Wizard

Wizard, from 1971, was the original use of the playfield for the better known Abra Ca Dabra from 1975. Only a handful of the games were made, though, so you won’t run into it often. The rules for Wizard were copied in 1977 for Team One (when set for points rather than add-a-balls).

I prefer to use any practice I have to find the plunge for the “I” since it’s usually the hardest letter to get. The game is normally set so that getting the Z or the A gives you both letters, which makes it easier to get them.

You want to do two things here: 1. hit each drop target when the light above it is lit (scores 5,000 instead of 500\) and eventually complete all of the 10 targets and 2. score all six [vs. four for Abra Ca Dabra] “WIZARD” letter lanes.

Finishing either drop target bank lights the center stand up target for 50,000 and changes the value of the outer return lane on that side from 5000 to 5,000. Hitting the lit center target resets the completed target bank.

Finishing WIZARD changes the value of lit drop targets from 5,000 to 50,000.

The W in Wizard is the inner left return lane; the D is the inner right return lane. Neither can be shatzed. Letters carry over from ball to ball; drop targets carry over, too.

Switch hits change the lit target, so it will eventually cycle to light each of them in turn. The bumpers also alternate on switches between 100 and 1,000 points.

If the machine is properly powered and adjusted you can shoot the ball up the I and R lanes, which also gives you a chance to get another letter if the ball bounces around above the top lanes briefly. You should also be able to bank the ball off the rubber behind the drop targets and up the Z and A lanes (like for the 2 and 3 lanes on Abra Ca Dabra), though this is less common.

Scores on Wizard are non-linear: if you don’t complete a target bank or WIZARD, you rarely exceed 100,00. If you finish them early, e.g. by ball 3, you often score multiple hundred thousands. Getting a 50K target lit is huge. The game has backglass displays for 100,000 increments in addition to the 5-digit scoring reel.