Why do I have to read the manual to get the complete rules? Beautiful and intriguing case in point: Data East's "Maverick"...

[Mopple]

 

One intriguing and fascinating aspect of Virtual Pinball for me is being able to get hold of and read the old printed manuals, especially important for adjusting late 70s and early 80s SS tables where you have only numbers on the displays to adjust free play and game scoring / difficulty features. 

 

These manuals to me are almost some sort of secret, previously inaccessible documents, back in the day hidden deep under the playfield in the sealed cabinet of a pinball machine in the arcade, never to be seen by us players. Now WE are the masters and can finally access and manipulate the settings menu, and I enjoy it every time I install a new table! 

 

Many but not all (at least those manuals I have come across so far) also feature the detailed ruleset and I have been asking myself: Who was this written for? I can't imagine any standard operator or arcade owner back in the 70s, 80s or 90s actually reading and studying those pages, informing himself about modes, combos, multipliers etc.! Adjustments like replay levels or pricing, yes, but the actual rules of the game? Why should any operator have cared about them? 

 

Which brings me to Data East's Maverick" (1994), a pinball I somehow never cared about when it was new (neither was I a fan of the movie) but after finally installing and playing it I have to say it has instantly become one of my favorites, with its Riverboat and poker game setting! 

 

Of course I went online to read through the manual, and I especially find this "Maverick" manual to be most interesting, the first striking feature being the really nice, appealing layout, almost as if it had been written for the players to become interested in the game, complete with detailed playfield layouts and arrows indicating the directions of the ball for any of the modes, combo shots and features - these pages should have been big posters in the arcade next to the machine! 

 

Since the last page of the rules has the text printed only on the left half the other half of this page has empty lines for "Game Rule Notes"! ..... What "notes" on the rules of the game would I (or an operator in 1994, for that matter) make and actually write into the manual?!

 

Comparing the pages-long ruleset with the meager instructions card on the apron is like night and day, only a fraction of the rules appear on that card! 

 

But now comes the most peculiar thing about it, and I quote the manual: 

 

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Sharpshooting 
(18) Combination Shots 
Maverick features several multi-way combos. These combos involve natural sequences of key shots in the game. Several undocumented difficult combos may also be present. 

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Come again?! "Several undocumented difficult combos may also be present"?! So not only doesn't even the manual give you all the features of the game --- they "may be present" as opposed to "are present"? How many are there and what arcane graphics and animations / sounds "may be present" deep in the programming, virtually never to be seen by the casual player?

 

And what's rule chapter 22 supposed to tell me, which is about "Maverick's secret "tells" of undocumented game features and rules to give "experienced" players an even greater advantage when playing the game"? Riddles inside mysteries!

 

To top it off: At the bottom of the last page of the ruleset you can read this: 

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"As in the Old West, rules and point values are subject to change without notice! Tell the Sheriff!" 

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This is definitely not your standard operators manual... A most interesting manual to a really nice pinball table. Any comments are very welcome!

 

Edited May 1 by Mopple