Pinball Companion: Rule Guides

Playbooks, rules and shot maps for 539 machines, 230 with a real playfield photo. Tournament events on a map in 15 countries, plus players' top tips from PinTips.

Pinball Companion is a pocket reference for competitive pinball. Every guided machine opens on a Tournament Playbook: the few steps a strong player follows, in order, each saying exactly which shot starts, lights or collects what.

TOURNAMENT PLAYBOOK Short, numbered steps you can read between balls. No wall of text, no hunting for the one rule that matters.

RULES, LAYOUT AND HISTORY

• Rules: the scoring skeleton, modes, multiballs and wizard modes, written in our own words and fact-checked against cited sources
• Layout: every shot numbered, with what it does; many machines show pins on a real playfield photo
• History: designers, release and how the machine fits into pinball's story
• Pro or Premium/LE: on 38 Stern machines from 2012 on that play differently by model, a switch shows only your model's rules

YOUR SCORES At the end of a game, tap Add score on the machine's page and photograph the score display. The app reads the score on your phone, or you type it in. Each score keeps the date, the model and where you played: an event running nearby that day or one of your saved places. Each machine's page shows your best and number of games; one tap opens your history and progress chart. My scores in the Library lists every machine you have played. Scores and their photos sync between your devices through your own private iCloud. They are yours alone: no account, no leaderboard.

IDENTIFY A MACHINE WITH THE CAMERA Point your phone at a backglass or the cabinet. The app reads the printed title on your phone and jumps straight to that machine. Nothing is uploaded.

BUILT FOR THE VENUE

• Works fully offline: the whole database ships inside the app
• Search, or browse by era, manufacturer, designer and decade
• Star machines and keep your own notes in the Library, synced through your iCloud
• Dark, high-contrast design readable in a dim arcade

EVENTS Tournament banks for shows and club nights, with every machine one tap from its guide, and a count of how many you have a guide for. Browse them on a map: move it anywhere and show the events there, or find a city or state, even offline. Star the events you follow, sort by what is near you, and see your scores from each event.

ENGLISH, FRENCH AND SPANISH The whole app, all 539 guides included, reads in English, French or Spanish. It follows your device's language, or pick one in Settings › Language. Pinball jargon (multiball, jackpot, skill shot, ramp…) stays in English, as on the machine.

NO ACCOUNTS, NO TRACKING No sign-in, no ads, no tracking. Your stars, notes and scores stay on your device and in your own iCloud, which we cannot read; the only statistics are anonymous counts of the weekly event-list download. Your location is read on your device only when you sort events by distance, centre the map on yourself or add a score, and while the events map is open, to show where you are; it is never stored. Map images come from Apple Maps. Optional tips in Settings support development and unlock nothing.

Machine facts come from the Open Pinball Database; tournament banks from Match Play Events and the organizers' published line-ups. Pinball Companion is not affiliated with or endorsed by any pinball manufacturer or event organizer; machine and event names are used only to identify them.