Where are you getting that number?

Hopefully not too many.
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Well the game game out in 97-98, so maybe not too many junked, but I might guess the number of decent working examples are down into the triple digits, easily.

It is a known number, but IPDB doesn't have it for some reason although the 1500 has been confirmed in other corners of the internet, I think. But back in this era, pinball wasn't doing too great & Sega production runs were pretty small. I think Lost in Space which came out a few months later only had a 600 run. Viper Night Driving only 1100.
Also, despite pinball not selling well, they were still competing with Williams into the late 90's, so surely that hurt production numbers as well.

IMHO SST is the best Sega game ever made. It is also the best bang for your buck out there right now.

It's an interesting game. I bought one having only played a handful of games at CAX based on theme, price and reviews here. I must say it looks great, and feels great playing it. The ball does not fly around the play field like TFTC (my fav game) and it feels pretty solidly built. The rule set is pretty shallow but it feels like a flow game. I love the orbit shots.

That being said, I had to crank up the difficulty to hard in order to feel really challenging.

I can't wait to upgrade the speakers and fully LED this bad boy for maximum effect.

The kids LOVE this game, and enjoy slaughtering bugs.

Wish I could disable the multi ball saver that's lit when you get the multitude of multi balls. That would make multi ball more special IMHO. Otherwise you can drain and it's like no big deal.

Also, the toys are a little cheap looking as an onlooker, but it doesn't detract during gameplay as a player.

I really like how MB is done on the game, more than most games. Knowing the ball saver will be active for some seconds, this allows me to focus shooting jackpots without worrying what is happening with the other balls. Then when the timer expires I settle things down & play more of a controlled MB.

I also don't find the rule set that shallow. What you should be shooting for during the course of a game does change somewhat, like a mode based pin would, but its also nice to have some freedom to attack the game however you feel. They just don't have a PF lamp for every little thing that happens during a game, the game lamps on the PF are mostly restricted to keeping you updated on what is going on with the bug squashing, planet advancing, then jackpots.

Probably because those LED displays take up a lot of room where normally a bunch of lamps might get squeezed in. So, yeah things like the status of orbit locks, recon levels, kicker hits, warrior status... all that is shown to you through the DMD at the appropriate times. Also Sega didn't want to make a confusing game for the casual player, & so not having 100 PF lamps overwhelming the player as to what is going on, I think that was all part of the design. I really have to think SST was a very well thought out pin in many ways, & maybe everybody didn't appreciate it as much at the time.

I think the designer saw what was happening in the mid 90's, & also saw casual pinballers playing less & less, & he put 2+2 together & tried to make something that would work for every type of player, streamline the game & don't force in more game than needs to be on there. Sometimes more simple is very good. I mean, look at the popularity of system 11 titles even today. Not much rule depth compared to mid 90's, yet still many consider sys11 maybe the best lineup of games ever.

On SST, every player is aware right away what to do. Squash all the bugs, watch the counter to see what is left, then brain bug pops up & then shoot a hole. If the more advanced player needs more than this, there is plenty else to go for with the recons, warrior, orbits.
I'm also not sure if I want to call SST a flow game or not. It seems to be a nice blend of bash & flow. When squashing bugs which is a main part of the game, there is no flow at all. But all the other shots can give nice flow if you play them right. You almost got 2 different games in 1 here.

That makes perfect sense Rob. I agree.

Joe Balcer was the designer right?

I see what you are saying, it's interesting because it is such a large part of the game. I just feel that it's not special, it's just part of the game. When I get MB in TFTC it feels special to me.

Bottom line is this game still rocks and I think it's very cool. Love that I picked it up.

So I see there are magnets in the upper back of the playfield, what do they do exactly? I just want to know if mine are working, haven't seen them do anything yet...

If you have not seen them work, then something is wrong. Do a switch test.

Im not getting a ton of the Orbit multi-balls maybe about as often as you, but the Live Assault happens multiple times in a single game. I cranked the difficulty up to high, reset the high scores and now the highest score on the box is 94 Million.

It might be as simple as needing to replace the magnet fuses.

I encourage every SST owner that if you are not 100% certain everything is functioning on your game, do yourself a favor test all the switches & solenoids. My SST looked clean enough & was supposed to be 100% working, but after testing everything it turned out that I had more than a few switch issues & other misc problems. The good news though was that SST does seem to be an easy enough game to work on & fix problems on. With a few hours of work I got the game functioning 100% & didn't even need spare parts. Gameplay certainly picks up a notch when you know everything is working right.

Are the opto boards (in the upper corners) working? The right magnet should grab the ball everytime you launch one.

Can someone explain how the opto boards and magnets work?

Okay, simply said, both optoboard have 2 red leds, on one side of the lane a transmitter and on the other side a receiver, when the ball crosses the "lightbeam" the magnet starts. (it's basically a switch)

You have to make sure that the leds are aligned, otherwise it won't detect the ball coming through and obviously the magnet won't spring into action either.

Here's a pdf-file from Stern on aligning opto's, this time opto's in the ballthrough, but it's the same principle. http://www.sternpinball.com/downloads/Balltro.pdf

It's actually not that difficult to do, I'm not technical at all and even I managed to get the optoboard in my SST working again. (had to solder two new leds on them)

Here's the info from the SST manual:

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I had no Idea about the opto boards and alignment, will have to work on that this weekend.... thanks.

My optos weren't working either when I got the game, plus I had a magnet fuse blown, so needless to say it was pretty important to get all that fixed. For the optos, it actually wasn't an alignment issue at all, the leds just needed cleaned! Carefully gave them a dry wipe with my shirt & they worked again. Although in many cases optos do need re-aligned or header pins resoldered, maybe I was just lucky.

As for what the magnets should be doing, any time you shoot an unlit orbit, the top right magnet will grab the ball & drop it into the upper lanes. Also on a skill shot unless you hold down the left flipper button.
Then the top left magnet only gets used when you've completed an orbit lock & ready to lock a ball, it will grab the ball & drop it right into the lock.

Everytime I fire the ball it just goes up the right orbit and down the left orbit. Looks like magnets are not working.

I also got a switch error on #47 the left orbit (which I think is an opto switch under the playfield)
I lifted the playfield and took a look but got scared.

Any advice? Besides "Get up you maggot!"

Yes. Don't be scared! Its just an opto switch which are usually easy to fix or adjust. If that magnet isn't grabbing when going up either orbit, then maybe either both orbit switches are out or the fuses for 1 or both magnets could be bad as well. For me, I had to clean both opto leds, & I had a bad fuse for the right magnet. Can't get a much easier fix than that.

I don't think I ever got a switch error though, they just didn't register & were always open. So you might have an issue such as needing to re-solder the header pins to the opto board. IDK, just a guess, or a wire could have fallen out. You really need to not be afraid to start inspecting everything. You either test out everything now & fix what needs fixed, or you could be playing a partially working game for the coming months or years.

I think that I just hate trying to get to pieces that so deep in the pin when I raise the playfield up. The stuff that's close to the flippers is usually not a problem but when I have to dig past wires and really deep in the pin it's a little daunting. I wish there was an easy way to get back there.

I checked the fuse in the back box for the magnet, but I now realize that each orbit has it's own fuse for it's own magnet right?

The 2 opto boards are quite easy to reach when the playfield is standing up vertically.

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In the absolute remote case you might have never done a repair or opened one of your pins before.

Interesting, because my playfield does not move nearly as forward as that machine does. When I pull it up it nestles in the back. See pic. My pic shows it's nearly at the bottom of the cabinet and you have to lean in quite far to work on anything.

And if I'm not mistaken the optos are all the way at the bottom

Unless there is a trick I don't know, it feels like I'm forcing the playfield when I lift it higher than the pic shown.

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i usually hit orbit multiball as my #1 goal in ball one. pretty easy to achieve.

your 99.99% guaranteed on ball 3 to get any of the two multiball modes by just hitting the scoop.

You have to pull the playfield toward you then tilt it back. Be careful it can fall into the cabinet if you dont move it straight they are not on hinges like williams and bally.

You have to pull the playfield up onto the next set of rails, you pull it up and towards you to get to the service position. Then to get it back in you will have to pick it up by the front and back and gently lift it back onto the normal rails.

@Acampero, like BowlingJim and nighttaco said, pull the playfield forward, you'll feel it go over the bump, don't worry. Then let it slowly tip over backward against the display.

Should look like this:

sstopen.jpg

Now take a look at the optoboards, the one on the right side is the easiest one to get to. There's a red control led on one side:

opto01.jpg

lol, don't mind the duct tape...

Now, when you launch a ball and it goes through the upper lane the control led should light up when the ball passes the optoboard "lightbeam".
You can test this by using a piece of garden hose or something else flexible and move it by hand through the upper lane. When the optoboard is working the led should blink. Like this:

optotest.gif

SST Owner here. Love the film and pinball. Just received coin taker LED's and will being adding them this week. This pin is a keeper for me. What mods has anyone done?

I did buy a new in box SST back in the day. I went in half with a coworker and eventually bought his half out and later sold the game. I do have a prototype (working whitewood complete game). I will try to find the pictures and post them.

I should note the first movie was good, but unfortunately the 2 sequels remind me too much of a flushing toilet......

I just picked up one these this weekend. Turns out the guy bought it new, been in his basement ever since!! Still has a goody bag inside it even! Third time I have bought this game, but this one aint leaving.

Oh, and their is a new movie (CGI animated one, SST: Invasion I think) that is actually not bad. Made by some japanese studio I think, but movie is in english.

Would you like to know more?

Yeah, what's in the goody bag?

Great pic and advice! Thank you. I was afraid that you couldn't move the playfield up and forward.

I will try this and let you all know how it goes.

It feels a bit like you're ripping the playfield from the cabinet.
You just have to get it over the bump. On it's way back in just slide it back till you feel the bump again, rest it on the metal bars under the playfield and lift up the back of the playfield a bit to get it over the bump again. Should slide right back after that.

Hope you'll find out what's wrong with the opto's/magnets. Really makes it much more enjoyable if that stuff is working.

I will post a pic, didnt dive into yet. Saw a keychain plastic for sure.

Ok, so I was looking at my 3rd flipper, and it looks like it's the wrong part installed. It works but it is supposed to activate a switch that it doesn't, if you look closely you'll see the switch activator part is on the wrong side. So I'm wondering what it does and if I should get a new flipper assembly.

should be identical to the other two flippers. hard to tell on my tablet, is the eos switch back to front?

Here's how it's in mine:

miniflipper01.jpg miniflipper02.jpg

miniflipper.gif

Appreciate it! It's definitely the wrong part in mine.... I just wonder what that switch actually does?

The eos switch?

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/what-does-an-end-of-stroke-switch-on-flippers-do

Yeah, that would be it, sounds like it's not that big of a deal on mine, probably leave it be

de/sega/stern use pwm on the flippers so eos is not required

Anybody got anything other than flippers to talk about?

I haven't had a chance to troubleshoot my optos but I can tell you that my kids are 100% addicted to this pin. We have been watching the movie and they are loving that they can find the call outs from Michael Ironside and quote them.
Plus I think my son has a crush on Dizzy ( I make him close his eyes when she's naked, but I think he peaks)

It's cool to watch the Tankers, Warriors, Plasmas and Hoppers in the movie. We really enjoy watching it.

My daughter thinks she's psychic...