You certainly have posted this same hyperventilating "bullet list" every two pages on any GB thread lol... I like your enthusiasm
but since you haven't played the game... are you getting a Stern kickback per post? THEN this might make sense

Naaah I'm just kidding but how about some balance from people that have actually played the game? Constant side to side drains, dribble down the middle drains, balls jumping the outlane rails and draining, right ramp damn near impossible to hit cleanly, only seeing the first three modes because you have to actually COMPLETE the modes to continue...yadda yadda and so on.

I'm not saying any of these issues doom the game or can't be overcome but why hype others into buying something sight unseen until we get a better feel for the whole package?? Hence my Stern kickback quip... only THEY benefit from buyers buying into hype before actually playing one on location. And from the reports from people that have played the game on location... they won't be that hard to find in the wild.

Don't post much.

lol no enjoy yourself. Some of us have been around since the early days of RGP and that had the truly unmoderated "I'll be coming to your home to kick your ass" kinda comments. Ahh the memories

It's more like a kid's birthday party over here... mainly fun with the occasional crying fit.

It's not when you play when it's noise is an issue. It's when the machine is sitting there droning away. I'm sure Stern bulk bought the cheapest and noisiest fans they could so it may be as simple as putting in a larger, slower rotating fan. I'm hoping some industrious
pinhead who's also irritated by unneeded noises comes up with a cheap kit.

On another note... do we have the usual right or left flipper buzz and chatter when held like older Sterns? I thought somehow they caught up with WMS from 20 years ago and finally had dual wound coils?

Yeah I followed that earlier but it still seems like more of a discussion than a final solution. Final report seems to be to mount fans in the backbox to prevent Stern's buzzomatic from kicking in. Still it's doable.

You'd think with the cool LED's producing less heat and using less power you could just pull the fan leads... It's not like it's going on location and be on and played 16 hrs a day. I'd probably find a way to monitor the temp and see if the constant fan is even needed in a home environment.

Yeah but somebody here posted there are only two leads going to each flipper... buzzing single coil. I thought with GOT they had advertised the new flipper system so I'm not sure why they would go backwards?

I just figured with all the people that had played it or now own one they would notice the buzz... though it usually doesn't start out right away. The coil stop has to take a little abuse first.

I've also never found away to completely eliminate it - you can monkey around with the stop and it will subside for a bit but it always comes back...

Yeah they don't buzz on TRON either so maybe my last gen TSPP or regular run LOTR were the last of the "buzzers". Must be why nobody complains about it anymore I figured maybe I just hadn't noticed the buzz when playing newer Stern's on location.

Thanks for the reply

lol. Hey be careful for what you wish for!

I just got TWD Premium (PF made in march I think) and the balls were nice. Shiny and perfect. Like "bought from Pinball Life, Marco, etc" nice. It seems at least in THIS area Stern got their act together.

Just hanging a little bit lower!

Not sure why you would want any other Spike games as they fry your retinas also... GOT.etc... I've found it's easy to get some colored gel sheets and cut them up to insert between the light board and insert to color them and it dims them considerably. For the color changing RGB's you could use a grey to simply dim them.

If it's about the trim color I'm with ya... I don't think I'd want to see that color every morning I get up either

Man that new Slimer mech is about as fugly as it gets. Talk about Rube Goldberg. Surprised this was as good as they could manage.
I know it was last minute but really...

Great score Chuck... I'm with ya on "learning as you go". After a while you'll know all the little mysteries in scoring anyways. It can be more fun this way at first.

Stay mystified my friend!

My only thought with Cliff's shooter lane setups is then you have the balls hitting hard against the sharp edges of the metal protectors... and with multiballs, etc it's throwing the balls against it quite a bit. In fact the long piece that is on the bubble side seems like it will skid along the edge of every ball as it is launched. I just wonder if that will scratch up the balls prematurely and then they scuff up the rest of the PF?

Probably not an issue as he's been selling them for years and never read a complaint... you could also replace the balls earlier (if you regularly inspect them).

I gotta say I've never seen shooter lanes get so quickly damaged as these newest Stern's. I have 20 year old WMS titles with no protection and far less obvious wear - some with almost zero wear . It's either the clear or a vastly overpowered coil (or both). I'd eventually try swapping the coil for further piece of mind.

That's a pretty fugly fix...

I hope I don't sound like a total ass for asking this but do you now wish you had just cancelled? You heard about all the problems and participated in the discussion for what?... a month or two so you knew this was more than just a remote possibility.

I ask because I'm no gambler on these kind of things and would have bolted during that time. I already feel guilty about spending this kind of money on a non-essential toy that I will only play *so* much and any tension just spoils it for me.

It's always been a bit of a crapshoot buying a Stern NIB but usually a manageable one. Nothing like *this* episode.

I thought I was done with NIB but had to have a TWD Prem and I dodged a bullet on that one. I couldn't find a single tiny issue on it... so Stern CAN make a quality product (and it's pretty fantastic) - but between the unrealistic prices and the obvious decline in build quality I don't see myself having the courage to try it again.

"Courage" is an odd word to use when talking about buying a company's product - maybe I've just gotten too risk averse to buy these anymore without inspecting them first.

Could be a company motto though: "Show some courage! Buy a Stern!"

Hopefully they'll turn this around.

Now you need some Bent Plastic.

Oh you're right - I forgot that only blocks the DMD and not the glare off the backbox.

My TWD Premium had ZERO dimples on the PF which shows they never playtested it...thankfully everything worked 100%. I doubt if they usually have the time to roll a ball on the PF. The testing must just be of the mechs, coils, etc.

Sorry you got a "bad" PF but the bumps (while not normal) probably won't change over time. You're just stuck with it.

It's impressive people still have the balls to buy Stern NIB. I know after all I've seen I certainly could never do it again. Maybe HUO where it can be inspected but opening the box is more anxiety-producing than enjoyable.

It really CAN sit in there forever. Somebody posted a video of a ball seeming to stay in there pounding away for what seemed like forever but was probably 3 or 4 minutes. Imagine the PF damage that will eventually do. There's been some tips over here on how to fix this wonderful design

I can remember when people claimed TWD kept the ball in the pops too long...

I'd turn down the flippers as on a waxed or new game you don't need a ridiculous amount of power. Plus to stop airballs from standup targets you need to angle them downwards towards the PF. Then the balls don't go airborne.

There's many ways to do it... some games (WMS/BLY) you can just bend them downward and slide a small shim behind them that can't be seen and holds them in place. If they are really stiff you can loosen them under the PF and put a couple washers under the front so when tightened they point downward. Or you can simply try to build up some stiff foam behind the front target leaf to point it down and keep it down.

This game is worse than most in this regard but with some experimentation you should be able to get it under control.

I guess Cliff couldn't find a way to patent his designs completely so Stern made their "own" version