I was having loads of problems with my auto launch and plunger. Ball was making the upper loop perhaps 10% of the time.

If been reading all sorts of complicated solutions here, and they all seemed quite finicky.

My solution was dead easy, and it took me all of about 5 minutes.

I removed the ramp. Removed the plastics.

With a nut driver ON the tightened lane guide nut, I used the side of the nut driver to torque the angle of the lane guide.

That moved the upper edge of the lane guide towards the trough.

I used a wide flat head screwdriver to fine tune the angle from the top left back side of the guide, again using the nut driver ON the nut as leverage.

EDIT-I should add that as I tweaked the guide angle, I was constantly testing the new position by full plunging a ball. My goal was to at least get it to work while the upper left flipper was in the up position. Lucky for me, I managed to nail the angle, and it is working perfectly with the flipper down or up now.

It’s now working 100%.

I will take some pictures if anybody finds this difficult to follow.

I’ve only put a few games on it since fixing it. I suppose it’s possible it could go out of alignment again.

When it wasn’t working, I didn’t really care though! That’s why it took me so long to try to solve the issue... I was having too much fun playing the game despite that feed not working correctly.

I should add that as I tweaked the guide angle, I was constantly testing the new position by full plunging a ball. My goal was to at least get it to work while the upper left flipper was in the up position. Lucky for me, I managed to nail the angle, and it is working perfectly with the flipper down or up now.

I disagree that it’s a game ruining shot though. Mostly because you are never credited with that shot from a ball launch anyway. It’s merely serving the ball in to play. Many people soft plunge too. It killed the choreography of Trooper MB start. That’s about it for me.

I agree with RA77

Maiden is one of the ALL TIME greats. The code balance is stellar. The game is just so interesting from a geometry stand point. The game forces you to shoot the whole layout if you want to advance. It's really brilliant.

Yup, there are a few mech issues that are a drag. Dealing with the switch in the Sarcophagus lock is no joke... but SO worth it.

I think if I only had one game... this would be it. It has supplanted TWD as my fav of all time.