DUDE, huge thanks!!! This link solved my new sound issue that started after we fixed the other issue. Now if I can keep it from shutting down on its own after being idle for around 10 minutes.

EDIT:
(SV from the first run of 20(+/-) machines, running code 2.6, frankensteined with original and new revision parts)

I think people posting issues should also post their SV/LV and version status because while things 'should' be getting better with new versions, since they split the hardware/firmware, that is always prone to introducing new bugs.

To address Deebo's comment, when people say 'mine is fine' it's to tell the person reporting that it isn't an across the board issue and may not be known, not to blow it off. We don't know the technical level of anyone here unless you know each other personally. We can offer advice, but let's be real, these newer games are not always as easy to diagnose as the 30 year old games since we don't get any schematics, etc. I noticed the same issues on R&M where everyone had completely different / inconsistent experiences on the same exact version/hardware. Drove people nuts.

For instance my game doesn't have any issues with the orbit pop ups while clearly many do.

I also have not witnessed any lock ups on 2.6, but it could simply be I haven't triggered whatever may be causing it.

Some don't have issues with their Xeno magnet, I have pretty much constant issues with it.

And that is just a few items of note.

Overall I have not had enough issues to regret the purchase at all, but everyone's patience is different.

Updated above...

Yeah I've had 2 lock ups since updating to 2.6 - the last one was very weird I was able to start games and launch the ball, but the playfield lights were all frozen on green, and the flippers wouldn't fire. Restarted fine though.

I haven't played around with the magnet settings yet, but I think it's really just trying to overcome the design of the mech with the software. The targets are quite far away from the magnet so a rebound often just goes to far away for the magnet to catch it. The targets are obviously angled the way they are to try and coax the ball in that direction, but it's not hugely effective. When you factor in the speed, and that maybe the ball is airborne from the target its not surprising the magnet rarely catches the ball. Honestly, other mechanisms are quite similar eg the Wolverine magnet on Xmen - it's not consistent either (although its much better than this one admittedly).

I've also noticed my orbit pop ups sometimes don't work during Derelict Ship, but ALWAYS work during Queens Nest. Odd...

EDIT: also just to update I mentioned previously I was getting a lot of startup and freeze issues when I first had the game, and on inspecting a few connectors I found them to be really loose/wonky in the playfield box, and that strong shaker on startup just had to be giving those some trouble. Since glueing 3 of those in place (just a dab of hot glue) I haven't had a single startup issue in 2 weeks of solid play now.

Do you own Alien pin ?

Be aware that during Derelict Ship, one of the orbits (forget the color, but I think the screen says "Explore Eggs" or similar) diverts to the pops, while the other orbit does not. What each orbit does alternates after each orbit shot.

I believe I have read PinFandango is waiting for a game. I certainly dont understand the mindset of those who choose to troll this thread while constantly stating that 'they will not order one of these games'. PinFandango has been a great asset to this thread

Hey man. I put a deposit down a month ago for an LV. Not sure when to expect it. But it's people like you that I appreciate. Thanks for feeding them the bugs and problems!!

When did you get youra and could you send me a couple well lit photos of that beast??

I love this thread for the efforts the people with the early games , just amazing watching the way they worked through the issues, also impressed with how supportive the PB has been to get a final product working .
Full support here ... nice to see them showing up more and more.
The game looks stunning and can't wait to see one in the wild .

Thank you!
And yes, LV incoming next month -I’ve been told- looking forward to it.

No worries! Glad I can help anyone and hopefully my experiences/pitfalls at times can help others at least get them to where issues may occur.

I got my LV-013 at TPF. Probably one of more played LV's out there currently as before I got it into my home, it had around 500 plays at TPF. So some of my experiences can be attributed to a machine that has been broken in so to speak.

The only thing NOT fixed since purchasing is the backbox and translite. Both were damaged on delivery at TPF but I have replacements that were shipped on the May boat that I should sometime get in the next shipment(hopefully).
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Also to add I still get the bug from time to time of the screen going black when powering up the game.

What will happen -

- Game boots, you see the linux code on the backbox and the airlock screen
- Game never boots to blue service screen before going to attraction mode

It's a known PB issue and the current work around is to power off again and power back on to see if it boots normally. My record so far is I had to do it 6 times before being on.

I am brand new to the club and experience the exact same black screen upon boot completion as well. In each case, I have found that if I re-seat the HDMI connection in the backbox, the screen comes on without a need to reboot. This leads me to believe that this is an HDCP handshake issue. Has anyone suggested this as a potential culprit? A workaround for such an issue would be to put a cheap, $20 splitter in line between the HDMI output and the monitor that "accidentally" strips the HDCP copy protection from the output. I will test this in the next day or so and report back.

I have seen this issue in the past, but I haven't seen it happen in a long time. When it happened, I thought it was usually because I powered off while the machine was in the operator menu. May have been a total coincidence, but ever since I stopped powering off when in operator menu, I haven't seen it happen.

Looking forward to your test and results!

love this community.. all types of folks bringing experience to solve issues.

has anyone contemplated the idea of modding the lock bar to add an action button to it that is tied onto the start button?

Not sure where exactly, but….

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I wonder how many are SV's versus LV's? Have they ever discussed their output on either models?

Either way it's great news for everyone waiting. I'm LV # 17_ something so have awhile to go.

Wouldn't that be the fire button, not the start button? It would be handy...

yes sorry, I was referring to whatever button is needed to use the firearms.

You were right. Start button selects the gun. Seems overkill to drill a hole in the lockdown bar, insert a push button, and wire it up. Pretty easy to hit the start button when you want to select a gun.

I have an issue with the Hypersleep lock not issuing another ball. The issue started since I moved the game after it was at the Golden State Pinball Festival. The ball is recognized when it goes into the lock "First hypersleep ball" is announced. I went through the hypersleep lock test and it is "hyperactive" meaning the state of the opto switch will change when you move around the lock. I created a ticket but was wondering what those who have experience this have done.

So, my list of tweaks/bugs & notes so far software wise after playing for a few weeks now:

2 lock up crashes - anyway to provide logs ??

Bugs/ Software feature tweaks

- 2 balls drained together in sentry guns down left left outlane when ball save was on. only gave 1 ball back and ended mode
- Ball drained left left outlane on sentry guns lite was lit for save didn’t save and ended mode
- Inner left orbit shot misses shots if very fast shot especially on super jackpot but also on 3rd arrow shot for modes - maybe firmware update needed or software bug?
- Chest burster shot doesn’t always award lifecycle even on easy seems abit random and direction of ball upwards doesn’t always award it .
- Upper right magnet doesn’t always catch ball for hyper sleep lock helper
- Centre magnet catch for alien is hit and miss (already mentioned alot by the other owners and fixes already in works)
- No flipper press to speed up /cancel animations
- No lane change (mentioned that was designed intentionally this way, maybe add adjustment option or expand lane change rules??)
- ‘Not bad for a human animation ‘ on low scores? Thought would be only used on Grand Champ and HS entry scores
- Improve the info shown on the mini display. Seems to just be showing closed airlock doors for quite long periods on the game. (unless i am just not looking at it when i should be!) Was expecting more info on what things are needed to complete features etc and more info during modes etc

Other things/Ideas

- Jurassic Park Nedry ‘ah ah ah’ quote on tilt warning is cool and a nice easter Egg
- Adding a bonus/extra feature/speech quote for left ramp, right ramp and then airlock scoop in a row (to start mode) would be nice. Extra award etc

Take a little off the armor and add a second button under the flipper button?

Thanks man!!! appreciate you!!

There is a quick fix for this without powering off the machine, but you have to remove the backglass:

1.) Remove backglass
2.) Slightly unplug the HDMI cable on the far left under the monitor.
3.) Plug it right back in

The screen will come back on. I suggest not unplugging it too far, so you don't have to fumble to fing the hole again.

Andrea had me do this and it has works everytime.

When the issue occurs, take backglass off, insert a USB stick, go to menu>Reports>Debug Report

Send the file to PB using the ticket system

My machine was powering itself down when in idle or during game. Did not take long after game was booted. I would have to wait for minutes to much longer before I could re-power back on.

I had a feeling it may be thermal and felt the back of the backbox computer and it was hot.

If you have been forced to open up the backbox computer/monitor you could inadvertently cause this, I did.

Here is the fix... There are two cables that connect from the ITX board (computer) to the monitor. One or both will want to route themselves in front of the fan. One or both should be zip tied to make sure they don't pass in front. I did not make sure they were zip tied clean enough (mainly because I had to keep going in and out of the darn thing and you have to cut the zip tie each time). Nonetheless, one or both of the thick wires were making contact with the fan and keeping it from rotating.

It has been running for 7 hours with some good play and so far, so good.

Awesome man - thanks for sharing these, it's gonna help out heaps for all us owners.

Really hope the frustration will end soon, and you'll be up and running 100% (if you are not already).

Virtuapin makes custom widebody lockdown bars (SS) with an action button (usually for TZ and the like... but would probably be able to make them with the latch style).

dunno but melissa had mentioned they were air frieghting some over and she was hoping for next week. And Im in on a SV.

I'm In for a sv I know there's hiccups with any new machine , the problems that people are having are bit worrisome , it will be the first new pin I've bought , I've stuck with 90s ones , the reason I bought new was to have bit less work to do on them lol

Good to know. Problem is we shouldn't have to unplug and replug in to get it to work let alone powerdown/up. This makes me believe it is infact a handshake issue as someone alluded to.

Is reseating the HDMI cable being done while the system is powered on?

I tested this theory last night and confirmed that, at least in my case, the computer was not HDCP compliant (which is why "monitor 1" in the cabinet always works, but "monitor 2" in the backbox boots to black). I installed a cheap 1x2 HDMI Splitter that strips HDCP inline between the computer and the monitor and the machine no longer boots to a black screen. For me, this is huge, because I don't want to tip down the backbox, open the glass or reboot the screen to go in and reseat the HDMI connection to get a signal to the screen.

If you are looking for an HDMI splitter that strips HDCP, it can be hit or miss to find one. Here is a link to some that do: https://www.tweaking4all.com/home-theatre/remove-hdcp-hdmi-signal/

I have several of the model I am using in the photo nd they all strip HDCP.

When first conducting the test, I simply plugged the output of the computer HDMI into the input on the splitter, and HDMI 1 output of the splitter to the screen, dropping the splitter into the cabinet and running the power adapter to the outside of the cabinet and latching the backbox. Once I confirmed that the solution worked, I plugged and IEC fan out into the power supply in the cabinet and plugged the HDMI splitter into the fan out, which allows the splitter to always be on. I put the glass back on and the machine is booting to an active screen every time. Photos attached.
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Hmm... I'm really curious why you need that box. If it is a problem with the hardware, why does it not boot to black screen for me? What triggers the issue? I haven't seen the issue in literally months and I thought some software update in the past fixed it. I wonder what is different?

It would be interesting to see if there are hardware revisions between SV and LV for the computer and the monitor. I am going to assume as in any factory, they grab out of a bin of parts and go from there. Perhaps it could be something as goofy as the firmware of the monitor being different between machines? Really hard to say. It would be cool if there was an option within settings to run a debug/code version file run to see what people have and firmware.

I know and agree, I was just providing some information.

Yes, while it is on.

FWIW, SV build date is September 2021. Firmware could totally be a culprit.

IMO this isnt something that should need guessed at. I would relay your findings to PB and see what they say. This shouldn't and most likely was not intended to be necessary. I had this issue 1 time on 2.2 and haven't had it since.

Good call. I'll send this along to PB.

Anybody been billed by CT lately for what's on the container?

I haven't heard anything lately...I did get an e-mail from Melissa back in April that it would be about 90 to 120 days for my order...I was told that I was order number 331, I don't believe that coincides with the LV SN Number...but who knows. I put my 1k deposit down on 4 Nov 2021.

1) if you upgrade to 2.6 it says the software and formware version on the blue screen while booting up - is that what you mean?

2) I hate to sound like a broken record but - I often had the black-backbox-screen issue on 2.4 , hasnt happened to me at all on 2.6 in release notes it says they are making changes with each revision to address this issue - if you have it I would again suggest upgrading and seeing if that helps

Might not actually be the protection specifically, but just some driver issue with their Linux distribution or something which having a box in the middle is bypassing

I am on latest and greatest with 2.6 with my LV.

Had such a great game last night. 168 million and won’t be beating that for a while. Was in a zone for sure. Felt like I actually knew how to play pinball. Seemed like I couldn’t miss intended shots - especially the upper playfield shots. This machine highly rewards skills with amazing flow and energy. I can’t say that about most machines. There’s just something really magical about those two upper playfield shots - especially when timed right… Worked my way through all alien modes and even won a couple, then to self destruct (has to be my favorite). Playing that wizard mode in the dark, by itself, with the flashers going off and the sound cranked - the best experience that pinball offers in my opinion! Made my way through all multiballs with a couple tremendously satisfying super jackpots. Then on to aliens modes where I drained the last two balls relatively quickly. This was first time I was actually even thinking about all out war. Someday that’ll happen. Someday.

Check out our Alien gameplay video.