I was contacted for payment and while no definitive date was given yet it was in the queue and coming soon

How early did you put in a preorder?

Day 1, Hour 1. I also request not to be in first games off the line whenever possible as I don't like working out bugs on new games.

Got it - well I am a long way out then! Damn ! Lol

Or maybe they are on a boat underway to Europe so I can get mine !

Here's some playfield pics

IMG_20180203_132952 (resized).jpg

IMG_20180203_132957 (resized).jpg

IMG_20180203_132943 (resized).jpg

IMG_20180203_133004 (resized).jpg

Must have been someone's else car, I've been out of the office for a week for a personal matter.

Holding both flippers will give you progress on the different goals. Status as far as locked balls, extra balls, seance letters, film letters, etc are displayed on the main score screen on the lower portion. There is no way currently to 'speed' through those.

I can see how some might think that, but if you take that approach, and you include everything you want, the cost to make and therefore the sales prices goes up and at some point that impacts sales, so, you make those choices, and where possible you offer them as add-ons for those who really want them.

Seattle Pinball Museum has on on free play and people love it so far.

Went to VUK specifically today to play Houdini - the place also has a DI, Met, Gotg, TNA, CFTBL, Hobbit, Aerosmith, AFMr, Argosy(!), and at least one more I can’t remember. Stellar place.

I really enjoyed Houdini, the theme is SO well integrated. It really reminded me at times of “BioShock” with the heavy steampunk theme and the way some of the audio effects and “old-timey” film/Sfx worked. Really stellar. The animations work to this effect as well; they look roughly period, and I kept thinking of Terry Gilliam’s Animations from Flying Circus.

Anyway, the game! I played about 20 games on the machine, took me maybe an hour.
It is FUN. The catapult didn’t get old. The MODES! Are really fun and creative. The pops look very very cool, and the stage is amazing - the “magic” turning on when the magnets activate is really fun, and even though there is “just” one ramp there is a lot of variation in the game and Man is it smooth!!

There are several shots which are REALLY tight. Definitely this is something that an owner will want to adjust first. When you just perfectly nail the inner loop, it feels great - but it is super hard to hit. I mean SUPER hard. The shot has to be perfect. Very frustrating, but then again I did keep going back for more games... and also I think the shots would be easily adjustable in a home environment. There are targets that are just waaaay close to the inner orbit openings, and if they lean even the slightest bit into the opening, the ball isn’t going in.

So here’s the thing - I don’t think this is a major issue. I definitely got better at those shots. And it is clear that a lighter touch on the flippers is beneficial - I kind of thought that the coils should be dialed down a bit (sorry rosh!!), which would make the shots easier to roll smoothly in. The only shot that needs a lot of power is the ramp (man, the ramp draws a really cool visual path).

So yeah, I’m still in. It’s a great game. It is HARD. Oh man is it hard. And it’s frustrating. And it’s fun.

I heard from a friend who was at vuk today that both Houdini and TNA are floaty, like game is almost flat floaty. Perhaps that did not help issues regarding gameplay enjoyment and ability to make shots properly?

Anyways, thank you for the review! I like hard, means having it at home won’t be a snooze fest

TNA ... I played 4 games on; I think that is an outstanding modern game based on a traditional design. But I do not get it. It seems like a hodgepodge of ideas and it felt sort of ... incomplete.

Houdini isn’t levelled flat, but it definitely isn’t blinding fast - but I’m not sure it’s meant to be. If the ball is rocketing around the playfield, those shots I mentioned would be impossible. The game really rewards precision

Anyone know the official weight of this bad boy?

275 lbs Boxed

Yeah, I was hoping rosh could give us some insight. I'm guessing more or less 25 lbs from boxed weight.

oh yeah, picking up the game this week (2-3 days), it's waiting for me.

Games have been really slow to trickle out. Does anyone have an update. I heard there were some production problems but that batches of Houdini were going to start shipping soon.

Why not ask your distributor? He/she should be able to find out when you game goes on the line.

Mine hasn’t been able to give me any idea for an eta at all.

My distributor said the same thing. No idea.

I've played the Houdini at Pinball Gallery in Malvern PA 2 weeks in a row with no issues. Impressive effort for a first run build.

my review from another thread after first time.

Hey guys! My Houdini arrives in 1 hour!!! Woohoo!

I also wanted to give my first experiences with Houdini, as mine was suppose to arrive Friday but shipping was delayed. Basically I needed to play it, so I went all the way from Richmond to Bethesda MD, to play at VUK all weekend.

Houdini was easily most beautiful game there, including TNA. The backglass is just gorgeous. The volume was originally so low you couldn’t hear it but the employee at VUK turned it up so it was easily the most audible of any games there. The game has been on route for a little over a week, to my knowledge. I checked over the entire game, I didn’t see a single spot of wear. Not on the shooter lane or the theater.

The game was a lot of fun. The modes are all very unique. The animations are high quality, the music is good and the voice instructions is good for the new players, I am happy I can just double tap out of em after I learned the game.

The shots in this game are tight, it will be perfect for a home game. With that said, all shots ARE MAKEABLE when you find your shots and get dialed in on the game.

I didn’t end up getting the GC but I did get 2nd high score which I am pretty happy about. Photo will be below.

Okay! So I have told you the good. So @rosh, here comes the bad and the ugly.

Bad:
1. the game was extremely shallow and felt very floaty. ( I had this fixed by the techs on Sunday. ) much better now.

2. From factory the pops were not very sensitive at all. It was extremely difficult to get good action and have the ball hit horizontally into the theatre or just pop in general, perhaps you could call them?

3. The game seemed to suffer from an auto plunger issue. It would auto plunge instantaneously on the 2,3,4 players turn or when I would get an extra ball and it would pop out to start again. This issue was totally random and would not happen every game but enough that it does screw you over.

4. The game had an issue where when you locked a ball in the trunk (catapult made 100% of the shots I saw in 2 days of playing), it would then need to ball search for the ball to shot the lower catapult down the wireform. So that sucked when you were in a mode and hit that lock shot.

The ugly:
The game had random resets where it would get a blue screen or kill people’s balls. I have 2 experiences to discuss that relate to this. 1. My friend was blowing up the machine, he was in seance mb and a mode, then brought in trunk mb and when it started (all on ball 1) the game turned black, and then killed his ball. Not only did it kill his ball but it then completely skipped my turn, and went to bonus instantly and then started his next ball. 2. When a mode started it went to a blue screen and the game just froze.

Alright. Well now that all that is said, I hope this helps @rosh.

Guys, this game is freaking fantastic. I am sure it will be in my collection longer than Dialed in. Btw, the comedy in the game and Easter eggs are fantastic!

rosh can I get a test code version from you? I’d love to help in any other way I can regarding bugs, issues or code testing in a home setting.

I’ll post some more tomorrow! Pinstadium kit is going in as well tonight. Game is beautifully lit but I haven’t seen a game that doesn’t look even better after I’ve added one.

D00BBCE6-4B2C-493A-9DAF-D8D106EC9E82 (resized).jpeg

644D2FB4-645C-45A0-97A8-910D45CDBA45 (resized).jpeg

Had mine for 3 weeks ... None of these issues. Took time to set things for my liking , however nothing like mentioned above!

On the same game, we had a stuck ball on top of the plastic under the Ouija pointer. The cutout for the wires made a nice cradle for the ball. No way shaking would get it off. We had to lift the right side of the game to dislodge it. The pic below is from a post in this thread and not of the VUK game. I circled the ball's resting place. That hole seems really big.

stuck (resized).PNG

Good lord! I played this SAME machine a few days earlier, and none of these issues. However, I never played with anybody else - that may be part of the issue. Blue screen! Never saw it in 90 minutes of relatively continuous play between me and another guy who was wailing on the machine.

No offense, but I played for like 2 straight days. Lol. the reset only happened 2 times. The auto plunge, about 10 or more.

Got my game!!!!! Works 100 percent out of the box. Had to adjust the trunk shot down one. Having the game in my house, it is gorgeous. Played about 10 games and wow it plays so so much better then the one at VUK. My legs are quite a bit higher and the action from the pops is WORLDS better. Anyways, here are some photos. The packaging was awesome. The cabinet looks really good. That textured powder coating is really nice. The color is fantastic. The backglass is simply awesome. Best in Pinball.

The game does need some adjustments. they aren’t really issues just an adjustment needed. Perhaps you guys can help or @rosh. 1.When I plunge the ball, the ball rubs against the rubber posts on the way out of the shooter lane. I had it happen on my tspp but this game is also doing it. Not sure how to fix it, but it does screw up the plunge from time to time.
2. The seance scoop, shoots the ball out kinda squirrelly. It always comes out but sometimes it’s not exactly friendly, sometimes it hits the top of the sling, other times to try’s to go down the middle.

Okay, I’m going to go back to playing. Adios!!!!

Here are some photos. One is Houdini with no lights on in the house with normal game lighting, the other is with pinstadium on. Still gotta mess with the settings to get the color dialed in the way I like it. Right now it’s set to rust brown to match the rust tones in the playfield. Enjoy!

F1E72670-43E2-4FCD-8702-4E790BE346D5.jpeg

23480E68-6CDF-4BAF-ACC1-E126B6A62B93.jpeg

F826363C-295F-4AB9-A659-ED8A835A8855.jpeg

709846AE-EAD9-4F5F-8437-C0C848D74D9C.jpeg

10E9CD37-DD30-41EB-8B22-897596E460B8.jpeg

7BFCE214-866F-42EB-B506-B33C2E9FC5DC.jpeg

EDB10110-DAFE-47CD-8F1B-9A16A6BCF48A.jpeg

BED9B8FF-675C-4303-9C14-E6824082B9F7.jpeg

Thanks for the write up. I’m going to save one of the pin stadium lights I just got for Houdini.

Looks great and Congrats! Seems like Canada was the first area willing to take the plunge as the direction most are headed. Very cool can't wait to get mine. Looks like you have your priorities straight as the first mod you installed was a beverage holder. lol

Really exciting that these are starting to make their way into people’s homes.

Update: after playing another round of games. Maybe 15. The issues I seem to have are 1. The plunger not shooting the ball out well, hitting rubber and coming out wierd. 2. Seance scoops reliability is random. I sometimes get a straight shot, normal speed. Sometimes it shoots out and hits the top of sling, other times it barely rolls out and trickles down the pf.

In the code, when you are at the catch a bullet mode, and double tap out of the instructions, it gives you the ball back but the lights are all still off completely for like 5 seconds. I had one “autoplunge” on a game when I was playing both players 1, and 2. When it went to player 2 after I drained, it immediately plunged the ball. This was happening at VUK arcade as well.

Anyways, I’m going to bed, got work at 8am. Cheers!

I can’t get over the backglass it’s phenomenal!

CBAD6258-54B4-4072-ADCD-B885C3283431 (resized).jpeg

2DA089FA-8582-4331-BFBD-0E78ECF3357B (resized).jpeg

1974C282-4D48-486E-8F3B-B2669BCE301D (resized).jpeg

00812510-F491-4915-AA1B-B4B9B525E881 (resized).jpeg

Looks amazing man!! Yeah there are still bugs here and there I’m seeing too, but damn it’s a fantastic machine. My scoop is irregular too. I tried boosting the power a bit but it got worse. I have mine set to trickle out gives me the bet consistency. Enjoy man enjoy

My first thought was to increase power. So I did by 1. It definitely made it worse. I just hope I can have someone figure out the ball plunger issue. The plunger is not centered on the ball. But I don’t think it will have enough wiggle room if I loosen to housing to make up that much of a difference. I hope I am wrong.

Vp when did you get in with your deposit? Looking forward to getting one in our house ...

Honestly, I don’t even rememeber. I had so many issues with Alien and heighway it’s kinda all a blur. It’s been a long while. I hope you get yours soon! Now I just need TBL to start shipping lol.

I have had a couple of reports of this, but haven't been able to replicate it, so while I have a change that might prevent it, I have not been able to confirm it resolves this. If it happens again, note the date/time (make sure you clock is correct on the machine) and send me the logs (insert empty USB key into USB extension cable in coin door and logs will be copied on to it).

Sounds like the upper catapult switch is out of adjustment, typically it will go to the upper catapult when a movie mode is lit (or if it got to the catapult by 'mistake'), so did the movie mode start? (do you know if it was lit?).

Have never heard or seen anything even remotely like this. So, were these two things consecutive, meaning the mode started on his next ball, after this odd blackness, is when it froze? When you say go black -- do you mean the display went black or all the lights on the game went off? Are you sure it skipped your turn vs being his end of bonus and start of an extra ball? Do you know the approximate date/time this occurred?

Just checked this and does not do it for me, so wonder what else was going on.

Sounds like the snubber needs to be adjusted, hard to know which way from this description, I would try opening it up a bit. Next code release does have an optional ball save off the scoop for the occasional down the middle. Is it falling back into the scoop at all?

The rubber posts for the pass through back to the shooter lane? Not sure how that is happening, it should be hugging the right side at that point in the shooter lane. Is this on a manual plunge or an auto fire? What position are the posts at?

In the scoop?

The latest code, which has a ton of changes, will be made available shortly.

Okay, let me see if I can run through this a little bit more to help respond to your questions.

"I have had a couple of reports of this, but haven't been able to replicate it, so while I have a change that might prevent it, I have not been able to confirm it resolves this. If it happens again, note the date/time (make sure you clock is correct on the machine) and send me the logs (insert empty USB key into USB extension cable in coin door and logs will be copied on to it). "

---- I will definitely attempt to do this whenever I get an autoplunge. It appears to be when more than 1 player is playing, however its not always, its pretty random. It has now happened on the VUK Houdini, and once last night on my home Houdini.

"Sounds like the upper catapult switch is out of adjustment, typically it will go to the upper catapult when a movie mode is lit (or if it got to the catapult by 'mistake'), so did the movie mode start? (do you know if it was lit?)."

I thought it may be the upper catapult switch as well. The ball would just sit in the catapult and not shoot. This was on the VUK Houdini, not my home game. May wish to call the owner to discuss.

"Have never heard or seen anything even remotely like this. So, were these two things consecutive, meaning the mode started on his next ball, after this odd blackness, is when it froze? When you say go black -- do you mean the display went black or all the lights on the game went off? Are you sure it skipped your turn vs being his end of bonus and start of an extra ball? Do you know the approximate date/time this occurred?"

This was only on the VUK Houdini, not my home game. The issue was so widely known that it was not allowed in the league or tournament this past Saturday. I may not be the best individual to speak to about it, I was just trying to report it so you would be aware. The one time it happened to me and my friend, all the gi and lights went dark in the middle of his MB. It killed the flippers and then ended his turn. It then went to my ball, and immediately ended the turn, showed my bonus, then it went to his turn and popped a ball into the shooter lane and let him continue the game as normal. The issue I just described happened on Feb 17th between 3 and 8. Sorry I cannot provide a smaller time frame. The issue with other resets like the blue screen apparently have been happening before the 17th and 18th as I was not present. However, I will mention that on Feb 18th during league, so after 430 pm. The game did have a reset in the middle of a league game which is why it was taken off the game list.

"Just checked this and does not do it for me, so wonder what else was going on."

This was on the VUK Houdini game. I will test mine at home to see if it also happens at mine.

Sounds like the snubber needs to be adjusted, hard to know which way from this description, I would try opening it up a bit. Next code release does have an optional ball save off the scoop for the occasional down the middle. Is it falling back into the scoop at all?

I adjusted the power up 1 attempting to fix this, however it made the issue worse. I will check the "snubber" although I am not sure what you mean. The ball will fall back into the hole very seldomly, usually the first is pretty strong. Like I said its very inconsistent and all over the place. Sometimes its very fast and strong, sometimes it barely kicks out the hole (although less frequently) and sometimes it shoots out normal but hits the top of slingshot, sometimes it pops out strangely and attempts to go down the middle.

"The rubber posts for the pass through back to the shooter lane? Not sure how that is happening, it should be hugging the right side at that point in the shooter lane. Is this on a manual plunge or an auto fire? What position are the posts at? "

When I manually plunge the ball. The shooter rod doesn't line up in the center of the ball. So when I plunge it, it doesn't go straight out the shooter lane. The ball ends up rubbing the right side of the rubber posts that are on the left side of the shooter lane as the ball exits the shooter lane. This causes extreme slow down, change in direction, or....it simply barely makes it out the shooter lane and falls down the middle due to the friction of hitting the rubber posts. Is there a way to move the plunger or something so that it correctly lines up with the middle of the ball? I am not a pinball tech, so I am not sure of how this would be done. I can post a photo of how the plunger is aligned to the left side of the ball.

In the scoop?
No, in the shooter lane, for the plunger. (However, due to the other issue of the scoop eject being inconsistent I suppose this could also be true for the scoop, however, I have not attempted to investigate that yet as I just got the game last night.)

"The latest code, which has a ton of changes, will be made available shortly."

Great.

Mine is finally here!! Thank you Nitro Pinball!!!

Houd (resized).jpg

Exchanged some emails with them today.

there is adjustability on the shooter housing, but can you take a photo of it and email it to me, I would like to see it before you adjust it ([email protected])

When I say snubber, I am referring to the scoop.

Unfortunately that is too big window, logs files have hundreds of thousands of lines (and also don't think they have the clock set right on the machine at VUK right now, based on the logs I am looking at). I do see two system crashes over the last week in the logs. One is an issue that was first reported a week ago having to do with secret missions in a multiplayer game, and has been in the code forever, the other is also a bug that has been around forever, but was never seen until now. We are currently testing a fix for it.

Just asking from an IT tech stand point does hard power offs (common with arcade games) show in the logs vs an crash and auto reboot?

A hard power off will not 'show' in the logs, but the crashes normally throw something that gives me a good sense of what happened. When I look at logs I first go to the bottom to see how it ended. Most of the time I will see that the game was in attract mode, which tells me there was not crash of the system and it was powered down. Occasionally it will be in the middle of play, but that is less common. Obviously when I am looking at logs it is not just for crashes but to look for other aspects of the what the machine is doing.

Is there a way to turn the ball times back on during the score summary at the end of a game? I liked that feature but it didn’t come “on” with my game. I’m sure it’s in the settings and I likely just missed it, but I figured I’d ask. Also, will there be a setting for extending the ball save time in seance or trunk multiball. For my home setting I would like my family to be able to enjoy trunk multiball a bit more if it’s just us, or to be able to cut it down for league night.

Yes, in settings, go to service mode, then settings, then 'Features'. You have to scroll way down to get to it. Hmm, looks like this should default to "ON", but maybe I changed that recently from "OFF", not sure.

I can look at a future enhancement to control ball save time on the multiballs.

Decals now available. @rosh, send me your address I'll send you a copy.
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1054-flashinstinct/01503-houdini-target-amp-metal-guide-decal-set

sample (resized).png

I was a little worried about the game as people kept posting how tight the shots are.I had never played Houdini and bought it blind.
Well I received my game yesterday and got to play it finally.I consider myself an average player and am so glad that although the shots may be a little tight......they are very doable.Now I just have to adjust the trunk shot a bit to make it more of a success

Thanks American Pinball for a great first game! The quality is amazing,game play is very satisfying and the game looks absolutely amazing.

Rick

P.S. Thanks to Tommy at Nitro Pinball for the great service!!

I'm worried that with the distance the ball travels, if it doesn't make it, some things are going to be breaking. Even if it makes it, I assume the inside of the truck is made to take the forceful hits its getting?

Out of the box, mine was just barely low, and by low, I mean it hit the box right at the line where it opened. Moved it up 1 and now it hits it every time.

The inside of the box is all metal. No worries.

I thought about that last night as well.I have not really had time to check out the trunk yet,but I am sure it is made to take a hit,

I am guessing you are talking the coil strength?...mine started of at 26 I have moved it up to 27....still a few misses

I thought the software auto-adjusted, like Ghost Flips on MB. It doesn't?

This is a simple adjustment in the software coil settings. No game knows the installation setup or leveling and every setup is different hence the reason some don't have a great experience at location test sites. They install and sometimes skip the dialing in part. The catapult power is different on a 5 degree level playfield setup over a 7 degree fast play setup. Set correctly this thing is as accurate as Michael Jordan!