Which screws? Will be getting ours soon and want to go through and do all the necessary fixes

I drilled my playfield and you should too. Bold statement I know.

It has been my experience with the stock game that the garage shot was almost unmakeable and tended to just bounce around in the curve instead of going into the garage unless hit flawlessly. I saw several guides on here on making alterations, and would suggest another slight nuance to the modifications others have suggested.

Like others, I removed the far left screw, loosened the wooden side rail, and tucked the tab underneath. This indeed made the shot easier. In addition to this, I left the center screw in place (some recommend removal) and pulled the right screw back a quarter inch or so, drilled a new hole, and re-attached the screw. With this in place I have found my Garage shot to be much more consistant and to work much better.

This aleteration is invisible from the players position, does not allow the rail to flex and scratch the playfield, and makes the game mroe enjoyable to me. Should I ever decide to sell the game and someone else does not like what I did, all the original screw holes are in place, and the new hole I made is hidden underneath the plastics. You cannot visually tell any change was made except when viewing from the head.

HOWEVER

The negative to this is that many balls that would have simply bounced around in that curve now make it ALMOST to the garage. If a ball maeks it almost to the garage, more often than not it drains down the shot, across the playfield, and into the right outlane. That magna save is critical if you miss the shop because there is no way to save it (without tilting) at my skill level.

Hope these photos help someone else and good luck!

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I’ve done similar but let the first screw hole consistent to factory and didn’t redrill. I like that because it makes more of a curved arc in the wire form which helps make the shot even smoother.

Best error message ever.

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About the ship plastic breaking, I think there was a post earlier about shortening a rod to put less stress on the plastic.
I don't have my machine yet so can't look to confirm.
Anyone here needed to do this, or just loosening the locknuts is enough ?

Can the screws be loosened without removing all the plastics? It would seem you'd need to hold the bottom part of the screw still so it doesn't just keep rotating.

I drilled a new hole for the first tab and kept the second screw out. I played with both setups (screwed down second tab a position similar to yours) and found that leaving the screw out is better for me. I think the flex and more curve there helps. Yes, it creates some scratching without the screw, but I found that was only initially. After playing a couple hundred games and removing the plastic, I didn’t see any noticeable wear.

In your position, I had the same problem with the ball almost getting to the garage, +5 upper flipper coil power might help it.

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Since you are already in there, why not add a couple thin poly washers under the screws you leave and eliminate the possibility of scratching?

Wouldn't lift the rail much at all and it would raise the unsecured tab off the PF.

Funny that I didn't know this.

I bought Odin's R&M. Guess that partially explains why I don't have any issues.

Well thats interesting. Thought he was going to die with that game.

I made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Thanks Eric for adding the option to allow the harder dimensions to rotate in from the start - much appreciated. Have already seen dimensions I hadn't seen before. Scary Terry is great too!

Search bar is your friend... Has been discussed a zillion times in the thread to date and sounds like you've got plenty of time to go through thread before yours arrives. There aren't a host of 'necessary fixes' btw. I had that anticipation before getting mine and have hardly had to adjust anything apart fact a connector came off in the cabinet in shipping that I had to reconnect to get everything working.

I am glad your machine is nearly perfect, feel blessed. Doesn't seem to be for a lot of people. Mine will be gone through to make sure the garage guides are right, the ball drop wireform isn't loose, flippers are adjusted right, glass not rattling, sub speaker not bottoming on cab, amp settings not right, etc. Not to mention things like noisy power supply fans, fading flippers during extended play and mods already here and waiting for the game to show

Trust me (or don't...), these things aren't nearly as issue plagued as you may expect by reading here. Our shipment was put through the rigors of sea freight that saw a few machines affected (to very degrees, most minor bar one) through incorrect container loading. I was totally prepared to be troubleshooting and correcting and soooo ready to jump up and down about anything that could be deemed a significant issue after being on the owners thread since day dot. But what I now realise is we are quite ways down the track not and Spooky aren't ignorant of the early qc issues, teething pains, and tweaks. I have a flipper kit on order as well. But again in a standard sessions now after a few weeks of ownership, real world, warm weather usage (even without any aircon), 20-30 mins of pretty constant usage doesn't automatically equate to flipper fade. I'm sure I can bring it on once I've had a bit longer session with friends around to play etc though. So again, as someone very hands on with 20 years+ in the hobby (and as many pins you can see I've gone through), current production examples are not filled with a list of much needed tweaks and fixes. My fellow 30 or so owners from the same container are probably a pretty good survey sample to go off. Probably the NZ owners group (especially by the lack of comments to that effect) are also going really well with theirs. In or group there was one really badly damaged machine and less than a handful that things like guide issues etc, some random broken parts in shipping, plus a couple of unfortunate user mishaps with power settings. I don't treat the sub level being totally wrong through poor amp set up and causing causing glass rattle (that can be adjusted in a matter of a minute or two) or the slightly noisy fan (like Stern's anyway) as big enough issues to fixate on when I got mine. I was looking for genuine major faults, of which there just wasn't anything that took any great attention or distracted from general game play.

R&M later builds (at least after #373) have a different inner loop configuration by default now. The middle screw is absent from the factory, as recommended by many others. This photo shows the unmolested configuration of my machine as seen stock from the factory delivered 12/4.

For those sticklers for stock machines you can remove that screw guilt free without "cheating". I have never had issues with my inner loop.

I did the other recommended adustments (Garage shot, diverter under house, and right u turn). All were fairly easy to excepting the garage shot.

After these changes the game is vastlly better than it was NIB/stock. It is flowier and those shots are much more makeable and shoot as intended. I got to Rick Potion #9 for the first time immediately after changes, and it's great! Contrast changes to screen make a world of difference too.

One other software change (that is cheating) I would recommend is to change the setting to allow true randomness in dimension settings, and to always alow the dimension change on the right orbit.

Your mileage may vary but all is good. Looking forward to dropping some purple titans and a few figures (Meeseks, megaseed trees, and noob noob) into my game this week. I love cheesey toys in games.

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Interesting. I have #175 and my inner loop shoots pretty well (and has the screw and original placement I believe). My issue is poor right flipper strength that makes the left ramp hard to make. The settings have been modified to add flipper strength, but it's still a little anemic.

Here's the thing about adjusting the rails and altering the mounting points and removing screws and whatever; what one person does or suggests may not work for others because there are many other factors such playfield angle and flipper angle. The entrance to both the garage and inner orbit is wide and takes a quick sharp turn. If the ball enters towards the left and parallel, it will most likely follow the guide around and up. But when the ball enters at any other point or angle, it deflects off the rail, and this is where the most minor adjustment can make a difference; depending on the shape of the rail, the ball will either deflect/bounce upward (and the shot is successful) or it will bounce across the lane and essentially rattle and fail. I feel like Spooky has done a pretty good job of setting a good default position for the rails.

Here's the other thing about the garage shot... it's meant to be a hard shot to make. There's a reason why you get a bigger payoff on the left than the right.

It's always a good idea to play any new game first before ripping it apart. Of course double check connectors are plugged in, give it a once over looking for obvious issues... but after that turn it on and have fun. If you want to tweak things after that, hey it's your game.

I've seen lots of threads on Pinside through the years where people will rip apart a game they haven't even played yet to install a bunch of mods, make adjustments, and then don't understand why the game doesn't work when they do turn it on for the first time. If you are new to pinball, don't be this person. This person would be a Jerry. Don't be a Jerry.

Agreed.
First trust the manufacturer, then verify.
Running a coil test is not a bad idea as well. IMO

It’s one thing to be hard, but I feel like many of my clean shots ricochet up and hit the post/rubber ring to the left of the left ramp, vs. hugging the guide & flying up into the garage as I expect. It often does fly up into the garage, and that feels great. I haven’t made any tweaks yet....wondering if I should try adjusting my flipper position or strength to see if that makes any meaningful difference. Here’s a pic to show how my upper flipper is aligned.

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Your flipper position looks a little off to me...too far forward, which would make the garage shot more difficult. Mine is parallel with the guide and base of the "Portal Ready" insert.

On my game, the left flipper was too far forward, which made the right garage shot more difficult. I dialed it in this weekend and the right orbit is now much smoother.

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Having had for a bit now I will add my 2 cents. From the ones sent to NZ.

Negatives -

Mainly waiting for the machine!!!
Arrived with purple legs, not black. (Will order more when I grab some parts for other machines). Call it the limited NZ run.
Turning back onto family mode for my 2 young daughters. (The look I got when it said a bad word...you had to be there)

To do-
Left the rails as is. Yes you need to nail the shot on the tiny sweet spot on the flippers, but that’s the challenge I want. I want to get frustrated, I want to grin when I nail it. I have added +4 on the bottom flippers and +2 to the upper flipper. Huge difference and happy with that.
I will build a box for the sub like TNA over the Xmas break. That will solve that.
Update to the latest code.

Gameplay, it’s a fantastic game. Plays at times faster and harder than IronMan. That I like. Half a dozen short sub 1million games then a couple higher scores.
Certainly improving on trapping the ball and aiming. That’s a good thing, and changed how I usually play a lot.

Team have built a classic. Well done to you all!

Yours does seem a tad high. Here's mine.

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upper flipper should be positioned so a ball rolling down the upper R orbit and over the flipper runs directly parallel to the flipper with rubber on.
no jump, no bump, no odd angle.

This may mean adjusting flipper position and that rail position (my original route one had a bump in the end of the rail which cause ball to hop off the flipper and stole some power due to that geometry)

#385 shipped!!! Should be fun to play over Christmas!
Might arrive in a couple days... so 1 year and 1 day of waiting!
Thanks for the Spooky crew for getting their weekly quotas up... I was thinking it would be in the new year after the covid shutdown.

Right on, +1 for another R&M in Canada

I have found that the sub rattle is the speaker hitting the cabinet, not anything having to do with a sub box. A simple offset ring fixes the issue.

Thanks for the upper flipper tips everybody. Ill tweak it before I try to do anything with the guide.

Btw I got that Gator dimension today - holy crap it just has bass going non-stop...my bass is lowered but this mode makes the whole cabinet buzz. Gonna have to turn my bass down more lol

Looks like you definitely need to move the rail above the flipper. There is a how-to in the key posts. You want the ball to roll smoothly from the rail onto the flipper

Also shooting the orbit, shots against the upper flipper will always bounce off to the post... ball guide needs to align more with flipper to stop that.

How do I do an error dump on a thumb drive?

1. Eat more than one combo from the taco bell dollar menu.
2. Drink lots of coffee.
3. Road trip!
4. Hold it way too long.
5. Just as the moment of truth arrives and it's too late, throw the thumb drive on the ground. If this happens while in line at WalMart at the customer service desk while waiting for a key to the bathroom, you will be labeled a purist.

Or, you could just check the topic index at the top of any page in this thread for a direct link to your answer.

This was a first for me!

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Wow! Never seen that.

I hit the scoop to complete Rick Potion #9 and instead of playing the completion scene, it flashed to the replay award screen briefly (screaming sun) and shot the ball back out the scoop almost immediately. It was like I flippered through all the animations, but I didn’t. Im not sure if it was a unique situation, but thought I’d report it cause it killed me to finish and miss the ending scene.

Expertly fondled.

The ball does roll smoothly to the flipper. No stutter or bounce. If I don’t flip, it rolls down to the lower right flipper.

When was your invoice issued?

I did check that, musta skipped over that

Dec 1.

#423 Build sheet received and returned Monday Nov 30th, invoiced right at the end if the day Dec 3rd, paid immediately. Shipped Monday Dec 14th, scheduled to land Thursday the 17th.

Check again. Did you click the link to expose all 50+ key posts? Your answer is definitely linked on that list.

I actually made a suggestion to Robin because of your post that he make categories for key posts: News, General, Tech and then if you're looking for a Tech answer you can click that on the list and it will filter out the keyposts to just the Tech ones to reduce the noise in busy threads.

Seems like butter cabinets are held up a bit? Still haven't been invoiced yet for one in the 380's with a build sheet submitted Nov 12th.

maybe, I did not get butter

me neither

Just figured out why my right flipper is weak. Since other folks have complained about trouble making the left ramp consistently, wanted to post what I found.

As you can see, my right flipper is sitting lower than my left flipper (which is causing some subtle binding).

Turns out, the base of my right flipper is blocked by the digital display, which is why it's not flush with the PF. This causes the flipper mech/bushing to sit too low, which is effecting the power/operation.

I'm waiting for Spooky folks to advise on the best solution. I don't feel comfortable moving the display and moving the flipper mech is a big deal.

Can't wait to get this nailed...the game is hard enough without a wonky right flipper That left ramp is steep enough...
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