I put considerable time on the game a couple weeks ago at the Ohio show. At that point it was running prototype software (game would reboot with a tilt). My quick takeaways:

Art - Evaluating the playfield art from pictures it looks incredibly busy without much cohesion. In person the art just worked for me. It's not great, but I had no issue with it either.

Music - I found the music to be fairly well integrated. In this game it worked.

Display - This was very hit or miss. The main screen animation is helpful in presenting all the status info you need in one screen (very similar in style to the main screen of WONKA). The mode screens were good as well. The one thing I couldn't stand was the cut to the fuzzy video of an Oktoberfest celebration from far away. It just doesn't fit with any of the other animations at all.

Rules - My initial impression of the rules was extremely favorable. I found the tent modes well thought-out and extremely varied. I also liked the steins and their rules. The one-handed mode was more difficult than I expected it to be, but I really enjoyed it.

Layout - This is where the game for me just shines. I just LOVED shooting the game. I could hit all the shots and the shots felt rewarding, the layout was varied, the magnets are integrated very well. I love unique, non-fan style layouts and this one was a huge winner for me in this regard.

Takeaway - This is the first new game I have played in several years where I simply had fun and for me, fun is what pinball is all about.

I just had my Oktoberfest delivered yesterday. I’ve been struggling with a “missing ball” issue. When I try to start a game, it goes into a ball search. In the switch test, with 6 balls in the trough, all 6 optos show open and each properly changes state after a ball is kicked out, so it doesn’t appear to be a trough opto issue.

One time I did manage to get it to start a game but the “Oktober” magnet was locked on so I shut the game off quickly.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I tried reseating all playfield cables with the game off. I will try that one more time.

Also I just updated to the latest code. It had been running the code it shipped with. The issue did not improve with the code update.

Just an FYI. I'm not configured such that I need to run the 9-23 code, but this may be of value to Ferret and others.

I was running 9-19 code with no issue. I updated today to 9-23 code and it said the update was successful, but the start button would not start a game. The button registered in switch test though. Additionally, none of the coils would fire in test mode. I reinstalled 9-19 code and it works great again.