Just got my DI LE over the weekend. As usual, the guys over at Game Exchange are a pleasure to deal with. I barely gave this game a thought it June when I saw it. I thought a cell phone themed game was probably the worst idea I've ever heard, and we have WWE pinball. Also, in June, there was basically no code.

Fast forward 6 or so months, I was looking at buying a Hobit but decided the game wasn't for me. On a whim I start researching Dialed In and I was just blown away. For me, risk/reward, modes, and speed are my top three most important qualities in a pinball game, this was it. This game is so much fun, both because of the big things like the rules, but also the little things, like the little sounds it makes when you hit the skill shot.

My game wasn't without issues. My first big issue was that the left loop was rejecting almost everything. Upon inspection, it it goes up a little ramp before it gets dumped on the other side of the orbit. The ramp flap in the upper left corner of the game was raised. As luck would have it, you have to remove EVERY ramp to get to it. So I did and I fixed that issue.

When you guys shoot the left ramp, how often does it make it to the upper flipper? My shots don't go around super fast, it makes it to the upper flipper probably 60-70% of the time, but it feels like it just barely makes it.

My right orbit is also rejecting 30-40% of the time, I'm going to try the fix that Pat suggested to another pinsider and see if that helps.

I gotta say though, when this game is flowing, when the orbits and ramps are working, this game is absolutely amazing. The flow, the pressure, the theme are all great. I'm not sure how this cell phone / disaster / retro / sci-fi/ Illuminati theme works, but it does. I have no idea what the theme of this game is, but I love it. Maybe it's the awesome layout (when you get it working), and the crazy good rules etc affecting my judgement there, but it's all great.

Well. I tried bending the right ramp entrance down per pats instructions and it did not help.

Unfortunately, what helped, is tape over the ramp flaps and rivers. This proves the problem is at the very entrance to the ramp. I flipped 10 shots to the right orbit, all 10 shots cleared the ramp. I can’t help but wonder if the left orbit is having a similar issue.

How to fix it I have no idea. Hack fix pic attached.

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I spent the last hour bending that piece every which way and nothing helped.

Just for fun, I put a piece of tape over the ramp flap on the left side now my left orbit shots are a lot quicker...

I’ll work this out with support.

A better fix would be to drill out the rivets, cut to shape some thinner steel and reattach.

I don't think so. I have a game manufactured in the middle of January, picked up a week ago. I contacted Cliffy a week ago for a set for DI. If they were his installed from the factory, he would have said. I have no doubt that actual Cliffy's are a worth while upgrade, I'm just glad there are protectors so I can play while I wait for his backlog.

Besides, from experience, the protectors on the game are too thick. He uses stuff much thinner, and they work very well.

Just don't wait to contact him, I think he's 4-6 weeks out right now.

Bug or switch matrix issue:

During the high score name input screen, my start button to accept the character is unresponsive until all the balls are in the trough.

On a lot of games, the thick protector from JJP is creating rejects on the sim card shot. I switched mine to cliffy over the weekend, and I'm still getting a lot of rejections. The other two things to try are adjusting the angle of the bracket that guides the ball down into the hole, or some drop dead foam on the back of it.

It is a hard shot, but on too many games out there the shot is a lot harder than it should be.

Yah, so when JJP has an issue, instead of fix it they tend to try and take the easy way out. Like the right and left orbit on some Dialed Ins. The ramp flaps are too thick, the ball jumps on the flap and the shot rejects. On some games, the ball almost never makes it all the way around the left orbit to the right flipper, and some games have issues with right orbit shots not making it all the way up the ramp. The solution for them was to turn the flipper power down so that didn't happen. I modified my ramp flap so that it doesn't happen. This game is no fun if your flipper power is so low that you can barely make the shot.

Like on a WOZ I bought. All the flippers were set the same except the flippers on the castle play field. The flippers were set really weak, only a small percentage of shots had enough power to hit the hole behind the doors. I turn the flipper power up a bit, and when the ball hits the door it pops open when it shouldn't. I would bet this mis-adjustment was found during "qc" but instead of fixing it correctly they just turned the power down on the flippers.

I guess my point is, address the actual problem like the shot rejecting when it shouldn't and not just lowering the flipper power. This is the worst game probably ever created to lower the flipper power on, it's so fast and flowy. Once the orbits work, this game is elevated dramatically, it's a shame they just don't address the issue.

No, we shouldn't have to turn our flippers down so shots barely work in order to get them to work at all.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure the factory protectors were changed at least once before they went to cliffy.

I have a late game manufactured a week before the cliffy switch and a phone scoop reject is rare.

According to your numbers, my late phone scoop factory protector beats all those easily.

I installed the cliffy on the sim card shot, I think I'm going to hold of on the phone scoop...

I think he is extremely busy right now. You will reach him eventually and his protectors are great.

Both my left orbit and right orbit (to the ramp) shots were very weak. On my game, the ramp flap that the ball encounters in each orbit was the issue. The ball would hit the ramp flap that was too thick, get a little air, and either hit something or just have a large portion of their momentum killed.

To test for this, you can take a small piece of painters tape and tape it over the entrance to the ramp flap. (on the left orbit, I am not talking about the Bob flap, but the flap that is attached to the piece that transitions it over to the right side of the orbit)

If tape helps, what I did was, I pulled the piece and used a dremel to shorten the lip / taper the edge. Now, clean right orbit shots hit the ramp 100% of the time, and clean left orbit shots make it to the right flipper about 90% of the time. (up from about 40% of the time)