Thanks Lloyd. Gotta be something like that. Back in town and will try that today.

It’s a great pin guys!

You can set it to permanent one handed play, but only right handed one handed play.

And an electric screwdriver or drill with a socket on the end is great for fastening or unfastening leg bolts in seconds, and by setting the torque control fairly low you can be sue not to overtighten and strip the thread...

You can use a power tool. Just need the right drill/bits that fit the hex hole.

LTG : )

Something like this. Not pictured the adapter that goes into the drill and the socket plugs onto.

Or take a hex wrench the right size. Cut off a section of it. Chuck that right into your power tool.

LTG : )

DSC00063 (resized).JPG

DSC00064 (resized).JPG

Thanks!! I have yet to try and persuade my wife to let me have it in the house... wish me luck!! At the moment my gamesroom is far from built, so all my games are in storage... but this one I really want in the house...

Thanks! So are you saying there are varying degrees of departure from the prototype in games that left the API factory? I got the feeling that simply all the production games were the same...

Wishing you good luck my friend !

LTG : )

Thanks a lot!! She doesn't even know I've got the game yet!! (It was delivered to my work address)...

Let her beat you alot, then she might let you have it in the house. It works for me.

Interesting strategy... the only snag is that it means I'd first have to set it up in the basement where dust exists, and she therefore doesn't step a foot in there except to rush in and ventilate the place for no apparent reason... probably to try and get rid of the dust I guess...

No, I was just thinking your machine might be the closest to Munich. Nothing to do with the machine changes.

Ahhhhhh... Yes, it all makes sense now! In my sick and twisted mind I thought you were referring to the prototype as the 'real Oktoberfest'... by the way, I've actually never heard of this event in Munich referred to as the Oktoberfest... I only know it as the 'Munich Beer-fest'... maybe that's just me...

She still will not allow machines in the living room. We were going to build a game room in the basement when we built our house but hit solid granite and were already over budget, so no basement, no game room, I wish we would have. My tiny office has room for only two games, my other two are out on loan and I am secretively planning to buy another.

I hope you finally get a gameroom for your 127 machines, I might come visit.

Making progress. After replacing it, Beer barrel membrane switch now recognizes all 3 balls. Switch test working and most of coils working now except the bottom 5 here and the tent scoop. I see i need to up the power on the drop target so it pops up and reset it to the up position manually. "Captive Ball" lit?

Balls go into Stein hole, drop target scoop and down to Tent scoop and nothing. Other coils are working fine.
IMG_0588 (resized).jpgIMG_0589 (resized).jpg

I have only played my game but the barrel lock difficulty is just right ,If I get a clean shot to the ramp it usually goes only the fastest super clean shots may jump the ramp but very rare,very satisfying fun ramp fro sure

Yes, the first captive ball switch is where the captive ball sits when it's at rest, so it will usually be closed when the game is idle. There are three total switches in the captive ball lane: Captive Ball 1, Captive Ball 2, and Captive Standup. (This is how we can gauge the strength of hits, e.g. for the High Striker animation and to determine Super Striker point values.)

Sorry to hear about the granite spoiling your games room plan! You're certainly welcome to pop over when/if I ever get mine finalised and my games set up... it's gonna be at least another 2 years though!

AWOL!?

[email protected]

I don't always answer my phone and voicemails over the weekend but I ALWAYS look at my emails!

The tool for the head does the legs -- so everything you need to set up the game is in the box. I also think they look nicer. You can change them out, threads are same as traditional leg bolts. You can also get an bit you can use in a drill.

A few years ago a store opened up near us called "just ducks", and that is literally what they had, duck themed whatever, nothing else. I think I have had games on LOTR that lasted longer than the store did.

Our village has what they call 'old home days', which is basically a mini Oktoberfest, food tent, beer tent, live music, rides, carnival games. The Rotary Club does a fund raiser with selling ducks and then the carnival had a 'pick a lucky duck' just like in the game, so got my fill of ducks while I was there . . .

IMG_4406 (resized).JPGIMG_4407 (resized).JPGpick a duck (resized).png

Frankfurt airport duty free shop loves Oktoberfest!

20190903_201530 (resized).jpg

SAVED

When I was in 4th grade Mom was in charge of that game for the school fall festival. While the bag of ducks was left unguarded in my house I took a pen and made a tiny mark on all the winners. You won goldfish. Anyway word got out and while that game averaged 500.00 a year, that year it did over 2000.00 and they had to make several trips to get goldfish(which were being donated for free anyway). Mom won some award for having the best game. I told her all about what I had done years later.

I would never bother you on the weekends Barry! I respect people's time off, especially in this hobby . Barry is very helpful!!!

Give me a call. I don't know everything. Maybe I can help. I'm usually around.

Agreed. Barry is one of the best !

LTG : )

The allen-head bolts are clever. Stern moving the power on/off switch away from the standard location... that's an annoyance.

Can someone tell me what length shooter rod is in Oktoberfest? I want to try and make one with a beer tap handle. Thanks.

Measure the one in your game. Simple to remove, check, and put back in.

LTG : )

Here you go.

LTG : )

DSC00065 (resized).JPG

DSC00066 (resized).JPG

Thank you! I never pulled one out and am going to buy a new one so I dont mess up the original. Not sure how its going to turn out but will let you know. New topper pictures coming tomorrow!

So that’s why you have so many kids.

Anyone chime in if you agree or disagree, but the beer barrel lock on this game needs to be made easier by a stein or something else! We all know that ramp is not as smooth as we would want and its luck to get it in, it is what it is. But just to get the lock light to even get a chance to get a ball in is frustrating. If its going to be hard to make the ramp then atleast make it easier to lock the ball. Sure just light PROST. Sounds easy but when there is all the other stuff going on like tents,food,Oktoberfest,mystery,and tent its too much to handle. The barrel takes up 15% of the playfield and thats why people at bars drop quarters in,but if they cant get it in easier than forget it. I have owned this game for 3 months, I am dead middle in my pin league. I have barrel lock set to keep. I always play until I get a Beer barrel multiball. Tonight it took 1.5 hours? Thats crazy.

Dial in the playfield. I was having issues making it until I measured the pitch and leveled it left/right. Mine is set to 6 degrees pitch and my upper flipper strength is stock. I'm hitting the ramp three times on an average game(medium difficulty, putting up an avg of 1mil, 6mil GC). Like you said though, making sure the lock is lit is tough. Usually the first time I hit, it isn't lit and drops out. Hitting PROST is becoming one of my many priorities to start the game. That's what makes it great though, strategy.

I'm a bit hesitant to reply since I'm biased, but the Beer Barrel shot is absolutely not luck. It's not an easy shot, but it's definitely not luck. When I'm playing for fun (as opposed to testing something-or-other) I usually make it a few times per game. IMHO shots from a MagNab are MUCH easier.

Pro tip: any shot up the Beer Barrel ramp spots a PROST letter. This happens before evaluating the lock. This means that if you have just 4 of the PROST letters lit, a shot up the Beer Barrel will award a lock.

Double pro tip: a left orbit -> Beer Barrel ramp combo spots two PROST letters. Again, this happens before evaluating the lock. This means that if you have just 3 of the PROST letters lit, a left orbit -> Beer Barrel shot will award a lock.

If you're having problems shooting the Beer Barrel ramp, check the coil strength of the upper flipper. You want it at default strength or maybe a notch or two higher. Setting it too strong will actually make it harder to make the shot.

Jason is having some of us over later this month. I will take record of how many of us get the beer barrel MB while there. Some good players are going over to play it, and we will be concentrating on it. I’ll be playing this at CLE PIN this weekend too and will exclusively be going for this MB to see just how hard it is. Even if lock isn’t lit.

One question, will the magnet ever automatically grab the ball to help line up that shot? I always get confused on if I even have a mag nab available to use or not.

What if you could also light lock by simply hitting the beer barrel? So hit it when it’s unlit, that lights lock. Hit it again to lock the ball.

I doubt there is a sensor to tell the game when the ball is in grabbing disrance seeing as how the magna-nab button is how the game is designed to grab the ball...

yes. i've noticed that sometimes the magnet does auto-grab the ball. i'm not sure what triggers that behavior from a game/rules standpoint... and - depending on the speed of the ball coming around the orbit - the magnet doesn't always get a perfect grab.

frankly i always forget to use the mag-nab button so the only time it actually does anything for me is when the game auto-grabs the ball.

I feel like I’ve see it grab when I shoot the right spinner. Could have been a sloppy shot and just looked that way though.

I’ll be sure to bug Barry and Co a lot this weekend. Haha

Oh so I am "and Co" now???

It seems like I need to stand corrected

I think it's the spinner as well.

If you shoot an orbit after an inlane feed, the game will auto mag-nab at either the TAP lanes or upper flipper. The magnet lights will flash to let you know this. The magnet it stops the ball on I believe is based on game state...?

Yeah, "luck" wasn't the best word to use there.
Its hard as heck though and the barrel lock light just ads to the difficulty. In hindsight if there wasn't a barrel lock light at all made for this game people wouldnt complain. I always play till I get barrel multiball which is 45-55 minutes. If there was no light it would be 30-45 which makes more sense. I had several games that went 6 min and no barrel light? Thanks for the strategy tips! I didnt know about the orbit.

45-55 minutes? Are you referring to a single game? Are ball times that long on this pin?

Nope. Maybe 3-5 min per game.

A promotion already. Who says hard work goes unnoticed.

Way to go Co !

LTG : )

I'm clearly missing something here... what's the 'barrel lock light'? And how does it add to the difficulty of getting the barrel lock?

they can be. i think my longest game has been around 40 minutes so far.

reminds me of houdini in that way.

It takes me several games that go on 45min plus till I finally get all 3 balls in the barrel, with the balls set to keep between games. Thats too long for an average player and my pin is set up fine. I don't usually get the lock is lit till end of ball 2 or 3. With having to light oktoberfest for the coaster and other things going on at the same time waiting for a ball lock to light is way to hard. Perhaps its a strategy thing? I'll start keeping track and see if it is similiar to everyone else.

Sorry. Wasn’t sure who was coming with. Haha. I’ll see ya soon!

Spelling PROST -- I was shooting the game before Ferret was, and I commented early on that PROST was harder to spell than you would think, and we might need a stein, which he found difficult to believe, given they are right there, but they just seem hard to collect unless you are really focused on them. So we did discuss a stein for it, but decided against it, since the default behavior is to have lock lit at start of game. I will say there is nothing more annoying that making the ramp shot and not getting the lock. So, if you own the game, you may want to change the difficulty setting for Beer Barrel Locks (medium/default gives you one lit lock, Easy will give you 2)

Also, set 'Release Beer Barrel Locks at end of Game' to 'OFF', which I am guessing is what was meant by "I'll play until I get it", since the game allows lock stealing (beer barrel only, not corkscrew) between players and games. You lock the third ball, you get the MB.

MagNab -- inlanes activate MagNabs for you at TAP lanes or upper flipper based on what is going on in the game. The MagNab lamps will be GREEN when the game is going to auto-grab for you. Based on speeds and other factors, sometimes the grab will be missed. If lamps are YELLOW, they you have control of the magnets via MagNabs, if the light is OFF, either you are out of magNabs (shoot newton/captive ball or right ramp, which ever is lit, to collect more) or for game reasons we have it disabled (pretty rare). MagNab lamps flash RED, when the magnets are active.

There is also an auto-grab that is earned via the pops, and that is triggered if the ball exits the pops to the upper flipper. This will trigger the 'Super High Striker', where hitting the newton ball (and then the captive ball into the stand-up target) will award big points. You know it is super striker when you hear Inga count you down in German. We have improved the animation, voice calls, and light shows around the High Striker in the next release.

I can hit the lock pretty regularly, both off the MagNab, on the fly or just when the ball finds it way there (and I am not a great player by any means). Of course I play a lot of Okto, and very little of anything else, so that helps me stay locked in on the spot on the flipper. Once you find the spot, you start to make it with increasing frequency. As Ferret said, making the power too high can make it harder to hit. The annoyance of making the ramp and not getting the lock, as I mentioned above, is pretty high for me, since I do make that shot regularly but I often forget to go re-light the lock, and it seems I tend to immediately make the ramp again, without it being lit. Of course the second most annoying thing is the way too high percentage of the time that when I do start BBMB, that I have no tent mode running.

This is alarming for me. I have this pin on order and I had no idea that playing it can drone on for 45+ min. That's possibly even longer than Lord of the Rings. Marathon pins are bad for multi-player, bad for league, bad for route, and generally not my style. If the average game on this pin is truly 20-30+ minutes I may need to walk away.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this?