. "Star Trek: The Next Generation (pinball)"@en . . "Although the general aim of the game was to score as many points as possible, the machine featured a complex array of ramps, bumpers, and drops which allowed the player to complete a series of missions provided by the game. One of the unique features of the Next Generation machine was the presence of two ball launchers mounted on either side of the playfield. These allowed an alternative method of feeding the ball into the playfield, and were used in some of the missions. The mechanism that allowed the machine to feed balls to the launchers and other locations, developed for this table, was patented by Williams in the US as #5,350,174, granted on 27 September 1994. The launchers themselves were the subject of an earlier patent, #5,186,462. Ball locking was a feature of the game, as with most pinball machines. As additional balls were locked, a storyline involving the large Rogue Borg ship mounted on the playfield advanced. Once three balls had been locked, the game entered multiball mode. In multiball mode, the left launcher is used to hit the Neutral Zone drop and award jackpot values. Once the drop is hit three times, or after the first miss, the three locked balls are returned to the playfield. The player must destroy the Borg ship by hitting the jackpot targets (the Start Mission drop and the Delta Quadrant ramp), before the Enterprise's shields are drained, and the Start Mission drop stops awarding jackpots. The spinner is used to \"regenerate\" the shields and reactivate the jackpot."@en . "Although the general aim of the game was to score as many points as possible, the machine featured a complex array of ramps, bumpers, and drops which allowed the player to complete a series of missions provided by the game. One of the unique features of the Next Generation machine was the presence of two ball launchers mounted on either side of the playfield. These allowed an alternative method of feeding the ball into the playfield, and were used in some of the missions."@en . . . . . .