I think the bugs affect everyone even more now, because we have now had our games longer and can generally get to the later stages of the game more often, so when a bug does happen it's kinda soul-sucking. I've had a friends (pretty amazing) GC score on my game for so long and I was soooooo close to beating it, but I hit the left ramp bug in First Kill as I was totally destroying that mode too - and then drained while not being able to progress it. Man, that was depressing...

I know it'll get fixed soon, but now I don't really want to play the game until it is - coz I don't wanna get blocked by that, or potentially something else.

But... just keep going Matt and the team, this game has been totally transformed and it's almost there.

Have to agree that the game has really come a huge way, I'm going to go play it as soon as I'm done with this dang work call!

Yup, definitely rooting for Matt. I know he and the team care.

In fairness, even with the bugs, I blew up the game at 103M.

I was at 115m and killing it (pun intended)! I needed 122m to top the GC though...

I put code 1.12 back on my game and will update again when the next version comes out. I had a bunch of odd things going on like the drops not resetting, balls getting stuck behind the drop on the middle playfield, and the left ramp not registering in first kill among other things. I went back and everything works as it should again. I also agree with some of the others with liking the old way the pumpkin lit as compared to the new way. My other big thing I would love to see adjusted…. Don’t Fear the Reaper being loud is great but I REALLY would love to blast the Halloween theme in multiball as well!

I have stopped playing it, hopefully an update will be here soon.
I liked First Kill and that update killed it

Yeah I love that mode and I didn’t want to wait for a fix so moving one version back made it playable again.

I appreciate all Spooky is doing, but why can’t they test code better before it’s released?

Tell us you've never tested code without telling us you've never tested code

Problem often is testing is focused on new stuff where if something breaks in an unrelated feature, it gets missed. The first kill bug for example is new and seems unrelated to other changes so it didn't get looked at probably.

The whole thing needs to be played and played to be tested properly not just the new bits, I found the bug within 10 minutes of playing.
That was after the fiasco of not been able to update with my MacBook this time.

I remember thinking with Bugs stream why isn’t he going into first kill lol Must watch that back.

Ideally you have a active small group of good players who are also good at recalling rules and flow, you have them beta test. I ffor example would not be a good candidate as I am neither a good player nor can I recall much of the rules and flow/timing of expected events.

I've tested games for hours in video game q&a and pinball and missed bugs a person find in one hour. Huge games with hundreds of testers often miss simple bugs all the time, it's just not feasible to catch every little thing, it happens. You have a pool of testers all trying a code release to find things, but even with multiple hands on deck, stuff can get missed just cause they never actually played that mode or made that particular shot.

The other thing is often the final release that may fix found bugs, ends up causing a new bug that testers never even get a hold of.

Hosted a pinball party today for the league we play in. Even after almost two years…Halloween still gets a ton of love and play when “pinball people” visit. I really don’t understand why it’s not better regarded here on Pinside.

I hope it gets fixed soon.

Shit happens, upwards and onwards. Still getting better and better.

So who is testing these updates because First Kill is one of the best modes lol

I’m not a fan of winter at all, but I do love autumn and my favorite holiday is coming next month…

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Me too and Halloween is my birthday
What great day!

My birthday:

Lag effect with the release. Spooky really didn't have a great start out of the gate. I'm not sure it was avoidable from a business perspective - they made a LOT of changes and were taking a big leap forward (larger run of the title, they moved, jettisoned some well-regarded employees while allowing the community to think those guys were working on the game, issues with the animator, lead developer quit/left, I'm sure BOM went up in cost). They have turned the game around quite well, I agree. All of that together kind of created this effect where the game seems like a dog and there's some weird hurt feelings about it. This happened with Houdini too, another game with an unusual layout (at first glance) - and which lots of people who made assumptions are now coming around on.

There was lot of iffy feelings about the very non traditional and unique layout, many of the tourny minded folks also hate upper playfields and this game has two layers of them so that also instantly turned certain folks perceptions to negative from the get go.

Game had a slow launch code wise, and while it was making progress the development on code just kind of fell off for nearly 6 months in the middle of it's production run, which didn't look good. Game got back on track with Matt taking on the code but this was near the end of the game's production and them moving onto their next game.

First impressions are big in pinball really, and folks are quick to abandon ship cause the next big thing is coming around the corner. Pinball is expensive and folks rather dump a game than hold onto it and see how it develops, so folks always looking to get rid of a title they feel is not there yet and go for the new shiny.

Ahhh Halloween III. What a sleeper movie that was. Everyone pooped on it at the time because Michael wasn't in it, yet it had a great storyline. Creepy in a completely different way than the first two movies. I can't help think of that movie nowadays, with AI on the rise and Elon Musk promoting his "Brain Chip".

My wild fan theory:

Michael’s clown mask was a malfunctioning Silver Shamrock mask. He didn’t become a murdering psychopath until he put it on. Clearly he was okay before, but when he wore mask, he became an emotionless killer.

Fast forward fifteen years and his brain is still catatonic. The first thing he does upon escaping… is wear a mask. This allows him to channel his impulses.

One more month ‘til Halloween, Silver Shamrock!
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Not a bad theory. So Michael had the beta test mask when he was 6yrs old? Season of the Witch really started on Oct 31st, 1963.

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Michael’s dad worked for Silver Shamrock and one of the prototype masks got mixed in with the Halloween decorations. They scrapped those masks and went on to Stonehenge.

The theory really works if you don’t think about it too much.

Hello All, I'm picking up a NIB Halloween CE and curious if anyone has an extra Vimtomod scoop mod in their possession Stateside? Figure I'd check here first before shipping a new one over from UK. PM if you do. Thanks!!

Yep. When poor Judith was only 15 years old. Come on John C, you perv.

And if you have more than 1 please pm me also.

I have an orange one. PM me.

Got a new drop target deflector from Spooky. They actually sent a few of them to me. I for the life of me cannot figure out how the playfield needs to come off.

Anyone have any tips? My google/search fu must be broken today.

I 1000% recommend getting the thicker protector. I’ve been through 4 Spooky protectors. You’ll get instructions with the thicker protector.

I love this!

Ew. Luckily the actress was 24

And in Playboy 4 years before that.

Yep x 2. Sandy Johnson. Stunningly beautiful. No wonder her bf was only upstairs 58 seconds.

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Sandy is still beautiful.

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Watched Halloween Ends last night. Going in with zero expectations I will say it was mildly entertaining at best. Pretty run of the mill horror, but none of the Halloween magic and suspense such as 1978. Dumbest part was near the end, on Halloween there were no trick or treaters or any of the spooky ambiance associated with the holiday. Best part was the very end, when "Don't fear the Reaper" kicked in. Got chills, thanks to the pin.

where do you get the thicker protectors? I could not find them on pinside marketplace. thanks

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/halloween-ultraman-ball-deflector-shields-new-design

Wow massive game on this tonight! Finally made excellent use of my house multiball strategy and also managed to work in Judith MB for an extra multiplier. Got through several modes with the hurry ups too, but didnt complete Hedge or Santitarium SJs... Amazing game, love it.

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Yep if you can get that Judith MB stacked with another MB, you can get some crazy good points.

Hello all! Just picked up a NIB Halloween CE, my first Spooky pin. Any brief advice on setup, pitch, or common issues to look for? Can I jump right to downloading and installing new code? It's one of the later builds, mid 700s I believe. Appreciate any advice, thanks!

Sound like me but still loving the hell out of both Halloween and Scooby

Later build is good, by then lot of the early issues were ironed out and you should have the better coating on your powder coat.

Download the newest update and install, its a huge improvement to what you would get stock with it. There is a sheet included with the game that has Spooky's recommended pitch as well.

Out of the box the game should be solid, the most common issues tend to happen over time which are servos on the hedge michaels going out or getting wonky, or the ball deflector over the drops breaks for some. But these would likely not happen for some time usually if at all.

Pretty good advice for basically any game. (Except, apparently, EHOH)

Im thankful my Elvira was solid NIB , just had to do the left lane adjustment but that's just how they all are from factory

Same here! I was shocked there were so many issues on later runs. One of my buddies dumped his after not being able to fix the shooter lane

Code Update!

Version 1.13a is now available at https://www.spookypinball.com/game-support/halloween/

Change log:

- First Kill left ramp now registering.
- Mac updates will work again AFTER this update. Apologies that Mac file updates got broken back in the v1.12 code when we added in an allowance for code files with a (1) at the end. Once you've installed v1.13a (either with a Windows machine or by cleaning off the hidden file using the dot_clean method on https://www.spookypinball.com/game-support/hwn-um-update-process/) future updates will just be a simple file copy again. We have also added in Mac testing for every update going forward so this doesn't happen again.
- you may have seen in Bug's v1.13 gameplay stream, he demonstrated the feature of ball saves being turned off after reaching Boogeyman wizard mode (ouch!). That has now been changed and ball saves will continue to work as normal throughout the game.
- orbits to reset the triple drop bank after finishing a mode are now red.
- dirty pool shot looping is now working better. Hit the shot between the drop targets and up the center ramp and House won't start. Keep looping the shot for an extra 100% multiplier, starting House (a benefit of hitting the shot) will occur if you knock either of the side drop targets down.
- Menu Audits > coins and current losing streak (used for the dynamic option for replays) are now updating.
- Drive The Evil Back will happen a bit more often now.
- Drive The Evil Back blood is now worth 3% instead of 2%.
- Drive The Evil Back ball eject now gives a bit more time to read the text on screen.
- 3 Blood lit from knocking down drops will now show correctly if you already have one or two lit from Drive The Evil Back.
- The Blood Store becomes available after each 3, 4 then 5 blood you collect. This number of blood collected was being saved between balls which meant the store opened after only 1 or 2 on a new ball, it resets each ball now.
- Blood drop multiplier icon now hidden for Stalker intro and on the mode select screen.
- blood was staying lit when starting modes, you need to collect it all before hitting the pumpkin scoop
- Stalker lots of improvements to heads moving around and you can now hit an area as soon as Michael starts moving without getting caught.
- Stalker ball save light is finally fixed!
- Stalker flashing right scoop will now turn off after the mode.
- Stalker can now be started after visiting OR completing a mode.
- Stalker icon on the mode select screen will have the correct NOT READY or check or cross.
- Stalker help text should now be correct.
- Stalker mode total displayed on screen now includes ALL the points you earned, including hurryups.
- Stalker "purple" lights now include 200% more purple.
- Stalker middle playfield scoop will now always eject the ball (it would sometimes hold it before).
- Skillshot: if you hit targets in the drop bank you'll hear thunder and/or smashing glass SFXs.
- Sometimes when starting a game the background was missing so it was a mainly black screen. This is fixed.
- House, on restart if spinners were finished, the upper drop will now be purple.
- Sanitarium start now has more thorough checking to make sure it can't be sort-of started if you already "completed" it by getting a Super Jackpot and just happen to be in the scoop when something else ends.
- CRASH FIX for help text in certain states of House
- Hedge Michaels would sometimes stay out after a failed mode hurryup, they now hide again.
- Flipper training won't happen in Boogeyman wizard mode.
- Boogeyman wizard mode help text is now removed after finishing the mode.
- Boogeyman help text was showing during the intro video, now waits until it is done.
- Boogeyman gun shot knocks are now in time with the video and all shots have a knock.
- Boogeyman help text regarding ball save time earnt from spinners now updates correctly.
- Boogeyman start will turn off the pumpkin scoop insert flashing correctly now.
- Menu option for Attract Mode Volume has now been added to the Feature Settings.
- Laurie Slashes Back middle ramp now registers.
- Hitting the right scoop while a ball search is happening will still allow the scoop to work properly afterwards.

Enjoy, and as always, please fire through any bugs or issues to me at [email protected]

Sorry for the slight delay. We were hoping for some really quick fixed, but we kind of opened a can of worms as we started working in Stalker Mode.

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3% for blood is awesome

Wow awesome work getting so many fixes in!

Absolutely fantastic job guys, it is much appreciated.