Practice

In addition to playing for a score, there are two ways to practice. To practice (or to stop practicing and play for real again), select “Practice...” from the Practice menu. You’ll see a dialog with three radio buttons, labeled “Play for score,” “Start at level,” and “Design a level.”

Play for Score

Select this button if you want to play a real game. You will automatically start at level 1, score will be kept, and if you score high enough, your score will be entered in the Top Scores list.

Start at Level

Select this button if you want to practice particular levels that are giving you trouble (or that you think are especially fun). Enter the number of the level you want in the text field to the right of the button. You’ll begin play at the level you selected, and play will proceed as in a regular game, but score will not be kept.

Design a Level

Select this button if you want to practice or play without time pressure. Click OK to dismiss the dialog, then pull down the Practice menu again. A number of menu items that are normally grayed-out will now be enabled. Use them to select a decor, pattern, number of targets, number of traps, and whether or not the bumpers are flippers. While playing in this mode, there is no time limit: the clock starts at zero and counts up until you hit all the targets, so it is always showing the time you have taken rather than the time you have left. Score is not kept.

Your choices will remain in effect until you change them, or until you select “Play for Score” or “Start at Level” in the Practice dialog again. You can’t change your choices during play, so if you tire of your current choices, select “End Game” to end the current game, then change your choices using the menu items, then start the next game.

When you select a number of targets from the menu, you’ll notice that one of the options is “None.” This option is strictly for fun: it lets you play with the ball and bumpers for as long as you like, with worrying about time limits or targets.

You can easily create your own patterns of bumpers during design-a-level play; see the next chapter, “Patterns,” for details.