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Ripley's Believe it or Not!

Pinball published 20 years ago by Stern Pinball, Inc.

Listed in MAME

Ripley's Believe it or Not! © 2004 Stern Pinball.

TECHNICAL/MACHINE PICT.
1

Stern Whitestar II

Main CPU : Motorola M6809 (@ 2 MHz)
Sound CPU : Atmel AT91 (@ 40 MHz)
Display CPU : Motorola M6809 (@ 4 MHz)
Sound chip : DMA-driven DAC

TRIVIA

Released in March 2004. Produced by Pat Lawlor Design for Stern Pinball.

Michael Jackson used to own this game (Serial number 181018). It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on Apr. 24th, 2009.

UPDATES

CPU Release : 1.00
- Initial Release.

CPU Release : 1.01
Date : March 24, 2004
- Fixed diagnostics, especially sound and knocker test
- Improved game speech in many places.
- Fixed 'go backwards' in Australia and South America
- Left orbit now lights the temple gate
- Fixed lockup to handle balls that arrive during quick multiballs.
- Adjusted mode goals slightly.
- Fixed 'spinners at max' award from Bozo.
- Added DOUBLE JACKPOTS to some Believe It Or Not! awards
- Fixed status report
- Some improvments to display choreography and sequencing.

CPU Release : 2.00
Date : March 25, 2004
- Improved lamp displays, especially around temple awards.
- Added time-delayed clear kick from lock at game over.
- Major improvements to the final mode, Atlantis.
- Added some overload protection to the idol magnet.
- Made ramp rollunder switches more sensitive.
- Fixed some Believe It Or Not! award choreography.

CPU Release : 2.01
Date : April 02, 2004
- Changed points for EB/Special given in tournament.
- Fixed ticket dispenser operation.
- Fixed jackpot scoring in ripoff.
- Fixed locks to handle missing balls properly in tilt situations.
- Fixed ? award to correctly reset itself after award.
- Fixed million plus to avoid abuse in mulitball.
- Fixed choreography at multiball start to sync video/sound.
- Fixed eb/special calls for tournament play points.
- Fixed some main Multiball jackpot choreography.

CPU Release : 2.03
Date : April 07, 2004
- Improved compensation for broken Shrunken Head and Idol devices.
- Fixed glitch in score auditing table.
- Added broken device reporting for the scoop and VUK.
- Slight choreography improvements.
- Fixed outlane sounds in multiball.

CPU Release : 2.04
Date : April 08, 2004
- Fixed ticket dispensing for Chuck E. Cheese games.
- More improvement to broken magnet compensation.
- Made idol extra ball slightly easier to get.
- Lowered range of possible Bump 'n' Win scores.

CPU Release : 3.00
Date : April 16, 2004
- Modified Bump 'n' Win score computation to be in the correct range given current tournament scores. Also improved selection logic to make the game more appealing to casual players.
- Fixed pulse handling for $5 bill acceptors.
- Added more extended features for expert players.
- Fixed TEAM SCORES display for 4 players.
- Fixed extra ball scoring display for tournament play.
- Some improvements to display and sound choreography.
- More improvements to broken magnet and idol compensation.

CPU Release : 3.01
Date : May 03, 2004
- More improvements to Bump 'n' Win score selection.
- Fixed some Bozo choreography that was confusing.
- Fixed some screens in Instant Info to show proper information.
- Made some improvements to playfield lamp effects.
- Fixed Temple LEDs to show attract mode properly at game over.
- Made specials stack on outlanes when more than 2 are lit.

CPU Release : 3.02
Date : September 15, 2004
- New flipper drivers to increase flipper coil longevity. This was not a problem with Ripley but was done to be consistent with other Stern software releases.
- Fixed false broken switch reports on some switches.
- Improved compensation for a broken left ramp or left ramp make switch.
- Improved rules for Idol to keep the idol lit longer after pops.
- Added code to pop bumpers to prevent the looping ball situation on early production games.
- Fixed 'Idol worth 1 million' bug in South America mode.
- Fixed bug when Feature Adjustment #13 was set too high.
- Improved speech and lamp effects in some places.
- Fixed some speech conflicts at the end of continent modes.

CPU Release : 3.20
Date : February 22, 2005
- Fixed lock and eject devices to work properly with the Coil Power setting.

STAFF

Concept : Pat Lawlor (PML)
Designers : Pat Lawlor, Louis Koziarz (LNK)
Artwork : John Youssi (J Y)
Software: Louis Koziarz, Greg Dunlap
DMD Animation : Adam Rhine
Mechanics : John Krutsch (JRK)
Music and Sounds : Chris Granner (C G)

PORTS

CONSOLES:
Xbox Live (Apr. 04, 2012) "The Pinball Arcade"
Sony PSN (Apr. 10, 2012) "The Pinball Arcade"

COMPUTERS:
MAC OS [Mac App Store] (2012)

OTHERS:
Apple Store (Feb. 09, 2012) "The Pinball Arcade"
Android (Feb. 10, 2012) "The Pinball Arcade"

SOURCES

Game's ROM.