When we did out second set of voice calls for the cops, we had an Englishman do the London bobby as well as the Australian officer. I thought the voices were too similar. so I reached out to the Head2Head podcast guys, Martin and Ryan C, to see if they wanted to lend their voices to the game. They were both more than willing to give it a try and each did a set of voice calls. Our sound engineer, Matt Kern, thought that Martin's voice was a better fit, so we went with his and Ryan C was scratched from the game. Since Ryan had gone to the trouble to do it, I thought we should at least, partially, include his name in the game, for now.

The game needs to recover better from lock cannon misses. Like ball save on right away and on lock 3 start MB even if the ball drains or starts some other mode before it time outs the (start delay).

The one at 257 has been missing a bit.

That is very cool! Poor Ryan

He's lucky. The Chicago way is worse.

LTG : )

So Ryan C wasn't Australian enough, maybe he should practice? he must have been busy with his import/export business selling roosacks to Americans.

I had not, but had two people have the same problem this weekend when they played my game. You are right that is needs a fence. I did let Barry know . . .

Just a black zip tie . Pull the wires together zip tie and if/should the ball get up there, I rolls down to the shooter lane ... 2 minute fix!

Had some issues downloading new code and Berry was quick to answer my questions all is well now.

Since the code change have noticed more air balls than before an my catapult shot to the trunk has missed 40%.
Figure it is a coil setting. Anyone else noticed that? I am sure I can dial it in but never had to take off of the factory settings prior.

Noticed new light show and call outs. Seems some of the animations are a bit quicker also.
Thanks API look forward to game 2.

My catapult has gone wacky too. Currently makes it into the trunk 90% of the time, but always rebounds off the left side of the cabinet to do so.

How's that water torture mod coming @Hooked?

My Houdini arrives tomorrow via SAIA trucking!

Direct from API.

Very excited!

Fresh off the assembly line for fully loaded games last week.

Cant wait to play this wonderful game!

My catapult is fine, but I've noticed a (very) few issues where the ball is not recognized. Could very well be a switch issue, but it started *right* after I updated. Once in the catapult itself, and once in the stage where I shot the ball during the disappearing Elephant trick. Just sat there for 45 seconds and finally did a ball search... it found the ball - and of course I drained!

I'm trying to picture how this would work. Do you have a photo? Seems like the ball would either be deflected by the wires or roll down behind them and get caught under the planchet. Maybe I should try bending my planchet up a little more.

Just bunch up the wires together, keeping them as straight and non-bulky as possible, then press them to the planchette bracket, then ziptie the wires at the top of the bracket where the planchette starts and zip tie again at the bottom where the wires bend at the plastic to head to the hole. This helps a LOT.

A container full of Houdini’s has left the factory and is headed towards the dock to be loaded for Australia. I can’t wait until it arrives hopefully in th next few weeks

It's was only because it was the same day I got off the plane from my big US/CA trip. Very tired. Absolutely nothing to do with Martin having a superior voice

Ok I'll give it a shot. Thank you

No such thing as a “superior voice”, I’ve been hired for gigs where I was the “wrong” voice, and have good friends who were hired despite being the polar opposite of the traditional voice, and who have that nasally high voice for a “big heavy” type role. It’s just circumstance; sometimes things hit the ear a certain way on a certain day. Either way, you’re famous!

Houdini's what?

Magic powder I think

On the trunk catapult, I'm wondering if there is a way to adjust the throw left or right other than coil settings. Can the arm or whole mechanism be shifted slightly? Being plastic, you cant permanently bend the catapult arm.

Check the switch.. I have seen many that have come loose or have become miss-adjusted. To check the switch action put the game in switch test and use a ball, drop the ball and also gently place the ball in the catapult cup. I have seen where the dropped ball registers fine...but the gently placed ball does not!

Trunk catapult shot varies greatly. The amount of tolerance is too great and I don't think power supply stabilization will fix it fully.

Sometimes the ball banks off back wall inside trunk. This is sweet spot and might work 5 x in row. Then it starts hitting back panel of game 3 inches to left for maybe x 10 times. Then it switches an inch to right but falling short of front trunk wall and hits the corner.

So throwing arm needs less movement and spoon should rotate slightly to be adjustable. Another option is mount a magnet behind trunk and tie into mode.

There is no left right adjustments.. I have had people tell me they took a Dremel to the mounting plate and notched out the holes so there was left and right adjustment.

Can not say to do it.. But

Last night I dreamed about playing Houdini and the trunk would automatically move left or right to catch the ball everytime.

Can the spoon part that fits under ball be rotated slightly on the arm and be held with a set screw? Wouldn't take much movement but it would enhance the chance to make the shot.

rosh Are you guys exploring notching the baseplate and offering them to customers. I may try using a drill bit to widen mounting holes if it could help make the accuracy 99%. I'd like to see a pic of what others have tried that worked.

I tried a washer to shift the spoon arm, but it created too much pivot friction.

I think part of the problem is that the plastic spoon is too flexible.

My understanding is that it is the same part that was used for Williams catapults but these were for shorter or less demanding shots. Perhaps the spoon could be redesigned to have a thicker or reinforced arm and thus be more rigid (side-to-side) to assist with left or right misses. Additionally, rather than relying on the loose plastic pivot, a tighter toleranced bronze bushing could be installed that would fit the pivot shaft more closely and thus also assist the left-right misses.

There are many 3D printer materials that are now readily available (metalic as well as plastics) that the spoon could be made from and this manufacturing process wouldn't require new, expensive injection molds.

Perhaps this would be a good area for a creative third party modder to investigate.

Remember the monkey ? Those.

LTG : )

I think it was a fluke it worked fine after the one time. Is it possible it’s a code issue? More likely mechanical I know but it’s literally only happened one time since I (months ago) adjusted the same switch

Anything is possible. Especially in pinball.

3D materials are still in their infancy and not suited for commercial use other than prototyping or artwork.

Machined polycarbonate would work though or steel with a delron scoop for rigidity.

Much like the slings.

Or run the ball through a barrel/tube
To insure its accuracy regardless of the flexing of the scoop.

Houdini 488 in the house! (Garage for now)

Ship date 8-8-2018
Build date August 2018

Arrived perfectly.
Zero box damage.
Driver was very nervous, he had never delivered a pinball machine before and wanted to inspect for damage right with me.

SAIA LTL on this leg of the journey was amazing, helpful, polite and couteous.

The box looked like it might have just been packed, fresh and new.

Many thanks to JJ at game exchange Colorado (@gex).

Now I have to sell my Theatre of Magic to make room!

PM me if you are in the market for a HUO ToM...

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I just thought I may be seeing things but when I played Houdini at the Indiana Pinball show some of the inserts were a frosted look and not the jeweled look (if thats how you explain it?) Didn't look the same as mine so wondered if there was a change or am I losing my mind?

Yeah, like shooting a man out of a canon - wasn't that a magic trick in the day?

I see the same behavior. The trunk shot seems more likely to miss later in a game, and during chaotic periods such as multiball. Maybe its power gets sapped by all the coils firing its power or gets fatigued somehow. During tests, it is almost always accurate.

Casting complete in paint. Can't finish soon enough long time coming.

Looking forward to it!

I have to turn to you guys on this one. This looks like a self-inflicted problem, which I seem not to be able to sort out.

We carried Houdini downstairs yesterday (in three pieces: playfield, backbox, cabinet). Everything seemed to have gone well - there was only a minimal amount of wires to remove to get the parts separated. I guess it is worth to mention that I also installed "poor man stadium lights", but they are powered separately from outside power source.

Anyway - now when I start the game, the first ball drains all of a sudden, without any explanation. The second ball starts and soon shoots another ball in the shooter lane. Also soon the balls drain. Also I noticed when the ball goes to the theatre and it goes under the playfield, the up/down post on the left started banging - instead of any diverter mechanism under the playfield. And I noticed that after the milkcan shoot a ball in the trunk, it did not move from there and was stuck, but the game behaved better after that - no more sudden drains of the subsequent balls.

There is something fishy going on, but even though I check the connectors in the cabinet that I had removed (4 to the left side of the cabinet, three to the playfield + VGA), they seemed fine. I guess there is nothing to check regarding the computer in the backbox, there was only 2 usb-connectors, hdmi and vga-cables to remove there.

I attach also a pic of the switch-test, should it be of any help in determining the problem.

Thanks for any help!

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If you're in switch test mode and manually hit each switch, does the correct item register on the switch test?

Also, I would remove the poor man's stadium lights completely until you resolve the problem. One less variable.

Thanks, I will investigate and post the result. Oh - is there any map for the switch locations - the Houdini Service manual did not seem to have a map.

Take pictures of the connections you mentioned maybe you have two connectors swapped on the board or field. We can compare to one of our working machines.

I removed stadium lights. Switches tested ok to me, but there were these switches that I was unable to find:
Back of Stage, Stage, Left Lock 1-3

Thank you very much - I will post them in groups. It seems that the connectors are keyed or quite well marked, but it does not hurt of course.

These are the connectors from the playfield to the cabinet: three connectors and a VGA-connector, also four connectors to the left side of the cabinet.

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These are the connectors from the cabinet to the backbox: one connector (I do not know these connector's name), 2 x USB, VGA, HDMI. Also the connectors to the backbox monitor: HDMI and apparently audio.

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FYI, American Pinball pays me to help game owners. ([email protected] 224.422.3191 voice or text)

Left lock 2 is showing a ball. adjust, fix or replace that switch

Thank you very much all for your help! Indeed it was the Left Lock 2 switch that was stuck. After finding the switch with the help of Barry and readjusting, seems like the game works ok again.

488 with August build date, and shipped from a distributor to you. That has to mean they've already passed 500 built, then.

I'd imagine they'll have shipped more machines than Spooky by the end of the year. Pretty fast start.

Edit: Oh, and that's already more than double what Heighway produced, despite being around for about 6 years, and in production for 3 years. Double Heighway & DP put together, actually.

American Pinball has been notified about some playfields showing excessive wear around the right side scoop.

I want to stress that increasing coil strength has side effects.

If you start to see unusually fast playfield wear stop playing your machine and contact us immediately.

Our Engineering Department has reached out to Cliffy to make a new scoop protector that would cover the excessive scoop wear.

We recommend everyone keep their coil settings as close as possible to the default value. We also recommend installing a set of Cliffy's

American Pinball uses the best materials and methods to produce our playfields, but remember a steel ball is no match for a wood playfield. Clean your playfield often and check your pinballs often for rust and nicks, replace them as needed.

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to me.

I've had these from Cliffy since day one!

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At last! As far back as Pin A Go Go 2017 I kept telling AP that scoop was going to be a problem for wear and it should have a Cliffy on it from the factory.