The Amazing Spider-Man pinball tournament strategy: light the lanes, then use them
Gottlieb's 1980 widebody has four flippers, no center post and a scoring system that pays for rolling through the inlanes. How to light them on the plunge, when to collect your bonus at the saucer, and what 572 tracked games say.
·6 min read·Tilt Stats
This is the Gottlieb game from 1980, a widebody with four flippers, and it has nothing to do with the Stern Spider-Man from 2007. All 572 of our tracked games on it were played at Blainbrook, where it has been in the tournament lineup since January 2023.
It is a bonus game with an unusual way of building the bonus. The most valuable switches on the playfield are the inlanes, and the safest way to score is to keep passing the ball through them.
The short version
- Plunge softly for the A or B lane at the top right. Both, if the ball bounces your way.
- Get the ball under control, and learn where the gap between the two right flippers is.
- Send the ball through the lit inlanes, with an alley pass if you can make one.
- When your bonus is close to its maximum, go up the left orbit from the right flipper and land in the middle saucer to collect it.
- Nudge with single bumps. This game gives no tilt warning.
The flippers
There are four: one at the lower left, one higher up on the left wall, and two set in a line at the bottom right. There is no post between the flippers.
The two on the right are the ones to learn. A ball can pass between them, and the lower one cannot hold a ball in a cradle the way a normal flipper does. Spend your first ball finding out what each one reaches.
The plunge lights the lanes
The A and B lanes are side by side at the top right. The first one you roll through scores 5,000 and lights two of the four lanes at the bottom:
- A lights the left outlane and the right inlane.
- B lights the left inlane and the right outlane.
Both relight at the start of every ball, so this is a job for every plunge. A soft plunge reaches them, and a nudge can bounce the ball off the pop bumper and back up into the other lane.
Bob's Guides prefers B. A curved lane on the left and a side lane on the right also count as B and A during play, and the ball finds the side A lane more often, so taking B on the plunge gives you a better chance of ending up with both.
Why the inlanes matter
| Lane | Unlit | Lit |
|---|---|---|
| Inlane or outlane | 500 and one bonus advance | 5,000, one bonus advance and one multiplier step |
A lit inlane is worth ten times the points and raises the bonus multiplier as well. Pinball Primer calls passing the ball through the lit inlanes the best safe strategy on the game, and Bob's Guides says it beats every other plan for as long as you can keep doing it.
The method is the alley pass: let the ball roll up the inlane from the flipper and back down. Done well, the ball never leaves the bottom of the playfield. Done badly, it arcs out of the top of the inlane and you are chasing it, so practice on ball one.
If you cannot make the pass, go to the top instead. The left orbit from the right flipper, or a shot banked off the five drop targets from the left flipper, sends the ball up where it can come down through a lit lane.
Bonus and the saucer collect
The base bonus runs from 1,000 to 29,000 and the multiplier goes to 5x, for a maximum of 145,000. Each ball starts again at 1,000 and 1x.
You can be paid during the ball as well as at the end. Three saucers sit in a row at the top left, numbered 1, 2 and 3. Once you have landed in all three, or once your base bonus reaches 20,000, saucer 2 lights for Scores Bonus. It pays base times multiplier, resets the base to 1,000 and keeps the multiplier for the rest of the ball.
Timing matters here. Collecting early wastes the collect, because the base goes back to 1,000 whatever it was. Build the base close to its maximum first. Then shoot the spinner in the left orbit, land saucer 2, and start building again with the multiplier still in place.
The drop targets
The bank of five is on the right, facing the left flippers. Each target is 3,000 and a bonus advance. One target has a green light, and hitting it while it is lit pays 10,000 and a multiplier step. Pop bumper hits move the green light, and each time you complete the three saucers another green light is added. Completing the bank lights the spinner for 1,000 a spin.
The bank of three is in the center left, angled toward the right flippers. It pays 3,000 a target and 5,000 for completing it.
Every target shot on this game comes back at you. Shoot the targets from a trapped ball, and leave them alone when the ball is moving fast.
Where the ball drains
- Between the two right flippers, in a scissor drain.
- Down the middle, from balls that fall out of the top right half of the playfield.
- Off the left slingshot, which Bob's Guides rates as the more dangerous of the two.
- Out the outlanes, which owners describe as harsh.
The cabinet is wide and heavy, which makes it hard to move. Games of this age have no tilt warning, so a nudge that goes too far ends the ball and forfeits the bonus. Use one short bump at a time.
Ask about the settings
In competition the extra ball and the special usually pay 50,000 each or are turned off. Pinball Primer files the routes to them under casual play.
The instruction card says a tilt costs you the ball in play. A switch inside the machine can change that to end your whole game, so it is worth asking.
What the tracked games say
| Tracked tournament games | 572 |
| Tournaments it appeared in | 164 |
| Players with a game on it | 160 |
| Typical game | 11:18 |
| Upset rate | 39.2% |
| Difficulty | 33 out of 100 |
Numbers are from late September 2026. The Amazing Spider-Man machine page has the live ones.
The upset rate is how often the lower-rated player in a pairing finishes ahead. At 39.2% this is one of the more open games in our top 25, almost four points above the average. With four flippers, no center post and no tilt warning, a strong player can lose a ball quickly here, and three balls do not leave much room to recover. If you are the underdog, it is a fair pick. The full ranking is in upset rates by machine.
The best record among players with at least 20 games belongs to Chris Frame, who has won 29 of his 60 games outright. Trevor Klungseth has 102 games on it, and Joshua Anderson and Bryan Moen follow. None of them finishes ahead of more than two thirds of their opponents, which is a lower ceiling than on most machines. The Blainbrook arena report has the full list.
Where to play it
Blainbrook in Blaine is the only venue in our data with one. The Blainbrook guide covers the room and its schedule.
Before your next game
The Amazing Spider-Man playbook has rulesheet links and player tips, and the scores tab shows the best games on record. For the full rules we leaned on the Pinball Primer guide, Bob's Guides and Peter Hall's rulesheet.
Paragon is the other four-flipper widebody in this series, with its own gap between stacked right flippers. How to play classic games in a tournament covers what the older games share, and the whole series is in the machine strategy guides.