Pinballgoddess is hypercritical about pinball.
She wants art, sound, lights, color and engaging gameplay with a theme that makes it worthwhile.
Also a deep ruleset for longevity.

She's a hard sell but loves Houdini.

I went to TPF to buy a gotg, but Houdini changed everything!

9:07 PM wall power is 118-119v.

Game is playing perfectly!

Upped the auto launch by 2.
Lubed the shooter rod with a little lock ease graphite spray it was getting rough and hard to control.

Upped the upper catapult by 2 to make the jump more consistent.

High score now 1.5 million (Pinballgoddess of course).

Houdini will be in my dreams tonite lol.

I've had mine for months and still haven't seen a wizard
Mode! Mini or otherwise

A fine choice.

Can someone explain the rules for the mode “Bullet Catch?” I get the basics of shooting the lock, then another ball kicks out to score the hurry up, but here’s where I’m confused:
1. After you shoot the roving light, why is the lock shot still lit? Is it just another shot to score the hurry up?
2. I’ve played a few games where the trunk lock wasn’t lit, and when it wanted me to shoot the lock as the first mode shot, it just kept feeding the ball back to me and I couldn’t make progress. Is this a bug or a feature?

Ok guys, I'm back in town after dropping my daughter off at college for her freshmen year. A lot when on around here while I was gone, so, if I missed things that require an answer, please repost.

The lock shot stays lit as a a jackpot shot, as well as the shot you hit to 'aim' (Originally it was just the lock shot, which made it too hard, plus having it also be the 'aim' shot really creates better strategy around setting up the right shot to be the jackpot.

There is a bug with the lock shot if the trunk is not already lit for lock, that is fixed in the next release.

Interesting, I'll keep an eye out for it.

That was the master macigian mode and sounds like you failed it, and the game self destructs. . Looks like a bug with the wrap up at the end. Your game will end after the master magician mode, either your pass or fail, but game ends. This happened to someone else and it is a bug when it was looking to award points for any extra balls you may have still had. It is fixed in next release.

You can download an image from here.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yB5eT45Fku_kdk9TXtIiPz-adVmf5bKa

Doubt anyone will ever get it to work 100%, the fact it works as often as it does is a bonus. I'm sure some clever individuals will find ways to improve it and will report it here.

Hay,Rosh,your still the escape champ on my pin I'm working on it,I'll get ya yet Cool pin,having fun!!!

Check the shooter rod and if there is a washer on the inside between the housing and the spring removing it will make it a lot smoother pull.

A lot of games have a rough shooter rod when they're brand new.
It just takes a couple hundred plays for them to polish up.

I just put a little silicone spray or a little graphite spray on the shooter rod from the outside and they work perfectly.

Wipe off the excess of course and hold it with a paper towel so it doesn't make a mess.

I was having trouble with my shooter rod. I put a new one in and have not had a problem since. Always possible it got bent slightly during shipping.

Well you are correct about the 2 balls never being there let alone 3 balls. The thought on that is... it would be interesting to have the balls come from different places..Kinda magical, but if the 3 balls were right there you would know where they are coming from.

Hope this helps!

I wouldn't use any product with graphite in it, in a pinball machine.

It conducts electricity. And if it works it's way into anything else, you could have problems.

LTG : )
Disclaimer : Learned that at my Father's arcade. Graphite bullets in the shooting range sent dust over the entire arcade. Did a good job of shorting leaf blade switch stacks over time.

Yes, I agree about graphite.

I couldn't for the life of me find my sil-glide spray...

But I did find my lock-ease.

We really love the game so far, but have had a couple of issues. Tilt not working, not thrilled about that but hopefully I can fix. I've lowered some requirements for Houdini letters, had some good luck and entered wizard mode. Got the magician's final exam text for a second and then the game rebooted. That was a bummer.

See post 5111

Do you have the 18.8.1 update in your game ?

Otherwise check with American Pinball Support.

LTG : )

I do. Working through that now. Maybe I should have just left it at the reboot.

Been a hell of a past couple of weeks. New (to me) house, new car... a neighbor's massive ancient white oak tree fell on my garage, house and 2 cars. I'm trying to maintain some sense of normalcy but we keep having these intense storms.

My tilt is working with the newest code. 18-8-5 version

Website has the new Update 18.8.5.
Try that. TILT working.

Ooh, I know the feeling. I played the two phases of that mode, drained quickly, and then the game rebooted. Didn't save my score. Hopefully this is fixed in next update, tho it may be a year before I get to the mode again, even with a 5 ball game and a few extra balls.

Funny call out on the tilt as well

I've gotten tilt warnings with the big yellow screen with a buzzer sound but no tilt voice yet.
Does it only talk to you when you've tilted the game?

Anyone else noticed this? On the "Secret Missions," you apparently have to go all the way around the ramp before you can continue, BUT if you go partially up the ramp the red indicator light will advance. This leads you to believe that you can then go for the next shot (ie, orbit or scoop), but when you do the red light just goes back to the ramp, prompting you to start over.

Videogod I have noticed the same thing. Kind of annoying but it makes sense why it wouldn’t award you the combo. I do wish there was more grace if you hit a couple kickers or side switches first.

Yes only after you have tilted !

Cop w/ Irish brogue: "I've come to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubble gum."

Yes, and I've also noticed that for many modes (Elephant, Grim Game, etc.) when you need to hit a ramp it you hit it slowly and it takes a while to get all the way down the ramp, sometimes with a nice nudge to keep it from dropping through the hole, it won't award the shot at all. This doesn't only happen during MB or when the ramp is lit for a combo secret mission shot.

You are correct about that misleading ramp light. I find the ramp one of the toughest shots to make consistently in terms of completing it. I even raised the left flipper coil strength to improve completions, but it hasn't helped much.

This won’t help if you are going for consecutive ramp shots but you can also backhand it from the right

Sometimes (for me anyway). I find a shot from the left flipper works more consistently.

It can be challenging, but compared to the left ramp on my TWD Premium, Houdini's ramp is a piece of cake.

What is your coil setting on the right flipper to make this shot?

I can’t nail the ramp on demand from the left, but if I have a dead stopped ball cradled, I can make the ramp most of the time. It barely has the juice to get up there though so if you’re not squarely in the middle, the left-to-right motion will rob it’s energy and it won’t make it all the way up

I’ll check, but both my flippers are dialed down from the defaults. My game is also just about all the way down on the leg levellers, making it roughly 6 degrees as AP intended - not the standard 6.5 which a lot of people have set up (and makes the game way more unpredictable)

My manual says 6.5 degrees during setup I thought it was a little steep.
So I got between 6.1, 6.3, and 6.5 from bottom to top..

So I'm calling it 6.3-6.4 average?

Wall voltage at 119-120v

I have my flippers set at 28 left, 27 right.

I upped all the pops by 1.

The scoop eject was consistantly bouncing off the top post of the right sling. I raised the scoop power by 1.

Has anyone adjusted the scoop eject path?

Should it end up at the right flipper without hitting the sling at all? If so I have to adjust the lane guide to do this.

Or should it trickle down the inlane?

I adjusted my scoop. Helps a LOT. You ideally shouldn’t need to adjust the coil strength beyond the default; in fact it should be the weakest setting where it still clears the edge consistently

The ball still does hit the right sling most of the time. It doesn’t drain too often, but I do have to nudge a lot

Which Manual said 6.5 degrees?

During a game last night I couldn't score trunk mb.
Catapult worked 100% over and over again.

The game lost track of the balls and went into ball search. Then ended ball 2 while it was in play.

There were at least 4 stacked modes going at the time.

I served ball 3 and had a 2 ball mb going for awile.
Drained 1 ball and still had 1 in play but the game ended ball 3.

I rebooted the game and all was good again.

The manual says that with all the leg adjusters all the way in should be 6.5 degrees, early in the photo copied manual that came with the game.

It could be wrong but the game plays pretty good for now at 6.3 degrees.

What are your flippers set at?

I adjusted my flipper power so that a clean stage alley shot goes perfectly into the stage.

Default power the ball would graze the pop bumper and fail to make it to the stage.

Also a weak hit to the the ramp from the left flipper drops into the hole and a clean shot goes all the way around.

I think this is how it's intended to work.

My power fluctuates a bit so upping the scoop by one seems to work as intended with it having to repeat to get the ball out 1 in 10 or 20 times.

I didn't finish my thought, sorry - you may also want to try lowering the scoop strength - if the scoop is too strong the ball will bang into the top of the scoop, but will still eject. Not that important if it's working for ya though -

I wonder if that manual is a typo? Josh will know for sure, but I am fairly certain with levelers all the way in, the game is at 6 degrees.

Yes it's been noted that 6 degrees is the default.

Mine was at 5.5 but who knows how level a floor is lol.

The scoop is set up by 1 so it's close to the default.

I'm monitoring it for now.

I would like to backhand the inner loop.
I might have to look at the flipper angle.

You should be able to backhand the right inner loop fairly consistently, most games I'm way more consistent with that than off the left flipper.

What are you flippers set at?
I'm at 28r 27L

When I backhand I get a lot of rattles.
The angle seems off from a cradled position for a good backhand.

Will keep practicing it!

Left flipper collapsed during 5 ball mb.

Also right flipper collapsed twice during straight jacket escape.

Similar conditions, very hard hit off a seance target rebound.

During multiball.

Wall voltage at 119v

It surprised me.

I haven't seen a flipper collapse or fail to hold on other games.

It really might be necessary to install EOS switches if it cant be handled in the code.

I mean, that's what they're for right?

I hear that someone has installed EOS switches please PM me with the details.

Can happen depending on system if flipper button leaf blade switches need cleaning or contact point at end of blade isn't making good electrical contact with blade, or if optos - could need cleaning.

Might be worth checking until AP posts.

LTG : )

Thanks lloyd!

I'll clean everything and check the adjustments.

The collapse is weird.
The flipper went all the way down and didn't spring back up until it was pressed again.

It only happens on super strong/full power hits from a bad shot back onto the raised flipper.
And most frequently during mb with several stacked modes running.

Holy crap - those are supercharged! 37?!

this happened to me recently, but it turned out just the spring had pulled out

That is a typo... Should be at 6 degrees.

Yeah, mine are 23 and 21 and my game is about 6.5 degrees incline. In addition to back-handing the inner loop I can back-hand the ramp entrance pretty consistently but it only makes it all the way maybe 30% of the time I hit it. I still get a few airballs even at these settings.

Go to menu>adjustments>standard Turn on Flipper Power Hold

Should be the solution for your problem

27 lol typo...