         HOW TO PLAY ATTACK FROM MARS 

SUPER SKILL SHOT: Hold left flipper button WHILE launching ball. Make any flashing arrow shot to collect. 
 
ATTACK WAVE:  Complete center 3-bank to start an Attack Wave.  Save cities by shooting center shot to destroy the saucer. Save all 5 cities to Attack & Conquer Mars! 

EXTRA BALL: Complete Attack Waves OR bottom lanes to light Extra Ball.  Shoot right eject to collect. 

MULTI-BALL: center loop lights lock. Lock 3 balls in center loop to start 3-ball multi-ball. Shoot ramps and loops to collect jackpots. Collect all 5 jackpots to light moving Super Jackpot. 

MARTIAN ATTACK: Complete M-A-R-T-I-A-N targets to light Martian Attack at right eject.  Shoot right eject to start. Hit all 4 Martians in the time allowed to start Martian Attack 2-ball Multi-ball. 

TOTAL ANNIHILATION:  Complete Capture, Big-O-Beam, Tractor Beam, or Atomic Blaster to start HURRY UP.  Center shot awards HURRY-UP.  Complete all 4 shots to start Total Annihilation 4-ball Multi-ball.  Shoot ramps and loops while in Multi-ball to collect big points. 

COMBOS: Make consecutive ramp and loop shots while red arrows are lit for Combos. 

SUPER JETS: Get the number of jet hits needed (see display) to start Super Jets for big points. 

RULE THE UNIVERSE: Collect Super Jackpot, Super Jets, Martian Attack Multi-ball, Total Annihilation, Conquer Mars and 5-way combo to light Rule the Universe.  Shoot right eject to start.  Collect displayed points while in Multi-ball to Rule the Universe.


----------- Longer explanation -------------

Contents

Introduction 
Playfield Layout 
Skill Shot 
Attack Phase 
Multiball 
Stroke of Luck 
Total Annihilation 
Martian Attack 
Rule The Universe 
Misc 
End Stuff 

1. Introduction

Attack From Mars is the latest in the line of pinball games from Williams. It features a nice open playfield, and easy to understand rules. The theme is basically what it sounds, defending the Earth from attacking Martians. The credits for the game are as followed: 
Design: Brian Eddy
Software: Lyman Sheats
Artwork: Doug Watson
Music & Sounds: Dan Forden
Mechanical Engineer: Robert C. Friesl
Dots: Adam Rhine & Brian Morris

Blatent Editorial - This is one of the best games to come out in a LONG time. 

2. Playfield Layout

Here is the basic layout of the playfield starting just above the left outlane and going clockwise around. 
MAR Targets - 3 targets of which are the first the letters of the word martian. 

Left Orbit - Loops the ball up to the top rollovers and bumpers. Lights a "capture". If capture is complete, loops ball all the way around. 

Left Ramp - Sends ball back to left return lane. Lights a "Big-O-Beam". 

Middle Orbit - Locks ball when lock is lit. Otherwise sends ball back around to right return lane and lights lock. 

T Target - 1 target which is the next letter in the word martian. 

Flying Saucer- The main toy in the game. Knock down the forcefield in front of it to gain access to the three targets inside. Described in more detail in the Attack Phase section. 

I Target - 1 target which is yet another letter in martian. 

Scoop - Used to start Martian Attack, and Rule The Universe. Also awards Stroke of Luck and Extra Ball when lit. 

Upper Lanes - Used for regular skill shot, also increase bonus x. 

Bumpers - 3 bumpers. Certain # of hits starts super jets. 

Right Ramp - Sends ball back to right return lane. Lights a "Tractor Beam". 

Right Orbit - Sends ball up to the top rollovers. Lights an "Atomic Blaster". If Atomic Blaster is complete, sends ball all the way around. 

AN Targets - 2 targets which are the last 2 letters in Martian. 

3. Skill Shot

The game has a fairly easy skill shot which simply involves you shooting the ball and then moving the flashing light to the correct rollever lane that the ball is going through. It awards a point value and gives +5x bonus. There is also a super skill shot which sends the ball around, down the left orbit. The game then gives the player a few seconds to hit any major shot, which will score 50 million, plus complete whatever you hit. Therefore, if you hit the right ramp, you will get 50 million, and it will finish the tractor beam. To activate the super skill shot, hold down the left flipper when shooting the ball. 

4. Attack Phase

The Attack Phase is the heart and soul of the game. It involves the player protecting a certain country from the martians. The countries are France, Italy, Germany, United States, & England. To start an attack phase, all 3 targets which make up the force field in front of the flying saucer must be hit. The forcefield will then lower opening up the 3 targets behind. Here's an attempt at a diagram to better explain this. 

                                
          H              H = Hole
        / D \            D = Drop Target
      /T     T\          T = Side Targets
    /           \        F = Targets on force field
      =========
      F   F   F


When the force field goes down, the attack phase starts. The object is then to hit any of the targets inside. When a target is hit, it puts some damage on the attacking saucer and scores points. If more than one target is hit in a shot, it will multiply the damage and points by the number of hits (i.e. 2 targets hit = 2X damage). When the saucer has taken enough damage, the drop target in the back will stay down and a shot into the hole will destroy the saucer. The first saucer destroyed is worth 200 million, and goes up 100 million each time. This is not a timed mode, and will not end until the saucer is destroyed, not even if you lose your ball. The amount of hits required to take a shot at destroying the saucer goes up each time. 

Once you defend all of the countries, you steal one of the flying saucers and start Attack Mars mode. First the force field must be knocked down, then the object is to hit the ball into the hole (the drop target will not come back up). Every shot into the hole takes a chunk out of Mars and awards 50 million points. The 10th shot into the hole destroys Mars and awards 2.5 billion points. 

5. Multiball

The middle orbit is used to light lock and to lock balls. If lock is not lit, the ball will be sent back around to the right return lane and lock will then light. Hit the shot again and it will lock a ball. Locking 3 balls starts multiball. In multiball, the left orbit, left ramp, middle orbit, right ramp, and right orbit all light up for jackpots. Hit all of the jackpots to light super jackpot. The super jackpot starts at the left orbit, and moves around every few of seconds. It moves to the different jackpot shots back and forth across the playfield. Once the super jackpot is collected, it starts all over again. Multiball ends when less than 2 balls are left. If Super Jackpot is lit when multiball ends, it will give you a 10 second countdown in which you can still collect the Super Jackpot. The game allows a pretty long "grace" period after multiball ends as well, meaning that remaining jackpots can still be collected after multiball ends. If you do finish off all of the jackpots after multiball ends, you still get the 10 second Super Jackpot countdown. 

6. Stroke of Luck

Stroke of luck is lit by lighting all of the lights in the outlanes and return lanes (just like lighting Khan multiball in The Shadow). It is collected by shooting the scoop. It awards a random award by putting 4 on the screen and having a flying saucer shooting them away until one is left. Some of the awards include multiball, strobe multiball, light EB, start attack phase, light martian attack, points, bonus X, Video Mode & Sneak Attack. 
Features started only by Stroke of Luck: 

Video mode is like an old Apple ][ computer game called Sabotage. You control a cannon in the center and move it left and right (it is constantly shooting). Your goal is to shoot the flying saucers that are trying to land. You get points for every saucer you shoot, and the mode ends when a saucer reaches the ground. Once per video mode, the launch button can be pressed and will destroy all of the saucers on the screen. This is useful for when a saucer is about to hit the ground and it is too late to shoot it. After 30 saucers are destroyed, an Extra Ball pod is sent down, shooting it awards an Extra Ball. After all of the saucers are destroyed (40 or 50 of them), the mothership comes down. It moves left and right trying to avoid your cannon fire. Hitting it 80 times destroys it. Finishing video mode gives a total of around 635 million points. There is also a way to turn the flying saucers into cows! To do it you have to get the cow off of the big-o-beam and the tractor beam and while it is showing the animation of the cow hit the launch button (you will hear a strange noise if you do it right). If you get video mode after doing this it will change video mode into a sort of "Attack From the Pasture!" 
Strobe Multiball is one of the coolest things in the game. When this starts, everything that was going on in the game stops. The force field comes up (if it was down) and all of the lights shut off. A strobe light by the flying saucer then starts flashing, and this is the only light coming from the game. 3 balls are then kicked out, and the object is to hit the force field as many times as as possible. The game awards 50 million per hit, and awards a bonus after a certain number of hits (Light EB at 10 hits, 250 million at 20). This ends when less than 2 balls are left, and the game goes back to what was going on before this started. An interesting note about this is that because of the Strobe Multiball, this is the first pinball game to come with an Epilepsy warning on it. 
Sneak Attack lights one of the martian target banks up at random. A hurry up value starts at 150 million and counts down. If you hit the lit target bank, it awards the value, gives you 2 martian bombs, and lights Martian Attack. 

7. Total Annihilation

Total Annihilation involves collecting the awards from the orbits and ramps. The left orbit is Capture, the left ramp is the Big-O-Beam, the right ramp is the Tractor Beam, and the right orbit is the Atomic Blaster. It takes 3 shots to complete one of these, unless you complete it using the super skill shot. Once one of them is completed, it starts a hurry-up in which the flying saucer (inner targets or force field) starts at 100 million and counts down. If you finish another one of the ramp/loop awards while the other one is counting down, the hurry up will reset at a higher point value. If all 4 awards are completed during the countdown, the game will award 1 billion points. 
Once you complete all 4 things, Total Annihilation starts. It is a 4 ball multiball in which every major shot awards the Annihilation value. The lock shot awards an Annihilation jackpot, which is increased by hitting the other shots. Therefore, if you collect a lot of annihilation values, you get the points for hitting it and they are also put into the jackpot making it worth quite a large amount. Once the jackpot is collected it resets back down to it's base value an can be built up again. 

8. Martian Attack

Martian Attack is lit by hitting all of the martian targets (or can be lit by Stroke of Luck). It is collected by hitting the scoop. Once started, all 4 martians must be hit within a time limit. The martians are above each of the 4 martian target banks (They start dancing around when this mode starts like the Boogie Men in Elvira). To hit them, just hit a target in the target bank below them. If Stroke of Luck gave you a martian bomb, you can hit the launch button and it will award you one of the martians. Once you hit all 4 martians, Martian 2-ball starts. During this you just want to hit the martian targets as many times as possible. Each hit is worth 20 million, but can be increased if you hit all of martian targets again while Martian Attack is lit. 2-ball ends when 1 ball drains. The game records how many martians you killed during this, and there is a listing on the high score table for the person who killed the most. 

9. Rule The Universe

Rule The Universe is the "wizard" award in the game. It is a pretty hard thing to achieve. To get it, the following things have to have been done: 
At least 1 Super Jackpot must have been collected during multiball. 
Super Jets must have been started at one point during the game. 
Martian Attack multiball has to have been started. 
Total Annihilation must have been played. 
Mars has to have been conquered in the Mars Attack phase. 
5-way combo must have been done. 
When Rule The Universe is started, everything becomes lit. Total Annihilation starts up, the martian targets are worth 50 million, pretty much everything awards points. You get a multiball with the ball saver lit for awhile. The object is to collect 5 billion points while multiball is still going. Once the 5 billion points have been collected, everything stops. The game awards you an extra 5 billion points as well as putting your name in the high score list as the last person to rule. 

10. Misc

One of the best things about this game is that features don't end when something else is started up. If you have an Attack Phase going and you start multiball, it keeps going. Very good idea. Many things can be going on at once. 
Cows are present in this game. Sometimes when you hit the Big-O-Beam, a cow is enlarged and the lady says "Would you look at the size of that cow?!" and it moos. The cow is sometimes tractor beamed up as well. There is also a picture of a cow on the right ramp. 
Once Rule the Universe has been played once, you don't have to conquer mars again in order to light Rule the Universe again (but you do have to do all of the other things). 
Bonus can be very big in this game. I've seen bonus multipliers as large as 42X! Awarded almost 4 billion just in bonus! 

Ruleshee 2.3 by Bob McCann