Extreme Pinball help

[Ness7281992]

Hey, so here's a Throwback Thursday thing for you. I recently got my buddy hooked on Extreme Pinball. He's been playing the (weak) PSX port, but I know it has a stronger presence on PC, and this is a question from me as well. Actually, it's the big 3 questions of pinball:
1. What the hell do I do?
2. How the hell do I do it?
3. Where the hell do I go to do it?
Basically, he can't figure out half of the missions, and despite my ~20 years playing it off an on, I don't know either. I can't find any guides or walkthroughs. I've tried GameFAQs and the first 50 google search results. Is there anyone on these forums who can help? All I have to work with are the tips pages in the instruction booklet, and that doesn't say crap about the tables.

[Tanooki]

Vaguely remember it, and I do recall that you can do a 13 ball cheat in the balls option area typing B A L and hitting enter.

Maybe the extra balls will help you figure it out.

[Ness7281992]

Vaguely remember it, and I do recall that you can do a 13 ball cheat in the balls option area typing B A L and hitting enter.

Maybe the extra balls will help you figure it out.

Yeah, we used that cheat and set it to 4 players for good measure, and it helped a bunch (mostly with the Urban Chaos and Rock Fantasy tables). But there'd be some missions where you'd need to do something and there was no indicator, by name or blinking light. For instance, on the Urban Chaos table, one mission is to capture the gangs and take them to the police station... but nothing says gangs, nothing blinks, it's not the rioters up top of the table, and it's not the "Parasites" at the bottom of the spiral hill thing in the middle of the table (that's its own mission).

I just find it hard to believe there was never a guide for this game (or Epic Pinball, for that matter). Am I gonna have to be the one to make it, 20 years late?

[Tanooki]

Maybe so. I never got into it. I loved Silverball which is earlier, but once I discovered 21st Century Pinball/DICE/Spidersoft stuff -- PInball Dreams/Fantasies/Mania/Illusions nothing did it for me until Empire had their Pro Pinball run, and then into now with Pinball Arcade(Hall of Fame previously), Zen Pinball and those types. I prefer the digitally converted real stuff above all else these days, but I can go back to the 90s fine with that GOG pack of tables or along with Pinball Mania both represented on GBA only in the UK until Pinball Challenge Deluxe (Dreams+Fantasies) and Pinball Advance (Mania.)

[Edmond Dantes]

Likely the reason there's no guides is because most people don't think of Pinball as the kind of thing where you have to be stringent about the challenges and doing things. I know when I play, I'm happy as long as lights flash, and I only do missions if its for an unlockable like on the Pinball Hall of Fame collections.

If this game has an option or a viewpoint that gives you a closer look at the board and lets you scroll over it while paused, I'd use that to examine it. You're likely just going to have to experiment to find out what you're supposed to do. In most pinball machines I play I never have the slightest idea how anything is supposed to be done.... Balls of Steel has this one fantasy-themed board whose missions I can never figure out...