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Tales of the Arabian Nights

Williams, 1996 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Open Tales of the Arabian Nights in the Pinball Genie app →

Everything on this table eventually points back to two things: the Lamp and the Jewels. Spin the Lamp and you're building one of the only real count-up bonuses in modern pinball. Collect Jewels and you're working toward Genie Battle, the two-stage finale where you fight the Genie himself for the Princess's freedom. Almost every other system on the playfield — Harem, the Bazaar, Fireball, Tiger Loops — exists to feed one of those two goals.

The Lamp Is The Game

The Lamp sits on a nearly frictionless rotating disc dead center on the playfield, and a solid shot to either post can send it spinning around a dozen times at once. Fourteen blue lights track your spins toward Lightning Lamp, a short scoring frenzy that retriggers every 15 spins for the rest of the game, worth 250K or more per hit once it's running. Post angle matters: horizontal posts (like a clock reading 9 and 3) are easy to spin hard and can even send the ball straight into the Genie if you split them; vertical posts are nearly impossible to work cleanly and turn into a drain risk instead — leave the Lamp alone when it's sitting that way and go for the standups instead, since they're wide open.

This all matters because of bonus. Every Lamp Spin is worth 10,000, every Genie hit 10,000, every Jewel 50,000 — all multiplied by a Bonus X that climbs when you fully hit a lit captive ball, up to 12x. Both the raw count and Bonus X carry across balls, so working the Lamp hard early in a game pays off on every ball after. Done right, the Lamp alone is worth over 14 million in bonus — more than the replay score on most machines.

Multiball, Harem, And The Bazaar

Hit the Genie five times to spell G-E-N-I-E and Lock lights at three spots at once — the Left Orbit, the Right Orbit, and the center Lock lane. Fill two of them and the Genie lights for the start; hit him and his magnet pulls the ball into the playfield to kick off Multiball, where spinning the Lamp raises a Jackpot collected right back at the Genie. Separately, Harem lights automatically every ball at the Left Orbit — spell H-A-R-E-M there, or catch three lucky bounces out of the Jet Bumpers into the Harem Sneak-In, and Harem Multiball begins with every switch paying the Jackpot.

The Bazaar scoop spells B-A-Z-A-A-R from its two nearby standups, or from an unlit scoop shot directly, and pays a random award once the word is complete — everything from small points to an outright Extra Ball. The same scoop does double duty for Make A Wish: hit it while Make A Wish is lit and choose Jewels on the left flipper or a random award on the right. Take the Jewels almost every time — it can finish a Mode outright without you having to play it at all — unless you're specifically chasing an Extra Ball on Tiger Loops or sitting on a big Bonus X worth cashing in early.

Seven Tales, One Jewel Each

Five Golden Symbol lights mark the shots that matter during whichever Tale is running — both standup banks, the Ramp, and both orbits. Tap the left flipper before a ball starts to choose which of the seven is lit, complete whatever it asks, then shoot the Ramp to collect its Jewel. Only one runs at a time, and none are timed, so losing the ball just picks up where you left off next time.

Two things are worth hunting for along the way: light one Shooting Star, then light the second while Make A Wish is already lit, and the Ruby turns your next Wish into two Jewels instead of one. And watch for a weak shot that falls off the Ramp's spiral — it's rewarded with a free Secret Ball Lock, once per game.

Genie Battle

Collect all seven Jewels and the Genie lights for the wizard mode. He takes the Princess and summons Skeletons in her place — every Golden Symbol shot and both captive balls kill one, and after roughly six to eight kills the game locks a ball and serves another. Once locked, the real fight starts: unlimited balls, every shot pulling the Princess toward you while the Genie pulls back on his own, and the Shooting Stars completely disabled, so balls will drain constantly. Launch every ball the instant it's served — leaving one in the plunger lane only speeds up the Genie's pull. Win, and it's a flat 20 million points, the single biggest award anywhere on this table.

How Tales of the Arabian Nights plays

Rub the magic Lamp and work through seven Tales from the Arabian Nights, banking a Jewel from each one. Collect all seven Jewels to reach the Genie Battle, and spin the center Lamp all game, because it feeds both a scoring frenzy and the largest end-of-ball bonus on the table.

The loop

  1. Spin the center Lamp on every trip through the middle -- each half turn banks bonus and fills the ring of blue lights toward Lightning Lamp.
  2. Start a Tale at the lit Genie, finish what it asks on the Golden Symbol shots, then take the Ramp for its Jewel.
  3. Hit the Genie to spell G-E-N-I-E, which lights the three locks; lock two balls and shoot the Genie again for Multiball.
  4. Keep both Shooting Stars lit off the standup banks so a wild ball is caught before it reaches an outlane.
  5. Gather a Jewel from all seven Tales to light the Genie Battle for the Princess.

Reading the lights

  • G-E-N-I-E Letters (letters) — lit: Every Genie strike lights the next letter of G-E-N-I-E, and the tiny Hidden Treasure standup buried behind the Lamp counts as a Genie hit toward it. · then: Finish the word and Lock turns on at three spots at once -- both orbits and the center lane. Lock two balls, then hit the lit Genie so its magnet drags the ball into play and Multiball begins.
  • Lit Lock Shots (shot arrows) — lit: With the word spelled, all three lock shots glow together; after the first lock of the game they hold their light, and the second lock darkens them and lights the Genie instead. · then: Drop two balls in any mix of the orbits and the center lane, then take the lit Genie for Multiball. If the magnet misses the ball you get no credit, so line the Genie up and shoot it again.
  • Golden Symbol Tale Shots (mode) — lit: Five Golden Symbol shots glow to mark whichever Tale is live, with a separate Start light tucked just below the Genie magnet, and only one Tale ever runs at a time. · then: Choose a Tale, begin it by hitting the lit Genie, clear what it asks on the glowing symbols, then shoot the Ramp for the Jewel -- the next Tale stays locked until that Jewel is banked. · control: Left flipper button: before the ball is in play, tap the left flipper to walk the selection through the seven Tales and settle on the one you want (a slingshot hit nudges it along too) (at the start of a ball with nothing else running)
  • Lamp Spins (ladder) — lit: The ring of blue lights around the Lamp tracks your spins, lighting one per half turn for bonus; that ring resets each ball while fixed markers for your running totals stay lit across balls. · then: Fill the blue ring to set off Lightning Lamp, a spinning frenzy that pays heavily and keeps retriggering as your spin total climbs. Read the post angle first: flat like a clock at nine and three, one clean shot clears the ring; stood upright, leave it be and take the Genie instead.
  • H-A-R-E-M Orbit (letters) — lit: Harem lights the Left Orbit at the top of every ball, and each shot there banks a letter of H-A-R-E-M while flipping the diverter so the ball rides up into the Jet Bumpers. · then: Spell all five letters for a second, self-standing way into Harem Multiball. That orbit light only returns once anything else lit there has run down, so it is often quicker to trap and wait than to force the shot.
  • B-A-Z-A-A-R Scoop (letters) — lit: The two small targets beside the Ramp and Bazaar, plus an unlit Bazaar scoop shot, all spot letters of B-A-Z-A-A-R, with the first spelling spotting several a hit and fewer each later time. · then: Complete the word and the scoop pays a genuinely random award -- points, Hold Bonus X, Light Locks, extra Lamp spins, even a rare Extra Ball. When Make A Wish lights the same scoop, the left flipper takes Jewels and the right takes the random award, and a Jewel usually wins since it can finish a Tale without playing it.
  • Tiger Loops (shot arrows) — lit: Rolling an inlane lights the Tiger Loop on the far orbit -- left inlane lights the right orbit, right inlane lights the left -- and a made loop relights itself so a smooth table runs it again and again. · then: Bank loops all game toward Extra Ball, which tends to light around a half-dozen loops with a second waiting far deeper. Loops stop counting while a Tale is using the orbits, so run them between Tales.
  • Shooting Star Saves (status) — lit: Any hit on a standup bank lights the Shooting Star on that side, whose spikes punch up to grab a draining ball, and it holds its light until it is actually used. · then: Make relighting both a habit -- especially the right bank hidden behind the Lamp -- since right-side drains come often and a spent star sits dark until you relight it. During Multiball the game stops re-serving balls a star misses, so they matter most when they help least.

Lane change: not verified for this machine yet.

Start scoring

  • Ball one — Land the three-basket skill shot off the plunge, then go straight to the Ramp for the Super Skill Shot stacked on top. Start spinning the Lamp early, because its bonus carries from ball to ball, and keep both Shooting Stars lit so a loose ball is caught instead of lost. — Three-Basket Skill Shot, Super Skill Shot, Spinning The Lamp, Keep The Shooting Stars Lit
  • Building — Spell G-E-N-I-E for Multiball and work the Tales for Jewels, Wishing the ugly ones away at the Bazaar. Run Tiger Loops between Tales for Extra Balls, and fill the blue ring for a Lightning Lamp frenzy. — Multiball, Modes & Jewels, Tiger Loops, Lightning Lamp
  • The big one — Gather a Jewel from all seven Tales to light the Genie Battle. Clear the Skeletons, take the forced lock, then duel the Genie with balls served endlessly until the Princess is freed -- a flat twenty million, the biggest single score the game gives up. — Genie Battle

Does Tales of the Arabian Nights have an action button?

Flippers and a shooter rod, nothing more. The Shooting Stars magnets beside the outlanes do the job a magna-save button would do on an older game, but they arm and fire themselves — you never get to press anything.

Goals in Tales of the Arabian Nights

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

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