Just following up from this old post of mine with some updates that hopefully help other RBION owners:

I reached out to the maker of this protector, PU-Parts. They weren't 100% sure which model also fits RBION but they recommended trying the Ghostbusters version since it is the longest and appears to have the same-sized dremeled lane recess. I've got one on order (from Mezel Mods since I'm in the U.S.) and will follow up if it doesn't fit or needs adjustments. If I don't post a reply that means go with the Ghostbusters version as is!

Fortunately this hasn't happened since that one time. Still curious if anyone else has seen this issue.

I'm not sure what I did if anything I did to change this but the hum these days is much lower. You can still hear it but it's not as prominent as when I first got the machine. Odd...

We now have a roller-skating penguin! Yes it's large but I promise it looks less intrusive in person. Believe me I went down the rabbit hole of trying to find the right sized penguin and skates (I now have 2 sets of penguins I will probably gift to my friends' kids LOL). It's either too large or too small in that toy area. Finding toy/doll skates themselves was difficult as is. Stebel had the genius idea of looking at ebay for Barbie/Ken roller-skates. I found these Ken ones that are legit looking Adidas style and they actually fit onto this toy penguin's feet securely without any glue/cutting or anything. This was the best place I could find to mount the guy. I drilled a hole in his tail to apply a screw and small wire mount then zipties to attach him to the wireframe. I only wish he was more opposable. He's made of rubber so not much one can do there. I may try to heat up his "wings" to put them in more of an "active" position. Wanted to share the result thus far! "How amazing..."

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Just got a partial set of new plastics for RBION. Most of them appear to be there. These are tough to come by so I grabbed them. I also have a NOS shrunken head!

If you are looking for a piece, drop me a note and we can work something out.

Two questions for you RBION owners (see pictures attached):

1. Do you know if this resistor across the back of the sign lamp is stock or is this a modder's work? I bought the game second hand and the person who sold it do me doesn't know either.

2. Has anyone successfully installed a scoop LED? I got the one mezel mods sells (it's a tiny little PCB with an LED mounted on it). I cannot figure out a proper placement that doesn't interfere with the scoop or its switches and actually stays attached. Appreciate any photos if you've installed one.

RBION resistor (resized).png Mezel Mods Scoop LED board (resized).jpg

Tim, I think the part on the lamp socket is a DIODE ( not a resistor ) and it’s supposed to be there.

Hi all. Joined the club on Friday when I took delivery of rbion. Bought it from Replay Foundation (still sad) so it was used at Pinburgh. They have removed the shooter rod and in the tourney there was a sign (still on my back glass) that said flippers launch ball. Any idea why they did this? Auto launch usually gets it around the loop to the top lanes. Totally eliminates the possibility of the Bozo skill shot. Is this what they were trying to prevent? Why?

It's for tournament play. If you can constantly hit the skill shot, it won't register as a valid PF switch so you can keep hitting it then letting the ball drain and the game will give you the ball back and you can hit it again. Not easy to do, but it can be done and you can rack up big scores that way with the skill shots incrementing by 1 million each time.

Now that I look at other sockets which have the same, I think you're right. So I preferably want the scoop mod light to fire what that sign is lit but it doesn't like that. Alligator clipping to that socket makes both ghost, even with non ghosting bulbs in the sign. So I'm gonna try attaching it to a different socket of a lamp that is always on. I rigged the mod board with zip ties so it hovers underneath the scoop which avoids contact with the switch but still passes a decent amount of light through.

Now that's interesting. I knew if it didn't hit a valid playfield switch, you could try again. But, I thought hitting the skill shot registered as a hit, and the ball was then in play. You're saying that after making the skill shot, if the ball is ejected and doesn't hit a qualifying switch, I can let it drain and go for a second skill shot??

I have a brand new old stock SHRUNKEN HEAD for RBION if anyone is looking. These are like hens teeth to find, and rarely get damaged, but if yours is damaged, here is a brand new one I will sell... PM me.

That's right.

**SOLD** Digging through some stuff on the work bench and found these. Assuming these are all NOS parts. Not sure if the ROMs work or not! $35 shipped in US or $30 picked up in MD.
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Just joined the club. Have an LED'd game that has terrible flickering and ghosting. Debating LED OCD or just going back to incandescents. Anyone have a great results with one versus the other?

Great results with the LED OCD.

I didnt notice much diff'rence for controlled lamps leds vs incandescent, so I left them normal. But I def don't remember any weird flicker issues

GI led and inserts incandescents was my choice. It came all LED’d but ghosting was too bad so swapped them out..

Yeah I just swapped the GI to LED recently myself.

As I've said a few times before, there are so many smaller inserts in this game sometimes LEDs are over powering IMO.

Is it the scoop sign LED by chance? That's the one that I had flickering and ghosting on so I replaced it with a bayonet, yellow, frosted version of this from Comet Pinball: https://www.cometpinball.com/products/1smd-non-ghosting?_pos=1&_sid=f5887cd62&_ss=r
Worked out perfectly.

Did the same thing and it came out amazing! Being able to balance the brightness between leds really made a huge difference.

RBION has a vintage feel to it, just like Funhouse, so I left both of these games with tradition incandescent bulbs. To me, it just feels more aligned with the theme.

Thanks for the input all. I ordered some basic warm white LED/SMD bulbs and the LED OCD board. I think this will fix the issues I am having while still keeping the 'retro' feel of the game.

I have been looking at the scoop light, but the only one I see appears to always keep the scoop lit, unless I'm missing something. I'd like to have the scoop light from underneath when it's active - anyone have any pointers / links?

I prefer to light my scoops with comet star post LEDs. They are bright, with 4 LEDs in each, and come in several colors. I simply tape the light under the scoop somewhere, and I recommend taping the back of the star post light with electrical tape to insulate it, or it can short by touching something metal. Each of these is like $3-4. Far cheaper than than the $25-30 for many scoop light kits mod companies offer. You will want to buy some different lengths of wire Comet sells. It’s all plug n play, no soldering. They come with different connectors to a power source (alligator clips, or special bulbs). I use Comet lamps and LEDs for extra lighting and many of my scoops. Here are a few scoops I’ve lit that way for under $10. I even went with a color-changing bulb under my Tron scoop. But these are always lit. If you wanted them powered only when the mode called for it, I would consider attaching to the insert bulb that lights up for that scoop, if it’s 6.3v.

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Definitely don't buy the one I asked about here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/rbion-the-strange-the-unusual-the-bizarre/page/21#post-6263112 There's no real way to mount it and have it give enough light. Plus to make it only active when the scoop is active, AFAIK you have to alligator clip it to the scoop sign LED which results in dimming both and even worse, ghosting on the scoop sign LED. Sounds like Pinkitten 's solution is what to do although I don't know how you can get it to only trigger via the scoop sign which = scoop is "lit" unless you tap into the scoop sign socket. I haven't tried hooking any other bulb up to it besides that scoop mod LED w/ board.

I did install a blue Comet star post led under my RBION scoop, but it’s connected to a 6.3v lamp under the pf and is always lit. It’s super bright tho, works great if you are ok with it being always on.

You can always wire the star post to the arrow above so the scoop lites when there an an award to collect.

Great idea!

Been playing a bit now that I have it cleaned up and pretty. Wondering if the kick up (off vari-target) should feed really easily to the top right flipper? It drops on my game just a 'bit out of reach' and further left of the top right flipper than I would have thought most of the time. Worth adjusting? Normal?

Not sure if this makes sense..

One other person in the club was saying the same thing. The ball wasn’t feeding his upper flipper properly out for the vuk. There was no solution posted but it is a common annoyance.

On my game, it’s about 75 / 25 on a ball a bit out of reach of the upper flipper. Good but could be better.

It should feed to the flipper 100% of the time IMO.

Agreed it should feed it 100%. There is just too much play in the exit of the wireform to be consistent 100%. When I do a shop job on my game I’ll look to rectify the issue.

That's ideal but I get ghosting and low light from both LEDs if I do this (in my post "scoop sign" = the arrow above LED).

I played my machine last night to verify this info. This is not the case on my machine. Once you hit the skill shot, that's it, ball is now in play. Perhaps it's something that can be changed in the settings??

Probably different versions of software. Ripley's had a lot of very different versions.

Same for me. Skill shot is a registered hit. I’m on v3.01

The diverter under the temple has broken off. Any way to fix this other than replacing the ramp?

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I used 3D prints

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Wow that looks great!

Of course you can use multiple layers of hard plastic as well. Or use rectangular flat pieces of steel with a drilled hole.

Thanks on behalf of a friend of mine

Are you able to share the 3D files?

I’m confused, can anybody help me with what version code I have?

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2 versions, as you need 2 physical chips; display & CPU.
3.20 is the latest but I think 3.01 is latest display

Thank you

How am I supposed to remove the right ramp? The screws for the wireform is under the ramp.

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Where can you get the latest version and what are the difference’s?

You can get the latest 3.20 ROM here:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/EPROM2162

CPU Release Version 3.20
Changes from CPU V3.10
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fixed lock and eject devices to work properly with the Coil Power
setting.

CPU Release Version 3.10
Changes from CPU v3.02
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Modified Flipper EOS timing to be compatible with newer games.
- Improved broken Shrunken Head compensation.
- Improvements to ToPS tournament system.
- Removed erroneous broken switch messages from Tech Alert.

CPU Release Version 3.02
Changes from CPU v3.01
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- New flipper drivers to increase flipper coil longevity. This was
not a problem with Ripley but was done to be consistent with other
Stern software releases.
- Fixed false broken switch reports on some switches
- Improved compensation for a broken left ramp or left ramp make switch
- Improved rules for Idol to keep the idol lit longer after pops
- Added code to pop bumpers to prevent the looping ball situation on
early production games.
- Fixed "Idol worth 1 million" bug in South America mode.
- Fixed bug when Feature Adjustment #13 was set too high
- Improved speech and lamp effects in some places
- Fixed some speech conflicts at the end of continent modes

CPU Release Version 3.01
Changes from CPU v3.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- More improvements to Bump 'n' Win score selection.
- Fixed some Bozo choreography that was confusing.
- Fixed some screens in Instant Info to show proper information.
- Made some improvements to playfield lamp effects
- Fixed Temple LEDs to show attract mode properly at game over
- Made specials stack on outlanes when more than 2 are lit

CPU Release Version 3.00
Changes from CPU v2.04
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Modified Bump 'n' Win score computation to be in the correct
range given current tournament scores. Also improved selection
logic to make the game more appealing to casual players.
- Fixed pulse handling for $5 bill acceptors
- Added more extended features for expert players.
- Fixed TEAM SCORES display for 4 players
- Fixed extra ball scoring display for tournament play.
- Some improvements to display and sound choreography.
- More improvements to broken magnet and idol compensation.

CPU Release Version 2.04
Changes from CPU v2.03
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fixed ticket dispensing for Chuck E. Cheese games.
- More improvement to broken magnet compensation.
- Made idol extra ball slightly easier to get.
- Lowered range of possible Bump 'n' Win scores

CPU Release Version 2.03
Changes from CPU v2.01
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Improved compensation for broken Shrunken Head and Idol devices
- Fixed glitch in score auditing table
- Added broken device reporting for the scoop and VUK
- Slight choreography improvements
- Fixed outlane sounds in multiball

CPU Release Version 2.01
Changes from CPU v2.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Changed points for EB/Special given in tournament
- Fixed ticket dispenser operation
- Fixed jackpot scoring in ripoff
- Fixed locks to handle missing balls properly in tilt situations
- Fixed ? award to correctly reset itself after award
- Fixed million plus to avoid abuse in mulitball
- Fixed choreography at multiball start to sync video/sound
- Fixed eb/special calls for tournament play points
- Fixed some main Multiball jackpot choreography

CPU Release Version 2.00
Changes from CPU v1.01
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Improved lamp displays, especially around temple awards
- Added time-delayed clear kick from lock at game over
- Major improvements to the final mode, Atlantis.
- Added some overload protection to the idol magnet
- Made ramp rollunder switches more sensitive
- Fixed some Believe It Or Not! award choreography

CPU Release Version 1.01
Changes from CPU v1.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fixed diagnostics, especially sound and knocker test
- Improved game speech in many places.
- Fixed "go backwards" in Australia and South America
- Left orbit now lights the temple gate
- Fixed lockup to handle balls that arrive during quick
multiballs.
- Adjusted mode goals slightly.
- Fixed "spinners at max" award from Bozo.
- Added DOUBLE JACKPOTS to some Believe It Or Not! awards
- Fixed status report
- Some improvments to display choreography and sequencing.

I haven't been able to locate a 3.01 version of the display - just 3.00. Can anyone confirm 3.01 can be purchased somewhere?

Even Stern's site only has 3.00. Not sure if anything newer exists publicly. Wouldn't worry about it, there is no display issues with 3.00.

3.00 is the latest English display ROM. 3.01 is Spanish and French.

My machine was running v3.01 cpu and was reporting half a dozen broken switches. Must have been doing that broken report for 15 years! Yikes. Quick fix... $10 at Matt’s Basement arcade and the V3.20 cpu cleared that all up.!!!

Easy to justify getting the new chip