Got my pro this morning! Sucky thing is, i had to come to work soon as it was set up, so only got a handful of games in on it. Looking forward to going home tonight to battle a little deeper.

I will note the clear coat finish on my GB looks great. not seeing those wood grain issues like some others had posted in some photos. Still not sure if those were real issues, or just a weird reflection from a textured ceiling?

Has anyone gotten midnight madness mode? Is there a setting that needs to be enabled for it to work? I am pretty sure we should have gotten it, as we manually set the clock to 11:57 pm last night and started playing a game past the 12:00 mark and nothing happened?

got my Ghostbusters Pro on Monday. Some minor issues I've noticed so far over the last 2 days. these seem to be fresh out-of-the-box issues

- Slimer initially required a perfectly timed and direct hit to trigger him. Since we've played a number of games, its gotten much better, but occasionally he'll register a hit if the machine gets nudged enough. I've seen folks making adjustments to this, and generally seems like an easy fix.

- Ball one rollover switch in the Triple Newton Ball Library. If i knock 1 ball up and around, maybe 1 out of 10 times, the switch doesnt register its been pressed down, and wont release the ball after you've drained. If its 2 or more its never a problem. I believe this to be a very simple wire adjustment on the rollover.

- Flippers seem generally ok, lots of power and responsive. But if there is a fast ball looping counter clockwise around the orbit and i have the left flipper up ready to catch it, it will hit and then springboard the ball back up the playfield. This also happens on the right flipper occasionally if it gets hit hard enough. My understanding is this might be just an EOS switch adjustment? Can anyone chime in here if they've experience something similar? its been an issue from the very first games we first played played since monday, but hasnt been annoying us enough yet.

Now that everybody has had their games for a few days, has anyone noticed their playfield getting pitted damage from air balls? Here is an example from someone who had the issue with their Kiss

I've got a bit of the pitting happening out in the middle of the playfield on my GB, not quite that bad, but it's also not getting the plays like that on-location Kiss in the video. My Data East doesn't have any pitting like that at all that I've ever noticed.

Ok, good to know. This is my first NIB, and I guess I've never paid as much attention to the playfields fine detail on location Stern machines that I've played recently.

I have set my clock up for midnight madness and been playing when midnight struck and still haven't seen this mode happen. I'm not sure if some other setting needs to be enabled, but there was a setting in a menu that stated midnight madness was enabled. I am wondering if it simply starts if you're in the middle of your game when the clock hits midnight or if there is some shot in the game that needs to be made to activate the midnight madness mode, or if I am simply overlooking some other setting in the menus

Supposed to be a multi ball mode, has its own score keeping so there can be a midnight madness champ score separate from regular scores

Just posted our Ghostbusters Pro review, we unbox it, go over the playfield a bit and have about 90 minutes of candid 2 and 3 player games.

Yes, the left scoop is well protected. Even the ramps have good entrance coverage. I'd probably put a little mylar in and around the right saucer for the long run.

The review video was on day one, the air balls and jumping is not so bad now. It really calms down after 50 or so games, we've even waxed it since then. Its fun, it totally has the one more game appeal going for it, for me at least. On the night we filmed the review, I had one ball totally jump out of the machine, i caught it before it rolled out onto the floor. I dont think ive had anything hit the glass now since then.

Where do i find the new update? Don't see it on the website under the GP Pro Code download.

Never mind, i found it here http://www.sternpinball.com/game-code/game-code-ghosbuster-pro

hopefully this fixes the little spring boarding issue with my flippers! We had determined that it was not the EOS, and when Stern had been contacted about it, they advised to wait for the update before swapping any switches out. My distributor had reported the same issue on some of his Ghostbusters he had at a show over the weekend.

Wait, so now if i hit the 3 captive balls it will switch my flippers? not sure I like that. hopefully can be turned off, though i will try it out a bit first. I guess it will give me practice for Mass hysteria multiball

Ok, so during Mass Hysteria if I can hit the captive balls, it'll change back and forth. i can see that really messing with that mode, cause you'll be just flapping at balls constantly, so disorienting, but i guess it'll knock down the crazy massive scores in that mode.

Let us know how it goes, if there are any hiccups in the update process, etc.

I was really hating Ghostbusters at home about this time last week after playing a crapload of pinball at the YEGPin Expo in Edmonton all weekend. I was just having terrible terrible drainy games. Maybe i was tired, and just forcing myself to play because i had this shiny new thing in my gameroom that needed to be played. It was bad enough that i was swearing at the game, and wishing i had ordered a Metallica instead. I took a day off and got some rest and went back with a clear and calm head. The root of not draining in this game i feel now is definitely mastering those dead flips. Now i feel i have a good grip on how the ball bounces when its coming down to the flippers. uncontrolled flipping is just gonna end up with a mess of the ball bouncing between the slings and flying down the outlanes. I had some of my best games over the weekend and it brought my love for the game back in a big way. I managed to finally get a grip on multi ball again after the 1.04 updates and pulled off Mass Hysteria and put up a score of nearly a billion, and got to see some modes I hadn't been able to get to before.

Adjustments we've made to the game so far were moving the out lane posts down a notch, realigning the cable in the Slimer mech, and adding an extra ball to the Symmetrical book stacking unit. I havent noticed much for airballs lately, but when i do get them, its usually from them bouncing hard off the 2x and 3x multiplier targets on either side of the left ramp. I'm not getting much bouncing over the return guides into the outlanes, but when i have had a bounce there, usually its been on the right hand side, and it simply bounces over back into the shooter lane and relaunches the ball.

Absorbs some of the pressure against the wire guide along the unit from bending. Will help prevent the captive ball from getting stuck if the wire guide bends too much. mine was bent slightly before, but was never getting stuck, though it may have just been a matter of time.

I've had some luck that if i see there is a drain SDTM that i can't hit, i'll flip both flippers a couple times and let go and hope that the underside of the flipper connects with the ball if it bounces off the bottom and sometimes it'll bounce back up enough to put it back into play!

If anybody is interested in the Midnight Madness mode, had it tonight and captured on video. that mode always freaks me out when it activates and everything suddenly dies on me.

We discovered last night, if the game is sitting in attract mode at midnight, it will do the clock gong sounds 12 times, and if you start a game within that minute, you can still play midnight madness mode!

Right Captive ball at least triggers these things...

1. Scoleri Brothers
2. Terror Dog Hurry-Up
3. Terror Dog Hurry-Up (again)
4. Gozer the Gozerian Hurry-Up

I've had the extra ball in the symmetrical book stacking feature for about 2 weeks now. I haven't noticed the rail bending any further. I didn't find it hard to hit & trigger it originally, and certainly no different since I added the extra ball.

I had Mass Hysteria Multi Ball yesterday, totally confusing with the reversed flippers, you can see me do a couple dumb drains before i realize the flippers had switched back and forth. I wish maybe they would say some audible cue exactly when the flippers have switched to reversed and back again.

getting far enough into the game to get that Mass Hysteria mode is a challenge in itself. I doubt 95% of casual folks who play it on location will ever get it. I dont mind the flippers getting switched, i'd just like a better cue of when that has happened. when multi ball is happening, I'm focusing on the lower 1/3 of the game to make sure i'm not draining, 2 of my highest scores have come as a result of getting to Mass Hysteria mode. My highest score being nearly 900 million. i will get better at the reversed flippers eventually. thats just the way the game tries to shake you off its back so someone else can play. Ha!

what did they change about the outlanes? taller rails? any pics you can share?

Would it have been cooler to have Annie Potts screaming "Super Jackpot" and calling you "Junior". I think so.

I see the 1.05 Code for the Pro has been updated on Sterns website

New:
- Added a River of Slime Feature. Each time you shoot the right orbit you will
build the value and start a timer on the right eject. Shooting the right
eject will collect the built value.
- Storage Facility will now light for one lock on 10, 30, and 50 ghost caught.
- Collecting ghost will show how many needed to light Storage Facility.
- Added an adjustment to allow speech to be censored.
- Added Speech to super jackpot
- Added Speech to We came we saw start

Fixes:
- Bonus Held would give extra bonus if on ball 3 and the player had an extra
ball.
- Changed the name of SPEECH and MUSIC VOLUME adjustments to SPEECH and MUSIC
ATTENUATION
- Removed Backbox and Cabinet volume adjustments
- 0X bonus multiplier will no longer be awarded from the pop bumpers.
- Removed two switches reporting false errors.

Tweaks:
- Flippers are turned off during Negative Reinforcement
- When Negative Reinforcement stops doubling the message reflects this.

I'm not digging Ernies super jackpot call outs so far... Needs more screaming and throaty growl to it.

I'm liking the 1.05 code now. Ernies call outs are growing on me a little. Just had an insane game, got Storage Facility Multiball going, then midnight madness happened, and then Mass Hysteria went off all at once...Ernie couldn't keep up! Lost count of a few extra balls I managed to get. Final score 1,184,021,510. I might have also had a seizure with the light show that was going off!

Its called value pricing, and people perceive magnets to be cooler than plain old kicker slings. Also, factor in the man hours for programming the magna slings to work the way they do, and there is your higher cost.

Anybody with a Pro, what # is on your play field? (#X of Y) and is your Negative Reinforcement insert misspelled or no?

Mine has a sticker on the edge of the play field, just to the left of the ball trough that says #130 of 510 and also says "Harold Pro", not sure what the Harold thing is all about?

I have the spelling error, and my cabinet has a built date of April 13.

Playfield_(resized).png

That crossed my mind too. Wonder if there are other names on batches of playfields for pros, or the premiums/LEs

I am pretty sure it has its own little loop of music, as seen here in this video

I haven't heard this track in any other modes yet

so all the folks with regular billion + scores. What is your scoring strategy?

be good at the left ramp shot - CHECK!
be good at the right ramp shot - I'll need to work on this a little.

my best scores are 950 mill to 1.4 billion. On my best games I've not focused on completing the story modes, and generally try to avoid them, unless I accidently start one. My big beef is the modes with the right ramp shot.... i'm just still very bad at getting it. Also with the story modes, they're timed so I panic and blow my chance to finish the right ramp shots where they're required. lately I've been focusing on 5x bonus on the skill shot or the Light Playfield multipliers. I'll try to hold off on starting the multipliers until I get a decent super jackpot ready to cash out, or almost ready to start a multi ball. quite often I can get Loopin supers started during my storage facility multi ball, and I can get a pretty good rhythm of left ramp shots going, and it makes the multi ball a little easier to deal with because most of the balls are tied up for a second or so while working their way back through to the return .

If I start slimer, I'll hit him once and clean up the slime, do it a 2nd time and continue cleaning up, and then hit the book stacking captive ball to start terror dog/gozer/scolari brothers. Shoot the scoops to build jackpots when I can. if I get a good loop of left ramp shots going, I'll try to keep it going and can get 10-15 million points off a gear award a few times during a game.

PKE frenzy is pretty good if I can hit it during multi ball. Basically be good at Multi ball and collecting ghost shots I would say is my strategy.

As far as the story modes go, I've finished the middle ladder, and only half way through the right ladder, and cant seem to do much on the Back off Man mode on the left Library ladder, I always fizzle out. Tough game, but I like it a lot. Its been getting a break this week, since I just got a Metallica Pro on the weekend and that's been keeping me busy.

I finally got my replacement springs installed for the Scolari brother drop targets last night.... what a difference! Easy to install, just watch you dont drop the tiny springs like i did and had to crawl around on the floor with a flashlight for 10 minutes.

Once thing i noticed now is how many more times you can knock them down during Storage Facility Multiball. If they get hit in any direction, they pretty much drop. They do not drop from vibrations/shaker motor/nudges, so that is good. I also adjusted the 2x playfield multiplier target while I had the playfield up, it was slightly tilted from the factory, and while it worked ok, it was also sort of sticking out a bit into the left orbit and I think was catching a lot of my shots to the left orbit. Feels a lot smoother shooting through the orbit now!

Those e clips on shafts always elude me too, you take your time, you're being careful as you pull it off, but they always going flying across the room. i try to pull'em with pliers usually, sometimes that still not enough. Also, my eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be. usually i just tell my kids 'find this part for me on the floor and I'll pay you a quarter!'

I really felt like they would be too tight when i first put them on, but I gave it a shot. I still have the old springs in case they start doing something weird. But after about 10 games, they seem ok to me so far.

Do they go in the outlanes? I think they have a piece of plastic that mounts to the top and slows the ball down when it’s exiting so you can’t deathsave.

897C7D8E-9292-4B0E-8930-AD4545C17BD7 (resized).jpeg

Could be a stuck switch somewhere, or perhaps just needing a tiny bit of adjustment. The vibration of the trough kicking the next ball into the shooter lane could be triggering a leaf switch somewhere on the game, which causes the game to think the ball is now in play, and then sees its in the shooter lane, so will end up auto launching it back into play.

Put the game in switch test mode and jostle the machine around a little bit and see if something is registering as too sensitive, or do a gentle touch test of all the targets/switches, might help you narrow in on the problem.

I usually would keep the scream turned on for parties as it was always a good laugh when it would happen. Sometimes I would forget to disable it. A couple years ago, my nephew who was 3 at the time was checking out my GB when the scream went off. He is permanently scarred of ever going in my basement again!

I remember as well a while back my wife and I went to a quiet restaurant on an early Saturday afternoon to get some lunch. The only other patrons in the place were 2 little old ladies. The restaurant had a room of pinball machines, and the Ghostbusters did not have the scream turned off. Well you should have seen these old ladies faces when that scream fired off... they looked horrified like they had just witnessed a murder. They gave me a nasty look as I came out of the game room, like I was the reason some woman screamed at the top of her lungs. Good times with the Fright mode!

I've seen a few people ask about the cat being removed. What is the reasoning behind this request?

But why just remove the cat? The whole machine was designed by him. Seems like if you have a problem with anything tied to the designer, you'd probably realign your moral compass by just selling the machine off entirely? Getting hung up on the small details like the cat just seems like silly nitpicking at this point.

Over the 3+ years the game has been out, I've heard way more people acknowledge the designers flipper 'gap' (by his name) on this title than the cat in the Ecto Goggles trivia. Guess we should delete the flipper gap then too. Bet there's a lot more stuff in the game that screams the designers name than the cat. How about all the guys who own an LE with the designers signature on it... the guy literally touched their playfield and left his mark on it with ink, frozen in time, protected by a sub par application of Sterns best clear coat from 2016! Better sandpaper those off we're at it! See? the Cat thing just seems silly when you think of all the other stuff now. Best to just forget it and move on. As far as I'm concerned, this is Dwight and the rest of the teams game now.

You know what drain I get ALL the time, and it drives me bonkers on this game... sometimes the ball will come very quickly through the left return and i barely have time to flip at it and end up accidentally shatz'ing it up through the right return up and out, it then bounces off the rubber just to the bottom right of the Storage Facility eject and floats gracefully and perfectly over into the left outlane. It happens so fast, you feel like you got robbed.

Quite a few folks having an issue with the 1.17 install. some got it to work with some combination of rebooting and power cycling, but i have not been able to get it to do anything beyond what you described. I've upgraded sooo many Spike machines in the last few years, so this is totally strange and bizarre to me. Obviously something up with this code update. I think instead of fiddling with it trying to get it to work, I'm going to wait a few days and see if Stern responds to this, or someone finds a verified workaround.

this is just silly... having 6 different sticks before success? I guess it would be helpful if Stern could guide us on the specs for the USB stick if there is such a restriction now. Should it be a certain size? formatted a certain way? For example, Update for some JJP games only works if the stick is no more than 16GB in size. I've always used the same stick for my Spike games and never had a problem before.

So far with this GB 1.17 update attempt, I've used my main 8 GB stick that is formatted Fat 32, and another that was 4 GB Fat 32 with the same results. The SPK file is like 1.1 GB.

There are Ghostbusters fans that are crazier than a lot of us Pinball collectors! When searching twitter once for anybody talking about Ghostbusters pinball, I realized that just about every city in North America has a local Ghostbusters chapter/enthusiast group. These folks dress up and do the comic cons and a lot of them deck out their vehicles with GB stuff. I think a good portion of them even do charity work and whatnot.