(Topic ID: 184386)

Aerosmith owner? Then walk this way!

By TimeBandit

6 years ago


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  • Latest reply 4 days ago by BMHouze
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Topic index (key posts)

4 key posts have been marked in this topic

Display key post list sorted by: Post date | Keypost summary | User name

Post #253 KISS shooter lane protector on Aerosmith Posted by Shapeshifter (6 years ago)

Post #575 Toybox Kickout protector pictures Posted by cooked71 (6 years ago)

Post #616 Full protector set pic for Prem/LE Aerosmith Posted by Pin_Guy (6 years ago)

Post #1246 Spike and Spike 2 sudden reset fix information Posted by PinMonk (5 years ago)


Topic indices are generated from key posts and maintained by Pinside Editors. For more information, or to become an editor yourself read this post!

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider merccat.
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#197 6 years ago

Well I'm in. First played it at arcade expo and was really surprised by how much we ended up liking it. There were several examples to play at PAGG of both Pro and Premium models. We ended up going with the Pro. Probably because we played that first (in banning) and it really didn't feel like anything was missing, even after playing the premium.

Won't have it for a little bit yet but that's ok, gotta arrange things.

1 week later
#210 6 years ago
Quoted from cooked71:

I replaced all 3 speakers with the Flipper Fidelity Spike 2 set.
http://flipperfidelity.com/sound/stern-spike-speaker-system-with-10-high-output-woofer.html
That's the 10" sub one, there's also an 8" sub version.
Sound is incredible! Well worth the upgrade.

I read in their product description that thir kit will wire the speakers in parallel. Might have to pass on that.

#212 6 years ago
Quoted from Chuckwebster:

Why is that a bad thing? i don't know much about speaker upgrades.

It's not necessarily bad, but you do change the game from stereo to mono. I think I would prefer to stay in stereo, but I also know with cabinet speakers the difference shouldn't be too dramatic.

#214 6 years ago

Yeah, might do that as far as the sub goes. I think you're right, they did it to match their speakers to the amp. It might not be a big deal as the cabinet doesn't really provide great stereo seperatiom to begin with.

#216 6 years ago
Quoted from cooked71:

Just FYI, had confirmation back from FF that the speakers are in fact wired for stereo, but the website description is wrong. (If you look at the description for the other speakers its the same identical wording for the older mono setups).
To quote: "The wiring for a a spike machine is not in parallel. Each channel has discrete wiring to each back box speaker."
They're updating the website ASAP.

Oh awesome! Glad to hear it! I'll think I'll go ahead and go for it then.

2 weeks later
#233 6 years ago

GOT looks like its giving AS the evil eye.

2 weeks later
#255 6 years ago
Quoted from swampfire:

I'm really surprised that this topic is not on fire. This is the latest Stern that's out on location and in basements. Maybe everyone is playing AS instead of talking about it.

It's a really fun game with no major issues so I guess there's just not much to talk about.

I think a code update would get folks talking... it seems really complete with just a couple touches that could be added (another MB mode would be nice too) so I'm not holding my breath.

Sorry about your layoff, that stinks.

#264 6 years ago
Quoted from Pin_Guy:

...needless to say I took it to mean "You should get one of these." after all, what else could it mean right?...

I think you nailed it.

#294 6 years ago

I played and fell in love with the Pro first. Played a Premium before making a final decision and ordered the Pro. Maybe it would have been different if I had played the Premium first but for me I couldn't justify the extra dough.

1 week later
#336 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

...I never said Stern confirmed it ... the fact that they cloned KISS code as a base for Aerosmith...

Sorry, but Huh? Plus two posts that just mention the bug... neither mention KISS or provide any evidence to this statement.

While Stern certainly uses a base software package, that's only smart, it doesn't mean that games are clones of each other. What facts back this up?

Were also making a giant leap to a conclusion by arbitrarily deciding that two similar appearing bugs are being caused by the same thing, even if the above statement were proven true.

Possible? Absolutely.
Probable? Sure, why not.
Fact? No.

#349 6 years ago

Great explanation SilverballNut ... i would suspect menu items are driven by a configuration file of some sort. I could easily see them copying over a menu config file into the new solution... or was accidently left in a solution template.

Shared libraries, sdk's, templates, frameworks etc are the way to go today or else you will go bankrupt.

They are an investment up front but once developed you can speed up future projects and improve their maintainability.

I think the word clone would probably only really bother software engineers who have an entirely different perspective on "clone" vs what normal people would have.

#351 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Dunno. I've seen the most horrendous code management and deployment processes at so many major game software companies firsthand over 25 years that I am extremely jaded about that kind of stuff. There's the right way and then there's the way it usually gets done. Given the two clear markers (Kiss Army Multiball appearing in AS menu, and the AS song bug that behaves exactly like the KISS one) I'm pretty sure best practices were not in force for at least part of the project.

Code was in fact terrible 25, 15, even 10 years ago. Not all of course there are always exceptions

But generally modern techniques and methodologies for developing software in a responsible manner have only really become more mainstream over the last 10 years or so, maybe only reaching wide adoption in the last 5. Unfortunately there are still way too many out there not yet leveraging these techniques.

My guess is that with stern moving to modular hardware they would have also taken it as an opportunity to properly abstract and modularize their code base... at least I sure as hell hope so.

3 weeks later
#390 6 years ago
Quoted from jeffsarcade:

Two random questions for AS owners...
1) Is there a sub hookup on the machine from the factory? I thought I read there was one of Star Wars... wasn't sure about AS.
2) What does the DUDE light above the scoop do/signify?

1. No.. but spike does have a cabinet speaker (sub) out built into spike. It's being used of course but it took me all of 10 minutes to make a small splitter for it then run a speaker wire out a back vent.

2. As far as I can tell it just adds flash during a ramp shot or general light show.

#395 6 years ago

Sub out. Nice and easy to remove when needed.

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#402 6 years ago
Quoted from PW79:

It's rare I play something & say "let's buy this complicated 300+ pound pain in the ass that costs a stupid amount of money" but Aerosmith grabbed me.
Maybe it's just the perfect contrast to my collection & I'm easily amused?

Same thing happened here. The game was not on my radar at all. My wife and I played it at Arcade Expo and it was like... ok... we're getting this game.

It's also a major contrast to WOZ and TZ.

#426 6 years ago
Quoted from alimerick:

Minor question.
Put a custom message in AS using menu same as earlier Stern SAM pins. Do not see it displayed during attract as it does in other pins?

I suspect not everything in the SAM menu is used by Spike.... Greg said they are working on a Spike menu system, hopefully AS will get it in a future update.

#496 6 years ago
Quoted from Pin_Guy:

Oh hold on a second, I was thinking of the other side...
This should help:

Super helpful! I love how much simultaneous data can be shown on the LCD so that once you memorize the layout its easy to keep tabs on whatever you want with a moments glance.

1 week later
#517 6 years ago

Pro owner, I couldn't justify the extra expense for the upper playfield to myself, Pro is still an absolute blast to play.

I did run into a funny bug today that I'm not sure if it's been mentioned:

I had like 5 balls in the chest from an earlier game where I restarted a new game before the match sequence that empties the chest. Then after the first ball of the next game I reset the game... not sure if I held down start longer than normal or what since this hasn't happened to me before but it opened and emptied the chest at the start of my first ball.

1 week later
#549 6 years ago
Quoted from swampfire:

The short plunge is your friend on AS. I avoid a full plunge whenever possible, especially when I can go for a lock with a skill shot.

Gotta be careful here too. I find that too short and the ball will dribble onto right sling and straight into left outlane.

#552 6 years ago
Quoted from Pin_Guy:

I've seen this on location, but I also know their game is unbalanced and leans a tad to the right; on my machine, even a ball that barely makes it out of the shooter lane returns to the right flipper.

I'll have to re-check my level then, I had moved the game slightly.

#557 6 years ago

Had something scary happen last night. I was cleaning and making some minor adjustments and powered the game off while in diagnostics.... loaded balls back up, put the glass back in, powered back up and nothing.

Tried powering back off for about 30 seconds and back on... nothing.

Opened the head and could see all power leds indicating good power... still nothing. Basically spike2 was refusing to boot after shutting down in diagnostics.

I noticed that the 5v led was still barely on after power down apparently slowly drawing from the power supply caps do I unplugged the power supply output lines going to the main board and all nodes. Waited a moment, plugged them back in and powered up. Successfull boot!!!

*phew*
So lesson learned: apparently Spike2 does not have any circuitry to shut off logic on power down and is relying entirely on loss of power to fully reset. The power supply has enough capacitance to keep the logic alive at some level for quite a while after power down. If your system encounteres something you can't seem to clear with a power cycle... maybe give it 20-30 minutes while off or unplug the boards for a moment.

2 weeks later
#579 6 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

I completely forgot to check back in with him about this protector. Awesome he got it done! Pretty much a must-have if you don't want that heavily-used spot to wear.

You can see in that first photo how much wear the kick-out hole was already getting. I think these are going to be a must have.

1 month later
#631 6 years ago
Quoted from TheFamilyArcade:

I’m going to be putting some quality time on a route AS this weekend. Probably a pro, but not sure. Can anyone recommend a (fairly) simple approach to the game to have the most fun, get the most out of it and - to a lesser degree - score the best?
Thanks!

The simplest would be to complete songs then collect the song for super scoring (before draining otherwise you miss out on super scoring). Also wait on MB as the more balls in lock the bigger the jackpots but its of course a risk should you end up loosing your last ball before your MB... so sad to see all those balls just go down the drain.

#644 6 years ago
Quoted from TheFamilyArcade:

Do collect songs at the scoop? And what’s more lucrative/fun, toy box MB or Elevator?

Each song will light a final shot after the timer expires to collect (usually multiple available). Not all songs require you to complete every shot but doing so improves the super scoring.

I'm not sure which is more lucrative but Elevator is more fun for me, mainly because its more challenging to start and some of the call-outs are pretty funny.

1 week later
#672 6 years ago
Quoted from pkrobin:

Here is my working theory FWIW.
Mine seems to NOT reset and/or freeze if I shut it off properly the previous use. For example ball 3 ends I wait until attract mode begins as my indicator that any read/write activities should be complete.
I am not an expert on the electronics in use and am fully prepared for (and may even agree with) someone to tell me I am imagining this but all I can say is my issues are extremely rare the last month or so.

Just as an observation I too have noticed that I tend to have more issues when I get impatient and start a new game without waiting for the conclusion of the end of game reset.

Hopefully they clean that sort of stuff up with the next release, I think just making sure a new game always starts completely fresh (getting rid of any memory leaks) would go a long way to having more stable code.

#676 6 years ago
Quoted from Black_Knight:

I have never had a reset on my pro and I often restart a game even before the toy box empties.

I probably had one reset... but a lot more weird things tend to happen, not just resets when I'm doing that... and it's not always. Basically I simply agree that there seems to be a general issue at that point in the game when one game is over and before the machine is back to attract mode. Won't happen every time or even usually and when it does won't always cause a reset. Heck... maybe it is something to do with these bulletins since it sounds like they could make a node temporarily not visible to the host which could cause all kinds of wierdness... but I suspect there is a code issue there as well.

All I know for sure is that I will be ordering the kits if nothing else as a preventative measure.

1 month later
#843 6 years ago
Quoted from djreddog:

AS code comes out in February.

Hope so... stern of the union made it sound like it was in line to get started, but maybe that was to temper expectations.

I still like it a lot, and the glitches can be avoided so it’s mainly the details that are starting to bug me.

A. Outlane sound
B. Missiles (have yet to see one in nearly a year... not that it sounds like they even do much if anything)
C. An actual skill shot award, not just oooh you snuck one into an existing lock.
D. A real diagnostics display, not simulated DMD text only diagnostics that aren’t even really relevant for spike 2.
E. Adult content on = more than Jackey dropping an F-bomb once per 500+ games.... I don’t necessarily want sailor jacky... but a bit more that that so it’s every once in a while at least.

I’m sure there are things I’m missing but those are what tends to be at the top of my personal list.

1 month later
#891 6 years ago
Quoted from attitude05:

I am picking up my NIB Aerosmith on Friday. I can't wait. I am not a heavy mod person but what do you folks recommend?

Toybox ball launcher cliffy at minimim. Beyond cliffy’s... Maybe the slime drip toybox shield... but the stock clear one looks fine.

Really the art package is so outstanding on this game I can’t really imagine it needing anything added.

2 weeks later
#1011 6 years ago
Quoted from Rascal_H:

Maybe my game is setup wrong. I can’t backhand the right ramp. Maybe I haven’t tried hard enough.

Me either, trying to recall but I think if I can get it in the ramp the backhand doesn’t have enough umph to get all the way around.

Still using the stock rubbers and angle is a hair on the steeper side.

#1063 6 years ago
Quoted from golfingdad1:

Just ordered an Aerosmith Pro yesterday need lto find out what mods to get, cliffys and plastic pro .
Let me know what you got what works and what looks cool .
Thanks

For me the most critical cliffy is the toybox launcher, that little diamond shaped hole gets worn pretty quickly otherwise. Ramp drops and shooter lane are also good to protect.

#1081 6 years ago
Quoted from bicyclenut:

I'm so excited I just got my Aerosmith pro tonight from my buddy. He bought it new and it's absolutely flawless. Only 146 plays on it.

Congrats and welcome to the club! Where ya gonna put it though? I know... totally secondary.

1 week later
#1100 6 years ago
Quoted from cooked71:

Only Sweet Emotion doesn’t allow you to continue so you need to do it all on one ball.

Could be wrong but I think Sweet Emotion won’t even continue on the same ball. Once time is out always have to start over.

#1103 6 years ago
Quoted from bicyclenut:

Topper or no topper? I haven't seen one in person, but from the pics it looks kinda small. Is it worth the $400? I bought the Stern topper for my GB and love it. It's also huge.

There was one with it at TPF. It looked nice and the Mrs liked it... I suspect had I mentioned the price she would of not had a favorable opinion of it.

I would get it if it were at or under $100 but to me $400 is too much.

1 week later
#1129 5 years ago

So apparently double scoring is available on the pro .... but only as a mystery award ... that considering I only just saw it after hundreds of plays appears to be extremely rare

#1131 5 years ago
Quoted from swampfire:

I may be wrong, but I think the Mystery award is always “Add More Time” if you’re in a mode, and “Add a Ball” if you’re in multiball. That’s doesn’t leave many opportunities for true “Mystery” awards. Probably the best way to work Mystery is to hit it when starting a mode.

That’s exactly when I hit it. Sounds like a good strategy.

#1149 5 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

One day later this year. It's not coming anytime soon, according to Stern. Given that Aerosmith is just a hack from KISS rules, I doubt there will be much in the way of more changes and additions to Aerosmith rules, just fixes, and some minor improvements, most-likely.

But then again Stern did just announce a Pro with 4 flippers and Drops! How the hell did they sneak that one by the BOM police? Anything is possible now lol.

#1194 5 years ago

I’ve almost never lost a ball from the pops to the outlanes (stock outlane position). In fact unless going for a lock I full plunge for the extra couple seconds you get on the clock after exiting the pops.

#1206 5 years ago

Sounds like an OS update. It will be interesting to play with the new sound settings.

#1209 5 years ago
Quoted from Psw757:

Disappointing is a understatement.
They need to save these tech updates for when there is something more substantial to update, that is unless there are no more REAL updates.
Is this even worth wiping out all my high scores? And no I don’t feel like dicking with pinball browser just to retain them.

To the home user yeah it might not be worthwhile, but this sounds like some good stuff for someone operating a game. If I were I would certainly appriciate this going out sooner than later.

1 month later
#1405 5 years ago
Quoted from Moeman65:

I installed a Cliffy on the upper right eject hole and it has only ever offset a couple of times in hundreds of games. Just shook the machine a little and the ball fell in place. Probably a small file or a Dremel tool would fix the problem but I haven't done that yet.

Is that the toybox launch hole and is it sitting too high? There can be some slight variance in playfield thickness but what you can do instead of filing is put thin washers under the mounting tabs. That will lower the cliffy exactly the thickness of the washer you use to the desired height. It can be below the top of the wood and the ball will still sit on the cliffy when in the hole.

2 weeks later
#1458 5 years ago
Quoted from swampfire:

I may have missed it, but I don't remember ever hearing any adult callouts. I was actually going to add some in (there are several in the image).

They are used but so rare to hear some may never hear them. I don’t entirely mind some rarity because it makes it a treat when they do come out but the rarity is excessive currently.

#1496 5 years ago

I’m still happy with ours we bought early on. It’s just plain fun pinball.

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