I was getting ready to pack up my LOV last night (it's been a good ride) and decided to play a few more games. I too got to Valhalla for the second time (the first time was horrible) but this time I killed it. Almost. It was a pressure cooker, and but I was really staying focused and eventually making every shot. Near the end I kept thinking "This is is! I think this is the last shot!" but more shots kept lighting. And then, when I thought there couldn't be any more shots, I see the next (final?) shot light: Ulfberht Sword, aka the shooter lane shot, aka the hardest shot in pinball. I tilted three seconds later.

I don't -think- it was a rage tilt. But it might as well have been!

A final kudos to the programmer: Nice job on the updates. The God of Thunder qualification is indeed more attainable now once you understand the changes. Thank you!

Thank you. Last shot in Valhalla is actually a HUGE countdown at the center ramp starting at 35million if you have battle timers on, or 70 million if you have them off!

Hi,guys, club joined!
Just opened a LOV deluxe in the shoowroom.
Amid a few small issues is one which puzzles me a bit more; optos in the ship most of the time don't register.
So no skill shots, no locks...
They do work, as they will register once in a while, but most of the time they don't.
Is it a known issue? What should be checked?

The ship post likes to bind until you adjust it. If it's not going up all the way the ball will climb up onto it a little bit and make the opto misread the position. Make sure it's going up and down smoothly, and all the way. There are videos online from AP that show how to check it, including switching/moving the washer. For me, the up post bracket needed to be bent a little bit so the post wouldn't rub. Even after you fix it, check it again if it acts up. I've had to adjust mine probably 5-6 times now, but it's finally good.

Will try, thanks!

I replaced the spring with a tapered version, i think this is a flipper return spring used on Williams.

Seems to be a long term solution...

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Was a freaking mightmare to do, ended up removing the white playtic collar above the coil, seems now ok!

Great! Now enjoy your game and start battling those legends!

Unfortunately, no word yet from American Pinball.

Besides them and Spooky pinball, add Chicago Gaming to that list. I've still not heard back from CGC for Cactus Canyon Remake. I just now tried to message them on their Contact Us page for their new Pulp Fiction and keep getting this response: "Apologies, but your contact request submission failed. Please try again."

So, their absence on the IPDB is not for lack of trying.

It's so weird that smaller pinball companies would just feel that the work you do to catalog pinball, including THEIR machines, is so unimportant that they don't even bother responding to you. Maybe luvthatapex2 can try connecting American Pinball with you again and see if it sticks this time. Dunno what happened there. Ditto SpookyBug SpookyLuke @spookycharlie. Seems like they'd want Spooky pins to be well represented in the ipdb database, but as of now, they just...aren't. All they have to do is contact you, so I don't get the lack of interest.

No idea who is on pinside that can help with CGC's connection to IPDB, but I'll look around.

the 3rd button is only for choosing modes? or can actually use it for thors hammer at somepoint?

Third button (2nd etc flipper button) is used to:
Select battles
Summon a Valkyrie (completes 1 shot in battle)
Fire thors hammer (completes battle )

A Valkyrie is collected after 5 combos.
Thors hammer is charged up to 100% by hitting the spinner
Both are excellent battle helpers

My ship lock has recently been working fine but recently started losing track of balls. I opened it up today and discovered that the post is binding, but I can't tell against what (see video of it being moved by hand and just staying in whatever position it's put in: https://photos.app.goo.gl/if2isCQ8uL33XhNT8)

The washer is installed and the spring is stretched (and it was working fine after those things were done). Anybody have any ideas?

Was kinda hard to see for me, but your spring looks messed up.

I think it may look that way in the video but it's actually fine. Even if it was messed up, though, the post doesn't move up and down freely.

Might be hanging up on the plastic sleeve above the playfield underneath the ship. You can try slightly bending the bracket until it moves freely. Can also try a drill and reaming the plastic wider so the post has more room.

Joining the club next week so have to read through the thread. Any "must-do" or "must-checks" when I first get it? From skimming, the ship lock seems to be an issue but the guy I'm buying from says it hasn't been an issue for him yet. Anything else I need to look for?

I played this on location a few times and enjoyed it so am looking forward to being able to dig deeper!

There can be a bunch of minor fixes but play it first and if you see something then search this topic. Almost all my little fixes are in the topic.

Great! When you get it make sure it has the latest software update. 23-03-10. Lots of goodies in there.
https://www.american-pinball.com/support/updates/

My flipper coil settings are at the default value. Interested if others have cranked the power up a bit and if they liked the results. And if so, did this cause any heat and related fade issues?

That is a great question and I was wondering the same. Seems like a little more on the lower left flipper would be helpful in getting the ball up that center ramp.

Increase the lowers. Try 2-3 ms and see if that’s enough. If not try more. You will generate more heat but if you play for less than an hour at a time there should be no issue at all with fade.

I just got the game 24 hours ago but I love it - so much fun! I had a question though because I'm not sure if this is a bug or some weird mode I was in. During the game, the RAID letters were all different colors - white, yellow, blue, or not lit. And when the ball rolled over one of the four switches, the color would sometimes change or sometimes stay the same. To top it off, I noticed that the D was not lit at one point, but when I pressed the left flipper, it didn't move to the I position. It seemed really weird and nothing I had seen before. Any ideas? Attaching a pic here.

20230429_205506 (resized).jpg

Welcome to the clan! The RAID letters should all be crystal blue and cycle as you flip the flippers. (R > A > I > D) They are never white, yellow, etc so you have a connection problem or led board issue. Here are some tips (but of course you have service from American on Monday if it doesnt work):

Here is a video from Daves arcade regarding LEDs with a connection issue (its for hotwheels but we use the same boards):

The manual for the game is here:
http://s4.american-pinball.com/img/support/2022-3/Rampage-Manual-10-19-2021.pdf

Looks like we should check board #7 in the picture for connection of the 4 LEDS in question.

Test the LEDS in service menu.
All LEDs go through RED/BLUE/GREEN/WHITE test. If any of the LEDs are not connected properly you'll see which ones easily.

If after resetting/confirming the connections of the LEDS they are still not working, contact AP service.

https://www.american-pinball.com/support/service/

This happened on mine after long play. It can get hot under the playfield. I installed pinmonk coil fans. Haven't had it happens since, but were having a tournament in a few weeks. That'll be the test

They were white on old code, right? This was running May, 2022 if I recall, and they were white until I updated the code...

That video was helpful, thanks!

I think that might have been it - I went to check it out first thing this morning and it's all normal now. The light test worked fine. I have Pinmonks fans on a few other games so will probably buy them for this too, especially if it happens again.

However now I have another question. I went through the individual light tests and noticed I have no lights for the two slings (the spots aren't installed, not that I think I need them...). Looking at pictures, I think they're supposed to be there, right? Mine was manufactured in March, 2022 but had only 71 plays when I bought it - it was sitting in a box until recently.

I also noticed that the ship only lights white, as does the spotlight that shines by the spinner. Is that normal? I reseated the connectors on board 10 and it has the same behavior, although the data wires that go to the board are pretty tight. That said, nothing else the board controls seems to have the issue so maybe it's only supposed to be white?

On the bright side, I made it to Valhalla for the first time. Got destroyed by Odin, but at least I made it!

Update: Played for about 30 minutes today and the RAID lights changed again. Finished the game, rebooted, and played another 30-45 minutes without issue. Not sure it's heat related at this point but will continue to watch it.

No. From day 1 the R-A-I-D cycling leds were crystal blue. They change color with the rest of the leds in led sweeps/effects but they are always crystal blue in normal function.

Each sling has 2 rgb LEDS. You really should add the spot lamps back to the slings too as they greatly light up the middle of the playfield.

The inside of the ship also has 2 rgb leds(ship GI 1 and ship GI 2). The ship will turn WHITE when locks are not lit, PURPLE when locks are lit , GREEN during War at Sea multiball, BLUE during Viking multiball, RED during Viking Raid and WHITE during the final wizard mode RAGNAROK.

The spot lamp shining on the ship is always WHITE and acts as a flasher and controlled lamp which responds to spinner spins.

Just got the game. Set it up and... ejects balls non-stop

So I got to dive straight into debug mode and learning in-outs of the machine.

Anyways appears to me the shooter lane switch is not working. Does that make sense to cause the issue? Basically it doesn't register in shooter lane so it tries to eject another ball? It even tries to eject when there's no ball to eject. And I found out the plunger doesn't work against 6 balls... heh.

Also I found something that looks unplugged but not sure where I should plug it in. See first photo.

Second two photos show the switch that doesn't appear to be working. Nothing obvious wrong I can tell (sodder looks good, looks wired right, only thing I didn't do was trace the wire all the way but based on general directions I think it's plugged in).

IMG_1876 (resized).jpeg

IMG_1878 (resized).jpeg

IMG_1883 (resized).jpeg

I checked my game. The sw16 board near the left flipper has that blue/gray/purple wire plugged into J3. Run the switch test after plugging it in.
From the manual looks like it is the shooterlane switch which corresponds to your problem.

IMG_0142 (resized).jpg

Awesome, that worked! BTW J3 is the one on the right (closer to the side of the cabinet) left gathered from
https://www.multimorphic.com/content/uploads/2017/07/SW-16_LLD_v1-2.pdf. (see follow up).

Got some games in and hammered Dearg Due for my high score. I have a lot to learn! This game is fast! Tons of shots...

And the Loki mythology on the side and blood eagle in the back I never noticed, heh. Sweet!!!

Actually think I plugged it in the wrong one?! Not sure how it still fixed it heh. Realized those docs I referenced said they don't represent the physical board... Got a pic of the actual board. Gonna fix that I suppose.

IMG_1889 (resized).png

Is anyone having issues with their optos on AP games? I have three AP games and each have failed optos multiple times. I’m sick of buying new optos from AP in order to operate my games on location. This is the third pair I’ve had burn out on LoV, but I’ve experienced the exact same with Oktoberfest and HotWheels. Has anyone else experienced this or am I incredibly unlucky?

So had a few instances of the coil power for all coils dropping to nothing during multi-ball. Not sure what the cause is, any ideas? Or if its even related to multi-ball.

Basically no flippers and balls stuck in trough suddenly. Not super consistent but just had it happen twice in a row. Opening coin door and exiting to the test menu seemed to fix it for a new game.

Also, just opened the coin door and pulled the top white button and closed the door and that got the power back too.

With the disclaimer that I work for American Pinball, but I'm reporting honestly --

I have Oktoberfest, Hot Wheels, and Galactic Tank Force, and I have not had a single opto fail on any of these games.

I have had Oktoberfest! over three years, moved twice and no issues (knock on wood) so far.

How much should a clean hit of the spinner increase Thor's hammer percentage? I haven't tested the switch/spinner with thr glass off yet, but generally it only charges the hammer by about 5% for a good hit, which makes me think it might not be adjusted properly.

Regarding thr RAID lights - I've ruled heat out because it started once a couple minutes after I started a game. I rebooted and all was fine again. I repeated all of the connectors and a couple of days later, the A inlane sometimes is a different shade of blue now, so something is definitely off. I'll probably open a support ticket to do more troubleshooting, but intermittent issues suck because they're harder to fix.

Love the game!

Weird. I owned Houdini and we ran it on location and never had an opto fail that I can recall. What optos are dying? Trough optos? Something else?

Heat kills components prematurely. It still could be down to heat making a chip or other part work unreliably once it's damaged by excessive heat, long term. In *this* case it's probably a connector or LED, but heat can cause bad function in addition to outright failure.

You should get 5-10% charge for a spinner rip depending on how cleanly you hit it. If you rip it straight on maybe 8%-10%. There is really nothing to adjust unless its rubbing somewhere. Ensure pitch is 7 and you'll have some good gravity to assist on return shots.

If you still have a problem LED or 2 just call service, they'll get you a replacement or assist with troubleshooting.

I agree, but this game has just over 100 plays lifetime so I don't think it's related yet, but who knows.

On my Godzilla, I realized after a few months that I wasn't charging the Heat Ray very quickly. Turns out the spinner was just barely grazing the plastic, slowing it down. So now I'm always suspicious!

I am actually surprised that nobody has had opto failure on their machines. I thought that it was just an ‘AP thing’. Even one replacement from AP was dead directly out of the bag! Is it really possible that I am unlucky enough to have had 5 opto failures across my AP games?

I have owned every AP game (except GTF, coming soon) and never had opto issues. I have had an issue with a power supply, membrane switch, and a led board. All of which AP helped diagnose and replaced under warranty.

Funny enough, I’ve had issues with PSU, membrane switches and LEDs as well as my failed optos. AP support has always been amazing. They actually sat on the phone with me while I was diagnosing. I’m just going to order more optos and chalk this up to really weird luck. I had believed maybe there was something systemic, but it sounds like that is not the case for anyone else.

Have all of these opto failures been on just one machine? If so, it would make me wonder about the board that powers the optos or some other power issue. Was it the Receiving or transmitting side that failed? I don’t recall the exact design of the board, but I believe the board is fed 12v, but lowers it to 5v for the transmitter. You might want to check the voltages are correct. Was the psu issue with the high power, 12v or 5v?

I watched this video a short while back and after seeing the gameplay and hearing the comments, I really wanted to try it - especially since I've been super impressed with Houdini and Oktoberfest. Quite honestly I was sooooo looking forward to GTF, but now I've actually seen this game (I was kind of aware of it, but never really saw any trailers or gameplay vids) I have to admit it actually looks way better to shoot.

As luck would have it - I've just found a NIB deluxe model with the Australian distro, which should be here next week! I did have to trade my Houdini (which I wasn't exactly thrilled about I am loving that too), but I cannot wait to give this a go it looks amazing!

"I have three AP games and each have failed optos multiple times."

I have two AP games (Houdini and LOV) and the optos have never failed. In fact I’ve only had to lift the playfield on each only once.

I opened a ticket tonight, but figured I'd share what my lights are doing here to see if anyone else has seen this before. Kind of weird that it's impacting both the left (all of it) and the right (one light). Always fixed by a power cycle. Reseating all of the connectors didn't do anything. (sorry the video isn't horizontal...)

Like PinMonk said, different games with different style of optos. I even had one that was DOA out of the bag. I think I am just really unlucky based on what everyone else is saying.

What do you mean different style of optos?

Seems so odd, I have three AP games and have been around dozens and dozens and can’t recall ever having a bad opto. Optos falling out of brackets and not registering, sure, needing to replace one, nope.