One call out that seems to be more frequent than necessary is “Have you done this before?” Then she says only “medium security or something. Maybe make sure this doesn’t happen over and over like “who brought the dog?” like Ghostbusters

Something I absolutely love is the Sanitarium multiball sequence when the subwoofer kicks in and drops low end deep bass and the light show effects. That effect right there is money! Sending balls into that first upper playfield just to trigger that effect is so fun!

Playing this game in an arcade where you can’t hear the callouts and sound effects is a disservice to this game. I have played Halloween many times at Tilt pinball in Minneapolis and enjoyed the game there quite a bit but you can’t hear the sound well. Bringing this game home and cranking up the sound is an absolute game changer. imagine going to a horror movie and not hearing any of the sound effects and it is a huge part of the suspense. Gotta have the sounds in this game to make it shine like it was intended! Just my two cents. Anyone bringing this game home is gonna be happy as the code keeps getting tweaked but it is already at a great stage and nothing seems unbalanced. Killer home pin!

This is a specific callout to let you know the scoop is ready to start Sanitarium mode. These specific audio cues are helpful to players. This one plays a lot in early game because for the first Sanitarium you just need to hit the Asylum drop once to invoke it. Maybe add an alternative callout so one or the other plays for a little variety, but I think "event" callouts like this shouldn't be random.

So excited for the new code too drop. Any ideas when it will be?

Bug mentioned in the UM owners forum that he was in the process of play testing the new code last night. Hopefully that goes for HWN too. Shouldn’t be long.

Anyone elses machine freeze after being on for a bit?

Negative

Negative, I've had mine since early January. No problems.

Have never seen this. Possibly power supply related? Maybe try reloading the software?

Yup. Mine does this also. I just cycle the power and all is back to normal.

If this is present on a lot of games its a bad bug that needs to be addressed for operators / location games.

Nope....generally runs nightly for about 6 hours, with a dozen or so games put on it most nights

So where should I check first ? How does one reload the software? Sorry first machine here

How long is "a bit" ? I've occasionally left mine on most of the day.. 6-8 hours with intermittent play, not had a lockup.

In truth I'd check with the factory first...I've only been in Spookyland a short time, but the support I've received is amazing. Very engaging, and quite confident they can help you run the issue down.

All sorts of things could be causing some of your problems, and you can easily dig a hole if not careful. Great, knowledgable people in here, but a factory dive really can't be beat IMHO....

Did you report it?

Shamefully admit I left mine on all night last Friday....woke up Saturday morning, saw it, a bit of profanity, then played about 5 games before turning it off...

I agree, wait until you hear from Spooky. Did you put in a ticket?

I've created more than my share of magic smoke over the years as I learned to work on my games.....but the new ones with factory support? Never afraid to reach out to them...they have the parts and the knowledge...win/ win (many even help when the game is out of warranty or a second owner).

Been in a place with no factory to ever provide any support....not a great experience and not for the faint of heart....

You're not there....

This was a suggestion for an issue I had. I downloaded the latest software version from the Spooky support page to a thumb drive. Turn the power off. Put thumb drive with the software loaded on it into an open USB slot in the back box. Turn the power back on. Same steps as loading a software update. I have not had this lock-up issue but I also don't leave my games on for long periods of time without playing so its possible this could happen to me also.

Burn-in test complete!

The exact justification talk I gave to myself ( after the profanity part).......

Here's a new one for me (all on ball 1):

--Played Sanitarium multi-ball - got to last target, but drained to 1 ball.
--Played House - drained Michael's heath, hit it across ramp, but got the "Haddonfield is safe for now" callout?
--It started a 3 ball multi-ball, but it didn't seem like the house multi-ball fully activated, and hitting up the center ramp didn't go to the house for a try at the super jackpot and just returned down to the left flipper

I'd say couple hours. I never leave it on for more than a couple hours at a time. I'll shoot spooky a email they have been amazing with customer service so far

I agree with the others in that you need to call Spooky. One thing you can check is your wall outlet. I have seen many a game lock up or reset from bad wall power. Is your house old? Does the outlet you use a shared breaker with a power-hungry device? Is your outlet grounded? Got a multimeter? If so, check the voltage on that outlet. You want to see an AC reading of 115 - 121 volts. Anything higher or lower could be an issue.

Wall voltage is an issue with linear power supplies like WPC, but modern switching power supplies are pretty good about regulating to a solid output voltage. Wouldn't hurt to check wall voltage just in case it's exceptionally low, but that generally won't cause issues with newer games.

No. I’ve had the lockup issue maybe 10 times, a power cycle does the trick. The game will lock up if it’s been on for a few hours.

I wasn’t hugely concerned with it, and figured it was another gremlin that would be squashed with future updates.

Great video, thanks.

So you will be able to stage balls on the left side but not the right side?

I'm not really in a position to say anything for sure. In the video I was just pointing out the optos in each of the subways. When it comes to staging, obviously more optos is better for ball tracking. There are seven pairs in the left and three pairs in the right.

Seems they are set up for some type of staging - maybe code just isn’t there yet.

Could you imagine STTNG without staging?
Pretty sure if they manage to stage the balls in this one it will make it insane in a good way.

I am assuming it is a code bug, but I thought I would give it a mention. Halloween has been solid after a little tweaking, but last night during hedge multiball it went into a loop and felt like multiball wasn't going to time out. After awhile I just let all the balls drain and it changed back but then developed a new error where the right lifter stayed up and stopped a ball at the right inlane. Shut down and did restart and things were back to normal again.
I am assuming this is more buggy code, but wondering if anyone else has never ending multiball yet.

Such a great game, I hope the next code fixes a bunch of these errors.

I had this never ending MB as well, but don’t remember the circumstances. Had to turn the game off.

Hi folks,

Halloween CE251 here. Machine has been in use for about 10 days with no problems but as of yesterday has developed a major issue.

Within a couple of minutes of starting a game, the flippers go completely dead and I am unable to continue the game. The ball drains and the computer / GUI will show that ball ending and the next ball starting. However, at this point the game doesn’t feed a ball into the shooter lane. The game just sits there, waiting indefinitely. In addition, once this happens, I am unable to perform any coil tests. I’ve gone as far as manually putting a ball in the shooter lane and shooting it, but the flippers / game remains unresponsive.

An immediate power-off / power-on cycle does not resolve the problem. The machine boots and everything seems fine. Video, audio, and lighting all looks normal. I can start a game but get no ball feed and all coil tests continue to fail. However, if I leave the machine powered-off for a while (30 minutes or longer) and then boot it, everything will be working again, including the coils. I’ll start a game and usually within a couple of minutes, flippers go dead again and all coil tests go inop.

I have thoroughly inspected everything above and below the playfield. No fuses blown, no connectors disconnected or unseated, etc. I have tested all switches and they all check good.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Any suggestions for further troubleshooting?

I would re seat all connectors and check for shorts. If that doesn’t help I would download a fresh current code version on a completely clean stick and run an update on the game.

Check for voltage at the coils. If it's not present, ask Spooky for enough schematics to figure out where you're losing voltage. If the 48V is a separate supply than the logic/LED voltage (I remember seeing a couple units in the back of the cab), that power supply may be crapping out after a few minutes.

If it was just your left flipper and shooter lane, I'd suspect you blew fuse in your orange line, but with it being both flippers it seems more likely something with the 50v power supply. The 50v wires on the supply side just happen to be orange as well. I would contact support on Monday.

It’s definitely not that considering the game goes back to normal after sitting for 30 mins.

I've reseated all connectors on the main board. None appeared loose or not mated properly. I also spent some time looking at all visible solder joints and I did not find anything suspect.

I have not tried to reload the software. Admittedly, I don't see how a software reload would address the issue. When "cold", everything works and the game starts and plays normally.

Switching power supplies can shut themselves down. Thermal, overload, etc. Remove the short or cool the unit and it'll fire back up. Could just be the fan crapped out and it's overheating.

I would definitely listen to the guy who works at Spooky.

At least the part about contacting support.

I think I found the problem!

Posts from metallik and lpeters82 pointed me to take a closer look at that 48v power supply in the bottom of the cabinet. Lo and behold, I found an orange wire pulled out of a terminal! A poor crimping job resulted in this wire being very loose. My guess is that vibrations from the shaker / firing coils were causing intermittent failures of this crimped connection and when the circuit would fail, that's when things locked up.

I have since repaired this connection and so far the machine is operating normally again.

I did notice a small area on the orange wire where I think the insulation was melting where it was laying against another wire. But I have been checking those wires since powering up the game an hour ago and I do not feel any heat at this time. Maybe the loose connection was causing that wire to heat up?

48v_power_supply (resized).jpg

Well you guys are awesome and fabricated a few games.

Turns out I was right. Now accepting apologies jdlang11

That's means we all win. I love hearing directly from the company.

Was simply saying these guys are giving us direct advice...it's great!!!

Right on, I’m just busting balls. If pinside is good for anything at all it’s trouble shooting issues. Also love that Spooky members are a constant in both of these owners threads. That’s huge…you won’t get that with any other company

You probably want to check if you have enough slack in that wire when raising the playfield, because something caused it to get loose in the first place and nicked the insulation.

If only all problems were this easy to fix.