beer breaks.

I own it and I think it's a cool machine. Love the theme, love the music. Can't go wrong with poker. Feels more sturdy than other DEs IMO (those pop bumpers seem way less lazy than on other machines I've seen, and machine has a general better feel I think).

I modified the settings to make it harder to lock balls so they don't go as often in the paddlewheel. I have to disagree with you about the modes though. It seems to me that they're all pretty much irrelevant besides the one that allows you to get free balls (forget the name, the one that makes you do the loops).
The scoring is unbalanced as making your poker hands pays a whole lot more than anything else (multiball included), unless you're good enough to hit that captive ball repeatedly.

Nonetheless, I still think this is a pretty cool game.

Waiting for the ball to go through paddlewheel is really no different than waiting for *gulp* the ferris wheel in Cyclone.

Lauren Belle is the "goody bag" mode of the game, I love getting those snacks.

Maverick is just an overall fun game, there's always something to shoot for. It be easy at times and other times it can challenge. Poker, Blackjack, good sound and music, it's all good.

I have seen a mod that speeds up the Lauren Belle. Never owed a Maverick so haven't tried the mod.

I'll join. Proud Maverick owner here. It is definitely a challenging game. I still haven't gotten through all the modes yet for the wizard mode. I've been close. I haven't had it very long, but 3 billion is my top so far. Lauren Bell is a super lucrative mode, followed by Angel's Revenge and Coop's Cash. Bank Heist is only good if you can hit the hidden captive ball and Stage Coach is nothing to get excited about points wise. I love playing blackjack for points and kick back too. I've started to ignore multiball as the big points aren't really there unless you have super pops going.

Right now, my drop targets are all out for replacing since one snapped on me and I am putting in a new right ramp, but I can't wait to get it back up and running again.

Yep, the Lauren Belle - that's the one I meant. If you want to do a high score you have to go through that one. You're right that the Coop's Cash isn't too bad either. Multiball jackpots aren't worth going for though IMO.

Anybody have an extra plastic speaker cover for my Maverick? (My pin came with the plastic from a BMF) I know of the one one ebay @ $99.99 + $30. shipping.
No-Way Jose' for that price -AND- shipping.
I'd also be interested in a poker chip shooter and plastic topper if available at the right price as well.

Thanks, Steveo

One of the few pins I have sold that I want back. Extremely underrated game.

I have a really nice one FS $1700 , just need room.

Don or Jeff from the Pinball Podcast has not chimed in on this yet? You dudes are slipping

Well, bad choice of words I guess, but I still think it's unbalanced when your poker hands are up in the 140 Millions and the jackpot pays 25.

I think I have almost two full plastic sets for Maverick too if anyone needs and plastics.

I too owned this pin, sold it and now regret it. If I ever find another for the right price it will return. I found it to play extremely fast and the shots were fun. It gets a bad rap over the artwork, ugly brown cabinet, and Lauren bell being too slow but I really found it a to be great shooting game with a fun theme.

I like the artwork, and even the cabinet if you can believe that.
I own Fish Tales too and I hate the busy artwork, the Maverick cabinet is sleek and looks just nice in my fake wood paneling basement

Has anyone thought of lighting up the topper? I've been toying around with the idea of some kind of backlighting, maybe sequential or triggered with the flashers. Just something because it's o.k. but boring.

Another idea I had was some kind of poker art/border on the inside cabinet, where people would normally put mirror blades.

Hey - #1700 for a really nice one . It was part of my 5 pins for 6k deal. Got it from EABundy.

My favorite part of this pin is the extra large animations on the big DMD. You notice it is different right away. Let's just hope it never goes out.

I was hoping someone would start a fan thread as I love this machine. I might need that mod for speeding up the Lauren Belle though, as my paddle wheel goes a bit too slow and triggers ball search if the ball doesn't get scooped up straight away. It doesn't really bother me too much as I just hold the flipper for a few seconds and this stops it from happening.

I recently installed a new motor and belt and cleaned and lubed bits that needed it but it didn't fix the issue although it's nice and quiet and slightly faster. I'll keep searching for the problem.(I have a thread regarding this).

+1. On mine at least, it's not a big enough wait to warrant risking damage to the paddlewheel mechanism trying to modify it, and I have not seen a mod for it either. I lubed my gears with a very tiny amount of model train gear grease (molytone grease)

Makes sense... I barely get anymore multiballs though, since I thought they weren't worth it and to limit how often I go in the paddlewheel, I changed the settings.
Actually that is one way to solve that paddlewheel issue. Make ball locking harder in the settings - then you do go in there just often enough so that it's not annoying anymore.
It would have been nice if they had put the opto at the bottom of the wheel instead of the top to speed it up.

I guess that wheel is no crowd pleaser, but I certainly wouldn't call it a deal breaker to get the machine.

the only problem with this machine is the huge display. Great game all around and tons of fun. If the big displays were cheaper I would still own it! One of the best DE machines for sure!!!!

I wouldn't let the fear of a DMD problem prevent me from getting this game. I think most of the problems stem from the DMD cable anyway...mine was fixed by replacing with a new $12.00 cable modification as per the DE service bulletin.

You mean the cable modification helps prevent outgassing?

Well I think some people replaced it successfully with an LCD screen and I think it costs below 350$ in material to do that.
The Homepin guy was talking about making a replacement too at some point but I'm not sure what happened with that.

Hmmm, never heard of it. *cough*

I ENDORSE THIS THREAD

No doubt. Paddlewheel doesn't bother me in the least.

It is the 5v connector, but besides a new connector on the DMD controller end, the other end actually gets moved to take power off of a different header on the PSU board, supposedly one that is more stable. Service bulleting #106, and a preformed cable is available at Marco Specialties. All you have to do is remove the old cable and install the new, punching it into the IDC at a different place. http://www.sternpinball.com/downloads/sb106.pdf.

This totally solved my problem of the display going off intermittently - it's been rock solid ever since - and it is beautiful. Everyone loves it. Other problems can happen with DMDs of course, but I think cabling and HV section problems are probably more common that outgassing, and some might be misdiagnosed. Problems can happen with smaller DMDs as well, it's just that the larger ones I guess are more expensive. I personally did not let the "possibility" that a DMD could die scare me away from a really good game.

I'd love it if they could speed it up. Honestly, it's my only real nit-pick with the game. It's not frustratingly slow, but it's one of the slower shot to ball return actions.

I have thought about ways to do this, but I have never seen the mod that people have mentioned.

The gearing system is pretty intricate, there are a lot of gears. I don't have enough information to muck with the motor. One thought I had was to increase the size of the under playfield pulley that runs the belt drive, that would increase the speed of the turns, but would it negatively impact the torque to where it couldn't turn with the weight of the ball? I'm not sure. Another mod would be to take the wheel out, and make additional cutouts to hold the ball between the existing ones, so that there is no wait time to scoop up a ball in the lane.

Overall, for 5 seconds of beer swig time to reduce that to 3 or 4, didn't seem worth the trouble...it's not really a long wait at all, unless, yours is not working "normally". Like I mentioned before, it's really not any longer than waiting for the ferris wheel in cyclone. If that's a big deal to someone, then I guess get a game that doesn't have those kind of features. Honestly, at my age constant lightning speed action with hardly a break is tiring to begin with, so I will purposely shoot those shots - such as the Lauren Belle, or the Ferris Wheel, or Pinbots eyes, just to give my brain a few seconds to catch up.

+ a million!

Does anyone know how many Data East's and how many Sega's were made?
I like the way the Sega version has 'Sonic the Hedgehog' on their display and a realistic image of the stars of the movie...I'd like to get this for my Data East...is it possible with a software upgrade?

Internet Pinball Database says " This game was produced starting Sep-25-1994. We do not have the final production date.". It's hard to say how many Data East versions and Sega versions were made. Sega took over the factory in 1996.

The hedgehoge logo is a part of the boot splash on the Sega versions, so you probably would just need to change the ROMs. IPDB has ROM files posted, but I don't know which version they are.

If you guys keep talking about this game... I'm going to want one......

I have to agree.
My wife and kids loved it as well. My son is 5 so the paddle boat wait was a good thing.

I thought the only difference was the display software but I could be wrong...mine doesn't display the characters in the movie and of course has the Data East logo and no Sega and Sonic. The shooter knob on my Data East has 'DE Maverick Casino'...did that change on the Sega models?

I also read somewhere that around 7000 machines were produced but not sure how many by each company.

I read somewhere that the DE or Sega's logo wasn't featured anywhere on the machine because Stern didn't know who was going to produce it, which is why the usual identifier is what is shown on the DMD.

I don't know about the shooter knob detail, I will have to remember to look at my Sega version when I am at home.

I have the DE version.
I read about the widebody to regular conversion. I'm not a fan of widebodies, so I'm glad they did this, but that 3rd flipper and the captive ball always felt odd to me. Like it made more sense in the widebody version but they still found a way to make it work int the regular.
It's still fun to drop the three of a kind in one shot from there. Or just keep it up to have the ball gently bounce to your last card at the bottom left (I forget what hand this is... straight?)

I am installing a brand new ramp in my Maverick. I have to rivet the old ramp flap to the new ramp. Anyone know the best tool to use for that so that the rivets look as close to original as possible? Most hand tools do rivets that have the dimples, where ramp flaps are have normally convex rivets where they bulge out a little like a button. Is there a cheap tool that does rivets this way that anyone knows about?