(Topic ID: 300250)

Halloween owners thread…He’s Coming Home

By dnapac

2 years ago


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Topic index (key posts)

15 key posts have been marked in this topic, showing the first 10 items.

Display key post list sorted by: Post date | Keypost summary | User name

Post #2369 Upper playfield adjustment video. Posted by lpeters82 (2 years ago)

Post #3112 Upper playfield adjustment video Posted by spandol (2 years ago)

Post #3319 TECH: DISPLAY. LCD settings so blacks look better. Posted by manadams (2 years ago)

Post #3394 Stock LCD Display - alternate settings Posted by Mad_Dog_Coin_Op (2 years ago)

Post #4163 How to square a cabinet. Posted by rotordave (2 years ago)

Post #4472 Please Read - re order numbers and order of manufacture. Posted by rotordave (2 years ago)

Post #5620 Porting the cabinet to stop bass rattle Posted by rotordave (1 year ago)

Post #5659 Mudflaps Custom Cards #1 Posted by Mudflaps (1 year ago)

Post #5776 Mudflaps Apron Card bonanza! Posted by Mudflaps (1 year ago)


Topic indices are generated from key posts and maintained by Pinside Editors. For more information, or to become an editor yourself read this post!

You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider spooky_dj.
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#171 2 years ago

Hm... Flippers should be using a 3A slow blow, per the labels on the pinotaur. There shouldn't be any 2A fuses on the board. But yeah if you are blowing your 3A slow fuses, as long as your coils aren't getting toasty, bumping up the rating on that fuse a bit (keep it a slow-blow) should be ok. Just be cautious if you do so, because, obviously, the fuses are rated as they are to prevent a fire so... just make sure you aren't toasting any coils. That 3A fuse might be blowing for a good reason! If we actually did accidentally send out boards with 2A fuses instead, just swap them with a 3A slow blow first.

#172 2 years ago

Just FYI, each pinotaur has three 3A slow blow fuses, and one each of 3A, 8A, and 5A normal (fast blow) fuses.
All 5x20mm

2 weeks later
#427 2 years ago
Quoted from mizzou:

Has anyone had issues with the ball not loading into the shooter lane. Checked all the switches in the troft and they're good, the coil also checks good. I called tech support but no one answered and never got a call back

I'm afraid most of the shop (including the tech support team) doesn't work on fridays. You can call back monday, or shoot an email to [email protected]

#430 2 years ago
Quoted from mizzou:

I'll try email. I called them last week about another issue and never got a call back.....
The issue seems to be bigger than I initially thought. Half the coils aren't working..

Oh, that could be a blown fuse. On the pinotaur, you should see 3 fuses on the bottom right. When in the coil test menu, they'll have green lights on behind them if theyre good. No light means its blown. You of course could just pull out each one and inspect it manually. Apparantly some machines have an issue with the rightmost fuse blowing (two flipper coils use that bank). Replacing it with a 5A fuse seems to be working for most people. Not sure if people are using slow blow or fast blow 5A fuses to fix it. Make sure the game is off when you insert the new fuse. And when you power it back up after the fuse swap, make sure no coils fire a couple seconds after boot. If they do, it indicates a different problem, which you'll have to call or email us about.

#506 2 years ago
Quoted from RC_like_the_cola:

Dang. Game just crashed on Karl. He completed all 6 modes, then hit all 3 drops and it crashed. Bug report

Whoa! I believe that's the first time we've heard of anyone getting that far in a game!! Yep the wizard modes are still under construction. Not promising anything since I'm not the one coding it, but I think they should be more fleshed out the next major code update. We still have many months of improvements to come though. Hang tight!

#587 2 years ago

Can you loosen the screws, push the posts to widen the gap, then tighten the screws back down? There's usually a hair of play there. Good suggestion by pinmonk too, regarding changing the post type.

#621 2 years ago
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:

Just because Spooky doesn’t “support” it doesn’t mean it’s not possible - although it may be a huge pain to swap

Earlier versions of the firmware/software supported swapping code. However, I'm afraid that on all shipped games, a code swap won't work. It'll lock the computer up, and it will have to be reflashed.

1 week later
#1046 2 years ago
Quoted from PinBall-Newbie:

I'm assuming that Spooky will be shipping the knife handle rod out later?

Yep! We are waiting on rods for both halloween and ultraman actually. Will ship them to customers as soon as we can. Not ideal, but we decided this was a better approach than delaying everybody's game.

2 weeks later
10
#1551 2 years ago
Quoted from Obed_Marsh:

Unboxing #79 now and looking to be some nasty damage. Hoping it looks worse than it is...
Box had a tip in tell that looked all good[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Definitely looks like it was dropped in shipping. I encourage you to give us a call on Monday. Squirrel can help assess the damage and see what we can do to fix 'er up for ya.

#1553 2 years ago
Quoted from Obed_Marsh:

Thanks a lot for your reply. Much appreciated. Would you think better to just leave it alone until then? I was debating whether I should just let it be or set it up and see if it's functional

Probably wouldn't hurt to open it up to further assess the damage, but it looks like several screw holes have been stripped out, and you've got a nice crack in the corner of the bottom body panel, which may be reason enough to get a new machine. But again, ultimately you'll have to discuss with Squirrel.

2 weeks later
#1898 2 years ago
Quoted from Pinballer31520:

Got pin and plays good a little buggy even with new code. Couple plastics broke on delivery . Anyone having the flaps from the elevators in the ball out lanes stay up stopping ball ?
Mine seems like it is binding and it always stays up .

Can you email [email protected], and include a picture of those flaps? They should be able to tell you what's gone awry there, and how to fix it. We'll of course also send you replacement plastics for those that broke in shipping. Enjoy the game!

1 month later
#2942 2 years ago
Quoted from jailbreakjustin:

I just set up the machine yesterday and played about 30 games. My bottom right flipper and sling are now dead. Anyone have this issue? The diagnostic recognizes the coils but they won't fire. Frustrating given Spooky is closed on Fridays.

See if a fuse is blown on the pinotaur. There should be a total of 6 fuses on the board, each with a green light behind them. If you don't see the green light, it's blown. Alternatively, just check continuity across each one with a multimeter.

#2943 2 years ago

The fuse you are looking for will be in the "SOLENOID FUSES 3A SLOW BLOW" section. Most people have been swapping it for a 5A slow blow fuse if they keep blowing the 3A ones. I think we send extras in the leg box. Recently we've just started populating them as 5A slow at the factory. It's possible you got one with a 3A fuse though.

#2947 2 years ago
Quoted from GreenMachine19:

Ok I’m out of ideas. I’ve reloaded the software. I’ve replaced the balls. I’ve reseated the solenoid bank 2 connector. I’ve upped the power on the coil. My game is at 6.5 degrees level per recommendation. I’ve checked all the trough switches in switch test. Anybody got anything else? My game works totally fine otherwise. Just can’t get balls out of the trough consistently. It seems to have gotten worse over time. It has to try multiple times to get a ball in the shooter lane. Does it need a longer duration pulse to get that ball to come out?

I haven't personally seen this problem before, but if you give our service tech a call on monday, I'm sure he will be able to help you out: 815-541-4940. You can also shoot us an email at [email protected]

The only thing I can think to check is that all your trough switches and optos are working. If any are faulty, I'm thinking the game might be trying to vary the coil power to clear a nonexistent jam. First, with an empty trough, go to the stuck switch test menu and see if any trough switches or optos, or jam optos are stuck on. Then go to the switch test menu; if you roll a ball into the empty trough, you should see all trough switches go active (6 switches, and one opto), then inactive (the last opto will stay active of course, since the ball comes to rest at it). Then if you manually push the eject coil to eject the ball, you should see the jam opto go active then inactive, along with the trough opto, which should go inactive too. You can even activate each switch with your finger under the playfield to test it. The optos are a bit harder to get your finger to to test.

#2948 2 years ago
Quoted from GreenMachine19:

Ok I think I might have gotten it. But I don’t want to pop the champagne just yet. I was starting to feel like the coil plunger wasn’t hitting the balls squarely. Like the flattest part of the plunger hitting the ball perpendicular if that makes sense. So I slightly bent the flat metal bracket that the trough coil is mounted to towards the cabinet. Not a lot, just slightly. Just to make it fire more squarely on the ball. I test played 3 games and the plunger only misfired like 2 times but the ball came out on the second attempt both times. Didn’t mess up my games. No glitching to the end of ball. That’s the first time I was able to get that to happen in about a week or two of lightly playing do to work. I was starting to think I was completely stupid. Not my first machine. I’ve done full tear down restos of ToM, DM, FT, waterworld, genie, Genesis, eightball champ, super Mario bros, jokerz so I know a thing or two.

Welp, disregard my last message then haha. Glad you figured it out!! I haven't seen mechanical misalignments with our troughs before, so that never even entered my mind.
Unrelated: I love Genesis! Just sold mine last month and I miss it already. I machined a collar to fit around williams style flipper shafts so they'd fit into the gottlieb flipper mech just so that I could put chrome flippers in it Looked great with all purple rubbers.

1 week later
#3195 2 years ago
Quoted from Mad_Dog_Coin_Op:

I attempted to remove the socket on the pumpkin flasher today. That exposed socket is a problem waiting to happen in my opinion. Here are photos of what I did. Pretty easy to do. I just need to dress my cable harness a bit and I think I can claim victory.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

That looks really clean. Nice job! For those who want to do the same, I'd just recommend using PETG for the plastic base. I think most people would assume acrylic would be the go-to material, but acrylic will crack easily. PETG is what plastic ramps are typically made out of, and is much more robust. Polycarbonate might work too, but I think PETG is the safer bet.

#3275 2 years ago

At spooky HQ, I'm advocating that all our playfields undergo a hardness test at time of manufacture. I mean, other companies literally *hammer* test their playfields. That sounds pretty hardcore to me, but I say we turn it up to eleven, and proof our playfields against a Barret .50 cal. I mean, every single playfield would fail, but how badass would that be; knowing that your playfield was "Spooky, .50 cal tested (TM)"?

1 month later
#4245 2 years ago
Quoted from DrainoCity:

Could someone please tell me what type of fuses go on the board? A couple of mine have blown but I cannot find a manual for a part number. If anyone knows where I can get them I would greatly appreciate a link.

They are all 20mmx5mm fuses. For solenoids, you can use 5A slow blows. For the others, the rating is printed on the pinotaur.

#4246 2 years ago
Quoted from McIntyre905:

Has anyone heard back from tech support? Been ghost mo

Shoot us a reminder email! Just for those unaware, the tech guy (well, the entire office) is only available mon-thurs. He typically responds same-day though.

#4261 2 years ago
Quoted from lpeters82:

PS: Order us some nice chairs from the Deeproot Auction. I'm jealous of their chair game.

Currently, the highest bid item there is our AMH, at $1k. Woot!!! Beating the raza prototype by $200

#4372 2 years ago
Quoted from lpeters82:

DJ parks in the "employee of the month" spot.

I've just always parked there. Then they made it the employee of the month spot, and I just kept parking there.

2 weeks later
#4768 1 year ago

I'm personally not a huge fan of music pins, but if it's gloves we're talking about...

pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png

Also acceptable:

pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png
3 weeks later
12
#5672 1 year ago
Quoted from Mkvgti:

Are we going to glaze over this fire hazard? Or is it a rare instance most owners currently haven't experienced?

Hey all, I just wanted to assure you all that this is *not* a fire hazard. The discoloration is not being caused by hot connectors. A few months ago, our LED supply chain experienced a dry spell, so we had to build them in house for a short time. The connectors we used became discolored during the reflow process. It's a relatively small/cheap oven, so we had to run it a bit hot in order to properly solder a large panel of LED boards, hence the connectors look a bit toasty. But they're totally fine; no mechanical or electrical impact.

#5758 1 year ago
Quoted from monitorpop:

I recommend reading up on safety for 2k and going over board on safety. I wore an N95 mask and goggles but it was not enough, even outdoors. I got one half breath of the fumes in through the mask and it has messed my lungs up a bit. Some mist got through a gap between my gloves and my shirt. That area is now sore and discolored. Long story short… the shit is really nasty so be very careful.

Specifically, you should be using either a can that can filter out isocyanates (most filters don't even claim to filter them for liability reasons I believe) or you can use a forced air respirator, which is basically a squirrel cage fan that blows air down a long hose and into your mask to create positive pressure. Just put the intake for the fan in a place with clean air. Make sure your spray won't blow over to the fan and get sucked into the intake. When I was restoring my meteor playfield, I kept the intake in my house, and ran a 50ft hose to my mask, outside, inside a tent. The tent not only keeps spray from wafting back to the house/intake, or poisoning my neighbors, but it prevents particulates or bugs from getting into the clear coat too.

#5783 1 year ago
Quoted from Deez:

How do I fix this? I can't get the damn bulb out of the sculpt.
[quoted image]

Shoot an email over to [email protected]
We'll send you a new one.

1 week later
#6041 1 year ago

Designing the rules for a game is a balanced dance for sure. Tournament players definitely know their stuff; they know what makes pinball fun for pinball enthusiasts. And while in reality, tournament players make up a very small percentage of the customer base, the opinions/reviews of tournament players can greatly influence the opinions of the larger customer base. Furthermore, probably half of our customers are operators; they want machines that attract the general public, who probably frankly don't care as much about the fine details; they just want to see really fun and cool stuff happen under the glass.

So when designing the rules, we have to look at what are the really technical risk/reward aspects that tournament players can dig their teeth into. What are some distinct, different strategic pathways we can create. At the same time, on top of the technical gameplay, it has to be generally fun to shoot; we need to structure the flow of rules/gameplay to utilize all of the playfield, including flow shots, toys, stop-and-shoot, upper playfields, (lower playfields??), etc, so whether you care about the technical rules or not, you're still progressing, seeing fun new content, making satisfying advancements in your score, etc. And another level up, we have to have those 'intuitive' rules that allow the average barcade walk-up to shoot for the big flashing thing, and be rewarded with a really kickass lightshow/multiball/soundscape that's so damn fun, it's worth dropping more quarters to experience it again.

It really is like making three different rulesets, with different objectives, but they still have to tie into each other and mesh well, meaning, we can't have all the intricate details tournament players need to know, overwhelming the casual players who just want to see cool stuff happen. And we can't let the cool easy stuff have such a huge impact on score that it's the only thing tournament players want to shoot for anyway. It's 3D chess.

#6042 1 year ago
Quoted from SpookyLuke:

Appreciate the support! Co-op request noted.

Aw jeez... Am I going to have to go back and add a co-op mode to the next game?

200.gif200.gif
3 weeks later
#6521 1 year ago
Quoted from flukevfx:

Question - in the backbox, for the 2 USB cables coming out of the harness, does it matter what USB port you plug them into (front or back)? I had to remove the backbox and forgot to label them haha
[quoted image]

It shouldn't matter where either cable is plugged in.

It might, but it shouldn't :p

4 weeks later
23
#7037 1 year ago

Hello, serial killers!
V1.08 code is now available here: https://new.spookypinball.com/game-support/

#7039 1 year ago
Quoted from RussMyers:

Can someone please please explain in simple terms what to do with this file once it's on the USB drive?

Turn on your game, the open up the coin door; you should see a USB extension cable on the left of the cabinet, where you can plug in your USB drive. Plug the USB drive in, and wait for the update to complete. You can also plug the USB drive directly into the computer in the head of the game.

#7042 1 year ago
Quoted from RussMyers:

OK I turned the game on, waited until it finished booting completely, then plugged the USB drive into the USB cable inside the coin door.
Nothing happens at all.
Is there a button to push or should it recognize the drive and file all by itself and just start updating automatically?
Tried the same thing by plugging it into the one open USB port on the top of the board in the head - same thing, nothing happens.
RM

Yep, it should automatically start the update if the USB drive has been formatted/written to correctly.

Update Requirements:

-Use a USB drive with 4GB to 32GB of storage. Do not exceed these bounds.

-Do NOT use a Mac system to format your USB drive. Use Windows 7/10, and format as FAT32 / 32kb.

-Do NOT pull the USB immediately after files copy. Right click on the USB drive from the ‘Computer’ window, and select ‘eject’. Windows will tell you if it’s ok to remove the USB.

-Make sure the filename is not changed when you download it. The name should be exactly code_H78.pkg
If it's code_H78(1).pkg or code_H78(copy).pkg, it will not work.

-Skipping any of these actions can and will cause the game to run in an unexpected manner, or not at all.

#7044 1 year ago

If you still have problems updating even after following those requirements, shoot an email to [email protected], and we'll get you in touch with the programmer, who should be able to get it sorted.

1 month later
#8597 1 year ago

Most have been resolved with a replacement computer. There's a chance re-imaging the computer would fix it (instructions to do so can be found on our game support page), however booting to BIOS indicates it's probably a bad hard drive; safest bet is swap the computer.

#8780 1 year ago
Quoted from SpookyBug:

Usually we just ask Spooky DJ to fix it. But this might just be a swap.

Definitely fixable, but I wouldn't want a board that damaged out in the public. The best option in this case is to give us a call and we'll send you a replacement!

Quoted from Rdoyle1978:

While I’m making unsolicited suggestions: I really appreciate the “hints” on the backbox since it can be really tough to figure out what to shoot for sometimes - PLEASE make the hints larger onscreen. Kthxbye

Quoted from metallik:

At this point I think ALL pinball code developers should be forced to sit 5 feet from their desktop monitors while coding the game's UI. It's not just Spooky.. Stern and JJP also like to use 10pt fonts for important info. FFS, the screen is twice as big as the old DMD; make the damn words bigger!

Quoted from Rdoyle1978:

LOL! It's not a bad idea. There's a ton of info they are trying to accomodate - I am really impressed with Godzilla's (and come to think of it, Ultraman's) approach to putting the information onscreen. JJP's POTC did a phenomenal job of artistically integrating progress into the screen (although of course their LCD is way larger). But anyway, it's not always clear what I'm shooting for, especially when modes are stacked - so I really appreciate the hints as I'm learning the game, and trying to explain to my wife and now my son (that's a huge shocker) what to shoot for.

Your suggestions have been heeded!

Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

If you buy a BSE, can you buy the topper and knife shooter and how much?

Quoted from mpdpvdpin:

Not sold separately

I believe that's a licensing stipulation. Although we can get you a replacement unit, if your original was damaged or defective somehow.

14
#8842 1 year ago

Some computers have experienced early hard drive failures. Unfortunately, since it doesn't happen instantly, it's not something we tend to catch while playtesting. That said, it's still a relatively rare issue (less than 1% of machines have had this problem). But we have moved away from the model that has the issue. And of course we'll send you a new PC if you encounter the problem, just give us a call.

#8855 1 year ago

You could buy spare PCs I suppose, however we definitely are able to transfer the game between different types of systems; so supporting it will be no problem in the future. It does take several days to rebuild and test the operating system, game software, update procedures, etc on each new platform though, so it's not something I'd like to do regularly haha.

1 week later
#9276 1 year ago
Quoted from Pinkitten:

I’ve owned them both, and I agree Alien is highly immersive with a creepy, intense atmosphere. I feel Halloween is easily as immersive, with near perfect theme integration. And the gameplay is better on Halloween, imho.

As a sci-fi kinda guy, Alien is my personal favorite example of good atmosphere in a game (we have one here in the shop!)

Quoted from PanzerKraken:

Any chance of improving the quality of some of the movie clips or updating them in the near future?

There is definitely a chance! I'd even go so far as to say a fairly decent one!

18
#9435 1 year ago
Quoted from BWT67:

Finally got around to setting up my butter CE #170 this weekend. So far no hiccups or adjustments needed, hopefully it stays that way.
As suspected, had to remove the topper given the low ceilings in the basement, but gave it a new home atop the modular rig.
Cannot wait to see what the code has to offer down the road. I hit the Don't Fear the Reaper multi-ball this afternoon, and couldn't be a happier camper.
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Nice synth dude!!

Fun fact: some of the sound effects you hear in HWN were made on my synth:

20210618_192803.jpg20210618_192803.jpg
3 weeks later
26
#10280 1 year ago
Quoted from qbass187:

How responsive is Spooky when you have an issue or a question?

Fairly responsive

1 month later
#12009 1 year ago

I would even add that as a beta tester, there is increased risk of encountering bugs that could, for example, fry a coil. I don't think that's happened, but understand that the risk is higher. Of course, we'll take care of ya if anything goes wrong, but it's worth being aware of.

#12011 1 year ago

Definitely give AJ a call and let him know! He'll help you out.

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