"Saved the day again... don't everyone thank me at once."
Han Solo, Star Wars: Han Solo
One of the magna-save inserts in Star Wars: Han Solo. The three circular inserts indicate how many magna-saves are currently stacked.
Certain tables may utilize a magna-save system as a primary method of saving balls from draining. The first physical pinball table in history to use a magna-save is Williams' Black Knight; while magna-saves are used less frequently in recent pinball machines, one of Zen designer Zoltan Vari's signatures is the use of magna-saves.
Activation and maintenance[]
As with kickbacks, there may be one or multiple ways to activate the magna-save, depending on the table. In Zen originals like Jurassic Park and Solo: A Star Wars Story, magna-saves are activated by spelling a word at the return lanes; in earlier tables like Fear Itself and Star Wars: Han Solo, they are activated by hitting certain targets throughout the table.
Tables that use magna-saves may differ in how many can be stacked at once, but typically have a cap of 3 stacked magna-saves.
Use[]
Magna-saves typically appear in tables that lack a proper kickback, but early Zen originals like Paranormal and Biolab have both magna-saves and kickbacks.
Unlike kickbacks, which activate automatically, magna-saves must be operated manually by the player and must be used by pressing the launch button. If the ball is particularly close to draining, multiple magna-saves might have to be used to save the ball. Tables that use magna-saves give an audiovisual cue to prompt the player to use them, usually including the table starting to turn dark if the ball drains down either outlane.