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- description
- A drop lane is a vertical channel running down the playfield directly above an [[gameplay-feature:outlanes]], so that a ball entering it falls straight into the outlane below — which gives that outlane a second mouth, higher up and away from the flippers.[1]
A lane whose whole purpose is to hand the ball to the drain is a hard bargain, and designers rarely left it at that. On *[[title:gay-90s]]* (1970, [[manufacturer:williams]]) the drop lane doubles as an extended [[gameplay-feature:kickback-lanes]], so the kicker throws the ball back up the length of it;[2] on *[[title:dixieland]]* (1968, [[manufacturer:bally]]) the left lane is unusually long and carries a [[gameplay-feature:detour-gates]] the player can earn to be let out of it.[3] Where a factory put a post in the falling ball's path to steer it back towards the flipper, the lane is not counted as a drop lane at all.[4]
1. Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — https://www.ipdb.org/glossary.php Archive A vertical lane directly above an outlane that causes the ball entering it to drop straight down into the outlane. In this way, it makes the outlane have more than one entrance.
3. Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — https://www.ipdb.org/glossary.php Archive A game having two of these lanes is Bally's 1968 'Dixieland' where the left one is very long and has a detour gate in its path, if earned by the player.
4. Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — https://www.ipdb.org/glossary.php Archive Some games were designed by the factory to have a mini-post in the path of the dropping ball to deflect the ball away from the outlane and towards the flipper.
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- gameplay_feature_parent
- Parent
- Lanes
- name
- Drop Lanes
- slug
- drop-lanes
- status
- active