How did you get the card plastic surround?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/elvira-collector-card-apron-display-limited-to-40

On hold now, but I’ll make more in the coming weeks. About half are sold.

I was able to find a complete set of the Elvira collector cards on Ebay so that I could take my pick for the apron card.

That looks great! How cool is that

When you say the lock do you mean the cellar VUK? Sorry to keep banging on but should it be possible to get 2 balls in the cellar at once? Still trying to solve 2nd ball getting stuck in back door/cellar during multiball.

To reproduce:
1) start multiball
2) pop one in the back door
3) before ball is ejected from cellar VUK, pop another in back door.

Result: first ball ejected from under ramp. 2nd ball never found. Not in VUK. Stuck somewhere. Get cellar operator error.

What happens if other people follow these steps?

No. I mean the subway behind the back board.

No. It is not possible to get two balls in the cellar at once.

Based on this description, it sounds as though the 2nd ball gets blocked from rolling into the cellar hole and is sitting on the back door opto hence the cellar error. I'm curious as to: #1) the pitch of your game (too shallow and the ball won't roll forward into the cellar hole); #2) what happens when this occurs and you shake the game? Does the second ball roll into the cellar and then eject?

1) originally 6.5, now 6.8 seems level side to side
2) yes if I shake it like a Polaroid

The game is in a small bedroom and in a corner. If I move it out a bit from the wall, can I see behind the house to investigate? I shall try to do so to see where the hang up is. If I need to see more can I just remove part of the house and not all?

Hey thanks so much for getting back to me. Gives me something to go on.

You can pull the playfield out and investigate, but it's tough to see into the back door. To remove the house, it's all or nothing. Just need a Phillips screwdriver and a looooooong magnetic nut driver. (1 screw in the turret, 2 screws in the roof, 4 screws in each corner of the house attach to playfield) It's pretty easy to do. Just make sure you don't drop any screws. I still can't find one of the roof screws I dropped two years ago. LOL

Thanks!!!! EaglePin has also been helping me out. He can’t reproduce my scenario so it sounds like what you were thinking it is stuck up there maybe on that opto board or some other thing. Will recreate, remove the house and have a look. You’ve been a great help.

After fixing crypt VUK, shooter launch, overall flow and the sdtm out of the pops really keen to resolve this last hang up. Enjoying the game immensely.

Maybe the second ball will come to rest too far to the right. That's how it was with me. There it was no longer recognized by the switch. Only strong shaking had helped. I then installed a small washer here so that the ball comes back into the middle, where it is then recognized by the switch. That's how it was here, but that can also be a completely different problem for you.
The problem is that it's hard to see. I had discovered with iPhone + selfie stick, FaceTime with my iPad.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/elvira-s-house-of-horrors-the-owner-s-club/page/211#post-6736193

Thank you. I had experienced this previously. I saw that the ball was indeed to far to the right and not sitting on the switch correctly. I performed your excellent fix and it works every time at getting the first ball out. The problem is now after the first ball is ejected the 2nd does not even enter the trough. You have fixed my first problem and I thank you for it. Unfortunately I still have the problem where the 2nd ball is stuck. I will remove the house and check where it hides. At least I can reproduce the problem regularly. That’s half the battle!

It was 4 month ago. As i could remember, the ball also sometimes stuck on the left side.
I bend the left part of the metal a little bit down.now the ball is forced to roll to the middle. I took a photo and hope it’s clear. Hard to describe. Don’t do this on your machine unless you are not sure what happen there. I just want to share my experience with that issue.
2A615DD2-F739-4A32-BE1B-0CF6DD6FD294 (resized).jpeg2BBF32DA-35E5-4D8F-86D6-94AE9B554612 (resized).jpeg

Will check to see if it’s doing this as well before I start bending. Thanks again!!

And old post, but Rdoyle1978 thank you very much for the help. Adjusting with a loose screw here fixed it all.

Glad to be of service! I’m happy to report I’ve not had to adjustment again after that one fix. Still haven’t fixed my VUK though! Not enough hours in the day

It’s official. Elvira has dimples near her back door. Weld spots for mounting points of opto under trough. Will try to grind and polish.

image (resized).jpg

At last solved it. Found the following.

Check out photo below:

1) opto sticks through metal. The little bulb was catching the ball as it kicked back. Solved it by
2) adding extra nylon washer between opto board and trough. There is one there already but it’s not thick enough to pull the optos head in.
3) the trough is just a flat plate with no left to right pitch. A couple of dots as shown add slope going towards VUK.

Now it kicks out balls all day long. I did grind away at the weld point but the problem still persisted.

8BC2BB00-F738-4585-9DBA-23AEA8FF200D (resized).jpeg

After fixing that now I can’t get the damn turret back on properly. If I try to tighten motor turns. If I try to loosen, motor turns. Turret is loose and floppy. Now can’t tighten or remove. Damn!!!!

Please help!! Am I screwed?

Edit: damn screw was stripped. To resolve had to do house turret test whilst turning other way. Worked against the motor, hopefully did not hurt it.

Damn, does Stern not do QA on these things before they ship?

Does anyone else feel the modes aren't too creative in this game and are very repetitive? I'd normally say wait and see how they update it but i'm guessing that's not happening this time around. Am i being overly critical?

Well this was Lyman's last completed game, and he's not around to continue to improve it.
It's too bad..... it had so much still to be implemented in it..... had he lived I bet it would have been.
Don't think anyone is going to touch it.

At least with Cactus Canyon they got all this thoughts on the mode design. They can code it all without him.
Do they even have all this ideas for EHOH?

i hope they do but im not certain. I just wish there was more variety to the modes, like hit the spinner x amount of times, or timed shots etc. It seems like its all just hit the lit static shots.

I'm still waiting for my machine (com'on Nov!!) so I have only been able to play a little at PHOF........ I know others have said there's big chunks still to be coded (Hand Of Fate?) and other movies not yet put into the game.

I had hoped for the same. The spinner has “Beast Booster” on it. I was thinking, cool, you need to charge the booster fully by ripping the spinner until you achieve a full charge, then hit the button on the lock bar, or make a certain shot, to defeat a monster. Are there any modes that involve the spinner like that?

not that im aware of.

Greg apparently has asked George for some programmer time to add a few things and do some clean up but I suspect we’ve seen the last code release.

Same here! Only 5 or 6 short months. Living vicariously though others until then.

Mine is still on order too, but my wife is talking about saving money and paying off debt now, so I'm not sure she is going to be down for buying it when the time comes...

I am on a list too but my disti is not optimistic about them actually running them based on the history with the pushback on dates for this machine.

You have to realize there are different (colored) shots in the modes. Some shots continue the chapter, others will end it and progress towards the end of the haunt. How fast you complete a haunt and how much you score depends on what shots you make. Keep in mind that a longer haunt means more points and a bigger trailer trash reward. A few of the haunts can be incredibly long to complete if you avoid advancing the chapter.

Here is a quote from an email I have from Lyman:

"I added a stage in between the skeletons and the beast booster spinner for TFOS. Now after shooting the skeletons, you have to hit the cellar and then the spinner will light up.

I don't like how you can't really see the RGB arrow on the right loop (the spinner blocks it). Also I like the story progression now with the added scene, as the scene I added was the guy being attacked in the cave by the lobster creature (there are some good sounds for this). There's a good Elvira quote for it too.

Hopefully adding one extra shot to the mode doesn't make it too hard, I like that some modes are short (TFOS) and some modes are long (MTHOF, MANSTER)."

Rob

Greg Freres?

There are numerous things to clean up which is a 'nice to have', but nothing broken that requires immediate attention that I know of. I gave Stern a list many months ago along with one for BM66. What comes of that I have no idea because I'm just an distant outsider to them. Lyman even suggested that I email Greg because he thought Greg would still care enough about the game to try and get some things done with it. That was after Lyman had left Stern of course.

It would be nice and I hope George does find budget for it.

Rob

I have some and I think I shared them with Stern. For example, he coded a mode called 'pew pew pew' which is basically a frenzy mode with laser sounds and it's based off the ray gun.

Quoted from Lyman (just a few weeks before he left Stern):

"pew pew pew mode is a fast-scoring mode (similar to Iron Man fast scoring) where every switch scores 25K and the game says "PEW". It's pretty funny, makes me laugh.
I have it implemented but I don't know how or when I want the player to activate it.
The most logical place it to allow the player to activate it using the fire button, but I am currently using that for the RAY GUN.
Maybe after the player collects a ray gun and uses it, where they have no more ray guns, they could hit the fire button three times in a row and I could start it there.
Maybe the scoring is based on how many ray guns the player has used up so far"

For the record, I hope nobody takes exception for me sharing the email or information therein. If you want me to stop, please send me a PM. Stern may not like me sharing this stuff, no matter how innocent it may seem. I'm just trying to share some insights I have and I hope that is ok.

Rob

That's fantastic! Thanks for sharing

Just remember, don't expect anything and you will never be disappointed

Rob

As Rob G pointed out the modes vary significantly in difficulty with TFOS and NoTLD being by far much easier to complete than the others. This is important for getting to Director’s Cut and lighting the extra ball.

Also, modes have hidden strategies for really building up massive points with WoWash being a prime example.

Honestly i didnt understand this - i'll have to check it out when im in game.

Yes.
Some clean up and a Haunt or two that Lyman wanted to do if I remember correctly.

I wonder if at some point, Stern will move to a paid model for code updates past a certain version. I wouldn't be surprised, and really, the players probably would be happy to do it. $20(ish) once a year for an annual update (something like that).

1.0(ish) included with the game
1.2 - 1.5 paid annual until final code release and then that's it (1.5 or 1.6). Have to buy each increment of the updates (can't just install the last one).

Imagine them going back and actually finishing a few games they just left hanging. What were those? Wheel of Fortune? CSI? World Poker Tour? Not sure what else.
Sure would be great to have a couple weeks of programmer time every year for five years post 1.0 release.

Nice idea but I don’t think Stern has the resources to do this and I don’t think there’s enough incentive for them to do so.

As long as the financial drain aspect of it is squared away, it actually would do them a world of good to have a programmer or two cutting their teeth doing minor updates.
Always good to have specialized talent in the que maturing.

Check the on screen text for the haunts because there's actually different scoring for many of them. For example, Manster (I think) has every switch hit worth points. Another one may award bonus for combo shots.

Rob

Anyone put one of those playfield protectors on their Elvira?

I'm tempted to get one before Stern gets around to building mine.
In theory would be great to install one before ever playing it.

Did it help with dimples and such?
How visible are the protectors? Noticeable or not really?

I put one on day 1. I think it’s cheap insurance. Playfield looks great. No issues where the the VUK typically fires the ball. How noticeable they are depends on the lighting but it doesn’t bother me at all. Some say a protector alters ball travel and play. I occasionally see movement that seems odd but rarely.

Similar experience on my Batman 66 though I made the mistake of waxing the playfield first (don’t do that).

I’m happy enough that I wouldn’t play a new Stern game without putting a protector on first.

I have them on all my Sterns and a few of my non-Sterns. I don't notice much if any difference in ball travel - but I notice a *huge* difference in the number of dimples over time (ie 0). They really make a difference in games where the ball drops onto the playfield (EHoH) or have a lot of airballs (StrTh).

I always put on clear titan rubbers when I get a new game so it's not much more effort to put the protector on.

I picked up an LE last weekend and I'm totally thrilled with this game.

However, I have big time compression artifacts (blocking) on several of the animations. The deadhead crypt in particular is very hard to read. I don't see any manual adjustments on the monitor. Has anyone else dealt with this problem?

EHoH is still in my top 3 games after owning it for a while!

I haven't seen that issue - but I would suspect the CPU node over the monitor. Swap your CPU with your IMDN and see if it goes away.

Thanks I'll give that a try and agree the monitor settings won't fix the artifacts, I was just thinking the brightness is so high is accentuating the problem. Seems a bit washed out to me.

I think your EHOH cpu board identifies your game as an LE and that's not on the SD card.

Just download sd card image from Stern website and reload it on your card first.

Rob

The vast majority of collectors, myself included, have no interest in playfield protectors. They're a hassle, they get dust underneath, and they serve no purpose, except to those who worry about dimples. But dimpling is normal and doesn't devalue a game. And pinballs are supposed to roll on wood. I say save your money.