Quickie Version
Mostly UTAD, ideally shooting at the 50-point K and Q stand-up targets. Shoot the center rotating disk when it displays a number you lack. If you’re close to finishing all the cards, focus on that.
Go-To Flipper
Balanced
Skill Shot
get a lit lane for 50 points. I prefer the 9 and 6 lanes since after rolling through these, the ball is likely to hit a bumper and score the K or Q target, possibly bouncing back and forth to do so more than once. Balls missing the top lanes completely and coming through the center are the worst unless you can get them to bounce off of that bumper into the Ace target.
Full Rules
Your end of ball bonus is 10 points per card scored, but the game keeps track if you have finished all of them and will give you a second “hand” of bonuses for another set of cards.
The center cylinder has various cards on it, but only the three facing you can readily be hit at any given moment. All ten lanes on the game spin the cylinder to reveal other cards. Shoot it to collect any cards you lack; if the three cards you can hit are ones you already have, go up top. Don’t bother shooting the Jack or 10 targets above the return lanes, those shots are risky if made, riskier if missed. Try to pick them up off the cylinder instead. You might also get them by accident with a shot that’s too weak to go up top.
If you’re close to finishing all 13 cards, make your priority doing so; once complete, all 13 cards become available again for another set of end-of-ball bonus. It’s a lot easier to get a bunch more quickly when all 13 are “new” than when you’ve already got most of them.
If you see the ball nearing one of the \#4 or \#5 side “spin roto” lanes, try to get it to go through there rather than roll off the other side of those triangles towards the center. Key feeds are how the ball comes out of these \#4 and \#5 side lanes, and off the triangular wedges next to them.
Playfield Risk
Balls rolling slowly off the top of the mounts above the Jack and Ten targets down the middle, or bouncing from those mounts to the side of the center rotating mount and down a side outlane; balls that barely miss those mounts often go into the slingshots for drains. Rebounds from shots at the rotating disk targets can easily drain; rebounds from the Jack and Ten often go dangerously into the opposite slingshot. With six exposed rubber posts, any missed shots can be deadly.
External Links
Machine Information
- Name
- King of Diamonds
- Manufacturer
- Gottlieb
- Year
- 1967
- Type
- em
- Display
- reels
- Players
- 4