If I remember correctly, I think initially they didn't install nuts under the playfield on the posts. Then the posts were unscrewing slightly from ball strikes and that caused the posts to be loose. And that resulted in chipping around the post hole because the loose post was getting hit by the ball and causing chips at the post hole. I think then they started adding nuts to hold the posts in tight. There might have been something different also, but that's what I remember. Mine had a nut on it at delivery in Sept. or Oct. 2019 and the replacement post Stern sent me when it broke went in no problem.

Original 2019 batch was a t-nut installed from below, later batches were lock-nut and a washer. (accessed by removing the flipper assembly or a thin mechanics wrench.

Mine was a later run with the nut and washer. Here's the part at Marco...

Screen Shot 2021-08-30 at 8.17.02 PM (resized).png

I'm about 2,500 games in. The C, H and S shots should be three you can hit fairly consistently early on. Eventually I was able to get dialed in A shot from a cradle position as well. Only very recently have I gotten fairly dailed in on the O shot. Side ramp is still tough.

As far as scoring goes, practice your smart missle. It's ability to clear paddocks & giving extra balls really helps blow up the scores. My peak score I just got the other day, and it was from like 4 straight smart missle hits, 3 of which cleared a paddock for me.

More recently I started focusing/paying attention to DNA and trying to get the extra ball from that. If you're really hitting your H and S shot, getting 6 DNA shouldn't be that tough. So once you start getting 6-7 ball games, you'll eventually have a blow up game, as extra ball from 6 rescues, smart missle, t-rex, and DNA are all doable. Taking the long way through the paddocks to clear 7 and I ended up with a 720 million visitor center bonus. Clearing the T-Rex paddock also gives you an extra 8 seconds on all your modes, helping you beat them easier.

Okay so I bought one of the amber shooter rods from stern. Problem is that the shooter rod 'sticks' when pulled back. It isn't nearly as smooth as the original shooter rod. Any ideas of how to go about fixing this? I have done some research and it seems most people's solution is to take it apart and clean it.. but this thing is brand new.

Maybe spraying the shooter rod with 100% Silicone spray would help?

Or clean and then a very, very thin layer of super lube.

I've seen this from time to time with various shooter swap outs from restorations I've done. If it truly is physically binding (and not something that lube helps) it's usually because of the inner bushing and the casting being sloppy. I have used two approaches to remedy this. One is to take the shooter rod (no springs or any thing else installed on it) and repeatedly ram it all the way in and all the way out of the housing to break through the material that is causing the resistance and wear it down slightly. The second thing I have done in more extreme cases where that hasn't worked is to take a thin round steel file (I got mine from HF) and slide it in and out of the shooter housing bushing to take a very slight amount off. I've never had a scenario where one of these two solutions hasn't worked.

Agree with above around the smart missile, very helpful. Few smart missile tricks I have learned along the way.
-When you get to 3 rescues and activate smart missile, choose the second option, +5 rescues, if you hit it then smart missile immediately relights and the 3rd option is an extra ball.
-The smart missile timer is more forgiving then you would think, if you brick the shot and the ball comes back towards the left flipper, try to fire the ball back at the smart missile, i have gotten credit for it after the animation and callout, there is a nice buffer. You can also backhand it from the right flipper or hit it from the base of the right flipper if the ball comes back in that direction.
-The spinner - one other option after a brick of the smart missile from the flippers is the ball can also go in through the spinner, drop into the pops and get a lucky ricochet and trigger the target or if your shot was so bad you spun the truck around, if you go through the o-lane the post will come up and diver to pops allowing a trigger as well.
-finally, some shots direct from flipper may go into pop bumpers but not hit the amber target due to power, or clipping something on the way in, If you missed the target but the ball went in the pop bumpers, a few gentle nudges forward or back will give you more reaction in the pop bumpers and chances of the ball to ricochet into the target to collect the smart missile reward.

Here's another picture I had, rotated sort of the same way as yours. Side-by-side comparison.

pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png

Wonder if you could something like one of these posts if you didn't want to do the toothpick trick. #10-32 might be bigger than the hole, maybe a #8 or #6 would be better.

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Edit: Looks like Marco has some decent options.

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I think this is a good alternative to the screw end. Definitely a permanent fix. Great call

Good idea!!! Since there's a hole already there just do it the easy way and use a post that will attach with a nut. Nice one!

Only problem is it looks like it would be a very tight fit on the nut. Worth a shot for sure

I'd just move the wire support or get a longer threaded post (just the threaded part) and just slip the wire support on it and add another nut. The post would definitely take precedence over the wire support.

It's rather strange this happened, assuming the PF is CNC'd. Wonder if there's something we're missing?

Yes. This would work. It really is strange the this was drilled out like that.

Am I the only one with this kind of hole ? Would be interesting if there are more out there .

My raptor on my premium came detached and is always laying down. Is this a common problem? Should I just glue the weight under his tail back down?

Thanks all - good info on improving game play.

Question - what triggers enabling a smart missile?

What is the best way to level the machine laterally? Especially the back of the play field.

It is pretty easy to use a torpedo level between the slingshots to level the front of the machine. e.g.
PXL_20210814_223835337_sm (resized).jpg

But what about the back of the machine? I have a tiny level that I managed to fit here:
PXL_20210814_141855136_sm (resized).jpg
Is it reasonable to assume this location is square to the playing field?

Another option is to level the cabinet / backbox like this:
PXL_20210814_224129403_sm (resized).jpg
But that doesn't seem like a good idea because the play field could be way off from this.

On my machines I check my level at the flippers/slings and then at the highest point on the playfield I can get the level to. On JP2 I'd put the level on the playfield either just in front of or just behind the truck. If you're level at the flippers/slings and level up near the truck then you should be good to go.

If you have an iPhone I've also found that the PinGuy app works well for leveling.

Rescue number triggers rewards some of which are to light the inlanes.
3 (2) Rescues: Light Inlanes
6 Rescues: Light Extra Ball
8 (+4 from prior Light Inlanes level, minimum of 6) Rescues: Light Inlanes
13 Rescues: Increase Bonus Multiplier (+1x for that ball only)
15 (+6, min. 12) Rescues: Light Inlanes
22 Rescues: (?)
24 (+8, min. 20) Rescues: Light Inlanes
30 Rescues: Fossil

Check out full ruleset if you haven't already -
http://tiltforums.com/t/stern-jurassic-park-rulesheet/5644

I use a digital level I bought off of Amazon, or the phone app.

A side note if you use a bubble level: An old trick I learned somewhere is to measure, flip the level 180 degrees, and recheck. If it's the same - then you know the level itself isn't out of whack. I've had some of those smaller Chinese levels be way off.

Another vote for the PinGuy app. Through some magic (math!) it tells you which of the four legs to adjust. Highly recommended. (It is free.)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pinguy/id782973821

I just use the PinGuy app on my iPhone (lower playfield area - glass off). Works great if you don't mind the lady's voice constantly nagging you about how many degrees you're off this direction or the other. Seriously it's great. Set it, place yourself under the pin, and make adjustments to the 4 legs until you nail it.

I can’t get the lady to talk to me anymore… anything in particular I need to do?

(The voice slider is green…)

What's your build date?

My premium was built July 3 2021 and I don't have the hole.

It seems to be a goof up at the factory or an owner drilled it out for some odd reason

I bought it NIB so it has to be at the factory . Build date 05 . April 2021

Yay Stern!

And I’m the one who has to deal with it . Yay

You have joined the club. You actually have a very easily fixed issue compared to some of these folk. You can say yay to that.

I would say uninstall, reboot, re-install.

I would have thought PF manufacturer (Mirco??) would drill these holes??

max_pinball here's a pic of a PF from mid-last year - 3mm hole all the way through

JP PF apron post hole (resized).jpg

Hi, think you activated the mute / silten switch on your iPhone

Stern quality control

Here’s a pic of an NOS from slightly earlier.

I can't believe the artwork quality difference. Look at the big green leaf!

BE709C1C-670A-4DAB-9D05-82E826454FC1 (resized).jpeg

Interesting...just what we speculated had happened.

Thanks for the picture, Mr. Mike.

That is a huge difference!

Looks like they are now printing them with a 90's dot matrix printer... Ugggh

My guess is they are trying a thinner ink base to see if they get better adherence which would result in less chipping...

Ha. Yup! Obvious solution...but not how other apps work

Thanks for the assist.

Had to go take another look - definitely the artwork colour is not as vivid but the lighting where I took a pic was quite poor and contributes to the graininess. Bit disappointed as I would have got an earlier one but they twice accidentally shipped the Pro PF before they sent me the right one ...

That said unless you had 2 machines side-by-side you'd never notice any difference, especially with the game populated and added mods.

Hello everyone
Joining the club later this year with a Pro
Any must have mods I should get for this game?

Yes.

"Must" is very subjective - it really depends on what you like or feel the game is lacking. From a playing perspective, maybe looking at getting some Cliffy's but you may not actually need the ramp ones (tower and heli) if you can make the shots. I turned the trough eject power to it's lowest setting to avoid shooter lane damage but a shooter lane protector provides extra protection.

There are lots and lots of mod list posts/threads but here are a few:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-jurassic-park-mods-
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-stern-2019-owners-club-welcome-to-jurassic-park/page/221#post-6398416
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/classifieds?s=1&keywords=&ad_machine_keys%5B%5D=2792&ad_machine_keys%5B%5D=2791&ad_machine_keys%5B%5D=2790&ad_what%5B%5D=machine&ad_what%5B%5D=parts&ad_what%5B%5D=mod&ad_what%5B%5D=other&ad_wantedforsale%5B%5D=forsale&ad_wantedforsale%5B%5D=wanted&min_price=0&max_price=50000&pinsider=Mr_Tantrum&machine_type=&ad_machine_manuf=&year_from=1931&year_to=2021&ad_condition=0&ad_countrycodes=&radius_distancekm=0&source%5B%5D=pinside#results
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jurassic-park-stern-2019-owners-club-welcome-to-jurassic-park/page/203#post-6216889

The tower and helipad *are* pretty hard to get consistently. Can you elaborate on how to make those shots a little easier?

From post 10135 (kudos to @animal), this is my favorite DIY mod. The Pteranodon is mounted w/a piece of piano wire and it bounces around a bit like it's flying. Very cool effect.
pasted_image (resized).png

Another one I like (I made this one myself), is the raptor that slips over the flat plastic raptor on the left.
pasted_image (resized).png

Thanks! It is perfect, hardest part was finding a screw small enough to attached the wire (I used a paper-clip) to the back of the Pteranodon. I have it angled so the ball will nudge it while rolling around the ramp...