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From: "Norman G. Sippel" <[e-mail]>
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Subject: FAQ: Epic's Android Pinball (Shareware Version)
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Archive-Name: games/android-faq
Version: Fri Apr 15 09:45:44 EDT 1994
Written-By: Norman G. Sippel

******************************************************************************
                   Epic Pinball's Shareware Android Pinball
                          Frequently Asked Questions

                                  Written By
                               Norman G. Sippel
******************************************************************************
                                 Version 1.10
******************************************************************************

Introduction
------------
With the growth in popularity of the shareware game, Android, and its many
requests for cheat keys, I decided to put this Frequently Asked Questions
document (FAQ) together.  Please e-mail [e-mail] with
any comments, questions, or additions.

As of Friday April 10, the FAQ Server at [e-mail] will be
posting this document in the middle of every month.

This version is dedicated to my parents.  Happy Anniversary!

Trademark and Copyright Notices
-------------------------------
All Android trademarks and copyrights mentioned in this FAQ are property of
Epic Megagames and James Schmalz.  This purpose of this FAQ is to inform
people, and it is kept in my spare time for no profit.

Distribution and Site File Access
---------------------------------
This document, if kept on a file transfer protocol (FTP) site, must be kept in
a public access section and be available for free; otherwise, the site may not
carry this document.  If a site accepts these terms, it may freely distribute
this document as long as it remains in tact with proper disclaimers and
credits.

This document, or any derivative works thereof, may not be sold or
redistributed for profit in any way without express written permission
(through paper [snail] mail) of the editor, Norman G. Sippel.  This includes,
but is not limited to, translations into foreign languages, mass archival as
on a CD_ROM, inclusion in commercially published compilations (books), and
uploading this document to non-USENET services.

This document represents the collective effort of many USENET pinball fans.
We appreciate your honoring of this policy.


                             *******************
                            * Table Of Contents *
                             *******************


                       I. What is Android Pinball?
                      II. Where can I get a copy of Android?
                     III. What are Android's keyboard controls?
                      IV. What are its missions and goals?
                       V. How do I hit ... ? (Strategy Section)
                      VI. What are its secrets?
                     VII. Credits

                                  ** NOTE **
This edition, I am adding a strategy section.  Please send in, if you wish,
your best strategies.  (They will be added along with your name next to it.)

The biggest FAQ is "how do I hit the physical systems consistently?"  I have
yet to come up with a solid solution, so one would be very much appreciated by
all!  (I tried in this edition!:)


I. What is Android Pinball?

"Android" is one of Epic Megagames' new pinball tables.  This FAQ covers the
shareware version of Android which is available all over the Internet (and
other networks).  Remember: Android is shareware; if you like it, please pay
for it.  Thank you.

Epic Megagames' [Hyped-Up] Description (from vendor.doc):

   Epic Pinball brings true arcade-style Pinball to life on your PC!  The
   256-color scrolling VGA graphics, digital music and sound, and ultra-
   realistic style will take your breath away!  This true commercial-quality
   product was created by the authors of Silverball, the new record-setting
   retail pinball game.

   The shareware version of Epic Pinball showcases the ANDROID pinball table.
   True to the 1990's pinball style, you must make an increasingly-challenging
   series of shots to bring the Android to life!  The dazzling graphics, real
   pinball sounds, and authentic look and feel will keep you hooked on
   Epic Pinball - a great game for the whole family.

   EPIC PINBALL Features:

   * Ultra smooth-scrolling 256-color VGA graphics.  The animation runs
     at an astounding 60 frames per second!
   * A lavishly-illustrated, robust pinball table.
   * Realistic pinball action, sound, music, and thrills!
   * Features a special multiple-ball mode!  Play up to five balls
     on the table simultaneously.
   * Accurately reflects a 1990's-style Pinball table.
   * Real digital pinball sound effects.
   * A unique digital musical score.

EPIC PINBALL Gadgets:

   Drop Targets              Ball-return gates        Spinners
   Multi-Level Playfields    Kickbacks                Tunnels
   Messenger Balls           Multiple-ball mode       Skill shots
   Jackpots                  Rollovers                Much, much more!

   Requirements:
   * A 386 or faster IBM-compatible computer with VGA graphics
   * A Hard Disk
   * 640K of memory

   Also supports:
   * Sound Blaster, SB Pro, Gravis Ultrasound, and compatible music cards.


II. Where can I get a copy of Android?

One can download it from any major FTP site.  Archie can find FTP sites with
it using the filename search of "0pinball.zip."  Here are a few places to look
(from a recent archie search):

Host athene.uni-paderborn.de

    Location: /pcsoft2/msdos2/games/Epic
           FILE -rw-r--r--     707185  Nov  1 14:49  0pinball.zip

Host gandalf.umcs.maine.edu

    Location: /pub/msdos/games
           FILE -rw-------     707185  Dec  8 04:34  0pinball.zip


III. What are Android's keyboard controls?

Key            Function
-------------------------------------------------------
Space Bar      Shoot the ball, Tilt the pinball machine
Left Arrow     Flip up the left flipper
Left Shift     Flip up the left flipper
Right Arrow    Shoot the ball, Flip up right flipper
Right Shift    Flip up the right flipper
Up Arrow       Scroll pinball machine viewing area up
Down Arrow     Scroll pinball machine viewing area down
Z              Tilt the machine right
/              Tilt the machine left
ESCape         Quit (Y/N)?

See "What are its secrets?" for cheat keys! :)


IV. What are its missions and goals?

Here are the three goals of the game:

[1] Hit the physical systems hole once to start activating the systems.
    Every time you hit all three targets, aim for the hole again to
    activate an arm, a leg, or other body part.  Once you finish the torso,
    there are no more systems to activate.  Collect Tests every time you
    activate an android part.

Physical Stages: (Note: All "M"s after numbers stand for million)
  Hit all three targets (marked 1, 2, 3) and physical stage hole to activate
    Left Arm
    Right Arm (Multiball & Jackpot)
    Left Leg
    Right Leg (Multiball & Jackpot)
    Head
    Torso (Multiball with 3 balls and Double Jackpot; Testing max is 247M)

[2] Move the ball through the rightmost ramp to activate the computer link.
    Every time you complete the targets, hit through the regular left ramp
    to get memory (5M, 10M, 15M, etc).  Once you complete all 3 targets,
    you can get BOTH goals [1] and [2], and then it resets.

Memory Stages:
  Basic Input/Output (I/O)
    5M - Start computer link-up and aim for all ramps

  Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    10M - Aim for all ramps and targets
    15M (Virus) - Hit rightmost ramp

  Artificial Intelligence 2 (AI2)
    20M - Shoot all red triangle paths

  Database
    35M - Sink the pinball into all the sink-holes
    15M (Virus) - Hit rightmost ramp

  Activate
    Hit all three targets on the board (the 1, 2, and 3 switches)

[3] Collect points and jackpots.

Collecting Points:

There are many "points only" targets on the board such as the "Power Up" hole.
Every time this hole is hit, one letter lights up at the bottom of the board
(such as "P" or "W"); once all ten letters are lit, a jackpot of 10 million is
awarded.  Another score-booster is aiming for the ramp that leads to the
bumpers, and the red arrow for the middle lights begins glowing.  When this
ramp is traveled, the ramp pot increases by thirty thousand and the current
pot is awarded.  Another target is the IQ--IQ will never reach a maximum.  My
personal high for IQ was 1100.

Multiball Stages and Jackpots:

After completing the arms, multiball (with two pinballs) will appear.  Aim for
the second left-most lane (not the test lane or the return-to-the-bottom ramp)
which will give the jackpot plus highlight the middle ramp's bonus.  After
completing the legs, a similar multiball will occur.  Once the torso is
activated, the final multiball will drop its three pinballs in the middle of
the board.  Aim for the test lane for double jackpot.

Other Notes of Interest:

A. The middle ramp's bonus value starts at 100,000 and increases every time by
30,000 when the ramp is lit.  (See "How do I hit ... ?" section for more
information on the middle ramp.)

B. Fast PCs have silver flippers, and slow PCs have yellow flippers.  This can
be switched in the OPTIONS menu.

C. Angles make the ball lighter or heavier.  Low angles for lightweight
pinballs or high angles for heavyweight pinballs.

From Mike Brandt ([e-mail]):
  Actually, the angle refers to the slope of the virtual pinball
  table relative to horizontal. The physics is different from that
  of lighter/heavier balls. For example, on a given slope, balls
  with different weights will accelerate at the same rate. But
  changing the slope changes the acceleration.


V. How do I hit ... ? (Strategy Section)

    ... the Physical Systems Hole?

The best method I've found is to let the ball go through the left ramp and
come down to the left flipper.  When it lands on the very edge of the
flipper's tip, flip up, and it should go in about 50% of the time.

    ... the Power Hole?

Similar to the physical systems except that it should be in the middle of the
left flipper.  After it leaves the hole, let it touch (for about a second) the
flipper, and flip the ball up again.

    ... the Test Hole or Drop Targets?

Flip the pinball up through the middle ramp and let it land on your right
flipper.  When it gets close to the tip, flip up, and it should head in the
direction of the hole/targets.

    ... the Bumpers (more often after it is shot up)?

When the pinball is heading back down to the center of the board after
bouncing around the bumpers, hit the Space Bar to shake the pinball machine.
This will cause the ball to bounce around more and rack up IQ points.

    ... the Middle Ramp's light on?

Flip the pinball to the middle lane; this will activate the middle ramp's
bonus.  After the initial 100 grand, the bonus increases by 30,000.


VI. What are its secrets?

To get an extra ball before playing, press F1 at the OPTIONS screen at the
number of balls choice.  (See the extra pages in the help.)

These are not officially from Epic Megagames, but these debug codes in the
shareware version will help you have some fun with the game.  All codes need
to have escape (ESC) to be pressed first for the prompt; the responses to this
prompt activates the cheats.  (The escape is included for quick reference.)

Codes      Purpose                                 Debug Purpose (theoretical)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         The best cheats of the game:

ESC-B-N    * An extra ball is dropped during play. Test multiball.

ESC-J      + Using the cursor keys, the ball is    Test whole game and goals.
           under player control.

                           Interesting debug codes:

ESC-F9     A border appears.                       ? ? ? ?
           (Does not work for all monitors.)

ESC-F10    A screen capture to file SCREEN.PCX.    Advertising Purposes

ESC-F1     A parameter request prompt.             ? ? ? ?
           (Unknown parameters)

Footnotes from Mike Brandt ([e-mail]):
  * This works on all tables in the registered version, except
    for Engima which crashes (albeit in a very colorful way)
  + This does not work on the registered version, including Android.

I have tested out all other keys, so there are no more ESC-(button) debug
codes.  However, the ESC-F1 looks to be promising research material.

Other means of free balls:

DISCLAIMER: I do not recommend changing any of the files on pinball except
when the Set-Up Program changes it.  Use at your own risk!!

From Steve Hastings ([e-mail]):
  A good cheat you didn't mention: make a backup copy of the options
  file.  Then change the number of balls. Then run "comp" or some similar
  utility on the backed-up options file versus the current options file;
  you will get a message that one byte is different, and the offset of
  the byte.  Now use Norton Utilities or any other binary editor to patch
  that one byte to a value of zero.  Presto: an unlimited number of
  balls.  The ball counter will max-out at 9 and stay there, and you can
  play forever.  I think I had a 5-digit IQ once when I was trying to get
  past "Torso" to the next level.  I'll be bummed if there isn't one.

From Mike Brandt ([e-mail]):
  Here is a QBASIC program which accomplishes the "edit the options
  file" cheat. Just run QBASIC (which comes with DOS versions 5 and
  up), type in the following program, and choose RUN from the menu.

   OPEN "C:\PINBALL\CONFIG.PIN" FOR BINARY AS #1
   A$ = CHR$(0)
   PUT #1, 12, A$
   CLOSE #1

  Substitute the path that you have Epic Pinball in, if it isn't
  C:\PINBALL, in the first line. You can also change the zero in
  the second line to a number from 1 to 9 to set the number of
  balls per game (the Zero makes it infinite.)

Balls Executable Program:
There is a program out on the ftp sites called "balls.c" and/or "balls.exe".
It will give you unlimited balls, and it is rumored to be written by Epic
Megagames.  The first two methods are dangerous because I'm not sure if they
are copyright violations.  I would like to include the balls.exe file in
uuencoded format, but I would like to find out from the powers that be.  Who's
right about changing the files?  Who's wrong?  I am waiting for Epic
Megagames' response to my e-mails.  My friend Darren has some comments on it:

From Darren 'The Hammer' Carlson ([e-mail]):
  I think the FAQ is quite good. I wasn't aware of the debug codes that were
  available in the game.

  I can't see why you wouldn't be able to distribute the compiled code for
  Balls.exe with the FAQ. Epic has the file in its Hints & Cheats Library on
  Compuserve in their Forum. I don't remember there being a note about not
  being able to distribute it but I may be wrong. I'll post a message in the
  Forum and see what the powers that be say about it.

Here is yet another viewpoint about the file changing:

From Mike Brandt ([e-mail]):
  I noticed that you mentioned this in your FAQ; I find it quite
  surprising. After all, I bought the program from Epic, and I
  feel that I have the right to modify any of its files if I so
  desire; I have no intention of giving any of the files (modified
  or not) to anybody else. I will check Epic's licensing agreement.
  I do believe that you're not allowed to modify the shareware
  version *and then pass it on*, but modifying for your own use?

  Anyway, even if it is a copyright violation to modify the file,
  it should be ok to describe how it's done. (For example, growing
  pot is illegal, but I've seen _The Marijuana Grower's Guide_ in
  bookstores!) Just add a disclaimer. (I did add a disclaimer -- Ed.)


VII. Credits

These people (whether they know it or not) have given information for this
FAQ.  Their work is most appreciated.  (If you don't like the name given for
your entry, e-mail me the name you would like to use.)

Mike [e-mail]
Darren 'The Hammer' [e-mail]
Chris [e-mail]
Steve [e-mail]
Ming-Jer [e-mail]
Tony [e-mail]
White [e-mail]
[e-mail]