Funhouse

Funhouse
Board layout | Detail Pictures
Free game at 5,100,000
Current High Score: 23,531,190 (JCN)
50 cents for one game, 75 cents for two games, and $1.00 for three games

The idea for this quest began with Funhouse. When I was growing up, the arcade near my house had Funhouse. I generally played "Twister" instead, for a lot of reasons. First, Funhouse eats your quarters pretty quickly if you don't know where the ball is coming out of next. Second, the rules are more complicated than you'd expect. Finally, and worst of all, it has a little plastic midget's head stuck inside the machine to taunt you.

Funhouse is one of the pinball games that was digitized for the Wii game "Pinball Hall Of Fame - The Williams Collection". My wife and I played through the Wii game, and managed to "unlock" most of the goals. We had a great time playing it, and so did our friends. So we gave copies of PHoF to my brother and dad for their birthdays. When my dad came to town a few weeks ago, my wife and I took him to Pinball Pete's and played several games of Funhouse. The version of Funhouse in PHoF comes with 82 pages of instructions, so we knew exactly what we were doing. Sure, sure, you're thinking, "The Rules say you're not allowed to read more than the card posted on the machine". Unfortunately, I already knew the objectives before making The Rules, and can't un-remember them.

The most intriguing part of Funhouse is Rudy, the mechanical head. He can't decide if he's on your side. Sometimes it's "You Can Have it Back" and "Have Yourself a Hot Dog", but other times it's "Stay AWAY From the Clock" and "That Was No Accident". When you're doing poorly he's all peaches and cream, but the minute you get to 11:30 he doesn't want to cooperate and simply won't go to bed. Even though it creeps me out that they embedded an uppity midget (dwarf? Can't see his fingers) in a pinball machine, I like the reasons that they did it. The funhouse theme is well tied together through the hot dog targets, the bright colors, the "mechanical man", and the trap-door. Once you figure out what the table wants you to do, Rudy's chatter turns from heckling to advice on what you should be shooting for next.

Because I had read the rules and played the Wii version, I beat Funhouse on the third game with a score of 7,222,690. You need to progress the clock to score the Big Points, so over half of those were scored on the final ball.
Here is an interview with Pat Lawlor who helped design Funhouse.
Playing Tip:
The key to not losing at Funhouse is to remember that when you hit the ball into the Wind Tunnel, it will come out of the Gangway. Evil. The key to winning at Funhouse is to Understand The Clock. Most things will advance the clock a small amount, but once you're at 11:30 you need to go directly up the Hidden Hallway to advance it farther. And the Hidden Hallway can't be easily hit with the right flipper. To give yourself the best shot at it, you can use the right-flipper to get up the center ramp, which sends the ball around to the left flipper where you need it.