Splice the sequence, log the experiment, reach Lab 7.
A machine built around the Nanophage Research universe, the online horror archive of a biotech company whose labs went dark. The board is a hex-cell membrane under a green laboratory glow. A great phage stands in the middle: its purple capsid head is the SPLICE ZONE scoop and its tail runs down the centre lane, where a live phage specimen swims up and down. Four DNA bases, A C G T, stand in front of it as a drop bank. Three petri-dish cultures pop up top, trefoils and hazard stripes guard the flippers, and the display is a lab monitor in green phosphor. Drop the bases in the flashing order for a CLEAN SPLICE, shoot the capsid to log the experiment, and work your way one lab deeper each time, from Lab 1 in Alaska to the redacted Lab 7 and the ABOMINATION HUB.
STORY & LORE
The archives
Nanophage Research presented itself as a biotech firm engineering phages, the viruses that hunt bacteria. What survives is an archive: experiment logs, a lab encyclopedia, a client called the Virtual Nexus and pages that end in redaction bars. The machine is played as if you had broken into that archive. The game-over screen is the site going dark: CONNECTION LOST, SERVERS OFFLINE.
Seven labs
The machine names seven labs, and you visit them in order: ALASKA (Lab 1, the classified facility up north), PERMAFROST, NEXUS, SPLICEWORKS, AUGMENT, ARCHIVE, and a seventh whose name is a black bar. The display tells you where you are and where you are going next. Lab 2 gives you an extra ball, Labs 3 and 5 lose containment, and Lab 7 is the Abomination Hub.
The phage
The centre of the board is a bacteriophage drawn big: the hexagonal capsid that carries its DNA, the tail sheath, the tail fibres splayed across the lower field like legs. The left ramp is the SHEATH and the right is the CAPSID RAMP, the two halves of the virus wrapped over the board. The specimen in the centre lane is alive and moving, and hitting it infects the host.
HOW IT PLAYS
The sequence (A-C-G-T)
Four DNA drop targets stand in a peaked bank under the capsid. Each ball the machine deals a random order and flashes the base it wants next. Drop them in that order and it is a CLEAN SPLICE (10,000). Drop one out of order and it is a MUTATION: the base still falls, but the splice is dirty. Each base in sequence pays 1,500 times the lab you are working on.
Log the experiment
With all four bases down the SPLICE ZONE opens and the capsid flashes. Shoot it to LOG THE EXPERIMENT: 10,000 times the lab number, 3,000 into the bonus, and the bonus multiplier steps up on every even lab. The seven lab lamps down the phage's tail light up as you go. Leave the zone open for 28 seconds and the splice is aborted and the bank resets.
Containment Breach
Labs 3 and 5, or an infection that reaches 100%, set off CONTAINMENT BREACH: two-ball multiball for 32 seconds. The flashing ramp pays the jackpot and moves it to the other ramp; the capsid pays the SUPER jackpot. Contain it (hit the goal) for 25,000 and 9,000 in the bonus.
Infection
This machine's multiplier. The cultures (the three jets), the centrifuge spinner, both ramps and the phage specimen all raise the infection meter on the left of the capsid. At 30%, 60% and 90% the whole score goes x2, x3, x4. At 100% the samples escape and it breaks containment. The meter doesn't grow during a mode, so one breach can't set off another. It resets with each new ball.
Replication
Alternate the two ramps within seven seconds of each other and the phage replicates: each ramp pays 500 times the replication, which doubles every time, x2, x4, x8 up to x64 (32,000 a shot). The same ramp twice, or a pause, and it starts again from one.
Genetic Distortion
Three mutations and the machine goes into GENETIC DISTORTION for twenty seconds: the board washes red and every culture pays 5,000.
The Archive
Light all four top lanes (the bonus multiplier steps up and the kickback lights), or drop a ball into the capsid from behind while it is closed, and the machine accesses the archives: a mystery award. Its own prizes are lore entries: LOG: NANOPHAGE ONLINE 2002 (20,000), VIRTUAL NEXUS CLIENT (spots the next base), LAYERED AUGMENTATION (+20% infection) and, rarely, SERVERS OFFLINE 06.18.2017, which pays 61,817.
Abomination Hub
The wizard mode. Log Lab 7, or break containment again with two modes already played and Lab 4 behind you, and the machine opens the ABOMINATION HUB: every shot on the board pays, the whole machine cycles through the rainbow, and every lane stays lit.
Mystery
The mystery award spins a slot of prizes on the display and lands one: points, a lit kickback, a spotted target, 2X SCORING for twenty seconds, an extra ball on a lucky day, ADD-A-BALL during multiball, or one of this machine's own prizes. It pays out once every eighteen seconds at most.
High scores, replays and the Grand Champion
The machine keeps its own high-score table in your browser: a Grand Champion and four more, seeded with the house scores until you beat them. Make the table and you enter your initials on the glass (the flipper keys or the sides of the glass pick a letter, Space or the middle of the glass locks it in, or just type them). Pass the #3 score and you win a REPLAY, which is a free extra ball, and passing the Grand Champion mid-game gets a callout of its own. The attract screen cycles the table so the next player knows the number to beat.
GALLERY
SHOT VALUES
Before multipliers.
| Shot | Base | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Culture (jet) | 150 | +1% infection; 5,000 in Genetic Distortion |
| Base in sequence | 1,500 x lab | Out of order is a mutation |
| Clean splice | 10,000 | All four bases in the flashing order |
| Log the experiment | 10,000 x lab | Capsid, with the Splice Zone open |
| Ramp | 500 x replication | Doubles when you alternate, up to x64 |
| Phage specimen | 1,500 | +6% infection |
| Centrifuge spinner | 45 | +0.3% infection a spin |
| Containment complete | 25,000 | +9,000 bonus |
THE LABS
One lab deeper for every experiment you log.
| Lab | Name | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ALASKA | Pays 10,000 |
| 2 | PERMAFROST | Extra ball |
| 3 | NEXUS | Containment Breach |
| 4 | SPLICEWORKS | Bonus multiplier +1 |
| 5 | AUGMENT | Containment Breach |
| 6 | ARCHIVE | Bonus multiplier +1 |
| 7 | ████████ | ABOMINATION HUB (wizard) |
HOUSE CABINET — SHARED BY EVERY PINBALL PETER MACHINE
Every table in the range is built on the same body. The board is 600 x 1040 units now — the shape of a phone screen — with a smaller ball and half the score display, so the field is a fifth wider and a tenth longer in ball-widths than it was, and it fills the width of a phone.
| Measurement | Value | In ball widths |
|---|---|---|
| Playfield | 496 x 954 units | 20.7 wide x 39.8 long |
| A real table, for comparison | 20.25in x 42in | 19.1 wide x 39.5 long |
| Ball | 24 units across (was 28) | 1.00 |
| Flipper | 75 units long, 22 wide | 3.1 long |
| Drain gap between flipper tips | 29.6 units | 1.23 |
| Outlane channel | ~37 units | 1.5 |
| Inlane channel | ~36 units | 1.5 |
| Top lane channels | 48 units | 2.0 |
| Score display | 56 units tall | - |
| Board on an iPhone 13 | the full 390px width (was 332 with black bars) | - |
| Balls per game | 3, plus extra balls | - |
VERSION HISTORY
- New machine. A phage-lab table built around the Nanophage Research universe: the A-C-G-T sequence bank, the Splice Zone capsid, seven labs from Alaska to the redacted Lab 7, the infection multiplier, ramp replication up to x64, Genetic Distortion, the Archive mystery and the ABOMINATION HUB wizard mode.
- The phage specimen swims up and down the centre lane.
- Its own green phosphor lab-monitor display, and a CONNECTION LOST game-over card.
- The high-score table with initials, a Grand Champion and a replay.