Have had the shaker in a box for a couple months but got it in over the Holidays and it’s a nice addition for sure - as already said it’s great with the pop bumpers, elephant and other places while playing

Totally agree - it is REALLY well integrated into the game, and so is the knocker

It's a new color, I think they made it to match Houdini. Black magic.

Favourite game voted for .....

I really like the shaker in this game. it adds to the fun of locking a ball in the trunk. I had it set on high for a little while. that was maybe a bit too much.

I made Master Magician Mode tonight on the 5th ball, but the screen went black on me shortly after the multiball started.Not sure how many goals I completed, but pink and blue lights were still lit when I drained, indicating combo and movie goals were still pending. One of the coolest things is the MM mode starts when you sink the ball into the stage, trap-door style. This is the only time the newton ball is out of the way, and allows your ball to plummet into the depths of the machine in a single motion. Pretty fun.

I swear there was a manual stage calibration where you could set the curtain with the flippers in the service menu but I can't find it anymore. Also what exactly is front eject from stage? Will it shoot the ball out when you start a mode? Is it just for certain modes?

I dont recall a manual calibration. The stage eject is a feature on a few stage modes - milkcan and elephant, I think. What happens is the ball you put in the stage to start the mode will be ejected back to you when the newton ball rises and pushes your ball out of the stage saucer. Sometimes this fails and the stage will swallow the ball and eject it from the scoop. By setting this feature to ON, you get a little more variety of ball handling.

Yep, I haven't looked for that recently but it was / is there depending on code. The front stage eject doesn't really work as originally intended, at least on my game, but yes it was intended that in certain modes the captive ball would raise up and then lower partially thereby pushing the ball in play back out instead of dropping it into the subway.

Manual stage calibration is found in utilities in the test mode.

If you do not see it, you have a really old code version. UPDATE NOW.

Can we get "Clear Credits" added to the utility menu by "clear balls", etc? It's irritating to remember where it is when I need it on location.

NEVER MIND!! I was just informed by ROSH that the curtain adjustment has been removed from the public domain..

What!?! You mean there is now one less thing I can screw up on the machine?!?

Exactly. That was put in for some experimental things were doing, and was not intended for public consumption. I accidentally exposed it in the test releases. Using it can do more harm than good if done incorrectly.

We will work with kdecgp to correct any issues created as a result of him trying it out.

What are you scrooge, taking away credits?

I'll make a note of it. However, it is not a 30 second add

No, sometimes I accidentally add credits when going in and out of the menus. It's dead simple to clear them on Sterns and CGC, but a pain on Houdini because of the way it's done there.

Was having a spectacular game. He’d finished all illusions, collected stage bonus, spelled Houdini and was on my second round of bullet catch stacked with trunk multi-ball when the screen went black, the game froze and then reset. Once it rebooted, settings had changed and the lower catapult was now set 6 digits lower than before the game.

Anyone else have a reboot issue? I’m running the latest version of the software. Thanks

No one has reported a reboot in quite some time. Please pull the logs and send to me. Send me everything that gets put on the USB, not just the logs. [email protected]

Everything?! Make sure it’s not any of those “home movies”!

Ha. I'm so utterly boring I could download my entire iMac and he would curl up and die from boredom.

Gonna get this to ROSH tonight - curious to see what was up. Of course it had to happen on an epic ball!

Had all the escapes completed but died in a movie before I could see what happens. Do I have to spell escape again or just get in the magic shop one more time to begin the mode?

Correct.

Nothing like the pressure of having gotten them all done and trying to do what needs to be done to start the mini-wizard mode and get that payoff for all the had work. Same with film modes. Encore Bonus I the easy one, pretty sure I open up the shot a few seconds after the last stage mode ends, and don't require you to re-open it on your home -- yup, I am a real SOB as the easiest one to 'qualify', I don't make you do, but the hard ones I do.

Fiji watching the light show

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Oman loves Houdini! Wait, isn't there a separate thread for "Cats And pinballs"?

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there is ....just couldn't resist

During bullet catch I started seance.

I sent a ball to the catapult and the power was way off. The ball shot way right and bounced off the backboard high up.

It's like the catapult power limit was ignored and set to full power.

After the mode ended the catapult worked perfectly in all subsequent modes and games.

This is an interesting bug.

It might just be a random occurance.

I'll try to replicate it again.

I think its code related, my catapult has never missed since I put in the upgraded power supply and took if off the variac.

My catapult often misses during Seance but it is usually short and not by a small amount. I don't believe it's ever missed when not in seance since I added the updated P/S.

I had a few short shots after installing the new power supply during seance.

Upping the catapult power a notch or 2 and rotating the catapult mech slightly, has solved it.

Now a short shot barely clears the lip of the trunk, but it goes in cleanly.

A long shot bounces off the lid and into the trunk.

But it never misses, ever.

Having the game ignore the catapult power settings is new.

After installing the power upgrade, mine has never missed one time. It hits squarely in the center of the trunk every time.

I see the power upgrade is back in stock....but mine has never missed yet? I suppose I can wait.....?

Jail-door slams!

Wasn't there a setting for magnet strength? I can't find it. My magnets have suddenly gotten very aggressive on me. Weeeirrddd.......

Found it. Still set at mediim, but seem more energized somehow.

I put my magnets on high and am loving it.

My trunk shot worked well before the upgrade. Although when I was in a multiball things would bog down. I once had 4 balls in the scoop trying to get out and they just couldn't make it.. I thought OMG I'll have to open up and retrieve them, but as things settled down they finally made it out. I feel the upgrade has helped this problem.

When I put the new power supply in my trunk shot didn't work. At 26 power it hit the front of the trunk and some times made it in.At 27 it was wild over the top. So I adjusted the pot on the power supply to 49.1 volts and at the 26 coil power rating I hit every time.

This is a good idea and maybe what I need to do as well, though at least a few times when I've seen it miss during seance it misses short by 3-4 inches so I'm not sure but it's certainly worth a shot - thanks.

I didn't know there was an adjustment on the new power supply. This is good to know in case I start having issues like you describe (so far my trunk shot has been 100% reliable since the upgrade).

I wonder if Josh could implement half steps on the coil strength for the catapult so you wouldn't have to adjust the power supply like that.

That would be nice. I've found that some of the coil strength adjustments could use a bit more incremental fine-tuning (especially on the trunk catapult, up-kickers etc.)

For me, the scoop could use some finer-tuning coil adjustment. Instead, I've been trying to bend the metal hood up a bit to get the ball to the right flipper more consistently.

Try doing the opposite - bending it a bit down and *lowering* the coil strength a touch. That worked for me -

Ditto ^^.

Even w/the volume adjustment, one increment seems to be a huge step (I can get around that one with adjusting the volume knob)...but you're right. Seems like a 1 increment adjust on the settings is always a rather big step. I've only seen owners use 1,2, or 3 settings - we never make use of the full range of the settings.

Rosh - any reason for that in the code? And can you get rid of the extreme ends of the settings that we never go near and give us finer adjustment where we use it most?

If you have a 1KVA variac you'd like to sell please PM me.

I'm trying to regulate the CFM of some series-wound fan motors.

Thanks, no flames please.

For better sound adjustment, turn the sound down a little on the amp in the backbox.

It's a pain but works well.

It is indexed with smaller incremental changes in the middle then at the low and high end, but I'll take a look at adding half steps.

Unfortunately this is not an easy thing to do, since it would require changing how the coils are operated. I am looking at experimenting with this on one coil, and if it works, it is possible I will make this available on a handful of coils. Again, since it changes the behavior of how the coil operates there could be side effects that make this less desirable. One change we made on Oktoberfest was to move most of the coils to a lower power coil which gives a little more control over the coil power settings.

Downside to high is that it does slow game play a touch more, as the ball gets 'grabbed' more/longer, but can be a cooler effect. Under heavy game play (e.g. long and frequency seances) it will heat the magnets and playfield more, and hard to know if there are a long term implications to that. Not something I would worry about at home, but at a busy location, I would stay away from 'high'.

Thanks for the info Josh. This was definitely something that I hadn't considered. Yet again another example of why I purchased Houdini, the excellent and fast customer service.

I used to have cats who would ocassionally lay on machines, wasn't fond of the cat hair in them though lol, nor the one cat who thought it was cool to pee on on some my backboxes. Did a number on my IJ and TAFG a few years back. Fortunately my dogs can't up there nowadays lol..

Thanks sir! Kudos for excellent involvement!

I do that, but there's occasionally times I like to bump it up a notch...and it's just too much of a change. I have it set so I'm in the middle of the settings on the door volume adjustment.

My flipper return springs popped loose today again - this is the third time. Can somebody set me straight on how to bend those things so they won’t pop loose?