Got it, no that obviously wouldn't work..

Have you heard at all why there's no European-voltage solution for this?

Rdoyle is right...the variac just compensates at that moment in time when you set it. If anything changes after that, all bets are off if your line voltage is not very stable.

I have had this exact scenario happen.

Power goes low, Houdini plays like crap, other games are ok but not exactly sprightly. Adjust settings on Houdini.

Power goes back up, Houdini plays better but now all the coils are screwed up from prior tweaking, other games are playing better.

Call Barry ASAP. There is a suitable power supply to add on. Barry would know which is the best one, You will have to order it and install it. Dont expect it to be cheap, it will be at least $200 plus shipping.

API can send you the harness to make it easier to install.

Adding in the power supply upgrade has solved nearly all of my power problems. The game plays great and consistent.
It was very much worth the trouble and expense to get it.

The next thing we need is more power to the flippers.

Adding 20v in series to the flipper circuit will solve all of the left over power problems, no more flippers collapsing during 6 ball multiballs.

Im very close to a solution.

Or a separate 70v supply for the flipper circuit.

Thanks for the ideas. Turned out to be the switch in the scoop needed adjustment.

On my last ball, I got 7 Houdini letters and heard the new stadium chant "Hoo-dee-nee!!" But before I could start the mode, my movie binge started. I heard the chant all through that mode, and then lost the ball and game over. Apparently you can't start MM mode while in MB mode, which makes sense. Anyway, it was fun and I got high score 2.

I had the chant thing once. It finished up with the delivery of an encore bonus. It seemed it was separate from any other mode. As I recall, it was chanting, the computation of a bonus, and that was it. Had some graphic associated with it, thinking it might’ve been Houdini standing next to a breakdown of the bonus, but I’m not sure. Never happened before, never happened since. I meant to look it up in the manual, but never got to it. Liked it because the bonus was huge.

Hmmm. I just seemed to get the audio over normal game play. Still a lot of mysteries in this machine.

Sorry - I've been away for the last couple of weeks. Is houdini-gamecode_18.11.24T the most current version?

Getting ready to load it now...

Thanks.

Of course, its Houdini!

I looked in the manual and found nothing.

Very mysterious indeed.

Maybe ROSH can solve this conundrum.

That is the latest one posted by Josh in post 7278.

LTG : )

The Houdini chant is being added in this new release that some of you are testing. When you hear it, it means you have performed all 10 stage acts, and a shot back into the stage will award you the 'encore bonus'. The bonus was introduced in the last main release, this just gives it the pomp and circumstance it deserves.

I get excited when I make 3 stage acts so I guess It'll be a long time before I hear any chanting. That's one of the reasons I like Houdini for the home - I won't run out of new stuff to complete for ages and ages.

Anyone else having trouble on the AP website? When I click on the update code my PC freezes and I have to turn off the PC with the start button.

Epic game of 5 ball last night. I had my wife photograph when the score started going crazy (Yes the glass was on)....anyone notice anything missing? Or is this a known thing? I have never come close to a score like this, so I think I am liking the new code...lol

Score (resized).jpg

I see it. Looks like the display ate your eight.

And one decimal place...
15 million? Really? Congrats! And it looks like only ball 3 was in play.

I guess the game wasn't designed to properly show over 9,999,999 in the BIG numbers with the old skool ratchet wheels. lol

And I am not really sure how I got there to tell you the truth. I got to the movie binge mode and the scoring just took off. I think I played ball 2 for like 40 minutes. For the record, balls 4 and 5 lasted less than 5 minutes each. I never got to the part where the game ended though...I'm sure there were things I still needed to do.

Is there a newer beta than 181124T that fixes the 5 ball issues?

I've been watching for it but haven't seen anything newer yet. PinMonk

I haven't seen a poll on this yet, so what the heck... What are your top 3 favorite Houdini stage modes to play. Not the easiest, or most challenging or highest scoring, but the ones you are most psyched to play and enjoy playing. They are so different, this should be interesting...
Just to refresh memories, alphabetically, the list is...

Bullet Catch
Card Scaling video mode
Chinese Water Torture Cell
Handcuff Escape
Indian Needle Swallow
Metamorphosis
Milkcan't Escape (sorry... couldn't resist)
Straight Jacket Escape
Vanishing Elephant
Walk Through Walls
11th secret stage mode (just kidding about that...or am I?)

crop (resized).png

Card Scaling video mode is King of Cards. My #1 go-to mode to grab an easy extra ball right off the bat.

1. King Of Cards
2. Indian Needle Trick
3. The Secret 11th Stage Mode

I seem to have the toughest time w/ The Vanishing Elephant...

1. With the addition of the knocker, by far the bullet catch for me

2. Straight jacket

3. Indian needle - especially when stacked with a multi-ball

Ditto!

At some point I'll at least make the commas move to the right place. As you can see, the full score is captured above.

Nice game. Movie Binge can be very valuable if you did well on the movie modes, especially if you then 'complete' them in the binge in the optimal order, or you are able to keep as many balls in play as long as possible to collect those scores multiple times. What I mean by optimal, since balls in play act as a multiplier, ideally you want to first collect the lowest scored movie, when you have just one ball in play, then when that gives you a ball, you now want to go for the next higher and then work your way up so you have the max multiplier when collecting the highest scored movie. Then once you complete them all, then go the opposite way, focus on the highest scoring while you still have as many balls as you can. Second time through it is six shots vs three the first time to collect that score with the multiplier. It only adds a ball the first time you collect a movie's binge bonus.

Scoring for the binge might be too high, relative to competition play, where focusing on getting through the five movies to get to the binge, might be too easy a path to really high scores. Might just need to make it harder to collect those binge bonuses a second time.

Not that has been made available. I've been testing some final changes.

im still losing balls due to inconsistant scoop eject when starting some stage acts.
Seems to be no ball save or a very short one on some of them.

Also maybe a longer ball save for ending strait jacket escape on the last ball.
When it goes back to regular play from reversed flippers and after the mode ends, you should be able to drain the last ball and get another one served for 5-10 seconds.

Definitely getting surprise 2 ball multiballs with the new code pretty consistently. I was playing a movie mode on one of them and when the first one drained, the mode ended, so that's a pretty good sign the second ball was a mistake.

1. Bullet catch (just love him saying “I will now catch a BULLET with my TEETH”...and it’s so satisfying to complete)
2. Straight jacket...just a lot of fun
3. Probably king of cards...nice change-up from straight pinball action

check your settings to be sure the scoop save is enabled. I believe the save is 5 seconds. There is no save if you are in a multiball.

There is a ball save when the flippers reverts back, as well as an announcement and the change in music. I'll take a look at the length and assess making it a touch longer.

I did find one issue that could be causing these, a state scenario combined with some opto/subway behavior, that never seems to happen on my office machine, but that I saw occur a couple of times at home. So, hopefully the fix takes care of this.

That is one of my favorite lines as well, not sure why. There really is no 'completing' of bullet catch (well, at some point some number of jackpots will lame it a win'), I guess the 'completing' is if you make that inner loop shot to load the gun and actually get to the two ball MB. Of course making that 'moving target shot' quickly is key for points, but even more so, is picking a good shot since both the inner loop and which ever shot locks in the value score jackpots. Worst thing you can do is lock in the value by shooting the inner loop. One time I though there was bug since I was getting some rapid fire of the knocker, then realized the key lane was the shot I hit to the lock in the value, so a shot that goes up through the key lane, and then back down through it will score two jackpots and well, two knocks. Great to stack with other MBs. Have not put a knocker in my home game yet, but likely will, just because of bullet catch.

I do think the scoring there is really high. Things were happening so fast, I didn't understand all of the extra balls that were in play, so this makes a lot more sense. I was afraid is was some sort of error....lol

If we add in my favs - Bullet catch, Needles and Metamorphosis (for its precision and because Bess gets to participate), we have Bullet, Needles and Straightjacket as the top 3 so far.

I like walk through walls because it's a good neutral mode where you don't have to blow a seance multiball if you have one ready. Use the second shot for milkcan combo attempts.

When I figured out you can just zap the ball up through the key lane entrance from the left flipper, Chinese water torture became a good one.

Hate king of cards because I still haven't memorized how to consistently hit the extra ball.

Milkcan is great because they give you plenty of time and the return is usually safe to take the next shot.

Elephant I hate because as soon as I'm in it I can never hit the damn ramp more than once. I try to go for the multiplier combo if I'm on right flipper.

Handcuff gave me my highest score (1.4 million) with 2x stage and multiball.

Needles never seems to get above 100k for a really good run.

Bullet catch I always blow it if I do get into the add a ball part.

Metamorphosis doesn't have a unique identity amongst the modes.

Straitjacket is a good gimme mode but I wouldn't pick it until I've gotten through a couple of my favorites. Plus, ye gotta go reverse/inverted every damn time right?

My main opener is to always get the damn scoop asap so I don't hit the first secret combo without opening it up. Then, milkcan into 1st combo attempts so I can get an easy 100k. Backhanding the scoop and milkcan are must-know tricks. Scoop is nearer to the inlane and milkcan is nearer to the tip. Backhanding inner loop is there but I don't have it dialed in. It's more near the middle. I'm also one of those dudes that goes for the 2x stage scoring every time I've got stage open from right flipper trap. Remembering to relight the lock and not just letting it sit is important. I'll hit it from left flipper straight up. You just have to get through to relight.

I wish there was a more pronounce ice clinking sound when you hit the stage at the beginning of man from beyond.

How I sort of bucket them based on situation and goals (some modes fit into more then one bucket)

If trying to complete stage acts quickly and easily (eg. the easiest modes) . . .
Walk through Walls
Chinese water torture
King of Cards (also a pretty easy extra ball)

For points:
straitjacket, reversed and inverted
bullet catch
milkcan escape

When I'm in the groove making all the shots:
Metamorphosis
Bullet Catch
Vanishing Elephant
Milkcan escape

When MB is lit and ready to stack:
Needles
Handcuff King
straitjacket
bullet catch

I have had to replace the switch on left lock 2, cause the ball was not triggering the switch. The new switch that is there now is however giving some other difficulties - on occasion it blocks the ball so that it does not get to left lock 3 (the lock in the bottom). How to "unstiff" the switch?

Is there anyway to adjust the height of the ball sitting in the stage? I think it sits too high and makes it harder for a ball to stay in the stage.

1.4 million on handcuff? Unlike needles, bullet and straitjacket. There is a max score you can earn on Handcuff (e.g. after X cuffs are released, he is free and the mode ends), around 100K times multipliers, so with 2X stage and 4X playfield, you are looking around 800K.

Not all roll under switches are the same, there are at least two versions, one is stiffer than the other. We changed to the less tiff after the first few games went out (and those were replaced). So, possibly the wrong version. You can try to raise it up slightly with a leaf switch tool, but it is tricky to adjust and get it just right.

Go into service menu and then to utilities and run the "stage calibration" and see if that makes it better.

That might be it then, will try to adjust it. Can you please give the proper part-number? I got info from this thread that it should be 180-5119-02.

Mine was this: 180-5119-00/02 and from https://www.free-play.se/en/playfield-parts/switches/group-1707858/microswitch-roll-180-5119-0002-5647-12693-06.html

It feels to me like the King of Cards would be more interesting with a third set of rings so there's more activity on the screen, or at least the option to turn on a third row in the settings. Maybe a 10k, 25k, 50k? As it is now there's a lot of down time waiting for the 25k ring to come back on the screen until it really starts speeding up. I play this mode a LOT since it's my go-to for an extra ball and it's just kind of boring with the two slow rings that don't speed up until about halfway through the round.

Also, the ability to put english on the cards at launch by tapping the opposite flipper quickly (so it doesn't count as a charge boost and waste a card) would be a great way to up the skill of the mode and allow you to hit rings you maybe weren't quite charged enough to hit straight on in time.

Also an audio cue ("Hold flipper button longer then release to throw greater distances!") or something on-screen to tell novices what to do would help. I often see people just pressing the flipper buttons randomly wasting their cards because they don't understand how to charge the meters.

Ugh, I’m not good at this mode. Always just miss. I’d say I only average 100k. That and the center ramp, which for some reason becomes impossible during v-elephant mode -choke....

I always go for the scoop first also. I notice on stage alley shots that the opto doesn't always read the ball and relight the lock. Maybe 1 in 4 shots fails to register. Not sure if that is happening to anyone else...

You're like half a year or more behind me in time on the machine. Concentrate on getting that mode every game to collect the extra ball and you'll get good at it. If you're doing 100k, you're not that far from an extra ball. If I barely make it, I usually get 130k.

I hadn't thought of bullet catch as a good mode to stack multiball on because I really have to concentrate to make the shots, and 3-4 balls flying around seems to just get in my way. But I can see where it would help you catch one of the traveling shots early. I always save needles and handcuffs for the multiball opportunity, where they can do a lot of the work for you.

But strategy aside, I have a lot of fun with bullet catch (once I make the inner loop). On the opposite end of the spectrum, I want to murder that elephant. I can play a 3 million point game and only accumulate 6 ramp shots.

There are no optos in the stage alley for lighting the lock, just a good old fashioned roll-over switch. If yours isn't registering consistently you need to adjust the arm, most likely it is missing the ones that are tight to the right or left of the lane, mine had the same issue.

Reason I like this stack is that you can start the MB, when you also load the gun, that does then give you multiple balls to more quickly make the 'moving shot' which then locks in the jackpot value, it also gives you more shots scoring jackpots, keep in mind a single jackpot, depending on when you lock it in, is going to be the equivalent of 15 to 30 switch hits, depending on switch value. You are more likely to extend the length of the multiball as well. Obviously it really helps if you can make the moving shot on one of the first few shots on the left side when the value is highest.

There is an audio prompt that the beginning to hold longer to throw higher, but no doubt the first time someone plays they often have no clue what is going on. Might make sense to repeat that message if the first few throws are all very low. But I have found over the years, that is often the case on video modes, that the first few times through you are not really sure why to do. As far as play, I often try for a double, off the left side, on the first shot (both rings), since score double. I then look to throw from both hands at the smaller ring on both passes, hopefully scoring the smaller ring with both, which can also make it easier to score the extra ball, since the speed up does not occur until it changes direction. By double throwing (there is a slight offset when you release) I am only doing 6 passes of the rings.

As far as putting English on it, while it is a cool concept, I think it would be pretty complex both to implement and to use. I considered a third ring, but felt it would make understanding the meter more difficult. The colors down match the small, the large and then the combined, have a ring the combined color would make folks thing you can only make the ring when that color. However, I do a have a few ideas for it that I have not implemented, that maybe someday I'll add in.

Just looking at it, clearly that is not the right switch, based on how the actuator is mounted to it. Unfortunately often a parts seller will list something as a replacement, because it will fit, not necessarily that it performs the same. For example, you can the two different actuators on pinball life's site . . .

https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-ball-detect-blade-with-roller-sub-microswitch.html
https://www.pinballlife.com/data-eastsegastern-ball-detect-blade-with-roller-sub-microswitch-180-5119-02.html

I know ours are genuine cherry switches, DB5 bases, but not sure if there is anything unique about the actuator. We have our own number of it, so, I can't really tell you what is exactly the same. I suggest you open a ticket, via our the support section on our website, and our service department can provide assistance.

Thanks again for the great technical support. The Houdini is back up and running. Just downloading the new software and looking forward to spending some time on it.

Just had an interesting behavior.

I tried to double flip out of the start animation of vanishing elephant.

Ball was in the stage, it disappeared, then ejected from the scoop, then an immediate shot to the ramp, then magic target.

A super long shaker sequence happened before the ball left the stage and continued until the ball ejected. There was a long pause before the ball ejected.

The shaker stuck on high speed for 10 or more seconds then stopped.

Then It continued working properly during the mode.

The game worked properly from then on, including a subsequent vanishing elephant mode later in the same game.

It was pretty loud and scary, but everything seems perfect.

No other instances of this. It's the first time it has happened.

I think it was an occurance of trying to do several things at once and the shaker was stuck on until it was refreshed from another software call to it.