Apparently mine is being made next week - one of only two to be shipped to the UK. Can't wait for it to make its way over here!

I'm having part of my collarbone removed soon which will mean left arm in a sling for a while, but I am hoping that I will be able to play it anyway using my right hand to control both flippers. Can this be done, or do the two buttons on the right only work for certain modes rather than the whole game?

Thanks for your responses rosh and@Ferret.

Lucky for me its right handed only play that's possible as its the left that will be out of action!

Well I received my Oktoberfest here in England a couple of days ago, and just wanted to say congrats to AP: I have had NIB Sterns and one NIB JJP before now and none of them have worked out of the box as well as this machine does.

Secondly, I had an operation on shoulder a week back and have been unable to play any of my games, but thanks to the one handed play option I got up and running with Oktoberfest with two flippers! Brilliant. Now back to two handed play which is even better though...

I have read through most of this thread but there are a couple of things that I don't quite get though: firstly, if the ball escapes from the right outlane and goes back into the shooter lane, it seems like the game thinks that there is a new ball in play complete with skill shot options, rather than just launching the ball back into play. Is that intentional?

And the other thing is that I have never ever managed to get the ball into the barrel lock - it can get half way up the ramp at most. I realise this is supposed to be a hard shot off the tip of the flipper, similar perhaps to the warp ramp in Star Trek, but it doesn't seem physically possible. The leg levellers on all legs are completely screwed in, and I have tried increasing the power of the upper right flipper up to 40 but no luck. Any suggestions?

Final question: any reason by the leg bolts are fastened using hex wrench/allen keys rather than the traditional style that can be more easily fastened with a power tool?

Thanks again for a splendid game AP peeps!

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...

Well I've just spent a very frustrating 45 minutes with the glass off adjusting the power of the upper right flipper up and down, trying to get it to make the beer barrel lock, but it appears impossible to do so.

I have tried everything from the default power, to a little higher, as AP recommends, to 27, 28, 29, 30, 33, 36, 40 etc, and even though it climbs up the ramp, the ball only gets about half way up the ramp. With the power on the highest setting possible I got a couple of shots that almost made it to the top of the ramp before falling back down. This can't be right, surely!!??

I understand that this is meant to be a difficult shot, but this seems ridiculous. I am a reasonable player and if I can't get the ball up the ramp trying the shot repeatedly with the glass off then what chance has a visitor or casual player during a normal game? Am I missing something? The leg levellers are all the way in and a digital inclinometer confirms that it is at 6.0 degrees at the bottom (although slightly more at the far end) and level to 0 degrees sideways. I am at a loss as to what can be wrong. It's a real shame as I am enjoying the game but I can't help feeling something is not right.

Any suggestions much appreciated!

Maybe. Seems like a big ask for a casual player playing on location though.

One observation that has been made already I think that I agree with is that the corkscrew multiball experience is lacking a bit currently. The start and then the music etc that goes with it doesn't really ramp up the excitement yet. It could do with a bit more pizazz and fireworks imho.

Mustn't grumble though: still a great game!

One feature I really like on this game is the use of the knocker. On many games its such a waste to use the knocker only to mark a match or free game award, so its great to see the knocker being used to generate a loud bang during modes, for example when hitting a duck in shooting one, and also in the bumper one.

I can only think of Addams and the use of the knocker in Seance mode as another example of games that use the knocker as part of the game, although there are probably more. Anyway, good work AP! I'm really glad I ordered the real knocker option.

Four quick questions for the AP people:

1. Playing juggler suddenly all the the playfield lights (but not the backbox) went off midway through the mode. They came back in after the ball drained. Is this deliberate or a bug or something else?

2. I have had the ball go under the corkscrew ramp just before the ramp goes down, trapping the ball under the lowered ramp. The food drop target was also down. When the ball search eventually freed the ball by lifting the ramp, the food target had been reset and was no longer down. Is this avoidable?

3. Often when the ball is ejected from the food VUK it runs down the habitrail but jumps off into the outlane, and the ball drains. What's the best fix for this?

4. Is there a reason in Looper why the ball stops at the top of the rollercoaster before being released to come back round? Seems like the action would be more exciting if the ball motion was uninterrupted and it came back to the right flipper asap, like loopin' supers in Ghostbusters

Thanks guys!

Thanks for all your replies. 'Fraid I can't remember what was going on at the time but if anything similar happens I will be sure to stop and think what was going on in case it can be of use.

Loving this game the more I play it, but I am having a couple of issues:

Ball search: I was playing a game last night and started Chuggin mode and somehow shot the ball into the bar, which then closed, and then... nothing. Chuggin mode continued to count down from like 50 seconds or so all the way to zero and the end of the mode, and I had no ball. Finally, after the mode timed out, so about a full minute later, the machine did a short ball search, which did nothing. Then the machine idled for what seemed like a further minute or two, and then did what appeared to be a longer ball search, resulting in the ball being ejected from the bar successfully and the game continuing.

It seems to me that this is far too long to wait before a ball search starts? If you are in a mode (or even not in a mode) and there is no switch activity then surely a ball search should start far sooner. It's quite annoying (and quite boring) to watch a mode time out without a ball being available to play! Can a ball search be triggered sooner? Or set to trigger sooner in the settings?

Weird lights: Also yesterday I changed some settings and then started a game and immediately launched a ball, and noticed that there was no pink skill shot lights showing. In fact every insert on the playfield, every tent, everything was lit yellow. Even the tent scoop was yellow. I shot the tent scoop and started a mode at which point all the inserts and gi went out except for the tent and mystery inserts which were red. This continued till the ball drained, and then the gi and inserts went back to normal. Very odd.

Also, I got a mystery award of 50k, but it did not register immediately in my score. I think this has been mentioned before?

I still had fun with the game though...

Since there's only one Oktoberfest in the whole of England we decided to hold an Oktoberfest tournament tomorrow so that more people can try it out.

Here's the tournament cake:

APcake (resized).jpg

Hang on - so let me get this right. Now that you have moved the flipper bat, is it now pointing more downwards than before when it is at rest, or more to the left than before?

You sir, are a genius. I have done the same and the difference is amazing. It is now finally possible to shoot the beer barrel! Actually the ball only just makes it to the very top and looks like it may roll back - but it doesn't. In contrast, before it was only possible to get the ball about half way up the ramp. Well done for finding this solution! Thank you!

This actually makes me wonder whether a good proportion of machines come from the factory with the flipper set a little too far from the wire rail so that the beer barrel shot is impossible for the owners, however much they practice it. Other machines may have the flipper set closer to the rail, and that might explain why those owners find that the shot is perfectly possible, although it requires some practice to nail it.

I took the glass off mine, fed the ball to the flipper, and tried the shot multiple times and failed to make the shot - ever. There just wasn't enough power to get it up the ramp. No amount of trying to make the shot from different areas of the flipper helped. Now that I have adjusted the flipper so that it sits hard against the rail I can make the shot frequently, although it is a hard shot so not all of the time.

Could factory positioning of the upper flipper explain why some people are complaining that the shot is unmakeable and others insist that you just need a bit of practice to get it right?

Yup. And then loosened the flipper and moved it hard against the rail, and put the power to about 30

Yup I've had this issue. It has been vaguely bothering me that the orbot shot doesn't seem to work much of the time but I've been busy sorting out the barrel ramp shot before moving on to it. I was thinking maybe the magnet at the top is activating automatically to trap it so I haven't looked in to it yet but it's next on my list! But I will look at the rail and plastic that rockrand was talking about.

Very nice looking graphics update that was shown off at Expo. Are these going to be included in the next code update?

Also, if I restart a game when I am on, say, ball 2, by pressing the start button, I get the yellow final score information screen for a few seconds, and then the machine crashes and goes through what looks like a complete 3 or 4 minute reboot sequence before I can play a new game. Is this going to be fixed in the next release?

Any chance of displaying the number of ducks scored in digits at the end of each ball as well as the visual representation of all the ducks in a row?

I have never managed to see it in time, so I think that needs changing imho. Needs to be visible for longer or preferably permanently so that it can be seen easily. No advantage to make it difficult so see is there?

Why, thank you!

+1 for faster boot up times if that is achievable!

Anyone go the new coil stop fix for the upper flipper? Does it make the barrel shot much easier, like it is supposed to?

AP are releasing a package to existing owners which includes a coil stop which shortens the upper flipper stroke. This, apparently, will make it significantly easier to get the ball in the barrel.

Did you change the coil power on that upper flipper. More to the point, what power do you have it on now with the new coil stop?

I updated to the 20.09.19 code and the update seemed successful. But now when I turn on the machine the lights come on for a short while and I get the mesage:
Welcome to Pinix
pinix login: root (automatic login)
Last login: Thu Sep 24 12:09:41 on tty1

and then the screen goes blank. After a while the message comes back on the screen, but all the lights are off on the machine, and ... that's it. It won't start!

Eek!

Any idea what to do?

Thanks!

Yup, I ran the later update and now back and working again. Phew!