Do you want to know how to play a game really quickly? I don’t mean playing the game quickly. I mean getting the nuts and bolts on what to do in a a compact amount of time.

A group of pinballers including myself participated in a project called “60 Second Tutorials” where the goal was to describe how to play a game in 60 seconds. I did one as well. Mine is the X-Men 60 Second tutorial, where I try to squeeze in as much X-Men guidance into less than a minute.

I’m surprised I breathed properly during it. Luckily, It took only three tries to get it right. The first time, I realized what I had written to read out was way to long. I trimmed it down to what I thought was 60 seconds worth of text in what I thought were 10 second paragraphs.

The second take consisted of me reading it through with a bunch of flubs and mistakes, but I just barreled through it and realized I was pretty close timing-wise. One the third take, I got really lucky! I went through it and hesitated I think once, and got through it right at the 60 second mark. When I was done I couldn’t believe it! I fully expected to have to try 100 times before I got it right. I doubt if I did another one that I would be so lucky.

Here is my contribution, the 60 Seconds of X-Men Tutorial.

The text I was reading is below. I left the last edits I made as stricken-out text so you can see the last cuts I made before going for it.

Hi, I’m Steve Bowden from the Jersey Pinball Association, and I’ve got 60 seconds to help you play Stern’s X-Men Pro!
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Three goals in this game are Collecting Mutants, Challenging the Villains and Starting Multiballs
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To collect a mutant, shoot the shot associated with it until the Mutant starts. Each Mutant’s shot has an insert in front of it. For example shoot the Right Ramp a few times to start IceMan. When a Mutant  starts, shoot the flashing shots to complete the mode and earn bonus multipliers.
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To Challenge a Villain, complete the inlanes until the villain insert lights up at the left scoop. Shoot the scoop to select a villian. A good villian to start with is Sentinels followed by Juggernaut. You can also complete the inlanes to light the scoop for Blackbird mystery awards. If you are in Multiball, the first mystery award will be an Add-A-Ball.
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To start Weapon X Multiball, shoot Wolverine as many times as shown on the screen until Multiball starts. You can only work toward Weapon X Multiball as long as no other Mutant Mode is running.
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To Start Magneto Multiball, shoot the left and right stand-ups near Magneto to light the locks. Shoot any lock shot to lock the ball. Depending on difficulty settings, you may need to shoot the stand ups again to re-qualify the locks each time. Getting 4 locks starts Magneto Multiball. Collecting more mutants before starting Magneto Multiball will make Magneto easier to defeat and each shot will be worth more points.
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Try to stack a Mutant and a Villain to run simultaneously. For example: Try to stack a Villian with Weapon X Multiball or Magneto Multiball for more efficient scoring. Also, try to stack a Mutant with a Villain Multiball.
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To get a Villain Multiball, shoot the Brotherhood or Hellfire Club stand ups on the far left or right sides of the playfield. After you hit enough stand ups, you will be able to select Brotherhood or Hellfire Club Multiball as one of your Villain modes.
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Remember to soft plunge to take advantage of playfield validation and any ball save time that’s available to you.

Here is the playlist with the other contributors up to now.

From Bowen Kerins on facebook:

Thanks to Brian Dye and to many contributors, we have created a set of 60-second audio tutorials for pinball machines. The first set of machines is specifically targeted to help those playing in the IFPA Women’s Championship and Nationals.

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The project will continue, and more information about how to contribute will be posted soon. Thank you so much to all who contributed: Sunshine Bon, Kristen Gregory, Marlie Lestin, Tracy Lindbergh, Theresa Nessel, Katie Janis, Austin Chenelle, Ryan Wanger, Zoë Vrabel, Robin Lassonde, Julie Gray, Snow Galvin, Kayla Greet, Steven Bowden, Hannah Holmberg Hatch, Jeff Parsons, Lex Albrandt, Brandon Wheeler, Alek Kaczmarczyk, Jake Erskine, Jon Replogle, Krystle Gemnich, Brian C. Dominy, Alexa Philbeck, Alan Wiley, Kaite Martin, Sue Brown, Danielle Peck, Breanna Jo Lloyd, and anyone else I missed.

Fun With Bonus is the home of the semi-coherent, misguided ramblings of professional and amateur pinball players.

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