elementary while Lite Otto's window is open lights double scoring on one of ten zones around the table, and every shot into a doubled zone pays twice for as long as the clock lives. · flashing: A finished zone's marker switches from solid to pulsing, and when all ten pulse the Mystery Spot is one Springfield Elementary shot away. · then: Chase down all ten zones, then take Springfield Elementary one last time to open the flippers-crossed Springfield Mystery Spot; double scoring stacks with Victory points, so a loaded timer run turns ordinary shots into multi-million swings.
  • Nuclear Value & Cletus Kids (shot arrows) — lit: The Cletus Orbit lights the Nuclear Value and introduces a new Cletus Kid, the bumpers build the value toward its ceiling, and how cleanly you take the Pop Target decides the payoff. · then: Collect the Pop Target straight from a flipper to triple it, or right after a Cletus Orbit shot to make it five times; enough collections light an Extra Ball, and finding all twenty-six Cletus Kids opens Pretzel Multiball on the next orbit shot.
  • Daredevil Modes (mode) — lit: Clearing the three Bully standups lights a Daredevil Mode, and you can bank all four lit before starting one, since the Captive Ball always starts whichever is lit from the top down. · then: Start a mode at the Captive Ball -- each extra Captive hit raises every remaining shot -- and chase 750K in that mode's shot type, paid at end of ball, so never tilt with one running; clear all four to open Daredevil Mania.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

Does The Simpsons Pinball Party have an action button?

No dedicated button on this one — a manual shooter rod and two flipper buttons cover everything. The nearest thing to a gimmick control is the Springfield Mystery Spot, which swaps what your two flipper buttons do while it runs.

Goals in The Simpsons Pinball Party

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

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