Following. Have an SE on order for our local Pinball Room.

Just paid my invoice from PinballStar. Looks like it shouldn't be long now!

Well, it's a location game, so that's why it's one of the early ones. It'll be available to play 7-days-a-week at The Pinball Room in Bosses Pizza in Sioux Falls.

I guess the solution would just be to buy what's in stock, or at least about to ship.

While I understand and appreciate the intent of having the FAQ...it takes up just as much thread-space to say "Check the FAQ" as it does to actually answer the question.

So I'm not sure if it's really de-cluttering the thread or not. My suggestion would be to point any question-askers to the FAQ, while also still answering their questions.

Cactus Canyon #1446 is setup and ready for play at The Pinball Room in Sioux Falls!

No issues out of the box, working well and hella fun. I've only ever played the digital version of this game, so it's neat to finally play the real thing. The Bart sculpt and paintjob is really nice. It's so nice, I almost feel bad smashing a ball into it!

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Only number I saw on the box or game was the serial #. All of them said 1446 on mine. No extra zeros or anything, but sometimes it was listed with a CC on front. The mfg date on the back of mine was Mar 31st.

I found a serial # on the box, on the back of the game with the mfg date, and also on the back of the bill-acceptor cutout plate. Never seen one located there before, noticed it when I installed the DBA today. If there were any numbers anywhere else, I didn't notice them.

Here's the cutout plate. Game isn't with me, so can't get any other pics.

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Got the train tracks and art blades installed today. I'm very happy with both of them.

I did go ahead and paint up the tracks before installing them. Luckily, I do boardgaming and miniature wargaming on the side, so I'm pretty comfortable with a paint brush at this scale.

I have to agree with others, these art blades from Brian Allen are very high quality. They reposition pretty easily, and are made from nice material. I found them a fair bit easier to install than some other blades I've bought.

Also, I haven't seen it mentioned, but the Brian Allen art blades really brighten up the game. The blue sky and bright colors lighten the game up considerably compared to the black side-panels that come stock.

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I did a dark brown for the ties, and gunmetal metallic gray for the tracks. All the wooden railroad ties that I've seen in real life, or found pictures of online, were a dark brown. So that's why I went with that color.

I spray-primed gray prior to painting, and then sealed with a matte varnish when I was done. I would have probably primed in black, but I was out of black spray primer. So I just did gray instead.

That sucks!

Looks potentially fixable with some wood glue. There aren't actually many components in yhe backbox of CGC games, most stuff is under the pf. My worry would be if the game suffered a big drop or something to cause that damage.

I just put em on dry. Positioned them initially, and lightly tapped on the top just enough so they'd hold. Then I stood back and checked the positioning, before pulling them up and adjusting a few times until they were exactly where I wanted them. Then pressed down and smoothed out with a cloth.

Turned out great, and didn't take long at all to do. I've had some side blades that were super sticky and thin, and they did not pull up very easily for adjustment.

Haven't figured out what to do with it yet! Still deciding.

I thought one of the companies did. Maybe Spooky?

Yeah, I didn't want to say it, but I agree. For one thing, they look way oversized.

Moving a heavy game on a big pallet it pretty tough, unless you have a pallet-jack. And even then, going over grass would be next to impossible. Whenever I get a NIB game, I always just unbox on my driveway, or in my garage, and then move just the cabinet portion on a 2-wheel dolly, or appliance cart. As long as the grass isn't wet or muddy, then moving just the pin with a dolly pretty doable. No reason you would need to keep the game on the pallet.

So, I'm also having issues with my bad-guy drop targets. Game has about 250 plays, and recently the leftmost drop doesn't always want to stay up. Loosening up the return-spring tension, has fixed the issue, but I'm worried it might only be a temporary fix. I've got a ticket in, and I'll let you guys know what happens. I know at least one other owner has posted about this problem, so maybe this is a teething issue that CGC will work out moving forward.

I suspect at least part of the issue is that the pf cutouts for the drops are much smaller on the Remake than on the original. The hole is basically only just big enough to allow the drop target to push through, and so that doesn't allow the drop target to move very much at all. Since on the remake the target has almost no front-to-back movement, or "give" so to speak, that might require CGC to set the drops up with much tighter tolerances than on the original. Making for more finicky adjustments to get it operating smoothly.

This is only speculation of course. But Butch made a point of mentioning how CGC had redesigned the drop targets, and how much smaller the drop openings were. So perhaps a point-of-failure was introduced.

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Also, on another note, our locals are playing the crap out of my Cactus Canyon. Over 200 plays in less than a week. I'm sure the shine will wear off, but this has been one of my best earning games to date.

Honestly, the factory shooter rod is pretty nice. It's not your typical plunger, and instead has a nice hefty ball on the end, that feels pretty nice to plunge. I personally wouldn't change it. It's much nice than the standard Stern or JJP shooter rod.

Yeah, me too. Particularly since a couple of my drops have been slightly troublesome!

So quick recap and update to my Drop Target issue:

When my left "Bad Guy" drops started not reliably staying upright, I loosened the return-spring tension on both of them. This solved the issue, but left me with stretched-out return springs. This solution held for about 75 or so plays, until I could get back to the location with some replacement springs.

Today, I replaced the stretched-out springs with a couple of leftover flipper-return springs from an old rebuild kit. These springs are quite a bit "stretchier" than the ones that are factory installed by CGC. With these replacement springs, the left drops are now both working even better than before.

So I would definitely echo the FAQ, and say that if you have any drops not staying up when they should, go ahead and replace the springs with weaker / stretchier ones. In the case of my game, the two left drops needed replacement springs, while the two right drops have been fine with the factory springs. And what's strange is that all 4 drop-targets appear to be mounted identically in their openings. There's no discernable difference between any of them.

All 4 drops look like this from above. Including the ones that haven't had any issues.

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I'll also add, the springs are really easy to replace compared to a lot of drop targets that I've seen. They slide on and off easily on from both attachment points, and they are not hard to reach.

LOL! Maybe! That would tricky of them!

For what it's worth, my game arrived FedEx Freight, and without damage.

So it sounds like it's a crapshoot. My distro told me that they have had a lot of shipping issues across the board from all the carriers.

Also, I'll note that FedEx was great with communication and they were flexible with the drop-off time. So at least in my case, I was happy with them.

That's a crazy one.

CCr comes with a black rubber in that spot from the factory. So that's covered all ready.

Hmm, I wonder if it depends on pitch and dot placement? I've only had it get stuck next to Bart a few times. Not nearly every game or anything. But as you said, at least ball search clears it.

Hmm, must be some variance from game to game. I've personally played about 50 games on mine so far, and never had one stuck there. Just 2 or 3 times on the left (from the player's perspective), and basically only from a wild ball. Got about 500 plays on the game total, and haven't heard reports from players of consistent stuck balls either. Luckily, Bart wobbles on a ball search, and always frees the ball on mine. But if it was happening every game, that would still be mighty annoying.

My game is angled at about 6.7/6.8 degrees. As measured with a proper inclinometer. Feels pretty good when I play. Haven't tried a steeper angle.

Yes, it does. As pretty much all games do since the 90s.

For what it's worth, I think the factory lighting is pretty good on Cactus Canyon Remake. Our local arcade is very dark, and I don't have any trouble seeing the ball during normal play. Only times I have any difficulty spotting the ball are for very brief moments when the lighting color-shifts for a mode or special event, such as Shootout. Otherwise, the lighting is pretty good. Much better than JJP games like Wonka.

Yeah, I listened to it today. I never really played the original Cactus Canyon and so I didn't realize how much CGC all ready enhanced the code. Seems like the current CGC enhanced code and the upcoming Lyman/Sharpe code might overlap a bit. At least in theory, if not actual execution.

There is a special Drop Target test in the service menu. I would start there. The test will go through each drop, raising and lowering them all, and it will show if all the position switches are working.

Did you try loosening the return spring, or better yet replacing it entirely, per the faq? If you have a spare spring on-hand, then it's a 5 min fix. Changing the spring is very easy, and reversible.

Also, if you do try to stretch the spring that is all ready there, be careful, the factory spring deforms VERY easily.

Either way, that solved my drop target issue, and the issues of other owners as well. So it's worth trying if you haven't all ready.

CGC has been made aware of this problem, and the potential fix, for at least 3 weeks now. Possibly longer. So hopefully, they'll make an adjustment at the factory level soon.

Whenever any NIB pinball has ever been delivered to me, the driver or their dispatcher called me at least 24 hrs beforehand.

They won't normally show up without confirming, since it's high value and they need a signature. There are exceptions and horror stories of course, but typically you will get a call. And they'll often work with you, at least to a point, on delivery date and time. At least in my experience.

The driver will usually be happy to call you 30 mons prior as well. If you won't be around the whole day. The drivers don't want to waste any more of their time on load/off-load then they have to. And no one being home is a big waste of their time.

Yeah, my drops don't always go down on a fast, hard shot. But they always drop fine on softer hits, or on angled shots. This seems to be a common problem with drop targets across eras and companies. Drops that are close to the flipper, and/or that are hit dead square-on, can bounce back and re-latch before being pulled down past the shelf. I've had this happen with the Scoleri Bros. targets on Ghostbusters, and with the upper-pf drops on the original 1980 Black Knight.

Only way I know to help, is to put on a stronger spring, but then you run into problems with the target latching properly. At least with CCr anyway. So sorta damned if you do, damned if you don't

I usually don't mind this problem too much, because it makes the games harder, and forces you to try and angle your shot to the side of the target, instead of dead center.

Well, a bit of rust would be in keeping with the theme!

You say the industry is greater than Pinside, and that's true, but we are the largest single grouping. Based off available data, Pinside members represent at least 25 percent of the buyers/owners. Take Godzilla LE, over 400 pinsiders have it listed in their collections, out of 1000 total produced.

Now if we assume LE buyers are somewhat more likely to be on Pinside than other buyers, then 25 percent of all buyers being on Pinside seems perfectly reasonable.

So Pinside is a large portion of the Pinball audience for sure.

Yeah, I wondered about this too. There's all ready a marksman mode in the current CGC code. Where if you hit the main shot, you blow up the Cactus, but if you hit a left or right lit-shot, then you just blow off some of the side branches/stalks. So I'm not sure how the Lyman version will be different, as what Butch talks about sounds an awful lot like what's all ready in the game.

But not many left that wouldn't require expensive licensing, or whose original versions are expensive enough on the secondary market to warrant a rerun.

My Cactus Canyon SE is for sale, in case anyone was looking for one. Loaded up with all the best mods and alternate Brian Allen backglass. Was planning on keeping it longer, as I'm still enjoying it a lot, but needs must.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds/ad/136846

Agree, I hate wax on modern games myself.

PM sent.

Finally!

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Took me 3 Gold Mine MBs to get a Motherload Jackpot. Had to really grind to start it a 3rd time. I was so relieved when I finally got one.

Felt good to qualify High Noon and actually hit the mine scoop to start it. I drained after lighting it and thought I was game over, but it was only Ball 2! I was fortunate enough to hit the mine straight from the Ball 3 plunge. Whew!

Uh, I've never specifically kept track. But on mine the ball usually always hits the pops at least a couple times before dropping down the orbit. Not sure if it's everytime or not, but definitely most times.

My Cactus is a Mar 31st build and I've never had any ball hangups. So I don't think it's a date thing.

Not sure why some people are having so many stuck balls. I guess small vagaries in the assembly process maybe?

Don't forget that the current CGC code has also been updated with Bionic Bart, the Polly Falls and Bank modes, and some other quality of life code improvements.

Those code improvements alone would be worth having the remake versus the original. Let alone the other remake upgrades.

Oh no, let's please not go to the carguments. Not the same thing at all.

So, I think I might have encountered a code bug.

Was playing today, and had Gold Mine MB going during Bionic Bart. I cleared all the MB jackpots, and the mine scoop lit up and did it's up and down thing to signal that Motherload was ready to be collected.

I happened to make the last shot to defeat Bionic Bart right about the same time that I made the motherload shot. Instead of awarding me motherload, it just counted as a regular jackpot. And it didn't light the Motherload star point.

Was a bummer because it still reset the jackpots, and I had to try to recollect them to qualify motherload again. And I ended up being just a motherload short of High Noon that game.

Super weird. But maybe it was a timing thing where defeating Bionic Bart overroad the Motherload?

I have an early build game, and I can confirm that I have some decal damage due to the legs.

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Luckily, it only seems to be on the front-left leg. The decals are damage-free on the other 3 corners. So maybe I only got one "bad" leg in the bunch? I have a late-March build. Maybe more and more legs were defective as time went on?

One thing to note, my game is currently up to 1500 plays. So it's possible that more owners have defective legs/brackets, but they simply haven't put enough games on their Cactus for the damage to show? As I'd imagine the shaking and movement of playing would increase the effect of legs that are too tight onto the cabinet.

I count myself lucky, since the damage is almost entirely hidden by the leg itself.

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Just a small wrinkle is visible with the leg on. And for the most part, it doesn't seem to be getting worse.

Was looking at the leg standoffs on my Rush, and the ones Stern uses are much thicker than the standoffs on Cactus. They're plastic and a lot thicker than the metal standoffs that CGC is using.

Not sure, haven't seen a mantis protector in person. But the metal protectors / spacers that CGC is using are very thin, much thinner than the plastic spacers that Stern is using.

Have 1500 plays on my CCr, and no broken rubber anywhere. Just bad luck for you, unfortunately.

Yeah, my Cactus Canyon was on location and pretty popular. After all those plays, it still basically looked just like it came out of the box. No pf wear, no broken/chipped anything, no dimples, ect. It held up very well.

I had one stuck on top of the mine, almost like it was made to hold the ball there. But never on the apron.

Drops targets that won't stay up, can be helped with a weaker/looser spring.

Drop targets that won't drop, can be helped by stiffer/stronger springs.

But that being said, it's common for drop targets to not drop from a hard, fast, direct shot. I've seen it on 1980s Williams games, and on 2010's Stern games. To a certain point, it's kind of just a part of how they're designed.

Slow hits, and hits to the edges or sides of a drop will usually make the target drop perfectly. Sort of have to play around it to a point.

Bad luck I guess. I had 1500 plays on my Cactus and never needed to solder even one connection anywhere.