Pinball Glossary

This will be a Pinball glossary, with only the terms that are relevant to Pincrediball. It's by no means exhaustive, on purpose.

Machine Components

• Pinball Machines consist of a main "Cabinet" with the main Playfield, and a Backbox with usually a Display (which might be a "DMD" (Dot-Matrix-Display)).
• The Plunger is the device that sends the ball initially into play from the Plunger (or "Shooter") Lane.
• Gates allow the ball to go through them and register this (e.g. for points). They can be "one-way", for example at the end of the Shooter Lane.
• Flippers are the carrot-shaped pieces near the bottom of a Pinball Machine to hit the ball with.
• Sling Shots are the triangular shapes that give the ball a speed boost towards the opposite side when hit.
• Bumpers will "bump" the ball when hit, giving it extra speed. Typical types include "Mushroom (circular) bumpers", and Rectangular or Pill-shaped bumpers. A "Dead" or "Passive" bumper won't give the ball extra speed, but will register a hit (e.g. for points).
• Drop Targets are upright pieces that drop down the playfield when hit. They're often in groups of three or more, forming a (Drop Target) "Bank".
• Rails (also "Habitrail" or "Wire-form") are usually two or four metal wires that guide the ball along a specific path.
• Kickback is a launching device often placed in Outlanes which (when enabled) "kicks back" the ball into play.
• Lanes are like car lanes: long paths just wide enough for a ball to roll through. Outlanes are the lanes on the side of the machine that typically will Drain the ball.
• Orbits are usually lanes that go from one side, via the top of the playfield, all the way to the other side of the table.
• Ramps lead the ball up along the z-axis to an elevated lane or mini-playfield.
• Rollover (switches) are flat switches on the playfield that register when a ball rolls over it, perhaps in a specific direction.
• Gobble Holes (or "Sinkholes") swallow up a ball underneath the playfield (with further effects dependent on the specific machine).
• Popper (or "Vertical Up-Kicker") will "kick" the ball up along the z-axis, e.g. onto a Habitrail.
• Spinners are targets that spin rapidly when hit by a ball, racking up points for each spin.
• Newton's Cradle is usually a "Captive Ball", trapped in a small lane, when hit by the active ball will move along the lane for points.
• A Toy is any special unique component specific to the theme of a table, with special visual and game or quest effects.

Game Mechanics

• Draining a ball means it'll roll down to the Trough at the bottom, loosing that specific ball from play.
• Tilting happens when the machine is physically bumped to nudge the ball a bit. Tilting too much usually ends the game by temporarily disabling everything (including Flippers) on the machine.
• Quests are theme-specific targets to hit in special orders, to achieve bonus scores and multipliers.
• Modes are stages of the game where different targets mean different bits of Quest progression. They often come with changes in scoring for various targets.
• Skill shots usually means Plunging the ball with just the right amount of force to hit a specific target when the ball initially enters play.
• Jackpot is a big bonus for a particular shot, sometimes only available in a specific mode, during a stage of a quest, or during a Multi-Ball.
• Multi-ball is a mode where the game enters extra balls (beyond the usual single ball) into play, typically accompanied by bonus scoring for specific targets.
• A Ball-lock is when the machine allows "locking" the current ball (and providing a fresh active ball), so when enough balls are locked a Multi-ball may be started.
• Ball Saver (option 1) can refer to a limited time period after plunging, in which a drained ball will freely be returned into play.
• Ball Saver (option 2) can refer to a specific physical device between -and just below- the two flippers, to bounce the ball back up and "save" it from draining.

Pinball Skills

• Dead Bounce means letting the ball purposely bounce of a flipper that's not being activated, to loosely let it bounce to the other flipper.
• Death Saves are tilting the machine slightly when the ball is rolling through an Outlane to Drain, bumping it back up sneaking it back into play.
• Live Catch means activating a flipper to instantly catch the ball in the corner of that flipper.
• Drop Catch is similar to a Live Catch except you also release the flipper downwards just when the ball hits, to give more control over the ball.
• Post Pass transfers the ball from one flipper to the other by bumping it slightly onto the slingshot corner to send it over to the other side.
• Tap Pass transfers the ball from one flipper to the other by tapping the flipper very lightly.
• Flick Pass means slightly and shortly dropping the flipper while the ball is about to roll off it, to "flick" it over to the other flipper.
• Cradling means holding a ball in a permanently activated flipper.
• Cradle Separation is tapping the flipper to move one ball out of multiple (from a multi-ball) from the cradle over to the other flipper.