Thanks snaroff...I was aware of what the Starchild multiball (levitating) was, I was confused when you said that it was more reliable...mine has always worked, just tough to qualify it by getting into the Starchild area...when I do get in there, it usually only hits a few targets adnthen drops back out.

Has anyone had any issues updating the kiss code? Every time I try to update it I get a "code update failed" error message. This occurs within 10 second of starting the update process.

I called Stern and they mentioned that I need to use specific brands of flash memory. I let the Technical support person know that I already updated Got with the same flash so why would that be an issue? No response back. So like and idiot I went to Bestbuy to get the exact flash memory that Stern recommended. Knowing that this would probably not work. I tried the update, and guess what?.... Same error code. Shocking!!!!

Any input on what I should do would be great. Stern has not responded to my emails since Tuesday. Very frustrating!!!

You should put your location in your profile and maybe somebody local will dupe their card for you.

OK Bedminster NJ.

Bestbuy had a ton of those fake memory sticks too.

Get Sandisk from Amazon (with Amazon as the seller- very important!) or B&H.

Get a new 8GB Sandisk SD card from Amazon too, as Stern got some fake ones of those a year ago that don't update.

Vid thanks for the input. If I tired everything they asked, shouldn't Stern realize that I probably have a faulty or fake SD card and just send a new one to me? They never mentioned that it could be a faulty or fake SD card.

Who knows? I don't work there, I just fix their machines.

There are so many of those fake cards and sticks on ebay and in retail stores. As soon as you fill them past 50% they crash, or they write at 10% of their rated speed class.

You would think a big retailer like Bestbuy would know where their products are coming from, but where there is a dollar to be made......

Amazon and B&H both ONLY buy their SD and sticks from Sandisk, never from any other source or distributor. I suggest buying them there, your pinball machine and camera with thank you.

I had the update fail twice with one stick. I got another, reformatted it for FAT32 like specified, and re-downloaded the file from the internet. I then loaded the file on the stick and it worked no problem. Could be a bad stick, could be a corrupt file, etc.

Thanks, but I tired several sticks. Even one that I updated GoT premium wth no issues.

Did you try both USB ports on the board?

No problem. Just to be clear, the aspect that was unreliable was the ramp gate opening and ball transfer to the magnet. Before the update, this would fail roughly 4 out of 10 times. The failure resulted in the ball being dropped in the right loop area (below the ramp gate). I've hit that shot about 10 times since the update and it hasn't failed once. The README didn't mention this, but I'm sure it was tweaked. Don't imagine the README notes are 100% reflective of what was changed.

The Demon VUK failed yesterday and resulted in a ball search. Only happened once. Two steps forward, one step back

I really hope Stern is still investing in this title with another update. The game really has potential, but still feels incomplete.

Another update is indeed coming.

Let the cry for new code begin!!!

I finally got to play the new code on a KISS pro. I'm liking it quite a bit. It certainly scores higher now. My first game was mediocre and it was around 105M and my next game felt much better and was around 240M. I was one lousy insert(star man) insert away from Heavens on Fire. Looking forward to playing more on this code.

Since the update, my right ramp diverter has been working maybe 1 out of 10 times. I've talked to Chas at Stern. This appears to more of a mechanical issue of the plunger not lining up perfectly in the groove and moving down as the coil is audibly firing and there is no catching of the metal diverter on the plastics of the ramp. Still working on figuring out why the alignment seems slightly off enough to cause the difficulty in plunging down.

Recorded a vid of grid multiball on my premium so you could see the light show. Unfortunately I sucked it up and there's too much glare, but you get the idea.

Liking the code the more I play it, listening to Kiss right now too. Wondering if they could add a "Creatures of the Night" multiball where playfield goes dark and your shots relight it?

That's a cool idea, do any machines have a mechanic like that?

Metallica does. Fade To Black, one of the Crank it Up modes. When it's almost dark you know the mode is almost finished.

Interesting, I never really play the Fade To Black CIU. I'll have to check it out next time I play Metallica.

Only on the premium or LE though

Not entirely accurate....the pro does go black/dark.

Not my definition of "fade", but good point regardless....

Anyone here notice inserts flashing at weird times during the end of ball bonus with the new code?

I have noticed all kinds of inserts flashing at the wrong times.

Very cool thx! Looks better than acdc to me; finally gonna get one

Me too. I did get Colossal Bonus the other day. Which is 10x scoring. Pretty sweet!

I have such a love/hate relationship with this game. I have a good amount of bad games where I light instruments and drain quickly. It gets so frustrating and I want to sell it. Then I have those games where I progress nicely and get to KISS Army mini wizard mode or Grid Multiball and I absolutely love the game... all the lights lit up different colors, getting multiple LG and Demon multiballs started, hitting jackpots, get an extra ball, and then hitting one of those harder to get multiballs. I'm breathing heavily at the end. lol

I had the shot of my life the other day as well... cradled two balls during LG multiball on the left flipper. Flipped them simultaneously and nailed both ramps... then when they came back down to the in-lanes, I hit both flippers at the same time and shot both balls directly into the demon mouth. I gave a fist pump to no one on that one.

Noticed two things while playing today. The first one is a bug that I also saw posted today or yesterday and that is sometimes Gene's head doesn't register the shot when it's lit with either a colored arrow or an instrument. I thought this might be an issue with my opto, but it tests fine in test mode and other's have the same issue. At this point I'd say it's a bug.

Next, I think during black diamond mode there should be a delay when the right arrow is lit from the spinner changing the lit shot. It's annoying when you try and hit the shot and the spinner causes the shot to strobe to another shot. It's pointless even having that shot lit if you can't make it. If there was a 1 or two second delay from the time the spinner is hit or to just give you credit for it if you hit it after hitting the spinner if it was just lit.

Third - the insert to light an instrument on the right ramp needs turned off when love gun is lit or have an instrument lit when you start love gun. It makes no sense to have that lit when you can't actually get an instrument off of it.

I'm keeping my eye out for other odd things. I assume another code update is probably on the horizon and it'd be good to get this sort of stuff ironed out before.

Haven't noticed the first two but completely agree on the third. Either turn the instrument light off when Love Gun is lit or give you credit for an instrument lit shot along with the LG multiball. On a side note I just love the "fire" effects on the GI during the grid multiball. Awesome!!

I agree with those three things also, one thing that's bugged me since initial code, which is still there, are some of the animations during deuce, that half of it is a blank screen

I'm curious if anyone has figured out the following with the new code:
1) is there a rational to the color schemes on the grid? Sometimes the inserts are blue, red, or green... not sure what these colors mean
2) to complete grid multiball, how are the pop bumpers (band faces, 3rd row in the grid) completed? Do you have to hit the right orbit 4 separate times to light a specified bumper that in turn also needs to be hit?

Actually if you go down the left farthest in lane multiple times, you are spotting a face on the right orbit. If you spot all four, one shot to the orbit will complete the face row in the grid.

The colors change for each time you complete one item on the grid. If you knocked down all the kiss targets the row would be a uniform color then if you hit the K it would be different and if you finished the rest of the targets they'd all be the same color signifying they've been completed twice.

To complete grid multiball you have to hit each pop bumper 1 time. Each one spots a face as opposed to how you complete them by having them lit at the orbit to originally qualify them. It's laid out in the readme for the latest code.

Shoot Again is still missing any kind of callout. It's WoF-style silent text with a re-used extra ball flame animation. Given that ball save has a variety of things it can say, this is a big hole.

- Complete the GRID to light SUPER JACKPOT at the Scoop Eject:

- ROW #3 (POPS) - shoot right orbit to light the pops; hit each pop at
least once

So in Grid multiball, does the right orbit have to be hit only one time and that automatically qualifies the bumpers to each be hit at least once?

If you want to test your flash memory use h2test https://sosfakeflash.wordpress.com/2008/09/02/h2testw-14-gold-standard-in-detecting-usb-counterfeit-drives/

Interesting question. I'm not really sure - guess I'll have to play test.

Played an LE at a friend's house. There's plenty of welcome additions in the new code. However, there's still not enough variety in speech call-outs for me; a lot of them do seem repetitive after awhile. I also think that there's a lot of dot matrix animations that just consist of plain text and font rather than some "KISS" lettering, stylistic frames or animation. MET and TWD have a ton of those.

Can't wait for the next update.

I agree with this completely. Some songs have "KISS" style lettering while most are just plain. It looks so unfinished. And I would love more call outs... especially since Borg said they recorded like 600+ call outs. Gene needs to say something good when a ball drains like "Show's over!" or something.

Ok....haven't read all these posts....thinking seriously of adding an LE to my lineup....does this code update make the machine complete enough to buy yet? thanks....mark

I'd say if the price is right. I have LE and do enjoy it with 1.28 and updated songs. I find it has some good shots and light show. If they release more code and it's amazing prices could jump. Consider if you are Kiss fan too. I'm not a Army member or anything but enjoy their music.

I think the code is definitely on it's way. Adding more callouts, DMD animations and fonts, and cleaning up the lingering bugs would be greatly appreciated.

If you've waited this long, might as well wait a little bit more. But as said previously, prices could jump if the next code update is big.

I don't regret my purchase (Premium) now.

I really like my Kiss Pro. Yes, I think it needs another update, but the pin and it's shots are just a blast. I'm not a member of the Kiss Army, but I do find myself singing the songs while playing this pin. The artwork, backglass and overall looks of this pin is fantastic and rivals some of Stern's best IMO, with a nod to the 1970's classic look. Plus, I said it before, I can't help but look up and laugh at Gene's big head busting thru the playfield, almost hearing him say "BLUUUHHH"!!

If I could change one thing on the pin, then I would change the DMD animations to the cartoon ones like on MET or ACDC because the grainy film projections just don't do it for me. I just like the art style better.

If you use Pinball Browser, you can listen to the dozens and dozens of both Paul and Gene callouts that I've never heard once playing the game. Not sure why there isn't a bit more randomness to the callouts that are used.

Two interesting bugs on 1.28 I haven't seen mentioned that have to do with the song selector (works on Premium/LE, probably Pro, too):

We can now reproduce the song selection bug every time. If you launch the ball slowly and then press and hold the right flipper just before or right as it hits either the first orbit switch or the spinner (if it doesn’t make it around at launch), it will advance the song you’re hearing to the NEXT song while your shots are the ones that correspond to the song that was displayed when you launched the ball. They’re completely mismatched for that whole ball or until you complete that song's mode. (For example, you can be playing Deuce's shots with Black Diamond's music with this bug. Basically play one song's mode with the music of the NEXT song playing - it worked with all the songs we tried it on.)

Also, another bug is that if you are pressing the flipper buttons rapidly while it’s adding up your end of ball bonus, you can get it to let you CHANGE the song (even though you haven't finished the current song) AND it applies the progress you made on the initial song you didn’t finish. This seems like a bug, too, but maybe a crazy feature?

I'm still having problems on the LE when in LG multi ball if you quickly hit 2 balls in genes head it has a tough time kicking balls out. It will go through a couple of ball searches when you drain the ball your playing then it won't kick them out, you hear it trying to kick the balls out but it has no power. Once out of LG it kicks them out good.

Love the game, can't get enough. I hope the next code fixes this issue.

Your upkicker is probably just not set strong enough (can't get up into the head from the "neck") or TOO strong (goes up and bounces back down - a problem usually for the 3rd ball). The settings for the upkick and the kickout are reversed in the menu adjustments, so when you think you're adjusting the upkick, you're really adjusting the kickout. Try playing with those and you should be fine. If you want, I can look up my settings for you to try.

I don't really think the song selection issue is a bug at all. You're simply tripping a switch before the machine can reset the playfield to correspond to the correct song. Select your song and don't hit the flippers until the first switch is hit...problem solved. Second issue may be a bug but it has yet to happen on mine.

If it's giving you shots for one song and playing the music of a different song, that's definitely a bug that should not happen. We did it accidentally a number of times before working out how it was happening so it was reproducible. If you spend 10 minutes or less doing what I describe, it can be done on yours, too - reliably.

Thanks Vireland, my problem only happens in LG multi ball, and only when I quickly lock a couple balls before it has time to kick them out. The game goes into a self check and when it gets to Gene it does not have enough power, only during the Love gun mode, all other times the kicker gets plenty of power which leads me to believe it is code related.