Oh man, that show looks badass. We have tickets to see him on the 22nd and Kayte told me over the phone today that my translite was going in the mail so I'm getting ready to strap on my groupie kneepads and get this fucker signed. Playing it at Allentown made the whole thing real and I can't wait for mine to get here. In the meantime I also scooped up a PZFTG translite signed by Charlie from Joe at PinballSTAR so yeah, we're on fleek over here.

I'm still sad PZFBTG art won't see the light of day... Replaced by even cooler art on RZ !

We fixed that Saturday thanks to Michael Pupo at Flipper Fidelity who came by our booth and adjust settings so it was louder.

WTF is PZFBTG???

Pinball Zombies from Beyond the Grave. The game RZ eventually became.

Pinball zombies from beyond the grave. It was Spooky's first attempt at zombie theme, met with mixed reviews, revived and evolved into licensed RZSI after success of AMH.

I never did get to play Pinball Zombies, and have yet to play Rob Zombie. For those that have played both, other than theme/sounds/specific modes, how different is the gameplay on the two of them? I remember PZFBTG was met with VERY mixed reviews in terms of gameplay. I know they tweaked the playfield for RZ, but it's not all that different and yet the reaction is FAR improved. I'm wondering how much of that might have to do with a good implementation of cool license and how much of it is actually related to the game playing better. Anyone have any first hand experience with both?

I haven't played either, but one other thing we do know is that the code is way more developed. And we all know code can make or break a game. But it'd be interesting to hear how the physical changes to the playfield change the feel or flow of the game too.

Yeah, obviously the code is WAY more fleshed out in RZ. I seem to remember people not loving the physical play of Pinball Zombies. I'm curious, outside of rules, how different/better do people feel the physical gameplay is now. Just curious.

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The Rob Zombie pinball was well represented at the concert Wednesday night. The Robot was out most of the show and they had a huge boom box. That represented Dead City Radio as part of the stage set up.A couple of pictures of each below.

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Serious question - was she scared by the artwork?

RZ LE #8 arrived yesterday 5/12/16.

Great job Spooky!

The cabinet artwork is stunning.

I'm #42. The countdown is speeding up!

She is/was not, I also have TWD prem and she is not bothered by that either.

I am thinking that these 2 set pieces in particular, if made to 10-12" scale, would look awesome if incorporated into a topper! Anyone?

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I'm still hoping for a Pinball Mike D interactive LCD mod for the right side of the back board. Come on Mike!

I'm #43 and I want the countdown to slow down so I can make sure I have the money available. Seems like we're at a real conflict of interest here haha.

I seriously am pumped for this game though, it's going to be so much fun to play.

Spooky and RZSI... where the only drama is ppl unexpectedly getting their games too fast. ha ^_^

Would be nice to hear early reviews and videos from people who have game in their homes

I'm #293 and I would gladly trade spots with anyone. ?

I am #221 and my only chance to be able to afford RZ is a very late spot. If you want to swap, let's do it!

A kind offer that has likely flooded your inbox and caused a short-term shutdown of the host server. Maybe one of the early buyers that is too busy to unpack and start playing their game would prefer a guilt-free swap of positions with you. Give them more time to get organized and ready for the pin, while allowing you to play sooner. win / win.

ps - if any LE Owners with #10-#20 prefer a mid-run standard model, I can help you out.

Fawzma,

Hoping some have volunteered to test the upload process and that it works seamlessly.

Are the major modes you've outlined before, completely coded and are they in the released version?

edit - I reread thread and as of last month, right before games started to ship, code was complete and was being shipped with it. Guess I undervalued fact that Spooky is shipping its second game with complete software.

Reviews from early adopters?

I'll move up too Think I'm around 130. Anybody wanting to delay having to pay lmk

I am 181 And I'd Love to move up fast. Would send out some nice German sweets as a gift to get under the First hundred !!

Hmmm, I'm not sure what else to review. I've had LE#1 for a couple of weeks. Everyone enjoys it. I have to say the code early on is really great. I have tested Fawzma's update from 'out of box' version 3 to version 4. The update is really easy to do.

The modes have full programming in each with a mutiball or some time of reward for completing them. I have completed all of them I think, but never more than 2 or 3 in one game at this point. Video mode is fun and not too distracting from the game.

7 ball mutiball on House of 1000 Corpses is awesome!!

It shoots well. Someone mentioned changes from PBZ and I know the inside flow shot was added from that prototype which makes for some extra flow.

The slings and pops make for some fun extra 'randomness' which I enjoy compared to other games I have.

I LOVE the music and adult callouts. Everyone has ended up laughing out loud at some point during games.

I hope that helps!

LOVE the music and adult callouts. Everyone has ended up laughing out loud at some point during games.

This is probably what I'm looking forward to the most. Should be hilarious

Man, hats off to Charlie and Spooky for being able to produce back to back games pretty much on time. I cant imagine how difficult it must be to start a new pinball co. today. So much success out of the gate.

There was a heated debate about the update process as I am of the opinion that the updater program is the way to go.

For those that are comfortable with running a program and letting it do the work for you, you have that option. Or, if you prefer you can download the full zip file like before and do the format/copy yourself.

One change that will happen with the game is the way corpse stealing works. Right now 1000 corpse mode behaves differently when you are in single player mode vs multiplayer.

Current version in 1 player - clear top right targets and get 2x/3x corpse multiplier
Current version in multiplayer - clear top right targets and steal 50% of corpse from all other players that have corpse collected. There was something else that went on as well. If a player stole corpse from you, you are "corpse cursed". If you beat the mode before clearing those top right targets, half the jackpot went to the player that "cursed" you.

New way in 1 player - stays the same
New way in multiplayer - clear top right targets, for each switch you hit, you steal 1 corpse from everyone that has a corpse.

In a perfect world, I'd like to have multi player features in all modes (disabled in tournament mode)

Has the scoring in 1000 corpses been toned down at all? Seemed pretty insane in the DeadFlip stream how someone could a crazy score in seconds of multiball, way more than they could get from completing multiple modes.

Yes, no more 100 million scores for getting that mode started.

Making the SD card works the same way it did with AMH. Make sure it's a fresh format, FAT32, 32 kilobyte allocation size. This can be done with Windows or Mac.

Download the latest ZIP file, and extract the folders to your computer first, THEN copy them to the freshly formatted SD card and stick it in the machine. Hold the PROG button during startup, or use the menu to select Update on Next Boot. It takes about 3-4 minutes.

OK so WHY this specific update routine with the SD card?

Remember "Disk Defragmenter?" So what happens is, files aren't always contiguous on a disk especially if you overwrite or add files. One half of a file might be here, and the other half is somewhere else.

In a file allocation table, the "path" to complete a file is called a cluster chain. It points to the start of a file, how much of it is there, and at the end is a vector leading to the next cluster. You must "follow" this to get the entire file. Defragmenting reconnects file parts and makes them all contiguous. This is less of an issue with modern systems as you're not actually moving a read head across space to find the next part of a file.

Problem is, pinHeck doesn't use a "proper" file system and thus can't follow cluster chains. On boot, it scans the DMD and SFX folders, each of which contain up to 26 folders (A-Z) which contain around 50-60 files each. The directory sector for each folder is stored in RAM, so when a file is called, the system never has to "deep dive" through folders to find it. A "DAA.wav" file is stored in SFX/_D folder, so based off the first character, we know exactly where to start looking. We also never store more than 64 files in a folder, meaning the most files we ever have to search through looking for a match is 64 (and we only have to compare 2 characters as the first character is the folder pointer) Worst-case file seek time is 5ms which is 6 times faster than a single frame of video

The disadvantage is that we need a predictable "flat" file structure, which is why you must format an SD card before putting files on (but fast format is OK!) When you copy files to a blank card, everything is laid out nice and neat in contiguous order.

David and I discussed making a "pack" file - which would be a single file with out own directory structure inside (PC games do this) but that would be down the road.

It's also possible that we've optimized enough other stuff that we could "afford" to follow cluster chains again. But for now, this is still a massive improvement over how AMH was updated.

Yup what Ben said......

Well if all we have to remember is to do a fast format then that is certainly painless and quick. And if we forget... when it says "update failed" - well THEN we'll remember what we had to do but forgot.

Seriously this is no big deal. For neatness sake it would be nice to make it idiot-proof down the road but this already beats trying multiple flash drives, etc.

Might want to include the instructions to "fast format" in the documentation with the machine for customers that don't keep up here on pinside. Well... wait didn't all 300 machines go to pinside members?

Fawzma (and I'm guessing Ben?) have an executable that built the SD card with the new code. It erorred once but worked great on a second run. I think he's testing that as a simpler method as well.

The more I read about the game from the people involved, to the people who've played it at shows, to the VERY lucky owners who've already taken delivery, the more excited I am to get my own. Won't be for a while as I'm 218, but I'm really excited to be in on this and to eventually get my hands on one.

RZ #90 here......I have already bought 4 pins this year, we are in the middle of building an addition on our home, and our family is planning a trip to Disney World this Fall. Also a friend of mine in our league is getting a RZ earlier than me, that I can play.

All that being said, I would be willing to swap spots.......IF.......it does not cause a logistical paperwork shitstorm for Kayte.

The iMac has had and SD reader since 2009. The MacBook has had one at least the last 7 years. That's probably 90% of the mac computers out there.

I know the mac mini currently has one, not sure when it was introduced. I think the only mac system without one is the mac pro which is not geared toward homeowners.

Is this an additional translite? Can you purchase additional?

Aside from the Back Alley light additions, has anyone thought of mods for this game? Any of the modders planning anything cool? Any pinblade designs created yet that could be shown?

I'd really love to see a different Captain Spaulding for the mini playfield. One where he has his arms raised and does not look so stiff. Maybe the arms even rotated higher when he spins to the open position? I also think a decal for the metal guide rail would be cool like a creepy fence running around it. Aside from that I would like to see some cool topper designs that rival the one made for AMH.

Yes. If you are kind to Kayte and provide her with $90, you will receive this in the mail in a couple days. I should have asked if i Could purchase a standard translite as well.

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Spots can't be transferred, so if someone got out their spot would go to the next person on the wait list. The best you can look for is someone who will sell you the game as soon as they get it, or let you buy it through them.

All the Mac pros made in the last 5 years have SD card slots. The only one that does not, is the super brand new, champagne colored Mac pro. Those only have USB C. If you have one of those, i'm jealous

You can get a standard, the key, like you said, is be nice to Kayte

Thanks. I am definitely getting one of each. I thought the standard came with a translite. I was just informed it is a backglass as well. Nice surprise for me.

Wait, what? The standard RZ will come with a screen printed backglass and not a translite? That is not what I heard previously. Who told you this? Kayte?