How to play Pinball

What pinball is

Pinball is played on a sloping table under glass. A spring plunger launches a steel ball onto the playfield, and gravity pulls it back down towards the drain between two flippers. You keep it in play by hitting it with the flippers, aiming for the targets, ramps and lanes that score. When a ball drains, it is gone; when the last one goes, the game is over and your score stands. Early tables had no flippers at all: they arrived in 1947 and turned a game of luck into a game of skill.

Playing pinball on AllFun

AllFun Pinball has one original table, Galaxy Arcade. Hold the right side of the screen to pull the plunger and let go to launch. Tap the left or right half of the screen to flip that flipper, or both at once with two fingers. The shake button nudges the table. On a computer, Z or the left arrow and / or the right arrow flip, holding Space launches, T nudges and P pauses.

A game is three balls. There is always one mission lit, worth 25,000 points, and every third mission adds an extra ball. Your five best scores are kept with your initials. More quick games are on our arcade games page.

How a pinball table scores

The parts of the table

• Pop bumpers kick the ball away when it touches them, scoring each time.
• Slingshots are the rubber triangles above the flippers that throw the ball sideways.
• Drop targets fall when hit; knocking down a whole bank usually lights something bigger.
• Rollover lanes light as the ball rolls through them. Light them all to raise the bonus multiplier.
• Orbits and ramps are long shots that carry the ball round or up and back to a flipper.
• Outlanes, outside the flippers, drain the ball; inlanes, inside them, feed it back to a flipper.

The big features

A skill shot rewards a launch that lands in a marked lane; on AllFun a soft launch into the gold lane is worth 50,000. Multiball puts several balls in play at once; on Galaxy Arcade you knock down the three drop targets to light the lock, lock two balls in the Comet lane and a 3-ball multiball starts, with 100,000-point jackpots. A ball save returns a ball that drains right after launch: on AllFun for the first 10 seconds. A kickback fires a ball back out of the left outlane once, and the drop targets light it again. At the end of each ball the bonus counts what you hit, times the multiplier.

Nudging and tilt

Players may shove the table a little to change a ball's path. Shove too hard or too often and the table tilts: the flippers go dead and the ball is lost without its bonus. AllFun gives two warnings, and the third tilts the ball.

Six flipper skills

1. Cradle the ball. Hold a flipper up and let the ball roll down into the corner and stop. Now you can aim instead of reacting.
2. Flip late to cross. A ball hit near the tip of the flipper goes across the table; hit near the base, it goes up its own side.
3. Do not flip at everything. A ball coming down an inlane will reach the flipper by itself. Flipping early sends it anywhere.
4. Pass the ball over. Let a cradled ball roll off a lowered flipper onto the other one, the post pass, to reach a shot that only one side can make.
5. Nudge to save, not to score. A small nudge as the ball heads for an outlane or straight down the middle can rescue it. Save the rest of your warnings.
6. Start multiball first. Jackpots and missions come faster with three balls on the table, and a ball save covers the start.

Pinball FAQ