Quickie Version
From the right flipper, shoot the saucer if at 4K or 5K, the captive ball otherwise. UTAD via the far right outer arc from the left flipper.
Go-To Flipper
Right if saucer value high, Left if saucer value low.
Skill Shot
get the B letter first, then work your way down from left to right until you have the O and N letters as well. I recommend this order since the ball tends to rattle down and to the right when failing to settle into a lane, making the B the hardest to get.
Full Rules
When the ball is on the right flipper, you have a couple of choices. The center spinner changes the value of the left-side saucer between 1K and 5K [see lights on the playfield]. If the saucer value is 3K, 4K or 5K, shoot the saucer; if the saucer value is at 1K or 2K, shoot the spinner and hope it stops on a bigger number. You can also go for the captive ball in front of the top left chute which scores 4000 if the ball goes up and down at least as far as both switches inside the chute, plus 3000 if you hit the stand-up target at the back of it. DO NOT shoot the captive ball if you have all 9 letters of Bon Voyage; that scores a special (useless in tournaments, worth a free game on location), but more importantly it resets the letters, thus resetting your bonus to zero. Weaker hits to the captive ball will score 1000 to 3000 depending on how far up the ball goes.
From the left flipper, shoot the outer “deflector” lane where the ball goes up to the top stand-up and then back down to get deflected back into the plunger lane rather than along the rollovers left of it. Note the small rightward bend in the left side of that chute: balls going up miss it as they stay along the right edge of the arc; when the ball bounces back from the stand-up target at the end, it rolls down the left side of the chute, hits that bend in the metal and deflects to the right into the plunger lane. The shot scores 5K if you hit the stand-up, 3K when going back into the plunger lane, and you’ll still get to shoot the ball up top towards the B-O-N letters just as if you’d shot at them more directly via going up the right side star rollovers instead of this arc. The ball ends up in the same place, but you score more points en route.
The top right target also awards up to three letters when hit: notice it has three lights below it, “BON, “VOY” and “AGE”. One of those three lights will always be lit. When you hit the target, it gives you any of the letters in the lit trio that you don’t already have. Thus, this is the easiest way to collect letters quickly.
Bonus [letters] carries over from ball to ball.
Playfield Risk
Mostly center drains from the ball exiting the top and outlane drains if it does so into the slingshots. Beware of balls coming too straight down through the spinner or too slowly on either side of it. Stand-up target rebounds can drain, but you should avoid those.
External Links
Machine Information
- Name
- Bon Voyage
- Manufacturer
- Bally
- Year
- 1974
- Type
- em
- Display
- reels
- Players
- 1