Those are for each side of the spinner targets.

Thanks I figured . I have a PRO and doesn’t seem to have any. So I figured they where for something else .

Looking nice. I just have to get it leveled.

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Very nice! Congrats again! I still have no answers about mine, there was supposed to be an update this week but I haven't heard yet so I don't know if mine was built, or when it will ship. It's interesting that a code update went up last week but yours shipped without it. Without any info about what's going on, I find myself speculating if maybe they didn't finish the entire run or what might hold up shipping finished machines. I hate thinking that mine probably didn't get built and I may have more months of waiting. Yeah, I know I'm not the only one waiting and it's not the only title with delays. But. Damn.

Just slight speculation here; that there is a engineering/production issue was created by some apparent node board hardware upgrade and its ability to work with the older code. This issue may have been discovered early on in the July 19th production run of GOTGs. I suspect that the worldwide chip shortage everyone is hearing about forced new design/revisions of the node boards (with slightly different chip parts that were available more readily) which the engineering people 'thought' would be drop-in replacements, but found some tweaking in software was required. My not so subtle hint is found in the release notes: "The current production of Guardians of the Galaxy (GOTG) uses core nodes (address 8 and 9) with a new electronics component."

That gamecode/chipset compatibility issue may have stopped the shipping status of all of the units that were already complete until the 1.08 code was official signed-off. (well, except for @exSquid's machine 8-). The final code release was posted to their website on Aug-6th, so PERHAPS the final assembly production team is now loading the mandatory 1.08 gamecode on all of the finished GOTG machines and they'll be able to box them up and ship them out this week!

As for ExSquid 's machine, I suspect a handful of the first GOTG units produced two weeks ago were fitted with the remaining stock of the previous node boards, which only needed the older code to work fine, and this also allowed a tiny number of machines to ship before they stopped the production line. That's why the earlier gamecode version was shipped in his machine.

I don’t want mine shipped with the new code. I have Cleland’s 1.06 all set to use. Man the delay sucks, but not being able to use cleland’s code is even worse Hopefully we get some news this week. Wish Zach had better intel to share.

Are they different options for the spinner(s)?

Alas, I think that using cleland 's modified 1.06 version is not possible with new production machines created after July 28th or so. It doesn't explicitly say "gamecode 1.06" but it does say that is REQUIRES the included node board microcode version ".51" which was first embedded in the game code in the brand new V1.08 image. That would mean anything before 1.08, including 1.06 and 1.07 WILL NOT initialize the new hardware version of the node boards. From the release notes:

* NOTE: The current production of Guardians of the Galaxy (GOTG) uses core nodes
(address 8 and 9) with a new electronics component. These core nodes require
firmware version 0.51.0 or later. The GOTG software has been updated to V1.08
with this support. The previous version V1.07 (from 6/28/19) does NOT support
the new node board. If someone DOWNGRADES their new game from 1.08 to 1.07
these newer node boards will no longer work.

8-(

I hope there is a work around for you new owners,I remember when I first played gotg and was disappointed by the bad actors but loved the theme and shots ,I thought man I hope Cleland works his magic,will the other sound mods works like the apple Juice version ,can Cleland update his code for you guys

I hope so to. This freaking sucks. I was so looking forward to clelands updated code. Must say I am really bummed out about this

Installed Cleland's mod today and good to hear other songs during game play. Will hold out on updating to 1.08 Question, is it normal to have a ton of black dust in the machine? Mine is used, has a lot of this dust, almost like something burned at some point, but believe it is from wear with the pinballs. First newer pin I have owned, so not familiar with this.

Tim

Normal ware from the plungers in the flipper. How many plays on your guardians?

I'll have to check counter, it was setup for use in a friend's bar/arcade business, so did get a fair bit of play. Just surprised how much black dust. Cleaned alot of it by wiping down with damp cloth.

Tim

Looking for gold color stern side armor for my LE. If anyone has these and would like to sell them please send me a message. Thank you

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I don't have high hopes for my sound mod to work on these last batch of games. But, if it can be done I'll port the sounds over to 1.08

Markharris2000 pretty much nailed it IMO.

I've never worked on a node board before but I've always been curious about them, can you do the same continuity tests on a good, working board? If something is shorting 5VDC to ground it could really be a chore to figure out exactly what depending on how many components are on that board.

Wow, this would be a serious blow to owners of the newer games and will be one of those things prospective buyers of used games will need to acertain in the future. Personally it might actually stop me from buying the game at all and look for an older one. I take it that they are now locking out pinball browser from working on any of their games?

Yes, thinking about it some more if one of those node boards fail and the replacement requires new code......

you'll also need to replace all of the node boards if one fails

That really sucks. So mine might be the " Holy Grail"! It cant be the ONLY one built that week with 1.06! no way in hell.

@Exsquid, you got lucky for sure.....and I hope there are more of you out there on this last run that get lucky too. It will be interesting to see about how many of these factory shipped 1.08 go/went out. I'm guessing less than 100, but who knows.
In the marketplace it will confusing, because if you have a game built ~July 19th 2021 or later, you could be screwed

I wonder if you could put the 1.06 Cleland card in and then use a USB drive to update to 1.08 and get it to work properly?

Aren't there two different issues here regarding the firmware changes? The new code still works with old node boards, my take is that they simply needed to add additional node firmware so the OS can load an appropriate version to each node depending on the hardware. Isn't that an entirely different thing from being able to use the tools (pinball browser or whatever) to do the sound mod? I've heard that Stern wants to basically break pinball browser and prevent 3rd party tools ability to make changes, but has that already happened? Do recent code versions already not work with pinball browser? I don't know the system well but I wouldn't think that a minor chip change on some specific node boards would affect sound mods, unless the whole problem here is that 3rd party tools don't work with recent code versions and we were relying on running old code.

Is that the case? Does all new code already not work with tools like pinball browser and we're screwed simply by needing to run new code because the new hardware requires it?

I know we are speculating a lot. I haven't even heard yet if my machine got built or when it will ship so I'm trying to not go too deep down the speculation hole. What do we know for sure at this point so far?

Wow, this is major suck!

I could possibly be talked out of my March 2021 run of GOTG pro with cleland code installed... just saying

STh LE
SW Prem/LE
AFM
MM
CFTBL
Possibly other B/W
+/- $

I remember when I sent a pm to Cleland and said I will not buy gotg with him fixing it and thanking him for doing the work,I would not have bought the game with out the mod,
I am wishing the best for you new owners,

This cannot be done, the 1.08 USB update will wipe out all of my sound changes.
I have not had a chance to download the new 1.08 to load in Pinball Browser, but I'm guessing it won't load....but I'll give it a shot.

Bummer but thanks for letting us know.

I said you were a lucky bastard but I didn’t realize how lucky you actually were. It can’t be the only one. I still can’t believe more have not shipped. This sucks.

I believe Jurassic park had the new node boards and the video mod was done. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

I expect all new games coming of the line will have these chipset updates. I noticed latest AIQ's have a new version than what's on Stern's website.

Neil.

To keep it in perspective, the NEW GAMECODE V1.08 appears to be compatible with ANY machine ever shipped. Anyone buying a new machine or an older used machine can grab V1.08 from Stern's website and it will work fine.

That means that owners of machines produced prior to July 2021 can install any version of the game code they like. But owners of all machines produced after July 2021 (approx) MUST install V1.08 or newer, which is considered the production gamecode by Stern. These post-July2021 owners can not install any earlier gamecode.

(Side note: I suspect ANY other pinball title currently planned for production will likely have the same situation and require newer gamecode. That means the crew looking for August Jurassic Park machines, Led Zeppelin machines, Elivra or new batches of Mandolorian will also have to use a new version of their gamecode which supports this new node board chipset)

Yes but I was referring specifically to the idea that this code may prevent pinball browser modifications such as cleland and applejuice packages which would make GOTG a LOT less appealing to me.

The big deal in V1.08 appears to be the updated microcode, not the system image. But that said, V1.08 change BOTH of these! The microcode is a separate file contained on the SDCARD which loads very early in the init process. Unless the new chip has enabled some type of security feature as well, then PinballBrowser should be able to support the V1.08 image once oga83 has time to update PB, and then over time, custom code authors may choose to 'migrate' their custom work to the newer V1.08 image. (But that's a non-trivial edit).

Hard to say. Looks like most of the games current code versions are running later firmware for the node boards. For example EHOH is running v0.67.0. GOTG 1.8 is running v0.51.0

Well. I received an update on my GOTG Pro that had a June ship date when I bought it. Stern's supply issues have now delayed mine into Q4 so no earlier than October and possibly not until December. Heavy sigh.

Smh.....

I tried to open 1.08 with pb and nope...

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Oh man this sucks, sorry to hear this. I was told last Friday that Gameroom Goodies would be receiving their shipment of GOTG this week (including mine), now I'm wondering if this is gonna happen. Could this really be an issue with the new node boards/software like MARKHARRIS2000 said in an earlier post under the guise of a supply issue? Hopefully they are waiting for a new batch of the older node boards rather than revamp the code again.

Well this sucks a$$. I paid in full thinking the game would ship this month at cointaker. My buddy in Florida said his JP premium shipped. So they skipped guardians and went to JP. That’s a bunch of crap.

Hopefully they are waiting for some of the old node boards. The delay doesn’t make any sense if they are using the new node boards that are used in the other games. Wish stern would be a little more transparent.

Does anyone know if the node boards are game specific or are they a generic/swappable board?

generally node 8 and 9 are the main boards for the playfield and on all of my sterns they are the same. I've swapped from one machine to another to weed out issues before. Seems with the part shortage Stern has made a hardware change to them in the new machines coming off the line

The part numbers for node boards 8 & 9 were the same from machine to machine. I suspect they will have a new version of the node boards (example: Old: 520-6985-72) with a part number like: "520-6985-82"

Well Melissa at cointaker doesn’t have any information and apparently hasn’t bothered to find out any information. I even called Orange County pinball and he got some.

A distributor in Vegas I was referred to after I put a deposit down got his allotment. He had a spot opened up for one and he ended up keeping it and his wife loves it. So I missed out on one right there.

I messaged the pinball store to see if they are in stock and if they charge for shipping on NIB pins.

Well looks like my guardians will ship tomorrow. Hope it comes with 1.06 code.

Congrats! I hope so too and look forward to hearing!

I will definitely let you know. Hopefully have tracking number tomorrow. And Tuesday delivery.

Yes! nice man!