We joined the club today. What a great game. We are having a blast with it and I can't believe there isn't more love for it.

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What's funny is if you follow the advice on the score card you can get some big scores going when it all goes well. My highest game was before I saw these, but following the 'pattern' listed gives consistently higher scores than just randomly choosing modes.

I would guess most shooter lanes are this way. They just route the wood and then clear over the top, it isn't hit with a sander or anything else so the clear just goes into the pours etc.

When I restore my old playfields I pay special attention and do extra sanding by hand in the shooters to make them glassy smooth, but there is no way a production playfield is going to be like that.

Okie dokie. Guess not. I'll have to take a close look at my AS and see if I see anything. It looked fine from a distance

Cliff is pretty busy, but I chatted with him by email and he said he'd look into creating protectors for the AS LE eventually so figure he really means all the AS pins.

My LE is holding up well so far, but I've ordered cliffys for the drop target, under ramp switches, outhole, and drain. He hasn't made anything specific for AS yet, but I think what I ordered will work just fine.

I basically follow djreddog, but I let the auto plunge go so I should probably add in the super bumpers early. The big thing is you have to get the multiballs going of course.

If possible I like to get 4/5 balls into the toy box on ball one or two and then start the elevator multiball first. This will give you those extra balls during the elevator, then after that I make sure a mode is going and start the toy box multiball. If I'm on the last ball, I won't abort the toy box multiball start (on purpose).

I haven't been able to start every mode yet, let alone complete them. I have gotten within one mode start a couple times, but feel it is doable when I'm concentrating on it. Last night I was having a great game, but hit the damn button to abort my third toy box multiball when I meant to play it (got excited, saw flashing light and hit button). That game was about 225 million. Anyway my high is around 280 million, a great game for me is normally around 150 million, 50-70 million is a good game, but I'm not a top tier player. Oh yeah you will have the 5-10 million games too...those I hit start again as soon as my wife laughs for beating me.

Mine is setup with factory defaults on newest code and pretty steep (bubble is at the top).

3 Ball, i don't make any of my games 5 ball.

I wouldn't call it clone of the code, any company worth their salt will be making an internal SDK (Software Development Kit) to do basic tasks. Yes the same bug could end up in multiple games if they used one of the same library functions. Fine, it's easier to fix in the SDK and have multiple games fixed at once then use unique code in every application. Nevermind the vast savings on development costs and the reliability improvement of using proven code.

I'm sure Stern starts with a base game package that has basic menus, basic play etc. Then as the design of the game is implemented they will pull shared resources and use the pieces that make sense. If a new game needs a tweak to a library then they will make the tweak and hopefully keep it backward compatible.

I think this exact process is why Aerosmith is so damn good out of the box. I think they've made a conscious decision to use a more mature software development process. Things should only continue to get better if they are actually doing things this way.

Semantics mostly. I think KISS and AS probably started from the same blank base, but it's highly doubtful that they took the KISS code, copied (cloned) it to a directory and then started removing/changing items. That would take more time and usually leads to more bugs and harder to maintain code.

Think of it more like this

->Base Code (including a library of common components)
|-> KISS
|-> AS
|-> SW

I doubt it was KISS -> AS. That would lead to two completely separate code branches that would need to be maintained separately. If you found a bug with a node board firmware you'd have to go back and change it in every branch of code. If you use the same base libraries, you would change it in one spot, test on one machine and all would be good for any others.

I could be giving them to much credit, but a simple copy and paste mistake in the menu could be just in the menu label (the function call). The underlying code can still be in the code base.

e.g. They could have a call such as setMultiballMenuOption("KISS Army Multiball", 4); Where the title and number of balls are passed in. All of the functionality for handling the option would be down lower. Yes engineers will copy and paste routinely from known code sources instead of typing it all from memory and I don't see a problem with that. The problem is they didn't change the title.

I will say with how many games they are releasing a year, it's highly doubtful that each is an independent branch. They have to be using a SDK/library at the bottom and reusing/sharing as much as possible. That is just good use of software resources. Engineers (me included) just cost to much to start from scratch every time.

See, I went to TPF in March looking to try out Aliens and thought that'd be my next new pin (sold a couple to have cash). Then I played it several times and didn't care for it. I played an AS pro once and really liked the looks and play. Later had my wife and son with me and we all played an AS LE and were just blown away by how fun it was. We got in line again to play again and knew I'd want a premium. Well things worked out so I got an LE.

I think it's an absolute blast and way less frustrating than GB. It may be the best game out in a long time. We got to play SW yesterday and had a blast with it too (and one will make it's way in my house sooner or later). It has that fun factor for us too, but the play is so different. Personally I'm glad Stern can release games back to back that have different feels and play styles.

I've had this happen twice now. If you lift the playfield, they tend to find their way out, but what a pain. I'll take off the upper playfield and see if I can find a way to stop it eventually. It's only happened in crazy multiballs for me so far.

No I think like 6 balls could probably fit in there.

So lift the playfield all the way.

Test fit the blades by lining them up and using blue painters tape along the top (just several pieces not one huge strip) to hold them in place. You want the top right below the glass channel.

Start at the back and pull the blade out some and start peeling the backing off about 6-9 inches. Crease it so it folds under. Line up that section and press it down in a few spots with a couple finger tips. Just want to tack it in place.

Make sure it is still lined up then press that section firmly.

Pull about 9-12 more inches of backing off by just pulling the back at a 45 degree angle so it is coming off without pulling the blade completely off the side.

Line that part up and press.

Just keep going. Slowly and evenly. If you really screw up or even a little you can pull it back off part way and go again. Big thing is to avoid wrinkles.

Now when you are putting them on if you misalign by 1/8" or something at the top you can cut the edge with a razor blade instead of trying to pull it all off. Just run a sharp blade right under the glass channel.

I've done a bunch and it's not to bad. They are thicker than normal vinyl so line up pretty well.

Wow, I didn't know these existed. What a great idea and I'll grab some next time I order from them.

Wet method shouldn't be a problem, but I just didn't want the wetness around my machine. Depends on the vinyl a bit, but it shouldn't affect the adhesive. I may try it next time just for kicks, but I want to get mirror blades for AS I think.

On the older games, I've always taken a pair of smooth pliers or lock grips and bent the top metal of the scoop to direct the ball where I wanted it to go. You may want to try that. It doesn't take a big change to affect the ball path usually. Maybe 1/16" up or down on one side.

Don't try to make a sharp bend, try to bend the scoop further back. Think smoother the better. Think about how a ball will travel up it and then go out.

Often you can add small washers between the scoop and playfield on one side or the other to get a similar affect if you want to try that before bending it.

Usually if you want a ball to go to the left, raise the left side of the scoop by bending, or add washers underneath on the right side.

Good luck.

Oh I would also check to make sure the plunger is moving freely. If it's binding at all or rubbing against something you may just not be getting enough power.

Of course make sure the playfield is level left/right (on the playfield), but I was assuming you already did that.

Yeah I'm guessing eventually there will be another GB code drop and another AS code drop. Just seems to take them a while.

WOW I had no freaking idea this was in there. One of these days I'll start reading the rule sheets people put together for the games I have. I tend to enjoy figuring them out on my own usually.

I got a great deal on my LE and it's beautiful. The upper playfield actually adds a lot to the feel of the game and h entire playfield multiplier is a blast using the upper playfield. If you have the cash get a premium or Le. If it's a stretch the pro is a lot of fun too.

I just tweaked the sound in the settings. I usually don't get to play the pins to loud, so the stock is working pretty well for me. I'd rather swap out some of my older pin speakers.

I brought the left outlane in. Just seems to be a little fairer playing the game. I wish they would have had a rubber bumper on that side and the solid divider on the other side since there is a save. SW is the same way, so I brought the left one in on it also. I don't mind the games hard, but hate when they feel cheap. I'm not trying to steal my own money, but rather enjoy the game and encourage my wife and friends to play too.

Do what makes you happy.

Yep from Stern's facebook for those that don't facebook:

"Status of Code:
We are continuously working to update and improve software for our machines. There are always code updates and bug fixes in various stages of development; as usual we will release them as soon as possible. Here’s a sneak peek at two games that will have updates coming very soon, as well as status on a few other titles:
- Star Wars with its newest asteroid video mode and intense lightsaber duel!
- Batman ’66 with the new major villain cliffhangers!
- Ghostbusters: As soon as Star Wars is complete, we will be focusing on a final update for Ghostbusters.
- Aerosmith: Aerosmith will also be getting a little more polish.
- KISS: We will be revisiting KISS code very soon to create a final update."