(Topic ID: 222461)

Monster Bash Remake (MBr) Owners Club (with Poll & Pics)

By MrSanRamon

5 years ago


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“Monster Bash Remake (MBr) Owners Club (with Poll & Pics)”

  • I'm in on a CE 77 votes
    9%
  • I'm in on a SE 172 votes
    21%
  • I'm in on a LE 396 votes
    48%
  • I'm out for now 182 votes
    22%

(827 votes)

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Post #4230 Potential fix for SDTM from scoop. Posted by Reznnate (5 years ago)

Post #5928 Frankenstein switch adjustment tips Posted by MGM2 (4 years ago)

Post #6026 Links to STDM Tweaks Posted by Oaken (4 years ago)


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#6685 4 years ago

In the manual (both for the original and the remake) it states that Adjustment A1.15 is "NOT USED".

However, in the Utility section, it describes A1.15 as being the reward setting for a Special. (for example, it says that when installing "ADD-A-BALL" it will set it to "Extra Ball", and when installing "NOVELTY" it will set it to "Points").

So can Adjustment A1.15 be used to manually set the Special reward, or does it have to be set in conjunction with ADD-A-BALL or NOVELTY?

I would like to be able to set the Special to Points (or maybe extra ball if the number of points awarded is wimpy), but have Credits be awarded for reaching the Replay values (even though it will typically be on free play). It just seems like a Special should be worth "something" of value (rather than just a knocker sound).

I won't be getting my MBR until the Texas Pinball Festival, so I can't try it myself, yet.

Thanks.

#6690 4 years ago

It's on the coils page of the CGC menu.

To get to the CGC menu you have to open the front door and hold the Service Credits button down for 4 seconds.

After the menu appears, you will need to press the Service credits button again to switch through the several menu pages.

#6692 4 years ago

In my giddy anticipation of getting an MBR, I have been reading through the manual (looking at the various settings) and have a couple of questions.
Maybe one of you knowledgeable owners can shed some light on these...

NOTE: The issues described below ALSO exist in the manual for the original Williams Monster Bash.

Issue #1:
Setting "A.1 26" is labelled "Tournament Play" and states "Equalize random game features and global score values". Simple enough.
However, setting "A.2 18" is labelled "Player Tournament Mode" and states "determines whether or not lit Specials remain in memory from ball to ball". Which seems to be a cut-and-paste of the description for "A.2 15" called "Special Memory".
So, what is the difference between these settings, and what do they really do? It looks like it's just a big typo in the manual.

Issue #2
Setting "A.2 27" is labelled "Disable Ramp Lock Post" and is described as "used to disable the Ramp Lock Post". Does anyone know what a Ramp Lock Post is? Could this be some prototype feature that never made it into production?

#6698 4 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

Ramp lock post is locking mech that locks the ball on right ramp while starting Frank multiball... it basically sends the ball straight to the flipper instead of catching it momentarily, it may be used for other things but that is the main use.

Thanks. I forgot about that post and what it does.

So anyone have an idea about my Issue #1 above? Maybe it does nothing and it's just a documentation screwup, or maybe it does something interesting and as yet unexplored.

Also, can anyone confirm that "A.1 15" is really NOT USED, or is it actually the Special Award (i.e. Credit, Ex Ball, Points, Nothing)?

Similarly can "A.2 28" be set to anything (it is simply skipped over in the manual with no mention at all)?

1 week later
#6717 4 years ago
Quoted from Zablon:

Hmm..so maybe unrelated to special then. I didn't notice 6 6 6. Anyone know what special does since it happens on a drain?

Just like the Special on most machines, it can be configured for various things.

Traditionally it would award a free game. However, it can also be configured for an Extra Ball, or simply some number of points.

(assuming that this is what you were really asking...)

2 weeks later
#6731 4 years ago

I wish someone would make some sort of mod to hide some of those nylon standoffs. They really sort of stick out. Even just using a different color would be an improvement.

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#6739 4 years ago

This brings up the larger question of "Are parts available for MBr now?"

One would think that the obvious answer would be "Yes", but Planetary Pinball has many Monster Bash specific parts listed as "out of stock".

I would have thought that PPS (if anyone) would have access to new parts.

Did CGC have extra parts made for support purposes? And if so, where would we purchase those?

#6747 4 years ago
Quoted from pinnyheadhead:

Hey MBashers! Looking at maybe picking up a MB to add to my MM and AFM. It is between MB or DP. I have a question though.
I started out with some BW's, WCS, T2 and HS2, when I got into pinball 7-8 years ago then bought and sold over 13 Sterns including good ones like, ACDC, LOTR, MET, IMD, ST etc.. I randomly traded my GOTG for AFM a year ago and really enjoyed that. I picked up MM a few months ago and that is just as good as AFM for me. It seems like I got Stern fatigue or something and the BW's feel good to me right now. I mean I love IMDN, fun game, but I bought JP and it didn't even last 3 months before I sold it. Games never go out the door that fast and stay 1 year or longer?! Have others started out with BW's, then went to liking/owning newer games more and then settled back in with BW's again later on? Just curious

Well, I prefer the B/W games over anything else.
On the other hand, DP is one of the few new Sterns that I really like.
Also, though I love MB (and can't wait to get mine in 3 weeks), it has very similar gameplay to both AFM and MM - you might get bored with it.

If you want a great B/W game that plays differently from these 3, I would recommend Whitewater.

2 weeks later
#6783 4 years ago

Just joined the club with a MBr-SE. I've noticed that when in Frankenstein multi-ball that often his switch doesn't register unless it is hit just right. Some previous posts talk about adjusting the switch. But it is unclear to me how or where to adjust it. Any advice/pointers would be appreciated.

#6786 4 years ago

Wow, okay, that was not at all what I thought. I expected it to be down by his feet somewhere.

I will give that a try, thanks.

#6789 4 years ago

Is there a trick to prevent "bleeding" between the "instrument" inserts at the bottom of the playfield?

For example, when the Wolfman's drums are lit enough light comes through the Mummy's guitar to make it look like it is on. Similarly, the Bride's microphone looks like it is lit when Frank's keyboard or the Creature's sax is lit.

It makes it hard to know which instruments you still need when they all look lit already.

#6801 4 years ago

I've now owned my MBr-SE for a few days and have a few questions/issues/comments. Hopefully some of you other owners can provide some suggestions...

1 ) The Frankenstein switch (on his back) seems to not activate on most hits during multiball. I have tried adjusting the switch a bit, but it hasn't seemed to make much difference. There are times I can bash his feet so hard that the ball goes flying all over the place, but the switch doesn't register. The switch does activate occasionally, but not often. The fact that the switch is on his back (rather than by his feet) seems to be a poor design choice - almost as if you need to hit him with an airball to the chest for the switch to work. Is this normal?

2 ) The plastic cover on the right side Bride ramp seems to cause both stuck balls and rejected ramp shots. It appears that since the cover is only attached at the front end, the back part acts like sort of a rubber band and tends to boomerang the ball back down the ramp. Occasionally, it will trap the ball along the right side ramp edge. I have tried reducing the flipper strength (to -4), and that has helped a little, but not much.

3 ) I also get an occasional stuck ball on the left side Bride ramp. It seems that there is a "sweet" spot that the ball can stop in right at the transition from the solid metal ramp to the wire ramp. There is a little concave place where if the ball stops just right on a very weak ramp shot (usually from just bouncing into the ramp), it can't roll back down. Is this just a design flaw, or is there some sort of adjustment that can be made? For reference, I have the machine set at the recommended 6.5 degrees. Will increasing the pitch make any difference for this?

4 ) Dracula's "Bruno Malis" are annoying. Not only do they often cause drains coming down the right side Wolfman lane, but they also tend to block shots going up that lane. I assume that there is no adjustment to make Dracula sit further back into his coffin? I know that some people have clipped his feet - is that the standard fix?

5 ) How do you bypass the "high power disabled" feature when the coin door is opened? I've tried pulling the switch out, but that doesn't seem to work. The manual does not describe this anywhere (and my Whitewater does not have the power lockout feature), so I don't know how this is supposed to function.

6 ) The Phantom Flip seems to be awful. I reset the historic data on it when I setup the machine, but I have now played many games over the past few days and it does not seem to be getting any better. The only thing it ever hits is the Phantom targets (which are often drain shots). It's gotten to the point that I tend to go out of my way to avoid triggering it on the in-lanes. I'm temped to disable it in the settings, but that just feels wrong - and having the Phantom Flip just hit targets that activate more Phantom Flips seems stupid.

7 ) I mentioned this before (and got no response), but is there some mod/trick to preventing light bleed on the various instrument insert lights? When one of the instruments is lit, enough light bleeds into the ones on either side that they appear to be active as well. This happens to a lesser extent on some of the other playfield inserts also, but the instruments are the worst in this regard. Maybe some sort of plastic guard protruding below the insert or something could be 3D printed?

8 ) Speaking of mods, I installed the Lermods spotlight covers mod to try to brighten up the playfield a bit. However, even on their lowest brightness setting, it floods the playfield so much that you can't tell which Monsters are lit anymore. Also, since the spotlights are always on, it really sort of messes up a bunch of the special lighting effects for the various modes. For now, I have simply disconnected them, but I will probably just remove them completely soon. They are quite well made, and look fine, but they are just too overpowering. On the other hand, the Lermods Plasma disk works (and looks) great.

Overall, though, the machine is a lot of fun, and I am quite pleased with my purchase. I just want to get it as good as it can be, so any suggestions/comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

#6802 4 years ago

duplicate...ignore

#6804 4 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

Open the coin door and you turn the high power inter lock switch and memory protect switch off. Pull out the knob on the high power interlock switch and you have high power with coin door open for testing and what not. Push the memory protect switch in and the message on the display goes away, whether you have high power on or off.
LTG : )

That doesn't seem to work. If I open the coin door, and then pull the top white switch out (so that it stays in the out position), nothing seems to happen. The "High power disabled" message remains and the high power is still disabled. The only way that I can seem to get high power with the door open is to manually hold in the lower of the two white switches.

-1
#6806 4 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

One thing happened. You still have HIGH POWER to check coils in test.

No, I don't. The High power disabled message remains and none of the coils will activate.
Either the switch isn't working, or I am not understanding the process.

#6808 4 years ago

Game turned on. Coin door closed. Coils work in game play ? --> YES, game plays fine.
If yes, open coin door. Coils don't work ? --> YES, no high power.
If yes, pull out the knob of the top switch and leave it locked out - they should now work in test. --> NO, still no high power
Anything different from the above, then high power interlock switch with four wires to it is wired wrong, or the switch is broken. --> I will examine the wiring, but suspect the switch is broken.

#6813 4 years ago
Quoted from Oaken:

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

Yeah, I saw that suggestion before. Sorry, but an uneven machine would be far worse than the drains. Just my opinion.

However, I did make some progress with my issue #2 above - the right side bride ramp rejections. I added an extra washer just below each side of the ramp cover where it attaches to the ramp. This lifts it just a little more out of the way. It has greatly reduced the number of rejections. I do still get it to happen occasionally, but far less often than before.

#6817 3 years ago

If your Mosh Pit multiball champion is at 10 Million, you don't need headphones, you need to play it more.

#6821 3 years ago
Quoted from BanditBen:

So I have searched 1/2 dozen pages but not reading 137. Got MBr CE 10 days ago and enjoying it but have a recurring issue nightly where the ball is getting trapped/wedged on the right side Bride ramp, wedeged in the wireform. What can be done to fix this? Thanks for

I got my MBr-SE 10 days ago also, and you're practically a neighbor...I'd invite you over to play, but social distancing and stuff...sigh.

Assuming that you mean it gets wedged between the wireform and the plastic ramp cover, then yes, I have the same issue and was able to reduce it somewhat. I added an extra washer just below each side of the ramp cover where it attaches to the ramp. This lifts it just a little more out of the way.

It has reduced the number of trapped balls and also reduced the amount of ramp shot rejections. I do still get it to happen occasionally, but far less often than before.

#6824 3 years ago
Quoted from neverahighscore:

Funny as I owned both the original and now the remake. I never had any of these issues described in these posts. No stuck balls on either ramp shot and no sdtm issues. Wonder why some of these remakes have issues and others don't.

While I do have the issue with Drac's feet occasionally causing drains, I don't have the center scoop causing drains that many here have reported. My scoop kicks it strongly (and consistently) to the left flipper.

From there I can either drop catch it with the left flipper, or let it bounce over to the right flipper, depending upon what I want to aim for next. It's very nice.

On the other hand, there is one on location near here, that sends it SDTM about half of the time...very annoying.

#6829 3 years ago

okay, but which part do you bend, and in which direction?

#6835 3 years ago

When Frank is lying on the table, are his arms supposed to be down by his side?

Mine have the arms sticking up, and then when Frank stands, up his arms move up just a little bit.

I have a problem with the switch behind him rarely getting triggered during multi-ball. I have adjusted the switch twice, but it has not helped much. I am wondering if his arm position is an indication of something else not being adjusted right.

#6836 3 years ago

Well, here is a new problem.

I was just looking at the Frank switch again, so I had the machine in Switch Edge test, and walked away for a moment. Suddenly, the sound of a switch being triggered started happening randomly by itself.

It seems that the right flipper proximity sensor is being triggered intermittently for no reason. Maybe this is why my Phantom Flip sucks so badly. The sensitivity is at 3 (the default). I will try turning it down to 2 and see if this stops happening.

I haven't seen many posts about people adjusting this...have people needed to adjust this (or moved the sensors left/right) to get "good" phantom flip behavior?

#6837 3 years ago

Trying to fix my poorly responding Frank...

LTG here is the pic you provided about adjusting his switch.

Then, look at the pictures of my switch...

Notice how the shape of the switch arm is different. Mine does not have the top angled shape. I think that this means that my switch ends up going inside the hole in his "upper back" rather than being triggered by the plate of his "lower back".

I do have the Frank Table mod (which was put on by the previous owner). Could that be the cause of the problem? If so, is there a remedy?

Thanks.
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#6839 3 years ago

Does your switch go into that hole in his back, or does it hit that little flat plate part below it? See Pic.

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#6841 3 years ago

Well, after removing the switch, and bending the crap out of the wire, I seem to have something that works much better.

The problem was that if the wire was low enough to be activated by the plate on his back, then it wouldn't stick out far enough to register on most hits. If I pulled the wire forward, then it would sit too high to hit the plate.

I had to pull off the switch and reshape the wire so that it could stick out both far and low. I will have to see how it holds up, but it seems to be better so far.

Thanks for the help.

#6842 3 years ago

A couple more issues/questions...

1 ) When frank is lying on the table, what position are his arms supposed to be in? On mine they are already sticking up mostly. And then when he stands, they go up just a little bit more. Should his arms really be at his side when he is lying down? And if so, can they be adjusted just by the hex screw that attaches the arms?

2 ) Does the CGC playfield glass seem noticeably thinner? The glass on my WhiteWater seems significantly thicker and somehow just beefier. Even just tapping on the MB glass produces a "tinnier" sound. If you tap on the Whitewater glass, it sounds like a car window. If you tap on the MB glass, it sounds like a curio cabinet. Is this normal? Could the MB glass be non-tempered? (I believe that both glasses are original)

3) I mentioned above that my Eddy sensors (for Phantom Flip) had calibration issues. In the switch test, the right flipper sensor was triggering intermittently for no reason. Furthermore, both sensors would consistently detect my switch adjustment tool at even a pretty far range. This was at the default setting of 3 on the board. After fiddling with the adjustment on the board (while still just in the switch test), the sensors started behaving normally, even at the same setting of 3. Now, they don't detect my adjustment tool unless I put it right on the playfield and right by the sensor (previously it would get detected from a much larger distance and could be a couple inches about the playfield). It was like the board was in some sort of super-sensitive mode (even though it was set at 3), and changing the setting back and forth "fixed" it somehow. Previously, the Phantom Flip really sucked, and already I have seen a great improvement after only a few games (I reset the Phantom Flip data after doing this). Hopefully, it will get even better as it learns. I just wanted to describe this in case other people have poor Phantom Flip issues.

#6857 3 years ago
Quoted from Zablon:

It's a great game. I know many long timers say it is too easy, but it kicks my ass. It's constantly sending the ball to the outlanes.

I agree, the rules may not be as deep as some machines, but I find that it is very unforgiving on most shots.

#6866 3 years ago
Quoted from Scot0308:

I own MBrLE. I'm getting air balls about half the time when hitting the left ramp. Any advice/fixes for this?

That's kind of an unusual place for air balls. Are the two wire guides (at the turn in the ramp) flush with the playfield (not sticking up or something)?

#6870 3 years ago

That's not really the spot that I was talking about. I meant the area past that where the ball gets onto the wire ramp.

Where exactly does the ball go airborne?

#6878 3 years ago

Only had mine for a couple of weeks, but am loving it. It's definitely not as deep a ruleset as many newer machines, but it's a blast to play.

#6885 3 years ago
Quoted from Doctor6:

What about the holes in the game... they're protected from the factory, yes? How have they held up? My sim card hole protector started curling up pretty early on from the factory. Any wear on these showing up so far? I know the drac track, and the scoop seem to get beat up pretty badly on the original version. Did they rectify this?

I don't know what a sim card hole protector is. The drac track has mylar around it and the scoop has a new protector around it. I haven't had my machine long enough to know what the wear issues might be, but I have no concerns at this point - especially since it will be HUO.

#6889 3 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

Depends on whose home its in But my LE is getting hammered - the ramp flaps, the hole protectors are all getting dinged up. The airballs off Frank's feet and the recoils from the tomb treasures standup have dippled the crap out of the playfield. The scoop edge is getting peened pretty bad, and the scoop does a reject about one out of 4 shots to it... it goes "Clang!" and refuses to drop, sends the ball back to the table with so much spin, the ball will be headed SDTM but the spin takes it to the left flipper. All that being said, this thing will stay in the collection. But I never sell a machine after I buy it... So I really already know when I buy a title, I have done my due diligence, and it isn't going anywhere.

Sounds like you need to turn down the flipper strength. I found the default strength to be much higher than is necessary. I have mine set at -4 right now.

1 week later
#6900 3 years ago

I just had my best MB game yet (890 million), but unfortunately, found that now I have an LED out.
The bottom of the four green "creature" lights on the right side (the one that shows "muck"), does not come on.
Maybe it got hit by an air-ball or something, as I noticed it right after finishing Monsters of Rock.

I found that if I wiggle the bulb a bit, it will come on for a moment, so I assume that there is a bad solder joint on that bulb somewhere.
I guess that I will try to pull that piece apart this weekend and see if I can re-solder it.

LTG I am assuming that since I am the second owner of this machine, there is no warranty issue that I need to be concerned about? Warranty only applies to the original owner, correct?

If the problem is not that simple and I have to replace that small board instead, how would I go about getting CGC replacement parts?

Thanks.

Added over 4 years ago:

Addendum: PPS has a bunch of MBr parts for sale now, including the "creature indicator" PCB.

2 weeks later
#6911 3 years ago

I don't know if the playfields are directly interchangeable, but I do not believe that the flipper spacing is different.

Could you mean the Euro "lightning flippers" instead of "normal flippers"?

1 week later
#6932 3 years ago

Yes, very happy I got the SE. Between the bigger/color screen, the better sound and enhanced lighting...it was more than worth it.

I'm not a fan of the powder coating (or really even that topper), so the LE was overpriced for what I wanted. My SE has the plasma disk, the mirror blades, and the shaker motor all added, so I still have the best stuff of the LE.

#6935 3 years ago
Quoted from Gorgar666:

How Do I join the club?

According to your profile, you already own a MBr-LE.

So, now all you have to do is send me the $100 membership fee and you're in!

#6939 3 years ago
Quoted from onemilemore:

How are the trends on resale between CE and SE? If we join the club it'll be our first pin, and I know my wife is a little more hesitant to spend the SE money.
I'll also caveat everything with this: When we first started searching for pins before the shutdown, we actually did not click with MB at all. Lots of Frank bashes and drains. But after renting Ghostbusters and Deadpool during quarantine, and enjoying MM and AFM out on location, we feel fairly safe buying MB (our pinball skills have improved, we like the theme the most of the top 3 fan layouts and have played it a bit more on Pinball FX3). However, there is still that lingering "Oh crap, what if we buy it and still don't like it?" worry, so I'm hoping you all have a little more insight into how much of a bath we could take if we moved on from it pretty quickly.

Remember that how a particular machine plays will greatly depend on how it is set up. Some MB machines like to drain from the center scoop, some (like mine) will tend to drain off of Dracula's feet. Most of these issues can be adjusted or minimized in a home environment.

If anything, I would think it would be easier to re-sell an SE than a CE. Most of the "collectors" will want either an SE or an LE, while the "operators" will be more interested in the less-expensive CE. But either way (assuming that the machine is in good condition), you shouldn't have much trouble selling it if you decide to.

Quoted from YZRider926:

Have you tried to find one locally slightly used? Save on shipping and won’t pay the nib premium. Then if it doesn’t click you’ll get what you paid or slightly less.

Yes, this is what I did. I was planning on buying NIB, but a member here was selling his very-lightly used SE and I saved some money that way. Just like buying a new car, that NIB machine will depreciate some as soon as you open it. That's not really a big deal if (like me) you plan to keep it for a long time, but could be an issue if you are concerned that you might want to re-sell it soon.

#6945 3 years ago

I'm having a couple of issues with the coil strengths on my MBr.

First, the plunger coil strength seems to be inconsistent. When set at "default", it will often (but not always) kick the ball too hard, making it hit the top of the diverter gate and then come down the loop (instead of going into the 3 "DIG" lanes). But when I set it at "min", then it will often not kick it hard enough to reach the DIG lanes (sometimes not even making it to the top of the plunger lane). Any idea what would make it so inconsistent? Unfortunately, the only power options for this coil are min, default, +1, and max. Seems like what I really want is a -1 (like the flippers have).

Secondly, the trough kicker (that serves the ball) seems to have consistency issues as well. It often will fail to properly serve the ball (the ball falls back down and attempts to be re-served). I have tried adjusting the power to this coil (both up and down), but it hasn't seemed to make any difference. It seems that the ball is being kicked too hard and it is bouncing off of the "roof" of the chute, but it's hard to tell for certain. It does always serve the ball eventually, but sometimes (especially when starting multi-ball) it will take 4 or 5 attempts first.

Any ideas on what to examine / try? Anybody have a similar issue?

#6947 3 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

Be sure it is hitting the center of the ball. The plunger/coil bracket can be loosened and turned, even shimmed up or down if needed and retightened.

http://www.pinplay.com/5/adjusting_the_ball_trough_on_woz.html
LTG : )

Thanks, Lloyd. I will give these a try. Do MBr and WOZ have a similar ball trough mechanism? I don't own any JJP machines, so I'm not familiar with their mechs.

1 week later
14
#6980 3 years ago

Broke the Billion points mark for the first time today!

Had two Monsters of Rock in the game.

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#6985 3 years ago

I have an MBr-SE with the shaker and it works fine.
It will also shake during the "match" sequence, and when starting most of the "monster" modes.

#6988 3 years ago
Quoted from Nihonmasa:

well I tried several stuff and it did not activate. Did not try the Frankie MB.
Just tried the frankie MB: It does activate for super jackpots.
Does not activate for pop bumpers, but does activate at the end of the match.
Very lightly used indeed... Quite disappointed here, why didn't they implement it for more than that?
It's sol light I tought it was not even working

What version of the CGC code are you running?
They made some adjustments to this in the most recent version.

#6991 3 years ago
Quoted from Oaken:

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.

Yes, they greatly increased the volume...probably too much actually. I have mine now set on close to the lowest possible volume - and it's still plenty loud.
If you were to set it above 50%, you'd either destroy your speakers or your eardrums (or both).

2 weeks later
#7016 3 years ago

Wow, great fix idea. I had the same problem with the Frank switch. I ended up removing and completely re-bending the switch wire and it has been much better. Seems like your idea would have been much easier.

Does Frank still lie down correctly when he is not standing?

#7025 3 years ago
Quoted from nicoy3k:

I kind of like that you need a solid strong hit down the middle to activate frank, having the switch register with any old hit would be lame. I always assumed it was intentionally not easy?

Well, on mine, it didn't really work at all. If you manually pushed frank's torso back it would register, but no amount of pressure on his feet would trigger the switch. It now takes a decent hit to register. A solid shot from the flippers will work, but a bounce off of something else will not.

#7038 3 years ago
Quoted from 2manyhobbies:

I had the same issue. This is what Chicago gaming sent me:remove the two nuts, washers and plastic art from the right wireform. Gently lift up evenly on both ends of the wireform, to create space between to the wire frames. This you should fix the balls from getting stuck again (picture attached).
[quoted image]

Yes, I had to do the same thing to mine. I have not gotten the ball stuck there ever since.

#7042 3 years ago
Quoted from nicoy3k:

Do you get ramp shots rejected by that turn on occasion?

I was getting rejections a lot, but I made another adjustment that helped with that.

The rejections were really coming from the plastic ramp cover, not from the wire form (the wire form was causing the stuck balls though). I added a couple of washers on the bolts that attach the plastic (underneath the plastic, so the plastic is raised a bit).

After I did that (and bent the wire frame to eliminate the stuck balls), I have not had any more problems with that ramp.

#7043 3 years ago
Quoted from neverahighscore:

I have a MBR LE and have had none of these issues or any other problems described in the MBr Owners Club. I also didn't have any of these issues with my previous original mb's. That makes sense since the playfield top is basically the same between the two. Hope you get your issues resolved soon.

Yes, it's really hit or miss...while I did have the ramp problem(s) and the Frank switch issue, I did not have the problem with the center scoop sending the ball SDTM. My scoop has sent it nicely to the left flipper consistently.

#7052 3 years ago

Yes, I have that issue once in a while as well, but I can usually get the ball to come back down with just a medium shake.

#7067 3 years ago
Quoted from nicoy3k:

Did you use one washer on each bolt or two washers on each bolt?

I put two on each bolt, though I don't know if both were really necessary.

#7068 3 years ago
Quoted from PoMC:

finally installed the Pinstadiums I've had sitting here for a week. Huge difference! When we got MBrLE a few weeks ago, my wife even commented that it was dark on the playfield and hard to track where the ball was.
Problem solved and she's been playing it for 20 min straight already since she got home.

With the pinstadiums installed, can you still tell which Monsters are lit or unlit in the center of the playfield?

I had installed the Lermods spotlights to lighten things up, and even on their lowest setting it washed out the playfield so much that you couldn't tell which monsters or instruments were lit/unlit. It did make it easier to see the ball, but I ended up removing them because it was just not worth it.

https://lermods.com/shop/ols/products/monster-bash-remake-spotlight-covers

#7072 3 years ago
Quoted from Lermods:

These can be rotated downward so they don’t wash out the instruments or monsters or they can be mounted on the lower screw of the sling plastic instead of the upper screw. Maybe try that. I did notice on the brightest setting it does wash it out, but once I dimmed them down it wasn’t an issue.

I tried pointing them in various ways (and with the lowest brightness), and couldn't find a variation that I liked. Maybe I will try a trough light at some point instead.

#7073 3 years ago
Quoted from nicoy3k:

Ok thanks, I think it’s helping. Feels like rejections went from 4/10 to 1/10, do you still get some occasionally?

Only once in a very great while...less than 1 in 100 (probably about the same as any other ramp on any machine).

I put in the washers at the same time that I bent the wireframe (to address the stuck ball problem), so it is possible that both those things helped with the ramp rejections.

#7077 3 years ago

Which rubber pieces are recommended for this machine? I just had one of the original flipper rubbers break, so I swapped both out with "ordinary" red flipper bands that I had from Pinball Resource.

It plays MUCH better now, in that the response from the flipper is much more predictable. I think that the original bands had much less grip, making the ball sometimes sort of "slide" off of the flippers during a shot.

I was surprised how quickly this band broke. Are people using Titan bands, and if so does it make the game play any differently? I had been considering upgrading to Titans on my other machines soon, but didn't think the the MBr would need new rubber this soon. Does CGC use crappy rubber as stock?

#7080 3 years ago
Quoted from PoMC:

Nothing "washed out" when using Pinstadiums. Not interested in hearing nay-sayers. I like them and also make DIY stadium lights for most of my games. But for the expensive games, it's Pinstadiums.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Byi9jb5BU8EYUJvS6

I was not "nay-saying", I was just asking a question because I DID have a "wash out" problem with the LerMods lights. And while the Lermods piece was not expensive (and worth a try), pinstadiums are too expensive for me to simply "give it a try".

#7085 3 years ago

That would have looked a lot better if they had made it cover up the screw heads.

1 week later
#7094 3 years ago

Arrggghhh...just missed out on Lyman's Lament. I was at 42 mosh-pit shots when it drained...sigh...

#7096 3 years ago
Quoted from nicoy3k:

I thought it was 44 scoop shots

That was my point...I got to 42, but not to the 44 that I needed.

#7098 3 years ago
Quoted from nicoy3k:

Yea you said mosh pit shots, i thought that was the spinner

I'm confused now, is Lyman's Lament started by 44 scoop shots or 44 spinner shots?

I thought it was 44 spinners (i.e. Mosh Pit), but maybe it is 44 scoops. Does the number of current scoop shots show in the status pages?

#7102 3 years ago
Quoted from Daditude:

You can also start it by putting the following "code" in, before the first ball with credits in the machine (or free play) and before launching FIRST BALL:
Press the left flipper 11 times, then press the right flipper once, the left flipper 5 times, the right flipper once, the press the left flipper 6 times, then press the right flipper once.

Yes, I knew there was a code to start it, but I don't want to spoil it that way. I'll get to 44 on my own at some point.

1 week later
#7115 3 years ago
Quoted from nicoy3k:

Are your guys playfields virtually covered in dimples? I don’t really mind it but I want to make sure that it is normal for this game to dimple a lot.

Mine has lots of micro-dimples. It feels totally smooth, but in just the right lighting (if you look closely) you can see the distorted reflections in the clear coat.
It does not seem to affect the ball - and I believe that I would notice if it did - so I am not all that concerned.

OTOH, my Whitewater (which I have owned for over 20 years) does not have any visible dimpling (it does have significant planking though). So, basically, you just can't win.

2 weeks later
#7163 3 years ago

Noticed something weird...once in a while my MBr will not play the "knocker" sound when a free game is earned (either from points, or from a match).

For example, when it goes through the match sequence, if I happen to "match", you will hear Drac say "You're cool...like me.", and usually it will play the "replay knocker sound". But once in a while (maybe 1 out of a dozen matches or so), you will get the same audio clip, but no knocker sound.

Since this is all just software (there is no actual knocker), one would think it would play that sound every time it matches.

Obviously, it is not a big deal, I'm just curious if others have noticed the same thing.

#7173 3 years ago
Quoted from Gorgar666:

What did y’all think of the cheat code? Left flip.right flip, right flip etc....

I purposely have not used it. I want to earn "Lyman's Lament" myself...at least for the first time.

#7176 3 years ago
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:

I've been trying for years, but have never been able to get it. And I HAVE gotten the 666 award in a regular game, but Lyman's Lament? forget it!

It seems like getting the 666 would be harder, as you have to get the timing just right (and not accidentally start a monster too soon). All you need for Lament is a really long/good game.

I haven't gotten either yet. Best I have done is 5 of the 6 (and that was really just luck), and 30 venues. But I've only owned my machine for about 6 months.

I'll get there someday.

2 weeks later
#7234 3 years ago
Quoted from tracelifter:

Mine has screws, my original MB didn't.
Now I want my money back plus a few extra quid for the trauma this revelation has caused.

Yep, CGC has totally "screwed" us...

#7245 3 years ago

That's great, but if you could point to a source for the kit you used, that would be helpful.

Also, did you have to rig a new connector of any kind? And did you need to change the settings to enable it?

1 week later
#7274 3 years ago
Quoted from bigballa81:

My SE arrived Sunday - really pumped. First NIB game. Was wondering if it is normal to have so many right ramp rejects. When I’m hitting the right ramp immediately after hitting the left ramp I feel like more often than not the ball is rejected. If this is not normal, should I adjust the steepness on my game? I use the PinGuy app to help level my game and the set point is at 6.5 which I understand is typical. Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.

If you look back a few pages in this thread, this has been discussed. I had the same problem, and fixed it by both adding a few washers and slightly bending the wireframe. I now only get a rejection in very rare circumstances - usually only on an extremely hard/fast shot.

And I have mine now set at 7 degrees, it seems like it reduced the number of cheap drains, but I don't know if it had any effect on the ramp rejections.

1 week later
#7293 3 years ago
Quoted from CoolCatPinball:

Thinking about joining the club with an LE. Looking for a fun approachable shooter for the family. Something easy/lighthearted enough for kids to have fun, but deep enough to keep a average adult pinball player busy and interested. What's everyones thoughts on long term playability in a home setting and approachability for beginner level players? Thanks!

I think that's a perfect description of MB.

#7300 3 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

MB is a great machine for the visiting guests to get into quickly, the rules are straight forward, and the goals simple....The shots, however, are tight, the "missed shot" geometry is deadly, the outlanes are on "Super Suck" when set halfway open, and game and ball times range all over the place... It has a great "one more game" feeling to it, it continues to mock you during certain modes, has a great two stage wizard mode to shoot for, plus hidden easter eggs for the really talented shooters. I fell in love with MB back when it was released in the 90's and have wanted to own one for years. I now have an LE sitting in my lineup, and to be honest, it is my go-to machine when I want a quick game, but it can suddenly turn into a marathon if you start hitting the ramp shots with regularity... Hardest mode in the machine, in my opinion, is Bride of Frankenstien (Ball and Chain) due to having to hit 6 ramp shots (3 shots left and three shots right) without timing out. And the left and right ramps are the tightest "tip" shots off the left and right flippers, with the right ramp being the only reliable one to try and backhand. That being said, your average player should be able to get to Monster Bash wizard mode fairly easy, within a fair number of games but Monsters of Rock Wizard mode requires starting AND completeing all monster modes to get all of their musical instruments to start it. Their are some good strategies to achieve this and once you learn them, you can get there more often.
Now ask me if I think it's better than AFM or MM and I will say, it's about the same as, but different, it's easier than RTU, or BFK so not as deep or as hard, but the Classic Universal Monster franchise mixed with a rock band theme and which has not one but two nicely animated bash toys, plus fun sculpts of the most of the rest (sorry Wolfman ) plus CGC's additions made this machine a no-brainer for me and the wife. YMMV.

Wow...very well explained...and I completely agree with everything here.

#7312 3 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

Ok... that fixed it....

Yes, that was strange...I was seeing the same issue. Now it seems to be fixed, thanks.

2 weeks later
#7359 3 years ago
Quoted from Oaken:

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.

Strange. While I agree that the Bride's microphone is the hardest instrument to collect, I think Wolfman's and the Mummy's instruments are the easiest.
It's not uncommon for me to make 3 or 4 repeating left loop shots. I guess everyone's machine (and play style) are a bit different.

#7369 3 years ago
Quoted from Blakeski:

Hey guys is anyone having any issues with the mummy door staying open? Mine is intermittent but I'm noticing sometimes it's not opening and closing on time. If it stays open while you're playing the game it will vibrate an eventually close.
Also I'm getting the same type of effect with the bride. Seems like her neck stays up or doesn't "pop" enough.
I was curious if these were common issues and potentially needing some lube of sorts to keep them moving freely.

Sounds like they just need some cleaning. Dust/gunk can make the mechanisms not move freely as they should.

Personally, I find the whole bride neck thing silly and annoying. The noise from her head popping drowns out her callouts, and really serves no purpose. I wish they had used the money they spent on that mechanism on something that would have affected the ball in some way instead. A right-side outlane gate that feeds back into the shooter lane would have been nice, or maybe a left-side outlane kickback.

The mummy's door doesn't affect the ball either, but at least it doesn't obscure his callouts, and it does provide more "flavor" with how it coordinates with the video display.

#7371 3 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

Anyone else having the same experience?

Yes, but only to a certain extent. It hasn't really bothered me that much, and I agree that the best strategy is to use the right flipper.

2 weeks later
#7394 3 years ago
Quoted from Zablon:

Those blades are very nice. I can't part with my mirror blades though. They make everything pop even more.
Also. Had an awesome ball 3 and got my first Monsters of Rock tonight! Only got up to around 420m though. I also realized that the naming of the features is a bit confusing. When you get a Monster Bash it says "get ready for the Monsters of Rock", and when you get a Monsters of Rock is also says 'here come the Monsters of Rock".

Yes, they really should have had more/better callouts to differentiate the two modes.

#7408 3 years ago

I normally set machines to the recommended 6.5 degrees. However, I found that increasing my MBr to 7.0 degrees made this game play better. I got far less cheap drains off of drac's feet, and it just felt better in general.

Also, the increased incline reduces ball hang ups in the entrance to the left ramp on a weak shot. And when it does hang up now (which is rare), I can simply shake it loose without having to remove the glass anymore.

Fortunately, my scoop rarely sends the ball STDM, and usually allows for a nice dead-flip bounce over to the right flipper.

#7410 3 years ago

The wireframe of the right ramp can be adjusted by bending it slightly. I had to actually open mine up a bit because it was causing ramp shot rejections and would also sometimes get stuck. It might be that yours is just too open and closing it up a little would be good. YMMV.

#7416 3 years ago

Is there some way to adjust the ball save time on a missed Phantom shot?

Mine is enabled, but I have found that the ball will often bounce around the drain area a bit before it drops in, causing the ball not to be returned. If the ball happens to fall in the drain immediately, then it will return the ball (but this is rare).

It's bad enough when the Phantom shot whiffs on a fast inlane ball, but it's worse when the ball save fails on it too.

#7418 3 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

No is the simple answer... I think it has to be a drain shot with a missed hall effect sensor trip... in other words, if the ball rolls off the flipper without detecting a hall effect event and the next switch hit is a trough switch, this is when it does the ball save on phantom flip.

Yes, I know, but not only does it have to be the trough switch it hits next...it has to hit it within like 1 second. Often on mine, when the phantom shot fails, that 1 second ball save has expired by the time the trough switch is actually hit.

#7421 3 years ago
Quoted from Lounge:

You can disable Phantom Flip in settings.

Yes, but that sort of defeats the whole point. The problem is that the Phantom Flip mechanism (while a good idea) just isn't good enough to rely on. Maybe if they had made it only attempt to make the bride ramp shots, then it could have become smart enough to make those shots reliably. Instead, I often go out of my way to avoid allowing the Phantom Flip to trigger.

While I love MBr for the most part, there are a few things on it that could have been done much better - and Phantom Flip is certainly one of them.

#7424 3 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

That was true of the original and I don't believe they can change the Williams end of things.
LTG : )

Yes, the items I was referring to are true of the original as well. I wasn't trying to put any sort of blame on CGC for this.

I do wonder though, that if CGC actually did "buy" the rights to the Williams stuff (rather than just licensing them), I would think that they could make various improvements/changes to their remakes. For example, they should be able to add the spinning tiger saw on TOM.

#7426 3 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

I think it actually adds something to the game in that you KNOW FOR A FACT that phantom flip is NOT going to hit the shot you NEED, but hit the shot that messes up your strategy the most and so you avoid it at all times.

I have no real problem for the shot it TRIES to make. My problem is that it usually misses the shot it tries for. All too often, it simply hits one of the stand-up targets and then drains. And that doesn't count the times that it whiffs the shot completely and drains.

#7428 3 years ago

Well, if Phantom Flip could shoot like Lyman does that would really be something...

I competed against Lyman several times in the early PAPA days (before he worked for Williams), and it was fascinating. He would play in his socks, strangely balanced with one foot on top of the other, and then shifting his hips back and forth.

What was amazing though, was that he would take a shot, hit what he wanted, and have the ball return right back to the flipper - over and over again - for like 20 minutes. The ball was very rarely not in his complete control. It looked like he had the ability to move the ball with his mind (and was only pretending to use the flippers to shoot the ball). It was quite surreal.

It was the first time that I saw someone play and thought "I just can't compete with that guy." There were other "great players" back then (like Dave Hegge, Rick Stetta, and Roger Sharpe), but I knew that I had at least a chance to beat any of them. But Lyman was just in another league.

1 week later
#7483 3 years ago

You may need to update your software. I believe that the Scoop adjustment was added later (and may not be listed in the manual).

1 month later
#7656 3 years ago
Quoted from sebwca:

Question might already been aswered but cant find it. How do you reset the calibration off the phantom flip ? I don't want to reset all the pinball to factory settings ? Is there a way ? thx a lot !

In the utilities menu there is an option to reset the Phantom Flip data, I believe it is item U12.

1 week later
#7683 3 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

If it's hanging up on the switch in front of the plunger, adjust it so it doesn't effect the plunger but still works when a ball rolls on it ? Or the plunger isn't hitting the center of the ball ? If loosen the screws holding the bracket/coil/plunger and aim the plunger better and retighten the screws.
LTG : )

I have this same problem, and will attempt this fix soon. If you have a picture or more details for this, I would appreciate it.

#7685 3 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

Look at it. Roll a ball down the shooter lane to the auto plunger. Does it stop on the plunger ? Good - switch is okay.
Does the plunger look like it will hit the center of the ball when activated ? If not. Lift playfield up and pull out and rest on the front of the cabinet so you can ascertain what needs to be loosened to turn the bracket where it needs to go. Only a few screws hold it.
LTG : )

No, the problem I have is with the loading of the ball INTO the launcher. The ball fails to reliably make it into the shooter lane from the trough below. I suspect that the ball is not sitting in the trough properly and/or it is not being kicked "cleanly" by the up-kicker.

It's hard to tell what is really happening, as you can't really see it with the playfield down in place, and you obviously can't try it with the playfield up.

Sometimes it loads correctly on the first try, sometimes it will take several attempts. I have tried adjusting the coil strength each direction, but that does not seem to help.

#7687 3 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

Easy fix. The ball shoots up and hits the deflector that should send it to the shooter lane but instead goes back down.
Problem can occur on any game using a Williams style ball trough. JJP uses it, AP uses it, CGC uses it, etc.
Though this features a WOZ, it's the same fix - http://www.pinplay.com/5/adjusting_the_ball_trough_on_woz.html
Bend the deflector out a tiny bit. And you may still need to play with the strength. Weaker or stronger.
LTG : )

Unfortunately, I have already tried that, and it didn't help.

When it mis-fires, it doesn't appear that the ball is even getting to the deflector, it just sort of bangs around down below somewhere (though it is hard to tell exactly what it is doing). This is why I believe that the ball is not sitting in the trough correctly (or maybe the kicker is hitting the ball off-center).

Maybe I will try to get a video of it. Unfortunately, it seems that every time I try to really examine the problem, it stops happening. Very frustrating.

#7689 3 years ago

Yes, several of us have had that issue. I solved mine by doing two things.

1) bending the top part of the wire frame up, carefully, just a little.
2) adding a couple of washers to the screws where the plastic piece that covers the top of the ramp attaches to the front of the ramp. This has the effects of raising the plastic just a bit (often it is actually the plastic that is doing the shot "rejection").

Look around post 6821 in this thread and there is some detailed discussion of this.

3 weeks later
#7725 3 years ago

Just had my best game to date on my MBr. Over 1.7 billion. My son captured the last part of it on video.

By the end there was noticeable flipper fade, which I guess is reasonable as the game took close to an hour I think.

I had 4 Monster Bashes (I think) and 3 Monsters of Rock (but still didn't make it to Lyman's Lament - think I was in the low 30s for that).

I'm exhausted...

#7737 3 years ago
Quoted from Flipper_Ripper:

I also set ball save to 3 and it only give me 2 balls saves. Currently it hits dracs feet off the plunge and SDTM, so sometimes it doesn’t 2 quick drains and it does give you the last ball save. Something wrong?

I don't think you understand how the ball save works.

There are two settings for this A.2 - 01 and A.2 - 02.

The A.2 - 01 setting sets the number of ball saves. This is NOT how many times a single ball will be saved, but is how many of your balls per game can have a save. If this is set to 1, then only 1 ball (i.e. ball 1, ball 2, or ball 3) will ever be allowed to be saved.

The A.2 - 02 setting sets the time that a ball may be saved for (i.e. the minimum ball time). For example if this is set to 15 seconds, then the ball will be "saved" (over and over) until 15 seconds have passed. Even if A.2 - 01 is set to "1", you can have that ball saved several times.

Alternatively, even if A.2 - 01 is set to "5", and A.2 - 02 is set to only "3", you will likely not ever have a ball actually get saved, as it usually takes more than 3 seconds for a ball to be launched and then drain.

You probably just want to increase the setting of A.2 -02 to get a longer ball save time.

Note that this is all described in the manual under A.2 Feature Adjustments.

A Pdf of the manual can be found here : https://www.chicago-gaming.com/manuals/MB_Manual_Rev_1.pdf

#7740 3 years ago
Quoted from weaverj:

sometimes i'm banging the targets for frank after i collect all the body parts and it's like nothing is registering. is there an action i'm missing in order to lower those, so i can hit the ramp? i always thought you just keep hitting them.

No, each time you hit the targets it should advance you towards accessing the ramp. How many times you need to hit the targets is determined by how many times you have gone into Frank multi-ball already this game.

At start, you get one body part per hit, but after getting Frank multi-ball, the next time it takes 2 hits per body part. I'm not sure if you need 3 hits each after that. This might also be affected by the difficulty settings, but there is no "extra step" to getting there.

#7741 3 years ago
Quoted from Flipper_Ripper:

Thank you so much! You are correct I don’t understand How ball save works. After reading your post and checking back with the manual I have a better understanding. Thanks so much! I only have one question. So I have it set at 2 currently and 15 seconds timer. How come I drain within 3 seconds and then drain again I don’t get that 2nd ball save? I’m going to change it to 5 ball saves until I can fix the Dracula feet SDTM. I really appreciate your response though. I’m new and learning.

If you set it to 15 seconds, you should see the "Alive Again" light (between the flippers) flashing for those 15 seconds after you launch the ball the FIRST time (it's not 15 seconds for each launch). If the ball drains while that light is flashing, it should give it back to you. Once the light goes out, you're out of ball save time.

#7743 3 years ago
Quoted from weaverj:

that's weird. i had all the parts lit or maybe the head was flashing. i swear i hit them after that like four or five times. this would have been after one multiball max.

Maybe one of the targets is not registering...

#7746 3 years ago
Quoted from weaverj:

is it possible to hit them too hard? i mean, you know these flippers "...have the power!".

Well, "back in the good old days", standup targets like that would have a capacitor on them to help them detect very "fast" hits (and if the capacitor failed or fell off, the switch would still work but only on "slow" hits) - but I don't think modern machines have a need for those anymore.

I don't have any other ideas, except to go into switch test mode and bounce the ball off of the targets making sure that you get a consistent response.

#7754 3 years ago
Quoted from Flipper_Ripper:

Quick question. So original Williams Monster Bash had an issue with dracs feet causing SDTM. Williams offered a drag cut feet as a solution. So did CGC use original drac figure because I have a CGC and still hitting dracs feet ever so slightly sending it SDTM. Thinking of ordering pre-cut dracs feet and hope this solves it but wondering if CGC already addressed this and buying pre cut feet won’t help me.

The Drac on MBr is NOT the one with the cut feet. I bought the "cut foot" version of drac to put in my MBr because I thought I was having that problem as well. Unfortunately, the "cut foot" version is much less detailed a figure than the MBr ones (at least on my MBr-SE).

And it turns out that the problem was not being caused by drac's feet anyway. It was really just coming down the side lane without hitting his feet. What I then did was put a piece of mylar along the metal side rail just above drac. That has improved things quite a bit and you can't tell the difference otherwise. YMMV.

Not sure why CGC didn't use the "improved" version of drac though.

1 week later
#7803 3 years ago

It could be that the scoop THINKS that Drac is in the way (when he really isn't) and therefore won't kick the ball out.

Maybe you have one or more bad opto sensors for Drac.

#7810 3 years ago
Quoted from Doctor6:

It just pisses me off that retailers are selling for more when everywhere it says the suggested retail price is 7300. Like... we all have google. We all know what you bastards should sell it for.
Looking at you pinball pro and automated services.

I don't understand this at all. If you had a NIB MBr-SE sitting in your garage right now, would you be selling it at the suggested retail price? I doubt it, so why should they?

As they get harder to find, the price increases. That's the way it's SUPPOSED to work.

Should the owners of JJP POTC machines be selling them at the original suggested price? Note that there is a reason it's called "suggested" price.

#7815 3 years ago

"I just got a set of golf clubs for my wife..."

"Wow...great trade!"

#7816 3 years ago
Quoted from Doctor6:

Oh yes, I see that.
I'm saying retailers. Not "some guy in a garage." Guys that are selling at a retail establishment when the suggested retail price is well known.

Except that a NIB machine at a "retailer" is worth even more that one from a guy in a garage.

If you had a choice to by a NIB machine from a retailer or "some guy" (at the same price), which would you choose? I would certainly choose the retailer.

But you seem to think that the retailer should charge less somehow, this is what I don't understand.

No one feels bad for the retailer when he needs to give a discount to move a less-desired (or over-stocked) machine, so why should you be pissed when he up charges for a desirable machine that is (now) hard-to-find. It's how he stays in business.

1 week later
#7853 3 years ago
Quoted from PinHigh1:

Everything is all good except that back left corner is very dark. I'm curious where best to mount the spotlight and where best to pull power? Anyone done it?? Thanks!

I installed the Plasma Disk mod there. Easy to do and it looks great.

If you don't like that, maybe you can use the plasma port to power some other light / mod.

1 week later
#7871 3 years ago
Quoted from nerdygrrl:

I have owned close to thirty machines, of all eras. I have never seen a PF that looks like this with so few plays. My original MB was in far better shape than this one with 1300 plays. Same for my MM which was routed.
This is not normal by any means. I have never seen a PF that dinged so easily.

My MBr has noticeable dimpling, but not nearly bad enough to affect ball travel. It's not a problem for me, but I do wish it was better.

Comparably, both my WH20 and EBD (both of which I have owned for a LONG time - and were originally routed for a while) have virtually no dimpling with many more plays. I just think the "old" machines had harder/better wood in them. "They just don't make 'em like they used to."

OTOH, my WH20 does have noticeable planking - but that's a different issue.

#7875 3 years ago
Quoted from woody76:

You have to also think those older bally/williams game have had 20,000 plus possible games played on them. The dimpling is just worn down at this point. Hard to compare a 30 year old playfield to a brand new with 400 plays. There are tons of threads on this.

And those threads are wrong. There is no way that somehow the dimples have magically distributed themselves to be perfectly smooth, no matter how many plays are on the machine.

Not only that, but both of my other machines I have owned since they were only a couple of years old. They didn't have dimples and then got smoother over time. They just never got dimples to begin with.

2 weeks later
#7960 3 years ago
Quoted from Bublehead:

To this day, he said this was the hardest feature he ever added to his code and it was the reason he was so down to the wire on getting it done on time.

Which is really a shame, because as you said, good players will avoid using the phantom flip - because it really just sucks.

I wonder if it could have been made more accurate if it only tried to learn to make the bride ramp shots, rather than trying to learn how to make a bunch of different shots. I'd have much preferred a reliable ramp shot, over an un-reliable everything.

#7968 3 years ago
Quoted from Lounge:

That makes sense. I guess I’m more frustrated with the bricking. I can’t count the number of times Phantom Flip hit the target between the left ramp and the orbit just to have it come back between the flippers like a rocket.
In my GC score - 1.4B - I went through MoR twice and still no Lyman’s Lament.

Yep, agree completely. It seems like the Phantom Flip's favorite shots are more Phantom Flip targets.
And my 1.7B GC score didn't make it to Lament either (I think I was around 32 scoop shots).

1 month later
#8029 2 years ago
Quoted from mostater:

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.

5 months later
#8255 2 years ago
Quoted from northvibe:

looks gorgeous!

I guess I don't see what the mod is...exactly what is it that took you a year to make?

#8260 2 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

Grand Champion 558 million.
LTG : )

Oh, I thought he had done something to the machine that took him a year. I didn't connect that to the score shown.

Is that a good score for most owners here? Not trying to poop on anyone's skills, but 500 million is just a "pretty good" score for me.

#8271 2 years ago
Quoted from Pinkitten:

I think starting multiple monster modes right before you start Frank multiball can put some big points up. 500 is a huge score for me. I think 700 was my best ever.

The real advantage of having other monster modes running when you start Frank multiball is that the timers for the other monsters get paused while the multiball is active. This means you have a lot better chance of collecting the instruments.

The real way to get big points on MBr is to get to the second or third Monsters of Rock, which means you need to be good at collecting the instruments.

#8279 2 years ago
Quoted from Pinkitten:

Thanks! You can see I never collect all the instruments. I can collect 5, but I’m forever shooting the bride ramps. I think 16 ramps are needed to start and finish that instrument? Unless the scoop can advance that mode, or you can get free shots via the launch button? The only way I can complete her mode is to start it first and focus on it.

The other thing to remember about getting the Bride instrument is that hitting the spinner shot will reset the timer. So, what I usually do once I start the Bride mode, is make 2 or 3 ramp shots and then hit the spinner to give me back the time I used and then repeat. The spinner will let you re-load the timer 3 times per mode. Note that this only works for the Bride mode, the spinner does NOT reset the time for any of the other modes.

2 weeks later
#8314 2 years ago
Quoted from LTG:

Problems like that are usually related to flipper button switches.
I'd swap your left and right flipper button opto boards. See if problem moves.
I clean mine with a damp Q Tip.
LTG : )

I have the same problem as Flipper_Ripper with the scoop...exactly how is this related to flipper opto buttons?
How does the scoop firing "lamely" sometimes, be caused by the flippers?

#8321 2 years ago
Quoted from northvibe:

That vuk coil power can be changed in settings, yes?
Have you tried seeing if you can adjust settings and how it affects the play?

Yes, the problem is that the power of the coil is not consistent. 95% of the time it will kick it nice and strong to the left flipper, but 5% of the time it "misfires" with a lame kick that usually goes SDTM (though sometimes I can save it with an aggressive slide).

I have the same problem with the auto-plunger. Most of the time it kicks out nicely into the lanes above the pop bumpers, but once in a while it barely gets it into the right-side wolfman lane.

Fortunately, I never have that sort of problem with the flippers - they are strong and consistent.

1 week later
#8329 2 years ago

Yeah, I have not made it to Lyman's Lament. I've had a game over 3.2 billion, but had only about 35 shots to the scoop. Considering that a non-trivial amount of kicks from the scoop go SDTM, I'm not sure it's really possible to get to 44 (at least on my machine).

But I do not plan to do the cheat code thing...as I want it to be a surprise if I ever do make it.

#8331 2 years ago
Quoted from Rdoyle1978:

Did you get the 666 award? That is just as tough as MOR IMO

I doubt that I will ever get that, as my strategy usually involves trying to complete the instruments individually. There really is no advantage to trying to stack a bunch of the monsters into the multi-ball. The only one I really care about stacking with Frank is the Bride, as having the timer stopped for her is a big help.

If the 666 thing was worth a lot of points, then maybe it would be worth it. But since it is just a display thing, it's just not worth the effort.

#8352 2 years ago
Quoted from phs4real:

Grand Champion 722 Million and finally added my initials for MOR Champion at 210M, just over the 200M default.

Nice Job.

3 weeks later
#8374 2 years ago

Actually got the 666 "Monster Bonus" today for the first time. I wasn't even trying (as I usually try to concentrate on one monster at a time), but I suddenly had 5 all going and I was just able to start Frank before the Bride timed out.

I still need to get to Lyman's Revenge (closest I've gotten is like 36 of the 44 needed).

1 month later
#8453 2 years ago
Quoted from vikeking27:

I paid 10k for my SE fairy recently. Probably wasn’t a great deal but it was the only one I could find, and figured it’d cost at least that much if I waited any longer. Who knows if/when they’ll run MBr again. If you can snag an LE for that, at this point - if you really want it and that’s the asking price, I don’t know that you could expect to find it for less by waiting longer.

Wow, I paid $6500 for my very slightly used MBr-SE just 2 years ago. I guess that was a better deal than I thought. I didn't realize that the price had climbed THAT much.

But I agree, it is unlikely that CGC will do another run of MBr, so waiting seems like a bad plan. On the other hand, $12,500 is a lot of money for ANY machine.

#8455 2 years ago

over the see-through window that hides the Creature

#8459 2 years ago

Yes, that's the part I meant. It looks like the shape is correct too.
Is it just too small? Maybe somebody got the scale wrong or something.

1 month later
#8514 2 years ago

Yes, I agree. MM and AFM are more similar to each other than MB is to either of them.

2 weeks later
#8534 1 year ago

It may be that he removed those posts on purpose. I removed the rubber ring from the bottom one of those 3 posts (the one that you actually do have), because it made for much better pop bumper action.

Previously, if the ball came down the left "DIG" lane, it would be slowed by that rubber enough to make it not trigger the pop bumper, and it would just sort of "clunk" and roll along the trigger plate. With the rubber gone, it now usually triggers the pop and it seems "right".

He may have removed those posts to get a similar effect. YMMV.

#8543 1 year ago

I didn't know that there was such a thing as a color display upgrade for the classic version of the MBr.

Is this an after-market thing like ColorDMD ?

#8548 1 year ago
Quoted from indybru:

No it's a chip you can buy from your dealer or a pinball parts supplier. I think I got mine from Planetary
Well worth it easy to install.

Interesting...I knew that it was available for the original MMr but I didn't think that they did it for MBr. Nice to know.

#8549 1 year ago

So is there any reason why the Frank drop mechanism has two separate target switches?

I've never seen anything that treats hitting the left side target any differently than the right side target.
Seems like they could have made it be just one single big target and saved some money.

Maybe at some point they planned to have to hit the left side for left leg/arm and the right side for right leg/arm.

#8551 1 year ago
Quoted from beltking:

Would you consider $14000 for a monster bash le a decent price? Prob more worth 13. They may keep going up.

Personally, no. I'd never pay that sort of price.

On the other hand, is that really what they are going for now? Seems ridiculous to me, but prices have just gone bonkers.

Just 2 years ago I paid $6500 for my (almost new) MBr-SE.

4 weeks later
#8595 1 year ago
Quoted from ExSquid:

Barely touched my other machines since I got this one. I'm loving the simple/campy nature of it! Still haven't gotten Monsters of Rock mode yet. Cant imagine how that is since the Monster Bash mode is a total spectacle. The only thing other than the posts that I finally got taken care of is the scoop shot is starting to act "weird" and shooting a lot of shots right down the middle. Started doing this about a week ago.

Yeah, unfortunately, Monsters of Rock is almost the same "spectacle-wise" as Monster Bash is.

Seems to me that they could have done something bigger-and-better than just doing mostly the same thing again...

If you are expecting something more spectacular, you are going to be disappointed.

2 months later
#8611 1 year ago
Quoted from flippermann:

in the end i have the feeling the plunge is not consistent,thats cause the problem,whe i look the old scoop,the marks of the ball,is not always in the middle.

Yes, that's the problem I have. The kickout is not consistent, so no matter how I try to adjust it, it still goes SDTM about 10% of the time. All the tricks with washers, foam, rings, etc., just change which 10% goes bad.

#8615 1 year ago
Quoted from Sleepy:

Did you adjust the scoop in the settings menu to allow the ball more time to settle before ejecting?

That setting you are talking about is not for giving the ball time to settle, it's for how long the solenoid is engaged when it does fire (the ball has losts of time to settle while it is displaying the random award or starting a mode).

The other setting is for the strength of the kick, and yes, I have tried adjusting both those settings, but have not found a worthwhile combination. Like I said, it just seems to alter WHICH 10% goes bad.

#8617 1 year ago
Quoted from ExSquid:

I tried looking for that setting last night with no luck. Can you please help me with this. ( strength setting ).

You need to go into the "special" CGC menu, not the normal Williams menus. If you look in the manual, it is described there. I'm at work at the moment so I can't give you more detail right now.

3 months later
#8665 1 year ago

I started with mine at 6.5 degrees, but found that it played much better at 7.0. I get much fewer drains off of the right orbit and the ball doesn't get hung up on the entrance to the left side bride ramp anymore. You just have to try a few settings and see what works best on your machine.

2 weeks later
#8707 1 year ago
Quoted from Kobaja:

Generally this thing is learning continuously, I think - so you might just need to play it a bit. OR replce the boards, if you are not too concerned about the money. Tangles pinball parts in Australia sells a nicely working remake of those eddy boards. I have both replaced and the originals sitting as NOS spares (which I will not sell).

It's unclear from their description, but is this Eddy board usable in the MBr as well as the original MB?

If they have a solution that will work better, that's good, but those boards are kind of pricey to just "buy and hope". I really think that the Phantom Flip feature is the worst part of MonsterBash in that it works so poorly that I tend to avoid letting it activate (usually I can hit the shot more reliably myself).

Maybe if they had made it try to learn just one shot from each side (like the bride ramps) it could have been more effective...

#8712 1 year ago
Quoted from midcoastsurf:

What's your strategy when phantom flip is on? Do you use it (don't flip and let the game flip for you) or do you switch the light to the opposite inlane so it doesn't fire? Do any of you turn off the feature?

I usually go out of my way to avoid letting it fire, especially if I am having a good game. If I'm having a bad game, I may let it try to make the shot, just to see if it can do it.

#8716 1 year ago
Quoted from Pinkitten:

I turn it off. I like the innovative idea of it, and it’s neat when it works and makes a shot, but I personally find it distracting and I forget when it’s taking over and when it’s not. So I’ve had mine off the past year or so and prefer that. But that’s just me.

Yeah, the problem with turning it off is that now the 3 "phantom" standup targets do nothing in the game (not that they were really doing a lot anyway).

A pet peeve of mine is playfields that have "useless" targets to hit - it just shows poor design. They easily could have made them increase the "venue scoop award" value or something.

2 months later
#8763 1 year ago
Quoted from Nicholastree:

Thanks to you and Oaken. I'll check into it. Much appreciated!
There's another issue maybe someone else has encountered. About 2/3 of my shots up the right "ball and chain" ramp either get jammed and sent back or the ball flies completely out of the ramp. This happens about 10" into the ramp, so the ball is clearly on the ramp and with plenty of momentum. As a matter of fact, the faster the ball is moving the more likely it is to get sent back or fly out. Anyone else encounter this?

Yes, this has been discussed in this thread previously. It can be improved/fixed with a combination of slightly bending the wireframe ramp and adding some washers to the top plastic "flap".

1 month later
#8825 1 year ago
Quoted from mbrave77:

This is my first cgc game. And im used to sterns/jjps. The right flipper seems to he delayed every few hundred hits, or it doesnt fire. Is that a common issue? What would it typically be? I guess just check the leaf switches?

Any chance it is activating the Phantom Flip?

1 week later
#8854 11 months ago

I found that the game plays better overall at 7 degrees of tilt, and it avoids the Drac feet problem too.

2 weeks later
#8877 11 months ago
Quoted from FLNetMAn62:

I took off the bob completely, vs adjusting with the screws. Seems to be OK now
Will work on the high scores...happy to have hit 135 million after 2 days of playing.
I also lowered the rear legs to be closer to 6.5 degrees, it was raised all the way up. Now a new issue: when ball comes down the right rail for the Bride and drops into the outlane, the right flipper is frozen. The system recognizes this and sends out a new ball - is this a solenoid adjustment I need to make in the settings for the right flipper? Strange that lowerings the pin would affect the flippers/lane/rails. Thanks!

Sounds like a malfunctioning Phantom Flip to me...

#8888 11 months ago

I am not a big fan of the bride head "popping".

If they were going to spend the money for a triggered coil, I wish they had spent it on a mechanism that would affect the ball somehow, instead of something that just makes an annoying noise.

A simple right-side outlane gate that can return the ball to the shooter lane would have been a better choice.

The popping Martians in AFM and "Party Monsters" in Elvira are similarly a waste of resources.

#8902 11 months ago

I have found that the game plays better at 7 degree pitch. I get far less drains off of Drac's protruding feet that way.

I would think that at 5 balls per game, Monsters of Rock would be pretty easy to achieve. Do you have extra balls enabled also?

#8911 11 months ago
Quoted from Oaken:

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?

Yes, I have exactly the same problem, again. The problem will start out this way, but then eventually one of the LEDs will break off of the little board. I have already replaced the board twice, and now the problem is starting all over again.

It usually starts with the bottom LED being dim and/or flickering and sort of "works its way up" until the bottom LED snaps, but sometimes one of the other LEDs will flicker/dim also.

I don't think it is caused by airballs (at least I've never seen an airball go over in that area). I can only assume it's caused by continuous vibration or something.

#8917 10 months ago
Quoted from scampa123:

Does anyone have any tips for making the creature shot from the left flipper? I can do it from the right flipper somewhat but haven’t been able to do from left. Sometimes it bounces off the right kicker into it.
I’m just trying to figure it out to practice those shots!

I don't even bother trying that. One of the things I like most about MB is that there is always something worthwhile to hit from either flipper.

If I'm in the rare situation that I "need" to hit the creature shot, I will either pass the ball to the right flipper, or (more likely) just shoot the right bride ramp to get the ball back to the right flipper.

1 month later
#8944 9 months ago

Well, If you are trying to reach Monsters of Rock, I would recommend NOT trying to stack all the monsters with Frank. It just makes them harder to concentrate on. Stacking one or two is okay, but there is little to no advantage to stacking more than that.

The only monster I really try to stack with Frank is the Bride so that I have more time to get the microphone (as the bride needs the most shots to be completed).

As for using the Monster Bombs, there is a LOT more strategy to them than just "use them first".

For Dracula, you want to use it only when he is in danger of timing out. The bomb will reset his timer, just like any ordinary hit does (and using it while he is moving will award double points as well). There is no advantage to using it early.

For Wolfman, you want to save it to complete the last shot for maximum points, unless the mode is about to time out, in which you can use the bomb to start the next part of his mode (resetting the timer).

For Mummy, there is not much strategy for his. You can wait until you've hit a bunch of pop bumpers to maximize the points, but you would have collected those anyway on the next Mummy shot. For him, I usually just leave the bomb alone and trigger it only if the ball drains during the mode or the mode is about to time out (which rarely happens since the time allowed is pretty generous).

For Frank, you want to use the bomb as soon as you have him lit for Triple Super Jackpot (which will then count for 3 hits). This allows you to "cash in" the 3X as soon as possible, so you can start building him back up.

For Bride, you want to use the bomb to get the LAST shot. You don't want to get into the situation where it awards you a left ramp, and then you make several more left ramp shots and still need right ramp shots. Complete the ramps that you can and then finish it off with the bomb to give you the remaining one. And remember to use the spinner shot to reset the bride's timer when it starts to get low.

For Creature, you normally want to use it LAST, to have it give you whichever shot you still need. The bomb will spot the left-most shot needed. However, if the mode is about to time out, you should use the bomb as it will reset the timer as well as spot a shot. There is another subtlety here - the base value of a Creature shot starts at 1 million, but starts decreasing rapidly. The value gets "locked in" when you make the first shot. You can use the bomb to "lock in" the value before it starts counting down (giving you the best chance for maximum points). Unfortunately, that means it will spot the left loop shot (which I find to be the easiest).

I usually don't use the bombs unless I "need" them - like when the mode is about to time out. If I drain while the mode is still active, I will normally save the bombs for the next ball in the hopes that I get to re-start that mode again - unless it is ball 3, in which case I just hit the button as the ball drains.

TL;DR - Each Monster has it's own subtle strategy for using the bombs.

1 week later
#8960 9 months ago

I found that increasing the pitch to about 7.25 degrees helped the drac foot problem a lot. It also reduced a problem I had with the ball occasionally getting stuck at the "u-turn" on the left side bride ramp.

2 months later
#9126 6 months ago

I keep mine about 1/4 of the way down, so mostly - but not completely - open.

2 months later
#9218 4 months ago
Quoted from KingMixer:

Hi guys, newbie here. I've got a MB SE, and the bottom light of the four lights for Creature intermittently goes out. I though it might be a loose bulb, or I need a new bulb, but when I examined it, I'm not sure there are bulbs, or maybe they're not easily accessible. I've attached two pictures, a front and side view. It's an intermittent problem, but I'd still like to fix it. Can anyone let me know what needs to be done? Thanks.
[quoted image][quoted image]

I've had this problem multiple times on my MBr (and actually am having it again right now). The bottom diode becomes loose (probably from the continual vibrations), and starts being intermittent. Then it will stop working completely, and eventually it will actually fall off.

If you are good with a soldering iron (and I am not), you might be able to solder in a replacement diode. What I have done is simply buy a replacement board from Planetary Pinball. I've replaced the board 3 times now, and I will probably have to do it again.

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