I posted this on another thread, but it seems better placed here:
Hi All !
Just got my SE on Monday afternoon serial ending in 073. Smaug is still spelled smuag on the box stamp.
First off I want to thank Jack and Team at JJP for an amazing and beautiful game, there is really nothing like the look, quality and feel of these games.
The box was crushed and "popped" at the top, looks like someone strapped it too tightly near the top and it broke the packing tape.
I was a bit worried about water damage due to it shipped all the way to Reno during the rain and snow last week in the Midwest.
The driver from R&L was wonderfully helpful and patient, he suggested I inspect everything while he waited, so I did.
The open box let a lot of dust inside but otherwise no damage at all, the packaging was superb.
Moving it to my game room seemed heavier than the WOZ!
Setup was easy, I set the angle to 7°, leveled left to right with a torpedo level, checked for anything loose or bent, excellent quality over-all.
Game booted right up everything except the spider pop-up worked perfectly under the tests.
The spider was rubbing on the left side of the wooden hole. It looks like it is not centered in the hole properly, but there is only about a 1/16th" of space to play with. I'm going to have to remove it and elongate the bracket holes a tiny bit to get it to center properly. Running a drill bit through and side cutting the holes slightly is a simple fix for this.
I have seen this exact problem on a couple of the videos, (spider wont pop up).
The USB cable end connector fit very loosely on my USB stick, and would not register it for a back-up of the settings (my WOZ fits tightly) I did not have a spare handy so I pulled the cable from my WOZ, did the back-up and installed version 1.01 code. (I'm sure I have a suitable cable laying around for a replacement later).
The flippers were a little weak on factory settings, I couldn't get up the right ramp easily with the right flipper. I set them up higher by 4.
This was way too hard and the ball moved so fast it would fly off the wireforms. I lowered the settings by 2 and it seems perfect, I could probably lower it by 1 more.
I played 10 games and once the ball trough failed to deliver a ball so I increased its strength by 1 only. I also increased the right VUK by 1 only.
I also increased the upper left sling by 2 ( I think this one is just a matter of taste).
Gameplay:
Let me say that the comments on being slow or floaty do not apply to this game at all.
My game is fast and crisp playing and FUN!
The pop-up monsters are amazing and FUN! The game is easy for the novice and deeply challenging for the experts!
To compare it to the WOZ is just impossible, they are 2 different and distinct accomplishments from JJP.
Again, this game is a winner hands down and will be a permanent fixture on my collection for years to come.