Left Orbit
Objective
Finish Eight Ball, Nine Ball and Rotation to reach Cutthroat Countdown. Super Cues are lit orbits; Center Pockets are the central enclosure. Both advance ordinary pool games.
Learn the center device first. Settling beside the post and staying inside a pocket are different outcomes. Build your plan around the lamps, then learn the orbit returns.
Shots
Your cabinet’s playfield image. Select it to enlarge. These flipper approaches are starting points for practice; the installed returns have not been playtested.
Captive Ball
Two visible balls in the narrow left-side channel. Try a right-flipper forehand into the lower ball; prepare for a direct rebound.
Left Drop Bank
Lower-left target bank and its rear standup, beside the 6/14 inserts. Aim across from the right flipper. Watch the rebound toward the center.
Center Standups
Small targets beside the center enclosure: 4/12 on the left, 5/13 on the right. Practice each from the opposite lower flipper; misses can clip the enclosure.
Center Pockets
Three pockets inside the central black enclosure, with a post in its entrance. Try a settled lower-flipper shot through the opening; corner hits can escape sideways.
Top Lanes
Bank Shot
Short curved lane behind the upper-right target bank. Use the upper right flipper when the ball reaches it; an early or late flip can strike the bank.
Right Drop Bank
Upper-right target bank and rear standup beside 7/15. Try the lower left flipper from a controlled feed; a miss can hit the Bank Shot area.
Right Orbit
Eight Ball Saucer
Right-side cup beside RACK EM UP and the 8 insert. Try a controlled left-flipper forehand. Watch the eject before attempting a follow-up shot.
Launch
For the skill shot, plunge short of the top lanes, then flip Bank Shot with the upper right flipper.
Initial skill shot: six seconds, no intervening target.
Start with a modest pull. If the ball reaches the top lanes, shorten the next attempt; if it falls below the upper flipper, add a little strength. Record the successful pull on this cabinet rather than copying another recreation's plunger setting.
First ball
After the launch, settle the ball before attempting the center entrance. Aim through its opening; when the post rises, change your aim to the post. Read the pocket lamps after every strike. If the first lock is secure, take Ball-O-Rama, the two-ball multiball, before learning the two-lock sequence.
After multiball, read the display before choosing another objective. Choose an available orbit or the lit pool shot from a controlled feed. Resist repeated blind center shots when the lamp state has changed.
Pool games
Eight Ball: clear seven solids or stripes, then the Eight Ball Saucer. Drop banks also require their rear standup. Nine Ball advances through nine balls; Rotation requires fifteen in order.
The standups beside Center Pockets light the opposite Super Cue. Complete the lit orbit to advance.
In Eight Ball/Rotation, both Super Cues lit means two balls per orbit; Nine Ball gives one. Another switch ends consecutive orbit scoring.
Unlit rack numbers show remaining balls. Name your intended target before releasing a trapped ball. A clean orbit is worth practicing alongside the direct target shots; choose the route whose return you can control.
Call it
After the left inlane, quickly shoot Eight Ball Saucer for Call Your Shot. Select the displayed destination with a flipper button, then make that shot to finish the ordinary pool game. Try Left Orbit with the eject received on a raised right flipper; this installation's return is untested.
The qualification lasts six seconds; the selected shot allows seven seconds without another target hit. A lit eight ball also qualifies it.
Choose before the eject arrives. If the return does not settle as expected, recover the ball instead of forcing a late shot across the playfield.
Center pockets
The center enclosure contains three pockets and a rising post. Entering captures a ball against the post. Strike that post with the next ball to knock the held ball into a side pocket. Loading another ball can release the earlier lock, leaving two balls to pocket together.
Once both side pockets hold balls, shoot the center pocket for Breakshot Frenzy. With just one ball locked, Eight Ball Saucer starts Ball-O-Rama instead.
Pocket arrows: unlit needs a pocket shot, then another post strike; flashing means lock available; steady means occupied. Repeat for later locks.
Let held balls settle before launching again. With two balls at the post, aim centrally. Check the arrows before shooting again.
The entrance corners can send misses toward an outlane. Test controlled attempts before committing to repeated shots.
Owners · Capcom · Huang · Baumgarten
Multiballs
Ball-O-Rama
Call Your Shot must be inactive. Collection preserves value; one drain ends Ball-O-Rama.
Collect its growing award at Eight Ball Saucer. Growth requires continued switch activity.
Breakshot Frenzy
Three balls give 3× playfield scoring; Ball-O-Rama gives 2×. Frenzy's jackpot is the center pocket.
After the easy jackpots, any center-device pocket relights collection. Every fourth jackpot awards a double-value Super Jackpot by default. Frenzy drops to 2× with two balls and ends at one.
Let one ball travel away from the flippers while shooting with the other. After a drain, count the surviving balls before deciding whether to keep attacking the jackpot.
No add-a-ball or timed restart was established in the reviewed material. After the mode ends, return to the lock sequence; do not risk a recovery shot on an assumed restart timer.
Cutthroat
The usual first qualification is three completed games; afterward each completed game starts another countdown. Variants cycle Nine Ball, Eight Ball, Nine Ball, Rotation. Eight Ball uses solids 1–8 or stripes 9–15 then 8; Nine Ball uses 1–9; Rotation uses 1–15.
You have 60 seconds. Each called ball gets up to ten seconds; hit its specific shot for one million and ten extra seconds. Next-ball shortcuts stop working. Green/brown require the drop bank, not necessarily its rear standup. Missed calls return while time remains. A drain preserves remaining time.
When time expires or all calls are completed, any scored balls qualify a center-pocket Super Jackpot: initially two million per ball. Held balls release. With no successful calls, the round simply ends. Collecting the Super ends Cutthroat and carries completed balls into the corresponding ordinary game; a perfect round can therefore trigger another countdown.
Multiball can overlap: its multiplier applies to called balls, not the final Super. Perfect rounds raise later scoring, up to triple. After Eight Ball, Call Your Shot in Cutthroat scores a million instead of completing it.
Locate the named target, then choose a feed that reaches it. Read the display again after a drain. Preservation of a pending Super Jackpot after a drain remains unverified.
Side routes
The upper right flipper handles Bank Shot's short loop. Follow Bank Shot with Right Orbit for a Capcombo.
Consecutive lit Bank Shots grow their award.
Left Super Cues build a separate bonus; immediately shoot Bank Shot to collect. Clear either drop bank end-to-end, either direction, to light left kickback: a left-outlane rescue.
Firm captive-ball hits advance its green lights toward an extra ball.
Collect a flashing extra ball with another firm captive hit. Immediate opposite lit Super Cues light it for this ball.
During Nine Ball, the center entrance awards the indicated extra ball, points or special.
Collect once per Nine Ball game. Check the award before entering the center. A short hold can time a change; prolonged inactivity fixes points. Special normally means replay. Installed extra-ball caps and retention remain unverified.
Baumgarten · Playing tip · Capcom · Video · Huang
Bonus
Complete top lanes to raise bonus multiplier; flippers change lanes. With pool progress, lit Eight Ball Saucer pays bonus without erasing it. Requalify next ball or pool-game completion; multiplier resets next ball.
Stay alive
Move early when a rebound is heading toward the side, while a small correction can still change its path. Repeated hard nudges near a drain are a poor substitute for learning the rebound.
For a failed orbit that returns too slowly, catch first and rebuild the shot. For the center shot, vary the flipper release slightly and compare where the misses land. Change one timing choice at a time.
Scoring plan
Cutthroat calls become more valuable when overlapped with multiball.
First learn reliable pool progress and a repeatable multiball start. Then approach Cutthroat with a lock plan already chosen. Choose based on your success rate at the center. A bigger displayed multiplier is useful only if you can keep scoring afterward.
Use Bank Shot when the ball arrives naturally at the upper flipper. Forcing a transfer solely to chase that sequence adds another failure point. Keep comparing points earned with balls lost, especially when deciding whether to repeat a lucrative but unstable return.
Sources
This guide targets the cabinet's VPW v1.1 recreation, ROM bsv103. Operator settings and physical returns have not been gameplay-verified. Factory rules, older reports and a different VPX recreation are distinguished in the research.
- ngreenup playing tip — launch and Bank Shot repetition.
- Capcom operator manual — printed pp. 5–16, 27.
- Wei-Hwa Huang rulesheet — Cutthroat and rule details.
- Digital Victory tutorial — caption-reviewed; rear-target correction at 17:00.
- Steve Baumgarten notes — beta-era geometry and technique.
- Owner observations — HurstGutsy's center sequence; ChapDDR's stacking advice.