I wish I wasn’t a moth to flame for mirrored backglass

Like most other comparisons Bond60th to PFLE isn’t really fair, there will be thousands of PFs out there including non LEs but only 500 total of the 60th. Overall pricing on Stern LEs is a bit of a kick to the crotch. Can’t help thinking we’re being bled to help keep pro prices low.

Hey great idea with the diffusers! But does it still scan or do you need to cut a hole in the middle?

Scans perfectly!

You're crazy, the corvette is much better than a Ferrari

Good point (on exclusivity), but I still think comparisons with other modern/retro games is fair. Shit, Quentin Tarantino was personally involved and the number of callouts give PF a personality that is second to none. The software has been baking for years...feels polished, not rushed (like Bond 60th). While Stern has been critical of Bond licensing, CGC partnered with QT (and it shows in the artwork, gameplay).

The bottomline is this...collectors are bidding up PFLE's (a game many months from being produced!) while many Bond 60th's are sitting in warehouses (and there is some chatter that Stern might not complete the entire run if games continue to "sit"). Exclusivity only means something if the product is highly desired by collectors. Can't imagine how poor the sales would be if KME weren't involved. KME's layout is really the only compelling feature of the game...no callouts, video content or graphics. Sure PF doesn't have video content, but the callouts and tunes give you all the imagery you need to be immersed in the game/movie.

Yes, those 5.25" speaker plates are the best / cleanest way to convert your Premium to 5.25" and prep for the lights. And Doug sells them to you dirt cheap when you buy one of his light kits, so it's kind of a no-brainer. Plates aren't needed for an LE but I used them on both of my other Premium machines and the plate swap is easy when done as part of the light kit install.

I hope we get more future Stern games like FF without any pop bumpers.

They’re a staple of pinball, I get it, but when they’re clustered in the back of the game and don’t randomize the ball enough to pose a risk of a drain (AIQ and Stern JP, while I like them, are guilty of this), to me it feels like a waste of playfield space and parts.

Yep, and a waste of time when you are playing. Just played AC/DC and the ball will bop around the bumpers for quite awhile and then dribble out the center. I think the lack of pops is one of the reasons I'm finding FFLE so brutal...non-stop action.

this 100%!

Little question for some of you owners, does the overlord come with a middle finger “flipping the bird” hand plastic?

I plan on getting my Foo once the wife has had both of her major ops this year as a get well present for her as she’s a big FF fan and I want the pin too haha

Definitely wasn’t talking down PFLE, I have one on order. PFLE is definitely up in value before it has even been built. Bond 60th has gone the other direction initially (maybe more due to the stupid “call for pricing” way it was sold). I like the code on Bond 60th, maybe I’d miss callouts more if I liked the Bond theme more not sure. Gameplay is amazing and I like the sound package. The art in person is a lot nicer than I expected from the pictures.

With PF all I had to hear was Samuel L Jackson’s voice and the music and I was in . The theme sold me and I’m hoping I’ll love the layout and code (they looked good on the dead flip stream).

Yes you need those. I didn’t have originally and had to order.

I'd like to get a little consensous on whether I should write a ticket for this with Stern..I normally don't go to these lengths, but if the playfield was 20% less 'milky', I wouldn't complain at all..but seeing this last night; hard to unsee it now. It's more glazed over than any Spike 2 machine I have (by a long-shot!). I'd love for peeps to show the shimmer (or lack of) of their playfields, to compare.

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Pops are overrated. I was looking at my collection and 5 of my 12 games have 1 or fewer pop bumpers. Shadow and FF have 0, and R&M, GZ, and Stars have 1.

I see you found a fix, could you post a pic, or maybe be more specific so I can see how to adjust it?

Thank you.

As JH315 mentioned, you will probably need to buy the 5.25" speaker plates.

To mount the 5.25" light kits, the 5.25" speakers and light kit need to be mounted on 5.25" plates. An adapter to mount the 5.25" speakers to a 4" speaker plate will not do.

You may also want to get a set of the color 5.25" speaker surrounds. Thay are not needed, but most people do use them with that type of light kit:

http://www.speakerlightkits.com/5.25-SPIKE-2-Speaker-Surrounds.html

I hope that helps,

Doug (SpeakerLightKits.com)

Doug when you upgrade a premium to the le speakers, acrylic rings etc do the new speakers just bolt down onto the 5.25 plates or should there be a spacer used? Thank you.

For one, I would recommend turning your attract mode lighting down to about 85%. I find it provides better color saturation of the display art and cuts down the playfield glare. Also run the backbox lighting at 40% game brightness to completely eliminate that side glare you're seeing Here is what I see in my machine with different angles and lighting... Hope it helps. I haven't been this lucky on all Sterns but I feel like I hit the playfield Lottery on this one

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Is this a general recommendation for improvement of all Stern titles or just FF?

Just something I do on all my games which are mostly in dark environments and I play with the lights out... So to my eyes the 85% attract lighting looks perfect color wise and almost completely removed overhead glare during gameplay with the 40% setting... It's subjective and based on your ambient light around your machines and your specific playstyle and preference but definitely worth playing around with to see what works for you

Did everybody get all band members in the goody bag for the premium? I only got five and of course the one that wasn’t there was Dave. I would’ve love to have the middle finger plastic but no need for it on the premium.

I got them all but Taylor on LE

Here's the Type 13 kit from DugFreez in my Bond Prem with 5.25" speakers. The stack is:
-5.25" speaker mounting plates
-Color acrylic ring speaker surround
-5.25" speaker

I simply removed the original prem speaker plate in its entirety, I didn't even unbolt the original 4" speakers from them since I needed the new 5.25" plates for the upgraded speakers anyway. Easy install.

One really nice feature of Doug's speaker kits is that he includes a 110v power supply to run them that connects to the mains so you aren't loading a node board, etc.

No clearance issues at all and great light from the speaker.
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The thin rectangular foam sheet? I took it out with the Type 13 round speaker lights, but you will probably want to use it if you use one of his Flamin' Frames speaker light kits.

I think I shared this pic earlier in the thread as well, but here's the Type 13 kit with Pinwoofer 5.25" speaker,no foam and the stack as pictured above, in my Bond Prem.
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LEs are about bling, no dispute there. However, this statement is generally wrong if we're talking about premiums. Specifially for Foo Fighters, there's a pretty large difference.

At least one Foo Pro/Premium difference ABSOLUTELY affects gameplay. On the Pro, Area51 multiball is a freebie, a gimme, no skill required - hit the right ramp over and over. On the Premium you have to finish the upper targets, loop the mini playfield on the inside shot a number of times, until a diverter pops up revealing a secret target that you have to loop to the outside of the mini playfield to hit, starting the multiball. That's a SUBSTANTIAL difference in gameplay that definitely affects the gameplay in a fundamental way.

Iron Maiden Pro/Premium is similar. The Pro mummy shot is a gimme (much easier) shot on an open playfield to the captive ball next to the center ramp. On the Premium, you have to shoot through the pop bumpers up the left ramp to lock the ball in the mummy. Premium requires more consistent skill.

Sorry for chiming in on your behalf, Doug. Please feel free to correct or add info I may have missed.

Hardest shot in IMDN, at least for me!

These brackets (which were pre-installed) don't work (even after tightening)...after 30 games or so, the switch is way off center. Sad the design is flawed. If anyone else knows of a mod that works for this, please let us know. The "bot" targets take a pounding on this game and it would be great if they didn't move so quickly.

Why wouldn't they? Area51 is a freebie on the Pro - just keep spamming the right ramp. No skill required. If you're trying to win a tournament, easier is better. But for home? Make me work for it and entertain me while you do it.

The two screws holding the target (not the playfield to switch ones) have to be VERY tight...i take a normal length nut driver and get it hand tight ...then position the target it exactly where I need it, then use a long driver and precise bit, which provides alot of torque, to tighten ...and I mean tight...use a glove on the hand holding the target as you may cut your hand from the pressure is how tight I'm talking..you can use some blue loctite also...haven't had a problem in over 400 games after I tightened them up the first time

Anybody know of shooter housing plates for Foo fighters? Tiltgraphics has one, but I’m not a fan of it. Thank you!!!

Would you make a video for us where you hit that ramp five times in a row please? Or even, 5 out of ten, during gameplay? I must be terrible at pinball.

I sold the Pro. Only have the LE now. But if I DID have the Pro, it wouldn't be 5 times in a row (ball returns to the right flipper, so you need to get it to the left again to repeat the shot), but it would be 5 hits in pretty short order. It's not that hard at all. When I initially got it, I kept thinking "how/why did that multiball start?" because it just...happens. Turns out it's the right ramp, that's it.

I'm still waiting for what, specifically, you don't like about the Premium. You made a blanket statement with zero details to support it.

Jesus christ pal, the playfield sucks and I hate how it blocks some of ball paths. When I'm up there it bores me to tears. As I said previously and told people I'd stop boring them with these details. I played a pro, ordered a premium, played the premium, canceled it and changed to the pro.

Now let us never speak of it again to put other people out of their misery with my opinion on the matter.

On point, it IS Sunday.

HOW? This is another blanket statement. The mini playfield has a bunch of shots on it. What sucks about that?

Specifically, what important thing is it blocking? I count ZERO. It's over a ramp entrance and an orbit. That's it. Is there some important thing I'm missing?

Maybe you just don't know what you're shooting for? It's a really well-integrated mini playfield that actually changes as you progress with the diverter that pops up when you qualify it so you can start Area51. That's cool and unique.

You've provided almost NO details. No one is bored with the details you haven't provided. The blanket "it just sucks" is the boring part.

We haven't heard any DETAILS of your opinion. Just "it sucks" over and over. That's the misery. Support your opinion with details of what you find awful and regressive about the Premium. You don't like the targets? The spinner isn't fun? Who would DARE put a fun diverter blocking an important target on a mini-playfield? That kind of stuff. "I didn't know what to do up there" can be fixed, if that was your complaint.

Why are you so insistent your opinion is right and mine is wrong? I mean, you own a gnr... so that shows we both have shit opinions... please let this die.

I generally dislike playfields with one flipper. It sucks. It bores me. The only upper playfields I tend to like are tspp, shadow, pirates and tz. I'm taken froma dynamic awesome flowing playfield to one that you have to do random variations of loops on over and over on. It immediately took me away from the fun of the game. I went to location where I played the pro first and excitedly showed the premium to a friend, only for that initial magic to go away. I hated it. I was let down by what it covered up. I was let down by how it slowed down the sweet ass unique shots to go to a sterile loop the the loop the loop and hits the a few targets. Weeeeee! Is that okay? Is it? Please be satiated by my answer so we can move on.

You can have an opinion. I have no problem with that. Point is, I was waiting to HEAR your specific opinion which you, for some reason, seemed very shy about coughing up. That's it. It's not a mystery.

You have to really crank down the screws holding it to the target (not the playfield) TIGHT! Long nut driver is helpful.

The skill is knowing when to start it. On the Pro you hit it 4 times and get it flashing and then you avoid it until after you start a mode. Once you start a city mode (or even bot frenzy) you have a perfect feed to your left flipper to nail the right ramp and start the stack. On the Premium you need to purposefully let it drain to the lower once you get it setup on top and then hope you are able to start it the first time after starting a mode. If it takes 2 or 3 hits up that ramp to get it started that takes away from your valuable mode time where you should be concentrating on your mode shots. Yes it's more challenging to control when and how you start the MB and if you're able to stack it. This can be either a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it.

In a tournament I could see avoiding that ramp altogether and instead focusing on the level 2 and 3 Overlord MB's for your stack since those are easier to control when and how they start. I haven't played enough of the Premium but are there shots that are unique to the modes that are needed on that upper playfield or can you just ignore it? If you shoot the right ramp and miss it with that upper flipper you aren't gaining progress towards the MB. This was a frustration that was shared by one of my friends playing in the tournament and why he prefers playing the Pro. Yes you need Area 51 for FooBot MB but in a tournament that isn't really relevant. I think I would avoid it and try to work towards DC which is where you can build a lot of points and can be done using only the lower playfield.

There are shots up there that work in modes, but I think they are alternates on the bottom playfield. I don't remember any where you HAD to hit a mini-pf shot to advance a city mode. If there were, you could use the action button to have it qualify the shot for you (if the button is ready). If you do nothing, the shot passes through the mini-pf like it would on the pro. Speed is similar.

Personally, I'd hate to have the game without the Upper Playfield, and other pieces that come with the LE. I get it though, different strokes for different folks. My thought is, price is a weird argument on for/against a certain model of any pinball machine...if you have money to spend 7k on a Pro model, you have money for any of them, the hobby is expensive regardless of the level you're buying in at.

Mines this nice, thankfully
I only have one Spike playfield w lines and it’s a Deadpool I bought in ‘18

Just had the most amazing Deadpost gameplay moment:

Drained lightning fast out the left outlane...my insticts lifted the left flipper and the ball jumped to the right flipper quickly as it's designed...then I quick flipped to save another ball with a right slap save that was headed down the drain at the same time my quick flip hit the left ramp post and rocketed down the left outlane again, but since it happened so quickly the Deadpost was still up and the ball had so much speed it hopped and continued to roll and kiss the right inlane target for a 2x boost on top of my 2x playfield modifier i had going, then it was 1 hit to the Overlord to complete the mode with the stacked multiplier bonus...

It was lightning fast and the craziest thing I have ever witnessed in pinball...literally a outlane double orbit...Man I love this machine so much

#58 is in play guys! Fantastic 900 mile round trip journey to get her … well worth it!

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