I have a Pro and had the exact same problem with airballs. On the Pro, it required me to remove the ramp with the 3 screws and then I was able to tweak the piece of metal that holds the ramp so that the ramp was centered. Not sure what it would take on the Premium/LE models.

Maiden Ramp Before (resized).jpgMaiden Ramp After (resized).jpg

My game is the Pro version, master sound is at 7 (and was never above factory default). I have to turn it down otherwise the distortion is too annoying (I mention so I don't get heckled for not upping the irons!). The sound out of the cabinet speaker is awful, I noticed it when leveling the feet. The other thing I've noticed is that sometimes during more extreme action the audio coming out of the main speakers is super distorted, sometimes just beeps and other random noises. Even at its best, the audio is never 100% clear, there's always distortion or clipping or something. The best way to describe it is awful. Thinking back to it, I noticed the same thing on a demo unit at a dealer in my area, so this something that's happening to other ones. The only adjustments I have made to the game has been to turn the volume down and set to free play.

No, but I'm 1.02, so I'll try the update tonight. Thanks!

Updated to 1.05, much, much better. Maybe not perfect, but sooo much better! Even beat my previous score in the second game, so I like it even more.

Thanks all!

Hey, guess what mine started doing?

That's right. Launched balls started hitting the little flipper and sometimes on the left side of it. 95% of them still take the proper route, but up until 2 days ago 100% of the launched balls were taking the proper path. This can happen with both the auto-launched and manually launched balls.

I noticed a pretty significant hit on the end of the guide on the right side (launch path). I'm guessing that hit moved the guide enough where now the balls sometime take the non-preferred path. It's also possible that since the guide isn't perfectly smooth now, it's taking a slightly different path.

The other thing I noticed while working on this, is that the balls are pretty heavily marked up. Nothing deep, they just don't look new any longer, but if I compare them to my Deadpool, they look considerably more 'used' considering the games have had similar amount of play.

Thanks Fytr and @maide. I think I probably have a combination of both.

I need to learn how to take better pictures of the balls, this picture doesn't capture the difference. The ball on the left is from Dead Pool, a game with more plays. It looks more or less as it did when it went in. The ball on the right is from Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (Pro). I high-lighted the marking that go around the whole ball. There's a ton more marks and dings, but I was trying to capture the bigger scratch. I think this is probably coming from the auto-launch as there's very few things that would go around the whole ball like that. The dings are probably coming from where Fytr mentioned.

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Once again, these pictures don't really capture the problem, but I have a lot of scratches already like the one here. The picture doesn't capture the full length of the scratch.

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And once again, difficult to capture with the camera, but you can see the path the ball takes up the shooter lane, and it goes out past the shooter lane, but it was impossible to capture with the camera.

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As I mentioned, the game started not launching the ball 100% (either manual or auto), my theory is that the guide is slowly being moved.

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Lastly, you can really see the ramp taking a pounding, but that one is probably more expected, but you can totally see the line where the ball meets the ramp.

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I don't understand why there's so much exposed metal edges on this game. It'll be fine one every place has been hit and it's pounded smooth, but I'll have to replace the balls once a month at this rate. Kinda sad for a game that's less than a month old to take this sort of pounding. My Deadpool (Pro) looks brand new still and has way more plays.

My game stopped playing consistently, when I started inspecting I found that the guide was hit. I figure the ball hit is what moved it, but then it made me wonder how the balls look. I then noticed the balls were pretty beat up and I have scratches all over the playfield after less than 3 weeks of ownership. I then wondered how my other game was, it is fine (with more plays none the less).

So, worried? No. Making sure there's not something causing excessive wear that I can prevent? Yup.

I had a Theatre of Magic, Earthshaker and Jokerz!. I did complete playfield replacement on Earthshaker because it was worn to the bare wood, so I know how bad it can be. I had the same balls in ToM that I put in shortly after I got it, and they looked nothing like these after 10+ years of use. I think I get it.

Admittedly, what I don't get is having a new game. Dimpling is a good example. My prior games were all pre-dimpled. This might be similar experience. Maybe this ball wear is similar to dimpling in the way that I just need more of it. All I know is this is the first set of balls that made me say "Holy crap." and made me take a closer look.

Mine was perfect for about the first two weeks, then it started acting up (this is when I noticed the balls taking on more than average damage), but then as Who-Dey suggested, I just enjoyed my game, right up until the auto-plunge starting hitting low about 90% of the time this weekend (manual was still 100%).

My theory was that nothing else really must have changed as the manual is hitting 100%, the problem has to be in the auto-plunge mech.

Taking a slo-mo video of my auto-plunger captured what I think the root cause is. The auto-plunger actually bends back and to the left as it hits the ball. My thinking is this is because it's made out of somewhat flimsy metal to begin with, but then made worse because it only has the one arm on the right side where all the torque gets applied (and slowly bent back and to the left by the weight of the ball over time). This leads to the large plastic bushing getting enlarged over time, and then this causes even more play in the assembly (this may ultimately be causing the demise, it could explain the similar timing in everyone's experiences). This causes my ball to go left, bounce off the left side, hit someplace in the middle of the right side and then hit on the low side of the loop. This could also explain why most people have to close the left prong, or open the right (the launcher is now torqued counter-clockwise).

This plunger design is not a problem in Deadpool or Guardians etc, in fact it probably adds to the randomness of where the ball eventually comes down. It is however a huge issue with this game since the ball needs to accurately go the same way every time.

Yes, I know I could adjust the right side ball rail, but for now I'm going to remain stubborn and see if I can't resolve this with the auto-plunger assembly alone. Maybe someone could confirm my findings and we could design (or even better, inspire Stern to design) a launcher that has two arms, or something as to have less slop over time. Adjustments to the launcher would be awesome.

Had the exact same problem, but on my Pro, I have a post above about it, but until this weekend I never solved the problem. My theory was that it had to be in the auto-plunge mech since my manual plunger was working. After several hours of messing with the auto-plunge mech all I did was make it so neither worked.

On mine the problem was the screw at the end of the guide (by the upper-right flipper, under the plastics). The screw was pulling the end of the ball guide down from where the guide naturally wanted to be, so the guide was being torqued in a way that caused the ball to go more left. I noticed this when I was removing the screw to try to adjust the guide (there's a slot for adjustment, but mine was as far right as it go already and still hitting the post). As I removed the screw I could see the guide come up and straighten out. I wound up putting a washer in between the playfield and adjustment tab on the ball guide. This kept the ball guide from being torqued while being tightened down. Back to 100%, no bending, no nothing. Launched balls working like a champ again (both kinds). My theory is that over time, the guide settled into the wood an slowly became torqued. Not sure, time will tell.

I've seen lots of theories and solutions for this problem, I actually feel like my solution might be the one as it makes a lot of sense and it doesn't require fine adjustments or bending that some of the other solutions seem to require. It doesn't require a ton of precision from either the auto or manual launchers, which makes me feel better as well.

I'll try to make a guide for this as it's a quick easy fix. My fix has resulted in it working 100% with the slop in the auto mech that's naturally there.

The reason that the slightest mechanical divergence causes a problem is that ball guide is no longer perpendicular to the playfield. By putting a washer under the adjustment part of the rail keeps the rail perpendicular with the playfield. The goal is to keep the rail perpendicular with the playfield, in my case it required a washer at the end.

My fix to making the loop consistently

Like many, perhaps all users, my pin was able to make the loop 100% out of the box with both the auto-launch and the manual. Then mysteriously over time (about 4 weeks) the auto-launch would miss 1/20,1/10 and eventually 19/20, but for whatever reason manual would still work. It was consistently hitting the post right below the loop (low). I was sure the auto-launch mech was to blame and I focused on that. I eventually made it so both the auto-launch and the manual would hit low (but I never touched the manual launch). but as it turns out the auto-launch wasn't the problem.

I saw other guides that mentioned bending the right-side guide rail to solve this problem, but I really didn't want to do that (I didn't like the idea of bending something that didn't seem like it needed bending). Plus, it seemed like this solution was susceptible to wax, cleanings, or even strange looks. Regardless, after exhausting all possible adjustments to the manual/auto-launch mech, I started down the bending the guide path. What I noticed was that as I removed the end screw the guide, the end lifted up and became more vertical (closer to perpendicular to the playfield). I tried a shot with the rail in this position, made the loop instantly. Tried a few more. Perfect, just like day 1. I found a washer that was the size of the gap and tightened it down. It hasn't missed a shot yet. The guide is not 100% perpendicular, but it is the natural position the rail wants to be in as opposed to being torqued down.

Simulated view looking at the far end of the right-side rail.
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This might require re-adjustment too over time, it's too early to tell. Good luck, and let me know if this works for anyone else!

I sunk 5+ hours into figuring out this problem and it's way too early to determine if it's permanent. That said, if this is the only problem I have and it stays this way, I'll chalk it up to needing to 'settle in' and I'll be happy. This game is one of the more enjoyable games I've played or owned, so I'm not giving up on it yet.

Just to go on record with this. I noticed the same thing, I'm glad I'm not alone. It seems to depend on the mood of the game when you turn it on. Once crappy, seemingly always crappy with periodic moments of clarity. Other times, perfect, or close to it.