What amp settings are you referring to? I dug through all my menus and the only sound setting I have are "Initial Music Volume" and "Music Volume Offset".

I can't believe the sound settings do not have independent volume settings for Alice's speech, the music, and the sub, at the minimum. Seems like a pretty basic setup IMO.

How did you turn the sub down? I'd very much like to do the same.

Follow up question - what does the "Music Volume Offset" do and how do you set it? It only has 4 settings which are 10th of a whole number each.

Yup. The top knob is mid and treble, the middle one bass, and the bottom one is total output level. The top two are barely cracked and the bottom one is cranked to the max.

I got cute and really dialed them in to be super sweet even at loud volumes which required turning the knobs all halfway-ish. When the machine restarted it started clipping the hi and mid channel repeatedly, so that won't work.

I ended up returning all the knobs to start positions and just kept easing off the bass until it was fine.

Thanks for the help!

Oh, you don't have to go in from under the play field - you can reach the knobs through the front panel as they are well within arm's reach and a clear pathway.

Mine rattled so hard, I wasn't sure if it was the subwoofer or there was something wrong with a loose motor or something like that. Couldn't even make out some of the call-outs.

So anyone got what the Music Volume Offset does?

#423 was picked up and setup last week!

Got a few dozen games in. Ok, maybe a couple hundred....

Yeah, the orbit shots are pretty tough for the main shot to progress through the levels. Its easier to open the secret door to progress to the monster fight and even easier to activate and trigger the Mystery Prize which is usually advance to fight the monster.

But its still really great and really well thought out design. Love it to death!

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Just chiming in on this.... yesterday Frank fell in love with one of my balls and wouldn't release it. I did not notice it until I shot a second ball up there and it got stuck on the existing ball so both were stuck up there. After the second one got stuck he just kept trying to release over and over again but no dice.

Of the top of my head I don't think its related to the other issues others mentioned. It looks like Frank just did not know when the first ball was caught and when the second one was caught he started trying to release but did not have the strength to move the weight of two balls.

That is just my guess. I have zero experience in this so take that into consideration but I just wanted to document it here in case it helps anyone.

So I looked but couldn't find the answer. Got a few questions I am sure you guys can answer....

Is the only way to light the Extra Ball is the 10 guillotine chops?

What is with the X's that light up on the two left ramp exits from the upper play field by the Extra Ball target? Am I trying to roll over the lit ones or light the dark ones?

People's best setting for Magneto Save? I am about 75% of the time it works, and then the one dud that drains

Anyone got a funnel for the orbits? Man, those are really pretty hard shots for the main shot in the game. I have completed at least 3 of the monsters and fought maybe a hundred by now but I don't think I've ever walked through the castle all the way to the monster. It's always easier to hit the secret passage or get the Mystery Prize of "Advance to Monster". Seriously I think 3 rooms is a good number to get to the Monster. I can't imagine turning the difficulty up where you don't get the first double room advance for the first orbit. Its a bummer I'll never really explore the castle because its just too hard in relation to the point value....

...that said, turning the difficulty down in the settings - anyone know exactly the effects it has?

Well, I've just done my very first pinball mod ever. I removed the spinner from the left orbit. It was just killing the shots - its spins pretty rough and half the shots were not making it through or were making it through but not fast enough to get all the way through. Got a few more than usual last few games. Still no where near walking through the castle but....

Funny thing. I never had the Extra Ball light lit. After making my last post asking about it I played few games and I heard Alice call out TWICE "Go for the extra ball".

I did not chop the guillotine 1o times. Likely once or maybe twice or even zero times.

What the hell got me that sweet lit?

So anyone got a list of differences in difficulty level from Easy Action, to the default Schools Out, to Nightmare?

Fine. Done. I'll have to putz with it to get it positioned better tho. Nothing as sad as finally hitting a good orbit shot and having it die a quarter way up the ramp and still sit in that damn castle foyer! lol

1. MY 10 year old loves it.
2. Fine.

yes I love it. To death.

Dan and Gary from MGC have me run my board game library at the MGC so I cannot go. If you go to MGC stop by the giant board game library of 2000 games and say hi!

www.milcog.com

www.facebook.com/milwaukeecompanyofgamers

So i found the stretch toy in the dungeon where you shoot the guillotine while in the dungeon and it stretched the guy on the rack for a bonus.

Any other hidden toys for bonus like this hidden in the rooms? I can't see anything in the ballroom, conservatory, or lab that looks like it matches something on the play field....

*Ball drains during ball save
*Alice: "You're not getting away that easy!"
*Ball immediately drains on the ensuing re-serve
"Hold my beer, Alice!"

So as time goes on my ACNC seems to get a little flakier. I assume everything is just memory leak related so I am not going to raise a fuss until the new code comes out, but at first I wasn't having any issues like lots of users report but as time goes on I see more and more things like:

Frank occasionally not going high enough
Losing track of how many balls are currently in play
Feeding multiple balls
Auto-feeding a ball after a ball lock keeps one but not auto launching it
Having a monster mode triggered during another monster mode and the screen goes blank and you can play the game but no idea what is going on
Having more than one monster mode get triggered at the same time

The worst one - one orbit not always registering - tis hard enough without not getting credit for orbits hit!
About the orbit not registering - when it happens during a skill shot, sometimes the orbit registers and sometime it doesn't but since the skill shot registered I assume its not mechanical or the skill shot would not have registered...

Well, today my guillotine stopped in the down position. The blade is down and the little foam platform that lowers down to simulate the ball being chopped is also in the lower position but still in the position where it holds the ball. Basically when I chopped the ball it did not let the ball go and now the ball is stuck there. (I got the ball out but the guillotine is still stuck in this position which means I can't play).

Also, Frank is stuck in the up position.

I'm an IT guy. I tried restarting the machine but that did nothing.

Any ideas out there?

This stinks. I am not a hard core pin guy and I really go no business doing much inside this machine...

I very half-heartedly opened the machine up. I barely could figure out how to slide the whole thing up and out of the way. Upon confirming I really have no business touching anything under the hood, I sent them an email.

Yup. Spooky already returned my email. Fuse looks fine. One connection was not all the way on. Looked ok but I undid it all the way and then re-hooked it up and bingo! Frank is hiding again, ready to steal my balls.

Side note, the connector that was loose was the one on the right side of the board, with the green, red, and white wires in case this happens to you.

Spooky service is really great!

al (resized).jpg

Exactly this. The way it is setup now is you have to have it on the hardest level to have the ability to see all the rooms walking through the castle using the orbits.

I am playing on Easy Action so I miss even more rooms, seeing just 2 rooms each monster run. That kinda sucks. But my choice is skip some rooms playing on easy so I can fight more monsters (and still get no where near beating the machine) or have the ability to see all the rooms but not anyways because hitting those orbits is too tough.

I though if they had just a long hall that never ends with only 2 columns and no matter which orbit you hit you advance one level would be cooler than starting over again in the court yard every time. If you hit a skill shot you advance as well. The difficulty just determines how many rooms you have have between monster encounters, so on hard its 4 rooms navigated, medium 3 rooms, and easy 2 rooms and it doesn't matter the order or if you are on the left or right side of the hall.

Pretty sure spooky isn't going to redesign this but maybe they can make an option to have the rooms appear in random order or something for those of us stuck seeing the same 3 rooms on easy level, kinda getting bored with them.

A good idea?

Yes, I acknowledge this in my post. So my choice is to kick it up to Nightmare and just try for orbits endlessly to see new rooms and never get to fight any monsters, which I can imagine won't be really exciting, or get to battle monsters and see less rooms. The game is about battling monsters so I can't see making this harder on myself to do the main mechanic of the theme just to see the other content.

I'm aware the real answer is "get better at pinball so you can do both" but the way my life is I probably don't have the amount of time its going to take to be a real pin pro any time soon, so the suggestion to find a way to traverse all the rooms on any skill level is still relevant in my mind.

Don't get me wrong, this is still a blast to play and I'm far from raging mad about it. Im just thinking out loud in case someone who could make the changes happens to see the idea and like it, etc.

Of course. But then you start over at the beginning after the monster battle and you still don't see the deeper rooms, right?

My first time fighting Frank more than once in the same game. The second time I had to knock down the target twice. Does the amount of times you have to knock down the target always equal the number of times you are fighting Frank?

Also noticed that in some modes (this time Frank I believe) chops don't seem to score because I did 2 chops during my Frank battle and they were not displayed in the score after the ball drained.

Is there a way to know what modes (or any other situations) don't score chops, so we don't waste the time doing them for no reason?

Yes, there seems to be giant streaks of cheap outlane drains that are unavoidable. On a hard machine like this those are spirit breakers. And yes, this just isn't a machine at all for anyone casual.

If you find some thicker rubbers that at least eases up on the outlane drains that works without totally nerfing them, please! let me know what you find!

Yeah, each game I get at least one that is "nothing but net" directly into the outlane. I do also get a lot of side to side action that lasts a few seconds each time so maybe my pitch isn't high enough or something like that.

Got some games in today. First few were the usual. Suddenly I noticed a new trajectory on balls coming down the left orbit that was wildly different than what was normal. A wire was hanging in there.

Anyone know what this if for and where this is supposed to go, if anywhere? Not sure how this got disconnected - I don't go under the hood often - maybe a couple times so far and only for a second, but it is just hanging in there....

84894649_10220631490152993_8944132749535477760_o (resized).jpg

There is a skull LED?!?!?

Yup. This is my first attempt at screwing with the electronics here. The connector is not keyed - I assume there is a right way and a wrong way to connect it. Can I just try it to see which what is correct or will it damage something if its backwards?

So lets talk secret tunnel. Its no secret that you need to sink the shots pretty deep to trigger the secret tunnel and lots of shot seem deep enough but are not. I ma guessing there is two relays in there. one more near the front and one deeper in because some sounds and effects happen on very shallow shots but that advance to monster isn't gonna happen unless the shot is pretty good.

Now, after 3 months I am starting to get some balls stuck in there pretty good. Always needed the deeper shots to trigger the advance to monster but I never had a problem with balls getting stuck and now some are *really* getting stuck - to the point the ball search rattling the machine won't lodge them loose and even me slapping the side of the cabinet takes some time before they come out.

What could have happened over 3 months where this would start to be a problem and it wasn't before?

What are you guys using to grease your balls?

Oh hell no on the back flip! I get some really strong direct shots that are hard core rattlers that don't trigger the monster mode. Its always been that way. For me to back flip one from the left flipper it'd have to be a 100% prefect shot that doesn't even touch the sides the tunnel and I've only done it once or twice.

Good to know about your situation, that means there is something "wrong" with mine that I can correct (though I have heard others complain about this too.)

My usual situation is about a 50-50 change that the result of a good shot up there is the ball coming back out the tunnel the same way it went in. How do you rate your odds?

And odd that it would just start really getting stuck after 3 months of not getting stuck tho.

And sometimes it gets "stuck not stuck" for a handful of seconds - sometimes 4 or 6 before dropping back out the way it came. In fact, when trying to defeat the pit creature I always go for the tunnel as its an easy way to eat up that clock!

No, the new code is so much better than the last. Do not fear the upgrade!

One possible glitch in the new code; I've notices a couple times now that the ball save did not work right from the serve. Since the ball was barely in play I am not sure about being able to replicate the cause.

Anyone else notice this?

Just dreaming out loud here....but the main rap on this game is how hard it is. And it is very hard. I don't mind as an owner because I can hammer enough time on it to get to play through all the features but my casual friends are less enthused.

Easy mode should turn on the secret passage as one of the orbits. As in when you hit the secret passage when its not active as "the secret passage" it counts as whatever orbit moves you toward the monster. Having three ways to walk through the castle to get to monsters would make manipulating the game much easier.

Of course lit the secret passage and going directly to monster through it should still work.

Cutting game content to make the game easier equals less fun, for sure.

I just think there are ways to take the hardness edge off the game so casual players can still enjoy it and still be able to experience all the different rooms, etc

With something like this (casual mode) you can still require all 5 rooms to get to a monster so no content is lost but its still a challenge.

So noob question. What/where is the upper magnet and what does it do and what setting are most you folks on?

First off I love this game. It brutal hard but still fun. Personally, as a different kind of game designer I am picky about the "game play" design of walking through the castle to find the monsters. I think there are a lot better ways to to implement a "find the monster" system that will allow everyone to explore the castle and see all the rooms without having to be a master pinball player, without making the game a total cakewalk that is easy to beat (and subsequently get bored of).

That said, I have a lot of casual gaming friends who are never going to want to sink the time into ACNC so they can play with me. I only have space for 4 pins total. I am not going to get rid of this pin ever, as far as I can tell. I have one machine here that is borrowed so sooner or later the owner will come looking for it (or more likely I'll have to tell them to come and get it) and then I'll have an open space.

So what is a good compliment to ACNC, meaning a game that is has an easy to understand scoring systems and plays a little easier than normal, as opposed to playing harder than normal, so when my muggle friends come over we can all jam on that together?

I am a huge Batman fan. I've played Dark Knight and like it but it did not seem super-must-have. I've played a few rounds of Batman 66 and I was considering getting that one based on theme alone and simplistic seeming game play (though I don't know enough to know if that is my impression or if its true).

What are good suggestions for pins that compliment ACNC in the opposite way do you think?

Thanks.

How many times must you zap Frank to officially defeat him? I've done both ramps a bunch of times and then zapped him with the center target a bunch but not getting the official kill. How do you kill him and how does the scoring work?

Awesome. Thanks.

Maybe Spooky should put some instructions on the screen with indicators on how many more to go like other monster for him and Cold Ethyl?

Can someone tell me... when you boot up your machine, or in-between games when the machine is riffing Billion Dollar Babies, what color is your skull flashing?

I may have my connection backwards but I'd rather not take it apart again to find out its not so then have to take it apart again, again.

So I found a bug in the new code. Select Ethyl. Hit an orbit to lock her in. The next steps I cannot remember the order - either hit the crypt multi-ball then the secret passage to start the monster mode or the other way around, but do them in very quick succession and Cold Ethyl does not start - Igor does.

Did it 3 times now.

Pay me no mind. I am just here to whine. Charlie you are a sadist. I've increased my shooting on this table quite a bit I think. I hit a the crypt lock skill shot nearly half of the time. I can run orbit to opposite orbit then thru the secret door pretty occasionally. I can skill shot into the secret door and launch a monster mode with just 2 flips. I never miss a chop. Sometimes I am really making series after series of shot.

But getting to BDB wizard mode is a pipe dream because right in the middle or railing a string of great shots comes a shot that one-ricochets right into the outlane. There are so many spots that just equal split-second death on this table. So frustrating.

There. I wish I felt better, but I don't. I need to buy a nib nice and easy table to offset this one. This is not the table for someone who has a very small collection or as an only table.

Please return to your normally scheduled non-whiny posting. Thank you.

Thanks man. I just did the walk of shame up the stairs. Half dozen games and each game had at least one ball loss that was one-flips right into the outlanes for a hearty FU from the game and the last game I even got the "mercy monster" the game gives you when you suck so bad for the first 2 balls you get a free monster mode when starting your 3rd ball, which face it, is just the game mocking you at that point.

Had a 190 some million game this weekend where I visited 5 monsters and defeated 2 of them. Sigh.

I'm just tired of grinding out the tough orbits; letting each service bounce off the flippers until it settles on one and rolls down so I can take the best shot at the orbit from whatever side the ball settled on dozens of times each game. And then to have at least one "rattler" hit the left ramp and roll right back down thru the drain with perfect precision. Same for trying the right orbit and have the ball only get half way into the crypt and roll right into the center of the drain. I shoot well enough I can usually get a free ball but that doesn't help when each of those things happens once a game and at least one "one bounce to the outlane" shots happen too. I'm just worn down by it.

My left scoop has started occasionally acting like there is a ball waiting to be ejected when there is no ball in there. It starts the multi-colored lights flashing and the "ssssshhhhhhooooop" sound and goes through the ball ejection cycle but no ball comes out because no ball is in there.

It seemed to start during a multi-ball mode where it seemed to lose count of balls. I thought it might go away after reboot, but it persists.

Anyone else getting this? Is this a known glitch in new code or do I got a physical issue that developed?

Signed,

ssssccchhhhhooooo.... but no "pah!"

Indeed. I tire of "Crypt Monkee Ball" as my wife calls it. Esp when it likely causes an immediate ball drain / ball relaunch.

I do enjoy that the werewolf mode actually makes having multi ball active a hindrance tho.

WOW. That is great. Now what about us with problems who don't have the resistors?

Yeah, its the weirdest thing. Used to work if I screwed with it, now no setting works, tho changing the resistor to "on" or "off" clearly does something even as it changes the way the ball reacts when "thrown" even tho I don't have the resistor. I guess I'll have to contact Spooky again....

As a big Alice Cooper fan I can say the only time I've seen him use a whip was during the song Go to Hell. But that doesn't probably mean anything. But if it does, its for the Pit Creature...

Interesting. I swear I played 4 or 5 balls one game myself, but though I may have just been excited to try the new stuff out. Then I saw this and maybe it did happen. It might has been the first game in since update....

Side note: My mag-neat-o thingy broke after the previous update. It works flawlessly now.

TNT and formaldehyde are in the lab, on the table. Jar is more to the left, with a leach or something in it (at least that is what I assume this is so someone correct me if I am wrong) and the TNT is on the right and is partially obscured by the center logo thingy that counts what ball you are on, etc.

Yes, I have a machine with no resistors. And I go through periods where I have trouble with the magnet too, so while it seems to help, I don't know if its going to solve your problems forever. (I was disappointed, with wire cutters in hand, when I discovered my machine did not have one to by-pass).

Exactly this. Its a glaring over-sight that its missing. Any other song could be replaced with it and I'd be alright with it, tho I have my preferences. Or better yet the "Insect Creature" could have been the Black Widow even tho I do enjoy "Little Things". Maybe for that fight its "Little Things" during the squishing of the bugs but the boss fight switches to the Black Widow monster and song.

Its not happening tho because: licensing music

Noooooooo...... So I'm on the latest code and there still is the bug where if there is a crypt ball locked and you are trying to find Cold Ethyl and you start crypt multiball its like you hit the monster select target and you lose your progress on CE and now you are looking for Igor.

That has *not* been fixed yet, right?

Minor bugs are one thing, but this wasn't a problem until a code update brought it into being and its a major bug. They can't possibly just leave that like that can they? I don't mind some cosmetic rough edges that never get ironed out, but this is something they broke in an update and it remains broke.

I find this pretty unacceptable. This isn't normal in the world of boutique pinball is it?

But that does not make any sense. If you have a locked ball and start hunting ethyl, and you trigger crypt multi-ball (which is when the bug is triggered and your monster mode switches from CE to Igor) then you just lost your lock because you triggered crypt multi ball, if you follow...

If they wanted to make sure you did not get a free lock on CE because you started the battle with CE they'd have to make it eject the ball when you hit your last orbit to enter the room (or the secret passage to enter the room).

Its a bug. It doesn't make any sense any other way except unless they want it that much harder to start the battle CE.

Yeah, it has to be a bug. Very few battles with CE since it happened which is sad. Its a fav song and enjoyable battle.

So while we are talking about this travesty of that post rubber that is totally destroyed because that is a high traffic area...

Anyone have any thoughts on *NOT* having a post there at all.

The post is directly in front of the edge of the scoop.

I'm guessing just pulling that post will result in the eventual destruction of the scoop and metal bits everywhere gumming up the mechanicals of the machine.

Is there a way to yank that post and turn the scoop a little so the edge of the scoop is behind the left-most target?
Is there a bigger scoop to put on so the edge of the scoop is behind the target?
Is there a bigger target that can be put on the left-most target so it covers the edge of the existing scoop?

In short, is there anyway to eliminate the post and make it work so shots that used to hit the post do 1 of 2 things; hit the target or enter the scoop?

I've been thinking about this for 6 months now...

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Yeah, and I don't mind new features being slow to come, but they *really* need to address the Cold Ethyl bug that appeared in the latest update. Its a game play issue and needs fixing ASAP IMO.

"Due to the interfering objectives, Crypt Multiball cannot run along with Ethyl, so if Crypt begins, the monster advances to the next available one."

So I guess that is a fix and not a bug.

I can't figure out how crypt multiball "interferes" with Ethyl tho, can any one else?

OK, but moving to the next monster is just beat. How about starting Ethyl is just delayed while crypt multi-ball is running?

So I've always had problems with Frank and my guillotine pooping out on me. If I go in back box and wiggle the wire that connects the little circuit board to the bigger circuit board; the small grey wire with the black, flat, 5 pin connector on the board with the fuse you changed and a smaller white connector on the other end, it work for a while again. I have to wiggle the wire up and down, not back and forth. Then it works again for however long it takes to get jarred loose.

I did replace the cable but that did not help. I have a new circuit board here to try, but have not gotten to replace it yet. Perhaps that small board is a weak-link in these games. Mine's not worked correctly since I got my machine a little under a year ago. But yeah, you probably have not blown 3 servos.

Mine does this all the time. It seemed to be a loose connection. When it acts up I go under the hood and start checking every possible connection related to that opto and it goes away. For a while.

Could be something else tho. I'm just spitballing here but this is what worked for me.

I have this issue all the time and its a loose connecter I have to re-push together. Its off just the slightest bit so almost not visible to the naked eye. Physically check the connectors to that scoop.

Well my ACNC has been degrading over time. Weird stuff. Fighting the werewolf I already cleared the left orbit so it was red and I hit the shot again and it damaged me, as it should, and I went and hit it again for a combo and instead of damaging me again it loaded the shotgun.

If I do a combo into the secret passage (2 shots in a row) it advances me through the castle like I hit an orbit shot.

A few other weird items like that where it seems to be programing errors, not physical.

And while I am here I'd like to say *every* orbit shot that is valid according to the map should count. Right now skill shots don't and combos don't as far as I can tell.

Are we giving up on any more updates at this point? Probably I'm guessing.

We need to crowd-fund a total reprogramming of this machine IMO. I got 1000 bucks to add to a pool where we can get the programming totally rewritten from scratch, in whatever language is best and most stable. We could decide what tweaks to add to.

Sigh.

I love ACNC. That said, its probably my last Spooky machine. The code isn't finished, and if it is, it isn't the best. My machines does weird random stuff like modes starting without making the shots, etc. It loses track of balls all the time as well. I'm going to reload the last code but I work in computers and code doesn't or shouldn't degrade over time.

Also the build quality is suspect. I got a little container of screws from when I occasionally find them rolling around the play field. Apparently they don't make lock washer that size. I put the ones back I can see where they have come from but I've gotten 6-8 of them over time and some of them come from places you can't see without removing other parts because every screw hole I can see without disassembling something has a screw in it. Machine must not need the leftovers I still got here in front of me - lolz.

My spinner never worked from day one. It was really tight and stopped the ball 100% of the time. Maybe it was bent in shipping? Is that possible? Anyways I effed around and bend the frame and and it spun but it never actually did anything score wise. Turns out the stem or the micro-switch isn't long enough to contact each other. No idea how to fix that and its in a tight spot and I'm not the most mechanically inclined (and I bought a brand new machine because I got sick of screwing with my used machines) so I just yanked it and now my ACNC has no spinner.

A few cable connections were not connected from the factory as well. I did not know the skull was supposed to light up for over a year until I saw someone post about it here. I checked and sure enough the end of the cable was just dangling there under the skull. I hooked it up and boom it works.

I have a few places the ball gets stuck because the pathway wasn't held together good enough; where the ball enters the mini play field from the right ramp - it shot isn't super strong the ball gets stuck at the top gate and you have to pop the glass to get it out - no amount of shaking will free it. The screw that holds the thin metal transition piece came stripped and loose. Good enough I guess. or "don't hit weak shots up that ramp, noob".

So I am pretty not sure about the quality control and build quality at Spooky. Its a bummer because I live just a couple hours from their place and love to support local businesses and I love the themes/IP they choose to use. My next new machine is going to be something else; I just can't deal with a new machine not being fully playable and needing tweaks for over a year after I pay for it.

My long term issue is the scoop eject often thinks there is a ball there and there isn't, so it triggers an eject all the time. Its annoying by itself but at times it triggers things like awards the mystery away if you light that or defeats the Pit Creature or Igor if they are hiding there and you are battling them. I pop the hood and push all the connections in the machine back together really hard and then it goes away for a while.

I'm not trying to rip anyone here but offering a true accounting of machine number 423 for the people asking about our purchases. I LOVE the machine, when its working and not being quirky. But every time the ball never returns from the secret passage, or gets stuck entering the mini playfield, or I tell a friend "X happens when you do X" and it doesn't happen when they do it (which really sucks on this table because the shots are so hard casual players lose interest enough as it is so when it doesn't work that happens faster) its a frustrating experience.

I understand the secret door deal, but if I shoot a ball though the secret passage and then return it right to the secret passage from the next possible flip (while the combo lights are flashing) it just starts whatever monster mode is currently selected, regardless if I've even travelled any rooms.

And I still cannot beat it. lol

Thanks for the reply, but I am the original owner. I'm an IT guy and have done some coding in the past, not a lot but I understand lots of concepts and I'm actually considering learning whatever language was used to write ACNC code and either redo it myself as a long project for fun, or at least tweak some things.

Do you have a cup full of screws that just keep appearing on the playfield and you cannot even see where they came from?

Maintenance is one thing. Taking off the upper playfield and the machine a part to find where screws appeared from is a bit more than maintenance IMO.

Also getting a machine that had a bunch of stuff that did not work out of the box also isn't maintenance. I took a part my spinner and its really tight over there by that microswitch - I just accepted the fact that my machine did not come with a spinner because I'm not dexterous enough to figure out why its not lining up and I am not about to try drilling new holes to move those tiny things around on my new machine. I can see what is wrong, but its beyond my ability to correct, so "getting Spooky on the phone" isn't much help.

That's for starters. Are a handful of not functional things out of the box normal with all new pins regardless of manufacturer? A half dozen plus things additionally wrong in the first half year to year with most pins? I have 3 other old ass pins that are decades old that need next to nothing and they keep running....

Someone asked for honest opinions so they could make a buying decision. I don't hate Spooky or want them to go under, but the build quality of my machine seems pretty janky. Maybe this is the way it is with ALL pin manufactures and its normal to get a machine out of the box new and not have 3 things working and my expectations are way off - it is my first brand new machine. If that's the case I apologies for being whiney about the status quo and not understanding what I got myself into but having 3 other older machines....

I'll stop now to avoid being "overly negative".

I heard the spinner is used when you defeat the insect creature or something, but there certainly is a microswitch that is connected to the spinner shaft, or supposed to be connected in my case.

I'd be willing to chip in money for a 3rd party to re-write the code, personally. I mean, what is another grand at this point and I've spend a grand on toys for the machine already. Even if we got 20 people out of the 500 that would like some more improvements and toys in the code, 20k should buy a fair amount of programming time IMO.

But I am guessing lots of people are fine where it is so maybe we make our own club?

Yeah I never considered that possibility. The only thing I've heard about that uses the spinner is when you've defeated the insect creature or something like that so I was like "Meh, not that big of a deal". But as you point out it could be one of the links to why I get some weird responses in the machine no one else seems to be getting.

I guess I need to hire someone to come out and screw with it, because where that micro switch is and how the spinner is mounted, I am more likely to cause damage to the machine I think than actually fixing it. It seem someone with more experience in that kind of thing probably won't make it worse or fix it but jack something else up in the process - some of the drywall screws holding the sculpts are pretty iffy on being stripped already it seems, etc.

So I just went out to see how Alice was doing before we have a gathering tomorrow night out there. I started fighting the Werewolf and I shot the ball through the guillotine shoot and when it exited the shoot it bounced into the outlane instead of the in-lane. That does not happen often but it does once in a while - not a big deal to me, because until now, if it happened your ball was saved and Alice tells you "Get back out there" and your ball was saved and you are back in the fight. That is how its worked on my machine, until now.

This time the ball save did not work and the monster mode ended because the machine told me my bail drained and the ball save did not work. If I think about it, and I am not sure, I thought the ball save light was actually lit when this happened, because it was the very beginning of the fight. So if I got it right, the ball should be saved 1. because the first what, 20 seconds of a monster fight you get the ball save light on and 2. I believe from the last year of playing you get a short ball save when the ball does certain things like gets shot out of the scoop, and also runs down the guillotine ramp.

So it seems like I should have had the ball save for not one, but TWO different reasons, and got none instead.

It just gets weirder and weirder.

Since I do some programming I don't believe in code deteriorating over time or anything like that. But maybe in the board they use it does do something to the stored code because that is all I can see that would cause such a weird issues out of a situation that has worked for over a year now....

I just popped the glass and did some manual testing.

During the Werewolf fight the outlane ball save when coming down the guillotine chute does NOT work, and yes, I am stopping the ball and rolling it thru the entire outlane when testing.

During regular play (non fight mode) the outlane ball save from the guillotine chute always re-launches another ball.

I did not test during any other fight modes yet.

Care to try testing during Werewolf fight mode to see if its just mine or if its in the code everyone has? I mean, that'd be cool to know for everyone I'd think.

Exactly. The stem on my spinner never touched the microswitch either. It just doesn't line up. I tried bending the frame for the spinner so at least it spins so the visual appeal but I just made it all janky and while it spun for a while, it looks like sh*t. Once it started stopping the ball again I was like "those orbits are hard enough to hit without nailing a perfect shot just to have the spinner block some of them" so I yanked it.

***If there is some programming that counts the ball passes that engage the spinner I wonder if its possible to just use the existing spinner wiring and install a magnetic sensor or something so I don't need to put the spinner back but the code still functions as intended? It appears to me it'd be easier to yank the microswitch and just install a sensor if they have one-sided ones instead of trying to fix the spinner. Anyone on this one????***

Yeah, I don't know if this is normal or just something wrong with my machine, but skill shot orbits don't walk you through the castle and I think they should, and putting a toy in every room was really the first thing I thought of too. And any bug fixes of course.

So that one is not just me, good to know. I can't tell the stuff that my machine may be glitchy on or if its something in the code that affects everyone or if its "just supposed to be that way".

I'd love for that to be fixed or put back to the way it was - all orbits should advance through the castle. Its so hard to explain how to play this game to new people because after you say something, the machine proves you are a liar and then you need to say "well, except here, I guess".

Hey, you give this a shot last night? I am curious to hear the results.

Also, while I was messing around testing stuff, in my Werewolf mode I shot through the secret passage to load my shotgun and then hit the Werewolf for damage. Then I shot the ball through the secret passage and got wounded (as it should be), then I immediately re-returned the ball through the secret passage a second time and this time I loaded my shotgun again.

Test that one out too while you are fooling around in Werewolf mode.

Maybe Werewolf mode is just really buggy. Lots of times I get the "you just got wounded" response from the machine from a ball coming back out of ramp or shoot it half went in but I don't get wounded - to be clear you should not get a wound for a ball coming back out a shoot or ramp you half made it in, but you should not get the "you just got wounded" routine response from the machine either.

Maybe Werewolf mode was the last one they were working on and just ran out of time/money to QA it decently?

Oh, of course. My bad. I should have wrote "all orbits that should otherwise advance the player on the map" or something of the sort.

Trouble with chopper!

My ACNC started blowing the 3A fast blow fuse that controls Frank and the guillotine. The guillotine is stuck trying to lower itself - it bottoms out and keeps trying to get lower even tho its bottomed out and that pops the fuse pretty quickly on boot up. Since its stuck in the lowest position upon bootup, and it just keeps trying to lower itself, it just blows the fuse upon each fresh boot.

Ideas?

What device is supposed to be telling the guillotine its at the bottom of its range and to stop trying to go down?

I wondered what would make the setting change or for the chopper to just start acting this way. I went back out to reset the menu, reset it to 0 which did not work, then 35 which seems to be the default and now it just keep rebooting itself after it gets this far in its boot cycle. I did reload the software with the last update again once it started happening and it did not change anything - just keeps rebooting now...

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Doesn't sound too serious. That will help sleeping tonight. Thank man!

So update on my ACNC issues. Spooky sent me a new computer unit to replace. I went to replace it and the holes on the new backing plate are not big enough for the plastic holders that anchor it to the box. So I tried to take the board off the backing plate by unscrewing the screws, dropped one into the cab, and decided that was a terrible idea since the backing plate has some heat transference material on it and the old one was clearly not mounted well and there was a space in there which is why it probably fried eventually and the new one is nice and tight.

So I just hooked up the new module and set it inside the cab without mounting it. I'll figure something out with nylon tie straps or something but pretty disappointing to be charged for a new unit I really can't install where it goes....

So I got and get the screw I dropped and I found 2 other screws floating around in the cab. This machine has been shedding screws like crazy from day one. I did not start to count until I got to a half-dozen or so, but with these 2 I believe I am solidly in double-digits for finding screws rolling around in the cab or on the playfield.

ANYONE else got a dozen screws that have fallen completely out over the last 2 years?

This is where one of them was - it was actually straddling both connectors when I found it.

ANY chance this what was blowing my 3 amp fast blow fuse in the first place?

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So the new CPU unit works, I think. It came with 1.0 code. Now I don't think that was my guillotine issue tho, but now that that screw is not on those connectors the fuse doesn't blow to the unit. But the chopper is certainly got issues. Any idea what is wrong with it?

Is it possible the screw that fell over the power connectors is from the motor that turns the guillotine gear, which made it look like not being able to return to start position it what was blowing the fuse? Because now the fuse doesn't blow right away and I got this video of what the motor is doing.

I am able to firmly but gently raise the platform up with my fingers and then start the machine and it does this....

https://www.facebook.com/jamey.philipp/videos/5706502292791337

Any ideas?

This is major blow to my enthusiasm for pins and its certainly my last Spooky machine. This thing is like my uncles '72 Cuda - its broke so often people don't recognize it "with the hood down" and operational.

When I got my machine setup out of the box:

1. The spinner did not spin - totally locked up. I fixed it so it spun a bit, but still blocked shots.
2. The spinner did not trigger the micro switch so even if I got it fixed it wasn't going to do anything, so I just yanked it.
3. My skull lights were not hooked up. I did not know the skull lit up until 6 months later seeing a video on here.

Over the first year:
4.
5.I've had to replace the board that controls Frank
6. I've had to replace a few fuses
7. I've had to adjust the upper playfield because balls always got stuck in the secret passage
8. I've had a dozen screws totally fall out and just be rolling around inside the cab and on the playfield. I'm thinking none of them were tightened properly.
9. The magnet at the top of the playfield that catches the ball when starting monster mode is starting to get shredded - I think its too high and each ball launch might be damaging it (just found that today)
10. I've had to replace the main CPU unit
11. I've had to replace a cable
12. I had to replace the optical switch for the lower scoop
13. and now the problem with the guillotine motor/gear

I really don't know if I am qualified to remove the upper playfield to fix something like a motor or gear assembly and when I bought a brand new pin, I did understood there would be maintenance items to do but I did not plan on this much or these items to be as involved as they are. I am thinking I might be able to start a new career as a pin repair man.

Is this the normal status quo for a new pin or do I have some legit gripes here. I am thinking the whole machine needs to be stripped and rebuild, tightening al the screws because some are coming out from internal places I cannot see where they are coming from...

At this point I'm considering just putting a separate light in the head and using it as a 9k decoration instead of something to play...

Recently spent some time at Spooky where AJ fixed a host of issues with my struggling ACNC! Got it back home and it plays *so* much better its like a whole different machine I've never played before!

First class customer service making sure customers don't have buyer's remorse! I also got shown around Scooby Doo and now I have to put a down-payment on one.... for me it's a perfect compliment to Alice; lots of much easier shots, lots of different modes but nothing super-complicated offers great depth for good players but I feel all my casual friends who "can't even" with Alice will be able to have lots of fun with as well.

Super shout-out to Spooky and especially AJ!

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There is a menu setting that makes the score climb or fall incrementally as you win/lose games. You can turn it off.

Where did you hook the tesla coil up to?

I got one, just no idea where to hook it up.

Thanks