Expression lights and the official Zombie Yeti inner side art are the two I am most looking forward to finally being released, curious about the topper but the price is likely going to be crazy 1-2k.

To those without, the expression lights add so damn much to the atmosphere of this pin alone it’s almost mandatory imo. I’m also expecting the topper to be one of their best ever. That being said, my pin funds are down after buying this and the sneak attack JP30 last year. The good news is my pin fund job is starting to heat up finally. I have a feeling I’ll want it. I keep saying I need a rotation spot pin but Foo most probably has solidified itself as a long term keeper. It’s the only pin that I have not had any amount of time go by where I do not want to play it and it’s the first modern Stern I’ve beat so it has that special place. Thanks for the heads up Stern. We’re all exited with this code update coming and I’m sure you don’t have to be told us day 1 owners see this pin as special. I hope you understand our passion for 1.0 comes from the heart. Thanks for this pin. Time to play!

Apologies I didn’t realize they came at max…. I was just dealing with another non Stern game where I had to increase flipper power to make a right ramp shot more consistent.

No doubt.

I think Stern is backing off the topper wars after the ridiculous Mando offering. Foo will probably be $1000.

Maybe they'll raise the EL pricing to $600. IF you'd buy it for 5 you'd buy it for 6 right?

I think I'll pass. I like the ELs on my ZepLE, but hey, they came with them.

Blades should be 100 bucks.

Nothing else remotely interests me, including whatever alien head plunger they come up with.

$1000 is topper with no mechics, no cool feature, no impressive sculpt. E.g. Godzilla. I won't pay 1k for a Godzilla topper.

BKSOR, Rush, Mando... Any topper with a "cool" aspect to it is 1500-2500. They'd have to really blow my mind for me to spend this much.

I'm expecting flat plastics and action figures. 1250? Meh. If there's a giant foobot I'm tempted. If it's foobot vs overlord diorama would be hard to resist. (Assuming not flat plastic)

I completely agree it needs to impress or no thanks - I am surprised nothing has leaked yet

So will these be available when they show them, and who will you guys be buying from?

I’ll get one from my distributor. It’s an excuse to take an afternoon to drive down there and play some pinball all by myself (usually).

Based on past experience with Rush and Stranger things accessories I would suggest no pre-orders and instead wait until you see stock at a distributor to order.

In both cases I watched people that ordered MONTHS after I did get their items before I received things I had paid in full for. Even as of today I still don't have my Stranger Things accessories that I paid in full for back in October while other distributors have been shipping them for weeks (if not a full month).

I don't really blame the distributors for the delays but I do hold poor communication against them and have one in particular I will never do business with again.

First world problem? Definitely.

The best I could come up with this evening

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Now we need trailers for accessory reveals?

I will never buy a topper in my life, but I would hope if you are a topper buyer that any topper would need to impress you or no thanks in general - otherwise why would you buy any of them?

Perfect timing for Foo topper and new code. I’m picking up a HUO Foo LE next weekend. Can’t wait!

Rush topper is pretty cool but the resale on it has gone down several hundred apparently.Hate to dump good money on a topper only to find it cheaper in a couple months.I do like some toppers though so who knows.

If Stern goes a similar route for Foo, I hope they learned their lesson on the pathetic lighting. My $200 Chinese acrylic lightboard topper I have on my Foo stands out far more than my official Rush topper because I can't see the damn thing. I bought the machine w/ topper from someone who had already added an extra LED strip to it, and the lighting is still totally unacceptable. I'll need to look around/come up with something better.

Speaking of lights, I finally fixed the nagging issue of the missing light on my Foo. I can't believe how stupidly easy it was to cram a little $5 Cointaker LED bonus strip in there and alligator clip it in.

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Is there a way to block the repetitive "super exclusive ad....CYUniversal...Hong Kong...Still no topper ad..."?

This add appears repeatedly and in every forum thread. First world problem, but just annoying, suspect also spam type ad "$35 OBO" for topper.

You still can play for upgrades or not even with my idea, its a single drop target bank we are not talking about any mode changes or chopping wood with tons of drops. The entire game is modes based on shooting ramps and orbits, or multi balls about shooting ramps and orbits, or wizard modes about ramps and orbits. The only mode currently using drops well is DC, this would just add it to starting a mode. Again obviously it is currently fine, you can spell VAN and shoot some ramps and the game is still incredible, this would just add in some usage by design of the most central feature on the table not just for your scoring strategies.

Last night I had a decent game on mine

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Hi all, I wanted to make a quick post here to let everyone know that I'll have my Foo Premium in my booth at TPF this year. If your going make sure to stop by and give my game a test drive with my flipper system installed.

Looking forward to meeting some of you in person

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I kinda wish they would tweak the starting modes. They just aren’t fun and all kinda feel the same. I think it’s really my only gripe about this game other than adding callouts that aren’t just from a roadie.

I do get what you’re saying and I have seen some other people say they’d like the drops or captive ball incorporated more too. Personally I like it how it is. I feel like I shoot the drops and captive ball enough already and DC is my least favorite mode in the entire game!

Different people like different things though so I’m not saying I’m right, you’re wrong, just my preference

All the modes are completely different. Honestly not sure how they could be made more different. The colors of the shots aren’t even the same.

Seattle (This Is A Call): Two shots are lit. They start on the right and move their way to the left, and then back to the right, as you shoot either one to help spread Foo Fighters music throughout Seattle. The side loop will count as 2x progress (and 2x Award increment).

Award starting value: 2M
Award increment: 400k
3x Value + 2x Progress Shot: Side Loop

Roswell (Run): The Foo Fighters (orange shot arrow on random shot) are trying to run away from the Overlord (green shot arrow). The Overlord will move towards the Foo Fighters - if he catches them you will lose mode progress so keep running!

Award starting value: 1.5M
Award increment: 150k
Single Progress Shot: Overlord (Green arrow)
3x Value + 2x Progress Shot: Foo Fighters (Orange arrow)

Los Angeles (Learn to Fly): Shoot the ramps to help the Foo Fighters learn to fly. Combo ramps for multiplied awards! The side ramp scores double what the left and right ramps score.

Award starting value: 1M
Award increment: 100k
Double Value Shot: Side ramp (will not increase the combo multiplier)
2x Progress Shots: Any ramp if you are in a combo (fast flashing)

New Orleans (I’ll Stick Around): The Foo Fighters are living it up in N’awlins! All shots start lit; shooting one will then light only that shot until you shoot it again. Side flipper shots only need to be made once, but will count as being hit twice!

Award starting value: 2M
Award increment: 200k
2x Value + 2x Progress Shots: Side loop and side ramp

Chicago (Something From Nothing): Save the people of Chicago from being reformatted! A hurry-up will start on one shot, but if you don’t hit it fast enough, it will spread to a nearby shot. Extinguishing all the shot arrows will boost the base hurry-up value, and reset it.

Award starting value: 3.5M (counts down with time)
Award increment: 500K (when you hit the solitary-lit shot)
2x Progress Shot: If only one shot is lit and you hit it, 2x progress is awarded

New York (Breakout): Shoot the spinner to draw out and destroy the spiderbots. Build the shot value with the spinner, which will also light a random shot (determined by the spinner) for 3x progress and value. Once the spinner hasn’t been hit in 3 seconds, shoot it again to collect the value.

Award starting value: 500k
Award increment: 100k per progress shot + 10k per spin during build phase
3x Value + Progress Shots: The non-spinner lane roving shot

Yeah it's kind of insane to think all the modes are samey, as Chuckwurt laid out, they all have their own flavor and truthfully if they were made any more complicated, you'd likely complain they're impossible to finish. Honestly in terms of shot choreography, foo's modes are some of the more creative ones I've seen recently.

Take Godzilla for instance, a game some consider the 'Best of All Time'. Its' main modes are incredibly simple except for maybe Megalon. It's either wamps, standups, or spinners, and those 3 modes the shots never move, it's the same order each time. Then look at Foo's ramp mode LA, you have a similar shoot the ramps idea and combo idea, but you CAN'T shoot the same ramp twice right away, you either have to combo or get control and wait the combo timer out to continue progression. It's a cool twist on a what is otherwise a basic mode.

Pinball in general is ok to have basic-ish modes, it allows casual/not-as-skilled players to have a clear objective and gives those players a sense of progression and therefore, fun! Not everything has to be overly-complicated, just like how not everything in pinball has to be babified.

It's the lack of audio visual feedback in the modes that makes them feel samey. It's a fast game so your just blazing through modes often it feels, while other games like Godzilla, each shot made is a big event in the game with light shows and video and audio callouts. Its not uncommon to be playing foo and not even realizing "oh I beat the mode?!" Cause of how poorly the audio cues especially are done.

I don't understand the "Side flipper shots only need to be made once, but will count as being hit twice!" part. So, the side ramp and side orbit shot count as a completed shot toward the mode (as if they had been hit and hit again)?

New Orleans is my go-to mode, but I never shop around for shots. It's all spinner and Overlord for me. I have always avoided using the upper flipper at all when all of the shots are lit and it's "pick your shot" time. If hitting them counts as completing them...I have been missing out.

People are allowed to have different perspectives. Let’s all slow our exasperation for a minute.

THIS. RIGHT. HERE. is why the modes “feel the same”. I have put a couple hundred games on my Foo since I got it and I’ve read the rule sheets but I still get lost in some of the modes. I have come to expect that a main mode’s shots would have a consistent color and I automatically expect those shots to be the same color as that city’s insert on the playfield… but they’re not always the same. I often forget that Roswell has different color shots if I haven’t played it in a while. Even when I do know the city mode there just isn’t enough feedback going on. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve completed a city mode and didn’t know it because I wasn’t watching the LCD (because in a game this fast how can I?).

I don’t care one bit that most of the callouts are by the roadie. I don’t need callouts by the band members because I don’t know the band well enough for that to matter [to me]. I just need more callouts to let me know what’s going on. In GZ when a monster goes down there are obvious callouts by the Controller and his minions to let me know, particularly when there’s other events overlapping that are keeping my attention. In Foo there’s really never a halt to the gameplay (which I like) but that means the game MUST DO MORE to keep the player informed. Period.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

So normally you have to hit a shot twice in NOLA to relight all the shots. Side shots only need to be hit once and they will count as two shots since they are harder.

That's the thing, in most games the modes as you progress, give essentially a story. Which is what helps the modes feel like you are achieving things besides hitting blinking lights. The lack of feedback in Foo means I'm staring at the playfield and ball and not knowing what is going on often, which is why its wild how much you miss on screen when others are playing the game, as there is a visual story on that cartoon for the game, but you have no idea what is going on while playing. Part of it is the speed of the game, it just makes things hectic and nonstop flow so we would have to rely on light and audio to tell us the story cues, but the game often lacks anything. Instead we get random callouts from Overlord about deep dish pizza

For city modes, sure you can copy/paste the way the rules are written and yes it all sounds very different. But in essence 1/2 of the modes all play pretty much the same. 3 out of 6 city modes boil down to "there are two shots lit with at least one shot moving around the playfield." And all 6 city modes only use ramps and orbit lanes. And a spinner count is never used.

IMO, they could be made more different by mixing in a requirement for even one shot to drops, a target, or captive ball. And maybe put in count up for spinner shots anywhere in the game. Just my preference though.

Right now you can make it through the entire game by never deliberately shooting for drops, targets, or captive ball, or trying to build the spinner to a certain count. Anything you need targets for (Sonic Radio & Bot Frenzy) will just be started accidentally along the way while you play modes and multiballs.

So I don't think it's unreasonable that some people (including me) may think the city modes feel a bit same-y when they're looked at in terms of their fundamental structure and what elements of the playfield they require you to shoot.

Even Deadpool, which isn't very deep code, mixes in drops for one of the 3 battles. Deadpool is a fun game with simpler code, and it has more variety to it than Foo and it also used great sounds and callouts.

There definitely needs to be variety of code depth in all games for the market though. There's nothing wrong at all with having simpler games like Foo, but for me those are better to play occasionally on location vs having them at home. And if Foo code doesn't end up holding my interest then it's on me for making a bad decision to buy it & lesson learned.

I'm hoping the new code makes some good improvements, especially on some fundamental things like some bad insert lighting which hasn't been corrected in a year of updates so far.

Which three would these be?

I definitely agree the game needs more feed back for the mode shots and the final shot.

Not sure what this means. NY used the spinner to build the value of the mode shots.

Yes and yes. And they never really incorporated theme into the shots used. It's just mechanical patterns to the shots. Each shot is named after a band member though. So why not use that more in the theme of the shots needed for modes?

Maybe Dave needs to drive the van somewhere, so hit the Dave shot. Now you've driven there and Pat & Rami have to do something, so hit both of those shots. Now you have to smash a bot, so hit a bot target. Now Nate has to shoot at a UFO, so hit the Nate shot followed by the captive ball.

This would bring the theme/story into the modes by weaving the band member shot names into it.

They've instead used a more mechanical approach to the shot pattern in the modes. Again, that's their choice to design it how they want to. But, again, my thinking is if you're going to have simpler code in modes then you need to really amp up the other things in the game like callouts, sounds, and lighting to make it fun enough and interesting enough to want it at home.

NY, Seattle, and Roswell are the three with 2 shots lit with at least one moving around.

Yes in NY it builds value but there's no spin count involved anywhere in the game. You don't have to build value, it's optional. You can hit it once and then be done with it for the mode.

In Godzilla. for example, you have to hit each spinner to a certain count in Ebirah. In Led Zeppelin, you have to hit a certain spinner count for one of the Tour modes. In Jaws you have to hit a spinner count as part of a bounty.

In Foo, you don't ever have to hit the spinner a certain number of times to make progress anywhere. Except in NY you technically have to hit it at least one spin.

NY has spinner lit, and one other shot that roves or doesn’t rove based on if the spinner is spinning or not

Seattle only ever has two shots lit, and they move to the left each time you make one

Roswell has various shots lit with one shot that moves around the playfield to eat band members. Think JP paddocks.

Sounds like you also love spinner count modes. I do too. Foo definitely doesn’t have one. Just various opportunities to use the spinner to increase your score or shot values.

Welcome to pinball. “Shoot the lit shots.”

It’s pinball. The modes are the same but different.

No complaints from me they are distinctive enough that it starts to sink in the more you play it.

Game has a very 90s vibe to me, of course with a bit more depth. I’ve said it before, after banging on Bond for a year with its 18-24 modes, it’s nice to be playing one with 6. I’ve beaten the game a half dozen times now and it keeps me coming back.

Like a 90s game.

Yes for NY it has the spinner and one other shot lit. So 2 shots lit at all times. Both spinner and the other lit shot make progress in the mode (spinner after 3 seconds).

Roswell only has one Orange and one Green shot lit at a time. They move around, but only 2 shots are lit at a time. And very different from JP paddocks. I own both games. JP paddocks require you to hit rescues, then set a trap at at target, then hit the helicopter shot to send the helicopter, then hit the dinosaur while the helicopter is in the air to capture it. There's a night & day comparison in how theme is woven into the modes for JP paddocks vs Roswell.

Seattle is the most straightforward mechanical of the three Foo cities I mentioned, with two shots lit side by side at all times.

Yes spinners are fun and it's good when they're incorporated into games in different ways whether it's using count or other ways. Doesn't always have to be spinner counts, but make a couple or a few fun uses out of them. JP and Godzilla have inserts for spinner buildup, and GZ also uses spinner count. Other games have spinner counts & buildups. Foo spinner is just plain underused whether it's from the standpoint of making it required somewhere or just adding a burst of fun somewhere in the game.

You win!

Nah, there’s no win or lose. People have different preferences and there are different games for those preferences. But it’s all pinball and fun.

I did not know that....I thought it was: All shots lit, you hit one of them and then it's the only one lit. You hit it and it goes back to all of them lit again. Like, pick your shot, hit that shot, pick your shot, hit that shot. I knew you couldn't back-to-back pick the same shot to hit, but I had never noticed having to hit a designated shot more than one time. I guess I have just been hitting the lit shots and not counting them.

I was able to post my GC score just now. So close to $1B. Argh

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Get you some!

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I was thinking, some of the more interesting and best sounding albums of the 90’s were the unplugged recordings. Strip out all the Distortion and get to the soul of the music. Perhaps once you make a milestone you can unlock “unplugged” mode where you can access the acoustic live cuts of the songs. Likewise Atari mode for the 8-Bit lovers. Preferably tie it to your IC profile or wizard and configurable option. It is a music pin after all let’s have more music!

I’ll take all bot frenzy music all the time

Its very cool but I think that this is better

Awesome write up and breakdown of the modes thank you! I didn’t realise they were so different, I now know what I was doing wrong. Does the hurry up shot in Chicago continue to spread from one lit shot, to two, then to three lit shots if you don’t make the initial shot in time?

Yes I believe so.

It’s gotta be the way I play then. I just take loaded vans and a bomb or 3 in and finish in like 2 shots but it feels like the last shot is always the overlord?

Yes. Every mode has a final collect at the overlord once you’ve completed all the mode’s tasks.

Great thank you I will keep an eye on that.

That is a throwback to Deadpool (Tanio’s first game on code lead) where you have the final shot/hit collect on the villain.