Haha, dare I ask what happened to your first one?!

It sounds like GotG is going back in production at Stern this week.. Does the group think there might be another software update released in the future? I think the ruleset would work really well with a cooperative mode similar to TMNT. Thoughts?

Why couldn't mode progression just be cumulative for all players?

"coming off the line" as in going back into production? Or ceasing production? Regardless, my distributor (and one other I called) are taking orders now and said they received confirmation that Stern is going to start building them again (they took a break to focus on TMNT) this week and should be shipping end of this month.

Maybe this is the last run then. I didn't ask about premiums, but the pre-order on their site only lists pros, so I would suspect not: https://www.gameroomguys.com/games/pinball

Yes, this is not a feature of GotG. It's silent unless playing.

Out of curiosity, is your magnet working? Does it grab and spin the ball around when it comes out of the orb lane?

Thanks. No, Stern is cracking down on the links to alternate versions being public. You need to just PM him and he'll send you a link.

I can't speak to whether its related to why those links stopped working or not, but the creator of Pinball Browser (the tool that Cleland used to make these updates) has talked a lot about locking down the public sharing in this thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/acdc-display-and-modify-dot-matrix-images/page/78#post-5740605

Is it possible its over-heating? Can you hear the fan running?

Aha! I’ve had this happen but wasn’t sure why or how. Is it a bug? I was also under the impression that you had to hit rocket as the final shot with no HE assistance. Or at least that was the intention of the programming.

My wish list would be:

1) Fix a few of the bugs: I've noticed some sound bugs (the extra ball sound rarely plays for example), the rocket/Kyln loophole/bug outlined above, there's also a bug where if you press the HE button very lightly to plunge the ball at the start of Quills Quest you only get one ball instead of two.
2) Timer pauses: As others have said, it feels like there are a lot of animations or times when you have no control of the ball and the mode timers keep ticking down. Would be great to have the timer pause or be able to skip the animation (you can for some currently by pressing both flipper buttons, but not all).
3) Magnet adjustments: Despite all of the suggestions (pitch, washers being added, bouncier rubbers) there are definitely still issues with the magnet catching the ball coming out of the orb. Adding some adjustments where we can tweak things like magnet timing, strength, etc. would be really helpful.
4) Co-op Mode: I love the co-op mode in TMNT. Seems like it should be doable on GotG where all players cooperatively work to complete all of the modes.

5) Some sort of indicator on the display of how many HE's you have remaining.

Unfortunately can't offer much help on your switch issue, but the above is actually part of the Sanctuary mode rules.. If you don't finish it, you have to start all over to get the completion (although halfway status for II does save). Makes it a stressful challenge for sure!

Rules for sanctuary:

Sanctuary (yellow)
Duration: 68 seconds
Shots: 6

Complete all 5 of the Hadron Enforcer targets and the left orbit before time runs out to complete the mode (and score 3 free Hadron Enforcer activations). Note that the Hadron Enforcer itself isn’t available to use in this mode. The upper gates do not divert to the pops, so be ready for a full orbit shot.

Upgrading during this mode will allow flashing targets to be spotted with a shot to the left orbit.

Completing Sanctuary begins Super Targets for 20 shots. A roving light moves around all 5 of the Hadron Enforcer targets. Shoot the flashing target to collect a Super Target award. A hit to a solidly lit target is worth 200k base, while a hit to a flashing target is worth 5x that value.

If the mode times out, you lose progress and have to make all 5 shots again. If you drain before completing the mode, progress is kept. You still get “halfway” credit (for Immolation Initiative) if you made 3 or 4 of the 5 targets.

Should be good. Test out the orb drop target a bit. That might need some adjustment.

Same way you do it mid game - by shooting the scoop.

Yep! That’s right - mostly there for tournament play.

No, it's not supposed to. The ball falling from the top of either orbit should hit the flippers directly and not a slingshot. Hitting the slingshot is a sign that you're not level left to right, or your pitch is too low so the ball is falling too slowly. You need to check the level and make sure the pitch is at least 6.5 degrees front to back (our preference is 6.8) and completely level left to right.

I had drop target issues (it stopped dropping consistently a few days after getting it NIB), but the solution didn't require anything this elaborate. I reached out to Stern who basically suggested a similar fix to others in this thread (I'll try to find the post number) to basically just bend the entire mechanism a bit by hand so that the magnet was closer to the arm. Took about 10 seconds and worked like a charm.

Edit: Here's the post that explains what I did. No need to even take the mechanism off of the playfield: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/53#post-4508167

No problem!

I feel like we should be able to figure this out... Can you tell me what happens in this circumstance:

Manually push drop target down. Start game. Does it go up (it should)? If not, does it even TRY?

And then, when you raise the playfield, are you seeing any issues with wiring to the DT coil or switch? Maybe you have a loose solder connection that only connects sometimes?

Finally, it sounds like it's almost the DT switch that's confused - thinking its up and when its down or vice versa.. Is it possible these switches are wired in reverse?

Just did some searching in this thread, and it sounds like this user might have had a similar issue based on his last sentence in his thread?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/88#post-5575744
"Now a 2nd issue the target does not raise. In the switch test the target lowers fine but if in the raise test sometimes the solenoid double fires and then the target will not raise."

What do you think? Maybe DM him to see how/if he resolved it? I tried to follow along in future responses but am not sure..

Awesome!! Sounds like you've pinpointed the issue then.. Excited to hear the final update that things are working normally!

I'm hoping for the same, but its looking like support for this title is dead. A few of us had a thread a page or two back on a ton of updates and bug fixes we'd like to see, but I think Stern developers are tied up on newer titles at this point unfortunately.

While this is solid advice if you aren't already doing it, this definitely doesn't work in every animation sequence or as well as it does in other Stern titles so I hope they'd revisit this in future updates.

Hahaha, excellent attempt to get some information out, and I'll take that as an almost yes as well.. maybe.

If you take a look at the build date on the back of your machine and just email Cliff, he should be able to get you the right one and is typically very quick to reply: [email protected]

The stock pinball machine that Stern developed only has about two licensed songs in it and all of the voice callouts are fake (recorded by voice actors). The "cleland mod" doesn't change any of the rules or game functionality, but injects several more songs and replaces all of the fake voice callouts with the actual ones for the movie.

Basically a must have. Head on over to this thread to learn more and PM him on Pinside for a link and download instructions. It's very simple.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gotg-sound-replacment-mod

If its an LE, then yes, it was made in 2017. If it's still in its box, then I would HIGHLY doubt the seller is going to let you open it to look at the playfield and other things before buying it. The value of a NIB goes down once that box is opened.

If they do let you, or if it's already been opened, then just look around the posts for pooling on the playfield. I can't recall what other issues may have existed on the first production run (mine was a 2019 build). Mine does get a fair amount of airballs and has some pretty major dimpling after 2K plays or so.

This is true, and normal for this game. Hoping it's not the normal for all machines moving forward because the rails are definitely superior. These studs suck ass.

Interesting! Are these pretty easy to install, do you know? Any drilling required?

Well I went ahead and replaced them all so that they matched and were the cool blue, but it’s just the right side one coming out of the orb that matters - it bounces better against the cliffy and sends it right over the magnet.

And it’s so funny you mention that it seems like the magnet comes on late. I was so certain that was the issue for a while that I emailed Stern and told them they needed to add the magnet timing adjustment to a future update.. but after tinkering with all of the above, I think it’s just a matter of fine tuning.

Curious to hear your results once you adjust!

No, what you’re describing sounds like what it should do: it should grab it and spin it around in circles 2-3times and then randomly throw it somewhere.

FYI, PinballLife markets their sleeves as "Cliffy's" but I can confirm (have spoken to Cliff himself about this) that this is a lie - they stopped buying from him years ago. I've also done a comparison and the sleeves you get from PBL suck ass compared to Cliffs. It sounds like you already made another purchase of Titans, so the ship has sailed but for anyone else reading this, I'd suggest you reach out to Cliff himself to buy sleeves if you're interested in premium ones.

I posted this about a month ago, but for those struggling with the magnet, here's what I've found:

Ohhh if I could only describe the amount of frustration I've had on this issue. I've tried it all and even things that you won't read on here (like drilling entirely new holes to mount the core at various different angles in an effort to get this to work 100% of the time). After almost 40 hours of dicking around with it, I've gotten it to a place where it will grab it every time, but there's unfortunately not a single fix. It's a culmination of all of these items:

1) Balls: Get yourself some carbon-core balls. They react much more strongly to magnets. I got mine from ball baron.
2) The rubber post next to the chute: This plays a huge part. Order a cliffy blue one from Cliff himself (Don't get from pinball life as they are falsely labeled as Cliffy's but don't bounce as much).
3) Leveling/Pitch: This also plays a big part I've found best success at 6.8 degrees pitch and obviously it needs to be perfectly level left to right. That being said, don't rely on that stupid app people always tout on Pinside. It's worthless. Get yourself an actual digital level: amazon.com link »
4) Waxing: This was the nail in the coffin for me and something that was counter-intuitive to what I suspected for the first 35 hours I messed with this thing.. My finding is that a recently waxed playfield makes the magnet work MUCH better than one that hasn't been waxed in hundreds of plays. In fact, as soon as my magnet starts missing again, the first thing I do is clean/wax the area around it and that does the trick - especially with the carbon-core balls. It grabs those suckers super fast.
5) Put 1-2 washers beneath the core as found on other threads here. You want the actual center piece to be pressed up hard against the playfield - the ring does not matter.

Good luck!

Hey there - Apologies in advance if this has been covered, but trying to search for 'groot' and "mouth" on this thread is a nightmare. I'm having an issue where groot can't shut his mouth on his first try. It takes him like 3-4 cycles before it eventually stops, and even then there's a slight gap. I've inspected the mechanism and can't really see anything that would cause this. Anyone else ever experience this? Any suggestion? Thanks!

Appreciate the suggestion! I actually couldn't locate the test for it. Any idea what section its in? Is it a coil?

Edit: found it! Didn’t realize there was a category for machine specific tests. Thanks!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/98#post-6043176

As far as I know, there are three that circulate around. As of now (per Sterns legal strongarm), there aren't any public links anymore - all of them are available by DMing the creator. Those are:

Cleland
Sinestro
Applejuice

If you're interested in learning the nuances between each version, feel free to search those users names in this thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gotg-sound-replacment-mod

I personally prefer Applejuice's version.

Is 5 seconds the factory setting? It’s 8 on all my other Sterns.

They cannot stack higher than 3, but you can get them back up to 3 as many times as you can hit the 5 yellow hadron targets on the playfield.

This is an AMAZING first pin. Congrats! Great community here - feel free to ask any questions you have, and spend the next few days/weeks brushing up on the rules while you're waiting:

http://tiltforums.com/t/guardians-of-the-galaxy-pinball-rulesheet-wip/3338

https://www.pinballlife.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-scoop-protector.html

Eh, I'd hold off... The novelty will fade. I was once also eager to upgrade all of my machines with IC when I first got my Godzilla, and after 3 months, I find myself never even logging into Godzilla anymore - even with home team. You're welcome in advance for the money saved!

https://www.pinballlife.com/flipper-coil-stop-for-sternsega.html

That is the coil stop replacement and I definitely recommend it. Sterns factory stops are actually two pieces that are not welded together very well - the circular part in the middle over time will detach from the bracket and your flippers will not be as snappy. You'll also notice a lot of metal shaving pieces when you look beneath the playfield.

I personally disagree with other folks who said they aren't experiencing issues with recent Stern ones. The fact is they just don't notice it. I had a new Godzilla machine where only one of the coil stops had failed (upper flipper), but I went ahead and replaced all three and INSTANTLY noticed an insane difference in the lower flippers. MUCH snappier. This simple $5 upgrade is 100% a must-do on all Sterns in my opinion. One more tip, while you are replacing the coil stops, take 20 seconds more to replace the sleeves as well. Will also make a huge difference, especially if your Stern sleeves got dirty from their crappy stops. Here's the sleeve link:

https://www.pinballlife.com/2-316-coil-sleeve.html

Awesome! Replacing them is a cinch - would love to hear what you think afterwards!

You won't hear back from them, and they aren't going to make the adjustment to the magnet timing. This has been brought up several times in the past with countless tickets and Stern ignores it. Now with GotG at the end of its run, there aren't going to be any more code changes.

At one point I was also convinced it was a magnet timing issue (to the point where I opened a ticket a year ago), but am now no longer in that camp. The magnet timing is fine. Here's my guide from a year ago on how to get the magnet to grab:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/98#post-6043176

To be clear, the magnet should NOT activate exactly while the ball is on top of it, that would cause the ball to just stop. The whole point is the magnet pulls the ball towards it so that it spins and goes chaotic. The timing of the magnet seems 'late' because of this.

Record and submit a video of what it's doing and we can take a look. And what is your playfield pitch at? The timing for the magnet to engaged is based on the drop target bouncing the ball UP first, into the orb lane, and then down hitting the post which with enough momentum to knock it left over the magnet. Everything I posted coincides with this action:

1) PF pitch needs to be right so that the ball travel time as it goes up and then back down aligns with magnet activity time.
2) Bounciness of that post rubber needs to be right to knock it over to the magnet.
3) Playfield needs to be waxxed up so that the magnet can suck the ball back towards it and give it that circular momentum its intended to.

No need to apologize! Like I said, for a long time I was also convinced it had to do with the magnet timing.. You should see the underside of my playfield - I became so obsessed with the theory that I drilled about 30 holes in order to position the magnet progressively lower down the field to try and solve the issue.

Long story short, it's back where it was placed from the factory and my magnet grabs 100% of the time. I saw someone else post a video of what the ball should do, so figured I'd add another one so you can compare where the ball hits and the timing it goes through as another sample:

https://www.veed.io/view/a1391e5e-e045-4137-a452-219e5f63f8b5

One other idea - If you haven't already you might want to order carbon core balls and replace the Stern ones.

+1 for AppleJuice's version over Cleland.

You're welcome to use my Pin Golf objectives card if you'd like...

4(3) (resized).jpg

Nope - none on this machine.

This is standard on any new Stern. You should 100% have a pinmonk quiet fan on order BEFORE you purchase any machine so you can replace it day 1.

https://pinmonk.com/products/spike-quiet-fan-plug-n-play-kit

Both. Either. They are annoying as hell and get repetitive on game 2.

I wouldn’t even bother with Stern - their proposed fixes don’t work for this. Here’s a post I made a few months ago. Option 1 is by far the simplest and will fix your issue 100% of the time:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/guardians-of-the-galaxy-owners-thread/page/136#post-7180041

Did you try booting it up with the coin door closed?

Well, pretty certain that's your issue then.. Give it a try..

Si - “feature adjustment” #55

Careful messing with that one.. The fact that it doesn't match is indicative that your previous owner spent some time troubleshooting orb magnet issues. If you're lucky enough where your magnet works well, then they perhaps did you a favor and swapping it out could introduce issues.

Guys, come on.. This is intentional - it does this in Antiquities 2 by design.

Correct- Sanctuary is the only mode where your progress resets if you do not complete it in your attempts. That said it DOES register and keep track of your progress towards Immolation if you complete half of the targets.

Yes - the mode insert blinks when you've qualified it for Immolation and remains solid when you've completed it entirely.