My left one is missing the very top edge, but the right is complete. Is that good enough?

Do people just post pictures here or is that frowned upon?

I haven't got around to cleaning these yet. Let me know if that's not good enough or you need higher res.

radical_slingshot_plastics.png

No worries. I have a higher res version if you need it?

I'm after a scan of the small plastic between the two left jet bumpers.

I think Radical! plays quite well.

Things I like:
- I really like that a lot of the loop and ramp shots feed into others but there's enough uncontrolled shots required to keep things interesting.
- Some of the shots are reasonably easy and others (like lighting the R and I in RADICAL) are far tricker. That variety is good, and there's always the Spot Letter target if someone playing really, really can't get one of the shots.
- I like that there's a few different things you can do with the skill shot, like topping the left ramp and coming back down lighting two letters (is that a bug BTW?), depending on what you've already got lit.
- The ability to 'steal' another player's multiball.
- It's pretty fast without being insane. My opinion on that might change when I reassemble the table now I've cleaned it though.

Things I don't like:
- I don't like how frequent the "Skate or Die" sample plays during skate or die mode.
- The random Mega Millions jackpot. You can play an awesome game, get three jackpots and only get 15 million or have an average game, hit one jackpot and score 15 million. Maybe there's some logic to the amount of the jackpot that I don't understand, but it feels like the range should at least be less or fixed or directly related to game play (eg. count down the jackpot from 10 million to 3 million once multiball starts).
- I don't like that the right guide on the shooter lane defaults to being behind the rubber on the post, 99% of the time resulting in a smothered skill shot. It can be adjusted to miss the post, but seems to go back behind the post over time.
- Likewise the top loop's outside edge on the left exit; if carefully adjusted you can get a really nice loop and feed onto the top left flipper, but it seems to drift a bit. Once it's too wide, the ball starts hitting the post results in either a straight drain or hitting the jet bumpers rather than feeding the top left flipper. I hope I find once I reassemble the table I've got that it holds those two adjustments better.

I've seen a few weird bugs in the snake ball lock code and the Hit The Snake Run mode that ends up releasing both balls but not realising that it has so ends the game when the first one drains.

I think it's sad the VUK got dropped from production. The Snake Run being a target rather than a ramp doesn't really make sense when it says "Skate the Snake Run!". I suspect the third kicker that was dropped would also make things a bit more exciting.

The manual still lists the switches, solenoids, etc for the ball popper and the third kicker. Once you've got the parts do you just need to move the grey/white from the snake run target to the ball popper fork and run the rest of the wires as documented in the manual?Does the upper kicker make things a bit more interesting up there?

That looks pretty sweet. The whole table does. Did you make the lip on the vertical ramp or did you manage to find an unbroken one? I'm missing the portion from the 1st to 2nd screws while seems to result in the occasional air ball.

I was only able to get to one of the screws behind the guide while the ramps were on so I'm hoping that it'll stay put properly when I put it all back together again. I've seen someone else commenting on the same problem (not sure if it was on here or elsewhere), with the same result - the plastic above the two targets under the Vertical ramp is cracked and the upper target has been hammered.

The only switch I've had issues with was the upper left ramp one (and now that I've got the table apart I can see why that happens - the upper left flipper has destroyed the cables) so I think it's a bug. It certainly only happens very infrequently.

I've seen the following sequence cause problems, I think always on the last player, last ball: with a ball already locked, drop the three upper targets, then lock the ball in the left lock, after the award sequence, the machine punts out both balls. I'm not sure it ever happens in single player. From memory, the ROM is European L1. I'll have a better play with this and see if I can reliably trigger the bug when I put everything back together - still waiting on parts to fix the GI connector on the interconnect board.

Something I've noticed with the table I have is that the left edge guide of the shooter lane has been getting damaged. Occasionally the ball hangs up between the post, guide and gate, and I think the gate comes back into the lane too far as the right guide also has scratches/dents where the gate comes back and hits it. I'll add pictures later today.

This other post has a picture of a gate that looks similar, but very different to the one installed in the machine I have:

Can anyone take a pic of the gate at the end of their shooter lane for me?

I have a copy, but not the facilities to program it into an eprom. Given it's not actually my table I've been hesitant to buy one off tools to fix things.

This issue seems to have been resolved just through disassembling, cleaning and reassembling everything. There seems to be a slight groove that the guide sits in that it wasn't in before I cleaned it up.

I thought the switches were fine, but while I was reassembling the machine I noticed there are occasions when the lock lane switch caught on the edge of the slot so perhaps that was the fault? The ball not registering as it went in for the cool bounce out thing it does so the machine then bouncing out both balls?

Would still like a picture of this gate if anyone can post one?

That sounds awesome. I'd love to see that.

TIA for posting pics. When you take them, I'm particularly interested in the shape of the wireform as the one I have is swinging back into the right guide and denting it.

It slid back again today, note the guide against the rubber. It's probably less noticeable with the new post sleeves, but I'd prefer the plunger shot to not cannon into the bonus targets as the plastic there is already damaged:
20170319_180935 (resized).jpg
After adjusting it back out again, gap between guide and rubber:
20170319_181555 (resized).jpg
I can't tell if I just haven't done it up tight enough or if it's slowly undoing over time. If it happens again I'll compare with these pictures.

Out of interest, what angle do people put their Radical! at? The manual says 7 degrees.

Does that make the top loops hard to hit?

Ah, thanks heaps. That might have helped narrow down the issue. Is that the original wireform? The one on this table is missing the tab on the left that stops the gate swinging back into the right guide... I wonder if that's what's knocking the guide back? The ball sometimes hits it pretty hard from the left slingshot and when it comes back down the top left ramp.

Mine too. I've found a scan of it (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-pinballneed-photo#post-669387) but I haven't been able to track down a left slingshot, the lip of the vertical ramp.

The one I'm really keen to get a scan of is the small purple and orange between the jet bumpers as that's completely missing and I've only managed to find a low res one that I'm not sure has the right proportions:plastic (resized).png

What size rubber do people have at the start of the top left ramp, below the top left flipper, facing the jet bumpers?
Screenshot_2017-04-11_10-10-28 (resized).png
The manual says 1 1/2", but unless it's doubled up or something, that'd just flop around?

They should come out 152mm x 82mm.

The only ones I can find in PDF are: http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/Bally/Bally_Radical_instruction_cards.zip

I think the original source was the ones by Mike S ([email protected]) linked here http://www.pinballrebel.com/game/pins/instruction/index.htm
RadScore1 (resized).jpgRadScore2 (resized).jpg
I've been tempted to redo them. The hands not lining up with the text is bothering me.

Yeah, there's a few things odd about it. The hands not lining up always bothered me. The original cards do say Radical across the top with the little skateboard icons (http://www.pinballrebel.com/game/pins/instruction/radicalscore.jpg).

Here's a quick combination of the text from Inkochnito's site (http://www.pinballrebel.com/pinball/cards/) and the background from the above:
Bally_Radical_custom_instruction_card.png

Game play question:

There's two ways to enter the snake lock, via the Snake lane/R shot at the lower left, or via the Bust-A-Move/I shot ramp in the top right (or the third a super lucky dribble up the top left ramp that doesn't make it across the X, but that's effectively the same as hitting the Bust-A-Move ramp).

Looking at the behaviour when the ball is getting into the lock via the Bust-A-Move ramp:

When I don't have a ball already locked: the ball is kicked out, nothing is awarded. eg. if the Snake Run is active, nothing happens and it doesn't light the R.

When I do have a ball locked: when the ball hits the gate in the lower left side of the X ramp the locked ball is kicked out, it hits the lock lane switch (highest of the three) and the R is awarded and the Snake Run animation/music/etc happens if that's currently active.

Is this a bug in the code or is this the expected behaviour or do I have something odd going on that I should be trying to debug?

20170319_184359 (resized).jpg

The ribbed flippers are slightly longer, 9/64" or something. Cheapest place I could track them down in yellow was Marco: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-9592-6

I posted a scan of my slingshot plastics a few pages back, but from memory I'm also missing the very top edge of the left slingshot. [edit: yes I am, and I scanned it upside down for some reason: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-club-only-skaters-welcome/page/2#post-3633076 ]

I'd love a scan of the purple and orange plastic between the two left jet bumpers. A scan of the lip on the vertical ramp would be good too.

Isn't the post right of the snake drop targets supposed to be a fat one? Does it change the shots up there much when it's a narrower rubber?

Hey, I also notice you have a guide rail on the right outlane between the post and the exit of the shooter lane. I can't see it in the pics on IPDB for instance, but quite a few shots in the gallery have it. Was this an operator adjustable thing? Given the European version defaults to harder rules, was it not present on those tables?

[edit: Just went and looked and sure enough, I've got holes there, but there's no rail. ]

How'd you go?

They look amazing!

Which plastic is the skill shot plastic? The top left ramp is the skill shot isn't it?

Just noticed that the kickback coil on the machine here is an ae-23-800 (measures around ~4ohm), but the manual calls for an ae-24-900 (~5.4ohm I think?). Will it make much difference? Could I just put a 1 ohm 5w ceramic resistor in series with the coil instead?

Needs to go down, not up. The ball must get past the post rubber cleanly. It's pretty subtle to get the sweet spot.

This hits post and shanks into the red targets:
20170319_180935 (resized).jpg

This goes straight past the post and up the top left ramp every time:
20170319_181555 (resized).jpg

A bit further down and it'll miss the ramp again.

I find the same with the left exit of the top orbit. There's a sweet spot in the middle, but either side of that you can make the feed to the top left flipper impossible by making the ball hit the jets.

I even had the pictures ready to go from a couple of pages back.

I found that until I replaced the ball gate, the ball going from the left slingshot into the guide slowly tapped it back (it had actually knocked a dent into it). I made a one way gate and the problem hasn't recurred yet. #fingercrossed

Now you can figure out just how much pepper to give the ball to get it to apex the ramp but roll back down, lighting a second letter for each skill shot. It reminds me of a hand plant on a vert ramp.

If the right diverter kicks it into the toilet bowl and it drops quickly, it's also possible hit the ramp again off the top right flipper and get the second letter for the skill shot.

Remove the trailing P: https://www.instagram.com/p/BafA35BFsjY/

Looks good:
22582519_909083445906817_7915949112522964992_n (resized).jpg

Marco has the lower ones: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/31-1463-2015

The one here is also broken (so there's the occasional air ball to the top left ramp), but I don't have the missing piece to trace. I've been trying to find a scan of the whole piece so I can cut a new one. Any chance you could scan it?

Cheers! I should be able to map that on to what I've still got to make it work.

I check the diameter of the wire in an existing gate, go to my local welding supplier and purchase a stainless steel TIG welding rod in the appropriate diameter. I might have some left over from last time, I could make a copy of the gate tomorrow and post it down of you want?

That looks pretty sweet, but there's no shoot again decal?

20171211_113632 (resized).jpg

That looks the duck's nuts. Well done.

But there's a yellow skateboard in the pictures of your machine?

Did you fix the hands not aligning with the text on the instruction card? That always makes me twitch.

That's not me. Kind of rude to accuse me of that without contacting me at all first. I would've sent a PM in the first instance.

Weirdly the post you quoted isn't even discussing the skateboard? I'm thanking someone for their scan of the clear plastic from the vertical ramp.

Ah, just some fat finger work clicking on the wrong post.

If you edit your post, I'll edit mine and remove the down vote.

I didn't know you could delete a post at all?

I see post #308: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-club-only-skaters-welcome/page/7#post-4142800

Page 2-32 of the manual has the playfield layout.
Screenshot from 2018-01-09 09-06-01 (resized).png
It notes a different post type to the right of the drops #5 which is a rubber bumper post (02-4036-1) with the fat bumper on it (23-6551, not 23-6552 as in the manual). There's also a plastic spacer.

Looking at the Bust a Move ramp, it has a #5 pointing to the upper side of the entry, but the large circle is on the lower side. Looking at the gaps between the guides, there's space on the lower side, not the upper.

That's likely how the prototype was (as the manual seems to be written for that, not the production machine). Looking on ipdb, The prototype definitely had wide bumpers either side of the drops: http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1904&picno=31928 so I'd assume wherever you have that wider circle, they had a post with the wide bumper.

I can't say for certain how production machines came out, but on the drops, I only have the rubber bumper bumper to the right side, same as this: http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1904&picno=13522&zoom=1

On the bust a move ramp, I only have a wide bumper on the lower side. I'm pretty sure it won't fit in the upper side, and if it did, I think it'd make the right orbit shot really hard from the lower half of the playfield and if there was a narrow post on the lower post there might be a ball hang up.

The parts list breakdown on ipdb lists 2 x 23-6551 wide rubbers.

Digging through the parts list for things made of nylon I found part number 03-7973.

Looking at the picture on Marco, I think that's right: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-7973 or http://www.pinballspareparts.com.au/parts-by-machine/williams-parts/03-7973.html

I'll go check the dimensions.

[edit: the dimensions listed on the Marco site match what I've got. ]

I am so glad someone else has finally asked about this too.

Yes. It annoys the shit out of me. You nail the shot and get... Sometimes flashers, sometimes nothing.

I suspect it's partially a code issue as there are times where the flashers go but no award given. That indicates the switch read as closed? The locked ball tends to get kicked too.

I've also had it go through so fast that there's no flashers and it didn't kick the locked ball out. In that case it seems it was just too quick.

It's been much worse for me since on lubed the spinners and they go for ages. Fast shots directly off the top left flipper with no spinners going seem to work ok, so maybe the pulsing of the spinner switches interferes or something?

I'm tempted to add a capacitor across the switch to increase the pulse length.

I've got a thread about the other randomness I've seen on Radical: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-switch-matrix-issue

Didn't get any traction.

I have finally managed to replicate this reliably in game:

• Right spinner (29 - col 4 row 5)
• Middle man (27 - col 4 row 3) - twice
• Top spinner (17 - col 3 row 1)
• Left X Gate won't register (18 - col 3 row 2)

I made a video:

Any thoughts?

Edit: I've found that by flicking the middle man gate hard, the switch will close twice, once as expected and a second time when the gate swings back. I guess that lines up with the behaviour I'm seeing. Now to figure out how to fix it.

I've also found triggering the middle man 3 times everything works as it should, 4 times it doesn't work again. This makes me think there's something in the code that's causing the issue.

This is what my middle man switch looks like:
pasted_image (resized).png

Is that the right switch? Is it the right wireform on the gate? I feel like it should be bent differently so it only works when the ball rolls top down.

Totally. I do exactly what I did in the video in switch edges and I see x-ramp left flash up every time.

No. It's easier to tell when it's happening if millions is lit (BITCHIN'!) but watching the flashers or locking a ball before testing works well. If the flashers don't go/the ball doesn't kick, it didn't react to the switch read.

The odds and evens thing makes me think it's 100% software - however if I can stop the middle man activating twice it seems to happen way, way less frequently. I could disable the middle man completely, but that would make it super easy to get the L as a dribble down the back of the spinner will then reward the shot.

Hmmm... so does this photo in the thread gallery: https://images.pinside.com/0/d9/0d9122dc1b3b68537142e8cd595a5132bcec11d6/resized/large/0d9122dc1b3b68537142e8cd595a5132bcec11d6.jpg

Wouldn't change the operation of the switch though.

Yes it has to be fast and the order is important. It does seem to sometimes happen if the order is changed slightly (eg you can maybe start the top spinner first) but it's certainly most repeatable if it follows the same sequence as the ball. Never occurs if the MM is triggered before the right spinner.

I think they must still be spinning. I don't have enough hands to quickly trigger them just once and still get the MM and x-left in time. When properly set up, I can trigger the X-left switch 4 or 5 times before it rewards the shot. I think this has only been a really noticeable problem since I put a dab of lube on the spinners and their duration was overly extended.

The MM determines which way the ball is travelling through the orbit. Hitting the MM before either spinner stops it lighting a RADICAL letter for the shot though you still get points. The switch was misadjusted so it never closed when I got the machine and that made lighting the L trivial as a lot of misses in the upper end of the playfield roll back down the right side.

eg if you dribble down through the gate into the back of the right spinner, the L should not light but you still score points for the spinner spinning.

Triggering the middle man alone rewards points and triggers some flashers. I think that's why the right spinner must be going before you hit the MM for the bug to occur - the mm behaviour changes depending on whether right spinner has been triggered recently.

I have a tournament rom, but it's just a minor patch of the L-1 ROM that makes the mega million jackpot 5 every time. I see "LU1 ID 00" and "European Level 1" (which defaults to hard, the proper ruleset for Radical! ).

Thank you, you're a gem.

I'd guess the truck bolts go through a piece of angle that's then screwed to the top of the backbox.
pasted_image (resized).png
A side view of the brackets would be useful.

Vertical ramp, top left, top right, x ramp, lower right. Did I miss any?

Would it be possible to just make a drop in reinforcement for the bowl itself?

The it's in the manual (pages 2-32 and 2-33/86 and 87 of the pdf). I posted a few pages back querying the list given in the manual, specifically the rubber at the bottom of the top left ramp as that seems over sized.

You could try searching of rubber and sleeve in the parts list on ipdb... Should be close:
715 ...4 03-7357 sleeve-ball shooter 1
721 ...4 23-6327 ball shooter tip-rubber 1
824 ..3 RM-27-08 slit hose sleeve 1 1/4 24
851 ..3 23-6303 "white rubber ring 1 1/4""" 1
852 ..3 23-6308 "white rubber ring 3 1/2""" 1
853 ..3 23-6534 "rubber protector 20""in" 2
1236 ...4 23-6534-9 rubber protector 3/8 3
1398 ...4 23-6534-9 rubber protector 3/8 1
1575 ...4 23-6577 rubber bumper plug 5/8 2
1617 ...4 23-6577 rubber bumper plug 5/8 2
1930 ....5 23-6534-9 rubber protector 3/8 1
1994 ..3 RM-27-08 slit hose sleeve 1 1/4 24
2058 ..3 23-6300 "white rubber ring 5/16""" 2
2059 ..3 23-6301 "white rubber ring 3/4""" 2
2060 ..3 23-6306 "white rubber ring 2 1/2""" 3
2061 ..3 23-6535 grommet-rubber white 1
2062 ..3 23-6551 rubber bumper 3/4X5/8 yellow 2
2063 ..3 23-6552 rubber bumper sleeve-yellow 19
2064 ..3 23-6556 rubber bumper sleeve-black 1
2065 ..3 23-6641-1 white rubber ring 1

I always though it was a shame the Snake Run VUK got pulled... This is tempting: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-prototype-vuk-and-3rd-sling-add-on#post-3207375

Have you just wired what was the target in the hole (#16 white/grey & green/red) to the fork switch and the popper coil in parallel with the upper drop reset coil?

I feel like it would make the most sense if the diverter fired too, sending the ball to the snake lane.

Probably be hard to scan now that it's so shiny.

Yes it happens, but not often except for the bug I posted about previously where the left X ramp switch doesn't register.

The other instance I've seen it a lot is when you fire a ball back into the snake lane quickly after it's just been kicked out. It totally ignores the second switch hit on the lane switch and then goes to multiball.

Thanks @soren. I will stream it as soon as I can. Sadly will be away for work for a bit so might be a few weeks.

patrickvc make friends with someone with a burner? I could send you one from AU but I suspect you could find a cheaper option in the US.

That's what I get for lubing my spinners.

You're running the prototype ROMs because you have a subway and a VUK?

I imagine it is already incredibly difficult for soren to test against production machines, let alone reenabling features that were dropped from the prototypes. Maybe it's easier than I think though?

People have got the VUK and slingshot working with release software though.

From memory, people that just moved the snake run target to the VUK fork switch (#19?) had issues because the game didn't cope with it being held down. However, putting the switch in the subway itself and chaining the coil from the drop target reset coil seems to work I believe. You'd need to double check that in the mod threads on here.

The upper slingshot could just be directly switched, like an old EM slingshot, but it might not have much punch (though maybe that's not bad given the location) and I'd separately fuse it incase a switch got stuck.

pasted_image (resized).png

So far so good, though I might update those labels with the patch number. I'll stream it in the next little while.

https://www.twitch.tv/ajfclark

I moved to STTNG towards the end of the night... There's 3 hours of Radical before that.

Yup, always forget to update something before I start. I'll update the video title.

Video will be here till Twitch kocks it off in a few weeks: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/333095864

It does! My play last night didn't, but I was handicapping myself a bit.

This is the right spinner, correct? and switch above it is supposed to give you the directions around the loop, but as we found, due to bouncing, misadjustement, etc it's not always reliable. I wonder if retro fitting an opto would be better or worse - just swapping one set of problems for another.

I think the manual says 7.

Incidentally, Freeplay40 is talking about doing some Radical! ramps... Test ramp was sadly no bueno but he's working on them: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/freeplay40-ramps/page/67#post-5102329

Page 1-6:
pasted_image (resized).png

Indeed. If I was still pinsitting a Radical I'd be on that like a fat kid on cup cakes. I got one of @freeplay40's ramps for my space station and it is so much better than the original.

Because they are slightly longer (9/64"?). https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-9592-6

Radical is on stage at pinburg?

I've got a thread somewhere... let me dig it up.

Here you go: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-ill-just-change-the-rubbers-for-you/

There's additional photos here: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipO8WtBmeB9PGykMov1v_T0uG1wBYQFxQgyUuEvtdnxIXAhGlNUG1aqLBrw6q5ATvw?key=Zm5PRXloOWZkWWFqQ1dRbE5ubmxfNVFVUTd6alhB

Go for it. You'll never source them locally.

Any plans for the old PF? What kind of shape is it in?

I've got a post in this thread about adjusting the right lane guide of the shooter lane. I'll see if I can dig it out. Gimme a minute.

Linky link: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-club-only-skaters-welcome/page/3#post-3659959

Sound board: Cabinet speaker connector on the left
MPU: diagnostic switches and ground on the left and maybe the special solenoids/flipper grounds from the upper bit of the right side
Interconnect: Everything off the bottom, there might be one or two (power to drop targets?) in the middle on the left side that needs to come off, and the yellow off the right side of the interconnect board (check if it's burnt while you're there)
Aux board: A fair bit off thebottom and left sides, I don't remember the top needing to come off, and the bottom of the PSU.

There is aa molex floating down near the big cap too and the braid is on a wing nut bottom left side. I think that's it.

20170321_184321.jpg

If that's not high enough res: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WB1Hc6WPRGHmaxyh7

For some reason I believe that ball guide wasn't in European machines. I have no recollection where I got that idea though. I made one from SS tig filler wire.

You have the narrow top drops? Does the ball ever hang up on a lowered drop? The Radical I had was all wedge tops and even then still occasionally hung up.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8750
wedge top

The 1 drop in each set was about 1mm different, so regardless of what I did, you could never get all 3 flush. I've I'd swapped them between the sets, I could've made it work, but then the decals wouldn't have matched.

Lower drops (resized).png

upper drops (resized).png

Nope. The 6 targets are 2 distinct lengths, 3 of each. Nothing else is unusal about them or the mechs. Not in my possession anymore sadly, and never my actual machine or I would've done more to fix it. The full story of that pinsitting journey: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-ill-just-change-the-rubbers-for-you/

The owner took it home a few months ago.

If you can just top out the ramp and come back down through the left ramp gate it'll spot 2 letters (original roms, I don't know if it was fixed in Sorens). If you then manage to top right flipper back through the gate again it can be 3 letters off the plunge.

The ket part of the adjustment is the end of the right guide of the shooter lane. I have a post a while back about it. If it's adjusted so the "skill" shot is less likely or impossible, the game is much harder.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-club-only-skaters-welcome/page/5#post-3949540
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/radical-club-only-skaters-welcome/page/3#post-3659959

Likewise the outside guide at the left exit of the orbit can be adjusted to throw the ball into the pops, making the game substatially harder.

Soren's Rom makes the jackpot cumulative within a given game for each player. 4, 6, 8, 10 million.

Below is an old copy of the readme. I no longer have the patch files as the game has left my stable.

Release note

Changes

RADICAL progress is never lost.
Lock made progress is player individual (no hard lock stealing). And never lost.
New status report page: RADICAL lights lock -> Lock lit -> RADICAL lights multiball -> Multiball lit.

On tilt, a locked ball is only ejected in the case of both balls ending up in the lock trough.
Lower drop target bank reset omitted from ball search.
Pops added to ball search.

Menu adjustment 50 changed from "Display AU01-04" to "Contest game". Options: "No" and "Yes". Default: "No".
When Contest game selected: The lock trough kicker is omitted from ball search.
When Contest game selected: The X ramp diverter is omitted from ball search.
When Contest game selected: Snake run awards follow a fixed sequence. Cross balls, player individual.
The Snake run sequence: Million, Vertical, Skate, Tail, Million, Vertical, Skate, Tail, Mystery, Mystery,...
When Contest game selected: Snake run "next award" is indicated on the backbox translite.
When Contest game selected: The Snake run Mystery award is 100K.

The Mega-millions jackpot follows the fixed sequence of 4M, 6M, 8M, 10M, 10M,... Increment on collect. Player individual.

Ball tracking and handling are cleaned up.
No multiball false start.
No incorrect end-of-ball, when draining down to one ball-in-play.

A bug where Bust-a-move ramp shots would not register on fast combos, fixed.
A bug where Tail slide ramp shots would not always divert the ball, fixed.
Buggy X ramp diverter control with multiple up/down/up cycles on open, fixed.

Better postpond ball search handling when balls are held by the game.
A bug where Mega-million would go to last chance (timing out) on ball search, fixed.

A bug where the lower drop targets would stay down with no Spot letter option, fixed.
A buggy light show procedure related to the lower drop target bank, removed.

Tail slider start level is harmonised at level 2 for all players.
A bug where Tail slider mode would carry half baked to next player, fixed.
Tail slider exceeding level 15 no longer freeze the ball in the lock.
A bug where Tail slider would start on last "A" achieved as Spot letter on the ramp, fixed.

Messy logic regarding RADICAL progress and RADICAL shots indicators are cleaned up.
A bug where on tilt, the game would not shut down lights and music, fixed.

A bug where the kickback could be unlit but active by mistake in multi-player games, fixed.

Why it rocks

Lost progress is unfair.
Too severe random elements. Snake run, to some extend. Mega-million, most certainly.
Lock stealing now off the board.
Progressive jackpot.
Reward for skillful strategic play regarding the Skate-or-die Snake run trumph.
Ball search and tilt no longer mess up game states.
Proper handling of two balls in the lock trough by mistake. And two balls in play by mistake.
Both states may occure on even a top condition machine due to the dynamics of the wonderful lock trough mech.
Bug fixes. A lot of them.

Note

Lock made status sustains through a ball removed from the lock by opponents or a tilt.
Soft lock stealing only. Relock necessary, but opponents will never benefit a players achievements.

If Skate-or-die is lit, a Skate-or-die at the Snake run will award the Mystery instead.
The buggy diverter control would occationally make a diverted Tail slide ramp shot register as a Bust-a-move ramp shot.
The fixed diverter control allows plunging the ball to lock/start multiball, when lit, at start-of-ball.

Tail slider mode is lit on (radicAl) "A" collected. Re-lit on a spinner shot and at start-of-ball. Mode lit does not time out.
Once the mode is started, the Tail slider indicator runs on a 12 seconds timeout. Reset on a Tail slider collected.

The European ROM defaults to the hard pre-set. The mod, based on the US ROM, defaults to the medium pre-set. The medium pre-set is recommended.
Spot RADICAL on inlanes (adjustment 32) stops when the score exceeds 4M.

Here's a video I made playing with the display test on a Space Station. showing the buttons in the upper left. Same arrangement as Radical.

2) I have 1 credit dot for the "middle man" switch. Based on the manual, this seems to be the one that controls the right orbit gate. It registers fine in game so not sure why I'd be getting the credit dot. I have been to the switch test menu yet, but there doesn't seem to be a need.

The middle man switch in the right orbit, just behind the whirlpool bowl. It only indicates to the game the direction of the right side of the orbit. If it's misadjusted it'll never trigger, especially when the ball rolls down through the righthand A gate. If A lights when the ball rolls down from the top, it's not adjusted correctly.

3) I'm getting the soren roms today and wondering if there's anything in the menus I need to change once I install them? I'm assuming all current settings and scores will be reset to default.

yes they will

Finally, I have a set of brand new sling plastics that I'd be willing to trade for a nice/new skate or die plastic if anyone has one.
Thanks!

Good luck!

Should have said L, not second A in point #2.

No worries. Good that someone is getting some use out of it.

The top switch here is the middle man:
Middle Man (resized).png

Should activate either way the ball rolls through. This prevents the L (not the second A, my bad) paying when the spinner is hit from behind.

Set the machine to hard or tweaking adj32 (spot return lane) and that cheap easy thing is turned off. I think the game is better on hard in general.

There are some very odd things in the production code. Soren had to rewrite large parts of it because it wasn't very good. Like my random bug where if the middle man switch was triggered twice the million didn't trigger on the left X switch.

Correct.

Official new ROMs for radical!

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/official-williams-and-bally-software-upgrades

The bracket is completely separate to the ramp:
pasted_image (resized).png

Looks like it does the job. Glad to help.

Angle would be the first thing I'd check. Radical is unusual in that the manual says 7° and it still plays well a little above that.

Carrot flippers are also slightly longer, so the game is harder with regular flippers (and would be harder again with lightning flippers).

I don't think so, but if you wanted you could just wire HV switches directly to the coil, like they used to on EMs? There was a thread somewhere about someone using a Gottlieb pop bumper control board too I think.

[Here's one pulling power directly from the MPU: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/started-my-radical-project-today#post-459234 ]

both ways. And if possible close the switch both ways too, otherwise rollling back down through the gate triggers the right hand orbit's letter...

I either use music wire, or stainless steel welding filler rod. Works pretty well.

You have nothing supporting the right side of that ramp in the background? It should be a hex post. Maybe they were using that double height instead?

I wonder if the skateboard diverter mech in Rush is the same.

My memory says #6-32.

The manual says the parts not shown are the plastic (03-8403) and the assembly (B-13629). Searching the parts list on ipdb:

1349 ..3 B-13629 diverter assy 1
1350 ...4 B-13630 brkt & post assy 1
1351 ....5 01-9655 brkt diverter 1
1352 ....5 02-4451 post 1
1353 ...4 02-2963 armature stop-bell 1
1354 ...4 02-4452 rod diverter 1
1355 ...4 03-7568 bushing-flipper 1
1356 ...4 10-128 spring-kicker 1
1357 ...4 20-8712-25 e ring 1/4 shaft 2
1358 ...4 4006-01005-06 ms 6-32X3/8 p-ph 3
2041 ..3 03-8403 divertor plastic 1

The only machine screws mentioned are the 4006-01005-06 ms 6-32X3/8 p-ph.

The screw on that diverter was difficult to get to and on mine, and I had to easy out the cross threaded and stripped screw and then retap before I could get a screw into it:
pasted_image (resized).png