Antioch, CA
Kind of strange looking for lightning...
(Topic ID: 208341)
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Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle
Spooky Pinball, 2017
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2 weeks later
lucas or anybody at Spooky
Sorry to be a pill when there are update concerns to deal with, but I have other hardware based concerns.
My purchase is a financial hardship for me, so I need to make sure the machine will be reliable and durable.
I had a really bad experience with another boutique pinball machine purchase from another manufacturer, and need to choose wisely.
1. If burrs from 3D printing are a known issue for the guillotine operation / squeaking sounds, are you now doing due diligence and inspecting for these burrs, and removing them before assembly of the mechanism?
2. You mentioned the guillotine mechanism uses a servo motor. My friend has a Rob Zombie and had an Aliens. He had to disable the Robot on Rob Zombie as the servo motor would at times draw too much power and cause game crashes. He ended up buying "a bag of servos" for use with his Aliens as they constantly needed replacing. Will you be switching to a more reliable / less problematic motor for the guillotine (such as those that have traditionally been in pinball machines)?
If you have implemented a solution to such issues (so servos are no longer problematic) please explain what has been done, and how that solves the issues with them in pinball machines.
3. You mentioned lanes guides being "bent" by ball hits. I have owned many machines. I have occasionally had to adjust the position of one by loosening a screw, moving the guide a bit, and then tightening the screw...but I have never seen a guide "bend" (start to fold). Was your statement just an unprecise choice of a word, or do you really mean they become malformed?
My concern is that "bending" something metal (such as a lane guide) back into shape will eventually result in a lumpy, cracked, or broken lane guide.
Therefore, will future lane guides be sturdier (thicker gauge metal), or have some sort of bracing behind them or protectors to alleviate potential damage and metal fatigue?
Will we be supplied with extra lane guides incase of physical failure due to the design of the machine?
What will be the availability of replacment lane guides in the future?
Thanks!
BobC
Thanks Charlie!
Sounds great!
Sorry if my post sounded a little "stern"...
Quoted from SpookyCharlie:The 3D parts have a bit of a texture... that is what can cause the rare and random "squeak". Compared to say the noise made by the original MM castle gate, it's incredibly minor. Add a little Teflon lube gel, and it will be fine.
The motor driving code is GREATLY improved since the RZ days. It will actually shut down power to any motor pushing where it can't get to go. On the odd occasion that one does, they are super inexpensive ($8 from Spooky) to replace.He was basically saying exactly that. Give the ball guide a little move with your finger, tighten the screw if needed, and you'll be fine.
There are 200 of these games out there now, and they have been pretty darn dependable, and they will continue to get better.
As far as parts for any of our games, we still have 100% availability on AMH parts from 6 years ago, so we don't see that changing any time soon.
I'm pretty sure I already have it as part of my build, so I'm guessing the eyes are the default then?
Quoted from SpookyCharlie:Yep... [email protected] or [email protected]
Just tell them you want the lighted speaker kit.
1 week later
Questions
Is it mandatory to deal with each and every monster to get to the Wizard mode, or just some of them (as for example a real castle might have muliple ways to travel through it)?
Do you have to defeat (kill) the monster to progress, or merely battle them (enough to wound them, get past them, lock the door behind you I might imagine)?
I'll watch a tutorial, but they seem to be about 2 hours long on YouTube and I'm not quite up to that at the moment...
Quoted from riggy469:You only need to start all nine monster modes to start Billion Dollar Babies. However, only two of the monsters you can drain and not finish without losing the ball (frank and ethyl).
Good luck.
It's late and I'm tired. But can that second sentence be rephrased? For some reason it's confusing to me...
Thanks!
Quoted from DJNOEL30:This is a cool game in a lot of ways, however this game is geared more to the near-pro or higher pinball player. I feel I'm more a middle of the road player at best, however this game is a pretty tough game relative to my other games and I am including TNA in that pool. I'm probably not going to hold on to this one very long..
I'm going to try to stay positive about my potential ability to play the game I put a deposit on.
I was having a disastrously bad day on EVERY machine at my friend's venue the other day.
So I'm going to go back and use a whole roll of quarters on ACNC this weekend and then make a decision on what to do.
Hopefully it goes well : )
Otherwise it's going to be a bad situation dealing with the deposit thing one way or the other : (
Quoted from 27dnast:This is going to sound harsh, but:
You should have played before you paid.
It’s really that simple.
The problem with these limited productions is that if you wait to play it might be too late to buy, so it's a double edged sword.
If you are buying new you can buy a Chicago Gaming Repro and you know what you are getting.
You have a reasonable idea of what a Stern is going to be like , and they make plenty of Pro and Premium models if you wait to play. Not to mention additional production runs and vault editions.
But if everybody waited to play a boutique pin until they had a chance to play it enough, sales would be pretty bad/slow. Somebody has to buy it 1st so you can play it (not to mention that operators pretty much have to decide without playtesting). So if people waited to play a boutique game before buying it then folks like Spooky would go out of business. I don't know if people should be bashed for making a leap of faith. That leap of faith that keeps these small companies in business, and if happens to bite the buyer due to unforeseen circumstances there is possibly blame somewhere or nowhere. But I'm not sure blaming is helpful to anybody in this situation.
I know my friend who has one at his venue got it based on his experience with TNA. And I'd be pretty sure that's what DJNOEL30 did as he mentions he has that game (I get the impression he already has his ACNC game? If not, then of course there's the no refund on deposit thing, which may be based on flakey buyers in the past? But on the other hand it might scare potential buyers away, especially while the dust is still setting on things. Or for future game sales based on how well the current games are perceived down the road). But back to why somebody might buy a boutique game without getting some play time in on it, the sales materials people are presented with plays a big part (theme, art, etc...), but I've yet to see any pin manufacturer present their games with any sort of difficulty rating scale.
Not every pin is right for every person. I'm reading folks saying the shots are not as tight or hard as Houdini, but I don't really have an issue with Houdini. That being said I won the "Most average player" award at my league, and when I checked my IFPA ranking one day I actually was pretty much dead in the middle of the pack. I'm going to play another 15 to 30 games on an ACNC this weekend and see what happens, but so far I have not done well at all. I think it might be a combo of the distance between the flippers and posts, and having to make those tight orbit shots off the tip of the flippers. It could just be me...who knows. I'll come to a conclusion this weekend.
Quoted from pin2d:For anyone interested:
Alice Cooper’s Nightmare Castle Deep Dive! In Depth Overview of the Machine, Features, Rules and Code
https://www.thisweekinpinball.com/alice-coopers-nightmare-castle-deep-dive-in-depth-overview-of-the-machine-features-rules-and-code/
Thanks! I'll check that out.
I've gotten around to watching the tutorial Bowen did and it really shows what a neat game it is!
Quoted from 27dnast:You can always wait and buy later, with few exceptions... yeah, that might mean you're buying off the used market or waiting a year. But most everything comes up for sale. AMHs... Batman SLEs... even Alien in its limited form. Look at Rob Zombie! (that's a game that had folks racing for their checkbooks out of the gate... now you can find them in the $4K range!)
This notion of "it might be too late to buy" if you wait is all in the buyer's head. It's pure FOMO. That's 100% on the buyer. We're talking about a $6000=$6500 purchase. That's a lot of cash of to drop in a moment of hoping that something might be to your liking. ACNC has been at quite a few shows across the country over the last year. The cost of getting to a show (or a location that has it) is minimal compared to the cost of spending $6K and then feeling like you made a mistake.
Imagine a friend of yours buys a car... let's say for purposes of discussion it's a $9,000 used Acura. He buys it off an auction website because it's the right size and has low miles and he's afraid he won't find another one like it. He likes the way it looks. Weeks later you ask him about it, he says "I love the way it looks and it's a great color... but when I get it out on the highway it's insanely loud and shakes like crazy. I hate driving it. I took it to a repair shop and they say that the car is working 100%." Your first thought would be: "You should have test driven it."
Quite a few pinball collectors are in a situation where they can toss around $5K here or $7K there and absorb disappointment. All you have to do is look at the boads on this website to see that. But, it sure seems prudent, at them minimum, to put you and your money in the best possible position for satisfaction and enjoyment, which can be achieved by being patient and waiting. Even Spooky has publicly stated that buyers should play before buying. And they're the company that is trying to sell games.
I say all this and still have compassion for the guy I was responding to. Wasn't trying to be a d***. But it is my immediate reaction to a buy without having played. See Willy Wonka.
Well, certainly play before you pay is good advice.
Out here we are spoiled with some great local shows, which makes geography and taxes important for NIB pricing. For example ACNC $6450, with the options I chose is close to $7000, then you add the shipping which I've been told might be as high as $480, and then 9.75% sales tax, and if the shipping is taxed too like it is when I get something from Amazon...my cost will be around $8135 (or $8088 if the shipping is not taxed). It adds up fast unfortunately.
Where as you can buy "other" games from Marco as a show special for a big discount. I haven't done it so somebody can chime in? But I think there's no sales tax and possibly no shipping? Maybe some other discount? The downside being your game has to be on freeplay at the Marco booth for the duration of the show which might bug some people for various reasons (several hundred plays on it, not HUO, no unboxing at home etc...), and puts it at some minor risk of damage.
But I think I heard a Pro can be had for $4100 (somebody needs to fact check me on that)? Not sure about the other version pricing. But it makes shopping for a pin kind of lopsided in favor of Stern if you live out here. I don't have money to throw around anymore and am down to 6 pins from 16 (my Congo is on route at The Flipperroom in Concord FYI). Pin #7 was sold to help pay for a change up...so here I am waiting for another #7).
I don't know exactly what is about Sterns. I really like playing some of their games out in the wild, but as a collector there is just something about the overall look and package that doesn't click with me when they are in my home lineup. I've also always drawn to things that are different, better, and often not what your average shopper goes with.
Hence ACNC was highly attractive to me.
Perhaps I should move to Benton : )
Quoted from Magicchiz:Just remember there is only two places to hook uv flashers. Speaker lights, and shaker motor.
Speaker lights not recomended.
Are you talking about the Spooky installed speaker lights or 3rd party?
I've never gotten any, so please explain.
Do they interfere with the sound, cause glare on the playfield glass, or jealously with your freinds?
1 week later
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