Taxi

Williams, 1988 — shot-by-shot rules and strategy guide.

Taxi is a small, honest late-eighties game with one enormous scoring feature and a lot of pleasant filler around it. The feature is the jackpot. It starts at 500,000, tops out at four million, and carries over between balls, between players and even between games until somebody collects it. Nothing else on the machine scores close. Learn how to raise it and how to cash it.

The fare cycle

Five passengers, picked up in a fixed order: GORBY, PINBOT, DRAC, LOLA and SANTA. Two of them, PINBOT and GORBY, are already lit when the game starts, and collecting one lights the next. Each pickup pays a 20,000 tip and adds 20,000 to your end-of-ball bonus. Load all five and the jackpot lights.

Each name belongs to a shot, and knowing which is which stops you wasting a lit window:

GORBY — the JOYRIDE eject hole entered from above, via the right semi-orbit.
PINBOT — the three drop targets on the centre right. Fifteen seconds to clear the bank.
DRAC — the hole at the end of the U-loop on the centre left.
LOLA — the three centre drop targets. Only ten seconds here, so take the bank in one visit.
SANTA — the same JOYRIDE hole, but shot directly off the flippers from below.

Once the jackpot is collected the cycle reverses and you drop everyone off — SANTA, PINBOT, DRAC, LOLA, GORBY. Completing that relights the jackpot and lights one outlane for special. The second run through, only one passenger is lit at a time, and a second full cycle will not light the other outlane, so the special is effectively a once-per-game prize.

Raising the jackpot is a switch-hunting exercise

Spell C-A-B in the three top lanes and Raise Jackpot lights for ten seconds. During that window every switch on the playfield adds 2,000 to the jackpot value. That is the key insight: this is not a moment for careful aimed shots. A ball rattling around the drop banks or bouncing through the lower playfield is worth far more than one clean ramp. Feed it into the busiest part of the machine you can reach and let it stack.

Collecting is a specific shot. With all five passengers aboard, the jackpot is paid by entering the JOYRIDE hole from above, around the right semi-orbit. You have fifteen seconds once it lights, and if you miss it LOLA gets out of the cab and has to be picked up all over again to relight it.

Carry Passengers is the habit that wins games

The small target just right of the JOYRIDE hole lights for about ten seconds whenever you complete either drop bank — LOLA or PINBOT, lit for a pickup or not. Hitting it holds every passenger you are carrying into the next ball, which is the difference between finishing the fare cycle and starting from nothing every time you drain. It is reachable from both flippers but much easier as a left backhand. Repeat hits on the same ball pay 20,000, then 30,000, then 50,000, and taking it on your final ball adds a Passenger Payoff of 20,000 per passenger.

The AIRPORT ramps and the million

The inlanes cross-light the ramps: right inlane lights the left ramp, left inlane lights the right. A lit ramp scores the current airport value and advances it — 20,000, 40,000, 60,000, 80,000, then 100,000 plus the airport million, which is collected at the JOYRIDE hole with no time limit at all on default settings.

The ramps are the least forgiving shots here and a soft attempt rolls back down at you, so if the left ramp is a problem on your machine, shoot DRAC instead — the catapult throws the ball at the right ramp and advances the airport value for you. Watch one interaction: if DRAC is lit for a pickup, the airport award times out before the eject fires.

Multiball, and what it is actually good for

Lock a ball in the right lock hole and shoot the left ramp with a subsequent ball. The lock carries between players, which means you can quite legally start multiball on a ball somebody else locked. Once it runs, relock both balls in the Express lanes in order — the lock hole first, DRAC second. The second lock pays 300,000, both balls are ejected, and both ramps light for a 100,000 Airport Ride.

It is easy to start and hard to milk, because those ramps punish anything less than a clean shot. The genuinely useful thing to do with two balls in play is take the PINBOT and LOLA banks.

Extra balls and the bonus

There are two routes. JOYRIDE can award one outright, on the spot. The other is three C-A-B completions inside a single ball, and that one must be collected at DRAC before you drain — it does not carry over, so go and get it the moment it lights. Beyond 5x the C-A-B lanes stop advancing the multiplier and pay a flat 50,000 CAB Bonus instead. The end-of-ball bonus itself caps at 99,000 before multiplying, plus 20,000 per passenger, for a theoretical maximum of 595,000. Be aware of one mean detail: passengers from a completed earlier sequence do not count. Pick up all five, collect the jackpot, drop off SANTA and drain, and the machine credits you with one passenger, not six.

Goals in Taxi

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

SPINOUT Skill Shot skillshot · Medium

The plunge feeds the SPINOUT saucer and the number of revolutions decides what you get: 1K, 5K, 10K, 25K, 50K, 75K and 100K. On default settings the award is multiplied by which ball you are on, which makes it worth serious points late in a game.

Reward: Up to 100K, multiplied by ball number
The Fare Cycle progression · Easy

Taxi is one long loop: pick up five passengers, collect the jackpot, drop the same five off, and the loop starts again. Everything else on the playfield exists to feed that cycle or protect it.

Reward: Structure of the whole game
Pick Up Your Fares progression · Medium

Five passengers, five different shots, and each one is only collectable when its light is on. Knowing which shot belongs to which name saves you from wasting the lit window.

Reward: 20K tip and 20K end-of-ball bonus per passenger
The Jackpot strategy · Hard

The only thing on this machine that scores real points. It starts at 500K, tops out at four million, and it carries over between balls, players and even games until somebody collects it. Everything else is a side hustle.

Reward: 500K to 4M
Drop Everybody Off progression · Hard

Once the jackpot is collected the cycle reverses. Drop off in the order SANTA, PINBOT, DRAC, LOLA, GORBY and you relight the jackpot and light an outlane for special — although the rebuilt jackpot will be modest unless you worked the CAB lanes hard.

Reward: Relit jackpot plus one outlane special
Spell C-A-B multiplier · Easy

Three top lanes doing two jobs at once. They push the bonus multiplier up to 5x, and after that each completion pays a 50K CAB Bonus. Either way they light Raise Jackpot for ten seconds, which is the part that actually matters.

Reward: Bonus multiplier to 5x, then 50K per completion
The AIRPORT Run combo · Medium

The inlanes cross-light the ramps. Shooting a lit ramp collects the current airport value and advances it: 20K, 40K, 60K, 80K, and then 100K plus the airport million.

Reward: 20K climbing to 100K, then lights the airport million
The Airport Million strategy · Medium

Five lit ramps takes the airport value to its top rung and lights a million at the JOYRIDE hole. On default settings there is no timer on it at all, so there is no excuse for losing it.

Reward: 1M
JOYRIDE Awards mode · Medium

The right inlane lights the JOYRIDE hole for about ten seconds. The awards are printed on the backglass and range from a useless 10K to an immediate extra ball or a special.

Reward: 10K, Spot Passenger, Mystery 60K-290K, Extra Ball or Special
Clear The Drop Banks strategy · Medium

LOLA in the centre and PINBOT on the centre right, three targets each. LOLA gives you ten seconds and PINBOT fifteen before the bank resets, and either bank completed lights Carry Passengers whether it was lit for a pickup or not.

Reward: Passenger pickup when lit, and Carry Passengers
Carry Passengers strategy · Medium

The single most valuable habit on this machine. Hitting the small target after either drop bank keeps every passenger you are carrying into the next ball, which is the difference between rebuilding the fare cycle from scratch and finishing it.

Reward: Passengers held to the next ball, 20K-50K on repeats
Express Lane Multiball multiball · Medium

Lock a ball in the right lock hole, then shoot the left ramp to start it. Once it runs, the job is to relock both balls in the Express lanes in a fixed order — lock hole first, DRAC second.

Reward: 300K for the second lock, then both ramps lit for 100K
Two Ways To An Extra Ball strategy · Medium

JOYRIDE can hand you one outright. The other route is three C-A-B completions inside a single ball, and that one has to be collected at DRAC — lose the ball first and it is simply gone.

Reward: Extra ball
Light The Special secret · Hard

Complete a full pickup, collect the jackpot, then drop all five passengers off. One outlane lights for special. The second time you run the cycle it will not light the other one, so this is a once-per-game prize.

Reward: Special on one outlane
End Of Ball Bonus strategy · Easy

Modest, but free. Most ramps, holes and inlanes add a few thousand up to a 99K ceiling, and that figure is multiplied before 20K per passenger is added on top. The theoretical maximum is 595K.

Reward: Up to 595K

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