Had a great time with this one at TPF and was going to wait on a Wonka but am too impatient, moved that money to a Pirates LE, should be here in 3-4 weeks. Looking forward to it!

It's coming from the final batch, so hoping some of these technical issues will be resolved.

Same here, and I can't wait, like a kid at Christmas. Trying hard not to watch all the streams, want some surprises. Had tons of fun playing this one at TPF.

I'm looking at all the Mod Couple mods, thinking Kraken and Dauntless mods for sure. Does the whirlpool mod block the view of the ball during the spiral drain?

Anyone heard status on the latest run? If they are still idling waiting for parts?

I heard from my distro today about my order, current estimate is 2-4 more weeks to finish off the idling machines. Still waiting on parts.

Might be able to turn that rubber a bit to buy more time. Course that might just break it.

Was thinking about grabbing this mod to do just that...
https://mezelmods.com/collections/pirates-of-the-caribbean-jjp/products/pirates-of-the-caribbean-pinball-black-pearl-deck

deck (resized).PNG

I ordered 2 sets (AFMr and MMr) March 11 and still waiting. Though I did change my order (from MMr to Pirates) April 24.

Just called to check on the status of mine, it's supposed to ship tomorrow!

And the fact it's probably one year minimum before they roll them again, what with Wonka and GnR coming down the pipe. I wouldn't be surprised if these are the last of the $9.5k Pirates, given all the cost that must be going into these and how Wonka has fewer mechs for the same money at the LE and CE levels. May be more of a YBR model going forward on the next run, who knows.

Congrats! Just got 'the call', my LE ships out tomorrow from JJP.

LE #1018 in the house!

No idea how I'm getting this beast upstairs yet, not sure I'd burden my usual crew with this one. Maybe time to rent a stair climber.
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Is there anything better in this game than hitting a bullseye on Dauntless? Love the metal on metal 'CLANK' and accompanying sound and light show.

Only wish I could load the cannon more consistently. What's a good strategy for loading the cannon once the door is open? I can't find any consistent shot for getting it in there. At the moment I more or less flail and hope for the best.

Nice work on all the 3D models Agima! I've ordered a roll of 'coffee' colored filament for the printer.

I wonder if there's enough depth there for a gold chest, or a pile of gold, something like that. To go thematically with the 'spot gold' targets. Might see if I can come up with something.

Got mine printed and installed today. Thanks again!

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Agreed, I might paint it darker brown and do a black wash on it. But it really looks pretty good as is, better in person. The color matches the deck color pretty well, so it doesn’t look out of place when the game is rocking and rolling.

Well if Automated is out, these have to be nearly gone, at least in the US.

My TLDR JJP POTC Review:

I thought the praise this game was getting was hyperbole. I had fun playing it at TPF, but put a deposit on Wonka. After seeing all the love this game was getting, plus the fun I had at TPF I thought I would take a flyer on it. Particularly because of how scarce they were getting. I figured I could get Wonka later, but this might be the last chance for a while on this one. So I pulled the Wonka deposit and ordered an LE from Automated. And wow, I’ve had this machine for a week and my Q rating for a pinball machine has never been higher.

To be honest, Day 1 (week ago) I had some buyers remorse, my machine came loaded with every single one of the Top 10 defects. But it was here, and on my second floor, so it was staying. I’ve spent the last week working on the issues, using advice from LTG, Zaphx, Vireleand and many others and also leaning on JJP where needed (Steve has been great). And I’ve got the machine dialed in pretty well now. Add to that the outstanding mods from Mezel and Yelobird, and this machine is just about fully blueprinted.

This is peak pinball right now as far as I’m concerned, and this isn’t hyperbole. It checks all the boxes; art, graphics, sounds, music, voice work, layout, rules and world under glass mechanical magic.

Tonight my family and I were finally all able to get together and play this one, and between figuring rules out, activating the toys and plundering (bedlam!) we all had a great a time. And that’s really what this game delivers in spades, pinball joy. So thanks to the team that made this happen, you’ve raised the bar again and I can’t wait to see what’s next. That’s all for now, if you got this far, thanks for reading.

I believe after completing PIRATE lanes 3 times it becomes one of the PIRATE award choices and a mystery award possibility.

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Think I found a bug, or my machine has an issue, Apologies if someone has mentioned this. When you restart a game before the current one has ended, ball search timer doesn’t reset. So if you don’t launch Ball 1 of the new game fast enough, within just a few seconds, it goes into ball search with a ball sitting on the shooter lane switch.

It’s 100% reproducible.

I've been playing with Pintel the past few days to try stacking Arrg Frenzy with multiballs. Had some good success with it. But my highest score has come with Angelica, at around 1.3M.

My kraken pushed the diverter down quite a bit as well, after install had many more toilet flushes than before. I tilted mine up w/ rubber feet, not ideal, and the kraken still pushes down on the diverter a bit, but shots go around the maelstrom much more consistently now.
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Not sure exactly where the switches are, one is an opto inside the ship I believe. This is a pretty common problem, I get those two alerts all the time. And it's 99% likely that you're only getting them because they haven't been hit in a few games. Just pop the glass with those errors up, rock the ship and one should go away, put a ball in Dauntless target hole and it will clear the other, and verify that each is working properly.

While the glass is off you can start a game and test your cannon to make sure a hit is possible. If not there are posts linked either here or in the tech thread on how to align the Dauntless.

I got a replacement sent to me by JJP, problem free since.

If he's sending playfields for those of us with severe bubbling then my faith in JJP has been restored and I'm back in on WW.

Can anyone with bubbling and no chipping confirm they are getting a replacement playfield at no charge?

Awesome! That's all I ever asked them to do.

I opened a ticket with JJP a week ago, no response. Also emailed my distro, also no response.

They should both go up the same, search here or in the tech thread, the fix has been discussed.

I am terrible at this game (and pinball in general) but want to get better. To give you an idea my average score is around 100k and a good game for me is 300-400k, my all-time best is ~1.4 million.

Can someone give me a simple / repeatable strategy to follow to maximize score? Which character should I use for that strategy? I plan to practice a simple strategy and kind of build from there.

I'm also looking to get better at bumping, nudging, and flipper skills so if anyone has links to any videos or resources showing universal pinball skills I'd appreciate it. I've found a few out there from Googling but not a ton. Thanks!

Thanks, I hadn't watched that one, very helpful. I immediately put up a pretty decent (for me) score after watching. Barbosa -> Dead Man's Chest -> Play Better = Profit.

My flippers rarely have the power to backhand the chest lock, I might bump power a couple points to see how that works.

Actually had a ball make it to the top of the apron. That one was a PITA to clear, as you pulled the glass down, the ball rolled down further binding the glass from sliding out. Fun fun. I raised the apron rail a bit, hopefully that prevents it in the future.

That's exactly what I had to do, carefully used a screwdriver to move the ball over to where the plunger is, it dropped down into the cabinet, but I was able to get the glass off.

For the first time in my life I hired someone to move a machine when Pirates landed. Felt like such a wuss but would do it again in a heartbeat.

Since I was kicked out of the VIP section at the recent GnR concert I'm planning on keeping the POTC a while longer. Has anyone ordered the opening chest mod recently? Have all the kinks been worked out? I was holding out for a mod that used the forks like on the proto, but I guess that one isn't happening so may jump on @harryhoudini's mod.

Right on, order placed.

Since it includes the WIFI and BT update they may have wanted to wait until after GnR so it could be first. I don’t think it will be long now.

The actuated chest mod arrived today and got it installed. What an amazing upgrade! I asked earlier, and for anyone else wondering the latest version is quite a bit better engineered than the version in the how to videos. Nice work @harryhoudini.

There's a high res version of this in the PDF manual, page A-24. It doesn't have the pirate themed background though if that's important to you.

Otherwise, the best online version I was able to find is attached. Good luck with it.

POTC-Rules-Flow.jpg

I fixed mine simply by stretching the tension spring out to add a bit more tension. I know this might not fix it for some, but it worked here and it was cheap / easy.

Not long, the newest kit makes one of the trickiest elements quite simple. I would say it was less than an hour between glass off and back on.

Duplicate post.