Cirqus Voltaire

Cirqus Voltaire is a pinball machine released in October 1997, and created by Bally. It differs from other pinballs due to its low scoring for the time relative to other pinballs.

The object is to join the Cirqus by completing nine Marvels. These are more achievement-based than other pinball machines.

The game was available for purchase as DLC for the console pinball game Pinball Arcade.

The Marvels

1. Acrobats: Shooting the right ramp four times awards this Marvel. It also lights the Super Spinners, meaning each spin is worth 10,000 points.
2. Boom!: Roll over the red rollover targets to spell VOLT, then the "Boom Balloon", a bumper which raises out of the playfield, appears. Hitting it enough times lights an extra ball.
3. Defeat All Ringmasters: To face a Ringmaster, spell WOW by hitting the WOW targets. After this, the Ringmaster will appear, shoot the ball in a random direction, and the player will then try to hit the Ringmaster. Five hits will defeat a ringmaster. One million points are awarded for the first one, two million for the second, etc. Four Ringmasters must be defeated for this Marvel.
4. Highwire Multiball: Locking three balls at the left ramp queue will start Highwire Multiball and award the Marvel. Each jackpot is 1 million points, and can be collected at the Juggler, Acrobats, and Ringmaster loops.
5. Juggler: Shooting the left loop three times lights the Juggler, three more shots lock three balls and starts the Juggler Multiball. Shooting the ball into the juggler gets 500,000, two balls in 10 seconds is a double jackpot worth 1 million, and three in 10 seconds is 2 million.
6. Menagerie: There is a ball on the left side of the table. Hitting the ball into the slingshot with the pinball scores a hit. Enough hits scores the player the Marvel. More hits can automatically award another Marvel, then lighing the extra ball, two more Marvels spotted, then points.
7. Ringmaster Frenzie: Playing the second Ringmaster's multiball awards this Frenzie.
8. Side Show: Hitting the WOW targets enough times lights the Side Show. Just one hit here will award the Side Show Marvel, as well as a prize as shown below.
9. Spin: Shooting the loop just outside the Ringmaster four times spells SPIN. This awards the Marvel.

Side Show Prizes

• The Amazing Roonie: The player controls a kangaroo, shown on the display, with the flipper buttons. To succeed, the player must have Roonie jump over obstacles. Each jump scores 180,000 points, and 1 million points are scores for clearing the mode without crashing. If the player does crash, 100,000 will be awarded.
• Big Points: Either 250,000 or 500,000 are awarded to the player.
• Cannonball Run: Ten seconds are given to the player. Hitting the flipper buttons fire a "cannonball" in the back display. If the cannonball hits the top target, 250,000 is scored. A second time scores 500,000, etc.
• Extra Ball: Awards an extra ball.
• Hat Trick: The Ringmaster raises up, and the player has 20 seconds to shoot balls into the Ringmaster. The first two are 500,000 points, the third is 1 million points.
• Light Lock: Lock becomes lit.
• Light Spot Marvel: Lights the "Spot Marvel" light on the lock ramp. If hit, a Marvel will be awarded automatically.
• Neon Multiball: A 3-ball multiball is started, and 10 hits to the WOW targets lights an extra ball. Twenty hits is worth one million points.
• Popcorn Mania: There is a 20 second time limit, and each switch awards 30,000 points. After enough switches are hit, the Popcorn Jackpot of 500,000 is awarded. Every time afterwards, the Popcorn Jackpot increases by 100,000.

After the nine Marvels are collected, the multi-level "Join the Cirqus" mode will begin.

Join the Cirqus Levels

1. Shooting either the Juggler loop or the Acrobat loop and put the ball into the Side Show to start.
2. Spell Cirqus: A 3-ball multiball. Spell CIRQUS by hitting the Acrobats, the Juggler, the lock ramp, the Menagerie, the Ringmaster loop, and the WOW targets. Success means 10 million points.
3. Unmask Voltaire: Another 3-ball multiball. To succeed, shoot the Ringmaster, then the lock ramp in succession. This must be done for a total of 9 shots, Ringmaster, ramp, Ringmaster, ramp, etc. Another 10 million points are given for success here.
4. Meet the Cirqus: Starts with one ball, shoot six jackpots for success. The jackpots are the same as Highwire Multiball's jackpots, and also award another ball for this mode. Ten million points for success, and Party Multiball starts.

Party Multiball

• Four ball mutiball
• Juggler, Ringmaster, Ringmaster loop, and both ramps score a million points each.
• The bumpers score the Boom! value.
• The mode continues while at least two balls are in play.

The top Party Multiball score is saved on the machine, and any player who makes it to at least the Spell Cirqus mode can enter his or her initials as a member of the Cirqus.