Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle
Spooky Pinball, 2017You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider punkpin.
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Received my game on Wednesday and just updated to most recent code. Game is solid and playing great out of the box. The glass rattle from the sub is horrible, turned the volume down to 1 and that helped until I can get some tape.
Biggest problem I am having is balls getting stuck on the switch coming off the upper playfield. Has anyone else had this issue? Playfield is level and pitched to 6.7
20190712_110553 (resized).jpgQuoted from tbutler6:I haven’t heard of that switch causing issues. Does it feel like its binding or otherwise indicate it may be a
“bad switch”?
Does not feel like its binding up or sticking, mostly slow trickling balls get stuck but some faster moving balls have as well. going to try and adjust the angle of the arm to see if it helps
Spooky customer service has always been top notch. I have only had minor issues but get them resolved with lightning fast responses
I went with the hammered Gray armor as well and I think it looks great. Looks like it belongs on the outside of a castle
Code is still early but already some nice little touches in there. Got my first stretch bonus in the dungeon tonight which I wasnt expecting. Cant wait to see what else they add to it
Quoted from zacaj:Your description breaks at step 2. If you shoot the ball up the left ramp, the game knocks the drop down so the ball can pass over it, and raises it on the next switch hit. Or are you saying yours raises the drop without you hitting anything?
Either way, even if there is some malfunction going on which I don't think there is, the light shouldn't be flashing if the diverter is not in position
After shooting the left ramp the 2nd time my drop will go back up without hitting a switch after a few seconds. i usually try to catch the ball on the upper flipper until it pops back up and i can knock it down to control the diverter
Quoted from javagrind888:When is that code coming?
Game is fun as hell as is but im looking forward to the next code update as well. Hoping they eventually incorporate more rooms into the castle, there are some great images on the load screen that are used in the game yet. Would make it feel like your are working your way deeper into the castle with each monster opposed to jumping out the window and running back in the front door
Spooky has been working on a code update for this and i know they will come through but i think there are so many little code variations out right now between everyone's machines and that adds to the confusion on alot of things.
Quoted from zacaj:The game attempts to release locked balls after the ball search fails to get the ball out other ways (eg, because it's stuck on the magnet). There is a bug about it losing track of locks after releasing them in ball search, as I've reported previously, but releasing the locks to free a stuck ball that potentially is in a lock is the right thing to do
I have had a problem with balls getting lost during search so did a little testing today. On the first two ball search attempts the frank lock will not get lost. on the 3rd search attempt where the game clears the crypt, the frank lock is also forgotten by game. Part of the problem is the ball doesn't rest on the switch keeping it closed when the ball is locked but this is by design so should be able to be fixed with code.
Quoted from dnapac:So, in a little over 6 weeks of game play, my wife and I have put on over 500 games. Rubbers are holding up pretty good except the one by the center stand up targets. It has a little hole in it, but the thickness is still good...kinda weird. Anyways, what’s the best way to get at this post? Looks kinda buried, unless I’m missing an easy way to replace it. Any advice?[quoted image]
Have not done it myself but looks like you have to remove the black front of the upper playfield and the plastic below it, thankfully dont need to remove whole upper playfield. post #3336 shows a pic
Mine is starting to wear as well so i just turned the rubber moving the damage to the back for now
Is there a rubber ring chart posted anywhere yet, or does anyone know how accurate this list on titan is?
Quoted from Coyote:Oh, I know about that, but he specifically said "have the rooms added", which is what I was curious to find out what he actually meant.
When playing on factory settings you skip rooms on your way up to the monster, so maybe just doesn't realize the rooms are in there. I thought some were missing for the longest time til a mystery award put me in the kitchen. I would like to see the room travel mixed up a little bit so it doesn't feel like i jumped out the window and back through the front door with each monster
Quoted from Yoreland:Just checked. Looks like what I took for it registering was the opto in the crypt directly below. So the answer is no- it's not registering. Just great. I can't figure out how to remove the castle wall scuplt that covers the switch in order to check it.
There are two small screws in the front of the castle sculpt, but you may be able to adjust the switch arm without removing the sculpt.
Quoted from Coyote:AFAIK, Chops ONLY count when NO mode is running. This includes when Crypt Multiball is not running.
I believe yes - I've gotten to battle Frank three times
once, and cannot recall now how many times I had to knock down the upper target.
Ive also noticed the target in the back of the upper playfield will activate the drop target on the first multiball but none after
Updated to the recent code and finally got a chance to put a little time on it. Awesome job by FawzmaGames with of great improvements. I was running on .7 and was not noticing reset issue but glad the memory leak has been fixed for everyone.
Lots of nice little things noticed some added combo callouts, game doesnt seem to lose balls during search anymore, ball save for multiball has been improved.
One repeatable bug I noticed with Ethel and it may have already been addressed. When you have hit an orbit to a room and have Ethel locked in. If you start a crypt multi ball it will change monsters. Does not matter if you lock the crypt ball before or after room travel.
Also with a ball in the left Frank lock the upper drop target used to drop when you shot the upper playfield from the left ramp. This no longer happens so alot of the shots hit the back of the target an go to the subway or left flipper return.
Looking forward to what's in store for future updates
Still some stuff to be worked out in the code but loving the new update!
Anyone have any tips for getting the spinner to rest more vertically? Ball goes under spinner or rejects sometimes. I've messed with the wires a little without much luck but didnt want to be too aggressive and make it worse
20200227_104534 (resized).jpgQuoted from dnaman:Silly question but are you sure that the top of the spinner is not hitting the chin of the skull on the mountain? Mine still is and I've tried to prop up the sculpt on the right hand side by placing some foam between the edge of the sculpt and the edge of the left ramp. I will have to add some more but I just haven't played it in a while, been too busy
Thankfully this was not the problem with mine, I was able to bend the wire a little and get it corrected. Lubed it up with some zoom oil an it flies now.
Hopefully you can get yours sorted out, is it possible to bend the spinner bracket slightly away from the sculpt?
Quoted from WombatPinball:So this switch has been giving me a bit of trouble since the beginning. The switch shown in the picture is the Ethyl crypt switch and has stopped working entirely. Went into switch test and I’m not getting any hits on it at all, pretty sure it’s a bad switch, but anybody have any other suggestions? If not, can anybody tell me where I could buy one? Just want to be sure I get the right one. Any chance spooky will send any of these to me as replacements since I just bought the game home about a month ago NIB? spookycharlie spookykt spookyluke Thanks as always guys!![quoted image]
try to see if you can hear the little button clicking when you push down the arm, it may be sticking or binding on something. I had issues with mine for awhile but I unscrewed the switch from the mount to get a better look at it when I was working on it and switch was working fine. when I reattached it problem was gone so assume something was catching somewhere
Quoted from Coyote:Funny - I have no issue with Werewolf.
But Zombie?
I swear - I have YET to beat this monster. I just haven't. I suck at it.
i have read that about zombie several times on here but its actually one of my favorites
They did add the staged flipper to rick and morty so they are improving going forward but it would be nice if we could add it into ACNC.
The ramp made switch is another interesting one that I hadn't thought about. I always thought the Frank lock would be improved if the locked ball rested on the switch keeping it closed
Downloaded update last night and got some time with it. Doesnt look like any of the bugs were fixed from last update yet but addition of weapons is a nice touch. Some of the weapons blend in with the rooms, it would be nice if they were glowing or something similar to the doors on the skill shot.
For collecting weapons if you have ball 1 locked in Frank the vampire target is already flashing white to light lock 2. Maybe a different color like yellow for collection. Would like to see the weapons get moved around to different collection points throughout the game as well.
Alice bug is great as well. White text box telling you where to find him is nice. But game doesnt help you know which orbit to shoot unless you memorize the room layout.
I hope in the future the weapons will have additional uses like zacaj suggests. Zombie could have 2 or 3 shots lit that scroll back an forth as another example. They were just implemented so we will just have to see how they progress. Hook me up with some weapons as mystery awards too
For Ethel if I shoot the ball back up top and relock it I get the descending tone for super jackpot but if I hit the crypt the necessary 3 shots from the bottom I do not get it. Just goes into frenzy then hurry up
Quoted from DrMark12PA:Finally was able to play with new update last night but ran into a few questions and feel I'm a bit rusty on the game rules...
1) I hit the upper playfield "KEEP OUT" sign knocking it down and then shot a ball up that shot but it's as if the game didn't recognize the ball was up there and started searching for the balls. Eventually it raised the gate by Frank and let the ball out once it cycled through the game looking for it. It seems like I've had this happen before several times but since I haven't been playing it for awhile I forget to inquire about this error.
2) The 2 X targets on the upper playfield appear lit solid at times. Is the goal to roll the ball over the X when it's lit or unlit? I haven't quite figured that out and it's hard to look up at the display while in the middle of game.
3) I did cut off both the bottom and top resistors to see if I could improve magnet save function. I then disabled the resistor in the game menu but haven't seen any difference in lower magnet. Last night it caught the ball 2 different times and both times it just seemed to drop the ball and then a new ball was relaunched just like a new ball start. Am I missing something to make it throw the ball back onto the playfield?
4) What was the top resistor for? Is there a magnet near the top of the playfield and if so what is it's function?
1) adjust your frank lock switches, there is a key post here with a video explanation.
2) go through unlit lane to light both X collect at lower right stand up
3) try different patterns and check game pitch
4) upper magnet grabs ball at start of monster modes
Quoted from DrMark12PA:Is this the correct video? #action=share
no sorry i guess it wasnt part of the key posts, check out post #2338 by spookyluke it has the video for the switch arm
Quoted from Lixel27:Hi there,
does anybody know, how to perfrom a Factory Reset on my Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle?
At the newest Game Version , there issnt a factory reset point at the Utilities Menu anymore??
Doesd anybody know?
Greez
Felix
Might have to reinstall current code, that would reset it back to factory
One thing I try to remember is just before these went into production they changed the board set. Which meant all the existing code had to be scrapped an start from scratch... And on top of that Fawzma had to learn a whole new coding language.. but I can still agree the updates and info have been lacking
Quoted from scruffypinball:I’ll say one thing: I won’t be buying a NIB fawzma game again unless the theme/design is killer (like Alice).
Code updates come at a snails pace. This game is years old at this point and missing a lot of polish. Let’s hope for a code update soon. Sorry to sound be so harsh!
Quoted from MintIndeed:FYI the guy who makes LED OCD has downloadable STL files for 3D printing a speaker light diffuser for Spooky games: http://ledocd.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=34
I just found it recently, gonna try it out - I don't have a problem with the speaker lights or brightness, but I think diffused LEDs look a little nicer.
I could be wrong but I feel like you are going to end up with the same result spooky currently offers. Those were made when TNA first released and spooky had different black light rings where the strips were visible. They have changed to the frosted diffused ring since then
Quoted from Lethal_Inc:I am now thinking that every time I turn the game off it does this. First game after being off, right Frank switch does not work. Behavior just as my quoted post. What could be causing this?
I had this problem forever with my left frank switch to the point I almost just replaced the switch with a new one. Best described as a "lazy switch" because it is adjusted properly and works til I don't play awhile then the first hit won't register but wakes the switch up to work properly each shot after.
I feel like even at the resting position the switch arm was slightly pushing down the button on the switch and it would settle during the time of not playing to the point the button wouldn't click on first hit but that would move the arm and reset it.
I propped the playfield up in the back and removed the switch from the bracket, made sure back of switch arm was clearing button at rest but fully pressing in action. ( Putting it back in bracket will compress it down a bit)
And have not had anymore problems since. Haven't played it in a few since I got R&M but played a game before I wrote this to confirm it's working great first time every time now
PXL_20210117_193955461 (resized).jpgPXL_20210117_194013394 (resized).jpg
Quoted from Lethal_Inc:Yes, that makes sense. Seems like a hard switch to get to. Did you prop the back of the playfield up like that with the front service rails on the front of the game? I’ll have to try that adjustment. Thanks.
Yes, I locked the little black rubber feet of the service rails into the lockbar channel then propped up the back with the board
Quoted from DrMark12PA:Was checking my switches and same issue though I'm not exactly sure from your post how to fix that issue. The switches are very difficult to get at so I don't relish the idea of trying to mess with them. I would have hoped out of factory these would work flawlessly as I have maybe 10 total hours on the game.
Indeed the issue is that the switch is already pressed it seems until you manually click it and then it seems to work.
First pic shows the switch bracket, pull the little arm on the left to release the switch from the little nubs. When my switch was at rest it was still slightly pushing in the button so I reworked the arm to clear the button at rest but fully compress when closing. Still some trial and error to it because the bracket slightly compresses the arm when you put it back. I had to pull it out twice to get it set right. Switch is definitely not easy to get to which is why I ended up propping it up and removing it from the back
Quoted from Lethal_Inc:My right Frank lock switch is lazy. If I don’t play for a few days I have to lift the switch arm a few times before it starts to register again. Spooky sent me a replacement and just wondering the best way to access this switch so I can replace it. Thanks!
If you prop up the back of the play field you can easily get access to the switch without having to remove anything.. I have a post a few pages back about it.
The secret passage shot circled in your picture does not go to the subway, it should return from the right orbit. There is a switch there the ball could be getting hung up on, try adjusting the arm of the switch from underneath no need to disassemble, there should be some posts about it, a few other people had that issue
Starting a mode on ball 3 if one hasn't been started in game is normal operation. Gives the player a chance to see a mode if they were unable to start one on their own.
Quoted from JustEverett:I did a quick review of the posts I’ve missed since the last time I was on and didn’t see anything about this.
Spooky recently sent out updated flipper bushings to customers who requested them (they sent me way more than I requested...just another reason I love Spooky). The reason for the update was many noted how high the flippers are on R&M. Long story short Spooky sent out the updated flipper bushings that are slightly shorter, so the flippers sit closer to the playfield.
I swapped out the bushings on R&M and ACNC over the weekend, and I noticed a massive improvement in how both games played. I also think it’s worth noting that after the swap, I had to turn the lower down on all the flippers significantly. I previously bought the cooling fan kits, but I’m guessing with the reduced power needed they aren’t needed as much. Here’s a couple before and after pics plus one that shows the ball was not making good contact with the flipper rubber.
I highly recommend anyone with a Spooky game take a look at the flipper height. It’s a super easy fix that really improves gameplay.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Thanks for sharing, didn't realize ACNC had the thinner playfield as well. I planned on doing R&M bushings soon looks like I'll be digging into Alice also.
Quoted from SpinnerAddict:Can anyone tell me the depth of the head with this title? Is it like houdini or normal like R&M?
Same head as R&M
Quoted from JustEverett:I highly recommend updating the flipper bushings to the slightly shorter ones Spooky produced after realizing how high the flippers were sitting on R&M. I've seen lots of comments that they aren't needed on ACNC, but I put them on and people who use to hate the way the game shot now seem to really love it. I could definitely tell the difference from first flip. The rubbers were showing wear very low with the old bushings, so the ball was not making good contact with the flipper. After the install of the new bushings, the ball makes contact right near the center of the flipper.
I have a set of the new bushings just haven't changed them yet because I've always been pretty happy with my Alice. Going to have to get to it and check out the difference
Quoted from Gnrwarkfc:Well this morning it wasn’t doing anything at all, but now it’s back to the password screen. I tried to just update code but it won’t even do that .
Quoted from Gnrwarkfc:What have others done when the game doesn’t boot?
In the TNA thread Scott mentions a small white reset button below the DC power input on the PC.
Here is the picture from there
Quoted from zacaj:Anyone know where to buy spare Leds for the GI? One of mine broke
You can get them at pinball life
https://www.pinballlife.com/p3-roc-single-rgb-gi-pcb-assembly.html
On the spooky site today and noticed I had missed an update and wasn't aware, so for anyone else that may have missed it there is a v1.1.0.5 update available
Quoted from GuiitarMan:That was from March of 2021.
Yea, I wasn't expecting any more updates and stopped looking for them, I'm just a little behind 
Quoted from DK:I put a rubber on the rebound plastic that separates left lock and right lock and the game has worked PERFECTLY since then.
When I bought the pin once every 3 games or so it had a hiccup on a ball search but that’s gone now.
Could you post a pic of where you put the rubber when you get a chance? Is it around the diverter? At first I was thinking it was the little black hump behind Frank but doesn't seem like he would have clearance to raise and lower if I put a rubber there
I'll try to get some games on mine this weekend as well. Been a few since I've cranked on Alice.. maybe I'll get around to my precision flipper swap too
Factory settings 3 ball?
Quoted from JustEverett:Anyone ever change the battery in their acnc? I was swapping batteries last night, but could find the typical 3023 battery. I did find an encased battery, but I couldn’t figure out how to remove it.
You can take that encased battery apart and heat shrink the wires to a new battery or you can order those encased batteries pre assembled.
There has been some discussion about those batteries in the Rick and Morty thread recently
Quoted from JustEverett:Put the purple halos on Alice tonight. Just such a great product! Decided to set them slightly lower than the factory holes, as the angle just looked right to me. Played a test ball with the power where I had it before the install (31), and it definitely felt like the power needed to come down. Moved it down to 25 for now. Only played one game since the install, but ended up at 150 mill. Was hitting each loop multiple times in a row. The precision clippers are a must on spooky games imo. Both Alice and R&M play so much better after having them.
[quoted image]
Purple looks great on it!
Quoted from thomas49:What do you think of those drummers?
Is it easy to install?
Thank you
I have them on a couple games and really like them. Being able to set the flipper angle after clamping the shaft makes install easier then a standard flipper swap.
More info here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/review-precision-pinball-products-cnc-flipper-system
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