I finally bit the bullet and installed some Pinstadiums. As someone that likes bright colors, this is it! The playfield colors pop out, the back left corner is finally visible and the strobe lighting is almost -too- bright. They aren't cheap, but I think they're well worth it! If anyone has any setting suggestions I'm all ears. These pics are at max brightness, neutral color, warm at 100%.

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Also, can someone confirm that a Classic does NOT have a harness going to the "BP MOON" socket? The directions for the Pinstadium lighting recommending tying into the non-existent harness there. I assume the "missing" harness is for the LED Drac lighting on the SE or LE versions.

Update: Scott from Pinstadium just confirmed this is indeed normal.

BP MOON (resized).jpg

Get rid of those black rubbers! You'll be amazed how spotless clean the inside of a pin stays when you switch over to white or better yet, silicone rubbers!

what have others done to light up the left ramp shot, left of Frankie , just under the scientist ?

If you just scroll up a few messages:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/monster-bash-remake-mbr-owners-club/page/161#post-6218429

Anyone know offhand where to get replacement bulbs for BM remake? 2 of my GI bulbs are out. I dont see on Titan...

Can someone confirm for me that the rails on the top side of the playfiled are wood like the original (they look that way in to me)? Also if you have a manual, is there a part number listed for them (both sides). My originals are cracked and I would like to replace them rather than make them if I can locate them.

Thanks
Rob

Marco or pinball life?

Planetary Pinball Supply. If not on the website contact Sara.

LTG : )

2 stern Pro for my MBr LE...Which two are worthy

Thank you and Zaki! So got new ones and replaced and realized all lower left GI lights are out so was not the bulbs. The lights under left sling and the creature green plastics are all out. Any ideas? I’m novice for these types of things if not painfully obvious. Thanks

Follow the wires from the lights that are out to the board they go to. Anything unplugged ?

LTG : )

NG - I'm not sure how many plays I have on my MBRLE, maybe 100 or so, but I haven't seen anything remotely like what you are showing. Your PF almost looks like the top layer is balsa! They clearly had a defective piece of plywood on your playfield. Good luck with this.
-gb

For my $$ currently I'd pick Stranger Things and Iron Maiden. Best two pros I've played.

You don't really *need* the physical ball lock on either, and the projector isn't really worth an extra $2k on STH. I prefer the Premium artwork on Iron Maiden, but other than that the game is amazing on a Pro.

Go back a few pages and look at mine... that's about 1500 games worth of dimples... It looks like pinball fairies took tiny ballpeen hammers to it.

I did - scary! So sorry to see that. I would say your top layer of plywood is defective as well, perhaps more so. I wonder if the plywood is purpose made for pinballs (with say a top layer of hard rock maple), or it is pine (in which case, no surprise at all about the softness).

I am going to go look at a sister machine that was delivered the same day as mine and went into a barcade here in Tempe. It should have more plays and the same amount (or more) dimples than mine if both playfields were made with the same grade of wood. If it has less, then I will raise an issue with CGC. There is no way a HUO (documented) MBrLE should look worse than one placed on site for public play, that just goes against all logic otherwise. And its a shame too, because other than dimpling like a mofo, my playfield was flawless, the silk screening was perfect, registration, details and color all are dead nuts on.

How does your PF play? Do you feel like the dimples deflect the ball? Do you get random skips? Those pictures you have are like the darkside of the moon man--drag that's happening to you.

Mine looks the same, but doesn't affect game-play. I don't even notice it unless I'm specifically looking for it in the right light.

Agreed, so far the dimples don't affect trajectories yet, and probably won't in the long run, as Lloyd said, in the end it gets flatter with use, right LTG ?

Mine must be hard as hell..so happy! one of the very 1st , Feb 2019 del..going strong and didn't have to use vice grips either. (joke)..maybe lucky. I'll keep it.

Mine was early run as well and sat in the box for almost 2 years before I bought it. Playfield looks amazing.

Joined the club today with an LE. Fun game. Great flow. Music is a little annoying (except the Bash), but that’s just personal taste!

I had the scoop send the ball SDTM a few times, common?

you are building a insane collection quickly man. I have not had this issue, but you might can adjust the power to the scoop coil. Go into settings and I am pretty sure you bump up the power to it and it should fix your problem.

I think some people said you may need to adjust where the coil is hitting the ball if it is doing that...and some others had to put some foam on the inside top of the scoop.

Happens once in awhile on mine

There is a software fix in the latest software version that helps with this syndrome, but if you search SDTM and scoop in this forum you will see MANY home remedies from foam in the throat of the scoop, to installing a wavy washer on the coil to snug it up, to loosening the scoop mounting screws and twisting the entire assembly, to my personal favorite, clamp a vise grip on it and give it a tweek to the left, which was what ended up fixing mine permanently, without the software upgrade, even though I tried almost all the others first. YMMV, good luck.

Last night I had a good game, but something interesting happened that I have not encountered before.

I was in the middle of monster bash multiball working on my last instrument to collect (creature sax). I was able to do that, but that lit the monsters of rock during the monster bash mode. I then subsequently shot a ball into the scoop which started monsters of rock mode. So rather than just let the monster bash mode finish before qualifying monsters of rock, it went right into it. I assume this is how the code works, but find it a little odd. I think it assigned all my points earned during monster bash to monsters of rock, too...I ended up with 274 million for monsters of rock (I've never broken 200 million on monsters of rock prior to that). So at least I was able to get the "ASR" initials off the machine!

Yes, if you complete the 6th instrument while in Monster Bash mode, it will immediately go into Monsters of Rock. I'm not sure how the points are then assigned between the two modes though.

Yes you can add a real knocker to MBR (at least the LE version). I have the LE version and loaded the latest software version available. The real knocker does in fact work.

Here are the parts I bought from Planetary pinball which are essentially the same knocker and cable used in MMR. I was not able to test the knocker on the coil test because it doesn't fire that coil in the sequence. I left the knocker setting on "yes" in the feature adjustments. I turned up the match percentage to 50% to try and get it to match when the game ended. Sure enough when there was a match, I heard the lovely sound of a real knocker fire.

Here are the links to the parts from planetary pinball:

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-B-10686-1
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-CBL-KNOCKER
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-01-7525

Can you dump audits to a USB flash drive on CGC pins? This seems common on all the other manufacturers, but I couldn't find anything about it in CGC manuals for their latest remake pins.

Nope

Has anyone added the spotlights available from Comet Pinball in your MBr? https://www.cometpinball.com/products/spotlight-kit
I'm looking at adding 1 or 2 of these to light up the middle of the playfield and just curious how well they work in MBr, do they look OK, and if there are difficulties or nuances to consider when installing.

Seems an odd omission.

Williams didn't think of it in the years before they closed.

LTG : )

Williams didn't have the convienieance of USB. Stern has been doing it for a while. JJP, Spooky, and American do it.

So it's odd that CGC doesn't.

I think this could be accomplished but it would require custom coding on CGC to sniff the nvram, decode it, and then package it as a file. Seeing as the market for the remakes is mostly HUO, it probably is not a priority to provide the convenience for operators, but since the OG software didn't do it, I think they are using that as justification as to why their system doesn't either.

No but I have pinstadiums and it looks so good. Alternating white and blue setting and everything really pops. Cool flashing/light show with Frank MB etc. They pricey so maybe spotlights cheaper but PS def get job done and easy install

You got me curious? got any pics or vids??

I’m traveling so just have few pics on my phone. These aren’t the best pics but can see difference.
Two with them off, one with them on

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Nice! Those pinstadiums work well, for sure. They light up the whole playfield. I was looking for a less expensive option with the spotlights, which would be focused on the bottom half of the pf. Does anyone have pics of spotlights installed on their MBr?

I have read about scoop SDTM issues and how to fix them. I just updated to latest code, seemed okay and then it happened again and again. My question is, my scoop works fine like 80% of the time and then I can almost see it coming. The balls shoots out slower than normal and I know my next shot in the scoop will be very limp and trickle slowly down the middle. Sometimes there is no warning and it just happens randomly where it shoots out so slow and straight down the middle. Is that the issue that people are having? Going limp sometimes and just trickle SDTM or is it shooting full force SDTM. I never had it shooting full force straight down the middle. Is there anything I can do? It seems like the coil doesn’t have enough power sometimes and first time it ever happened I thought it was b/c of a long game. But a lot of times it can be turn on machine first time of the day and the 3 shot in the scoop it goes limp eject and SDTM. Any help or tips would be appreciated. Just want to know if this is also what’s happening with some ppl

and here you go, proof that 80's and 90's playfields dimpled. They have just been played so many times that they sort of level themselves out. follow link at look at this HUO F14 that has dimples. it has just been played so few times over the years you can still see them. look at the 8th picture down.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/price-check-huo-f-14-tomcat

at the end of the day it is a steal ball hitting wood. does not matter if it was 1988 or 2021. bally/williams games also dimpled. end of discussion.

This again. This is seriously one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. They're not dimpling/flattening/leveling out from play. That's a fairytale. Go out in a dirt pile and dribble a basketball and see if you can level/flatten it. The impact creates a crater shape and always will. There will always be a deeper point to the crater.

And if you're playing it enough to "level out a dimple" from wear then you would be removing the paint layer as the dimples go below it.

I'm going with a Kruzman MBr replacement pf and put the original on the wall... for ~$1550 combined cost plus tax, I get a pf that can catch bullets in its teeth. So do I wish PPS and CGC would sell me the spare pf at cost?, yes, but I am not holding my breath waiting on that kind of customer service, I'll be proactive first and reactive second. Anyone who has seen my picts from:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/monster-bash-remake-mbr-owners-club/page/159#post-6185693

can plainly see these don't hold up to the plethora of airballs off Frank's feet and the Tomb Treasure stand up.

Well, that's what mine looks like after 2 years and 2500 plays later. A bit disappointing

Yeah, that's how mine looks too. I look forward to seeing the new PF and I'm definitely curious about how it holds up.

but you said the older playfields did not dimple? I have physical proof now and you still act stupid. Look at F14's that have 40,000 plays and you will see no dimples. Look at this HUO example with probably less than 1000 plays with dimples. How do you think the F14 with 40,000 plays no longer shows dimples? It is not hard to understand.

You may want to go back and read my posts. I never said never, and I've stated multiple times that my issue with this was the excessiveness. I also stated my my OG MM and MB with ten times the plays don't have a dimple on them.

Again, a ball shaped item will create a crater. Have you ever had to level dirt to put in stone or a pool? What shape tool did you use? It's sure as hell wasn't ball shaped. And if you go with the silly wear is leveling it out theory, again dimples go deeper than the paint layer. To level it through wear you would remove the paint and wood. Seriously the dumbest theory I have heard to date re pinball.

Not one to poke you in the eye but this is the poorest argument for flattening out... in a HUO pin, it will take LIFETIMES of play to get to 40000 plays, so that's kind of a moot point now isn't it? At my current rate of 2500 plays in 2 years, that's 32 years to flatten out. Think I'll go with a Kruzman and forget it. Besides, B/W had their fair share of soft wood playfields, I know, because I have played on several in my family for years and there are some that dimple and some that don't.

Best argument ender ever! Unless everyone keeps talking about it. Which they are.

I'm baffled by all of this discussion for many reasons. My thoughts:
-I've never been bothered by any playfield dimples ever. The idea of buying a $1500 replacement playfield for a 2 year old pin because of the dimpling hurts my head. But I don't have a Bublehead .
-Common sense says dimpling will eventually HAVE to end (aka "flatten out") because each dimple is less and less deep due to the compression of the wood. If you have a 3/4" piece of wood that gets a repeated dimple of 1/1000th of an inch, the 3/4" will get thinner and thinner and eventually stop getting thinner. 750 1/1000" dimples in the same spot = your playfield just disappeared. I'll need pics of that happening to believe! I also concede I have no idea if that flattening out takes decades or centuries. Ultimately, as I said in the first point, I don't care.

End of discussion! Right? Haha...