I've very slightly modified my CSI to make it play alot better, which it now does! The left, middle and right orbits in CSI are super fun to hit and lightning fast, and really zoom the ball to the flippers. To experience it, you need to disable both the left and right posts in the upper arc of the playfield. It's a blast....but you lose out on absolutely key things, like the pop bumpers (key for building points) and most important, all your upper flipper shots.

On factory settings, the ball is always going to the pops and upper flipper, which can get a little boring....disabling one post improves things, but gets you less than halfway there...

So I added some blue rubber squares and Velcro to some key places on the game....ball guides etc. Now missed skill shots will go to the pops, like they should...and controlled orbit shots will too. But normal orbit shots will fly around the game.

IM pretty sure I just added hundreds of $$$ to this games market value.

Here are the pics: totally invisible from the players perspective.

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Some more pics of my awesome csi:

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While the game is "complete" there were lots of missed opportunities. It was being rushed out the door, every designer and programmer had some contribution at some point to get it done. No wizard mode kinda sucks, but youd never get there anyway as the MBs are just too damn hard. So its the orbits/posts issue and the skill shot that were totally bricked. I have just fixed the orbit/post problem.

The games music and dots are awesome. I like the callouts. At first they seem a little off, but they grow on you. It's very fast, with many challenging shots. The theme works well, but they could have tied it all together better.

Once you get it going, play it normally for a while to get the feel for what everyone else has played over the years...then do my mods - I tried many things and it took awhile to adjust everything just right - and be blown away.

Look closer. On the blue nub near the pops gate - serving to serve slower rolling balls into the pops where they belong - I've also added a square of Velcro (the soft material) that sticks partly into the orbit lane. It won't interrupt any balls coming from the left orbit but it helps stop the balls you want stopped coming from the right.

I've also placed a velcro square on the right blue nub to help slow down weaker orbit shots from the right. Finally, there are 2 squares of Velcro added to the inner/center orbit guide rail. I might even add more to this, so as to make that center shot more the main "shot to the pops". I might leave it though, as center loop shots can come flying back to the flippers now too, and that's pretty cool.

The overall speed of this game has seriously been juiced.

Videos a good idea. Ill get something up. For now a "controlled" orbit shot just means a softer shot. If you really nail the orbits that ball is coming right back at you very fast, but a less intense shot has a decent chance at making the pops/upper flipper. The center orbit shot has really become you primary shot to the pops now. The Velcro on the guide rail and the blue nub -slightly bent into the lane - is able to slow down all but the hardest shots enough to get it into the pops.

It's really a good balance. Having a missed skill shot go to the pops is so much better than it flying down the left orbit (assuming you've turned the left post off, which isn't factory)And you simply cannot enjoy the game at all if the ball is never getting through the pops to the upper flipper (which is basically what you get when disabling both posts)..but with even one post up your sending too many balls to the flipper. That Morgue shot is actually pretty cool if you don't have to hit 20 times a game. I think alot of people disable the right post, to allow for extra flow but keep the left post up (because otherwise you will rarely get into the pops/upper flipper). The ideal situation is having both posts disabled - allowing for both right and left orbit flow - but still having opportunities to get to the pops/upper flipper. This is what I've accomplished for the most part.

Mind you, since reprogramming the posts is never happening, Im hoping someone here with true engineering and design skills can take my idea and make something better with truly predictable results every time. What I've done works great, but its not fool proof. In fact, I had a blue nub inside the inner orbit on the guide rail for a while. Worked OK, but then during a pinball party I had to remove the glass three times because of the ball getting wedged inside the orbit on the nub. After the third time, out came that nub....then the flipper died, so we didn't get to play it in its current state and see what we had. Now I've finally been able to put a few games on it in its current condition and the results are impressive. Very impressive.

Frankly I'm surprised at how much upper flipper action I've been able to retain. I had a 100m plus game yesterday and lit the special from the morgue/AV Lab, which as you know takes "alot" of shots.

The game just seems to have more variety now, play wise. Yesterday I had Suspect Shakedown combined with Ballistics, Microscope MB and Centrifuge MB and it was insane. Balls flying everywhere! Ill admit that im always considering trading or selling it - because now with AVLE and ACDC side by side I dont play it too often...but its truly a unique game and my daughters favorite. She absolutely loves the Centrifuge and who can blame her?

At its best, such as when you have all the aforementioned stacked and 2 balls jammed in the centrifuge, it really is quite a good game.

Now theres more reason to perfect that right orbit shot. Because its fun when it flys back around to the left flipper. Try hitting the right orbit two or more times in a row, or do a combo with the ramp or inner loop....or nail the microscope and see if you have time to react before the ball is back on your flipper. If your game is waxed and your spinner really flys, the speed is for real. And you know that right orbit shot increases the value of the pop bumpers right? Get those babies up to 10k each and then your shots to the Morgue/AV lab can be worth over a hundred thousand!

Incidentally, the centrifuge insert looks rad with a white led on the top and red on the bottom. Like the picture I uploaded.

Some UV LEDs towards the back and on the backboard also have nifty effect. The green flashers glow.

Are switches involved? When my saucer stopped recognizing the ball it was the switch. Coil would fire in test, but a lug had come off the switch, so needed to be replaced.

Yah, no kidding with the lack of interest in this thread. I guess there really are only about 350 people that care about CSI...the owners! And not very many on Pinside.