I dunno...what with all the snow and the crazy melt/flood ahead of me...kinda greatful mine isn't here yet. January would have been perfect, but February and March have just been brutal.

Better to not have it at all rather than stuck in a quickly melting snow bank a stones throw from my walk out. I've waited years, I can wait a few more weeks.

Non-matched, deposit only at end of November guy here. Was just told I should be in the next batch (not this week)...so, I am hoping folks like bubbles there are about to get some very good news.

My first machine. Given recent discussions I am all terrified about my lockdown bar. Should be interesting.

I feel ya bublehead. The best I have for a silver lining is that the path down to my walkout is finally accessible so I won't have to use the stairs.

This is of course assuming it comes before October.

My distributor has done a good job of making me feel like they are on my side and doing right by me. Whether they have the juice with CGC is another matter.

I certainly have no juice with anyone whatsoever so I expected to be back of the line no matter what. To bublehead's point though, I don't think most of us anticipated the production issues to be quite this severe.

Thought of another silver lining...my youngest now goes to the basement every day after his nap and goes "where pinball go? Pinball where ARE you?" Which is absolutely adorable and painful.

Yep, same boat here. My promised mid week update was that there is no update.

Part of my angst is that the wife has put her foot down HARD that I cannot get a second third or fourth machine until I can prove I can get the first one moved, set up, and playable without killing myself or the house. She also hates lane changing in traffic and considers changing distributors equivalent to lane changing.

She is very effective at shutting my "look, squirrel!" shit down. Also, I am a horrible liar and she would sniff me out instantly if I tried to pull a fast one.

None taken. And believe me I hear ya. Want to talk to my wife for me?

Others have mentioned putting in a string of LEDs in the trough. If you try that, let me know how it goes.

Yay for Bublehead. The fact that yours is shipping means that at least one machine has rolled off the assembly line again!

Got the notice today that mine is shipping out as well. The factory is humming again!

Got my tracking info. Estimated for next Friday. Two weeks? Really? On the bright side, at least that will give this week's blizzard time to melt.

Great idea, although I don't have the time or talent to pull a full Bublehead.

For me, watching the shipping status is like a telenovela. Couldn't figure out why it had an estimated ship time of two weeks. Now I have a pretty good idea.

It "shipped" on Monday, sat at the terminal 30 miles away from origin point until Wednesday where it traveled 150 miles down the road...and turned around. On Friday it traveled all day to the destination terminal which is about 10 miles from me. Then Saturday it reversed and went all the way back to Chicagoland where it now sits.

This thing is gonna log over 1000 miles.

After two weeks around the country on a truck, I got my machine this morning (#901). Box was pristine. Pretty excited to build it tonight after kids go to bed.

I got it partially unboxed and I noticed some blemishes on the cabinet corner. My intial reaction was "no big deal", but since this is my first machine I thought I would double check with the community.

IMG_6847 (resized).JPG

Took me awhile but got it fully built last night. Let me just say that without you guys and these forums I don't think I would have been able to do it.

More than once I was stuck staring at a part going "what the hell is this and where does it go?" A quick topic search here provided the answer.

A big thank you to everyone.

My scoop is 100% left flipper. Haven't messed with scoop at all. Rarely do I have any issues with drac feet. My pitch is 6.7-6.8.

The issue I do have is that any shot with any sort of strength that goes up the center lane has about a 90% chance of coming around and going SDTM. Very annoying. Weaker shots that dribble around are okay. Any suggestions?

I have had a ball ride the top of the the left loop twice which was kinda fun to see...until it drains.

Can't get enough of this game. I am horrible, but man it's so much fun. Even better, my wife likes it and my kids want to take out and play with the figures.

Definitely agree that it is dark if all the lights are off, but I find if I play in the dark, the wolfman flashers stun and blind me anyway.

As far as volume...I think it is plenty loud at the lowest level possible. Kind of wish there was like a volume 0.25 level hehe.

I finally got to monster bash last night, and then did it again! The second time was a laughably bad score when all was said and done.

Which got me to thinking...what is the lowest score you have ever had going into bash?

The rattling scoop shots are super annoying. The scoop is one of the few shots I can hit nearly 100% of the time from either flipper if I trap the ball. However direct shots only actually go in about 2/3 time. Otherwise, they rattle and bounce out.

Should I maybe turn down flippers? Currently at -5. I'm afraid if I go much lower than I won't be able to make the bride ramps.

I'm loving that pinball cover.

Getting close to 250 games on mine and I have now seen all the gameplay issues that have been mentioned previously. Scoop sdtm while rare, seems to be getting more frequent. Failures are still almost entirely due to me myself and I. And phantom flip. Screw that bastard.

My favorite freak occurance was when the ball went out of the bride ramp and rattled around on top of the pops for a bit before somehow ricocheting into the scoop. Which then dribbled it sdtm.

I only really notice dimples when I am not playing. My solution? Don't stop playing.

But now we have cut our teeth and are in the number match program so smooth sailing from here right? Right?

It's amazing how many games a 4 yr old can rack up in a short period of time.

Entirely worth it when the uncle comes over to see it for the first time and the 4 yr old legit beats him head to head.

The look on his face...priceless.

In all fairness it was basically her best game ever. Scoop gave her frank and she went to town. Final score around 25-30 million.

It was uncles first game on the machine. All his tricks for the half broke routed original near his house didn't go so well for him on the remake. Also I have a TIGHT tilt.

Define properly. If you mean always shooting for frank every freaking time before I am ready when I am trying to set up a stack of monsters or bricking a scoop shot then yes.

I don’t have issues with lighting and I generally play in low to moderate ambient lighting. I can see how some might be concerned with darkness near trough, but I don’t mind it as is.

Others have recommended the Lermods trough kit. This is the kit I would use if I ever decided to go that route.

https://lermods.com/products/monster-bash-remake-pinball-led-strip-interactive-rgb-trough-light-kit

Assuming you start at dead level, tweak both of your right legs to be a turn or two higher than left. Reduced my drac feet issues significantly.

Newbie issue here: I am having a problem with the “D” in D-I-G not always registering when a ball goes thru the gate. Happens about 50% on plunge and maybe 25% during the gameplay. Annoying during plunge because I lose the skill shot.

What are the usual suspects for this sort of thing?

Confirmed via test it was not registering every time.

Loosened switch a bit. Moved one side and retighened. Went to not registering at all with ball but yes with finger. Had to be depressed further than other lane switches to register.

Freaked out a little bit. 4 yr old came downstairs and gave me her lovey (apparently I was cursing and mommy said I needed to calm down).

Waxed playfield to calm down. Went back in and did the opposite of everything I had just done and boom. Back in business.

Same. None here

Same here. I used a little electrical tape below it to help hold it in place

That damn phantom flip will get you every time!

Dimples happen.

Minor tweaks here and there but otherwise a rock solid game.

Pretty sure they are finalizing or are done making that last of the LEs,(which was the primary source of major shipping delays / lack of communication). You don’t need to worry about that long slog drama.

Shaker is pretty active at start and during Frank multiball

If you don’t have the above part (I didn’t) open a ticket with CGC and they will set you straight.

My phantom flip: 50% brick, 25% wrong shot (No game, I don’t want frank right now), 25% pure beauty. I do get a kick out of it when it strings three bride ramps back to back to back, especially when I am in the mode. (Bride instrument tends to be the hard one for me to get)

Turning down my flippers helped to reduce the severity of frank airballs but yeah, like 90% of my dimples are due to frank.

Key Posts section at top has some suggestions.

Is this what you were looking for?

An extra half turn or so on the right legs made all the difference for my drac feet drains.

Lower flipper strength?

Shaker doesn’t activate for too many things in the game. Easiest in game check (for me) is Frank multi-ball.

So just to be clear, you are saying it doesn’t activate during Frank multi-ball?

Well at least you know it works now.

I’m with mbeardsley on this one. Make sure you’re running the latest and greatest software. Latest rev also does fantastic things for volume control and helps some people that were getting too many sdtm from the scoop.

Plus it really isn’t that hard to remove.

Random. I find the worse I play, the more the machine tries to help me. Kind of the opposite of phantom flip which seems to try it’s best to brick and sdtm me or start frank before I want to no matter what.

Practice the catch and backhand for creech and life gets so much easier.

Those damn bride ramps though...only time I can get her instrument is to pull it into frank or bash and usually I need a couple bombs too.

Same for Wolfy too. I can start his mode no problem...but I always choke on finishing it in single ball play.

Wolfy gets in my head for sure. I have gotten to MoR maybe 3 times ever and I swear I started wolfman on nearly every single ball (including extras).

But if I did that, then I would have to blame myself for all the bricks and accidental frank starts instead of just most of them.

Correct and from the patch notes:

Added setting to keep right popper coil activated longer to help avoid center drains from the popper.

Works great for MMr Merlin as well

Yes

Good pic in post below.

I will take dimpling over chipping any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Was making a reference to the various other playfield threads, as well as my mmr vs MBr.

Your dimpling is so bad it impacts gameplay? As others have said, I would like to see a pic of that.

Maybe you are skilled enough to repair the chipping that others are experiencing on other manufacturers games...but I am not.

Guess it is my personal preference, but I am much more saddened by bare plywood showing than I am by a dimpled surface.

If I had to pick a poison, I know which I would choose is what I am saying.

I hear ya on the difficulty taking pictures. The dimples I circled below are similar to those that litter my playfield and have no affect on gameplay. The first dozen or so caused me some anguish but now I forget they are even there after the first game or two.

FYI I have had turned down flippers since ball 1. It’s just that between frank and drac you get a lot of hard balls pounding soft wood.

9FBF5A90-B024-49EE-A540-5ECA3A64C3F2.jpeg

Same

Dimpling happens. Especially in the region you mentioned. Tomb shot does it to me frequently.

Air balls make it much worse. Try turning down your flippers. Will reduce, but not eliminate air balls.

I lowered mine to the lowest possible while still making ramp shots. Something like -6.

My playfield looks notably better than Bublehead at a similar number of plays, BUT the players in my house are notably worse too so…I would say my experience is his experience.

+1

I love the shaker integration on my MBr.

+1. I only get to MoR maybe once every 30-50 games, but when I do it can double my score if I have a decent go of it.

I ONLY seem to be able to complete Bride in multiball, where there is no timer. I love bringing it into Bash because by then I usually have a couple of bombs too. So I flail flail flail (it is more fun for the kiddos watching or "helping" that way) and then after Bash ends, I can be close enough that the bombs finish it for me.

Funny thing is both wolfie and bride I can start no problem. I can chain the shots like a pro....and then the timer starts and it is brick city.

I am my own worst enemy.

I believe there is a setting that will reset the scores after x number of plays.

A.4 09. “High score reset every”

That is what I would check first. (And other high score date adjustments) in the A.4 section)

If it were me, I would tweak it up to + or - 0.2 and see if that improves the situation first.

Edit: I suppose you could also tweak it left/right a hair.

Recently my game has exhibited an intermittent issue where the green creature lights will fade away during play. If I look closely at the creature display, I can still see the appropriate lights still very faintly lit green.

Attract mode functions fine and the lamps pass individual test mode too.

Doesn’t happen all the time and when it does usually starting any other mode will cause them to light back up and stay lit properly. Sometimes progressing creature a shot or two, (or starting his mode) will fix it too.

I can play a few dozen games after that without a problem, but then the issue will crop back up again. Tends to happen more with the first shot to creature, but it can happen with any progress.

I have tried reseating the connectors, but the intermittent problem still persists.

Any suggestions?

Thanks guys! Will start with LTG's suggestion, but also ordered a board as a back up solution.

I like to cradle on left flipper then tap it to roll towards the left tip. As it rolls back, you can backhand it to creature. Then when it dribbles out, you catch and repeat.

Once you get that dialed in, it’s very consistent. When not dialed in…yikes.

For phantom training…just play a few games to train it has always worked for me.

(and then spend every game after cursing at it.)

To activate in game, brick enough shots and you will light it up lickety split.

But…that’s part of the charm!

Yep, my mummy (when active) buzzes as well.

Quick hit pic this morning for ya. Apologies for shadows.

IMG_7688.jpeg

I had a similar problem, did what LTG suggested below, and (knock on wood) so far so good.

I too really like the selective use of the shaker.

Pedretti is now *also* doing some Bally/Williams remakes.

CGC is slow no doubt, but they still have their working relationship.