No More Mr. Nice Guy: Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle Enters The Barncade

Last August I wrote a "Coming Soon" post about purchasing an Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle (ACNC) pinball machine. It did indeed arrive in early December. Spooky notified me in late November that the game was just about done and they were ready for payment. I overturned couch cushions to find some loose change, and soon the game was on its way. Spooky did a great job of shipping it out quickly and avoiding Thanksgiving holiday delays. Even a one day delay would have caused ACNC to arrive after a surgery I had scheduled, when I wouldn't be able to receive it, much less move it since I was going to be bedridden for 3 weeks. It arrived on a Wednesday, I took the outer box off to examine the condition (awesome packing job, Spooky!), and then we got it inside the Barncade. I moved it to the foot of the stairs, and then on Sunday we got it up to the second floor using our standard cart and winch method. I unpacked it, got the legs on, then it was time to fire the game up.

I ran into an immediate problem...the game would not boot up after several tries. A check under the playfield and then the backbox revealed that a display cable had come loose. With a quick re-attachment, the game was booting up in no time. I put a couple of plays on it and had a blast. This game is something special. From all the sculpts to the cabinet art, from the animations to the playfield, it's absolutely gorgeous, probably the best looking game in the collection. While I was not a hardcore fan of Alice Cooper's music, I have enjoyed many of his songs over the years casually (with School's Out, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Poison, House of Fire and The Man Behind the Mask being my favorites). I immediately took a liking to several of the songs included in the game that I had never heard before, especially Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever and Feed My Frankenstein, but I'm surprised "Poison" didn't make the cut...it seemed perfect for a giant spider mode. I really appreciate how Spooky took the opposite approach from "band pins" such as Aerosmith, AC-DC or Metallica...the custom soundtrack (which is killer!) plays most of the time, with Alice Cooper songs playing only during monster battles and each monster having its own specific song. I think this was a smart choice and prevents song fatigue.

Unfortunately the few games I played had to hold me over, because I went into surgery the next day and was actually incapacitated for 4 weeks. I have since put several more plays on it, but realized that there was another problem with the game: the insert lights were always lit and the GI lights never changed color like I've seen in photos and game play video. This made playing some modes impossible where flashing inserts instruct the player where to shoot. An email to Spooky returned a quick response to check a serial cable in the cabinet. The cables are attached to connectors with hot glue, which helps hold them in place. In this case, two cable had been glued to each other by accident, so one of them wasn't seated in the connector. This was probably due to Spooky's efforts in trying to meet my early delivery request. The hot glued cables were easy to pull apart, and soon I was treated to an amazing light show that instantly took the game to another level. Spooky really does have the best customer service in pinball!

Another problem that occurred was a stuck ball at the Frankenstein toy. When Frankenstein rises up, the two locked balls are supposed to release, with the left ball speeding down the left ramp and the right ball ball entering the upper playfield. The right ball in my game was getting stuck at the top when Frank lifted up. Adjusting Frank's height movement didn't fix it. After studying the problem, it appeared that the ball could not clear the castle sculpt that floats over the ramp. I loosened the sculpt (which was held by one screw), rotated slightly to the right, and that did the trick. The ball now drops on to the upper playfield correctly. The castle sculpt didn't have to move very far, so it doesn't look out of place.

There are some mods I need to install. As I mentioned in my previous post about mods that I acquired last year, I picked up Pinsider Medisinyl's crypt that changes color with the speakers. I also picked his sculpted tunnel, color-changing volcano lighting, and sculpted Frankenstein lab. Finally I purchased an auxiliary power supply from Pinball Life (approved by Spooky) for powering mods. There is a plastic disc mod that is supposed to fix issues with the Magneat-O Save, but I'm not having any problems so I haven't installed it.

Since I already discussed This Week In Pinball's deep dive in my previous "Coming Soon" post, I'll present my own impressions here, followed by a rules summary from Spooky's manual that looks like it came from the Tilt Forum site - excellent work by user luvthatapex to provide some kind of guidance until the manual was available. This of course is subject to change because Spooky could still add more features; the code revision for the rules in the manual is 1.0.7. A recent code update to 1.0.0 was well received; although there were no rules changes, the update did squash some serious bugs that were causing problems. Updating to new code is as easy as downloading the code rev from Spooky's website, copying to a USB stick, and removing the backglass and plugging in the USB stick to a USB port.

GAMEPLAY IMPRESSIONS

ACNC is absolutely loaded. One of the reasons that shots are so tight on the lower playfield is due to the sheer number of them. I counted 11 different shots on the lower playfield, which I have labeled below, along with my thoughts on each shot:

1:  Left scoop - easy to hit off the end of the right flipper
2:  Left stand up target - medium difficulty to hit off the end of the right flipper
3:  Left outer orbit - tough to hit off the end of the right flipper
4:  Left ramp - medium difficulty to hit off the right flipper
5:  Left inner orbit - medium difficulty to hit with the right flipper
6:  Secret passage - medium difficulty to hit with the right flipper
7:  Center stand up targets - easy to hit with either flipper
8:  Drop target/crypt lock - easy to hit with left flipper, medium difficulty to backhand
9:  Right ramp - tough to hit off the end of the right flipper
10:  Right outer orbit - tough to hit off the end of the right flipper
11:  Right stand up target - tough to hit off the end of the right flipper

You can also see from the straight on photo why some shots are difficult to backhand. The angles of most of the shots are canted towards one direction or the other; only the center stand up targets are a straight shot. This is a bit frustrating because getting to the upper playfield is important, but I rarely seem to get there. The upper playfield is probably one of the best ever made, with several shots of its own: Frankenstein ramp with drop target in front of it, left stand up target (important for extra balls), center stand up target (important for Dracula mode), guillotine shot that leads to the spiral habitrail and right inlane, crypt entrance, and two exit lanes - one feeding the subway and the other feeding the left inlane.

The ball speed is fast, with the only stop and go being the subway/scoop and ball locks. It is hard to get a flow going, but ACNC is more of a shooters game (accuracy) than a flow game (speed and combos). I have been managing to hit combos with more frequency, though. Due to the angles mentioned above, many shots may bounce off as a miss. ACNC is very forgiving in this regard. In a game like Bram Stoker's Dracula, a missed shot can be deadly. In ACNC, missed shots more than likely will create side to side action, allowing the player to re-gain control and shoot again. Since modes aren't timed, there's no frustrating pressure from the mode timing out while you're trying to make the shot. And although the side to side action can occasionally be annoying, it's pretty rare - at least on my machine - for the ball to drain down the outlanes; most of my drains are straight down the middle.

The code is fantastic with some really unique features. As you "move" through the castle, from room to room, you will face monsters. Each monster has a different way in which it must be defeated. Bowen Kerins (the rules designer) was recently interviewed and mentioned that the code will updated with different things to do in each room as well, such as finding weapons that make battling the monsters easier. And who knows what else Spooky has up their sleeve? The sound and art are amazing, as I mentioned above. The comic book style graphics and animation are gorgeous. The quality is fantastic as well. My only issues so far are the previously mentioned unplugged cables; the game has worked flawlessly otherwise. Spooky clearcoats their own playfields and seems to have things figured out, with none of the pooling or chipping playfields that have been recently seen from other manufacturers. And of course the game fits our monster theme perfectly.

In summary, I can't stop playing this game. I love it more than any other in the collection. That could be the "shiny new toy" factor, but I think it's more than that. It's really a complete package that's challenging enough so that I'm not bored with it. White Water used to be my favorite game, but it seems so easy now by comparison.

Rules (code version 1.07):

SKILLSHOT
Launch the ball and attempt to shoot the ramps, orbits, or crypt lock to light the secret passage and the outlane ball save. The right ramp will award the skill shot even if the ball only goes half way up. Hitting any other shot, or the slings, will fail the skillshot.

ROOM TRAVEL
At the beginning of the game, and after any monster battle, you start out at the entrance to the castle, in the lowest room of the grid.

While at the entrance you can select the monster you want to battle by shooting the center 3 target. This will cycle through the available monsters.

Shooting the left or right orbit when strobing will move up+left or up+right, respectively. If there is no room in that direction on the grid, the orbit will not be lit.

As soon as you shoot one of the outside orbits you lock in your monster and get into the first room.

Depending on settings the first orbit may move you two rooms at once.

In each room there are items you can collect that will help with your monster battle later on. Item collection logic is in, but graphics/sfx/effects are still being worked on. I need to set it up so items are represented as specific color on the arrows, and there will also be info boxes on the screen eventually.

MONSTER BATTLES
There are four ways to start a monster battle:

- Reach the topmost room in the grid via the orbits.
- Shoot the secret passage (to the right of the left ramp) when lit. Shoot the center 3 targets three times once a monster has been selected to light the secret passage. Can also be lit via skillshot or mystery.
- As a mystery award. Early mystery awards have a high tendency of immediately starting the battle, even if a monster isn’t locked in.
- As a pity award on the last ball. If a player doesn’t reach a monster at some point in their game; launching the 3rd ball will put you in the monster room that was currently selected (even if it has not been locked in)

MYSTERY AWARDS
Shoot the middle scoop (left of 3 center targets) to build mystery. When the award is ready the left scoop arrow will do a color cycle animation to indicate its ready to collect. This will commonly award monster progress, such as “move 1 room”, “move 2 rooms”, or “advance to monster”, and sometimes point values. (are there other awards?) If not collected, the mystery will eventually time out and need to be lit again.

CRYPT MB
Lock a ball in the crypt (to the left of right ramp), by either shooting into it from the lower playfield, or by dropping into it via the rightmost of the three upper lanes. Once a ball is locked, the crypt shot will light blue(?), and shooting it again (via either playfield) will start Crypt Multiball.

During Crypt MB, shoot the crypt for jackpots. This multiball can be stacked with any monster battle (including Frank MB); you can make progress through the rooms while in multiball, or start it while already in a battle.

After you exit multiball, repeated shots (how many?) into the crypt from the lower playfield (upper does not give credit?) will reactivate the lock (note there is no indication that the lock is ready besides that the back drop target will be up).

FRANK MB
Shoot left left via left ramp into physical lock. Then get to upper playfield and knock down the drop target and shoot the upper left ramp behind it to start multiball. This mode will block the start of any other monster, and can be started as many times as you are able to.

During Frank MB, shoot either lower ramp for jackpot. After three jackpots, the upper right ramp (guillotine) will light for supers. (does it ever unlight?)

UPPER LANES
Complete the two ‘X’ lanes to activate light the lower right target (above right inlane/outlane) for a bonus multiplier. Use flippers for lane change.

COMBOS
Shooting some shots (which?) will temporarily flash other shots orange for a combo.

SUPER SPINNER
Shoot the spinner, not much to say about that other than its activated after about 40 spines then there it ended after no activity over a certain about of time.

SUPER SLINGS
Same deal as spinners… but you have to hit the slings about 5 times within x amount of seconds for it to activate.

EXTRA BALL
Extra ball can be lit by shooting the upper right ramp 10 times (‘chops’ displayed on display).
Will also be lit after starting third monster battle (including frank)

Extra ball will light at the extra ball target on the left side of the upper playfield.

BALL SAVES
Ball save is activated when you complete the 4 bottom lanes. The outlanes will then light purple for a period of time. Draining on the outside lane when lit activates the drain magnet and will fling the ball back up the playfield, or at least is should. This mod is being coined Mag-Neat-O save. If you complete the fourth lane as you drain, the ball save will activate and be immediately used. During multiball the magnet is not active, and another ball will be auto-plunged instead.

MONSTER BATTLES
At the beginning of each battle, the ball save will activate. Complete the mode’s objective to start a 25(?) second ‘frenzy’ with unlimited ball save. Sometimes these frenzies seem to be unique modes, sometimes the mode will just run again during this time (may change with new code?). After the frenzy ends, the left target (above mystery scoop) will light for a hurry-up based on your mode performance (?), then you will be returned to the entrance to begin the next battle.

FRANK
See FRANK MB

ETHYL
From the upper playfield drop ball into the crypt via the rightmost lane. Another ball bill be auto-launched. Shoot first lower drop target or the rightmost lane again to release, then keep shooting the drop targets/scoop to collect jackpots. Mode ends when you drain one of the balls. (how to win?)

IGOR
Complete three sets of lit shots. First set will be three shots, then four, then five(?)

VAMPIRE
Stake/dismember the vampire by hitting the back target on the upper playfield four (?) times.

ALICE
Get to upper playfield and shoot past guillotine 2 times. The guillotine lowers a bit. Shoot a 3rd time to capture the ball in the guillotine. Theatrics play and Alices head gets chopped off.

WOLF
Shoot any green shot to load the gun, then shoot the three bank to fire the gun and damage the monster. Shots will light green again, but the ones you’ve already shot will be red instead. Shooting a red shot will damage the player. Health bars are shown on the screen. Defeat the wolf before it defeats you (usually 5 hits?).

ZOMBIE
One roaming shot will move back and forth across the playfield on the orbits, ramps, center scoop, and inner orbit (secret passage). Value will decrease on a timer until the shot is made. Complete 5 shots to finish the mode.

INSECT
Random shots and targets will be lit. Shoot 10 to complete mode.

PIT CREATURE
The mystery scoop, center scoop, and crypt will flash. Behind one (random?) is the pit creature. Once found, most shots will light, and a count down timer will start. The timer will only count down while the ball is ‘hidden’ from view, such as being in a scoop/subway, or going through one of the orbits under the upper playfield. Count the timer down to zero to finish the mode.

BILLION DOLLAR BABY
Wizard mode, becomes available when you complete all other modes. This mode is says and will have billion point shots as you try to escape the castle with the treasure.