Understood. I was just stating my personal opinion and feelings and I am someone who is just an average, casual player and has never played a tournament in my life. I am exactly the type of player you described who is just looking to have fun (minus the not wanting to be challenged or improve skills). I just feel differently because I like the more challenging game and to be honest, playing R&M has made me (and my wife) a better player. I see it when I get on another game that I haven't played in a while, and I can regularly make shots that I might have struggled with before. Anyway, maybe I am in the minority of casual players, but I have a strong love for the difficulty of R&M and ACNC, which is up there in difficulty too.

#704 build sheet submitted. Sooooooo close to my sentimental 707 number. I have some Terry Folds to flap as I wait.

This was basically my suggestion the previous page using rotating dimensions. I hadn’t worked out how to incorporate an extra MB which I think is needed, but a final multiball does sound perfect.

I've gotten 2.7B on JPPro and over a billion on AIQ and Maiden, but my best R&M score is still in the mid 30M range. That said, I haven't yet done any of the tweaks suggested here... out of the box it's brutal. I want to get a lot of games in it in its shipped state before twiddling. Having a good number of scoop rejects and right orbit shots that just die, so tweaking should help my scores (I hope)

Greening all adventures for a perfect card (starting with none lit) is SDMEWM-level accomplishment IMHO. Cannot fuckup ANY mode, and some are pretty hard to finish with winning conditions.

It will and I can attest to that.

My highest score was never more than 25/26 million and most good games I was scoring maybe 10 to 15 mill average. (And many lower scoring... got my ass kicked games)

Once I tweaked the ramps, rails etc. I broke 50 million pretty quickly and have had many higher scoring games similarly. Sadly I haven’t progressed any higher than the 60 million mark yet but I also have not been playing as much as before. Lastly, I can make a shit load of ramp combos and garage shots! So you will notice a dramatic difference.

Soren has been upgrading code for various Bally Williams games in years past, and freely given out that updated code "fo free" as they say...He recently made a deal with Planatary to update any and all of their games with the caveat that the rom is purchased through Planetary...for a nominal cost (15.00) I think?...soren has done some great work...can't wait to see what he comes up with..
Here is a link to a thread discussing it https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/official-williams-and-bally-software-upgrades

Sssssoren and the sssssslippery sssssslope of dlssssseee.. but we ssshall not sssssssssspeak of ssssssssuch things anymore...

Just submitted my build sheet for #252! - Really excited here!
I have a couple questions for you seasoned owners though:

My basement ceiling height is 90" - with the max height of the machine with topper being 88.5", will i be able to get the topper in place? with such limited extra space?

Delivery of the unit - which company does this delivery? Will they take it down to a basement if requested for little extra $ once on site?

What are the dimensions of the shipping crate?

Thanks everyone!

Are there any instructions on how to remove the house? I would like to inspect my diverter. I thought this would have been a key post.

You have to remove both ramps, and then there are 2 screws holding it to the back board by the base of the house.

There is also a clear deflector over the house.

This is EXACTLY what people should do.

Play the game for a while, let it “play in” ... then decide if anything needs tweaking.

When I read “I got the game today and pulled it apart” I scratch my head. How’d you know if it needed tweaking? Leave the thing alone for 5 minutes ...

rd

Piece of cake, only a couple screws, quite straight forward

Is anyone else fighting with the portal eject? I feel like mine will be perfect after aligning it from underneath then after maybe 50 games it starts to be more errant (not a straight release up - causing a slight ricochet off the inside of the VUK resulting in a release that doesn't go straight down the inner lane.

Anyone have tips for creating the most consistent portal eject that is a clean release down the inner lane every time?

Should be okay with height. If not, you can change brackets and bring the height down a smidge more.

Delivery for me was STL, others had FedEx - I think it is whatever company services your area.

I took my machine down myself - we had to be really nice to the guy to get him to truck it into our garage. You might find it difficult to have the driver help you take into the home and down stairs, even if offered money... never hurts to ask though.

That's what I did, put about 300 or so games (maybe more) before making my first adjustments, then another 200 or so before I finally did the left garage shot.

I will say, some probably need it more than others due to the nature of the build process. I know that once I finally did all the orbit adjustments, I enjoy the game much more overall. It's hard, but not the 'wtf did that rattle and die' hard.

Yes... And have been since I unboxed it. Some portal ejects are perfect and then others will bounce around and sometimes bounce over to the left drain, or bounce out center field. No rhyme or reason to it. Nothing worse than hitting the garage to go to a new dimension and then have the portal eject immediately bounce over to the left drain.

Can't figure out what to do to make it better...

Set the ball save timer in settings for portal eject. Compensate for the hardware with software.

I’ve lost my R+M...
I can’t get it to accept the latest update. Have tried 15 different USB sticks, 3.0’s, and all formatted.
Even tried downloading the update via different browsers. The CMOS battery is fine.
The March updated worked first time. Spooky are at a loss.. any clues/help gratefully received!
I need my R+M fix.. (even if it is cruel to me!)
Thanks!

Try a usb 2.0 stick. Also did you try a full format as opposed to quick? Also are you sure it’s fat32 and not exfat

Contact Spooky directly. They answered my NIB issues and had me up in running within 20 minutes of launching an email. They have someone who can deep dive this with you or, worst case scenario, send you a new board. Good luck! [email protected]

The difference being the development stage is still ongoing, and a whole lot of good content is still available, but yep I do agree, at some stage you've gotta say enough is enough.

Personally I think the code absolutely needs a wizard mode, and something more than just another mode ie Love Potion. R&M is a special game, and truly deserves a special ending proportionate to the importance of it's place in pinball. Otherwise it's a little samey/a little linear.

Is this one of the first Standards? Or a delayed Blood Suckers?

This is BS version that I just bought the reservation spot for...

Ryan

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I’ve tried everything. USB 2.0 and 3.0, together with full formatting (fat32). 15 different sticks, 8GB to 120GB
Even replaced the CMOS on the mobo and reconfigured. As I said the March update worked first time.
Have been in touch with Spooky who aren’t really helping, just say they don’t know the reason.
I’m in the UK so loath to return the board if at all possible.
Regards

So...are you sure you have a full download of the update? Have you tried re-downloading the update? And you are formatting the drive (Fat32), and then copying over only the .pkg file to the drive? And you are plugging the usb directly into the motherboard and not into an extension cable or something?

Here's the MD5 for the April Release: a29f8cd8bca243f1445fec344be1f51f rm-gamecode-20210405.pkg

You can use that to verify if your download is correct. I'm not too familiar with how to check md5's in Windows (if you're using that), so if anybody has hot tips there, maybe chime in.

I don't expect this to be the main cause but I have had the call out drop out issue when I lower the volume during a game, between balls. I think when I go all the way down then back up 1 or 2. I get the music and no call outs. It has only happened twice. It continues to the next game. The only fix was to reboot.

Have downloaded 6 times (and used different browsers), formatted (not quick) fat32 (and exFat). All USB’s have been empty but for the .pkg file... and no, no extension cable used, directly into the motherboard.
It ‘wants’ to do the update, for a split second it shows but then straight to ‘update complete....’
and after removing the stick and a power recycle “Update required”..

Regards

If the updating screen goes away quicky, that would indicate that the update process didn't find the correct (or couldn't read) the update file, as it is the unpacking and copying of the files that takes a while. This could be a number of things.
- Bad download (verifiable with MD5)
- Bad filename (some operating system add extensions and don't show them to you in default configurations)
- Bad USB stick (again, verifiable with Md5 once the file is on the USB stick)

Slight issue that Spooky may or may not want to address....
I have R&M on route, so I applied Mylar to the shooter lane. The Mylar lifted slightly, causing the shooter lane switch to stick down. This completely disabled the machine from playing, all it would do is kick the shooter coil when start was pressed.
All 4 balls were in the trough, and trough switches work properly.

What about bad USB port? Steve, have you tried every USB port on the motherboard?

If it starts the update process, that means the USB was detected, so I wouldn't tend to suspect this; but anything is possible.

Thanks everyone for your help!

I really have done everything by the book. Tried multiple sticks, all formatted correctly, good downloads and every USB port tried.
I’m in a pickle, Rick....

Regards

I'm not sure if Windows has a dedicated MD5 command, but CertUtil does work.

CertUtil -hashfile rm-gamecode-20210405.pkg MD5

Should be good enough to validate the hash Eric posted above.

Thanks, will give it a try!

Regards

simple md5 checker:

http://useablesoftware.nrowley.co.uk/

newer one:

https://hashchecker.net/

Moon Man Mode is fantastic.

I kinda want a setting that will play through the songs that are in the game the way the Interdimesional Cable clips can be set to play in attract mode.

Some of us have had the exact same issue in the past due to Windows adding a number at the end of the filename due to there already being another (previous) update in your download folder. All of the updates have the same filename, so when you try and download it and you haven't removed the previous version from your download folder, windows will add a (1) at the end, or a (2) if you have a 1 already in there also. Just make sure that the file on your USB does not have any number in parenthesis at the end or the game will not find the file. I had this happen to me on ACNC.

You may have already checked this and it could be something else. But it has not been spelled out in reply to your initial post so figured I would detail it just in case.

This would be awesome!! And on a side note, BRING BACK EDDIE!! I had to re-upload my Armored Saint avatar as well after the great Pinside crash of 2021.

Where is the data extracted to? Could that device have kicked it, causing the process to immediately fail?

I had your exact problem. I had downloaded the update several times, and the computer would number them (1) (2) (3), etc. once I deleted the “(x)” from the end of the file name it updated correctly. Make sure there isn’t a “(x)” in the file name.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Have checked the MD5 and it is the same as Eric said it should be, and had removed anything other than 20210405.pkg

Regards

Interesting. I was able to install the file with all the name and date coding intact "rm-gamecode-20210405.pkg"

Yes. Make sure it has all the info (original file name) and nothing else.

Yep, fully agree. My inner loop would reject about 50% of the time from the spinner and roll back. Got some light tweaking tips from spooky but, got lazy. After a couple months I noticed it was happening less and less and now is amazingly smooth over multiple loops and only will roll back maybe 1/20+ loops. Sometimes you just gotta beat it into where it needs to go.

I'm curious and thinking out loud, if there's a Vindicators mode coming. We got Noob Noob ‍

The system only has one drive. If it's booting to the "update required" the OS is working; *BUT* it is possible that the SSD is not writing new data correctly - though VERY unlikely. Most importantly, if the SSD wasn't writing correctly it would still be TRYING to extract and copy which would take a while. The detail that it jumps to "done" very quickly is the telling bit; the system isn't reading the existence of the file.

Its working!!

I don't know if it was the checking of the MD5 that has scared it into making it work but I promise I have done
nothing different to what I have been doing countless times for the last 5 days!

Thanks again to Eric, Jherre6, sataneatscheese, LouMatt, metallik, MuttweFudder, pinballinreno, Calfdemon,
dnapac and Coyohtay for your help, time and trouble!

regards,
Steve

(I did have the full file name, I was just shortening it to show the end was correct)

AWESOME.
I know I went into panic mode when I tried a handful of times. Cleared my brain cache and did it straight through again and got it