SolarSystem23 Rules
These rules are written to play on a Stern Galaxy machine. They are implemented with an RPU board.
Skill Shot
At the start of each ball, there are two skill shots available:
Saucer Skill Shot - During the skill shot, the saucer’s value is 10x the lit amount. The saucer’s value starts at 20,000 and ranges briefly up to 10,000 every few seconds. If the ball lands in the saucer during the skill shot, the player will be awarded the amount corresponding with the lit value.
GALAXY Turnaround Skill Shot - If the player manages to get the ball to a flipper without hitting a major switch, the GALAXY Turnaround will be worth the amount lit on the bonus lamps. The 10k lamp is always lit for the skill shot, and the fluctuating value will be added for a total of between 12k and 42k.
During the skill shot period, the GI lamps are off. Hitting the top pop bumper or “A” rollover will not end the skill shot period. Any other switch will end the skill shot and move the game into normal play.
Normal Play
During the course of normal play, SolarSystem23 has Missions and Side Quests in addition to the normal scoring activities.
SolarSystem23 has four side quests available during normal play. When one or more side quests have been qualified, they are started by landing the ball in the saucer. Once qualified, sides quests can be activated for up to 60 seconds. If the ball ends or a mission is started, the qualified quest(s) will be held until the next time the player is in normal play.
Pirate Encounter - To qualify a Pirate Encounter, each of the three Star Standup Targets (Black, Blue, and Yellow) has to be hit during normal play in a single ball.
Refueling Opportunity - During normal play, the game keeps a counter on the player’s spins. Flipping the spinner 250 times will qualify a Refueling Opportunity.
Welcoming Passengers Aboard - Completing the GALAXY lamps (three top lanes, two in lanes, and “A” rollover) will qualify the side quest of Welcoming Passengers Aboard.
Collect Cargo - To qualify the Collect Cargo side quest, the player has to complete the drop targets 4 times during the coarse of a game.
Side quests can be stacked and started simultaneously. Each active Side Quest gives the player +1X playfield multiplier (2X, 3X, 4X, or 5X for stacking all 4 Side Quests). If a Side Quest is in progress when a mission is started, the Side Quest timer will pause and the Side Quest (and associated playfield multiplier) will be in effect during the entire mission.
Missions
During Normal Play, landing the ball in the GALAXY turnaround in the upper left-hand corner of the playfield will start a mission. The mission is selected from the 8 planets based on the number of GALAXY lamps that are lit in the turnaround. Once a mission is selected, the player must fuel the ship. The player displays will show how much fuel is needed. Each spin of the spinner will collect one unit of fuel. Once enough fuel has been collected for the mission, the drop targets will fall, leaving one target up. Hitting that target will launch the mission. Depending on the planet selected, the mission will have 1, 2, or 3 legs.
Leg 1 = Increase Playfield Multiplier with Pop Bumpers (15 seconds)
Leg 2 = Cryo Sleep (play through or saucer to skip)
Leg 3 = Build Mission Bonus (60 seconds or End Shot)
Missions to Mercury and Venus will only have Leg 3 - building mission bonus. Hitting the End Shot at any time will finish the mission and award the player one level of rank. The rank of a player can be seen in the 1s digit of their score. Mission to Mars and Jupiter have two legs — Legs 2 & 3. Those missions begin with a Cryo Sleep period. During Cryo Sleep, the feature shot awards more points, and the timer only runs when a switch has been hit in the last three seconds. The Cryo Sleep period requires the player to keep the ball in play to advance the timer.
The other four missions (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) have all three legs and begin with the opportunity to build a playfield multiplier with the Pop Bumpers. The current tally of pop bumper hits is shown in the player display.
Collecting 10 pop bumper hits will result in 2x playfield. 20 will give 3x. The top pop bumper advances the tally by three.
Leg 2 (Cryo Sleep) can be terminated with the saucer.
Leg 3 (Mission Bonus) can be terminated with the “End Shot” of the mission.
Once the End Shot is hit, or the mission timer runs out, the player will be awarded 1 rank and a bonus multiplier. Any playfield multipliers earned for the mission will end with the mission.
Achieving certain player rank goals (rank is shown in the 1s digit of the player score) will activate different features.
Rank 3 will activate the Extra Ball on Mid Lanes. In tournament mode the Extra Ball grants a point award.
Rank 5 will activate the Special on Out Lanes. In tournament mode the Special grants a point reward.
Rank 7 will start the Sun Mission.
(Rank award levels can be changed with coin-door settings)
If all 8 planet missions are completed, starting another mission will reset the Player Rank, allowing them to build up to the next Sun Mission. When the player achieves a rank of 7 (this setting is controllable with a coin-door setting), the Sun Mission will be activated. The Sun Mission can be launched by either landing the ball in the Saucer or the GALAXY Turnaround. The Saucer start gives the player 100,000 points, and the GALAXY Turnaround start gives them 50,000.
After the ball is ejected (from the Saucer or the GALAXY Turnaround) the drop targets will cycle, showing one target a time. The mission jackpot begins at 10,000 points. Each drop target hit will add 25,000 to the mission jackpot. Hitting the GALAXY Turnaround again will award the player the current mission jackpot. Hitting the Saucer will give the player twice the current mission jackpot. Once awarded, the jackpot is reset to zero points and more drop targets need to be hit to build up the value again. The Sun Mission lasts 60 seconds and cannot be ended early.
Side Quest playfield multipliers do not alter the mission jackpots.
Altering Music
All of the sound for Galaxy2021 is produced with a Wav Trigger sound card. The card plays WAV files loaded onto a micro SD, so they’re easy to replace or alter. Each file is preceded with a three digit number, an underscore, and then the name. For example, sound 001_BonusCount.wav is the sound played when the bonus is counted down.
Sound Effects
The sound effects are mostly contained in the range 001 - 100, with a couple of exceptions. The incrementing spinner sounds are stored from 200 to 250, and there are prompts for the different Self Test & Audit modes in the 100s.
Voice Prompts
This game uses Voice Prompts to guide the player through the game script. Voice Prompts differ from other sound effects because when they’re played they will drop the background music to make them more audible. Because of this, when a voice prompt is loaded, the length of the prompt needs to be inserted into an array. These prompts live in the range of 500-599 in the file system. When a prompt is changed, the number of seconds should be altered in the array named “VoiceNotificationDurations”.
Songs
Like Voice Prompts, the duration of each song has a timing entry in the array “MusicLengths”. The array is ordered by [soundtrack][type of music][song]. If a song is updated, the appropriate timing array entry should be altered in “MusicLengths”. If a song is added, the appropriate number in “MusicNumEntries” has to be changed, and then the duration needs to be added to “MusicLengths”.
Songs - Soundtrack 1
700 - 709 Unstructured Play Background
725 - 749 Side Quest Music
750 - 774 Mission Music
775 - 789 Wizard Music
790-799 Looped Rally Music (no timing required)
Songs - Soundtrack 2
800 - 809 Unstructured Play Background
825 - 849 Side Quest Music
850 - 874 Mission Music
875 - 889 Wizard Music
890-899 Looped Rally Music (no timing required)