I'm not worked up about anything. The only thing George said at PPE regarding code was that X-Men & TF will be getting Powerpack updates by Xmas. Lyman's not working on the game. That is all.

Thanks for sharing the info Rarehero. I deleted my prior post because I don't want to be a part of spreading miss information. Sorry for the misunderstanding no offense intended. I wish it were true but seems Lyman is not going to be helping out with it.

It looks like that rumor came out in the big X-Men thread, markmon had stated:
"Friend at PPE said they announced that Lyman will be helping out. That's great news for us xmen owners."

So, the jury is out on that, but in any event, I'm in on this pin until the powerpack, always have been. We'll see what happens once the code is finalized, but it doesn't look like XMLE is the second coming of Tron LE by any stretch.

-Wes

Oh, well that explains it. Friend of a friend of a friend....that's how rumors start.

Given some info provided by a fellow pinhead it seems pretty unlikely that Lyman will be involved with this project. Seems like he is pretty busy with other projects right now.

Everyone has their preferences and many like myself focus on getting pins they love to play not as an investment. I personally enjoy playing X-Men Pro as is more than Tron LE and I know I am in the minority on that and that is okay. For me a pin does not need to be loved by the masses for me to love playing them I try to play each with a totally open mind.

So I checked the scoop. Thanks everyone.

Now the issue. According to my laser it is about 6 degrees open to the actual scoop cut out. This is definitely the reason balls are shooting into the left sling. Pretty poor quality control but hey that's life. What worries me is it is a rather sizeable adjustment. Based on a drawing I did on the bottom to square it up, I need to move the near screws about an 1/8 of inch. What worries me is there is not really enough room to make this much of an adjustment without filling in the previous holes and losing some stability. As hard as shots go into the scoop I worry about the law term stability of this project and also the question of why I should be doing this on a new machine.

The other choice is to take it off and bend the scoop but I worry a bit about airballs if I go with this.

Overall, kind of a crappy situation for a new machine.

Rumors?! At Pinside?! Inconceivable.

I'd call Stern tech support on that one.

I still think his leveler is broken

lol

I was ~1 degree off center at the top but I have since squared it up

I never even thought to check the scoop, so your suggestions led the right way anyway.

Thanks.

A lot of whiners around here that pick apart everything
They can find. Then buying games like cactus canyon with code
Worst than any stern to date. Or totan that's so easy my
1st grader beat it. Code will be tweaked just enjoy the games.

Yoxxy, if you think the holes in the scoop are off or it is twisted I would contact Stern customer support with pictures and a description. I had a problem with my scoop (not this particular problem) and got a new one within about a week and a half. If the holes in the playfield are off then you could also drill new holes where need be in the scoop itself to make the necessary adjustment.

Good idea, and if the webbing on the scoop isn't big enough so that a new hole in it to match the hole in the wood in it's new position won't work, then just drill a new hole in a totally different place on the scoop web so you're far enough away from the abandoned hole(s) in the p/f for it to not matter... You could make some extra holes while you're at it to strengthen the fixing up a bit too...

I am going to contact them. I am very hesitant to do something to an LE machine that will be noticeable, as in my view it very much negatively affects the resale.

The underside of the playfield looks immaculate and part of the advantage of having an all LED machine is it should look immaculate permanently.

I am not sure how you are defining immaculate, but as far as I know having LED lights vs. incandescent will only really matter in terms of potential heat related issues.

It has nothing to do with general cleanliness of the underside of the playfield; the black dust you see on machines has to do with metal on metal contact (e.g. coil stops, metal ball habitrails etc...). At least that is what I have read and it makes sense.

I have never heard of the grime being magically generated by playfield lamps.

Since Stern has replaced a lot of metal with high end "butyrates" perhaps this will lessen the grime in the future, but this has nothing to do with LE vs non.

I guess score 1 for LE marketing to less informed buyers? I don't know what else to say.

Am I the only one that finds it a bit odd that many people would prefer to have a game that plays bad than to fix it because of the fear that it might loose it's value if it's been fiddled with a bit... No offense Yoxxy, but surely the game will go up in value if you make it better... and even if it does go down a bit, surely the benefit of having a game that plays better will be worth any slight knock in value...? Anyone who buys a NIB game that thinks like this would be better off leaving them in the box... that's the best was to make them hold their value surely...

Flame suit on and zipped to chin

The fact that the bulbs never have to be changed, which creates a huge amount of screw holes on routed machines.

I have never really damaged the underside of a playfield changing bulbs... so I am still not sure how having LED's really matters in that regard.

Thank you for the clarification. I still think your playfield underside will get grimy from play far before it becomes worn from rampant bulb changing, assuming it gets played a reasonable amount vs. just sitting on all day waiting for bulb changes.

I think there is a difference between fixing something because you broke it or because it came from the factory in shape that should have never left.

That is where I draw the difference. If it was something I did or broke because it had 5000 games on it, that is a different comparison. If that were the case I would have no issue fixing it and making it arguably look worse.

What this amounts to is, I am selling you something that is defective, then asking you to fix it, thus decreasing its value is a different concept.

To be honest the money is irrelevant, it's more the concept behind it.

I don't disagree; however, one is permanent (screw holes), while one is easily cleaned (grime).

Like I said, I like all LED machines because besides the grime, the underside of the playfield stays in basically the same shape forever. If you take your time you can also screw and unscrew without swiss cheesing things, but I have seen lots of machines where this isn't the case.

Personally I don't differentiate between these two... if I can fix it myself, irrespective of if I broke it or if it was like it out of the box, I just do it because it's probably going to be less work than trying to get Stern to do it, and it has an immediate result which lets me enjoy the game instead of waiting weeks for a solution from the manufacturer... I also get a feeling of satisfaction that I solved something... I personally don't let morals spoil my enjoyment of the game... Maybe I'm in the minority here, but that's how I deal with these things... I just can't stand waiting for someone else to sort something out, even if it was their fault... I just don't see what that waiting gains me...

I 100% aggree with the spirit of this, and honestly I commend your efforts to take Stern to task for this.

As a buyer of a premium game (or any game) you should not be having to fix catastrophic (in terms of gameplay) defects. Nit picking the condition of this or that is one thing, the amount of physical problems with their recent games has been discouraging to say the least (megatron scoop and drop target, IH playfield, hazy lower PF window clearcoat on ACDC, numerous physical issues on X-men).

I am not sure how much success you have, but at least letting them know how their games leave the factory into peoples homes is better than nothing.

It makes their new line of home games even more of a joke; their recent record of games going into homes trouble free does not warrant further expansion into this market.

It's not going to effect your sales Benepinball. I see your ads on craigslist all the time. If someone doesn't like the game, it doesn't make them a whiner. They just don't like it. I don't like it. I don't own a Cactus Canyon or Totan either.

Take some vice grips (grip side edges of scoop carefully), bend/tweak scoop a tad and be done. You don't even have to take it off the game. Takes 60 seconds. Had to do it on my Wolverine as it was shooting the ball into the slingshot as well.

Alright, had a free night last night so I decided to fix X-Men and play for a few hours.

First, I fixed the scoop, I took it off, bent it with a vice grips and put a Mantis in the scoop hole. Ball now goes on to left flipper 98% of the time, the other hits the bottom of the sling and falls onto the flipper.
Second, I did the post mod, which makes the Iceman shot much easier.
Third, I jacked the game up a quarter of an inch and leveled it in 7 spots, then set the feet. Magneto drops are down immensely.
Fourth I forced myself to the play the game, instead of quitting. I actually enjoy it quite a bit. The shots are not easy but after playing a for a few hours the flow of the game for me has improved immensely. I scored a 121MM in one of the later games.

Now for the things I don't like.

Got to Danger Room. I have no idea what is going on there. It makes little sense and is boring. Not great for something that is hard to get to. It is easy to score points, first one was 33MM and second was 38MM.

I still don't like the early game flow. Going for Dark Phoenix you hit target shots to start the game. I think something needs to be done here, hitting target shots over and over is a bit boring.

Back on Dark Phoenix, I think there needs to be a bit more done to make it reachable. Simplest change would just be to keep health of villians even if you lose.

Maybe I missed something in the other thread...but I ordered the posts as listed...the threads are too big and don't fit! It needs 6-32's and the ones listed turned out to be 8 or 10-32's. Are you removing the T-Nuts or did someone figure out what the correct posts are and I just missed it?

Remove the T-nuts, and use a washer and lock nut under the playfield.

Gotcha, thanks!

Or use a different, correctly sized T-Nut.

It is a frustrating and yet fun game. I tend to prefer longer play games so this game drives me crazy sometimes, but it also keeps me coming back.

Im thinking of setting mine to 5 balls till the power pack in Dec, It's fun just way too deep.