Great idea, Robin! I've gone in and added a bunch. I assume the large column to the far right is for notes? Some games can operate with more than the trough is designed for, or have special cases, i.e. Twilight Zone accommodating a ceramic ball, or 7 balls if using the home roms. Robo-War is designed to use 2 balls, but it will operate 100% normally with 3 installed--and I operate the game with the 3rd ball in the trough to accommodate for an occasional lost or stuck ball, since 80B games can't do it in software. If you prefer that column to be left blank, I can remove such notes.

Excellent idea! Edited the list on the games I own.

A few will work with variable ammonuts. Heist takes between 15 and 99 for example. I like the premise though.

Rick and Morty did/does something similar. I am assuming captive balls are not counted so Last action hero would be a 6 not an 8 ball game.

I think you should get rid of the multiball column. No idea what that would help with to be honest. All new Sterns have 6 balls in the trough but rarely use all 6.

It really should be about balls that are loaded into the game. In the spreadsheet include a notes column if there are any things to be aware of like mentioned below.

TZ mentioning the powerball but the game is also going to automatically load the balls in the trough to the gumball

STTNG is going to automatically load the subway diverters

Banzai Run ball (and size) loaded into the freestyle area.

FGuy/Shrek ball (and size) loaded into mini-playfield

High-score pool size of ball loaded into the turret.

Stern TMNT Premium is an exception - it takes 8, and two normally reside in the van instead of the trough. (There was one funny case on here where someone had a pro that was mislabeled with the premium sticker to install 8.)

Another somewhat unusual case is Jack-Bot - it takes 4, although there is never any time that multiball goes to more than 3.

Good idea @robin! Just added something to the list.

There are a handful of games like this. Creature from the Black Lagoon uses 3 balls, but only ever has a 2-ball multiball, and TX-Sector requires 3 balls, but only ever has a 2 ball multiball. Due to the trough design, a lot of System 80B games with 2 ball multiballs can handle 3 balls in the trough and it won't cause any problems.

I've added a bunch to the spreadsheet, using the manuals as reference, and adding notes as needed.

How do we add a game ?
LTG : )

This is a great idea and I find it helpful. Added quite a few counts myself.

I know Space Jam has a multiball, however it's blank - I'm sure someone who owns the game can verify and correct that + get trough count.

Theatre of Magic has 4 balls in the trough not 5. The 5th ball is the captive ball. Well, 5th or 6th ball depending on how you look at it. The loose captive ball is hit by resting on a Newton ball. It is either a 3 or 4 ball multiball depending on whether you have a vanish ball locked when you get multiball.

Diner is the same as Party Zone in that there are 3 balls in the trough but only ever a 2 ball multiball.

World Cup Soccer has 5 in the trough and multiball is technically only 3 balls. The Final Draw mode is up to 5 balls if you manually plunge them back into play that quickly.

I was able to add a game ( The Wiggler ) at the bottom & then grab the left most cell and scroll it up to where it should be in alphabetical order (moving all the cells in that line. )

I would imagined the "Pinside I.D. number would be helpful as well I verified that's what the "machine_key # was looking at another game

I asked years ago for this info to be added to www.ipdb.org but nothing yet.

Pretty simple really:

just list any balls that get loaded onto the playfield or as captive balls as a +1 or whatever.

For example: 4+1 if there needs to be 4 balls in the trough plus 1 captive ball on the playfield.

How much are you willing to pay for this information?

All models have 1 captive ball behind the upper magnet (by upper flipper).

oh, I didn't know that. but I only was talking about pro

a glorious 2-day, 3-night stay at the new vfw doghouse.
you too can enjoy pinball machines from yesteryear and bask in the glory of an unfinished and unfurnished BNB with an ogre for a host.

I think you may have inadvertently confused some people by putting the MULTIBALL column before the BALLS IN TROUGH column in the spreadsheet. I see several games that show multi-ball counts but not trough counts. Maybe my assumption is wrong and all the entries thus far are correct, but seems like the natural order would be for BALLS IN TROUGH to be before/to the left of MULTIBALL.

Is it just my copy or is the spreadsheet broken? Tried to use it the other day while replacing balls but it only shows one row.

Fixed! Someone left a filter on.

Added a couple today.

Always thought Jokerz was odd. 3 balls in trough, but only a two ball multiball.

There are a couple System 11 games like that. The 3rd ball was added for the broken switch compromise programming. In short, if a ball gets stuck the game can still run with the other 2 balls.

Learned something new today. Thanks for the info.

added this to my collection and saw the site doesn't know how many balls. I updated the spreadsheet to what i think is wanted:
"how many balls do you install in the trough"
and not
"how many balls LIVE in the trough"
for TMNT Prem/LE, you put 8 into the 6 ball trough, and if the game detects ball 6 it will load up the van. 3 balls live in the van.

I added all the JJP games.

The ball count for Elton John is incorrect. Pinside shows 4, but it's 6.

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