"I'm Craaaaazy Bob! And you're trapped in my junkyard!"
- Crazy Bob
Junk Yard is one of the three Williams pinball tables released in the first wave of Zen Studios' Williams pinball collection, initially released for Pinball FX3. The protagonist of the table is an inventor who is trapped in Crazy Bob's junkyard, who must build a space ship to escape and defeat him.
Objective[]
The goal of this table is to aid an inventor trapped in Crazy Bob's junk yard in devising a machine that can help him escape, before confronting and defeating him in outer space with it, through four "adventure" missions. Each adventure requires a certain contraption, which can be crafted by obtaining certain junk items, and all junk must be collected to unlock the wizard mode. Adventures only need to be started to progress to the wizard mode, and begin at the sewer sink hole. All missions can be initially played in any order and cannot be repeated once attempted for the rest of the current wizard mode run. On subsequent attempts, all four adventures will be played in the order shown below.
Junk and contraptions[]
There are ten unique pieces of junk to collect, and five different contraptions to build. Junk is collected in several ways; the player will always have the toaster at the start of each session, and qualified junk is indicated by whatever insert is currently flashing, which can be rotated with slingshot hits or the left flipper.
Junk can be collected by scoring the "collect junk" skill shot award, earning it from enough left ramp shots or the Magic Bus random award, beating video modes, or shooting the toilet when "Choose Junk" is lit. All junk is worth 50,000 points and contributes to an end-of-ball bonus. Collecting all unique junk will award the "Junk Champion" 5 million score award. Once collected, junk parts are retained permanently for the duration of the session. An extra ball will light after collecting 5 pieces of junk.
The five contraptions that can be assembled, as well as the junk parts required, are:
| Contraption | Junk Required | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| Toast gun | Hair dryer + toaster | Changes the video mode to "Save the Girl" for the rest of the session. |
| Radar | Television + weather vane | Unlocks the Radar Adventure. |
| Jalopy | Bike tire set + bathtub + fan | Unlocks the Great Jalopy Race. |
| Submerger | Jalopy + fishbowl | Unlocks the Great Toilet Adventure. |
| Flying machine | Jalopy + propeller | Unlocks Air Tactical Combat. |
Adventures[]
The four adventures are:
- Radar Adventure: Use the radar to find five fireworks in the sewers. The player must shoot lit major lanes that randomly change every 10-15 seconds five times, once for each firework, to successfully complete the mode within 60 seconds.
- The Great Jalopy Race: Shoot all five major lanes within a 20 second time limit to win the race. Each lit shot scores a firework.
- The Great Toilet Adventure: Shoot either the toilet ramp or the sewer a total of five times to find five fireworks, one per shot, within 20 seconds. All switches on the playfield will score the Great Toilet Jackpot, which can be raised by means described in the "Perks" section.
- Air Tactical Combat: Hit the upper targets with the captive ball five times within 20 seconds to defeat approaching enemies. Each hit is worth 750,000 points plus 250,000 points times the ordinal number of the shot.
Outer Space[]
Once all four adventures are started and all junk has been collected, Outer Space will be unlocked to start at the sewer. This is a 4-ball final multiball mission, with a timer based on the amount of fireworks the player acquired before starting the mission. 50k points are scored per firework at the start of the mode, with an additional 10 million points scored for collecting 20 fireworks before starting the wizard mode. The player must shoot all lit lanes before they are relit (within 20 seconds after shooting a lit lane), until all of them are no longer lit, to finally shoot down and defeat Crazy Bob. Each shot is worth 50k times the number of fireworks collected, and a victory over him will net 10 million points. After one attempt at the wizard mode, the player's firework count will reset to zero and they must repeat all four missions again to unlock the wizard mode again, but will keep all junk and contraptions for the rest of the session.
Side modes[]
- Time Machine: If the player hasn't collected all junk in the game yet, this side mode will be ready to activate at the sewer sinkhole if the player earns the time machine award from the skill shot, earns that same award from the Magic Bus, or obtains the cuckoo clock junk item. Once that sinkhole is shot, the scoring display will show the time machine's display readout, which will show one of several random dates, each corresponding to one of the side modes. The side modes are as follows:
- December 14, 1992 - The Addams Family (Mamushka): Based on a frenzy mode in the most commercially successful pinball table in the world. All switches are worth 100,000 points for 20 seconds.
- January 13, 1993 - Creature from the Black Lagoon (Move Your Car): Based on a hurry-up mode in Creature from the Black Lagoon, this side mode uses the same rules, but uses the crane sinkhole in place of the center lane and decreases the hurry-up value to 250,000 shrinking to 100,000. Shooting the crane sinkhole rewards the current value and starts a 16-second bonus round to shoot that sinkhole again to earn double that award. Three consecutive bonus awards can be collected, to further multiply the score up to 4x.
- October 31, 1995 - Attack From Mars (Saucer Attack): Based on the video mode in Attack from Mars, this video mode requires the player to use the flipper buttons to aim an auto-firing turret at descending flying saucers, with 50,000 points per destroyed saucer and a chance to shoot down an extra ball after 30 have been defeated; after enough have been defeated, the mothership will spawn, which takes 50 hits to defeat and scores 1 million points. The mode continues until one saucer makes it to ground.
- February 15, 1999 - Knight Mission: This side mode is based on a planned Williams pinball table that was scrapped. A sequence of timed hurry-up shots will start, where the player must first shoot the reverse scoop for a hurry-up value starting at 250,000, then shoot the bus ramp for the hurry-up value increased by 125,000 points, then shoot randomly flashing lanes for hurry-up values that increase by the same amount. The starting value and target lane resets back to 250,000 and the dog ramp respectively once this mode ends.
- Video Modes: Crazy Bob's pet is a ruthless bulldog named Spike whom the inventor must deal with. If the player spells DOG at the reverse scoop (or with weak left ramp shots), the bonus multiplier will increase and the next shot to the raised reverse scoop will start a video mode. The video mode can be either one of two modes, depending on whether or not the inventor has built the toaster gun:
- Run from Spike: With no weapon to fend himself with, the inventor must get as far away from Spike as possible. This side mode will start if the video mode begins without the toaster gun. The goal of this side mode is to rapidly mash the flipper buttons to help the inventor get away from Spike. If Spike catches him, the mode fails. If he makes it to the other side of the screen, the player wins the mode with whatever score amount remains from a hurry-up value (1 million x the video mode attempt number), plus one random junk part. Spike will move faster on this video mode's next level every time the mode is completed successfully.
- Save the Girl: This video mode will start if the player starts video mode with the toaster gun equipped. The player must watch two open windows carefully and shoot Spike with the toaster gun three times; hitting the girl with the toaster gun will force the player to shoot Spike one more time. The left flipper button fires a toaster slice at the left window and vice versa. The player only has 12 seconds and a minimum of 5 toaster gun ammo to defeat Spike. If either ammo or time runs out, the mode will fail. On harder difficulties, Spike may change direction after passing through one window, and can move at irregular speeds, demanding sharp reflexes for victory. Hits on Spike award 100,000 points x the video mode level, and winning the video mode awards its total points and one random junk item (or a firework if all 10 were collected).
Multiball modes[]
- Multiball: If the player spells MULTIBALL by completing the target banks near the crane sinkhole (first attempt only) or with hits to the upper target bank via the captive ball (with one shot to the crane sinkhole automatically spelling 3 letters for a 100,000 sneak-in bonus), a 3-ball multiball will be ready to start at the crane sinkhole. This can also start instantly with a "Start Multiball" award from the Magic Bus. Jackpots can be earned by shooting the crane sinkhole, which will in turn light a super jackpot at that same hole until the multiball mode ends. The jackpot starts at 1 million points and can be permanently increased for the session up to a maximum of 3,025,000 points by hitting the upper targets with the captive ball, while the super jackpot is a flat 3 million points. If no jackpot was collected, the player will have 12 seconds to shoot the crane sinkhole again to restart the multiball before having to spell MULTIBALL again to light it.
- Crane Multiball: If the player completes both of the target banks near the crane sinkhole, both inlanes will light to start the Crane Hurry-Up. The player must knock the captive ball into one of the upper targets to determine the jackpot value, which starts at 50,000 points and decreases to 25,000 over 10 seconds; once the value is collected, 2-ball multiball will start. The lower target banks near the crane sinkhole will score jackpots, with an upper target bank hit via the captive ball awarding a 2x jackpot and a crane sinkhole shot awarding a 5x jackpot.
Perks[]
- Skill Shot: The skill shot award is determined by spinner hits. Possible awards include acquiring junk, +1x bonus multiplier, lighting the time machine, 250,000 - 1 million points, light extra ball, or a chance to execute a super skill shot.
- To perform the super skill shot, the player must shoot the sewer sinkhole once the ball enters play. If successful, the player can repeat the super skill shot until 10 consecutive super skill shots are scored or the 9-second time limit given per attempt expires. The value of a super skill shot is 250,000 x the number of times it was scored consecutively.
- Auto-Fire: At the start of each ball and multiball, a short ball saver will activate. Once it expires, it can be reactivated for 20 seconds as a random prize from the Magic Bus awards.
- Recycle: Completing a blue side target bank within 25 seconds of hitting the first target in the bank will activate a Recycle ball saver at the target bank's corresponding outlane, which sends the ball to the plunger for another skill shot. This can also be granted as a random Magic Bus award. Recycles persist across balls until they are used.
- Bonus Multiplier: The end-of-ball bonus multiplier advances by +1x, to a maximum of 6x, each time a video mode is qualified at the reverse scoop by spelling DOG. It can also be advanced from the skill shot or Magic Bus random awards. Bonus X is maintained across balls.
- Toast Ammo: Once the player has acquired the toaster gun (see "Junk and contraptions"), ammo for the gun can be gathered by shooting the sewer sinkhole, with each hit to the latter granting up to 10 slices of toast, worth 10,000 points per slice. 5 slices from the ammo count can be spent to buy a firework every time the target next to the reverse scoop is shot. Toaster gun ammo determines how many shots the player has available to shoot Spike the Dog in the Save the Girl video mode, and 5 extra ammo is granted when it begins.
- Fireworks: Fireworks power the inventor's final contraption, allowing him to battle Crazy Bob in outer space. They can be earned as a random award from the skill shot or Window Shopping, beating the Save the Girl video mode with all junk collected, hitting the toaster gun target to spend 5 slices of toast ammo to craft one, or by shooting a flashing lane in any adventure. Fireworks determine how much time the player has to win the wizard mode, and also add up in end-of-ball bonus.
- Bus Rides: Every time a full shot is made through the left ramp, a bus ride is scored. Certain numbers of bus rides qualify Magic Bus, Window Shopping, and light the extra ball. The left ramp is also where junk is collected.
- Magic Bus: Every 1st, 4th and 11th bus ride will light a random award at the Magic Bus. Possible awards include 250,000 - 1 million points, collect junk, video mode, Multiball, light Time Machine, light Window Shopping, auto-fire, recycle lit, or light extra ball. Rarely, the Magic Bus will award "all of the above", awarding all four awards seen in the display animation at once.
- Window Shopping: Bus rides also qualify Window Shopping at the toilet ramp, which can also be earned from the skill shot. The player has some control over what is chosen, as this award is a roulette that stops after 10 seconds or whenever they press both flipper buttons; the possible prizes include collecting 3 fireworks, earning an extra ball, or lighting a jackpot that can be claimed at the crane sinkhole. "Toxic Waste" and "Free Game" are the two other possible awards, the former of which does nothing, and the latter of which is meaningless in this digital recreation of the table.
- Extra Ball: Extra balls can be lit at the sewer sinkhole by collecting five pieces of junk, lighting one from the skill shot, random Magic Bus or Window Shopping awards, collecting 32 bus rides, or by shooting down the "EB" extra ball icon in the Saucer Attack video mode.
Tips[]
- Video mode is easy to start, scores lots of points, and has many uses. Choose the toaster at the start of the game, shoot the DOG ramp, nudge the ball over to the left flipper, rinse and repeat. While the video mode increases in difficulty each time it is started, so do the points scored with each Spike hit. This is also the most reliable way to collect the junk needed to light adventures. Lighting video mode also increases the bonus multiplier, which can add up during a long game and is automatically held between balls.
- After reaching Outer Space for the first time, your priority for the rest of the game should be playing through the adventures repeatedly. Outer Space is an easy 15 million, 35 / 40 million if you collected 20 fireworks beforehand, and the junk is rendered moot for the rest of the game as a result.
- Beware of potential straight-down-the-middle drains when aiming for targets near the crane toy and captive ball.