I highly encourage you to buy or make a set of art blade protectors BEFORE you lift the playfield the first time. The playfield is very tight to the sides on Houdini and the metal piece at the end of the wireform that drops the ball in the lower catapult (trunk launch) is kinda pointy and can easily scrape or tear those blades. Pinball Life and possibly others sell them, it seems like a lot for what they are but cheap insurance to prevent a hard to repair / remedy accident. If you have or acquire other games with blades they can easily be used to protect those too when you have to lift the playfield.

My thanks to the others that pointed out this need to me before I installed mine!

With shipping, that sounds about right.

Second that. I bought a set. They are great. Biggest issue is getting into the habit of remembering to use them.

I checked my Houdini stats yesterday and since mid-May I've got 1480 games on my home-use Houdini. I got to wondering if this was more, less or about average with everyone else.

Looking ahead, when will API (or someone else) start offering a rubber kit for Houdini. I probably have enough extras laying around but I like the convenience of having everything in one package.

Oh neat!

You mean these?

https://www.pinballlife.com/interior-cabinet-protector-blade-set.html

So they're basically used when doing work on the playfield, and then removed when you place it back down again, yes?

For anyone that bought the Cliffy catapult set, is it difficult to install them? Do a lot of parts need removed for the installation, and is it a must for a new table's protection?

Many thanks for all the tips, by the way! It's my first pin, and getting everything lined up before delivery is what I'm placing high importance on at this stage.

Awesome! I always worry about these things, and it's not quite like heading into Best Buy and leaving with a TV you can bring back if need be. Most of all, Hemisphere Amusements has been really communicative with me. I contacted another distributor and got minimal contact, and eventually didn't even get a followup return phone call. In the battle for sales, reliable communication seems most important to me.

I bought them. It was fairly easy to install the protector on the lower catapult, but I never figured out a convenient way to put it onto the upper catapult, so it remains without a cliffy.

I have to mention that my lower catapult misses the trunk now all the time, I have to investigate, what is wrong with it, since I have a very low number of plays on the machine and cannot believe that the throw arm would be dirty. On the other hand I do not believe that its the cliffy which would have accomplished this. It is just very strange if the power source all of the sudden would have started to act funny, as it now misses the shot all the time. Anyway, I will first try cleaning the catapult arm as instructed by API's guide.

We will have a rubber and a flipper rebuild kit shortly.

Interesting game behavior I have had happen a few times:

Right flipper drops during seance mb with trunk mb running without being touched by a ball.
It just drops when a magnet or the shaker fires or both at the same time. Its not a short, its a code or electronic issue. It doesnt happen every game so its hard to track down exactly what is happening.

Its possible that its code related, something like when the game loses its ability to track balls during a very high speed game and you have to reboot.

I have the new power supply. I have seen it before I installed the new power supply.

This annoying bug remains.

Just the right flipper? Nothing else behaves oddly then this happens? I'd suggest checking the gapping on your flipper cabinet switches, it positioning relative to the button and also make sure the contacts are clean.

I would like to see a couple additions to the game code:

3 way, to 8 way Combo awards for successive loops on ramps or orbits on the screen and audible call out. The end of ball bonus is nice but lacks excitement during play.

Midnight madness. Some kind of mode or award just to pay homage to it. Something to do with the number 12 or 13.

Initial balls that are lost or outlane drained should get endless ball save if not registered on the playfield with x number of points and not time out.

Double flippers exit extra ball animation in game as well as end of ball, and all pauses for animations magic shop etc immediately, except film modes.
This sorta works but really has to be really immediate and rock solid, and work in all cases, including end screen notice board and end of game match. Even the stage acts should be capable of bypassing the startup, I can watch the small screen for info since I have seen the animations more than enough.

Slow reset on 2nd ball to start a new game is still buggy and locks up some times.

I find myself double flipping all the time to bypass stuff and nothing happens.

A couple other guys have reported this too but
Ill check it out again and report back, thanks!

successive orbits and ramps do increase scoring on each shot, and the sound effect increases with each. At some point I may add some on-screen indication. The real value can be in the bonus, where the successive ramps or orbits acts as a multiplier to the total ramps or obits achieved

I don't agree with the endless ball save or the ability to get a second try at a skill shot for not hitting anything. Its a skill shot, you get one shot at it.

flipper exits exist on most things, including stage modes (once the actual illusion intro starts), film modes and jail escapes and some visits to the magic shop. End of ball speed up is much faster in new code. You will also be able to cut off match to start a new game.

can't say I recall others reporting the right flipper just dropping for no apparent reason.

This has more to do with novice players that dont get to even flip the ball one time if it drains off the slings or an errant bounce.
They dont even know what a skill shot is lol.

Experienced players might be able to exploit it, but I think its worth it for the novices and wont change the game that much.

I guess disable skill shot after a ball save? or put the skill shot on a timer like AFM. This could add to a strategy.

in my home I see a lot of first balls end without being flipped at all. Its disappointing to the first timers and novices. especially if there are 4 of them on a game and no one has actually flipped a ball until ball 3.

I really miss exciting, celebratory combo call outs. Its better than just adjusting the sound affect. And seeing it on the screen is exciting.

as far as stage modes, I guess I would like the startup to begin faster or earlier on a double flip.

This would help with the stop and go of the game for those who have played it a lot.

Im happy that some of my wants are already in the mix.

thanks for a great game!

I agree there's go to be a reason, Ill check the cab switch with a meter. maybe its just weak or dirty.

If you haven't thought of it, check it for ohms too. Point might not be making good contact with the long blade it's fastened to.

LTG : )

I'm still seeing drops, weak / half flips and other such behavior during MBs too, most often when Seance is running. I see it more on the left than the right and sometimes it's like it is fluttery instead of a good hard solid flip. I had hoped the new P/S would resolve this but it has not. I was going to report this but planned to measure the output of the supply so I could adjust it if it's low, will try to do that tonight. I also have the EOS switches installed which did not address it at all. If the P/S output is where is should be I'm going to try to setup my DSLR just aimed at the flipper area and try to capture video of this happening.

I know EXACTLY what you are referring to with the “fluttery” flippers and the drops. I absolutely was getting this. Now I am not, or at least have not. What version of code are you running?

Let me add, if I may (have been meaning to post these for a while so I'll piggyback on Reno):

This or pause the timer when an Extra Ball is scored in the Card Toss video mode.

Man from Beyond doesn't seem to end gracefully - the light show keeps going for a bit after it's down to one ball and the music ends, then the lights go back to normal, the screen stops the "Find Houdini" then the MFB lightshow kicks back in for a few seconds. It confuses people that haven't played the game and keeps you in a "penalty phase" after the mode is no longer scoring.

Count shots to the right inner loop that get diverted and flung into the trunk when you hit them, not wait until it goes through the trunk and is registered in the upper catapult or in the trough.

I'm on a Beta version (forget the date code but can post it later) and have seen this exact behavior in every build.

Get the exact date, because I am curious if it’s been updated in the latest

Played a few games on Halloween (holy cow the first couple were terrible) and new GC went to Bess. Also listened to one of my favorites, Black Sabbath record from Black Sabbath. New neighborhood for us this year and kids had a great time trick or treating.

On mine, 200 games since Aug. 1.

Yes this once In awile.

Flutters are sometimes due to the EOS switch adjustment not close enough to the end of travel.

I set mine with an ohmmeter to the last 1/8" of flipper travel. So no fluttering here. If the flipper is even slightly deflected it stays up.

Complete drops in spite of EOS are different. It's like a power fail or possibly a bad cabinet switch.

Can also be switching issues internally, where power is interrupted when another device comes online briefly.

I like what LTG said about maybe a bad switch that's losing its internal connection to the wire from corroded pads or something loose.

I'll take a look and maybe swap switches to see if it goes to the other side or fixes it.

Still I want to add 20v in series to the flippers to get them up to WMS standard strengths.

Can't say I have this issue w/ or w/o the new power supply. If I thought I did, I'd likely stick a scope across the coil leads and see if I could catch a glimpse of anything unusual with the voltage. Ideally you use a clamp on current probe meant for a scope too. Hantek makes one for $50 that I have and is rather slick and surprising accurate (I compared it to our high end Tek current probes at work).

Heres the page from the manual for you for the rubber ring set. Its on API's website, in the online printable manual
Pincades
AP Dist.
JT
scan0001 (resized).jpg

I agree with LTG, loose wire or cold joint at cab button or elsewhere. Loose or defective switch.
Losing power due to bad connection is the most likely culprit.

Except I think I'd see the problem other than only during multiballs that include Seance. I've tested and cleaned the flipper switches (keep in mind those are low power) and the EOS have also been tested and adjusted properly. The problem existed before the EOS switches though, so I can't see that being a problem either. I've also re-seated all the connections to the PD-16s and double checked the wiring on the coils, it is all tight and clean.

I don't have a digital o-scope to try to catch the coil pulse when it happens or I would.

Yep, I agree. Easier to just touch up or inspect the solder joints and check the switch...and take it for a test drive. My earlier post was my engineering background kicking in rather than checking the obvious.

Barry,

Are the 'rubber' rings really rubber or are some synthetic?

This is my thinking if the cab switches check out as good.

With everything going on in the game its also not unlikely that a bad pulse gets through once in awhile and resets the flipper.

The condition is not continual. It happens once in awhile when everything is firing full speed, 5 ball MB. Flippers being bashed like crazy.
The flipper just falls dead. Its losing power for a fraction of a second, or being shut down or losing connection to the data from P-ROC.

While trying to replicate the error, I was bashing the flipper buttons continuously during a shot to the inner loop and continuously afterwards.
The ball made the catapult just fine then did a second cycle of catapults with no ball! Then the game put 2 balls in play.

The ball count was off then so I rebooted.

The flippers were solid without any problems.

All was well after the reboot.

This was an induced error that I did intentionally. An argument could be made that its related to the computer or the code, and that one shouldnt be able to do this. But, I dont see it as an issue, just something that happened.

Anyone who recently purchased a NIB Houdini care to share their Serial Number so we have some idea how many were made as production is winding down?

BTW - I'm at about 1150 games since I received it in mid-April, considering how much I play it and have had friends over to play it I thought it would be much higher than that. I expect it to get somewhere around 500 games put on it during Pincinnati at the end of the month.

Here’s my info:

3755B236-10D0-4F1A-A58D-0F71C18CE642 (resized).jpeg

Looks like they've made about 500 of them.

OMG! I own a boutique game?
Who woulda thunk it...

Knocker question. Does it only engage for a match? Will it wack with an extra ball?

Great question.The fake knocker does not sound on extra balls now, so....

Joe Balcer said in late June at Pontastic NE that they were already at 400 games and he was confident they would make 1000.

That is right, I remember that. Perhaps the numbering is different for overseas - I remember they changed a bunch of stuff prior to the first shipment to europe

They might have different overseas numbering, or this particular Houdini may have been from older dealer stock, but it's definitely indicating less than 500.

How can you tell how many they've made from the 1490/490 as of August?

I should be getting mine next week, I'll chime in then! I've heard anywhere from 500-1000 from distributors. And gauging by owners here, and how many are noted at location, it definitely seems sub 1000. Which with the high level of quality this pin seems to have, comparable to a Jersey Jack, that's pretty special!

They're averaging about 60/month (the first couple months it was like 40/mo), so add 120 (2 months since august) to the 480 (the first 10 or so were before they shipped to customers), that's about 600 (maybe for the US only?)

And I thought I was seeing things, Glad to know I'm not loseing my mind yet

I don't have mine yet but it's supposed to fire during bullet catch and that should be awesome!

Side question: does anyone know how to use the $150 coupon code that comes with the upgraded power supply?

Just for the record, my flippers also lose power, or seem to drop out for a moment, as others here are saying. My game was made last May, and has no software updates since purchase.

You use the coupon code when you are at checkout- it asks you on the right side of your screen for a discount code and that’s where you put your coupon code in. And, as of last night,they had knockers back in stock

How about just calling it The API Winter Games, then? Joe can design an amazing luge track ramp.

Why wouldn't you have updated the software? There are at LEAST two pretty major updates since your machine was made. The game plays a LOT better with the current software, and it's not hard to do.

That didn't work for me, I've emailed Barry about it.

I had the same question, its a QR code. Do I scan it somehow?