BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON

Release version RC1

Original table by Astro Games, January 1979.
Adapted and VPed by Dave Sanders, November 2001.
Music and sounds ripped from assorted Capcom games using the Callus emulator.

Thanks to Randy Davis for Visual Pinball, to the IRPinball staff, and to all the folks on the Shiva forum.

Install the enclosed fonts in the Windows font directory.


KNOWN ISSUES

I'll be straight here. Even aside from pulling a Viking with this table and embellishing it with extra sounds, this is absolutely *not* my most accurate conversion to date. And with good reason, since Black Sheep Squadron is the one and only table from Astro Games, a company that lasted about ten minutes back in 1979. Two things persuaded me to VP this particular table- the eye-catching playfield with quite striking table art, and the guarantee that few people would even have heard of, much less played the game. 

However, after having scripted the ruleset ascertained from the flier... it stank!! The original must be one of the most wretchedly unbalanced pinballs ever made- if the ball didn't drain cheesily in the first ten seconds, you were guaranteed to rack up replay after replay with no effort at all. Half the targets weren't worth aiming for, the Special was about fifty times easier to get than the extra ball, and for a six-digit table the scoring was just plain *silly*. Bleah!! If I was ever going to get a playable game out of such a complete lemon there was nothing for it but to chuck the old rules away and draw up a set of new ones, governed by lots of playtesting and good old-fashioned trial and error; even going so far as to rework the displayed playfield awards in one or two places. Sacrilege! But an exercise worth doing just this once, if only to show what this table might have been; still by no means perfect, but challenging for beginners and rewarding for the good player who takes the time to suss out the best aiming angles for all the available shots. None of you would likely know any differently without me pointing it out anyway, so quit luzzing tomatoes over here. :P

As usual, bug reports should be mailed to me at ealadubh@btopenworld.com .


TABLE CONTROLS

During play:	LEFT and RIGHT SHIFT- flipper buttons
		Z - nudge table left
		/ - nudge table right 
		SPACE- nudge table up

In standby:	5 - Insert credit	
		1 - Game start
		9 - Music on/off (default is on)
		0 - 3/5 ball play (default is 5)



RULES

S-Q-O-N targets and U-A-D-R lanes score 500 points, spot appropriate letter and advance bonus. Completing S-Q-O-N advances saucer feature and lights center bumper for 1000 points. Completing U-A-D-R advances saucer feature and lights top and bottom rollovers. Completing S-Q-U-A-D-R-O-N awards 100,000 points and resets letters. 

Rollovers score 300 points. Top and bottom rollovers advance bonus by 3000 when lit. Left rollover also scores flashing value on scale, from 5000 points to bonus 2X, bonus 3X, bonus 5X, light extra ball, and 25,000 points thereafter. Left rollover also awards Special when lit.

Return lanes score 500 points and advance left rollover scale to be scored one step at a time. Return lane also awards extra ball when lit.

Center saucer scores 3000 points or lit advanced feature; light spinner for 1000 points, 30,000 points, light left rollover for Special, then 30,000 points thereafter. Collecting feature resets saucer. 

Outlanes score 1000 points and advance bonus.

Tilt penalty: ball in play.

Maximum: one extra ball per ball in play.

Special awards one replay.

1 replay awarded for a score of 330,000 points (three ball) or 550,000 points (five ball).

Turning the game over and looping the score past 999,990 and back to zero awards one replay.

Matching the last score digit against the displayed number at the end of the game awards one replay.
