You should replace your balls after every 600 games maximum. Did you play 2,000 games on the same set? That’s why they are beat up if so.

Looks great. Did you get the opto guard from Stern or one of the mod sites? Need to do the same thing on my machine and have been putting it off because it seems like a huge pain in the ass.

Technically I don’t own the game, bar owner does. I’ll be ordering new balls for all his games though and mine.

I got all the stern parts from warranty. It’s a small metal guard like what cliffy would cut and a new plastic. I also have the aftermarket clear guard that goes on top of the are in front of Herman, similar to Metallica’s sparky protector (but it goes on top of stock plastic).

It is kind of a pita, but probably easily less than an hour If you take pics, take your time etc

Make sure that’s not just black rubber dust on them. Clean and wax your game too.

I’ve cleaned and waxed it as I leave that stuff in my tool bag. Some of the black rubbed/scratched off the balls but a lot of it didn’t. I thought a lot of people had issues with stock balls pitting for years now?

Couple questions; Every so often the machine makes a noise, sort of like it is get the ball ready. It is a quick sound, but happens maybe 4 times an hour when the machine is left on and not played. The translite, goes off during game play and other times, as reacting to the game. I am new to actually own pinball machines, is this common on The Munsters game? My Batman 66 doesn't do that.

Good Morning. So, this morning I'm going to do a little upgrade work on my machines. One is going to be changing out the light behind the raven with a colored one. I got my 5v lights from Pinballife. I noticed that these leds, as well as my 12v leds, aren't marked in any way noticeable as to their voltage. My 5v are in a seperate baggy, and the baggy is marked. But I was curious if there was a way to distinguish between the 2 voltage leds, and also what the consequences would be if the wrong voltage accidentally installed?
Thanks!

Light a 5 volt LED with 12 volts, it burns out immediately.

Put 5 volts in a 12 volt LED, doesn't light, or barely glows.

Do either in reverse hookup, neither will light.

Always check voltages when swapping LEDs. How well it works comes down to series resistance added to the LED.

If you have the most recent code, the translite will go off and dim or flash during certain parts of the game. Normal and intended. It’s kind of cool actually. The noise I’m not sure about, can you pinpoint what area of the cabinet the noise is coming from? The topper will make noise as it flashes even if not playing a raven clip. It doesn’t sound like you have the topper though. The fan on Munsters comes on very often also.

The noise could be Spot popping up and down during attract mode. Next time you hear it, look to see if Spot is up.

Actually I bet you that’s probably it. Check in your game settings and see if you have spot attract mode on. If you do he will pop up about that many times per hour and that surely then is making the sound you’re hearing. Also normal. I actually like that feature but have it off because I don’t want the extra wear on the spot motor.

Oh it happens for sure. But I’ve also had good balls that I assumed were fucked when in deed they weren’t.

Better safe than sorry though. Replace them often.

Thank you @ramegoom. I was hoping for some little mark on the led itself for quick identification. Yes, I alway use my meter to see what's being fed to the led itself. Yep, I sorta figured 12v to a 5v would fry the led. Just wanted to make sure no other damage might occur. I really would've thought the manufacturer would stamp 5v or 12v into it. Anyway, thanks for your help!

Had a choice of Red, Blue or Purple. Went with Red, and it looks great! Purple probably would've looked good too, but it was hard enough to change the led with my fat hands, and once I got the Red bulb in, it was immediately decided Red was the winner! Hahahahaha

I used purple behind Raven and red under the playfield with Spot.

I'll be adding red LED eyes to Raven at some point. Haven't decided if I'll wire them always on or tied to the door coil.

so when I launch a ball, I usually hold down the left hand side flipper buttons and go for the double secret shot. If I don't, and just shoot the ball, it usually goes through one of the two gates, and almost immediately flows right and comes down to the flippers, sometimes without scoring a single point. Anyone else experience that? That is probably the only thing I dont like about this game.

I don't have 1.02 code on, however when I've played pro and premiums, it is like Metallica. If you just full plunge, the ball should hit a gate at the top and roll back into the pop bumpers. If you hold that left flipper, you get the full orbit. Is your plunger too powerful and bouncing the ball off the gate and going back to the right orbit to your flippers?

no, ball usually goes through a gate, and 70% of time maybe hits a pop bumper or two, or may just roll/drift away from bumpers to right orbit down to flippers, either way, not many points scored. other 30% of time, ball will bounce off bumpers for a few seconds, score some points, then goes to right orbit or goes center path to flippers

So how are you launching your ball for the left flipper double-secret shot? Are you using the plunger, which can sometimes give you a weak launch, or are you launching with the Zap Button which blasts the ball are the around the orbit and down to the left flipper?

sorry, guess I was not clear. No problem when holding down left side flippers and launching ball for double secret skill shot. That works fine and is my 'go to' shot. The problem is when I launch ball with zap button or pulling plunger w/o holding down flippers. that is when ball has minimal scoring action....

I think that is normal. Sometimes it'll stay in the pops for 20 seconds and sometimes it'll drop through without touching a thing. Those points really are inconsequential though. Nothing really scores well until you have the playfield multipliers going.

Mystery is such a wasted feature to me. 9 times out of 10 a Munster is boosted but the points are so small I just don't care. Only thing I hope for from mystery is light kitty or start Raven which I don't get often now after the update.

When do you guys go for kitty?

Immediately when they are lit or do you wait until you load up a few super jackpots?

I’m currently holding out kitty shots until I have at least 3 super jackpots queued up.

Do you ever soft plunge and drop the ball off of the launch ramp for a right hand flipper shot to the left ramp skill shot?

The moment it’s lit. My goal is to have 6x running for most of the game.

not me, I only really want it running during raven and munster madness. My strategy for the pro lately has been
1. light grandpa but don't start it
2. start spot
3. start grandpa (it may not look it but grandpa can stack on spot you just have to have it lit and ready)
4. go for lily and start lily
5. once spot and grandpa are over start herman multiball
6. Now I start going for kitty and light it up to 6x
7. once herman is done start raven and keep 6x up while collecting super jackpots. If I get 6 or more I collect at this point
8. Hopefully by the time raven is over I still have 6x running and at least 1 kitty reserved for munster madness.

I try to get grandpa and spot out of the way as fast as possible. Even the safe spot shot can end in a center drain so being able to go for lily and grandpa as well at least make those modes go by quick. Plus if I'm lucky the mystery picked up from the grandpa shot will net me an extra ball or kitty. I get all of my points on raven and munster madness so always save up the kitty shots for those.

I've not made it to munster madness #2 yet but this strategy got me over 230 mil

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Why wouldn’t you want 6x running the whole game?

Man, that is a lot going on for a game that "needs new code".

Of you're waiting to light kitty you are doing it wrong!!!!!!!! That 230mil could of been so much more.

True true, but I do have to say while I enjoy the first trip to munster madness I have never really cared about the second or third trips as I have not seen anything new. I wish there was some variety rather than just "you have to hit herman, spot, etc more." I do enjoy the challenge of the first trip tho. I hope if they do a code update they do something more with marylin, eddie, and dragula.

When you get a chance to bang that kitty, bang that kitty!

I don't agree because the most points you can get are with munster madness and raven multiballs. Focus on collecting super jackpots and then collect while in 6x multiplier within multiball is the most I've ever scored points on. Keeping 6x playfield is hard to do since kitty only lights on each mode start the first time (except for lily) That means you only have the opportunity for 3 kitty lights from herman, spot, and grandpa on the way to munster madness. If you drain you loose whatever you have used and then you have to bang on lily to light kitty at least 3 more times. For me it's best to save them up so I have it running in the most lucrative modes.

I'd love to see what others are scoring cause according to this site top scores and pindigo, 230mil is a top 10 score with many of the 500mil and greater being back in feb when the code had that horrible scoring bug.

My top is over 300 million on a pro where I got to MM2 on ball one and has 6x going for most of it.

New code.

You can keep the multipliers going by hitting kitty periodically. It will never time out if you do that.

How often do you get these high scores? Are the high scores a regular thing for you? Or are they sporadic?

I had been limping along for some time and out of the blue I got a 199 million game. I did something similar a few weeks back. After knocking the game dead then it is back to regularly scheduled programming of 5 million, 7 million, with the occasional 30 or 40 million as I flail away at the targets And, as always, my main objective is to just keep the ball on the play field, especially, when I roach things and score something like 20,000 points.

My usual is between 120-170 mil. Given my strategy though I have a lot of 10 - 20 mil games. Looking at machine stats that's where the vast majority of my scores lie in those ranges. I believe the top 4 and gc are all over 200 or close to that.

I'm going to have to test that once kitty is lit you can collect whenever. I've played a lot and that has not been my experience. Once I am out of kitty hits I have lit by modes it's not lit anymore. Going to test it tonight though with the glass off cause maybe I am wrong.

I just tested that on my pro and on the 1.02 code it's not doing that. I took the glass off and quickly started spot, grandpa, lilly and then once grandpa and spot were done started herman. so I had 4 kitty shots banked and immediately went to 6x playfield with the 3 hits to kitty. Kitty was still flashing. I then hit it a 4th time and it reset the multiplier timer but kitty was no longer lit.Once lily finished I was able to relight kitty by starting lily again but collecting it just reset the timer and kitty was no longer lit anymore.

At least on mine I need to be careful of how I use the playfield multiplier.

IMG_20191119_181401 - Copy (resized).jpg

When you have a Playfield multiplier and you hit an unlit Kitty it keeps the timer running I believe it is 60 Seconds so hit the unlit kitty once in a while to keep whatever X you achieved active. And what about Herman multiball? It can be worth some good points if you stack 6x,Lilly and boosted I scored a 23mil hurry up to start my multiball.

Always good to get a stacked kitty.

I continued to test and mine is resetting the timer on the multiplier if you hit an unlit kitty while it's running so that's something I did not know. Thanks for that. Not sure if that is going to change my strategy or not since it does make stacking more than 3 kitties a waste. I would stop going for kitty when it was not lit though so that will def change now. Will have to think about that more.

On my really good runs I am upping the playfield multiplier while I'm in herman multiball so I usually get a good bit from herman. Going right into raven after and then munster madness if you can keep the 6x going is where all the points are in my experience. Not draining during that run is not easy and if you do then the chance of the really high scores is over.

Has Stern changed the playfield art around the posts?

New owner of NIB Munster Premium Color. Can anyone tell me where the spare parts 79 and 80 go?
They came in a bag with extra target stickers and a munsters key tag.
I I had to guess they are for the lower playfield just to either side of flippers too keep balls from sticking up just behind flipper pivot.
I have seached high and low and found no info.

Any help is appreciated.
BTW 80 games in and yet to hit munster madness High Score 98k Ive hit 200k on Pro model at local pub.

Thanks again
Jon

Got a picture? What do they look like?

Are they something that sits behind the flippers like this?

c12e6350de6d34a3a45b3159eea146834f8d5e34 (resized).jpg

hope this helps. I cant find one single bit of info on these

came in bag with machine paperwork. zero info

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Looks like lower playfield plastic that installs right next to flippers- spare plastics

Yep, lower PF right and left lane plastics

Because once you drain...your playfield multiplier drains with it. Your super jackpots persist from ball to ball so they will wait for you, but your playfield multipliers will not. So waiting until you have 5 or more super jackpots queued up before hitting kitty puts you in the best position for a 40million+ super jackpot!

Don’t forget to stack lily prior to cashing in on a big super!

I’d rather have a 300 million ball one than a 40million SJP. Call me crazy though!

How many times have you had a 300 mil one ball? We are talking strategies for more consistent scores and by holding off on lighting kitty until the more lucrative modes I can regularly get 120-170 with occasional over 200. The Munsters that is used in league around here has an average score of 19 mil and a high of 120 with around 100 plays this season. The fact that nightly I can get over 120 after a few games is a pretty consistent strategy

I am considering getting the plasma towers (it is a set of two) to be placed on top. They plug into the usb port, is that safe?

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Once. But the way I play this game is to setup one big ball. Very hard to have anything other than one decent ball a game so I try to stack as much as I can into that one ball as the other two will most definitely end super quickly.