Ben, this is just awesome. The Ball Save timer features for the right scoop and post-video mode will do a lot to help make the game more rewarding and easier to play. Excellent player-friendly additions!

Just for the record, I believe I fully understand what goatdan is saying, but this has never happened to me on my game (running v19). Thankfully.

Maybe Ben understands what you're saying above, but I'm genuinely confused (sorry) when you say "when I requalify it after hitting the shots, if I fail it . . ." If you "requalify after hitting the shots," that means you haven't failed the mode and you've got a multiball, right? Or if by "hitting the shots" you mean that you've relocked ball 1 and gotten ball 2, then I agree with the strategy that it should be harder the "second time around"--so to speak--just as it is with some of the other modes. Also, as to maximizing your chances of beating the Doctor Ghost, I suggest that once ball 1 is behind the door and with ball 2 in play, try calling the hellevator and starting that multiball if you can--then you can use that multiball to complete the Doctor Ghost. It takes a while to get good at combining the two but I think it's a great way to beat the Doc.

Anyway, just my thoughts in case they're helpful.

I've had the same thing, running v 19. After I get the first photo it always corrects itself (i.e., the second shot and beyond strobe properly), but I've had the first shot simply not be strobing several times.

Good to know that it's a known bug, Ben. Thanks. Luckily it affects gameplay minimally and seems to be self-correcting once you find the shot.

I'm now running version 20 and loving it. Thanks to Ben for answering my e-mail about whether I could do a firmware update with the pinheck board only at my desktop rather than at the machine. The answer was no--the pinheck board needs power. My PC desktop is far away from my pin, so I was avoiding lugging it to the basement, but once I did I had no trouble with the firmware update. The AV update was another story. I tried again and again but I kept getting an SFX error message when I put the updated SD card into the game. That's because I was not taking Ben's instructions literally enough. When he says "Copy the contents of the AMH_SD.zip file to your now-blank SD card," he really does mean "the contents of" (i.e., the DMD and SFX folders)--I had been copying the actual (parent) AMH_SD folder, despite the fact that Ben had even included a picture of what the resulting folder would look like. This is what you get when you write clear instructions for a dumb English major who has forgotten how to read. Thankfully, once I copied things correctly, all was well.

Before this, I had been considering going into the code to see if I could hyphenate "ghost locating" (in GLIR), but after this initially alarming experience I think maybe I'll just pretend the hyphen is there . . .

These two quotes from Ben's update page lead me to believe that yes it's okay to update from 18 to 20:

" . . . newly shipped games with version 16 or higher can be programmed automatically."

" . . . The app locates your game and checks to see if there’s a newer version of software online. . . . If there is, you’re asked to click OK to begin the update procedure."

Good luck! The ball save feature options in v 20 really make it worth it, IMHO.

Did a 4-player free play "dummy game" using V 20, and all 4 scores showed up, both in a cycle after the 5 high scores and upon tapping the right flipper.v20 4player.JPG

I'm very grateful for this SD card approach. I'm in the process of making an SD card with a "family" version of the audio by excluding some of the saucier callouts that might just confuse or prematurely educate some of the kiddies who play my machines occasionally. This way I can just switch in the "family SD" when the kids are playing. Of course, a family version of the Rob Zombie game won't be possible, starting with his oft-used middle name . . .

JeffF,

I thought I'd give you my opinion on this issue, now that I've put 350 games on my AMH. Out of a 10, I think I'd rate AMH at a 6 in relation to routeability. If code improvements are made so that ball searches start sooner and coils kick harder, I'd bump it up to a 7 or 8. The primary reason for my rating is ball sticks--the common one at the pop bumper I was able to fix with extra larger rubbers, but sticks are still possible on the hellevator ramp, behind the hellevator, in the hellevator/scoop trough, and on top of the plastics around the ghost and pop bumper area. I also agree that if the code could accommodate a missing ball and still start play it could improve routeability. I've had a ball disappear a few times, and found it up inside the apron. If stuck balls are visible then at least players might see them and be able to report the problem or play on with one less ball if Ben can accommodate via code, but if the stuck balls are invisible and the ball search takes a long time, then a player might just walk away from the machine and not realize the ball has been freed.

I should also note that an endless ball search isn't desirable either, in that a ball might be stuck in a place where it would never be found by an automatic search, and I sure wouldn't want an unattended machine to be left on while in an endless search.

The other reason I probably couldn't give a 9 to AMH is the ruleset itself. It's damn hard, and with modes such as the Doctor Ghost draining the ball on a second fail, I think casual players might be frustrated and confused enough not to keep coming back.

Finally, I should note for the record that on my routed machines, for example, I had as many or more ball sticks on NGG (so I'd have to rate it no higher than a 7 or 8 as well), while on World Challenge Soccer (Gottlieb, routed now for a year) I have never had a single ball stick, but it's not a popular enough title for me to give it above an 8.

I may eventually route AMH at a pizza shop right across the street from my house--where I could check on it regularly--but I'll wait to see what emerges with further code improvements and see how it operates after a few thousand HUO plays. Still loving the machine every day.

Thanks for this reminder. My wife is getting me a dremel for my birthday next month, so I plan to look into trimming the bracket.

The sticks I have in the trough itself are rare, and they're cleared with the ball search. I'd just like the ball search to start much faster. I haven't counted yet, but I feel like it takes 30 seconds or so to start. I may be wrong.