Awesome Jim! Congrats.

I connected an external sub this morning. It was part of an unused 5.1 surround sound setup from my living room. I had a couple 1/8in male-to-female audio extension cords lying around, so I used them:

1. Plugged the connector into the headphone jack on the system board
2. Routed the cord down through the back box (zip tied along the way)
3. I lifted a corner of the vent mesh at the bottom/back of the cabinet and passed the connector thru, leaving a couple inches of slack out the back
4. I then attached another length of 1/8in audio cord to the connector and then into my subwoofer's jack
5. Done!

I had another huge old subwoofer in the basement, but that would only accept traditional speaker wire. If I had used that one, I would have had to connect in parallel with the existing woofer in the cabinet. No biggie, but using 1/8in connectors was so much cleaner.

At first I was not overly impressed. I adjusted the volume to be less booming and muddy. When I turned off the subwoofer to compare, the sound from the game alone sounded woefully thin. Makes a huge difference in the end!

Good luck!

On the elevator issue, many here, including me, have noticed screws protruding into the elevator in a position that might impede the ball in the shaft.

Adding a washer or two under the screw heads makes a big difference. No more interference.

Make sure you have the most up-to-date code.

I seriously have no idea how the orbit issue is happening with your machine, and how this problem passed Stern's award winning stringent Quality Assurance testing. I am shocked, simply shocked.

The elevator upkicker is a "learning" mechanism. It's supposed to adjust strength accordingly and eventually work nearly 100% of the time. Give it a little more time and report back. Mine is fine. No modifications were needed.

Good luck and enjoy. She's a lot of fun.

They haven't fully tested the solution yet and I assume it can be added to existing games, so why would they hold up production? Make no sense. Even without the orbits working right, the game plays fine.

Now if they come out with a fix that is a pain in the ass to install or doesn't work right, that would suck, but stopping production on these when they don't have a fix in place yet seems silly.

I don't know if I can agree with u that delivering games with a known problem and no fix is ok for a company. What if most of the buyers are not capable of installing the fix? Is Stern going to send a service tech out to fix the machine that was knowingly defective from the factory? Sounds like the thought process of Volkswagon's management team.

Do you even understand what happened with VW? That doesn't relate at all.

Look, the left orbit was supposed to work a little differently, they are fixing it. Even if the fix is utterly impossible to install by every owner of the game (doubt it), the game is still tons of fun and plays fine. I just don't see how one small design flaw in the early runs of this game should cause a hault in production. Sorry.

I wasn't comparing the problem to what happened at VW, but rather the thought process of the management to continue to churn out cars while assuming they could be "fixed" down the road if needed.

Reality is they knew the cars had issues but kept selling them to customers any way. Now it is costing them to fix after the fact. Sure, the left orbit doesn't affect gameplay too much - but it doesn't play as designed, and Stern should be liable to fix it. Unfortunately, you cant drive your GoT machine to a local Stern dealership for them to fix it under warranty- they might ship you something to correct the problem, but you better know how to take some of your machine apart to apply that fix.

It could be argued it isn't a serious enough problem to halt production, but what if a buyer of a GoT machine hates how that left orbit isn't working right and has zero idea how to install their "fix"? Does he have to pay a tech out of pocket to do it, or does Stern send a technician to his house? I doubt it.

Valid point. And we still have yet to see what exactly Stern is going to send out for the fix. I will say though, I will be very surprised if there is even one owner of a Prem/LE that will not be able to install the fix. And if they are one that cannot, or doesn't want to mess with their game, they will either pay someone else to, or not care enough to make the fix.

Also, with VW that was a completely fraudulent act by them. They did what they did on purpose to lie about their cars' emissions. Stern didn't do this on purpose.

If your ball is falling out, either loosen the two brackets that hold the throne from below and slide it toward the front of the playfield to take up the tiny bit of play in there, or loosen the screws that hold the bracket that leads the ball to the throne and move that a tiny bit then tighten it. One or both of these adjustments will end up with the ball sitting in the throne like it's supposed to, but it may take more than one try before you dial it in.

Cool idea, thanks!

Then they shouldn't own a pinball machine. This won't be a difficult to install fix. These aren't "buy it and play only" toys. They require regular repair and maintenance.

I'm inclined to disagree here. I, like you own a vehicle. Changing oil and tire rotations aren't "difficult" either. Doesn't mean I have to know how to perform these functions. A car like a pinball machine requires regular maintenance and preventative maintenance as well.

Nope you don't have to know how to change your oil and tires you can take it to a shop. You can also call a repair guy to fix your pinball if your common sense/knowledge can not figure out how to use a nut driver.

Pinball is a hobby, car's are a part of life. Hobby's sometimes require some sort of skill/knowledge to make the hobby more enjoyable.

History has shown that people buy expensive toys as long as they can have them fixed.

If you have money and don't care, pay someone.

If you are cost conscious, you can easily learn.

Sites like this can be both helpful and judgmental.

I was having problems with bounce out on the Throne, so I cut down a rubber post sleeve and slipped it over the rung on the wireform behind the throne to take the inertia out of the ball.

fix_thing_(resized).jpg

Seems like overkill. You could get the ball to stay in the throne by just playing with the adjustment of the throne (loosening it from below, then pushing it forward as far as it will go) and/or the wireform. It takes a few tries, but it works - no additional parts required.

Vic, I tried as you suggested but the ball was traveling too fast out of the elevator, this was a simple fix that took less than 2 minutes to install.