Bronco

This game is about getting the ball into the top saucers, but the saucers are more valuable if you shoot the drop targets first. Bronco and Mustang have the oddest set of three drop targets you’ll ever see. Each drop target is in front of a post in the center of the game with a narrow gap between them. Each target you knock down makes shots to the lit saucer add a bonus advance; three drops down, three advances per lit saucer shot. Only one saucer is lit at a time, changing on 10 point switches. Base value of the saucers is 3000, so you want to shoot them anyway.

There’s a scoring lane directly below each saucer, and another kicker lane below each of those. Balls landing in the kicker lanes score 500 and are shot through the middle lane into the saucer (once in a while rattling out). You can score the saucer either directly with a flipper shot, or via getting the ball to drop into a kicker. Balls can enter the kicker either via the gap between the middle lanes and the kicker lanes or from the top of the middle lanes. Any time you can nudge a ball into a chute, either at the top or through the gaps just below the drop target level, do so.

Base bonus goes up to 15K. Bonus is doubled by completing the A-B-C lanes. Bonus is automatically doubled on the last ball and can be raised to 4X then by completing A-B-C. You can get B and C via the return lanes besides at the top of the machine; these are shatzable, but doing so is risky since the ball often ends up in the outlane afterwards. If you get a chance to nudge the ball upward off any of the bumpers into a top A-B-C lane, do so. I say to plunge the A since the only way to get it before draining is at the top.

Completing the three drop targets also lights the upper side lanes “occasionally” for extra ball; only one is lit at a time, the process cycles on switches.

Key feeds on this machine are the kickouts from the saucers. These may go to the flippers below, or they may hit the edge of the middle side lanes and carom into the bumpers.