I've dropped so many quarters into this game at the local arcade. I have decided to join the club in the next month with an NIB Premium Monsters. Are there certain runs of this game/serial numbers that should be avoided because of playfield issues? I've looked at most of this thread and noticed some people having bad playfield chipping problems with only a few weeks play on the machine. I assume the sparky airball protector and magnet mylar/cliffys really help that problem, but I just want to make sure there wasn't a bad batch of play fields that got out into the wild.

I'm really looking forward to getting a fast and furious game like this in my lineup.

I'm joining the club. I just got the call that my Monsters Premium is sitting at the truck depot ready for me to pick up after work. Happy Friday indeed!!!

Time to pour a drink and get this night started. Let the unboxing commence!

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So far everything works 100% out of the box. A couple strange things I've noticed though. The snake spits the ball out at a crazy speed. Sometimes it even bounces off the bottom edge of the hammer and can even launch the ball airborn almost all the way to the left flipper. Is there an adjustment for this? Also, the plunger spring seems really strong. Like, overpowered strong to the point where if I do a full plunge the ball goes airborn into the back right plastics.

Loving this game and just need to get it dialed in.

So I've owned the game for 24 hours now and put 40 plays on it. This happened 4 times today. The ball gets stuck on the lip of the snake. The game goes into ball search but the ball search doesn't activate the jaw so it just sits there until I have to tilt the game. Then the jaw moves and kicks the ball into the drain. It happened twice in one game. Does anyone else have this problem?

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Yes. A little steeper than normal actually.

Thanks. I'll try adjusting the jaw tomorrow. Would adjusting the jaw upward stop the air balls when the ball is launched out of the snake? It's more like the snake pitches the ball to my left flipper rather than spits it.

Can anyone show me a picture of this screw and locknut? I can seem to find anything that looks like it'll adjust the lower jaw height.

So am I correct in assuming you can only replace songs and not add songs to the lineup?

I'm wondering this as well. If I do a full plunge the ball usually goes airborne and bounces around in the back right corner of the playfield. I did notice that the manual calls for a green plunger spring. Mine came with an orange spring installed which is stronger. I've ordered a few different tension springs and am going to see if they affect those airballs out of the shooter lane.

But on the other hand, the auto plunger has sent airballs out of the shooter lane as well....so who knows if my spring tension theory will help.

I just installed a green spring last night and it completely took care of my crazy airballs coming out of the shooter lane. But, now a super skill shot to the mystery hole is far too easy. A full plunge bounces the ball off both flippers and directly into the hole 99% of the time. Not much of a "skill shot" if you ask me. I'm going to try a standard spring which has less tension than a green and see how that works out.

My auto plunger still produces airballs sometimes. I'm still going to look into that problem.

Anyone with a ColorDMD...(and I assume that's most of you haha)...I NEED SOME HELP! Since colordmd was out of stock last week I ordered one from Planetary Pinball. The receipt says everything should be for Stern SAM system. However, The wire kit that came with it is labeled for WPC/WPC95, so obviously that's not the right wire kit. Can anyone confirm that I received the wrong cable kit?

I'm pretty bummed about this because I have a party in 2 days and I wanted the colordmd in the game. The wrong cable I received is just a power cable correct? The molex connectors match but the pin locations do not. Can I move the wires of my games dmd power cable to match the color dmd pins? If so, which cable would go where to match the colorDMD power needs?

Also, the instructions for the stern SAM say to route the new cable down through the cabinet to get power? Is that right? I have a newer Metallica Premium with the metal backbox.

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I did order the clear shield and mounting hardware. Everything seems correct except for the cable. Where did you hook your colordmd into power? In the cab or the connector that the original dmd was plugged into?

So as a temporary fix while I wait for my correct colorDMD power cable to arrive, I'm going to make my own so I can get it up and running for the weekend. I just need to know what pins to use on the colorDMD board. Can someone take a picture of their power wires so I can see what colors go to what pins?

Thanks.

Thank you for this info. Planetary just called me and they overnighting me the correct parts. Their customer service is great!

So I've had my premium for a week now and absolutely love it. I had a party yesterday so we really broke it in good. A few times during the night, I saw it kick 2 balls into the shooter lane. I also saw the hammer and coffin magnet drop when a ball wasn't even near it. That happened a few times as well throughout the night.

My game has a manufacture date of November 2016 so it should have the updated magnet boards in it correct? Running version 1.7.

Where should I start looking for a fix to these issues?

I hit 91 million last night with FWTBT and thought it was impressive. I now realize it is not.....

Interesting. I was wondering why my spiders were orange. I've never saw them that color before last night.

What switch is this in the snake assembly? Recently, my snake doesn't score a letter sometimes and just kicks the ball out. Is it item #7 on the head assembly?

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Hey LOTR_breath would you like to sell that middle decal? pleeeeeeease?

Collecting the hurry ups lock the inserts on for that particular shot. So for the rest of the game when you hit the shot with the locked on inserts you collect one of each item. It really speeds up the process of getting to Crank It Up.

I know. Easier said than done right? haha. Also, if you can collect the hurry ups for all the shots you will start Seek and Destroy mode.

True, I forgot to mention that starting Seek and Destroy resets all the insert lights. I try to leave the graveyard hurry up for last then time out the hurry up if I do start it.

The coffin magnet has a high pitch sound to it when it is on and waiting to grab the ball.

I'm fairly certain that the inlane switches light the coffin for a few seconds and will count for 2 coffin hits.

^^^ THIS! ^^^

I know it varies from game to game but with mine, replacing that orbit post with the metal one stopped my left orbit rejects.

Here's a picture from when I was deciding what color to use. I ended up going with purple.

EDIT: Sorry, I just realized you were asking about gameplay and not just for color preferences. But still...purple looks awesome. haha

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I replaced my piston lane target with an eyeball target from Tales From The Crypt. It fits the Metallica art nicely.

Does anyone know where I could buy just the "M" logo for the speaker grills? I don't want the lights, just the "M".

The gap with the LCD colordmd triggered my OCD as well. I bought some self adhesive foam weatherstripping from Home Depot. It works really well to hide all unwanted stuff.

My highest combo is 27 and I had to really fight for that. It might have been one of the most stressful games I've ever put on my Metallica.

Mine was doing this same thing when I first opened it. Make sure the plunger tip is centered on the ball when it's sitting in the shooter lane. If it's off center this will cause the ball to bounce around on its way out. You can adjust the position by loosening the 3 screws holding it in place. Also, try replacing the shooter rod spring with a weaker one. Mine shipped with an orange spring and is way too powerful in my opinion for this game.

I replaced my diverter with the metal one. Since replacing it, I've only saw the ball bounce out of the left orbit a couple times in almost 2000 plays.

My game is not updating. I’ve updated before and never had a problem. I went into the service menu to the “update game code”. Flipped dipswitch 8 to on, then power cycle like it tells me. The game just stays on a “rebooting....” screen. The usb stick is not even in the machine yet.

What’s up with this?

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I’ve tried resetting with the reset button, the select button and a total power cycle. The game will not enter the update screen. It just locks up every time.

If I turn dipswitch 8 back to the off position it powers up fine and is still playable.

I want this new code! Haha. Help!

The usb stick isn’t even in the game yet, although I’ve tried every combination of usb stick in/out and power cycle methods. It locks up every time.

It locks up at your “update” step every time.

I do not, unfortunately. The update to 1.7 went flawlessly a few months ago. I’m bummed.

Ok, this is really strange. After your comment I looked at my BOOT chip and it looks like a leg is bent. I’m the first owner and have NEVER touched any of the circuitry in this game. Can anyone tell me if this bottom leg is bent or am I just going crazy?

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Success. There were actually 3 bent legs! I removed the chip, straightened the legs, reinstalled and it’s updating now. Really strange that I’ve never had a problem updating before and have never touched that boot chip. Thanks snakesnsparklers !

This new code seems to hand out extra balls like crazy. I swear I had 4 or 5 extra balls on my final game last night. Default settings too. Ended with a score of 590 million.

Thank you, Lyman! I finally achieved End of the Line. What a freaking rush!!!

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My mystery scoop is starting to not give mystery awards, start crank it ups or collect extra balls. It doesn’t happen all the time but it’s really annoying when you hit the scoop to start a CIU and it just spits it back out. From what I can tell, there is only one switch in that scoop and it seems to be adjusted properly. If the game knows the ball is in the scoop to kick it out, wouldn’t it know to award things as well?

I just noticed tonight that when I shoot the snake, it doesn’t always count as a snake hit. It ejects the ball every time but doesn’t count towards the snake count most of the time. I have a premium. What switch needs to be adjusted on the snake to make it actually register a make?

Does anyone know where to get the extended Sparky airball plastic? Mine finally cracked. Looking for the version that is clear with no spider web etching.