Cosmic Gunfight

Cosmic Gunfight is fun to play in multiball, but you needn’t bother to go for it. The best points on the game come from shooting the right orbit over and over. The orbit shot value goes up each time you make it: 20K, 30, 40, 50, 60K, then the next shot starts double playfield scoring; the shot value returns to 20K after that, but now it’s doubled to 40K. The doubler stays active for the remainder of the ball. The orbit shot value is preserved from ball to ball, so if you have 60K lit after ball one, your first two shots to it on ball 2 would score 60K, then the doubler.

The orbit shot feeds the top three lanes, and the value for completing those goes up each time you do so, maxing out at 150K. These values are held from ball to ball as well. And, just to add even more reason to shoot the orbit, balls through the either return lane light it to give you a bonus multiplier advance [not switch hits as stated in the PAPA video]. Your bonus multiplier goes up to 5X, and that, too, is held from ball to ball.

Completing the X-Y pair of lanes at the upper left increases the value of the top left saucer from 10K to 20K, 30K, 50K and finally 100K. That saucer also lights to lock a ball once you’ve made the 1-2-3 lanes. Making 1-2-3 a second time also lights the saucer at the far left to lock a second ball. There is no two-ball multiball in this game, only a three ball one that starts immediately after you lock the second ball.

The drop and stand-up targets are best ignored. Yes, you get some points and bonus from them, but the risk-reward is far lower than for the right orbit.

# **Cosmic Princess [SS – Leisure & Allied, 1979; licensed from Stern]

Similar in many ways to Trident and Magic by Stern, but more fun to play than either, Cosmic Princess is rare to see in the US. If you come across one, don’t pass up a chance to play it\! It’s a bonus-and-spinner game with an appealing playfield layout that really rewards skill.

Once you’ve made all five lanes, the spinner with the pink light on to match \#3 is worth 2K per spin, the other 1K. Also, the top \#3 lane lights for a special; it’s usually set to award 100,000 points in tournaments. You can only collect it once per ball. If you have it lit, top priority is to shoot up top through the left spinner and try to nudge the ball into the \#3 lane.

Base bonus is earned by collecting top lanes, return lanes (3 advances each) and outlanes (also 3 advances) and goes up to 19K. Bonus multiplier is built up by completing the drop targets the same way as on Trident: hit the 2nd and 4th targets for 2X \+ 5K; 1\\3\\5 for 3X \+ 10K; 1\\2\\4\\5 gives 4X \+ 20K; all 5 gives 5x \+ 30K. Maximum collectable bonus is thus 95K. Both base bonus and multiplier reset each ball.

There are so many ways to advance base bonus that any decent length ball will max out unless you collect bonus first, making getting the drop targets for bonus important. The collect bonus saucer at the upper left is always active; when scored, the base bonus resets but any multiplier is held for the rest of that ball. You can’t shoot at the saucer directly, but balls bouncing around the top two bumpers often go into it. Shooting either spinner will put the ball up there anyway, one more reason to go spinners all day at this stage. It’s easy to rebuild bonus; collect it whenever you can.

The outer return lanes score 2K minimum, but go up 2K in value each time you make the left orbit shot up top until worth an additional 6K each.