We have had the same ball stuck problem.

Of course! Hopefully you don’t mind me throwing them out here on the forum.

Not at all... customers should feel comfortable contacting us via any means to report issues with our games. Can't always promise that everything reported will be fixed or changed, but certainly critical issues like this will be addressed, and generally we want to satisfy our customers, since that's how we, y'know, sell games.

Oktoberfest is on location at Hop Central in Chandler Arizona!

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My wife and had a blast playing Oktoberfest at Hop Central.

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So cool! I am happy you had fun! I should be there next weekend to get the games waxed and ready for the big 7/20 event. Hopefully I’ll get to meet a couple of local pinheads over the next few weekends.

I'll be at Southern Fried Gaming this coming weekend. At 4PM on Saturday, in what should be an entertaining and informative seminar, I'll be sitting down with Zach Meny ZMeny (Straight Down the Middle, Flip N Out Pinball and the This Week in Pinball Podcast), to talk about the making of Oktoberfest, rules and tips for game play, whats up at American Pinball and whatever else Zach, or those who attend, ask about. Warning, part of this seminar will NOT be family friendly.

At first I was thinking about something like William's used in Funhouse behind the mirror to eliminate ball trapping. A piece of plastic angled with two plastic stand offs and anchored by a post nut but I dont think there would be enough post thread to use this type of setup. Have you contacted Cliffy? He's awesome at fabbing stuff up not to mention with the product being thin you could use the VUK ramp nut to lock it down in addition to his 3m adhesive. Not to mention this would take the customer all of 1 minute to install.

Quoting my own post. This happened again on location. I just went to the bar to fix it. Is there any way to tilt the plastic back there so that the ball will roll off of it?

Try giving Barry at API Customer Support a call or text: ‭(224) 422-3191.

The software handling of this situation should be improved in the upcoming version, BTW.

Cool, I will get in touch with him.

Slightly unrelated, but any teasers on rules / features in game #3?

They've registered 5 or 6 properties, but Sherlock Holmes seems to be far and away the most-wanted of what they registered. Someone also said an actual licensed property may be in their future, too. Whatever they decide, I just pray they've hired a competent artist and/or art director from here forward. Oktoberfest screen art and animation is embarrassing.

Art is important, but the gameplay and rules are what really matters to me. Wonder if we’ll ever see a contract game from them too. Sherlock Holmes could certainly be interesting.

We hope that our game #3 will excite everyone with its well-recognized theme, great layout, and ruleset that is easy to understand yet has never been done before in pinball.

Then hopefully we'll do it all again for game #4.

That’s what I like to hear!

I think EVERYTHING about game#2 is great (art, animations, sound, rule set, game play, the whole taco). Not sure how you can improve on it but can't wait to see.

As an owner, the artwork is pretty solid. It’s busy, but it works well. It’s a big festival with lots of stuff going on and that’s what you see. As far as animations, they’re good. Not saying they’re awesome, but they get the job done in a meaningful way. And you’re right, they’re many other choices, but I’d encourage you to go with Oktoberfest. What other titles are you considering anyway?

I’ll note that we’re still improving animations in Oktoberfest. Players will see some nice improvements in the upcoming code update (or visit SFGE this weekend where beta code should be on display).

Big improvements in the last code release. I am anxious to see what else you have, especially in the area of adult humor.

After one week on route I can already tell that AP accomplished the mission in terms of creating a deep rule set inside of a game that appeals to non-pinball players. People gravitate to this machine.

You can adjust the flipper strength to whatever you want - not surprised the operator didn’t do it. I increased the lower flippers on mine about 6 units and upper one 4 units. I agree that MB remake is solid, but it’s not all that deep. Seems like whatever decision you make will be a good one

The center of the play field is dark on Octoberfest. On my Houdini the two spot lights facing the middle really help. Any ideas or mods out there to fix it other than getting pinstadium kit?

Also why is there not a stein to make getting the ramp down easier? I'm a decent player and have not been able to lock 3 balls up top of the coaster yet. Or at least a setting to make it easier to drop the ramp to lock balls.

is your fest leveled right........i locked all balls on coaster .....more power on flipper coils

New beta code main screen animations are big improvement. We have been playing at the ATL and having a blast.

Also seminar Kuglar and I did showcased some upcoming non-family friendly call outs that even had me blushing hahaha

We have two used machines opened at the show that are available if anyone is interested (Flip N Out Pinball)

i was there great seminar.............

Getting the ball up there is not the problem. Getting the ramp down is my problem.

gmanrulz46 dannunz

Collect the "easier to collect Oktoberfest stein", it makes a huge difference in how fast that ramp will drop.

Ok thank you. Any ideas on more light?

I haven't experienced any playfield light issues likely because my room is moderately lit with dimmable LED's. The pin stadiums while pricey do look nice.

Big thanks for coming by! Wish I would have recorded it

The Sloshed Rosh Lager stein makes it easier to complete the OKTOBER FEST letters, which is what lowers the left ramp for Corkscrew locks. (Completing either OKTOBER or FEST qualifies 1 lock; completing the other bank qualifies locks 2 and 3.)

It's probably not obvious what this stein actually does: if you hit a target that's already lit, it will try to spot you a target 1 to the left or 1 to the right of the target you hit. And since ALL steins can be stacked: if you have two of this stein, it will try to spot you a target 1 or 2 to the left or 1 or 2 to the right of the target you hit... and so on. Yes, this means if you have three of this stein, you could spell OKTOBER just by shooting the middle O over and over.

I added 6 spots to mine (2 on each lower slingshot and 2 near upper flipper.) Also added pinstadium.

For flipper area, I used a warm white led strip. Looks great now.

Glad you enjoyed it. I want to thank Zach for doing it with me. I think that made for a better format then me just talking. And certainly was fun during “family friendly or NOT family friendly” to see his reaction on some of the voice calls.

I believe Zach will be taking orders for t-shirts with his new favorite Inga line from Oktoberfest “whip out your duck and let’s race”

That shirt needs to be made haha.

Did anyone stream it?

Why didn’t they add spots from the factory like they did on Hudini?

Houdini worked because they looked like stage lights - fit the theme. On Oktoberfest they decided to instead have all RGB lighting for GI, which looks really good, and again fits the festival theme. Honestly, at least there’s a light strip in the back from the factory. Stern pins have even worse lighting. Besides, spot lights and led strips are fairly cheap, and it’s fun to light up areas yourself.

Unfortunately they don’t steam the seminars at SFGE. So the three dozen or so folks who were there will be the only ones with this great memory.

I fought hard to get RGB GI, and Ferret has led our efforts to use it to create “atmosphere” during all the modes, with a diferrent feel for the different types of Oktoberfest activities. Spotlights toward the front of the game would really lessen that effect. I’ll give some thought to how “spots” might be better implemented given what “resources” might be available in the machine and if that is something we can offer as an add-on.

I would do but I am sure I would be looking for work shortly afterwards

Is there an adjustment to crank up the brightness of the GI? This would help. It seems quite dim now. I see an adjustment for the back panel light but not the GI am I missing it?

Why not have AP record it, so it can be posted later? Seems like a lot of effort for the handful of people in that room when the internet at large would be interested, too.

Thinking outside the box here, would covering up part of the LED strip above the TAP Lanes make the center of the playfield seem less dark? Just a thought. In my game I felt that the LED strip back there was so bright it washed out the TAP lane inserts as well as the Playfield X inserts really bad. So I covered parts of the LED strip (so just the Corkscrew Queue is highlighted). Very happy with the lighting now, except I think I'd like a spotlight on the bartender whenever he's active.

Regarding the difficulty of lowering the Corkscrew Ramp, as others have said, shoot the OKTOBER FEST target banks. Make sure those switches are properly adjusted, and aim for them if you want the ramp to come down. Feels about right to me.

FYI, the brightness of the backbox LED strip can be adjusted in software: Settings > Standard > Backpanel Brightness.

I’ve been enjoying the Oktoberfest at our local barcade. It’s a fun layout and is bright and colorful. Just need more time on the game since I’m not the best player.

I plan on buying pinstadium for mine after saving up. The playfield is very dark in front of the barrel and all the great artwork cant be seen. Thats the only way I see illuminating it evenly. I also plan to scroll animate them down the strip with yellow and white like a beer being poured during certain hits.

my favorite moment from the seminar was when my brothers friend walked out and texted him come on lets go and my brother replied also in text F U you FN A HOLE. classic!!!!!