"Guns 'n Roses" Rules Sheet by Michael Dunn



Version 2.0 (August 21, 1994) 

Changes From Version 1.0

Playfield Layout
     Added trick to get credit for two Mini-Loop shots at once. 

Plunger Awards
     Added in effect of lighting 6th member, and how to launch the ball using the flippers. 

The Ramps
     Corrected the value of the ramps at Fun With Bonus. 

Mystery Award
     Added three awards. 

Modes
     Lots of changes here. Riot is now explained in full detail. 

Multiball
     Completed chart of jackpot values. 

Other
     Corrected how to relight the Kickback. Added info on the ball saver, the SNAKE 
sequence, and bumper scoring. 

Strategies
     Wrote some! 

Thanx to Mark Phaedrus and Noel Steere for their help with this revision! 

Introduction

These rules are based on version 2.00 CPU/2.00 Display. 

Guns 'n Roses (GnR for short) is the Data East pin following "WWF Royal Rumble." It is 
a widebody machine, and has a tall plastic
GnR logo on top of the backbox. The gameplay rules are pretty straightforward, 
following the trend of WWF, but there are more
side awards to go for during the game than in WWF. 

The distinctive feature of the game is the Rose Plunger, which is placed similarly to the 
left-side plunger in FunHouse. Its handle is
made in the shape of a rose, which, along with the gun shaped autoplunger, ties in nicely 
with the GnR theme. 

Playfield Layout

I'll start at the lower left corner and go clockwise. 

Left Outlane
     Has a kickback. When the kickback is on, the white light labeled "Patience" will be lit. 
This is the fairest kickback scoop I've
     ever seen! Since the kickback sends the ball up the middle of the board to the 
Bumpers, the outlane is only gently curved.
     There's rubber on the lane divider, and the outlane itself isn't huge, so nudging a ball 
out of the outlane is fairly easy to do. 

Left Inlane
     This lane lights the right ramp for a short time during normal play. 

Left Drop Targets
     These are placed above the Left Outlane. Their position is similar to the standups on 
TNG, but the drops are turned
     counterclockwise a bit to face the middle of the board, rather than the slingshot. 

Upper Flipper
     This flipper is in exactly the same spot as the upper flipper on Tommy, that is, at the 
entrance to the Left Orbit. It can hit the
     Captive Ball, Mini Loop, and the Center Scoop. 

Left Orbit
     This is only a half-orbit, since a ball shot up this lane will be deflected down to the 
Rollover Lanes by a one-way gate. There
     is a switch near the curved part of the Orbit, which you must hit to get credit for a shot 
to the Orbit. 

Guitar
     This is a saucer obscured from view by the big G Ramp. It's the mode start shot. If you 
duck down, you'll see that there is a
     very narrow metal lane that starts about halfway past the entrance to the G Ramp, 
which tries to guide the ball into the
     saucer. I've found that hard shots from the right flipper sometimes bounce out of the 
saucer. The ball is kicked into the Left
     Orbit and rolls to the Upper Flipper. 

Captive Ball area
     The ball rests to the left of the G Ramp entrance. It rolls up a short lane to a small 
round open area. Along the curved top
     wall of that area are the D-U-F-F standups. There is a slingshot in the left side of the 
area, and the left Bumper forms the
     right wall of the area. So, the ball can often stay up among the kickers for quite a 
while. 

G Ramp
     This ramp is made of light yellow plastic, molded in the shape of a "G". It's very 
steep, with a narrow entrance. It's the same
     width all the way around, so it doesn't have the problem of rejecting balls that WWF's 
left ramp had. The plastic loops above
     the Left Orbit, which unfortunately obscures the Guitar saucer and some of the mode 
lights. There are two globe lights
     above the entrance: the yellow light indicates the Ramp will feed the Rose Plunger, 
and the red light indicates the Ramp will
     award a mode jackpot. When the ball is not diverted to the Rose Plunger, it is fed to 
the Left Inlane. 

Snake Pit
     A green plastic bowl, placed above the curved part of the Left Orbit. Picture the 
Spinout skill shot in Taxi, move it to the
     other side of the board, and that's what the Pit looks like. The Rose Plunger sends the 
ball here. When the ball drops out, it
     lands in the orbit. The bottom of the bowl is fairly flat, so a full-strength plunge can 
send the ball spinning for quite a while. 

Rollover Lanes (J-A-M)
     These three lanes lead down to the Bumpers. The autoplunger/Right Hole habitrail 
drops the ball just above the lanes. 

Bumpers
     Three yellow bumpers. The left Bumper forms the right wall of the Captive Ball area. 
The ball exits the bumper area down
     the center-left of the board, and can roll anywhere between the left flipper and the left 
outlane. 

Mini-Loop
     This is a loop that is hit from the Upper Flipper. It runs past the right of the bumper 
area, then joins up with the Orbit and
     leads back to the Upper Flipper. There is a rollover switch about 1/4 of the way up the 
lane, which you must hit to get credit
     for a shot. Since there's only one switch in the loop, you can get credit for two shots if 
the ball is not hit completely around
     the loop but instead crosses the switch, stops, and rolls back over the switch again. 

Center Scoop
     This is a rather large scoop that can be hit from any flipper. The kickout sends the ball 
straight at the left flipper. A red globe
     light above the scoop lights when Mystery or a mode jackpot can be collected here. 

R Ramp
     This ramp is made of red plastic, in the shape of an R. It's easier to hit than the G 
ramp; in fact, backhanding it with the right
     flipper is not hard at all. The ball is always fed to the Right Inlane. 

Right Hole
     This is a saucer at the end of a long straight lane. It can be hit from either lower 
flipper. The ball is kicked up onto the
     autoplunger habitrail, which feeds the Rollover Lanes. 

Right Orbit
     Balls shot up the Right Orbit will travel all the way around to the left side, or fall to 
the Rollover Lanes if they were traveling
     slowly. Depending in the situation, you may have to shoot the entire orbit or just this 
side to collect an award. 

Right Drop Targets
     Similar to the targets on the left side. 

Right Inlane
     This lane lights the G Ramp for a short time during normal play. 

Right Outlane
     This lane has an adjustable post (with rubber) that can be moved sideways. Even if the 
post is all the way to the left, this
     outlane is pretty wide, so practice your nudging! Draining down this outlane during 
normal play awards an odd-change bonus
     called "Michelle." 

Slingshots & flippers
     Two of each, normal places. 

Magnets
     Whenever more than one ball is in play, the magnets will be active. There are three 
magnets, which can be activated
     independently (like the magnets in TAF). 

Autoplunger
     This is a silver gun. The trigger is used to launch balls and toggle the lock on the 
currently lit mode. 

Rose Plunger
     This manual plunger is on the left side of the cabinet. The ball is dropped here when 
the G Ramp is lit for Multiball start,
     Snake, or Super Snake. Plunging sends the ball spinning in the Snake Pit. 

Globe status lights
     There are four globe lights, one above each plunger, and two above the rules card. The 
gun plunger light is red, and is lit
     when the currently lit mode is locked. The Rose Plunger light is yellow, and flashes 
when the G Ramp will feed the ball to
     the plunger. There is a white light just above the rules card, which is lit when the 
current player has one or more extra balls.
     Finally, a red globe near the white one flashes when the Magnets are active. 

Plunger Awards

There is no skill shot in GnR. Instead, you can choose from 4 awards at the start of each 
ball: 

Add Member
     Spots a band member. If you use this to spot the 6th band member, Multiball will start 
immediately, with 6 balls and the
     jackpots' base value at 50M. 

Start Guitar Feature
     Starts the currently lit mode. 

Super Pops
     Bumpers are worth 2M per hit for the rest of the ball. 

Mystery Value
     Gives a random award. See the section on Mystery for details. 

These awards are always the same. Select the award you want with the flippers, and 
collect it by launching the ball. The lit award
will also slowly cycle to the right if you don't press a flipper. 

You can launch the ball by pulling the autoplunger trigger, or holding in the right flipper 
button and pressing the left flipper button. If
you choose the second method, pressing the right flipper will change the award, but 
pressing the left won't. 

The Ramps

During normal play, the G Ramp spots letters in "GUNS N" and the R Ramp spots letters 
in "ROSES". Your progress is shown by
lights in the GnR logo in the center of the playfield. 

Each shot to a ramp (whether or not you've completed the associated letters) is worth 5M. 
If the ramp was lit by the opposite
Inlane, it's worth 10M. If you alternate the Ramps without missing, the value increases by 
5M per hit until you miss. So you could
shoot 4 ramps and get 10M, 15M, 20M, and then 25M. When a ramp's timer runs out, the 
value drops back to 10M. 

When you light all 10 letters, a 50M hurry up stars. Shooting either ramp collects the 
current value of the hurry up and freezes the
countdown for a few seconds. The round ends when the value reaches 30M. 

Every shot to a ramp adds to your end of ball bonus: 200K for each G Ramp, and 100K 
for each R Ramp shot. 

Mystery Award

The Center Scoop and autoplunger can award a Mystery Value, which is usually 
something good. Awards include: 25M, 50M,
Super Kickback (unlimited kickback for the rest of the ball), 20x bonus, Super Pops (2M 
per hit for the rest of the ball), Mega Pops
(3M per hit for the rest of the ball), extra ball, special, Multiball. 

Light the Center Scoop by hitting the Mini-loop. It takes 2 loops to light the Scoop the 
first time, then 3 loops the second time, and
so on. Choosing Mystery Value from the autoplunger will also increase the number of 
loops needed to light the Scoop. So, if you
choose Mystery at the start of ball 1, you'll need 3 loops to light the Scoop the first time. 

Each time you hit the Mini-loop, the display tells you how many more hits are needed to 
light the Scoop. 

R-O-C-K

During normal play, completing the Left Drops spots "R" and "O", and the Right Drops 
spot "C" and "K" (that's one letter per
completion). Spotting a letter is worth 10M. When you complete all four letters, a 100M 
hurry-up is lit at the Left Orbit. The value
freezes while the ball is in the Bumpers, and times out at 20M. 

If a mode ends while the ROCK countdown is still lit, you cannot start another mode 
until you collect ROCK or it times out. 

Guitar Modes

GnR has 9 modes, plus the Wizard Bonus. At the start of the game, Matt Scoring will be 
lit. Each bumper hit moves the lit mode up
one (skipping over completed modes, of course). During multiball, the lit mode does not 
change. 

A really great and useful feature is the ability to "lock" to currently lit mode. When you 
lock the mode, it will not change when the
Bumpers are hit. Pulling the autoplunger trigger toggles the lit mode between locked and 
unlocked. When the mode is locked, the
red globe above the autoplunger lights. 

At the start of each ball, and at the end of each mode, the currently lit mode is 
automatically unlocked. However, if you start a
mode while it was locked, at the end of the mode, the globe light will remain lit even 
though the next mode is unlocked at first. (This
has been fixed in later ROM revisions.) Pulling the trigger while a mode is running or 
during multiball has no effect. 

In general, only one mode can run at one time. The exception is: if you hve a non-
Multiball mode running and Coma is lit at the
Right Hole, you can start Coma during the first mode. This not only makes both modes 
run simultaneously, it also effectively makes
the first mode a Multiball mode, which can greatly increase scoring (especially in Matt 
Scoring). 

You can also start Multiball at the Right Hole during a one-ball mode. Doing this does 
not affect the mode, but Multiball displays
and animations take precedence over the mode's displays, so you'll have to rely on the 
playfield lights to know when the mode ends.

Another cool feature is the Double shot. When you start certain modes at the Guitar, 
shooting the Mini-loop increases the value of
the mode (it isn't always a true doubling of the mode's value, though). The loop is only lit 
for a few seconds. Modes started from the
autoplunger cannot be doubled. 

During count-up and hurry-up modes, the count pauses when a bumper is hit, and 
remains paused for a few seconds after. 

Extra Ball 

Awards an extra ball, NQA. This can't be doubled. :( 

Gilby Rolls 

A video mode. The display shows a 3/4 overhead view of Gilby riding a motorcycle 
down a three-lane road. Steer the bike with the
flipper buttons. Running down a pedestrian is worth 5M, and passing a car is 1M. 
Crashing into a car ends the mode. The mode
also ends if you survive long enough. There is a string of about three pedestrians at the 
very end of the mode. (The sequence of
cars and pedestrians is always the same.) 

The Double shot is lit at the end of the mode. Hitting it doubles the point total. 

After the mode ends, you will probably want to lock the next mode. The mode above 
Gilby is EB. If you've already collected that,
the next mode is the high-scoring Axl 3 Ball. If you've collected THAT too, the next 
mode is Dizzy Ball, which is a bit tougher but
still has high scoring potential. 

Lite Coma 

This doesn't immediately start a mode, it lights the Right Hole to start Coma. 

Coma starts as a 2 ball multiball, with a jackpot of 10M. Each bumper hit adds 250K to 
the jackpot. Shoot the Right Hole to collect
the jackpot. There's also a 20 second timer. Hitting the Right Hole before it runs out 
launches another ball into play. 

Coma ends when the timer runs out and only one ball remains in play. 

Double does not light for this mode. 

Slash Solo 

This is a count-up round. The value starts at 20M. Shoot either orbit (you only need to hit 
the switch in the Right Orbit) or the
Mini-loop to collect the current value of the count-up. The mode ends when the count-up 
reaches 50M. 

Shooting Double makes the count-up go from 40M to 100M. [Note: the values may differ 
on other ROM revisions.] 

Matt Scoring 

This mode's jackpot starts at 10M. Each switch scores 250K and adds 250K to the 
jackpot. Every few switch hits increases the
switch value by 250K. Shooting the Left Orbit collects the jackpot and doubles the switch 
value. The mode lasts 20(?) seconds. 

Hitting Double makes the switch value start at 500K. 

Super Snake 

A 50M hurry-up is lit at the G Ramp. Hitting the Ramp collects the hurry-up value and 
feeds the ball to the Rose Plunger. Each
spin in the Snake Pit advances the display 1x-2x-3x. When the ball falls out of the Pit, 
you are awarded the hurry-up value
multiplied by the lit multiplier. 

The mode ends when the hurry-up counts down to 15M or you collect the points. 

Hitting Double raises the hurry-up starting value to 100M. 

Duff Rocks 

You have 30 seconds to get 10 hits on the DUFF targets in the Captive Ball area. Doing 
so awards 100M. 

Hitting Double raises the value to 200M. 

Dizzy Ball 

This is a 2 ball multiball. Each ramp hit scores 10M + 1M for each drop target hit. Hitting 
a ramp also increases the value of the
next ramp by 1M. The ramp value has a maximum of 50M. The mode ends when one ball 
drains. 

Hitting Double raises the initial ramp value to 20M. 

Axl 3 Ball 

This is a 3 ball multiball. The Center Scoop awards Mini-Jackpots, worth 10M plus 1M 
for each drop target hit, to a max of 30M.
The mode ends when 2 balls drain. 

Hitting Double raises the starting value of the jackpot to 20M. 

Riot (Wizard Bonus) 

This is a 6-ball multiball mode. The object is pretty simple: keep the balls in play as long 
as possible. :> 

  objective
             gives you
                      and it's worth
 40 switches 
            "R" 
                      40 million 
 60 switches 
            "I" 
                      60 million 
 80 switches 
            "O" 
                      80 million 
 120 switches 
            "T" 
                      100 million 
 Mini-Loop 
            Riot Jackpot 
                      1 billion!


In addition, hitting either ramp at any time scores 10M. 

After collecting the Riot Jackpot, it starts over. You need more switches for each letter (I 
think the second "R" needs 140) and the
letter value increases by 20M each time, with no maximum. 

Each time you reach an objective, a ball is autoplunged (unless there are already 6 balls 
in play). The mode ends when only one ball
remains in play. Matt Scoring will be lit after Riot ends. 

Multiball

To light Multiball, hit the Right Hole to add band members to the stage. Each hit is worth 
10M and adds one member. When you get
5 members on the stage, you have a choice. Shooting the Right Hole again will start a 6-
ball Multiball with the jackpots starting at
50M. Shooting the G Ramp will send the ball to the Rose Plunger. Each spin in the Snake 
Pit advances the display
35M-65M-35M-65M-35M. The lit value when the ball falls out will be the base value of 
jackpots. 4 balls are then autoplunged. 

Hitting a Ramp collects a jackpot and unlights the ramp. After you hit both ramps, the 
Right Hole is lit for a 100M jackpot. After
you collect the 100M, another ball is launched and both ramps relight for jackpots. 
Hitting both ramps again lights the Right Hole for
100M. Once you collect the second 100M jackpot, another ball is launched and the Mini-
loop is lit for the Super Jackpot, which
starts at 250M and increases 1M for each bumper hit. 

While the regular jackpots are lit, each switch adds 200K to the jackpot values. 

If you drain all but one ball without hitting either Ramp, you can restart Multiball by 
hitting the G Ramp or the Right Hole. Jackpots
are reset to their base value when Multiball is restarted. 

For the first two Multiballs, the band members you collect are saved between balls. But 
starting with the third Multiball, you must
collect all 6 on the same ball. 

If, at the start of ball 3, you haven't started Multiball, it will be lit for you. However, the 
number of balls you will have and the base
value of jackpots depends on how many band members you lit during balls 1 and 2. 

At the start of ball 3, both Multiball start shots will be lit. The Right Hole will still add a 
band member before starting Multiball. 

Here's a list of info regarding multiball when it's lit for you: 

 # members
           # balls
                 Right Hole jackpot value
                                      G Ramp jackpot values
 0 
           2 
                 n/a 
                                      10M/40M 
 1 
           2 
                 25M 
                                      15M/45M 
 2 
           2 
                 30M 
                                      20M/50M 
 3 
           3 
                 35M 
                                      25M/55M 
 4 
           4 
                 40M 
                                      30M/60M 
 5 
           5 
                 45M 
                                      35M/65M 
 6 
           6 
                 50M 
                                      n/a 


Other Scoring and Miscellaneous Stuff

Kickback
     The Kickback is lit at the start of each ball. Relight it by shooting the Mini-Loop or 
both banks of Drop Targets. 

Ball Saver
     The ball saver is active at the start of each ball, but there is no light to tell you that it's 
on. It is also active at the start of a
     multiball mode or Multiball itself. You will also be saved if you lose the last 2 balls of 
a multiball round at the same time: the
     round will end but one ball will be saved (this is a nice new twist to ball savers). 

Multiball note
     Multiball and multiball modes end as soon as the next to last ball lands in the outhole. 
There is never a grace period. 

Axl Combo
     During normal play, shooting the entire Right Orbit and then the Center Scoop awards 
the Axl Combo, which is worth 5M
     plus 1M for each shot to the unlit Scoop during that ball, to a max of 30M. On some 
machines, you can score this by holding
     up the upper flipper when the ball is shot quickly around the Orbit. 

Michelle
     This bonus seems to depend on how long you've kept the ball in play. I once got a 
Michelle bonus of 51M after a particularly
     successful Riot Ball! 

SNAKE
     During normal play, shooting the entire Right Orbit adds a letter in S-N-A-K-E (and 
spots one of the JAM lanes).
     Completing SNAKE lights the G Ramp to feed the Rose Plunger. Once you load the 
Plunger, four awards will be displayed.
     Launch the ball to collect one of the awards. Awards include: 25M, 50M, Bonus 20x, 
Add Band Member, Super Kickback,
     and maybe others. 

Fun With Bonus
     (1M + 200K for each G Ramp hit during that ball + 100K for each R Ramp hit during 
that ball + 1M for each Guitar mode
     played during the game) * bonus multiplier. 

Bonus Multipliers
     Completing JAM advances the bonus multiplier from 1x to 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10x. After 
reaching 10x, completing JAM awards
     20M per completion. Collecting a JAM 20x award also makes JAM worth 20M per 
completion. 

Bumper scoring
     If you don't collect a Super/Mega Pops award, the bumpers start each ball at 100K per 
hit. Every ten bumper hits raises the
     value by 100K, to a max of 1M. Once the value reaches 1M (or when you collect a 
Super/Mega Pops award), the bumper
     value cannot be increased. 

Match sequence
     The animation shows a woman pulling her shirt off over her head. The picture then 
scrolls down, and she's covering herself
     with a big card (on which is displayed the match number). If you don't match, you get 
the very neat quote, "aww, dude!" If
     you do match, WAIT!!! You should know by now that you have to wait until the 
match animation finishes before the credit
     is actually awarded. This delay seems very long, compared to other recent DE pins. 

     There is an option in the menus called "Modesty Option." Switching this OFF changes 
the match animation. The girl still pulls
     her shirt off, but when the picture scrolls down, she's not covering herself, and one 
match digit appears on each breast. 

EB Buy-in
     You can buy one ball at the end of ball 3. You don't get any extra awards when you 
buy a ball. BUT--you must press the
     EB button sometime *during* the game in order to get the option of buying-in. Once, 
I finished with 4.2B but since I forgot
     to hit that button during the game, no buy in! D'oh! Moral: hit that EB button as soon 
as the first ball is served to the plunger. 

Duff Jackpot
     During normal play, completing the DUFF targets awards a jackpot, which is worth 
between 20M and 100M. When the
     captive ball hits a DUFF target, a special display is shown on the DMD. While this 
display is up, each hit to the bumper adds
     1M to the jackpot. This jackpot carries over between players and games. 

Strategies

Getting extra balls 

The ability to lock the mode pretty much guarantees you one extra ball. If you do not 
choose Start Guitar Mode when you start a
ball, check the mode lights and make note of how many bumper hits it will take to get the 
lit mode to EB. Listen to the bumpers, and
lock the mode after the right number of hits. 

If you lock EB but don't collect it before draining, just select Start Guitar at the beginning 
of the next ball to collect it. 

If Gilby Rolls is the lit mode, catch the ball on the lower left flipper. From that flipper 
you have a clear shot at the center bumper.
Shoot that bumper and lock the mode (which will change to EB) immediately. 

Backhanding 

GnR has three shots that are perfect for backhands: the Guitar Saucer, the R Ramp, and 
the Right Hole. 

The Guitar Saucer is the hardest of the three to hit, but it's worth doing if your Saucer 
tends to reject quick shots from the right
flipper. You need to flip very early, almost as if you were doing a slingshot post pass. 
The ball should hit the right side of the metal
lane and be guided into the saucer. 

The R Ramp can be worth tons of points if you can consistently backhand it, especially 
during Dizzy Ball and the Ramp hurry-up
round. Since the R Ramp feeds back to the right flipper (for another backhand shot), you 
can collect many awards with little effort.
:> 

The Right Hole is nearly always a good target. If there's a mode running, or if EB is the 
lit mode, then those are better shots, but
otherwise I hit the Right Hole whenever I can. Where backhanding comes into play is in 
how easy the shot seems (to me at least)
from the right flipper. It seems much easier, and if you miss, the ball will be moving 
slower and will be easier to control. 

Mode Choices 

My usual strategy is to choose Start Guitar every time. Adding band members is easy to 
do during play, and if you're consistent on
hitting the Mini-Loop, you'll have Mystery lit in no time. 

After Matt Scoring finishes (that's always the first mode) of course go for the EB. If 
Gilby Rolls is the lit mode and you have the
ball caught, go ahead and play Gilby, and as soon as the ball is kicked back into play, 
lock the EB mode. 

After getting the EB, I don't really have a preferred choice of modes. If you have been 
hitting the Orbits well that game, you should
go for Slash Solo. If the captive ball area seems bouncy, go for Duff Rocks. If you can hit 
the Ramps consistently, go for Dizzy
Ball. (Do you see a pattern here?) 

Basically, any mode can be worth a lot, but take the modes whose shots you're good at 
first. If you're just having an overall bad
day, there's always the video mode, which is worth about 65M (or 130M doubled). 

Riot Ball 

About 3 weeks ago I made a change in the way I play Multiball rounds that have more 
than three balls, and I think it's helped me a
lot. In my normal playing stance, the center of my palms rest on the corners of the 
lockdown bar, and my middle fingers rest on the
flipper buttons. I have my left foot placed forward of my right one, and I'm bent over a 
bit at the waist. I found that I couldn't react
quickly enough when several balls were near the flippers. 

So, the change I made was to stand more upright, feet together, and take my hands off the 
lockdown bar. The only place I was in
contact with the cabinet was the tips of my middle fingers, which rested on the flipper 
buttons. 

This new stance made it easier to flail at balls when I needed to, and although my 
accuracy suffers (since I'm not comfortable
playing upright), accuracy isn't that necessary in Riot Ball.
