Quoted from phoenixpin:

I've honestly never seen such a poorly set up new game on location, and I must admit that the other Stern games there were working pretty darn well. I'm not sure if that is unfortunate coincidence, or just the reality of Stern building their games to play well on location. It is possible that POTC is just a difficult game to have on location, and is best appreciated in the home setting.

Quoted from zaphX:

Not in the sealed blister packs either? Should have 4 plastic plugs and 4 screws.

Quoted from phoenixpin:

To Kaneda's credit

Quoted from heni1977:

Who is this guy? Am I missing something?

Quoted from phoenixpin:

Hey all,
I'd like to give some context to Kaneda and POTC... I was the one that went with him to Sunshine Laundromat to play it on location and show him why in my opinion it is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, pinball machines out there. I have a perfectly set up game at home. I was visiting NYC for work and figured I could seamlessly transition to playing with him at this location game. I was dead wrong.
The game was so poorly set up and was such a different experience than I am used to at home. Here are a list of the issues it had on location:
- flippers were ridiculously weak so shots just could not be made. Almost all ramp shots would go halfway up the ramp and come back STDM.
- set up as steep as possible, with the bubble on the highest mark, so that the balls could not make it up either ramp
- 90% of shots to the chest were rejected, partly due to the weak flippers and also due to a problem with the fork mechanism
- could not hear any music/call outs, and the external volume button was turned off on the settings.
- multiballs were two balls instead of three (I couldn't figure this out because I don't even think this is a setting)
- when the ball rolled down the left orbit over the left flipper, it did not roll along the guide and instead was already off the wall. Whereas I can normally loop 5 shots at home through the Fountain of Youth shot, here we could barely make one loop. It also meant it was hard to hit the MAP hole, and so there was only a single time we were able to plunder.
- the action button did not work, such that I could not change the Pirate inlane awards nor collect gold. Big part of the game was missed here. No arrr frenzy. No strategy on setting up playfield multipliers etc. No tortuga multiball.
- at home, when the ball comes out of the depths scoop, I usually hold up the left flipper and it hops to the right flipper, which has a great visceral feel to it. Here that didn't work either and would instead go into the right sling.
- plunger was offset, and maximal plunge would make it at most to the ship skill shot, rather than to the left upper flipper. Literally not one plunge would get there.
- cannon shot rejected, I believe because the target ship was stuck against the left side of the game and possible due to the steep angle of the game
- spinning disk did not much change the ball trajectory, not sure why. At home it is a fun randomizer. Here it really did feel just ornamental.
- no ball saver, so the combination of all the above problems led to many quick ball drains
I'm a pretty decent player and regularly score a million points at home, start most of the multiballs, and make it to at least one mini-wizard mode every 5-6 games, but on this POTC neither of us could get above 70,000. Friends come over my house and love the game. It just wasn't possible to make the shots and progress through the game at Sunshine. We played about 20 times, and only could start a multiball twice: once as a mystery award and the other because of repeated skill shots to the ship. I know these rules inside and out at this point but could only talk about them rather than demonstrate them in action, let alone work through the dynamic layers of strategy that come alive when you progress through the game normally.
To Kaneda's credit, he tried to come in with an open mind and give the game a chance. If I was being intellectually honest I would say that if my main experience with POTC was that particularly machine I would also think 'this is no fun'. It was honestly an eye opening lesson for me that to most pinball fans, our impression of a game is inevitably dependent on how well the particular machine is set up, particularly our view of the shots and code and mechs. I've honestly never seen such a poorly set up new game on location, and I must admit that the other Stern games there were working pretty darn well. I'm not sure if that is unfortunate coincidence, or just the reality of Stern building their games to play well on location. It is possible that POTC is just a difficult game to have on location, and is best appreciated in the home setting.

Quoted from PanzerFreak:

Zach from SDTM "this is one of the greatest pinball machines of all time". Mic drop.
Still my favorite pinball review of all time.
Part 1

Part 2

Quoted from heni1977:

Who is this guy? Am I missing something?

Quoted from phoenixpin:

Hey all,
I'd like to give some context to Kaneda and POTC... I was the one that went with him to Sunshine Laundromat to play it on location and show him why in my opinion it is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, pinball machines out there. I have a perfectly set up game at home. I was visiting NYC for work and figured I could seamlessly transition to playing with him at this location game. I was dead wrong.
The game was so poorly set up and was such a different experience than I am used to at home. Here are a list of the issues it had on location:

Quoted from zaphX:

Kaneda posted my rebuttal today! Pirates fans unite, yarr!

Quoted from evh347:

Sounds a little over ambitious to me and not worth it. There are 25 possible (randomly selected) chapters for each movie and five movies. Do the math, that’s 25x5 = 125 chapters
I would say, just watch the movies, but only because I’m in the minority and I actually enjoyed the POTC movies (even though I can’t stand Depp outside of that character). But by movie 3, every damn character in the movie has 2-3 (or maybe more) subplots. If you ever get to the point where you can explain why Tia Dalma (Calypso) turns into a giant Calypso, starts shouting some sort of unintelligible garbage before transforming into a pile of crabs before falling into the sea...then by all means, have at it. I doubt even the directors can explain what is going on.
Then there’s this...I now enjoy shooting TH and I’ve only seen about 15min of any of those movies and I still don’t care to watch any of them...it’s still a fun machine to play and I could care less how many movie scenes they want to play on the back glass. I have absolutely no idea who or what I’m collecting or why...but I understand shooting the lights, loops, ramps, targets, and that dragon.

Quoted from phoenixpin:

Hey all,
I'd like to give some context to Kaneda and POTC... I was the one that went with him to Sunshine Laundromat to play it on location and show him why in my opinion it is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, pinball machines out there. I have a perfectly set up game at home. I was visiting NYC for work and figured I could seamlessly transition to playing with him at this location game. I was dead wrong.
The game was so poorly set up and was such a different experience than I am used to at home. Here are a list of the issues it had on location:
- flippers were ridiculously weak so shots just could not be made. Almost all ramp shots would go halfway up the ramp and come back STDM.
- set up as steep as possible, with the bubble on the highest mark, so that the balls could not make it up either ramp
- 90% of shots to the chest were rejected, partly due to the weak flippers and also due to a problem with the fork mechanism
- could not hear any music/call outs, and the external volume button was turned off on the settings.
- multiballs were two balls instead of three (I couldn't figure this out because I don't even think this is a setting)
- when the ball rolled down the left orbit over the left flipper, it did not roll along the guide and instead was already off the wall. Whereas I can normally loop 5 shots at home through the Fountain of Youth shot, here we could barely make one loop. It also meant it was hard to hit the MAP hole, and so there was only a single time we were able to plunder.
- the action button did not work, such that I could not change the Pirate inlane awards nor collect gold. Big part of the game was missed here. No arrr frenzy. No strategy on setting up playfield multipliers etc. No tortuga multiball.
- at home, when the ball comes out of the depths scoop, I usually hold up the left flipper and it hops to the right flipper, which has a great visceral feel to it. Here that didn't work either and would instead go into the right sling.
- plunger was offset, and maximal plunge would make it at most to the ship skill shot, rather than to the left upper flipper. Literally not one plunge would get there.
- cannon shot rejected, I believe because the target ship was stuck against the left side of the game and possible due to the steep angle of the game
- spinning disk did not much change the ball trajectory, not sure why. At home it is a fun randomizer. Here it really did feel just ornamental.
- no ball saver, so the combination of all the above problems led to many quick ball drains
I'm a pretty decent player and regularly score a million points at home, start most of the multiballs, and make it to at least one mini-wizard mode every 5-6 games, but on this POTC neither of us could get above 70,000. Friends come over my house and love the game. It just wasn't possible to make the shots and progress through the game at Sunshine. We played about 20 times, and only could start a multiball twice: once as a mystery award and the other because of repeated skill shots to the ship. I know these rules inside and out at this point but could only talk about them rather than demonstrate them in action, let alone work through the dynamic layers of strategy that come alive when you progress through the game normally.
To Kaneda's credit, he tried to come in with an open mind and give the game a chance. If I was being intellectually honest I would say that if my main experience with POTC was that particularly machine I would also think 'this is no fun'. It was honestly an eye opening lesson for me that to most pinball fans, our impression of a game is inevitably dependent on how well the particular machine is set up, particularly our view of the shots and code and mechs. I've honestly never seen such a poorly set up new game on location, and I must admit that the other Stern games there were working pretty darn well. I'm not sure if that is unfortunate coincidence, or just the reality of Stern building their games to play well on location. It is possible that POTC is just a difficult game to have on location, and is best appreciated in the home setting.

Quoted from VZSpyder:

Is this a reflection of Sunshine's maintenance and setup capabilities? Your experience is something I would expect from a neglected machine sitting in a 2nd-tier hotel "arcade", not a premier, dedicated pinball parlor.
Also, I would guess that the map disc felt like it had no effect due to the playfield steepness.

Quoted from Coz:

I’m looking to buy a standard edition, anyone buy one and regret it? My distributor is going to work a trade plus cash for a nib. Wanted to get your opinions. I’ve previously owned DI and Hobbit and love JJP pins. Thanks

Quoted from phoenixpin:

Hey all,
It just wasn't possible to make the shots and progress through the game at Sunshine. We played about 20 times, and only could start a multiball twice: once as a mystery award and the other because of repeated skill shots to the ship. I know these rules inside and out at this point but could only talk about them rather than demonstrate them in action, let alone work through the dynamic layers of strategy that come alive when you progress through the game normally.
To Kaneda's credit, he tried to come in with an open mind and give the game a chance. If I was being intellectually honest I would say that if my main experience with POTC was that particularly machine I would also think 'this is no fun'. It was honestly an eye opening lesson for me that to most pinball fans, our impression of a game is inevitably dependent on how well the particular machine is set up, particularly our view of the shots and code and mechs. I've honestly never seen such a poorly set up new game on location, and I must admit that the other Stern games there were working pretty darn well. I'm not sure if that is unfortunate coincidence, or just the reality of Stern building their games to play well on location. It is possible that POTC is just a difficult game to have on location, and is best appreciated in the home setting.

Quoted from Coz:

I’m looking to buy a standard edition, anyone buy one and regret it? My distributor is going to work a trade plus cash for a nib. Wanted to get your opinions. I’ve previously owned DI and Hobbit and love JJP pins. Thanks

Quoted from delt31:

Are you buying to route? If so I can understand the standard. If not, LE all day for the reasons mentioned above.

Quoted from phoenixpin:

... I was visiting NYC for work and figured I could seamlessly transition to playing with him at this location game. I was dead wrong. The game was so poorly set up and was such a different experience than I am used to at home. ...

Quoted from Coz:

I’m looking to buy a standard edition, anyone buy one and regret it? My distributor is going to work a trade plus cash for a nib. Wanted to get your opinions. I’ve previously owned DI and Hobbit and love JJP pins. Thanks

Quoted from DerGoetz:

So to confirm, the stock balls were the problem?

Quoted from NightTrain:

Can someone clue me in to what this Kaneda review is? Is this the same Kaneda guy I'm thinking about???? 2-4 years ago he would just troll every thread and basically everyone just told him to shut up. He had some anime character as his avatar....

Quoted from Coz:

No, not to route. I actually like the stainless, Trying to save $1000 and my distributor will work a trade. Don’t think he has any more les

Quoted from KingPinGames:

yeah, that's the same guy.

Quoted from Yelobird:

Just a suggestion as I don't spend other peoples money wisely but I would give KingPinGames a call and Strongly consider the LE over standard. Last post he still had 1 in stock and I believe he does trades? Smooth transaction, an Amazing game, and a great dealer.

Quoted from Coz:

Looks like my distributor has one LE left, it’s $900 more than the standard. I’m going with the LE

Quoted from Yelobird:

Wow congrats!!!! I hate to make promises but I am So certain you are going to LOVE this title and it will fit perfectly with the games you have now. NO game has come out in the past 10 years that I have felt more confident about promoting honestly!

Quoted from Coz:

I’m looking to buy a standard edition, anyone buy one and regret it? My distributor is going to work a trade plus cash for a nib. Wanted to get your opinions. I’ve previously owned DI and Hobbit and love JJP pins. Thanks

Quoted from Coz:

Well, unfortunately I’m selling two pins to buy the POTC. I think it will be a great pin for the home.

Quoted from wheels:

Has anyone been able to fix that wire without removing the ship?

Quoted from NightTrain:

Can someone clue me in to what this Kaneda review is? Is this the same Kaneda guy I'm thinking about???? 2-4 years ago he would just troll every thread and basically everyone just told him to shut up. He had some anime character as his avatar....

Quoted from fossmin:

Just got my LE. Looking to buy some mods and I see the Mod Couple sells a disk silencing kit. My disk doesn't seem to be that loud. Yes, I can hear it, but I have heard people say theirs are very loud to the point of annoying. I really don't see the need for this on my game. Are some louder than others?
Thanks
Gerry

Quoted from SheriffBarclay:

Seriously. Thanks zaph by the way..the solder worked!
On a side note, we've had a few posts of "No QC issues at all, vast majority of POTCs have had zero issues, the people posting are just a very small minority". Those posts really irritate me.
Back to silver ball!

Quoted from fossmin:

Anyone buy this shooter rod? Are you happy with it? Any other options for this game?
ebay.com link » Pirates Of The Caribbean Custom Pinball Shooter Rod Pirates Gold Potc
Thanks
Gerry

Quoted from AUKraut:

Check with Pinsider tonycip

Quoted from fossmin:

Just got my LE. Looking to buy some mods and I see the Mod Couple sells a disk silencing kit. My disk doesn't seem to be that loud. Yes, I can hear it, but I have heard people say theirs are very loud to the point of annoying. I really don't see the need for this on my game. Are some louder than others?
Thanks
Gerry