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ACDC - My Take

Vengeance

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2012
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So this came up in another thread, my initial reaction to ACDC was one of distaste, with the earlier software on the machine there were so many things wrong. It felt more like it was just about the music and not about the pinball and the only thing to do was keep piling on and collecting the jackpot value.

Fast forward to today and the latest revision of the software has turned a mediocre game into a spectacular game. As far as I'm concerned ACDC is the best, and most balanced game when it comes to risk vs reward.

First and foremost let me take care of one thing in this post, yes the right side inlane/outlane is completely obscured by the cannon, this would be the games one flaw I'd have to say. If you own the game, you can get used to losing site of the ball over there and still know what you need to do to keep the ball from heading down the outlane. But I can understand how if you are stepping up to the game and you don't play it regularly that not being able to see over there is very jarring.

That being said, what they have done with ACDC with the software is nothing short of a master piece, I'd put it up there with the likes of TSPP and LOTR from the way the software integrates with the machine, it's perfect and works so well.

I'm sure you are wondering WTF am I talking about, at is' core ACDC sounds simplistic, pick a song, shot the shoots, build a jackpot value and collect it. Simple right, sure, but that's where it starts, it' starts simple then you start to get into the meat of it.

ACDC is great in that it forces you to play the entire machine. You see each song in the game corresponds to a specific shot on the machine. So as an example, Warmachine is the left loop, Highway to Hell is the right ramp, TNT is the Standups, Shook me all night long is the pop bumpers, Whole Lotta Rosie is the Top rollovers, etc, etc. What's cool is how each of these items works into the machine. If for an example you choose Highway to Hell, the machine starts with just the right ramp shot lit. You need to shoot the right ramp in order to light all the other shots on the machine. Once you shoot the right ramp and all the other shots are lit, you shoot those shots to build up the Jackpot value but a greater point value. Just shooting the one lit shot associated with the song will get you no where fast. So you need to keep shooting all the other shots on the PF to build up your song jackpot value.

Once you shoot a shot, the light turns off and you can't raise the value of the jackpot again until you shoot the specific shot related to the song playing, this relights all the shots and you can continue building your jackpot.

What's great is since the machine makes you play out the entire machine, there is strategy involved in when you use what songs and how best to take advantage of them during multiball.

As an example Jam multiball, the jackpots are on the ramps. So when in that multiball I want a song that will relight the rest of the shots while I'm making Jackpots at the same time, so I'm going to be picking Highway to Hell or Rock and Roll Train. As those are left and right ramp shots. That way every Jackpot I make during Jam Multiball, is also building toward and resetting the available shots to build up that jackpot value.

Now this is where the risk reward comes in, the Jackpot value is only good for the ball you are on, if you build it up to 100 million and then drain before you collect, you have to start all over again. Also you can't just collect it whenever, you need to have the cannon lit, which you do by spelling fire in the inlane/outlanes. But the problem is once the cannon is lit, any shot to the right ramp loads the cannon and you must fire it, if you miss, the cannon unlights and you are stuck spelling fire again so you can collect the jackpot. It becomes this cat and mouse game of trying to keep the canon lit but not shooting the right ramp so you don't waste it.

Then you add in the playfield X and the risk vs reward ramps up even further. If you nail the bell X number of times, it starts a PF multiplier that multiplies all values on the PF. Initially it starts with 2x, but if you nail it enough times during 2x, 3x will start running. This means that whatever jackpot value you have built up could be double or triple if you play your cards right. So now not only do you have to keep an eye on when your cannon is lit, but also how far are you to your next PF multiplier and do you want to risk going for 3x to really get a huge jackpot.

And the entire time in the back of your mind you have to know that if you drain, you have to start all over. Also I haven't mentioned that once you collect the jackpot it goes back down to it's base value as well, so you can only collect it once, so again how do you best take advantage of that.

So really up to this point, all I've covered on the machine is basically the Jackpot value and how best to raise it and take advantage of it, and that is a big part of the game.

But I haven't mentioned VIP passes, stacking multiballs, the other Jackpot modes, and the Encore Wizard mode (which I haven't gotten yet)

I could write out another 15 paragraphs on just those items by themselves and I will if you guys want me to, but I figure this wall of text is long enough at this point.

End of the day, ACDC is one of Stern's best offerings to date, and really ranks up there with the likes of TSPP and LOTR in terms of fun factor and rules. In some ways I want to say ACDC is better because unlike TSPP and LOTR it doesn't require that huge investment of time to play it that the others do. I can play it and have short games, and long games and they both feel satisfying, unlike LOTR and TSPP where if you aren't in for the long haul, you aren't going to get as much out of it.

So if you have just skipped down to the end cause fuck readin, ACDC is awesome, if you don't have one, you should be looking for one as it has the makings of being one of the best pinballs in a long time!
 

Vengeance

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2012
1,990
139
63
Keswick, ON
TwilightZone said:
Sounds awesome. Wish it was other theme. The game is butt ugly to look at.

Cheers,
Duane

I think the LE's look better and have a much better light show with the tri color LED's but I prefer the gameplay on the Pro and don't like the LE features.
 

Vengeance

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Nov 14, 2012
1,990
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Keswick, ON
Except the Bell, the Bell is cool on the LE, love the bell, and the aftermarket mod for the bell on the pro sucks.
 

McMean

Member
Nov 14, 2012
171
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Peterborough
Wow.... wish I knew this before I traded it away. I had no idea of about 50% of that...

I certainly agree - wicked game and lots of fun!!

Daniel
 

Chris Bardon

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2012
1,342
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Mississauga, ON
Yeah, I'm torn on this one. I like the trim and lights on the Premium, and the build quality is better (PF rails, lockdown, clear on the PF). Plus, the giant ass face in the middle of the pro PF... What kills it is that diverter though-it's bad enough that the right ramp gets taken out of the equation completely if the cannon is lit, but the Premium takes both out of play? What's up with that?

What if you intentionally miss the song jackpot shot? Does it reset, or can you try again?

Nice overview though-this game is definitely growing on me.
 

DRANO

Super Member
Nov 15, 2012
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Nice review Adam.
My initial reactions to ACDC were not very positive either. I've played a couple of LEs and Premiums and those games did impress a bit more.. although I understand the drawbacks from a play perspective.
My only issue is that, aside form that concept of risk vs reward, I don't get much of a thrill out of the game and the theme integration into gameplay is tenuous at best.
From the perspective of a player, the road to cool scoring opportunitites sure seems to be well thought through on ACDC, but I'm missing the fun factor. It seems very technical.
A game like LOTR in comparison has both rules and theme integration.

In any case, maybe I should get some more time on ACDC and see if it grows on me.

Thanks for the insight as always!
 

Beafraid

Active Member
Dec 13, 2012
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Maple
Awesome review. I would really like to read more about the other things you mentioned at the end.

Mike.
 

Vengeance

Well-Known Member
Nov 14, 2012
1,990
139
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Keswick, ON
DRANO said:
I don't get much of a thrill out of the game and the theme integration into gameplay is tenuous at best.

The thrill for me comes from sitting on a massive jackpot and then having to try and decide how to best use it, do I double it up, do I try and collect it during a multiball, to I risk a triple, is my cannon lit, etc, etc.

As for the theme integration, you have to like ACDC first and foremost (which I do) but I think it integrates well with the machine, the song choices and the shots they represent are well thought out and work well for what they are trying to do.

Beafraid said:
Awesome review. I would really like to read more about the other things you mentioned at the end.

I'll finish up the rest of the write up soon.
 

Chris Bardon

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Nov 15, 2012
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Did SB end up selling off the ACDCs they used for the CPCs? I think they sold them the last time they ran one, and they were a pretty good deal for what was basically a NIB game with 3 days of use on it.
 

Vengeance

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Nov 14, 2012
1,990
139
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Keswick, ON
Chris Bardon said:
Did SB end up selling off the ACDCs they used for the CPCs? I think they sold them the last time they ran one, and they were a pretty good deal for what was basically a NIB game with 3 days of use on it.

All of those ACDC's were brought in off location
 

g-man

Member
Nov 19, 2012
250
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16
Brampton / Caledon
This must be a good post by Adam because I don't really enjoy playing pinball and he almost has me wanting to. :mrgreen:

If only this was a Led Zeppelin or even a Styx machine ( yeah, that just happened ), then I might even have to buy one.

I wish I hadn't read all the way to the end, cuz now all I hear in my head is "...fuck readin." Too funny.
 

Vengeance

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Nov 14, 2012
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Keswick, ON
Okay, got some more free time, so let’s take another stab at the rest of what ACDC has to offer.

Let me continue first with the multiballs, there are 3 of them, Jam, Album and Tour. Each is lit in different ways, Jam lights by shooting X number of ramp shots, Tour is lit by hitting X number of loop shots and Album (by far the hardest to start) is lit by completing X number of target banks.

What I think is cool about each multiball is how they award skillfull play, you get a base jackpot value but you can raise and double that jackpot value be doing certain things. I haven't figured out the specifics of Album and Tour, but in Jam as the jackpots are on the left and right ramp, if you combo those shots it doubles the overall value of the jackpot and raises it by a bit as well. Then you add in the ability to 2x and 3x off the bell and you can really ramp up your score.

Now comes the stacking, all 3 multiballs stack, but you need to light all 3 of them and start them all at the same time for them to stack. What’s really cool about this is ala BSD, the jackpot values now also triple in value. Then taking it one step further, if you stack all the multiballs they added in a super jackpot that is lit by hitting one jackpot from each of the multiballs (Jam is ramps, Tour is loops, Album is target banks) The super jackpot is lit on the bell and will grow depending on the number of jackpots you hit.

Now this is where things get confusing, in the previous post I talked about the song jackpot, that song jackpot you are building can also be brought into the multiball. Every time you score a jackpot in Album and Tour multiball a animation flashes on the screen of the Album or Tour in chronological order. If the Album or Tour corresponds to the song you currently have playing you score your entire song jackpot value. What is also awesome is that the Jackpot value doesn’t reset, so you are still free to collect it off the cannon as well.

So it really creates a huge opportunity for some massive points if you can line everything up.

Now onto VIP passes, you get VIP passes from the skill shot or super skill shot. VIP passes are kinda a smart bomb so to speak, they award a single shot on the game. No usually your thinking who cares, but where it becomes really valuable is in multiball. You can also get VIP passes from collecting a certain number of song requests.

In multiball if you collect each of the 5 shots on the PF (Left loop, left ramp, bell, right ramp, right loop) you get an add a ball. So since the VPI pass awards one of those shots, you can shoot 4 of the 5 shots and then sit and wait until a ball is about to drain and nail the fire button to bring the ball back into play.

This really adds to the strategy of how you play your multiballs as you want to make sure you take the best advantage possible on when you use your VIP passes to keep your multiball going.

Now onto Encore, I have yet to make it to Encore so I don’t know what the mode is like, but the way you get there is to complete all the songs.

When you choose a song, the song request sheet on the backboard of the machine clears off. You then need to collect 10 of the 12 song requests to give you the option to change the song. You complete a song request by shooting the shot associated with the song, so as an example shooting the left loop would complete the song request for war machine, and the left ramp would be rock and roll train, etc.

Once you have collected all 12 songs, you light encore mode, again I haven’t made it there myself so I don’t know what it is and I don’t like to spoil wizard modes for myself so I haven’t read up on it yet.

I think there might also be another wizard mode from the multiballs, but I’m not sure. During each of the 3 multiballs, outside of the triple stack super jackpot each one has a super jackpot, When you achieve the super jackpot the light for that multiball lights solid, letting you know you have completed that multiball. I have to assume there is a reason to light it solid but I am not sure.

The last thing of note about ACDC are the super modes, they are kinda just an add on, they don’t really offer any major scoring opportunities or huge benefit. I’m also not even sure how to lock them in so you can achieve the built up value off the cannon. But I do know that as an example, super lanes will give you an option to double your bonus or double the score of your next shot when you roll down an inlane or outlane. Also Super combos will light an extra ball after x number of combos made. Each of the super items builds up a value similar to that of the Song Jackpot, but unlike the song jackpot their values hold on from ball to ball (I think) but the values are never huge enough to actually compete with that of the song jackpot values.

Anyway that about sums up ACDC as you can tell from the wall of text, there really is allot to this game, wrapping your head around all the specifics can be tough, but the game is a blast to play.
 

Chris Bardon

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2012
1,342
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Mississauga, ON
In multiball, do the jackpots always come up in the same order? i.e., is there a "best" song to have going at the start of either multiball, or is it pretty much random? Also, does getting the song jackpot only correspond to one of the multiballs, or will a song show up on both an album and a tour? I'm assuming that once you know things well enough you'll know how many jackpot shots remain until you get the song jackpot in multiball.

Great writeup though-I was wondering why the Fire button was flashing when the cannon wasn't lit. Nice use of the feature! I like how this game seems deep without relying on modes, which seems to be the way that most "deep" games work.