(Topic ID: 206552)

Attack From Mars Remake (AFMr) Technical Thread

By chrisnack

6 years ago

Topic Stats

545 posts
122 Pinsiders participating
Latest reply 5 months ago by DaveTheTrain
Topic is favorited by 112 Pinsiders

You

You are not signed in!

Find in topic

Linked Games

Attack From Mars (Remake - Classic) Chicago Gaming Co., 2017
Attack From Mars (Remake - LE) Chicago Gaming Co., 2017
Attack From Mars (Remake - Special) Chicago Gaming Co., 2017

Topic Gallery

View topic image gallery

9B6B9514-15ED-42EB-99F9-16394B36F955 (resized).jpeg

23849114-65F7-4806-9015-9EE912BD5A15 (resized).jpeg

85DB1F63-208B-4831-B60C-DD52F5143828 (resized).jpeg

E4C194BA-CC6A-439C-B07E-ECA77F10C560 (resized).jpeg

0D6FD4C8-2B46-492D-AAF5-F0FE65583833 (resized).jpeg

8D609965-D59B-48A7-B598-37A5E365C87A (resized).jpeg

856F8BF9-FD07-4923-AF1C-1B8FD3CA87C4 (resized).jpeg

EDBA0EDD-F8DC-4085-9FE3-5AA6CDFB6C15 (resized).jpeg

2F6A43C7-DC4D-424E-9E9E-2AC8C26C3F70 (resized).jpeg

98E02F99-BE2C-4AB6-8A9C-7E28C85247D6 (resized).jpeg

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider chrisnack.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

I'm personally tired of reading pages and pages of random discussion. I want to know about communications from CGC and other technical issues people are having and how they are being solved.

So that being said, this thread is for technical issues/solutions. No random discussions, no hey why isn't the LE topper sold separately etc.

CGC Support
-https://chicagogamingcompany.freshdesk.com/support/login

Latest software/firmware. Version is currently 1.0.0
-http://www.chicago-gaming.com/afm_update.php

Known issues:
Flipper strength - needs to be set to default (PIC 1.0) per CGC otherwise board issues
-CGC will be sending out a new PIC along with instructions and puller, in final stages of testing
-UPDATE: PICS are shipping to dealers and some dealers are shipping out already (1/31/2018)
-https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/cgc-pinball-production-update/page/28#post-4168541
-PIC 2.0 addresses the issues and has been reported to work for everyone (myself included)
Shooter plunger/path -
-PDF available here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/attack-from-mars-remake-afmr-owners-club/page/49#post-4158609

Topper wiring - some recent deliveries the wiring is very tight/short. I personally had to move the topper board to get everything plugged in correctly.
-Extra pin block, pin can be cut or block removed

Lock eject - takes multiple attempts to eject ball onto ramp
-CGC has video on how to bend the coil bracket

Topper - some are reporting topper isn't working 100%, believe this has been resolved by wiring or board replacement for most

Shooter issue:

OP
Quoted from CGC_DougS:
Hello Everyone!
This year blew by for me and I can’t believe we are knocking on the door of Christmas / New Year’s 2018. We accomplished many great things at CGC this year. Most notably, I believe we are assembling / shipping an amazing product and we are hitting the promised timelines that we have made. The past many few weeks have insane with all that we have been shipping, considering all the various products that we produce.
Update:
1. Overall our games are performing amazingly. However, there has been a small number of reported concerns, on very recently produced games, of the balls trajectory as is comes out of the shooter lane. This really came to light as people opened tickets and we were able to piece to together the problem. By Monday morning our engineering and production team were working on a fix. Let me be clear, there are no failures; rather, the ball on these games comes out of the shooter lane and does not properly travel to the gate or around the orbiter loop. As mention several times, we work very methodically here at CGC. It might take a few days before we release the correction. Regardless, it will be an easy correction and we will post it on our service portal.
2. In the week of Christmas, we are scheduled to switch over in building out a handful of overseas containers. Shortly after the first of the year, we will return to North American production. The remainder of the LE’s will be produced and then it will be all SE’s and CE’s to follow.
3. By February we will have completed nearly 1,500 AFMR games, and with then return back to another small run of MMR.
4. We are still working on the MMR display/speaker panel upgrade. It’s not as simple as one might think and in order to it correctly, it going to take some time. More on this to come in 2018.
5. We will unveil Pin #3 at the Texas Pinball Festival in March.
From your friends at CGC, we wish you all a great holiday season with your families.
Regards,
Doug Skor

Flipper issue:

OP
Quoted from CGC_DougS:
Dear CGC customers:
Let me begin by wishing you all a very happy, successful New Year.
AFMR ONLY:
As I mentioned to a customer on the phone today, when it comes to service, we don’t necessarily have all the answers. As we move forward, it takes a collection of service tickets before we can piece together a trend that then leads to a resolution. In all cases, we at CGC are committed to correcting these concerns. We discovered a software glitch in the PIC that controls our solenoid driver board. While you might try setting down the power on your flippers, the fact remains that these settings are currently having little to no change on the flippers. Our software team has already corrected the problem, and we are testing the new software with a few select customers. Before we do any massive distribution, we want to thoroughly test the update. This might take a few more weeks, and we ask that you be patient as we start to distribute the PIC’s. In the meantime, there will be NO need for you to enter a service ticket at this time in order to obtain the update. Please wait for further instructions. However, we are going to ask that all customers immediately return their software settings to DEFAULT. We have found that if you are using the lower range of settings that it is likely that you will blow one of the FET’s on the Solenoid Driver Board.
More to come.
Thank you!
Doug Skor

Quoted from whthrs166:
It would helpful to know how many people are having the flipper, shooter and topper issues. And if and what they did to fix them.
I have never had a topper issue or a coil adjustment issue. Mine machine is on -2 where it has been since day 1.

I’m on -6 without issues and probably a couple hundred plays. It definitely made a difference turning them down.

Other than the short wiring I didn’t have any issues with topper.

My shooter lane is good 98% of the time.

Sucks to see some of the issues but it still seems to be a small percentage overall.

If anyone has the post for the shooter lane please post/link here. I’ll look for it later if I can.

Current firmware/software is still 1.0.0 I believe as well. I’ll update the first post with that and a link to the software page. Really want to have a kind of master post with fixes listed. I’ve seen that on other forums for other things and it works well.

Has CGC released instructions for the shooter lane issues? Or are people just bending based on others are doing and what seems to be working?

Update first post with links to support and latest software.

Quoted from PDFVT:
Lloyd sent me a .PDF with a template for the bend angle after I opened a ticket yesterday. I looked to see if they had posted it but didn't see it anywhere on their site.

Roger. I heard they were putting something together, wasn't sure if it was going to be public or only if you sent in a ticket.

I just put in a ticket with my list of issues, the more they have report the better.

Quoted from Pmaino:
Can someone post the documents for the ball allignment and shooter lane fix?

I'm waiting back to hear if it's ok to post it on here. I have it.

Quoted from monte_:
My launch issue is almost 100% solved. I would say super skill shot goes around 99 out of 100 times. I bent ramp and centered plunger and tightened right screw all the way down and left the left screw a little high on the ramp which gives it more of a left to right tilt. If you are trying to fix, see my post from yesterday on this thread with pictures. Hoby1 also added double sided tape which I did not do. Also pushing on left popper under playfield solved the left popper issue of taking multiple times for ball to come out. Someone posted video of that yesterday.

Great to hear!

Quoted from whthrs166:
I am glad you brought this up. I have never played with the topper strength til now. I have discovered that my topper strength will NOT adjust at all. It appears that it is strong all the time on off light or strong. I even rebooted the game after changing the adjustment. Have any of you guys changed your topper settings? How did that work out for ya?

It doesn't make it quieter, all it does is change how often he moves basically. Whenever he moves it's the same regardless of the setting, all the setting does is change how sensitive he is to moving or how long he moves. Hope that makes sense. I run mine on light.

First post updated with links to fixes.

Looks like PIC updates are starting to hit the dealers, so hopefully that means we’ll have them soon.

UPDATE: I got shipping notice from GRG today on the replacement PIC.

Quoted from dashv:
I have also experienced the under powered flippers thing once or twice. I can't say for sure but it seems like it was because I was playing with the flippers during the power on boot and testing sequence before playing. Powering the machine off then back on seemed to make it go away. It would write it off as placebo effect but it was very obvious when it was happening. I was actually worried the flippers had gone bad or burned up.

A couple people have reported this, but i don't think we've seen anything specific around it. Could be the end of stroke switches coming in early. You can always open a support ticket with CGC (link in first post), they might have some suggestions on troubleshooting. You'll probably just hear from LTG first though

Anyone have any tips for removing stripped screw on the shooter lane ramp? Mine was stripped from the factory, I opened a ticket and CGC promptly sent me replacement screws and the directions for bending the ramp, but i'm not quite sure how to get the screw out. I don't want to drill it given how tiny it is.

Curious if anyone else had to remove one and how they did it?

Thanks!

Quoted from pintechev:
Yes. You need to get a really good screwdriver with a really hard metal end, put a lot of downward pressure on the screw to get it to turn a few times. Once it’s up a little bit, you can use pliers or other tools it get it the rest of the way out, but, most of the time, once it’s up a little they just come right out. I helped a buddy with his ramp and ran into this. The screw was not stripped from the factory, but it started to as I removed it.

Was able to finally get these out, was a PITA though.

I ended up having to bend the ramp significantly past the document CGC sent, i'm probably 95% good now on launches.

Quoted from pinballinreno:
Firmly press down on the lockdown bar over the yellow handle, while pulling the handle when you re-install it.
Its supposed to be tight.
Basically, if they got it on at the factory and adjusted it, you can too.
Sloppy loose lockdown bars affect game play.

This, it should be tight. Otherwise it rattles.

Promoted items from Pinside Marketplace and Pinside Shops!

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider chrisnack.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!

Help – Contact – About Pinside – Support Pinside – Top