I checked with my distro last week hoping they were on the line and was told they were delayed a week and scheduled to be in production this week.

Fingers crossed!

I'm also pending for a Pro, I got a bit overexcited a couple months ago and have a bunch of mods sitting here waiting...

GUARDIANS STAR LORD SHOOTER ROD from superskillshot.com

NEO Pin Stadium lighting

Mezelmods.com stuff
Pinball Trough Lighting Kit- Guardians of the Galaxy - White x 1
Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball Plastic Protectors - Pro x 1
Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball Ramp Illumination - Green x 1
Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball Scoop Illumination - Purple x 1
Guardians of the Galaxy Pinball Groot Illumination x 1

Pinballlife.com stuff:
Guardians Of The Galaxy Clear Orb Plastic Protector
4-Way Power Splitter Board For Stern Pinball Machines Using The SPIKE & SPIKE 2 System
Ball Shooter Lane Kickout Protector Kit For Stern Machines
BriteButtons Illuminated Flipper Button Set For Stern SPIKE & SPIKE 2 System Machines
Headphone Jack And External Volume Control For Stern SPIKE 2 Pinball Machines
Shaker Motor Kit (Rev C) For Stern SPIKE & SPIKE 2 System Games
PinGuard SPIKE Shooter Lane Protector
Stern Pinball Support Slide Bracket Kit for SPIKE & SPIKE 2 Machines
24" x 12" - 3 Mil Clear Mylar By The Linear Foot
Stern Guardians of the Galaxy Art Blades

I haven't ordered any scoop protector. I'm still not clear on exactly which cliffy it is or how necessary it is. I'm pretty sure I don't want the Stern metal one that looks clunky and covers art, and I planned to decide what to do after looking closely at the scoop on mine, maybe just a bit of mylar would be fine.

I welcome scoop protection advice, how well has it held up over 2-3 years for folks with or without protection?

I really don't know, it seems like a harmless add even if it's not really needed but honestly I was on a bit of a shopping cart frenzy at the time anyway.

Oh, I forgot on my list above that I also bought a full set of Titan rubbers with the recommended colors.

Cliffy does not make a protector for the scoop. There is a factory protector available for the LE's that I would recommend installing for the pro. Mine started to get a noticable ding along the middle of the left side of the scoop and I could see the clear starting to chip and I bought the protector. Mylar is not going to protect it.
https://www.pinballlife.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-scoop-protector.html

Does this change the shot at all or increase rejects? Does it cover any artwork? Basically, does it compromise anything about the scoop shot or is it a no-downside solution?

Thanks for that, I ordered one. Sounds like a good idea and might as well not get skimpy on the protection since I'm going mod-crazy anyway.

Other mods I forgot to mention I've bought are speaker lighting and 500W power supply. The Pro comes with only 350W and I prefer some overhead considering I'm adding a fair bit of stuff to power and am also considering a Pinwoofer system but plan to wait until I actually hear the stock audio first. I imagine a Pimwoofer upgrade with Cleland sound pack will be the result.

I enjoy good criticism and find it valuable to me for learning details about each pin, but I try to separate all the subjective stuff. There are a lot of popular pins that for whatever reasons just don't grab me much. Even when I can recognize why people like them so much I don't always enjoy the same things. GOTG and SW have some haters but they are both in my top 5 for what I want to own right now. I'm fine with that, and even my own tastes change. The most interesting pins I struggle with are ones where layout/rules clash with theme for me. For example, I really like The Walking Dead shots and rules but I can't stand the theme (and I even enjoyed the show!) I can't have that theme in my house and don't enjoy the audio at all. If TWD was rethemed or even just the art was redone more comic style and some sound editing I would have it high on my list. There are several pins with themes I really like but the shots/rules are just not deep enough for me to want to own. GOTG ticks my boxes for great theme and integration with layout/rules that fit my tastes, and I think will also improve my skills.

I know it's been a few years it's been out, but we're getting 2 more movies! The Holiday Special this year and Vol 3 next year, so it's not even like the theme is anywhere near stale to me.

I've heard it's best not to wax a very recently manufactured playfield, to give the clearcoat plenty of time to fully cure. If it's been sitting NIB for months then that's different, but since mine is coming right off the production line I plan to wait to wax it the first time.

(FlipNOut) Zach's reply to me last night was "We still haven't heard " about if GOTG made it onto the line this week.

Zach's TPN podcast this week he briefly talked about Stern production schedule delays and supply chain issues. It sounds like they are having to tweak scheduling on a weekly basis to work around component availability.

Nice! Congrats! I hope this bodes well for the rest of us who are waiting on batch and means they are indeed in production this week!

Search for drop target issues earlier in this topic, I recall seeing discussion/solutions for various orb drop target issues.

Maybe https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/33#post-4317936
or https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/39#post-4377322
or https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/42#post-4409859
or https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/50#post-4478186
or https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/56#post-4553786

or possibly somewhere else or not. A lot of info in this club, which I'm grateful to have to refer to.

Same. I wonder if Stern does any drop-shipping direct to distributor customers. It seems a waste to ship twice for customers waiting for paid machines, first to distributor then from distributor to customer. I really have no idea how this stuff is done.

It's on the playfield hidden under the shooter lane guide.

Does anybody have a link/reference for how topper control works? I'm curious what's involved and available for controlling lighting for a homebrew topper.

Huge congrats! I'm hoping mine is not far behind!

I'm thinking the same thing. I haven't heard confirmation from anybody that it was actually in production last week, just that it was scheduled again to be. It's been delayed 3 times since I bought mine with a "June Ship" time. I know there are supply issues and delays and GOTG is not the only title affected but it sure is frustrating when the goal posts keep moving and Stern doesn't appear to have much communication with distributors about schedules.

I don't know anything about how the dealer/distributor relationships work with Stern, I imagined there is some online Stern portal where distributors can access parts/schedules and manage orders and see any other information Stern provides them and that they all have access to basically the same information and resources since this is pretty much how everything works in the world these days. That appears to either not be the case, or Stern just isn't updating things or answering the phone. I'm not sure how else to interpret this situation where we ask distributors when to expect our machines to ship and for weeks the answer is that they "haven't heard."

I'm just like anybody else, excited for a NIB and trying to patiently wait each time the ETA is missed. I know there are global supply issues. I know there are challenges. Communication shouldn't be this hard though.

You're killin' me, Smalls!

I have my Cleland and Applejuice SD cards ready to try, I didn't find a Sinestro image so am curious if there is a latest one for that but from what I read the Applejuice version is a similar idea.

Yeah I'm really curious too. As far as I know now they didn't actually build any in July 2021 but would love to learn they did.

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.

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?

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.

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

We know an additional item, they did not do the full planned run of GOTG Pro and built fewer units than allocated to dealers for this run. The reason I'm not getting mine is due to my dealer's allocation being "drastically reduced" for this run and my spot falling outside the reduced allocation. In other words, I wasn't high enough on the list to get one of the units that were scheduled to be produced in this run. The next run currently isn't scheduled before October and may be as late as December.

So they produced some with the original node boards, some with the new boards that require new code, but did not produce enough to meet commitments. Basically, it seems they produced what they could. It makes me curious how they spread the parts shortage across all the titles, it has to be challenging.

I drove for over 11 hours today to join the club. I feel bad about canceling my NIB order with Zach and Nicole but I bought a perfect condition HUO with a March build date running 1.06. A huge thanks to FipNOut for understanding, I know they are stuck with these production delays and they've treated me great. I still have a slot for a Star Wars Pro with them and plan at least one more NIB after that, and I appreciate them having my back.

I have a lot of modding to do now! The original owner already installed Stern art blades, so I have an extra set if anybody is interested. It's otherwise stock so all the other mods I had waiting now have a home.

The price was fair in my opinion for this crazy pinflation market, $5300. The machine was in almost like new out of box condition.

I can't speak for Zach, but as I understand it, FlipNOut did not get their full allotment and my slot on the list was "outside" their "drastically reduced" allocation. This was unfortunate for me, but I'm sure they are bearing a lot more impact of this situation. Nobody likes waiting for their machines, and I'm sure Zach wants as much as anybody to see orders fulfilled.

The shipping week for my NIB order was pushed back 4 times by Stern and that was factor #1 for my decision to cancel and buy used, I expected the NIB in June and now two months later the idea of waiting another 3-5 months was a huge disappointment. Also, for all I know it could end up pushed into next year. To be fair it could also be earlier, but the point is I don't know when to expect it and for me waiting is much harder without knowing.

Knowing the hardware on my NIB would require new code was factor #2. I know it's a great game as-is and I would want it even if I had to run completely stock with no mods, but I wanted the option to run Cleland or Applejuice's work. It's not really rational to miss a mod I haven't installed yet, but it seems widely agreed that these sound mods elevate the game significantly for people who consider audio to be a core element of gameplay. Yes, *MAYBE* it will turn out that Pinball Browser will find a way to work with 1.08, I sincerely hope so! But from what I've read it doesn't sound promising. I really hope that turns out to be possible.

I was determined to get a GOTG Pro, and in the considerable waiting time since I ordered one I accumulated an almost obscene number of mods. These two factors together mean I had a choice between A) waiting an additional unknown number of months for a machine that "feels" somehow "less" than what I've been waiting for as the shipping goal posts keep moving back, or B) get extremely lucky enough to find a good HUO unit within driving range at a decent price.

I got lucky.

So far I have Cleland's running, indeed awesome! I also installed a shaker, custom shooter rod and eject trough protector. So I'm just at the tip of the mod iceberg so far. Replacing the stock metal orb protector looks more involved that I expected so I need to figure that out. Most of the other protectors looks pretty simple. I have a lot of LED mods to do and some reading back in this thread for photos and tips. The playfield pegs suck, replacing them with rails will probably be one of the next ones I do before I do much other stuff requiring raising the PF.

20210815_103227 (resized).jpg

I've noticed that pitch and leveling have a huge effect on the magnet results. On my first setup before leveling the playfield the magnet was grabbing the ball 100% out of the orb and the feeds seemed good for everything except the drop from the pops, which were feeding to the right sling instead of the flipper. However, the left-right level was off about 2 degrees, low at the right side so that made sense. I fixed that, and set pitch to about 6.5 and all the return feeds are nice, except the magnet never affects the ball at all and is like it's not even there. I think I just need to fine tune the pitch while keeping the left-right level and that should sort it out.

I have the pin at a diagonal to the wall in a room without a very level floor so it's a challenge to get it right when jacking it up/adjust/lower/measure/repeat

I'm curious what else people have noticed is incorrect in the manuals. For example, the manuals say the Pro has a 350W power supply and the Prem/LE comes with 500W but my Pro has 500W.

Wow. Congrats and condolences. That's some weirdness.

I've got most of my mods done, currently the list is:

Cleland sounds
shaker motor, pinball life
shooter eject trough protector
orange flourescent acrylic lower lane protectors, mezelmods
green flourescent acrylic sling plastic protectors, mezelmods
shooter rod, superskillshot.com
speaker lighting and acrylic design, speakerlightkits.com
service rails, pinball life, replacing stock pegs
green LED Groot mouth illumination, mezelmods
purple LED scoop illumination, mezelmods
green LED ramp illumination, mezelmods
purple LED flipper buttons, britemods
white LED trough lighting, lermods
clear cabinet flipper button protector set, titan
pinwoofer spike super kit GT
pinstadium neo

The mods I haven't done yet because the look a bit more involved disassembling stuff on the playfield:

orb airball plastic protector, cpr9999
scoop protector, pinball life
rocket plastic protector, pinball life
20210818_202513 (2) (resized).jpg

I frickin' love it! And I didn't say fricken...

It lights up the center of the playfield so much better, and the plastic ramps pick up the color tint fantastically, they seem to glow. The UV flashers reflect amazingly well and add a violet strobe-like effect in sync with the lightshow on the flasher I have it tied into. The Neo has the GI diffuser so there are no dot-point reflections for the GI, just a nice lighting boost with whatever color I want. There is no diffuser on the UV flasher strip so I get the purple dot reflections during the flasher lightshow but I like that. It's such a colorful playfield I prefer a mostly white GI, tinting toward a particular color too much mutes the other colors of the artwork.

Pictures don't come close to doing it justice but here's with UV on and off with my current settings. A spendy mod no question, but worth it to me.
20210818_210936 (resized).jpg20210818_210941 (resized).jpg

I get that and thought it might be a bit inconvenient but the magnet strip snaps it into place strongly yet they snap off easily and just rest on the playfield when I lift it up. If I put the playfield up vertical it's very easy to not let them fall and just rest them against the cabinet. I've done this several times now without any issues. I was originally thinking I might design and print some custom brackets to mount them to the playfield something like their Xeno mounts for JJP but now that I see how easy it is with the magnets I won't bother, I think it looks cleaner this way anyway.

tbh, this was to be my first NIB pin and the longer the delays went the more mods and accessories I ordered, figuring I'll go all-out pimping this game. I went a bit overboard but I'm loving it. I think about the only thing I haven't done is a topper, and that's probably because every time I looked for one I never found stock, lol!

Yeah. I have a problem. Oh well.

The way I understand it is that each time you complete/clear the entire set of HE standup targets (the yellow triangle inserts) you get 3 charges on your HE button. Rocket calls out the "lunatic holding the flipper buttons" having the Hadron Enforcer lit. You can use one HE charge to spot a shot for most modes, so however many charges I have remaining I either save up or use depending on the situation. If I'm running out of time on a mode and have enough HE charges to finish the mode I'll usually use them to finish the mode instead of timing out. Sometimes I just want to get at least halfway to qualify the mode for Immolation and restart the mode later if I want to finish it.

Not all modes will spot all shots with HE, it pretty much makes sense though. I haven't spent much time yet in most of the modes and have been focusing on Pod Chase and Sibling Rivalry to dial in my ramp accuracy and I know HE works to spot most or perhaps all shots in those.

Lately I'm starting a mode and alternating mode shots with orb or groot and if I have a good amount of time left in the mode bring in a multiball and that usually helps me get HE loaded while continuing to work on the mode and if I run out of time the HE is usually enough to finish the mode and hopefully still be in multiball and go for the scoop to start a new mode.

I think it's a sports term. To spot a shot means to get credit for a shot without actually having to make it. Using a HE charge gives you credit for the most valuable lit shot needed for the mode. I think most modes it also lets you spot the final shot but not in Kiln if Rocket is the final shot, or the hurryup shot to start Orb multiball, double super jackpot in Groot multiball, or super jackpot in CB multiball, according the to the rules I have. HE stacks too, so you can save up as many charges as you can.

In general I save up as many charges as I can and try to only use them to complete a mode or get it at least halfway to avoid losing progress and qualify for Immolation Initiative. I go mostly for HE targets flailing away in a multiball and bank them as long as I can. Which with my current skills usually isn't long, lol!

Good to know, thanks!

I go through periods where I combo the ramps several times and it feels great, then sometimes it seems I can't hit them no matter what. That's pinball!

I think this pin is perfect for practicing accuracy, it's got 10 shots pretty well spaced at all angles with some good backhandable shots as well. The ramps need some decent speed to get up them but aren't too hard. There's a good mix of flow shots plus some stop/go on the orb and groot locks. It's not particularly drainy, but it's far from risk-free for missed shots so I can't be too lazy. The rule set isn't too simple or complex or shallow and the modes don't all feel the same to me. There are more challenging multiballs to get to for a skilled player but for beginners or bringing into a mode you can get to a multiball in zero or 6 or 8 shots. The code uses both the playfield inserts and LCD to do a good job letting me know what shots I need and the timer. I personally really like the theme and lightshow and audio that brings it all together and since I like the movie I really appreciate the tight theme integration with characters and movie scenes.

I feel strongly this is an underrated pin, and it's not even a stale theme to me even at 4 years old, especially with 2 more movies coming out in the next several months.

Wow! Congrats! Amazing to get a March build right after the July/August run! I'm still considering replacing the white lights in the back but they haven't bothered me much yet since I'm tall enough I don't see them directly much. I probably don't even need them at all with the PinStadium come to think of it.

I notice in your pictures that the back plastic with "We are Groot" looks attached with silver screws. Mine has no screws at all and the entire plastic is just held loose in place by the ramps. I guess I should figure out the screw size and fix that, I didn't even notice the screw holes at first. I have no idea why they are missing, the guy I bought it from didn't mention it but it hasn't been a problem so far and will be easy to fix.

My obscene mod list status is currently:

Installed:
Cleland sounds for code 1.06
shaker motor, pinball life
shooter eject trough protector
orange flourescent acrylic lower lane protectors, ULEK
green flourescent acrylic sling plastic protectors, ULEK
orange flourescent acrylic right orbit plastic protector, ULEK
shooter rod, superskillshot.com
speaker lighting and acrylic design, speakerlightkits.com
service rails, pinball life, replacing stock pegs
green LED Groot mouth illumination, mezelmods
purple LED scoop illumination, mezelmods
green LED ramp illumination, mezelmods
purple LED flipper buttons, britemods
white LED trough lighting, lermods
clear cabinet flipper button protector set, titan
pinwoofer spike super kit GT
pinstadium neo
competition silicon rings, titan

Yet to install:
orb airball plastic protector, cpr9999
scoop protector, pinball life
orange flourescent acrylic rocket plastic protector, ULEK
colored flourescent acrylic pop bumber plastics protectors, ULEK
orange LED standup target bar illumination, mezelmods
sunon maglev 4020 silent fan for power supply, amazon

I canceled my NIB order because I didn't make the cut for my distributor's reduced allocation so was facing another 3-5 months wait, and I drove 11+ hours one week ago today to buy a used HUO with a March 22 build date.

Mezelmods has those. https://mezelmods.com/collections/guardians-of-the-galaxy-pinball-mods/products/guardians-of-the-galaxy-pinball-rocket-kickback-cover

They have several GOTG mods. https://mezelmods.com/collections/guardians-of-the-galaxy-pinball-mods

Those are nice options but not to my personal taste. I actually prefer the black apron although I am considering going metal but so far I really have no objections to the plastic apron. The clear plastic scoop sign is very nice, but again isn't to my taste. I like the idea and how the design matches the "prison lineup" background from Kiln but I personally prefer the non-transparent art of the stock sign that hides the circuit boards and wiring.

There are other popular mods I have also decided against, it's all up to personal taste in my opinion. I don't even know why I don't like the honeycomb flipper toppers or lighted flippers, they are cool but for some reason I haven't put my finger on I personally don't like them. I love ripping spinners, but somehow I'm not interested in adding them to my Pro. I've seen a few nice looking dome covers but none that I really like, I'm thinking of designing and 3D printing something myself, perhaps in translucent PLA. There are some gem mods for the orb but I haven't seen one I like well enough yet and am also considering designing a 3D print for that too in translucent plastic. I'm still thinking about what I want to do for a topper.

The variety of mods out there for this pin is amazing.

So, I'm thinking I have an intermittent short somewhere. At seemingly random times all or most of the lights go off for about a half second. When I first got the machine this always happened when I hit the orb, but now it happens more often when it didn't before and doesn't seem to correlate to hitting anything specific. Sometimes it happens on the plunge, including the Nova Core lights so I don't know which is lit for the skill shot. Sometimes it's just during normal play, shooting a ramp or whatever.

I've gotten an overcurrent error on Node board 9 on startup I think 4 times, twice it's stayed on the error and didn't finish booting, and twice it paused on the error then continued to boot.

I've disconnected most of my mods one at a time, tried turning off the shaker and tested and haven't stopped the problem yet. I found a bad GI socket, the rivet is super loose and the whole socket flops around so I disconnected that for the time being. I'm not sure how to best troubleshoot since if it's a short it seems to not be happening most of the time so checking stuff with a multimeter doesn't seem likely to see the issue since I can't reproduce it on demand. Sometimes it happens a lot in a single game and sometimes I can go a few games without noticing it.

I'm really skittish about damaging node 9 or 8, since replacements for those likely have the new chips and require new code that I want to avoid. I appreciate any ideas for how to troubleshoot this safely.

For a sanity check, I think the original "lights out" when hitting the orb is normal, am I wrong about that? When is it normal for the entire playfield to go dark for just an instant during play?

It happens so fast, it's GI for sure, not sure if it's all inserts also. Sometimes it's only the upper playfield, sometimes it seems like all of it. I need to take some video so I can play it back slowly and see exactly what's happening.

I found a loose (almost disconnected) serial connector and reseated all node board connectors, and just watched it in attract mode for 10 minutes and saw it happen a few times without anything moving.

update: ok yes it's inserts also,not all of them always. I just stared at the nebula insert until it happened and the inserts in that area flickered off for a moment when the GI went off.

Yes, but mine is having all lights go off for a moment at random times during play or even during attract mode doing nothing. Sometimes it's the entire playfield and sometimes just the upper halfish. Inserts and GI go off for less than a second then come back on. I've had it even happen several times on the plunge right at the moment I need to see which lane insert is lit for the skill shot. I can't make it happen at any particular time, and it didn't happen when I first got the machine.

I'm backing out all my mods on the theory one of them has an intermittent short.

So I found the mod causing my lighting issue, the last thing I expected, of course! It's the PinStadiums. I'm leaving them disconnected for now, the clips were not shorting or loose, and had a lot of clearance with the wires ziptied so it seems there's something the system doesn't like when connecting to those sockets. I'll try some other sockets tomorrow starting with only the GI connected and see how it goes. The game seems so dark now without the PinStadiums, heh. At least now I found what it is so I can work it out.

So I found the mod causing my lighting issue, the last thing I expected, of course! It's the PinStadiums. I'm leaving them disconnected for now, the clips were not shorting or loose, and had a lot of clearance with the wires ziptied so it seems there's something the system doesn't like when connecting to those sockets. I'll try some other sockets tomorrow starting with only the GI connected and see how it goes. The game seems so dark now without the PinStadiums, heh. At least now I found what it is so I can work it out.

I definitely will if I can't resolve it. I don't want to waste his time if it turns out to be a simple fix just using a different socket or something.

sounds like you don't have pitch and level correct. I have mine at 6.5 degrees and level left/right and the magnet grabs the ball out of the orb every time. The direction it flings is random and I control it with a nudge, the left outlane isn't an issue at all for mine. My ramp return to the left flipper never bounces to the outlane, and nudging to keep the ball away from the lane area keeps the outlanes from being too greedy for me. My main left outlane enemy is the HE target next to the Gamora ramp, when I forehand that from a cradle it likes to return straight to the left outlane.

Overall I love the layout and shots and don't have much to complain about, I think my poor skills are to blame for almost everything! This game is definitely improving my accuracy.

I try to get some locks in orb and groot between mode shots to get them close to ready. For me, finding the ramp shots and dialing those in made a huge difference for doing pod chase and sibling rivalry. I'm still finding the scoop shot so it's a bit risky for me but I manage to upgrade perhaps half the time. Yaka and Antiquities I can often do fairly quickly. Bringing in a multiball helps a lot for Kiln and Yaka for the safety with the HE shots and switch hits but I suck at orbits and ramps in MB, it's mostly luck for me to hit those shots without care. In single ball I often can combo the ramps 4-6 times when I'm in the zone.

After 2 weeks I now usually complete 2-3 modes, I haven't fully completed 4 modes yet but my improvement has been steady and fun. Exactly what I was looking for, this pin is great practice for accuracy. Last night I laughed out loud when the magnet caught 2 balls, one ball orbited the other for a few spins during orb multiball.

It starts the game up, and you have to hit it to lower it to open access to the standup target. Hitting the standup will pop the drop target up and trap the ball for a couple seconds then drop and release the ball and count for a virtual lock. Rinse and repeat two more times to start orb multiball.

Just installed mine a week ago and it's perfect. Thanks!

My takeaway when I first saw that video was that it was an understandable opinion from a viewpoint of change and has plenty of parallels in other product markets. Somebody who has decades of experience maintaining pinball technology with discrete components that can they can troubleshoot and replace individually can easily view a networked integrated modular design as harder to troubleshoot or more expensive to maintain since replacing one bad part may require replacing an entire board instead of just the bad part. That's not necessarily wrong, with the changes in technology come some new skill requirements too.

The newer technologies in Spike 2 have better flexibility, scalability, and reliability. Just like the automotive industry it requires additional skills and tools to maintain a modern car, a few wrenches and elbow grease just isn't enough any more. When fixing a pinball machine requires mainly cleaning, basic mechanical skills and soldering and everything has it's own wire to trace that's pretty different from working with SMT PCBs and a CANBUS network. The upside is that a well-designed modern system should have higher reliability, but it's often fixable when something goes wrong if you have the knowledge and skills. Not everybody skilled in the old technology has applicable skill in newer technology. That's just a side effect of progress.

My takeaway when I first saw that video was that it was an understandable opinion from a viewpoint of change and has plenty of parallels in other product markets. Somebody who has decades of experience maintaining pinball technology with discrete components that can they can troubleshoot and replace individually can easily view a networked integrated modular design as harder to troubleshoot or more expensive to maintain since replacing one bad part may require replacing an entire board instead of just the bad part. That's not necessarily wrong, with the changes in technology come some new skill requirements too.

The newer technologies in Spike 2 have better flexibility, scalability, and reliability. Just like the automotive industry it requires additional skills and tools to maintain a modern car, a few wrenches and elbow grease just isn't enough any more. When fixing a pinball machine requires mainly cleaning, basic mechanical skills and soldering and everything has it's own wire to trace that's pretty different from working with SMT PCBs and a CANBUS network. The upside is that a well-designed modern system should have higher reliability, but it's often fixable when something goes wrong if you have the knowledge and skills. Not everybody skilled in the old technology has applicable skill in newer technology. That's just a side effect of progress.

All valid points, and I'm not trying to justify anything specific. The only significant difference I see is simply one of scale, if pinball was as common as cars then the support infrastructure would be as available. The difference is that while there are more cars than people within a 60 mile radius of me, there are zero pinball operators or public pins. That's why car shops and mechanics are everywhere, simple scale. The cost and reliability advantages of the newer technology applies to both cars and pinball. It's a perfectly valid preference to prefer older technology because it requires older skills to fix, but the modularity of the newer technology should increase reliability and simplify replacement for people who don't have the skills to fix broken modules.

Anecdotally, nobody in 3 years has been able to turn off the "Service required" message on my 2018 car. Not autozone, not my oil change place, not my dealer. My wife's 2022 car texts me messages with various system errors, and several times has disables certain features due to error. We have the texts and pictures of errors on the dashboard but when a mechanic checks the car computer nobody has been able to determine the causes. At least car warranties are longer than pinball machines, but there haven't been a lot of cases in my life where having a warranty fixed a problem. As Tommy-Boy said, I can crap in a box and slap a warranty on it, I have spare time.

The purpose of cars and pinball machines is the same for the manufacturers, to make sales and profit. If car companies could end their part at the sale I'm sure they would love that, but regulation and competition requires them to support their products on paper for a long time after the sale. Another scale situation, if every family averaged 2 pinball machines I bet we'd see similar scale advantages. But, alas, deeproot's expertise to bring pinball to the masses fell slightly short of pinball for every family<sarcasm.>

I completely agree about the accessibility to information about Spike 2. Having a full schematic to the machine is a big deal. Again though this fits the car analogy well, cars didn't used to have undocumented technology either and now they have proprietary boxes all over that can't be fixed, only replaced. If we had access to schematics of all the Spike 2 nodes and for the entire machine that would be wonderful. It seems to be something sacrificed for progress. I'd love to see Stern open source their systems, or at least publish the information. They wouldn't have to give up any rights they don't want to, but that's not their culture.

I've gone way off topic from GOTG, sorry folks. GOTG is my first pin, and I've modded it heavily and am still running down one issue that I think is a loose connector on a node board somewhere. Intermittent and hard to find but so far I'm pretty impressed and happy with the technology.

I think there have been 17 or so Spike 2 pins. I think Batman 66 was the first in 2016.

Cleland's mod as I understand it adds several full songs from the movie soundtrack and replaces some voice actor audio callouts with original audio from the movie. I noticed differences in the callouts but only played the stock code for a day. All that's really important is that you enjoy what you have!

If there's a cliffy for the scoop I haven't seen it and would like to know. I haven't installed the one I bought yet that I believe is a metal Stern original same as the Prem/LE.

There are lots of posts regarding protective mods and other stuff a couple years or more back in this topic but it's a long read. I think the main protective item was when the early ones had no protective metal bar over the orb lock that Stern later added to protect the plastic from breaking. Several places made a clear plastic to add protection but I like the one from cpr9999 the best. Mine had the metal bar but it blocks the view so I removed it and installed the polycarbonate one he sold me.

The trough kickout into the launch lane benefits from some protection too I think, or at least turn down the power in the menu as much as possible. I installed a couple metal protectors for that. I also have the scoop protector but haven't installed it yet, I think it's probably a good idea but to me doesn't seem high priority.

I replaced my pegs with service rails, very worth it in my opinion if lifting the playfield much. I've lifted mine many times without sideart protectors but recently got a set of those anyway since I only have to slip once to damage my art blades.

I added plastic protectors pretty much everywhere else but I think most of them are more decorative than necessary. I like the look of the colored Ulek ones that compliment the stock plastics so for me it's mostly to have everything match than for the extra protection but overkill protection is ok.

Condolences Yeah I can see how that could be easy to do.

I had a NIB on order for a couple months are ordered a lot of mods while waiting, including a set of Stern art blades. After a couple production delays it turned out my order didn't make it into the production run and got delayed to the end of the year. I got lucky and bought a March 2021 HUO with less than 100 plays on it that the original owner already installed the art blades on so now I have a spare set of art blades.

I've installed almost all the mods I bought, here's the current list...

Cleland sounds for code 1.06
shaker motor, pinball life
side art blades, Stern
shooter eject trough protector
orange flourescent acrylic lower lane protectors, ULEK
green flourescent acrylic sling plastic protectors, ULEK
orange flourescent acrylic right orbit plastic protector, ULEK
shooter rod, superskillshot.com
speaker lighting and acrylic design, speakerlightkits.com
service rails, pinball life, replacing stock pegs
green LED Groot mouth illumination, mezelmods
purple LED scoop illumination, mezelmods
green LED ramp illumination, mezelmods
purple LED flipper buttons, britemods
white LED trough lighting, lermods
clear cabinet flipper button protector set, titan
pinwoofer spike super kit GT
pinstadium neo
competition silicon rings, titan
polycarbonate orb airball protector, cpr9999
orange flourescent acrylic rocket plastic protector, ULEK
colored flourescent acrylic pop bumper plastics protectors, ULEK
orange LED standup target illumination, mezelmods
sunon maglev 4020 silent fan for power supply, amazon

mods on hand but not yet installed:

scoop protector, pinball life
translucent drop target with RGB LED illumination for orb, pinball mods and comet

Oh wow, so the metal isn't even doing the job. That's unpleasant. I'm doubtful the cpr9999 one I have will break, it seems to be a decent thickness of polycarbonate sheet and oversized in all the right ways. I could have made my own if I had an appropriately sized piece of PC, I have a CNC router that I use for that sort of thing but only have acrylic and carbon fiber on hand. For the time it would take me to accurately draw it up in Fusion360 I was very happy to support cpr9999 and not have to make my own, but to my US address the shipping wasn't an issue for me.

I wish I had the tools to print the graphics directly on the protector and just leave the original plastic off, it would look a lot cleaner to not see the edge of the smaller original at all. First-world problems.

I really like my pinball life shaker in mine. I have the weights adjusted and settings on moderate.

Did you just unbox it, or has it been working and stopped after some number of plays? Does the Groot motor try to move and fail or move at all? Is the "Disable Groot Motor" option in the service menu set to No? I think your distributor should help you resolve this but I hope you are able to get it sorted out soon!

Mine is on code 1.06 because I don't want to lose Cleland audio, so I'll be interested to see if somebody does a version for 1.08 now that PB is said to work again.

That said, does 1.08 have Insider Connected support? I see GOTG is on the list of games that support the IC upgrade, but I think 1.08 was released before IC and I don't see IC mentioned in the release notes. In a nutshell, if something like a 1.08 version with Cleland audio happens does that mean we can have both our custom sounds and Insider Connected?

And I was just thinking the other day that if only the Groot super was worth 250k more this game would be perfect! If I miss the 350k skillshot it sours the rest of the game knowing that if only the Groot super was worth a tiny bit more I could make it up. They read my mind! It's not the whole 350k but this can take most of the sting out of missing a skillshot and give me something to really shoot for!

Fingers crossed that PB works with 1.09 and we can have all the options.

I have the Neo, to me the diffuser is worth it and looks very nice with the plastic ramp returns. I hooked them up per the instructions, nothing unusual. I have the main light connected to a convenient GI bulb so it's on all the time with GI which is pretty much all the time except for the light show that starts modes like Groot Multiball. Orb Multiball I think flashes the GI like a disco when it begins. I have the UV connected to the magnet flasher which isn't excessively used. I tried other flashers but they seemed too distracting to me. The UV LEDs do reflect as dots on the plastics which look fine to me for just the flashers but I personally prefer the even illumination of the diffusers for the GI.

This is why home pin are "unverified" and earn half points or whatever. They have some criteria for "verified" pins that is supposed to trust operators or whoever to not go nuts with rubber bands or removing glass. I haven't looked at the new stuff yet but it seems nontrivial to me to reconcile people playing with different settings. I'm not sure how useful it is to compare scores when settings can significantly affect gameplay, much less how you compare playfield angle or tiltbob sensitivity. Really, even trying to set up two machines side by side to play the same can be hard to do, this is why tournament scoring is on the same machine. Comparing scores is fun, no doubt. It's not often going to be apples-to-apples fair so it's all in good fun and imho shouldn't be taken very seriously.

EDIT: oops, I finally read the press release and watched the video, sorry. It never occurred to me this was a location-only thing for pro operator accounts only. As far as I can see, home pins can't participate in leaderboards and there won't be any within 100 mile radius of me anyway.

I can login to my insider connected, but I don't see anything at all about leaderboards on my account or any way to see them. Perhaps the feature isn't released yet? Seems odd to me to have a press release and video about it but it's not mentioned at all when logged into insider connected, even on the announcements page.

Watched Deadflip's video and yeah currently leaderboards are only for pro accounts but home users are supposedly going to happen. There are separate world leaderboards for verified and unverified.