I am a new member to the club with an AIQ Prem born on 8-17. I have read and watched many tutorials so have the gist of the game.

In a game today, I attempted to put the Power Gem (Red) on Blank Panther. The ball went up and through the star rollover but the gem got put on the pops lane (Capt America). I found this odd so I took off the glass and tried the same thing and got same result. I tried a third time but made the ball make the full orbit and it was placed on Black Panther.

I thought maybe a switch was incorrect but I get credit for black panther ramps and get flank attacks when going up black panther and through the star rollover. All switches seem to be registering correct.

Is this the same behavior that others see? Is this because that isn’t considered a full black panther shot but rather a flank attack?

Jediturtle awesome1
Thanks! Talk about some speedy answers. Much appreciated.

We just got ours late last week. Got kind of lucky. Dealer got 5 of the AIQs Premium in. I called them, paid them and it showed up the next week. Ours was born on 8/17/21.

I personally like harder games with deeper rulesets so AIQ fits the bill. I also have Walking Dead and JP which are also not what one would consider easy or shallow. The problem I have is that my kids and wife like more casual playing games so I have to find another that isn't too shallow but also is a bit more approachable. Heaven forbid that I have to buy another pinball machine.
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Exactly what I was thinking. Maybe test the portal opening and closing to see if a subway switch fires during that process?

That’s crazy. How do these shipping companies let that happen? That has to be more than one mistake during transport to look that bad. Sorry this happened to you. I know it is hard to reject something that you are highly anticipating but it surely was the correct call.

Two back to back ATL guys getting AIQs. Just got my premium two weeks back. Pinball Dudes in FL got 5 of them in and I jumped on it. Got the machine 5 days later. Love it.

Also got tdiddys marvel ramp fix which is awesome.

BOOM! After a couple weeks of ownership I finally got that breakthrough game. This game can be frustrating but when you get things cooking…. Simply awesome. Still a long way to go to catch up to awesome1

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Allen’s video is long but is filled with a lot of great information. Trust me, it is worth it to watch the whole thing. It has helped improve my game dramatically in the few weeks I have owned AIQ.

Here is the thread if you are interested:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/new-aiq-captain-marvel-ramp-fix

Seriously? I still think you did the correct thing. How do you “look in the box” to see if there is damage? There is no way you will know until you remove the whole thing from the box and inspect.

I can't say for certain that it is flipper fade, but it sure does seem that I don't have as much power to get around the Captain Marvel ramp after 60-90 mins of play.

I had already ordered his flipper fans from Pinball Life and they should be here on Wednesday. Since installing the fans requires removing the coil stops, I will replace those too since I know Stern factory stops have a lot of failures.

I will report back after I install.

Just got my order from Pinball life and installed a few things in my 3 week old AIQ. I highly recommend all of these... I believe awesome1 recommended 1 and 3 earlier in the thread:

1) Red spring for shooter rod. If you are inconsistently (or rarely) making it all the way around off a full manual plunge, replacing the orange spring with the red spring solves that problem. Plenty of power now to make it all the way around. Literally took a few minutes to replace.

2) Pinball Life external volume/headphone jack. This piece is EXACTLY like the Stern offering but cost 59.99 instead of 99.99. Installation was simple and it integrates with the in game adjustment menu. A variety of options such as: volume control for only headphones, headphones and machine, disabled ---
machine volume automatically mute on headphone insertion vs. having both enabled, etc.

3) PinMonk flipper coil coolers - installation was a breeze (corny pun intended). They are quiet and seem to work well. I haven't had a chance to have a 90 minute session but I couldn't notice any fade in the time that I tested them out.

Also can't say enough good things about Pinball Life. Quick delivery and great response time on the one question I had.

Dang it, dupe.

So far, I must be lucky. I actually dialed down my auto plunger in the settings because it was catching so much air.

Make it all the way around up the left ramp but not fly in the air to do it. At least that is how I have mine dialed in now. Occasionally it may not make it if it launches a bit quirky but I would say it is 90-95%.

I have played with a lot of pitches and I find 6.5 to be what I like best. I believe it is the suggested pitch by Stern as well.

Awesome. Keep plugging away. I can ensure you that it will eventually click. Once I had a breakthrough game of 1.6B, I have had a few more 1B plus games. Some tips.

Focus on getting extra balls. My best games were 6-7 ball games. Needed to get far in game.
Focus on collecting Hawkeye targets. 3 sets yields an extra ball. Timing the secret skill shot at the targets on spot bullseye will collect a set.
Winning power gem and putting it on Captain Marvel will help getting the extra ball at 12 Capt Marvel shots. Power gem gives you two shots for every shot.
Win two Hawkeye challenges.
Try to do well in super spinner, super targets, super combos, etc. They may not give tons of points but each can yield a trophy toward the 8 trophy extra ball.
Complete rows on the drop targets. After completing enough, lite extra ball will appear on grid.

Also focus on getting portal locks or bringing multiballs into modes. That will increase your chances of winning them.

Try to get mind gem early, put on avenger and power up to level 1. That gives you 3 uses on any mode shot.

Anyway, just some tips that have really made my scores and gem collection explode. Had 5 gems going into battle thanos yesterday. So close to getting all of them.

Get the PinMonk flipper coil fans and that problem will be history. awesome1 has them and I just installed them. I can confirm that the flippers did not fade over a 2 hour session.

I believe he has a lexan piece and I have tdiddys mod. That definitely helps as well.

Doesn't the post on the spinner cover those holes? Looks like it could. Hard to say exactly from picture in above post.

Yes, outlines are hungry. You have to learn when to nudge for sure. However, even with that, they can be brutal. I had a first ball today in the 400 millions and then had a few unfortunate slingshot directly to outlane drains. Really killed what could have been a great game. Ended with~600 mill. Frustrating when you feel you are on your way to a 1B+ game.

Listen to the Pinball Show podcast episode 77. Zach, a distributor, talks about the delays.

Mando pushed from Oct to Dec. DP Premium may still be Dec but in lower quantities. DP Pro, JP, Stranger Things all pushed to 2022.

I think that is the basic summary.

Stern support has been great for me too. One of my lockdown bar latches snapped. I emailed Stern and had a response in minutes. Sent a picture and serial number and they placed a free replacement order that same day. Less than a week later, I already have it at my house.

What more can you ask for?

The love/hate relationship doesn't go away! I have had several 1 billion plus games in my 2 months of ownership but there are days where I really want to hate this game. It can be brutal but as you say, when you do have a great game, it feels so good. It's the brutality that keeps me coming back for more.

Well, I said that this game is a love / hate relationship. Right now it is pure hate! I have now had the game 2 months and between 2 weeks and 6 weeks have been fantastic. Beat Thanos 3 times, several 1B+ games, etc. However, the last 2 weeks have been infuriating. All of a sudden it seems like I have magnets on my outlanes. It has always been outlane hungry but I learned to manage it with nudging and avoiding certain shots. The past 2 weeks, not so much.

Have others had long dry spells? Words of encouragement?

Same here. It would register occasionally until I bent it out a bit more so it really made good contact when the ball rolled through.

This evening I turned on my Avengers and it can’t find node boards 1, 8 and 9. The coin door is closed and when open, I have the interlock pulled out. I will file a ticket in the morning but has anyone else had this happen?

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After working with Eddie and Pablo over the phone, we isolated it to Node board 9. Whenever that board is active on the bus, it takes down the entire bus. Without node 9, Nodes 1 and 8 are operational.

Now, trying to get a replacement Node 8/9 board in a reasonable time without paying an arm and leg. Surprised at how many distros are charging crazy prices. These boards are listed at 99.99 on Stern's site (out of stock of course). I have seen them sell for 129.99 from GameRoomGuys several months ago. Right now, the only places that have them in stock are listed at 249 and 349!

Afraid to try a board from another machine in case there is something in the Avengers that is blowing the node board. Then I would have two machines down. (or two boards on Avengers down, I guess).

Others are selling at reasonable prices but you have to get lucky to find them in stock. GameRoomGuys unloaded a bunch at the 130 range on Ebay just a couple months ago. Unfortunately people bought many of them. I would bet they also resold at a higher price. There is one listing on the Pinside marketplace asking 315 shipped and they have multiple. Coincidently, they were posted several days after many being sold on Ebay. Hmmm....

May have to bite the bullet. Just disappointing that supply is so low on a part that is in EVERY Spike 2 system.

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As a follow up, I paid too much to get a Node 8/9 board in a reasonable time. Replaced it yesterday and all is up and running.

If anyone ever needs help diagnosing and isolating node board problems, let me know. I pretty much got the whole tutorial from Pablo and Eddie at Stern to isolate. One bad node board can take the whole bus down and make all 3 (1, 8 and 9) non responsive. Replacing node 9 was my solution.