Yeah, the more I play this game the more I appreciate what they created. This has quickly become the favorite game in my lineup!

Well, since bemmett said my thinking was bass-ackwards (and I agree), I said what the hell and put down my deposit with Joe at PinballSTAR for his last one today. Looks like game #393 will be mine and is supposed to be on the line this week or next. I didn't go with butter, but added knocker, shaker, RGB speakers, decals, powder coat, and topper (mirrors are no longer available!!). Unfortunately, I cant take delivery of it until January, but at least I am in!! Now the mods I bought will have a home eventually... lol

Here are my problems. I only have room for 3 pins and have 3 pins already (Ill figure that out somehow) and then the big one.. The wife knows nothing about what I have just done. Its always easier to ask forgiveness than permission, but she will lose her shit for a bit when it first shows up. It will be all better once she flips it though. I bought her a NIB WOZRR a few years ago, so maybe I can parlay that into it being my turn? But then, I bought SS last year without telling her (although she loves that game and wanted it too). Not sure how this will play out exactly, but I will have ACNC finally and all will be good.

My JD is going off to Chris for HEP treatment before ACNC arrives, so I will have some room for about 6 months before I really have to figure out where everything will fit.

Alice tonight

Orlando Hard Rock.

Then back to mods when I get back home tonight... have had an unusual amount of orders for a whole month and no sign of slowing down yet, so sorry for any delays (currently about 30 mods left to go for current orders and getting multiple per day [several complete already, but finishing other runs for large orders]). Good problem to have I suppose, but I do prefer a quicker turnaround time.

At least for today's delay...blame Alice
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I've always liked a good set of knockers. Is a knocker installed on the ACNC? Just trying to find out where the fat was trimmed. I like my beef marbled.

It's an addon. I love it!

Few pics from the show. For some, this will be the first time you see "the man behind the mods." (shirt is from the 2013 Halloweenie show).

Still on the road, but will work through the vampire hours to get a few more orders out tomorrow. Thanks again to everyone that has supported the mods, and of course Spooky for making such awesome and unique games

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Now I want to see Alice!
Can't wait for mods to arrive.
Cute Girl!

He puts on the best show, so I highly recommend you do!

Your mods will ship tomorrow. Meant to get them out today, but left a bit early for the show in case of traffic.

And thank you! She's my fiancee as of April, and I was lucky to cross paths with her (far more than a pretty face). Definitely glad I didn't settle for any of the others--several multi-year relationships that weren't great. Knew within 6 months I'd ask her to marry me, and did so around month 10. Seems that's the way it should be, and anything longer may be a sign that it won't work out (too easy to drag out rocky relationships you "think" you want).

Number neighbors!

Congratulations!
I'm glad I'm not in the dating scene now-a-days!

Been too busy playing this beast to post. Played till I literally started to nod off around 2 am.
Tonight= same
WOW! I LOVE THIS MACHINE!
The art is some of the best in the business, Spooky really scored a home run with Zornow. Same with Back Alley Matt. That was the 1st thing I fell in love with when I saw it two years ago; the art and the pf sculpts. STUNNING!
Not sure how the blue powdercoat looks, but the hammered grey looks FN AMAZING! It's the nicest trim of all my pins and my favorite; it looks SO good.
Rule set seems to not be too insanely hard to follow, still figuring that out. But it's easy to see what to do and where to shoot.
My only complaint is the ball getting stuck by Frank. Had to take glass off quite a bit to free it. We raised him up to 99 too.
That and we had 2 balls ejecting occasionally.
Please tell me there's a fix for ole Frank!
Other than that I'm loving this honeymoon!
Thanks Spooky! You guys nailed it!
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It'd be nice to have a virtual lock option for frank too, in case someone just can't get it working.

Shoot me an email with a photo of how / where it's getting stuck Gryszzz... [email protected]

Should be able to adjust around it fairly easy. Pitch and level can throw off what we set here in the factory a bit. We'll get ya' right sir!

Next update will have a power adjustment for the trough kick out... that solves it fairly quick.

At first I thought I had to raise up Frank too. But, turns out, it wasn't that at all. I'm pretty sure now it was that ball switch in franks right side that wasn't registering. I watched that video Spooky posted on adjusting those switches and so far so good. The other thing I have noticed several times, is that the balls are not always being detected in the ball trough. And I already replaced the optos once. A nudge usually fixes the problem so not sure what's happening, but can't ever find a problem in switch test. It always shows all balls in trough. Game @ 6.9 pitch and level side to side front and back.

It is the funnest pin I've ever played and the rules are easy to understand. FYI, it's hard to see, but the crypt lock has two drop targets inline. During crypt multi ball and Cold Ethyl, the second drop is down and a shot into crypt goes right into subway (same hole that guillotine ball drops into). I don't mean to sound like captain obvious, but my first few days this was not apparent to me. Also, you don't kill Cold Ethyl. You just keep shooting crypt jackpots until the mode ends and you get the hurry up. I also love the fact that the 10 chops to light the extra ball are carried though the entire game. You can go for the guillotine extra ball shots any time even when it's not lit. So when there is nothing lit up on the upper playfield, you can go for this shot, or let it drain into the crypt for multi ball. Also love the Dungeon Room guillotine stretch point shots. Guillotine is also used in combos. So despite previous complaints I've read, it's used a lot in this game! By cradling the ball with upper flipper, it's an easy shot to make. Hide the ball in Bug mode is fun and unique! And I also love that after a given shot, the inserts turn orange to indicate combo shots! The full RGB lighting and audio system on this table are incredible!.

We set it up with the PinGuy app at 7°.
He's not raising quite high enough. Doesn't happen for every locked ball, but a lot last night.
I did notice that opening the coin door and hitting the green service button one time Will raise him and usually the ball will drop out.
Still a such a killer game, very very happy overall. Like every new pin, there's always a couple things that need tweaked. We'll get there!

So you're thinking that maybe the switch up there is not detecting the ball? Hopefully tonight I'll get more than just one locked and figure something out.

That's what it seems like. Watch second video here if you haven't already.

Post #2338

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alice-coopers-nightmare-castle-club-enter-at-own-risk/page/47

That was my issue with balls not registering right ramp shots into Frank: the switch arm was sitting too low in the plastic scoop and needed to be bent up slightly if I recall. Now I can get Frank mode going every time.

This is the same issue im having. It happens sometimes when you get a game over with only ball 1 locked in Frank. Frank rises up to release the locked ball, but sometimes doesn't rise up quite high enough. As mentioned, once i open the coin door and go into settings, frank rises the rest of the way and the ball rolls out. I raised servo setting to 94, still happened. Tried 100 and it still happened. Back down to 91. (Original is 89) and it hasn't happened in a few days, but im sure its just a matter of time.

I noticed that there is a lot of play from side to side with Frank. Very loose gears. I don't know if this is causing any problem though.

Mine wobbles like half an inch when the first ball is loaded in, but still seems to work fine.

... And today I take my game apart.
At least, a little. I need/want to wax it up good, but more importantly, I need to swap my two Coil Drive boards, to see if my guess is right and that my Drop Target Reset issue is because of the board. I'm guessing it is, and I'm guessing it failed is what took out my power supply.

Am guessing, which is why I need to swap boards, see what happens.

Then, email in to Spooky and see what they say.

Before I do this, though.. I still need to play 5 more games.

You're probably safe for about another 12 months before needing more space.

I have no problem with that!! Chris can take as long as he needs. He gave me a 6-8 month estimate though so just going with "worst" case scenario

Oh, and I'm thinking of adding a shooter lane protector to my game. Since i had the glass off, I thought I would look at the shooter/trough kickout.

One thing I noticed? There's no metal guard on the wood rail, and my rail - after likely only 100 games (maybe less, I need to check my stats), there is already a noticeable depression there where the balls are kicked out of the trough. I was actually really surprised that there WASN'T one there already. (Hell, even my Meteor - with one of the weakest kickout coils - has one..!)

Likely will buy one from somewhere, get it powdercoated black.

When I bought my Stern Sharkey's Shootout back in 2014, it didn't have one either. There was a nasty hole worn into the wood rail. I installed a metal protector there and had constant problems with ball bouncing back into the shooter lane ball eject hole. So good luck with a metal protector. Often they are fine. My F-14 and Star Trek Pro had them and were never a problem.

** Does anyone make a poly launch lane/eject protector for Alice? Not just a side rail protector.

Hey Greg,
I buy all your mods mate, they are awesome, finally get to put a face to the name, I must say though I actually thought you were a middle aged man, lol, how far off was I.
Keep up the great work mate.
Cheers

368 fully loaded butter and topper in house.

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Had double ball launch , trough , and resetting issues after a few games.

Woo wee 128 million I’m getting there. Probably helps that it awards your bonus twice a ball due to a code bug lol. Any word on when the next update is?

100% this. During the final battle last weekend this probably happened at least a dozen times in the 24 hours. Ball comes out and falls back in and then it’s sitting on top of ball to be served in trough jam opto so when it fires the ball back out you get two instead of one.

If you’re running a tournament don’t worry. Just take one ball and drop in the out hole. Game has no issues. Knows that’s where the ball belongs and game is still in skill shot mode.

I have ya'll beat.
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Had one ball locked in Crypt, and was starting a new ball. The ball did NOT rest on the shooter lane, instead it bounced off the wood and was resting on the edge of the trough outhole. So the game then kicked a second ball out. BOTH then landed COMPLETELY on the shooter lane. So it should NOT have TRIED to kick the third ball out, yet it did.

After this, things went a little crazy. With three balls on the playfield, the autolauncher thought I shot the right Path, and started Cold Ethel. The fourth ball was released, so I had a 4-ball Ethel going on.

Eventually got down to one ball - and drained it.

Ethel continued. I had to open the coin door, and manually eject a ball from the trough. Played it a little longer, and then it drained again. The game then jumped back into 'single' ball mode (Ethel over) and then immediately went into Bonus.

Rest of the game, everything worked fine.

Recommendation: In the switch test, instead of just telling me 'balls missing' or 'all balls present', let me SEE which of the 4 switches are registering. If one is stuck on, I'd like to know which one.

Mine always gives me credit for the skillshot if I launch two balls

Is this launching two balls in the shooter and game resets common with this game now.

I have one ordered and all this is worrying.

Mine has no issues at all, so it's not everyone.

And of ALL the issues that a new game COULD have? This is like, about at the same level as the effin' coin door latch being missing. It's a small issue and when it DOES happen, it doesn't 'ruin' the game at all. (Hell, sometimes it makes it more challenging. Werewolf with two balls? Better friggin' plan your shots better, or you're dead.. )

75% of the time the 2 balls launching is a ball failing to get out of the trough then firing to so that it clears itself and resets properly this is not uncommon in pinball in general. However we have added a trough power setting to the next update. I turned a game down here that was set at default 25 power and failing fairly often. After switching it to 20 power it was run 50 times in a row without failure. No big deal. We are also chasing down the possibility of a code bug causing it in certain situations again it will get fixed these things happen.

The game resets are NOT a physical issue! Not like the game is losing power or anything wild. The resets are set to happen (In between games ONLY) to clear the memory every so often to avoid lag. The guys believe they have a solution and are hoping to have it in the next code update. Again this is not like a short circuit or loss of power this is on purpose simply to keep the game running as fast as possible.

Side note i apologize if my response is a bit slow right now i am in and out of the shop!

Thanks Luke! Keep up the good work and thanks for the quick reply!

Any idea on when next code update will be ready?

Servers will crash when the code update finally arrives! Lots of excitement and anticipation building. Making a great game even better gets everyone excited. But take your time, Spooky and get it right (and fun!). Until then...two balls in the trough on occasion is a welcome blessing.

Having trouble getting my guillotine to work during play.

It works in servo test, also seems to work before and after a game is played but no matter how many times the opto is triggered while playing I can't get the ball to lock or chop.

Any suggestions?

Edit: Figured it out. Wasn't aware that the guillotine only functions in Alice Cooper mode.

Have you tried to adjust the level in the menu?

It also functions in in dungeon room for stretch points and for combos and also during entire game when going for the 10 chops to light extra ball. Also, it doesn't lock. The ball will either flow through and down to right inlane or will catch in hole in front of guillotine and then drop down into subway (chop). It chops sometimes in these other instances. Not sure why, but in Alice Cooper mode it chops when his head get cut off on screen.

Just got the email! #413 is ready!! Can’t wait to see the butter!

So far, I've only notice it catch and chopduring normal game mode during the second shot. (So, shoot the first, it goes through. Shoot the second, it get stopped and chopped. The lowesr I've ever gotten was 5, and after that 8, each one went through.)

Ya, that seems right now that you mention it. I wondered why though? Did you notice if the scoop was lit when it chopped?

Will need to look, I didn't notice if Mystery was lit or not honestly!

Weird. For me during the alice cooper mode it takes three shots for it to do the chop.

That’s correct. 3 shots.

2 shots through the guillotine... then the 3rd ball gets chopped for 13m base value.

rd