A full pinball table set on a midnight Mississippi riverboat casino. Spell A·C·E, light the locks on the paddle-wheel ramp, and go All Aboard for multiball and jackpots. Run missions from the scoop, sweep the Royal Flush drop targets, and nail the skill shot. Play Classic (3 balls), Blitz (3 minutes, double scoring), or All In (one ball that starts in multiball).
How Paddlewheel Royale plays
Paddlewheel Royale is a single-player pinball table themed on a midnight card game aboard a Mississippi paddle steamer. Two flippers guard the drain, a spring plunger launches each ball up the shooter lane, and the table is packed with features: three pop bumpers, two slingshots, the A-C-E top lanes, a bank of drop targets, four suit targets, a scoop (the Captain's Table), left and right orbits, and a wooden ramp that feeds the spinning paddle wheel.
The physics run at a fixed high-rate timestep, so the ball behaves the same on every screen. Flippers carry real momentum: a ball that hits the tip of a moving flipper leaves faster than one that hits the base, and a raised flipper will catch and hold (cradle) the ball so you can aim. The Captain's Log beside the table always shows what each shot is worth right now.
Rules: locks, multiball, and missions
Hit all four suit targets to light the lock, then shoot the ramp to lock a ball in the paddle wheel. Lock two balls and the next ramp shot starts All Aboard multiball: the wheel spins up, releases its balls, and both orbits and the ramp light for jackpots. Collect all three jackpots to light the Super Jackpot at the scoop, worth three times the current jackpot value.
Knock down all five drop targets for a Royal Flush, which also lights a mission at the scoop. Missions are short timed challenges: Steam Race (any three orbit or ramp shots), High Stakes (three ramps), Card Sharp (four drop-target hits, with knocked targets popping back up), and Boiler Room (twelve pop bumper hits). Each completed mission is worth more than the last, and the second and fourth light an extra ball.
Rolling through all three A-C-E lanes raises the end-of-ball bonus multiplier, up to 5X. Your flipper buttons rotate the lit lanes, so you can steer toward the gaps. The left kickback and a right outlane save start each game lit; once used, roll through both inlanes to relight them, kickback first.
Modes and what they reward
Classic is three balls, with missions, multiball, jackpots, and extra balls. Blitz is three minutes on the clock with unlimited balls and double scoring; an extra ball in Blitz becomes twenty extra seconds instead. All In gives you a single ball that starts in three-ball multiball, and every jackpot raises the playfield multiplier (up to 3X, for the rest of that multiball) and buys a few seconds of ball save.
Strategy: control first, then the ramp
Cradle the ball. Hold a flipper up as the ball comes down and it will settle on it. From a dead stop you can aim deliberate shots instead of flailing. To pass the ball to the other flipper, let it roll off a lowered flipper, or tap the flipper so the ball bounces across.
Watch the plunger gauge on the right rail. Releasing in the band that matches the lit A-C-E lane scores the skill shot, worth 100,000 per ball number. Use nudges sparingly to rescue a ball heading for an outlane. Nudging too often in quick succession earns a DANGER warning; after two warnings the next one tilts the table, killing the flippers for the rest of that ball and forfeiting its bonus.
- Trap the ball on a raised flipper before aiming. A cradled ball gives you time to pick your shot instead of flailing.
- Hit all four suit targets to light the lock, then shoot the ramp. Two locked balls light All Aboard multiball, where both orbits and the ramp score jackpots.
- Plunge with the gauge on the right rail. Stop in the band of the lit A-C-E lane for the skill shot, and use a gentle nudge to save balls headed for the outlanes.
- How do I start multiball?
- Complete the four suit targets to light the lock, shoot the ramp twice to lock two balls in the paddle wheel, then shoot the ramp again for All Aboard multiball. All In mode starts in multiball right away.
- Can I play on a phone?
- Yes. Tap the left or right half of the table to flip. With a ball in the shooter lane, touch and hold the right half to pull the plunger, and release to launch. Portrait works best; in landscape a camera follows the ball and a mini-map shows the whole table.