I would expect no less of you. Carry on.

Well, for one, rubbers on the posts between the outlanes is a major cheat. It keeps the ball in play forever. Those posts are designed not to have rubber in DP. Also, did you reset the game to factory settings before playing?

Pfft. Having the rubber on the lane dividers ruins the game (as you've seen), and since the ball is FALLING onto the metal (when it hits at all), that's much less damaging than firing them onto metal upstream from the flippers. I say take the rubber he added to the lane divider posts off so the game plays as designed instead of being a kindergarten version. With rubber on those posts, the game plays WAY too long and too easy.

Then when you are to give the machine back to the preschool, spring for $12 of new balls so he/she has nothing to complain about.

The rubber is not supposed to be there at all. They don't come from the factory on those posts at the top of the lane guides. If you add them, it makes the game WAY WAY too easy and ball times really long.

Deadpool is NOWHERE NEAR as hard as TWD. But it's more fun. TWD can be a grind to get going.

Target plastic bending? It's becoming more common.

That's actually one of Gomez's toothpicks. Very rarely seen outside Stern. Must have been inspecting the Deadpool line after lunch the day yours was made. Lucky duck.

You'll really dig the pin. But unfortunately the Katana armor is SUPER CHEAP looking and feeling in person. Stern totally cheaped out on it so I wouldn't normally recommend it, but since you already have it on the way, not much to do about it now. (For people who aren't locked into the Katana armor) For just a little more than that katana armor costs you could have red sparkle armor similar to the LE that looks much better.

Shaker motor's a great purchase for Deadpool. Integration is good. We ended up swapping out for a Pro translite on the Premium because the Premium translite just didn't seem as cool, so that's another option.

It's got quite a few weird bugs still, like:

1 - Mystery weapons on the wheel not being added to your weapon screen total that comes immediately after it until the NEXT time you're at hellhouse, even though the game is processing the higher number internally.

2 - Weirdness with Li'l Deadpool. I hit it and right as the timer was ending (before the ball was auto-released), I hit the hellhouse scoop. It asked me to pick an opponent very briefly, then the screen freaked out a little, the drop targets fell and it played Li'l Deadpool stuff THEN as I was in multiball, it went back to the selection screen and asked me to choose an opponent, which was understandably challenging in multiball. This would be pretty easy to reproduce with the glass off, I would think.

3- Throws fake trough errors in the diagnostics that clear just by kicking a ball from the trough.

4 - The eyes on the "say it announcer guy" deadpool 3D model are not solid. There are gaps in the model at the corners of the eyes that let you see through to whatever's behind it.

5 - The graphic of the pinball being loaded into the Katana on screen is slightly too large, so you can barely see the top of the ball bleeding outside of the top of the handle after it goes in.

6 - While restarting the game between the bonus screen and the match wheel, the game restarted, but it counted the new game's first ball kickout to the trough as "ball save" (with the callout and animation on the screen) burning the ball save for that first ball.

BTW, is there anything after MegaKrakadonkulus Rex? Defeating that's as far as I've gotten, but I defeated it and drained, so I don't know if there's more...

The main problem is that the pooling can and does lead to chipping. It took a year on the Iron Maiden Prem we have, but one of the pooled star posts chipped a chunk off to the wood ON THE INSIDE OF THE SLING, meaning it likely chipped off from vibration transferred through hits to the star post since no ball is ever making contact in there. Curse you, post pass!

So, yeah, definitely something to keep an eye on, regardless of how minor the pooling looks on yours now.

Do the volume buttons work?

Well, that's good. I was afraid they were all out, which is very bad since those are handled by Node 0 and that's the CPU board, so it's a bad deal if that's the problem.

Did you reseat the connectors at the CPU board?

If you manually close the switch leads momentarily, can you make the switch work? I'm wondering if the switch is just mechanically bad.

Check the connections to the drop target assemblies and follow that back to the node board to check for loose connectors. Was the coin door closed when they wouldn't rise?

I'd use a multimeter to check continuity of that specific wire on the connector back to the service switch to see if the wire just is intermittent or broken.

Top flight QA at Stern. Probably forgot to turn the light table on again, too.

Coil swelling? Does the flipper move easily if you manually move it by hand and snap back when you let go?

How much voltage do you have at the coil? Compare right coil power reading to left. Maybe your node board isn't supplying enough power?

Also, is your EOS switch there and working right?

It was a big problem on KISS, for some reason. I don't know why just that machine...

Leave it off. It's meant to play without them.

Paywave is a no-go for low cashbox machines like pinball. The fees will eat you alive.

I've played an LE, and if you were only closer I'd probably recommending upgrading our route Prem to an LE! The Deadpool LEs are really fantastic-looking. Love the orangey-red armor, special LE only art blades, and the mirrored backglass. Good luck with the sale!

I think the Kraken(squid)/Shark just represent the existing Megalodon mode, and the T-Rex/Wolly Mammoth represent the T-Rex mode. Kracken is already in the Megalodon mode.

And if you can stack disco loops and a mode and a playfield 2-3-4-5x multiplier and ninja multiball, you can get some crazy scores, but you have to pay attention to the order to get all of that going. Really great code. Tanio has done a great job.

Shoot for anything with a lit insert. Repeat and you should get over 70k pretty easily.

Shaker motor, for sure. You can also swap out the translite art for the better Pro version for less than $100.

Pinball Life has them for $79
https://www.pinballlife.com/shaker-motor-kit-rev-c-for-stern-spike-spike-2-system-games.html

Installation is dead simple. 6 screws and 1 plug.

John's Arcade has an install video with way too much talking and futzing, as usual. But it'll give you the idea. Same for Pro/Prem.

Targets aren't resetting right. Likely either a bowed target that doesn't grab the ledge to hold it up every time OR the ledge the target grabs onto has broken. So either bend the targets back toward the front if they're bowed, or replace a target ledge if it's broken.

Playfield multipliers are super-lucrative. Making them super hard to activate makes sense. I've practiced the shot enought that I can ALWAYS get at least one 2x during any game, often get 3x going, and sometimes get 4x going. 5x is very rare, but does happen. The trick for me is to keep drilling that shot from the left flipper during multiball, so I get a lot of chances in a row. I know the approximate range on the flipper for the shot, but the tolerance is tight. If I can get a bunch of shots in a short period, like in Multiball, I can often get to 3x right away.

I say Tanio has it right. Leave the PF multipliers the same. Maybe have an alternate way (or additional) to boost the PF multiplier permanently (like finishing all disco modes - not a gimme) or something if there HAS to be a change, but they should be hard to get and keep.

It's WAY less random than the SIM shot. The tolerance is very tight for when to make the shot, but with practice you can do it more and more. The part that pisses me off most is having it go airborne instead and ending up on the plastic next to the ramp, then rolling off instead of going up the ramp. That happens too much and is super irritating.

What else do you need protected??

That's what Cliff offers. That's why I'm confused. If you want to cover ALL the switch slots, his are generic and will work for all of them, but that's pretty unnecessary. They're only there for the rollovers on the return lanes to protect the slots from ball drops chewing them up.

He has a protector for the right lane guide at the entrance to the katana loop also.

Deadpool needs some polish. There are still not a small amount of bugs/weirdness issues. The "1" kerning problem really bugs me, too. There'll be another update. Tanio was busy helping on Ghostbusters for a while, and probably is on his next game, too. Patience.

Looks great!

I don't recall a situation offhand where a left orbit is stopped by the gate (both sides up there are controlled gates), but the right orbit definitely does vary pass-through or drop into lanes depending on mode on the premium.

EDIT: Dur. Of course Sabretooth battle! The easiest mode for this very reason!

Sauron is the next battle after you complete Juggernaut, Mystique, and Sabertooth.

Mechsuit Multiball is after you qualify x number of weapons. Should be between 40 and 50, depending on how your machine is set up.

Maybe it was an N, not an M? Ninja Multiball?

If you finish the two quests, you'd battle Megakrakolodonus Rex.

Technically, you get two shots lit that can give you 6x total for that GB skillshot. You don't get 6x for making the lane. And that's one of my favorite shots in GB. With practice I eventually could hit it about 40% of the time, which is a LOT for a shot that gives you a way to get 6x playfield.

The Snikt is even more abusable since you can extend it by making more shots to it. I think Tanio has the balance on it just right. I get it at least once per game and frequently stack it to 3x or 4x. Making it easier would break the scoring IMO.

Frequently isn't the same as consistently. I can consistently get 2x. I can frequently get 3 and 4x. I've gotten 5x only a couple times. Given the power of the multipliers, I think that's about right.

The only thing I hate about the shot is it will go airborne and end up on the plastic next to the ramp, then dribble off way more frequently than I would like, but I don't think there's a fix for that.

Comet Pinball has pics of this in their marketplace ad for the replacement light kit for that area.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1090-comet-pinball/01921-deadpool-lighting-upgrade

PF clearcoat pooling with ink adhesion problems leading to chipping. If you have a playfield with the art cut out around posts (cleared wood showing) you have the newer version. However, even the pooled ones can be addressed with a little time and some mylar. I wouldn't let it stop me from buying what's become one of the best pins Stern has put out in a while.

Look carefully. There were pooling problems with Stern playfields as recently as this past Summer 2019. You might have gotten lucky. Stern seems to use multiple playfield vendors, so it's playfield roulette.

If you have one or more team ups lit and want some help quickly taking down Juggernaut or Mystique, a yellow BOOM will "complete a shot" for you and call one of them in right away.

Premium/LE is, without a doubt, the way to go for Deadpool. Some pins that's debatable. Not on Deadpool. Perfectly clear.

There's enough demand that resale is pretty great on Deadpool so you can upgrade to a Premium down the road a bit and you'll love the title even more.

The head next to deadpool in the TEAM UP logo is Colossus. The guy with the gun is Cable.

Check the topic index at the top of any page in this thread. Near the bottom of the index list there's a link to the Katana entrance Cliffy post that has a couple pics.

Bulletproofed the guide at the entrance to the Katana shot today. I think the washer with a mylar ring at each of the 3 holes is the way to go because on the one here, the curved part had started scratching through the clear, making a curved line from the metal flexing. By using a thin washer, it raises that part barely off the playfield until coming down at the mid-point post.

I took pics of the process (which required more parts removal than I expected) and will see if what I have is coherent enough to make a step by step post with pics.

I'm pretty sure the Deadpool Prem here is the same way. I think it may be that way on purpose to provide an anchor point to propel the ball up the ramp when you hit the middle or right edge. I'll check next time I'm at the location that has it.

Done! Posted pictures of the lane guide protection process and a description here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/protecting-katana-lane-entrance-from-playfield-damage

I was not a KISS fan (at ALL), but really learned I could live with all but two of the songs on KISS LE. Really liked the game a lot. Give Maiden a try. You may not mind the music as much as you think if the game grabs you (and it's a great game).

So, yeah, pretty sure having the Snnnkt! target partially on the lane guide is on purpose to give it an anchor point to help flip the ball up the ramp. This is stock, as it came from the factory, and it's the same way as all the others that were posted looking the same.

Therefore, I wouldn't change it, just play better if you're having problems making the shot.
snnnkkt-factory (resized).jpg

Shoot the hellhouse scoop.

Yeah, I had no complaints about being able to make the shot, but nice to have the clarity of how the machine is supposed to be.

I'll probably put something on the target to keep it from drifting off center from the constant off-angle ball hits, because without that, I can see this target needing this adjustment a lot.

Depends on WHY it's overlapping. Can you take a picture from the front and top down on the target?

I would, but I'm not allowed to key post my own posts, regardless of how informative they may be. People complained.

I totally agree, but someone else will have to keypost it.

You have to be approved to get the ability to keypost stuff. If you have it, there will be a little key at the bottom of each post and you click that to mark it key and add a comment for the index. If you don't have the key, you don't have the ability to do it.

It's on the opposite side. Left would be "Drain, Bookmark, Mark Key". Right Side is "Quote, Link, Report Abuse"

Might want to get a washer under the first post on the lane guide to raise it a little since I see what looks like the same clearcoat scratching evidence on the curve of the lane guide that we had here. The guide flexing scratches the clear, digging into it and leaving a white line of powdery residue.

clear-digging (resized).jpg

I just did this and documented the process here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/protecting-katana-lane-entrance-from-playfield-damage

Your targets are sitting a bit too high. There's a screw on the bottom of the target assembly under the playfield that sets where the targets stop. Just back that off a little so your targets sit flush with the PF when they're down.

I'd look at the assembly and see if something is different about that left target stop underneath. Might be a burr or something on the assembly that's preventing it from going that last mm down. If not that, maybe something on the target bottom itself (mold error or something?).

Great to hear! Thanks for posting the solution.

I see it happen VERY infrequently (like 2-3x a month, and I play a LOT). If you're seeing it a lot, record with an iphone in slo-mo the length of the sword and that might tell you where it's going wrong so you can adjust. Are both screws on your sword blade tight so it doesn't move at all?

Deadpool Premium, for sure. The best experience of the two.

Given that you'll get a better experience and the resale will be very good, if you can front the initial difference it doesn't matter because once you sell it, the cost of enjoying it will be almost the same as a pro taking into account the buy/sell price spread, and you'll get a much better experience. It's one of the few Sterns where there's no doubt - the Premium/LE version is better.

You're right on the Pro backglass art, for sure. We replaced the Premium backglass art with the pro version almost immediately and set the premium translite aside.

It's not just the disco ball, but a whole very satisfying, spinner-rip mode that's completely missing on the pro. Plus the disco ball lighting. A cool plus up on the experience.

I agree with you that Iron Maiden Premium is the better of the two, but unlike Deadpool it's not a 100% perfect recommendation and comes more down to user preference because the Premium plays much differently than the Pro because the mummy lock shots are moved on the premium to the ramp. So on Maiden, I can see someone preferring the Pro and I would totally understand why. But there's no such ambiguity with Deadpool. The Premium/LE is the best experience.

I got Mr. Sinister (or what I assume is him, it was a VERY stereotypical vampire guy) doing a callout in Disco Multiball the other day. It cracked me up.

Is Morbius on the game art somewhere?

Ah, I always just assumed that was Mr. Sinister.

Yes, that's him, but I thought the other ones that are apparently Morbius were Mr. Sinister, too, which is why I thought the vampire callouts were Mr. Sinister. He's also on-screen in the MegaKrakadonkulus Rex battle.

From that angle, it looks like you have to drill out the rivet.

Looks great, what color red is that for the powdercoating?

Whose shaker motor?

It's running off Node 1, which is the coin door interface board. Page 27 of the Spike schematics (attached) covers Node 1 where the shaker motor connects at CN16.It's all mostly surface mount, including the transistor I *think* runs the shaker motor (a 100A FET (BUK7240) right by the connector). If you have a multimeter, you can try testing that at Q15. If it's shorted open, that's your culprit, but since it hasn't been that long, I'd just call Stern tech support tomorrow and see if they can verify that and just swap out for a new board. 1-800KICKERS.

Spike_Schematics.pdf

With practice it can be done a few times per game.

Looks like a pretty severe case of clear pooling. Is it actually lifting off the playfield, or just bunching up? Hard to tell with the reflections. Maybe try to take pictures with the game lighting off in a well-lit room?

In any case, I'd definitely put in a warranty claim on it.

Freeze spray method is the easiest (compressed air can upside down, spray mylar until frosted and it should just release with a minimum of pulling pressure as the cold causes the adhesive to fail. Clean up sticky residue with goo-gone). Unfortunately, it's hard to find compressed air without bitterant added these days.

1.01 was a pretty good bump. 1.02 was more like a mini-maintenance/fixup release.

LE V1.02.0 - May 13, 2019
=========================
- Added Adjustment - "LIL DP START REQUIRES BALL LOCK" (Default is YES).
- YES: The ball must be locked behind the Lil' Deadpool drop targets in order
to start a Lil' Deadpool mode. (This was the default behavior in v1.00.0).
- NO: When the Lil' Deadpool is lit GREEN for lock and the Lil' Deadpool stand-up
target is hit, the device will attempt to lock the ball behind the drop targets.
If the ball is not locked within 4 seconds, the next Lil' Deadpool mode will start
automatically. (This was the default behavior in v1.01.0).
This adjustment is ignored if the "DISABLE LIL DP TARGET BANK" adjustment is set to YES.
- Fixed: Right orbit switch was ignored for 2 seconds after ball leaves shooter lane.
- Updated Super Skill Shot: timer increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
- Updated Ninjapocalypse: awards 5M, 5.5M, 6M, ... 10M max.
- Updated Ninjapocalypse display: added score and ninjas collected.
- Snikt display: added playfield multiplier value.

LE V1.01.0 - May 8, 2019
========================
- Updated LIL' DEADPOOL LOCK Device:
- Improved ball lock handling. If the drop targets do not stay up when
the devices attempts to catch the ball, retry the drop target reset
up to 3 times. If the ball is not successfully locked within 4 seconds
of hitting the Lil Deadpool target, start the next qualified
Lil Deadpool mode.
- Improved ball lock-out handling. In the lock-out state, the drop
targets are reset whenever they are hit. If the ball gets behind the
drop targets when the device is in this state, lower the drop targets
to release the ball.
- Adjustment: "DISABLE LIL DP TARGET BANK" - when this adjustment is set to YES,
the Lil Deadpool drop targets will never reset and the Lil Deadpool device
will not be unable to lock balls. Rules that rely on locking a ball in the
Lil Deadpool device will compensate; the following rules are effected:
- Lil Deadpool Multiball, Frenzy, and Bounce
- T-Rex Quest
- Mr. Sinister: Megakrakolodonus Rex
- Mr. Sinister: The Final Battle
- Adjustment removed: "LIL DEADPOOL LOCKS BALLS" (Lil' Deadpool device will
always attempt to lock balls unless "DISABLE LIL DP TARGET BANK" is set to YES.
- Adjustment added: "BALL SAVE TIMER: LDP RECENT LOCK" (Default 0 seconds). If this
is set to a value greater than 0 seconds, a ball saver will start as soon as the
Lil' Deadpool target is hit to initiate a ball lock attempt.
- Updated switch test: do not reset Lil Deadpool drop target bank when the
Lil Deadpool target is closed in switch test.
- Updated T-REX QUEST:
Updated rules:
- At mode start
- All arrow shots are lit.
- Lil Deadpool drop targets stay up when hit.
- When a lit arrow shot is made
- Shot is unlit.
- Lil Deadpool drop targets trip down.
- T-Rex hurry up starts on the Lil Deadpool stand up target (12 seconds).
- If another lit shot is made, the hurry-up value is boosted and time is added.
- If hurry-up times out, drop targets are reset. If no shots are lit when the
hurry-up times out, all shots are relit.
- When the lit Lil Deadpool stand up target is hit,
- Collect hurry-up award.
- All shots are relit.
- Collect the hurry-up 4 times to light the scoop to collect DNA.
- Shoot lit scoop to collect DNA sample and complete the mode.
- If ball is drained while scoop is lit, the mode is completed.
Updated display:
- Display T-Rex Hurry-Up value when it is available at the Lil Deadpool target
- Updated WEAPON JACKPOT award:
- 100, 200, 300 weapons ... bump playfield multiplier minimum for the rest of the game.
- Updated MYSTERY: If Extra Ball is Lit, do not award Light Extra Ball from MYSTERY.
- Updated LIL' DEADPOOL FRENZY: switch value increases by 100k each time the
mode is restarted. Max switch value is 400k.
- Fixed REGENERATE - during multiball, a ball going down the left outlane with
Regenerate lit would intermittently not award a ball save.
- Added formatted game pricing to attract mode screens.

- System V2.27:
- Updated to nodeboard firmware v0.40.0
- Updated instructions for RESTORE SETTINGS.
- Reordered items in UTIL->VOL, moved CABINET SPEAKER TYPE to be after
BACKBOX SPEAKER TYPE.
- Added UTIL->RESET->VOL which will reset all audio settings to their
default values.
- Append (MAX) to the credit message if the number of credits equals
the CREDIT LIMIT adjustment.

Do the 1s on the mystery wheel have weird spacing (almost like double spacing after them)? That'd be the easiest thing to check. Tanio said that would be fixed way back in June.

It's about the same for me. Maybe a smidge harder, but not bad. I'd rather have it as intended, but I need to put a brace on it do it doesn't slide to the side again from repeated side hits.

Lots of fun coming your way. DP Premium is fantastic.

We use the pinball life ones. Work great and the price is right:

https://www.pinballlife.com/shaker-motor-kit-rev-c-for-stern-spike-spike-2-system-games.html

The only one I would warn you away from is the cointaker red tremor. It makes very unpleasant shaking, more like a jackhammer than anything else in the segment.

We have had zero problems with the pinball life shakers on well over 10 route machines, and they feel "smoother" than the Stern ones somehow. It's more about the feel than the $20.

Why? The pinball life one is great.

There's literally no reason to go with the Stern one except brand loyalty.

Technically, if you put ANY mod on a $5000+ game, you've voided the warranty. So are you recommending n00bs be prohibited from modding their $5000+ game at all? Plain vanilla or nothing as punishment for their n00b-ness?

Bearing that fact in mind, it's just not a concern in the real pinball world, especially with long-proven commodity items like shaker motors, leg brackets, ColorDMD, lollipop rails, etc. from reputable sources. You're inventing problems to justify your personal feelings.

Haha! Unfortunate wire placement/camera angle. It looks like Wolverine is taking a standing dump with either an unbroken stream of diarrhea or a log that would make Lincoln proud.

Thematically, if you're going to go the figurine route, I'd move Colossus over by the Hellhouse scoop, since that's where you shoot for him in the game.

You mean like a bigger box or bigger text? It already says it's ready in the upper left corner of the screen as soon as you finish the number of spinner spins required.

Wow, I guess I should have said "Technically...according to the manufacturer."

Check "tech alerts" under settings->diag. If that's clear, go into switch test and check that a switch isn't stuck or intermittent.

And switch test doesn't show a flipper sticking or the center button sticking when you press them a few times slowly?

Coil stop. Endemic issue on Sterns lately, and especially Deadpool. Replace all of them with the ones at pinball life and be done with it.

Congrats! 1.6 billion and change is the best I've done, but I have a lot of billion plus games now. This is easily one of Stern's best, and I give a lot of the credit to Tanio on software.

I'd like to see a situation where in multiball the time between switch hits runs a multiplier, so you basically have an invisible hurryup that counts down from like 4x to 1x very quickly (seconds or fractions of a second) only in multiball, and invisibly which resets to 4x with each switch hit. This would reward players for keeping the most balls in play hitting switches and not cradling. It should create a large scoring gap between people who cradle and people who play the game to the point that cradling wouldn't be attractive anymore. Once multiball is over, that invisible switch hurryup goes away until the next multiball.

It's super-easy. Just take off the back two hex-head screws at the end of the flipper bracket (be careful not to lose the small lock ring on each screw when you remove them). Take off the old coil stop, put the new one on, snug it up and replace the screws.

You do get tracking with the freight company, and shipping is quick unless they don't have stock. Did the distributor tell you directly or are you getting all this second-hand? It doesn't take 3 weeks to ship from Chicago to Alabama.