Flipped Out Pinball

How to play

Keep the ball in play, shoot the lit shots, and start the multiballs. Each table has its own rules, but they all work the same way underneath. This page covers what every table shares. Each table's own guide covers its shots and modes.

Controls

iPhone and iPad. Touch the left half of the screen to raise the left flipper and the right half to raise the right one. A flipper stays up for as long as your finger stays down, so you can hold a ball on a raised flipper (a cradle) and line up your next shot. You can hold both sides at once. Some tables have a third flipper on the playfield; it works with the main flipper on its side.

Mac. Left Shift, Z or the left arrow work the left flipper; Right Shift, / or the right arrow work the right one. Hold Space or the down arrow to pull the plunger back, and let go to launch. Press N for a new game once a game has ended. Help > Controls shows the keys, and a reminder appears over the table the first time you play.

The menu button at the top right holds the table list, Restore Purchases, sound on or off, and New Game.

Launching the ball

A new ball rolls into the shooter lane on the right. On iPhone and iPad, a knob hangs below the lane and lights up when the ball is ready: put your finger on it, drag down, and let go. The further you pull, the harder the launch. A very small pull launches nothing. On the Mac, the longer you hold Space, the further the plunger comes back.

Flipped Out, the Observatory and Monster Lab have a skill shot for the launch: a soft plunge aimed at a lit lane or a full plunge into a lit target, worth a bonus if it is the first thing the ball touches. The table guides say where to aim.

Balls, ball save and extra balls

The display tells you what to shoot

The amber display at the top shows your score, the ball you are on and the multiplier. Under it, a goal line names your next step: SHOOT THE HOLE, F-L-I-P 1/2, CHARGE THE LAB 2/5, RAMPS 2/3 18S (two of three ramps made, 18 seconds left). When several things are going on it pages between them. Big moments (a lock, a jackpot, a mode starting) take over the whole display for a moment with two lines of text.

Reading the lights

The lights set into the playfield (the inserts) follow a convention on every table:

Each shot has arrows in front of it, so the shots to go for are the ones with blinking arrows. Light shows sweep across the table for the big moments, and when no game is running the table plays its attract-mode show.

Multiball

Every table except Carnival, which plays like an early machine, has at least one multiball. Each table guide says how to start its own. Often you lock balls: a lock is lit at a shot, shooting it holds the ball (or takes it off the table) and serves you a new one, and the last lock releases them all. During multiball the main shots are worth jackpots, and collecting a set of them often lights a super jackpot. Multiball ends when you are back to one ball.

With several balls in play, keep one cradled on a raised flipper while you shoot with the other. It is much easier to aim one ball at a time.

The multiplier

The number after the ball count on the display (1X up to 5X) multiplies the points you score during that ball. Completing a set of lanes or a run of ramps raises it, depending on the table. It goes back to 1X when the ball ends. Jackpots and mode awards are paid in full and are not multiplied.

The ramp ladder

On Flipped Out, the Observatory, Monster Lab and Classic Bowling, each ramp you make in a ball pays more than the one before: the display calls out RAMP 1, RAMP 2 and so on, up to ten. Every fifth ramp gives an award, usually a step up on the multiplier. On Flipped Out, Monster Lab and Classic Bowling, the first award from the tenth ramp on is an extra ball, once a game. The count starts again with each ball. Flipped Out also has combos: its orbit and right ramp bring the ball back to the right flipper, and making another shot within a few seconds pays double, then triple, then four times.

Wizard modes

Flipped Out, the Observatory, Monster Lab and Classic Bowling each build toward one big mode at the end of their rules, the wizard mode: a multiball where every major shot is worth far more than usual. Flipped Out, the Observatory's Grand Tour and Monster Lab's All Hallows' Eve put four balls in play, and Classic Bowling's Tenth Frame three. On most tables the features get harder to finish each time you play through them in a game, and reaching the wizard mode is meant to be rare. Carnival has none: its Grand Prize starts the midway's next round instead. The table guides say how each one qualifies.

Game over and best scores

When the last ball drains, a card shows your score, the table's five best games on this device with their dates, and NEW BEST when you beat the top one. Tap Play again or touch the table to start a new game. Scores stay on your device; there are no accounts, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Table guides