Pinball Tutorial· 11 min read
Access Code Granted: Learn How to Play the 1995 Cyberpunk Pinball Classic, Johnny Mnemonic
Photos: Colin Alsheimer
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If you’ve talked to me you know that George Gomez’s first pinball machine, Corvette, is a personal favorite of mine. While some aspects of it like the upper flipper wouldn’t see the light of day on a Gomez design again until many machines later, Corvette did set up Gomez’s penchant for unique, fast-flowing machines. Case in point, Johnny Mnemonic, based on a movie that the designer disliked that happened to be based on a book he really liked, which made for another great pinball machine in the process, mostly taking cues from the film’s early Internet aesthetics. Not to mention it’s another machine based on a weird 90s movie! I seem to have a knack for discussing those.
Johnny Mnemonic is infamous among pinball enthusiasts for being one of the highest-scoring machines ever released thanks to a certain spinner millions exploit that I’ll be sure to discuss here, but still has a following in the competitive scene with spinners often being weighted down to circumvent this exploit. Henceforth, I can’t make this guide exclusively a spinner millions discussion, because what if it doesn’t work? Everything else in the machine is worth discussing too and I hope to shed some light on the lesser-known aspects of this fun Gomez design.
In a dystopian future ruled by a virtual Internet, a “mnemonic courier” named Johnny deals with yakuza led by a rival megacorporation with the help of a group of rebels known as the Lo-Teks. View more details about Johnny Mnemonic on the Kineticist game page.
Johnny Mnemonic is a game packed with fast, tight shots. The first shot perfectly demonstrates this: the left orbit, which sends the ball flying around back to the right flipper. Extra balls are scored here, and so is “hit me” when lit from the right inlane, but this shot can be very difficult to recover from thanks to its high-speed return. Placed right next to this orbit is the left ramp, very close to the flippers and can be hit from either one of them, but is most effectively hit as a backhand from the left flipper. This ramp is important as it sets up the right ramp and right orbit for throwing spikes, which eventually awards spinner millions & bonus hold. It also advances towards collecting diamonds towards yakuza strike.
Behind the left ramp are the top lanes and bumpers. Normally, the ball bypasses the bumpers, but every new ball is launched here, and they are used during “access code 2” to advance the mode. Alternatively, the bumpers can be reached at the start of a mode (using the data glove), or by hitting the far left “access jet bumpers” target, then hitting either the spinner or right orbit. “Access jet bumpers” only lasts for one shot, after which the two shots will return to feeding the left flipper. The top lanes are used to score the skill shot and advance the bonus multiplier up to 4x.
Crazy Bob’s isn’t in the film but is in the machine and is meant to represent one of the corporations Johnny transmits data from. By shooting this tight saucer shot, the player lights cyber locks at the orbits and center lane and learns about what awards the matrix spots will score. This is also where power items are scored upon completing modes. Right of Crazy Bob’s is the center VUK, which can be blocked by a drop target if nothing is lit there, but also feeds the data glove to send the ball to either the bumpers (at the start of a mode) or matrix (if cyber locks are lit). This VUK is also fed to by either the spinner, or right orbit, if cyber lock is lit at either shot.
The spinner, right ramp, and right orbit are all near each other and lend themselves to fast combo action. The spinner, while it can be hit on the fly, is best hit from a cradle on the left flipper and is of course used for the infamous spinner millions rule. The right ramp and right orbit, meanwhile, are used to collect throwing spikes when lit at the left inlane and set up other shots effectively. Right ramp shots, like the left ramp counterpart, advance towards starting yakuza strike. Lastly, one small target is positioned at the far right of the playfield; hitting this target enough times lights “mnemonic recovery” ball save at the left outlane, which is also lit automatically at the start of ball 1.
The game’s biggest gimmick is the matrix located at the top right of the machine. The first time the player scores a cyber lock, Crazy Bob’s will advertise their wares by flashing each spot on the matrix in quick succession. The awards for each matrix spot are randomized across players and games, and information can be gathered about specific matrix spots by shooting Crazy Bob’s. The plastic above the plunger lane is a “shot map” showing which matrix spot corresponds to which jackpot shot during cyberspace multiball.
As discussed earlier, scoring on Johnny Mnemonic is higher than any other machine of its era, with good scores ranging between 5 to 10 billion and great scores rocketing high above those. Read on and learn how to take advantage of those spinner millions!
A standard lane skill shot. Balls plunged are sent to the top lanes, change the flashing lane using the flippers so that the ball rolls past it. Skill shot scores 25M x number of skill shots made + 5 GB.
The pop bumper exit on this game can be vicious! Balls will exit the bumpers and typically head towards the right slingshot or right flipper. If you’re really worried about this feed, try giving the table a little nudge just as the ball is about to exit the bumpers. Then, get your priorities figured out – either go for the left ramp to set up throwing spikes if you’re confident, or start aiming for the center VUK to start modes and advance towards multiball.
Modes are started by hitting the center VUK when no other modes are running. If mode start isn’t lit, it can be relit by shooting for Crazy Bob’s. The lit mode changes with every left or right flipper press.
Each mode is timed for 20 seconds, but if the timer is below 15 seconds, the timer will reset to that value on the next white triangle shot made.
Completing a mode lights Crazy Bob’s for a power item, worth 100M x the number of items obtained. Power items make Power Down more valuable by increasing the amount of time that shots are lit for. They can also be lit by scoring “light Crazy Bob’s” from the matrix award.
From left to right, the five modes are:
After all five modes have been played *and* the player has collected 200 gigabytes through other game features, the sixth mode, Power Down, can be accessed the same way as the other five modes. This is a 4-ball multiball where all shots are lit to score 100M x the current number of shots lit (up to 700M), but the shots’ power decreases over time. If the player has collected any power items, they can shoot Crazy Bob’s to use an item and increase all shots’ power. The mode ends once all balls have drained. Power Down can be worth a solid number of points, especially if the spinner millions exploit isn’t viable.
Shooting the left ramp sets up the right ramp and right orbit to collect throwing spikes for about 10 seconds. The next shot made will collect the currently lit award, but they cannot be scored during multiball modes or during yakuza strike. There is a slight delay between when the game is displaying the throwing spikes award and when the left inlane relights.
Once the player has scored all six throwing spikes, they will not be able to score any awards for the rest of the ball. "Light throwing spikes" will not light again until after the player has started yakuza strike.
The awards are given in the following order:
While you might be tempted to hit the right ramp to advance throwing spikes, the right orbit tends to be the better shot in my experience. Not only does the right orbit not advance towards yakuza strike and put you in a potentially dangerous single-ball mode, but it also advances towards cyberspace multiball if lock is lit there. Thus, I like to make the third throwing spike (light spinner millions) also the shot that starts multiball; to guarantee I have some time to safely rip the spinner for big points.
This high-scoring mode is started by hitting the ramps three times. Only one ramp is lit to advance towards yakuza strike at a time, while the other ramp will simply tell you which ramp you need to shoot to advance towards the mode.
Yakuza strike simply lights all seven major shots to score a hurry-up value starting at 60M and decreasing to 25M. While this mode locks out progress towards other rules and can be deadly during single-ball play, it can be immensely beneficial to have running alongside cyberspace multiball. Just make sure that before you collect light spinner millions as described above, the next left or right ramp shot will *not* start yakuza strike.
Also remember that if you want to collect multiple sets of throwing spikes (to hold your bonus across the entire game), you'll need to play yakuza strike!
The spinner and right orbit are lit at the start of the game for “cyber lock” – it can also be scored at the center lane when a mode is currently running. To relight the cyber locks, shoot for Crazy Bob’s. Later in the game, the center drop target must be hit during modes to light cyber locks, and no ball save is given for multiballs after the first one.
The first time a ball is about to be held in the data glove, the matrix spots will rapidly flash and brief glimpses of what awards each one will give can be seen on the display (later, you can shoot Crazy Bob’s and view which award one specific matrix spot will give). There are nine awards total, their position is randomly determined at the start of each game, and if you’re aiming to get a specific award your best bet will be to memorize the award you want and its position during the initial reveal of which spot on the matrix gives out what.
To place the ball on the matrix, use the red buttons to move the data glove left and right, and blue buttons to move the glove up (left) or down (right).
These nine awards, listed in their order in the original manual, are:
Once three balls have been locked in the matrix, cyberspace multiball will begin as the matrix guides send the balls flying into play. The first three jackpots are worth 30M, then 10M is added for each subsequent jackpot following the initial three. If the player locked three balls in a row or column on the matrix, then all jackpot values for the subsequent multiball will be tripled.
Cyberspace multiball is a large source of points on Johnny Mnemonic and helps score spinner millions at low risk. To best take advantage of this multiball and the matrix awards, focus on one award you want at the very start (hold bonus is what I usually go for). Then, instead of memorizing the rest of the awards, place the balls in either a row or column to take advantage of the 3x jackpots.
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