Anyone working on some nice replacement apron cards? These have to go!

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Wow the story gets better and better.
So what about the sound quality? Obviously you put these on and listen to them, right? Is there anything unique about them? Have you recorded your own cassette tape from these masters? Compared them to the released cassette? Is the master of final version of all the tracks merged or can you isolate tracks with this? I don't know much about master reels or this type of equipment, what it does specifically...just basically a audio mix that cassettes , vinyl, CD, could be made from? I suppose could be many of these masters around for different purposes or/and this may just be one version of a master and not the final? Still amazing. I'll send you a tdk if you'll make me a copy. You could probably pay for a rush pin with all the people on here that would want a copy.

The story has a twist....
These master tapes are recorded 2 channel, 2 track. All of my tape decks are 2 channel, 4 track. Until recently, I had never heard them. I had a 4 track professional recording made from those tapes so I could hear them on my equipment. My recording sounds awesome!!!
Other than that, I know nothing else about the tapes. From what I know, these were the master tapes that the studio used to mass produce cassette tapes.

It looks awesome to me.

Not sure if this has been posted. Found this gem on youtube. 1974 at a High School, pre-Peart. Pretty amazing and a real slice of history.

There’s a lot of live music collectors that have large collections of reel to reel masters. Back in the 60-70s it wasn’t that uncommon for someone to bring a portable reel to reel player and tape live shows. Of course the quality tended to be not so great as the mic quality was mediocre. The emulsion on reels do break down due to ago and storage conditions. For a proper transfer, often times the reels are ‘baked’ to help solidify the emulsio. The playback machine also needs to have the azimuth adjusted for proper alignment. The results however, on a properly done transfer can be quite stellar. Congratulations to the owner of these reels. Sounds like they had the transfer done properly.

The only times tapes need to be "baked" is if they are back-coated. Ampex/Quantegy 406/407 tapes for example. Those tape suffer from SSS (sticky shred syndrome). Baking the tape will temporarily fix that issue. These tapes don't have back-coating.

Fascinating stuff!! What an incredible album to have been given ! That album was actually my intro into Rush back in '81 when a schoolmate loaned me his cassette. I subsequently and immediately discovered moving pictures and was hooked. Went to my only two (regretfully not more) Rush concerts I've seen of theirs, Signals in '82 and then Grace under Pressure in '84. Very impactful band and the only band I still listen to regularly to this day.

What a difference in the drums for Best I Can with John playing vs Neil. Talk about night and day talents.

This is great. And they played Best I Can....which premiered on Fly By Night, which means it didn't make the cut on the first album.

Our Rush caps Re almost ready to ship, just a couple more small tweaks. Pre orders will start shipping out soon.

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I like the design, but that many on the pf is kind of overkill

Well that's why we gave our customers the option to buy as many as they like

So how hard is it gonna be to remove that shitty Stern protector? Take it off and throw down mylar?

Easy to replace, but I'm hoping the delay is related to this poorly designed protector I don't think mylar will last very long on the sharp edges of the scoop

I’ve got Mylar on the entrances & exit of my Tron…granted it also has a Mantis inner protector. ~10 years later, it’s fine.

I wonder if the scoop is the same size as any other Borg games and if any existing Mantises will fit.

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I bought em all.

Best pinsider right there !

Was just wondering this myself.
Cliffy bout to be swamped.

I'm already on the wait list

Whoa. That Mantis inner protector is bad af. I've never seen that. Was that a hard install it just snap it on like Cliffys?

Mantises are great on new games, if they’re available. They protect from wear & don’t cover anything. Cliffies are really more for covering wear.

They’re pretty easy to install. You just do them from under instead of over.

I buy Cliffy's cause I like Cliffy.

Cliffy rules! I have Cliffy protectors and color sleeves all over my games. His carbon fiber ramp flaps on JP rule!!! When I used to go to shows, I loved shootin’ the shit with Cliffy. That being said, Mantis also makes great product.

As stated earlier… the hole is not beveled. It’s this weird stepped cut.

Given cliff is already at a 3-4 week backlog with normal activity… getting 500 new Rush orders won’t result in quick turnaround :/

Lol

Still on that Headlong Flight shit

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I work in audio production professionally, and reel to reel tape is the best audio format there is.

7ips is great quality, but if you can get 15 or 30 ips master tapes and players, you are at the pinnacle of audiophile heaven.

Agree very ugly.

Wizard mods already has an apron cover up on their site. Also the speaker surround is nice too. High quality stuff and installation is easy as they are magnetic

Was able to play Rush @ Kitos in SLC. First I must admit I am a massive Rush fan. First concert I ever went to and my dad took me. Saturday mornings Rush was blasted throughout the house as I did chores. Lol

Loved the game and that's with not being able to hear music or callouts. Tons of multiballs which I hope they reduce. To me it didn't feel like a Borg game at all. The outlanes weren't brutual like I feel his designs are. Time machine in relation to the flipper symmetry kept throwing me off but in a good way.

I can't wait to play premium/le as the dead end shot was smh on the pro I think on the premium that shot will be more satisfying.

I'll say this and I'm scared to, Iron Maiden was placed close to Rush taking a step back they looked almost identical to me.

This pin definitely doesn't disappoint. Can't wait to get mine.

In a nutshell this pin doesn't suck at all and I think will be a great addition to any lineup.

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Thanks for the gameplay impressions! Man, I’ve got an LE coming and I can’t wait to see if last week’s production update holds true. And the more I see it, the more I’m becoming curious to see what a pro translite looks like on an LE…

For most putting the Pro translite on an LE would be a down grade. The LE Back glass are Mirrored. They are Beautiful. Translites cannot hold up to the Look of Mirrored Back glass!

Leave the LE backglass in the game. Buy a pro translite and put it in a backlit frame on the wall.

You had me until you said you had this and IM close together and "they looked almost identical".

Yeah, aside from the drops on the left, the pop bumpers, the inlane layout, the third flipper w/associated shots... are you sure you have visited an optometrist recently?

I am guessing he meant IMDN. Not identical...but closer.

Wizard MOD Is great! Thanks for posting this! I was waiting for them to have the Rush Items available and you alerted me to this! I just placed a Nice large order with them. Stuff ussually takes 2 to 3 weeks to get here but is well worth the wait!

Yes, in hindsight I was working away and this thought hit me too... I thought Iron Man (as it is a borg game) but then I thought Maiden IS closer

Ah, the power of acronyms to make simple communication hard. If you aren't sure people will get what you mean, type the whole thing out. A reminder for us all (moreso than this specific post ).

Lol fixed to Iron Maiden sorry for the massive confusion.

I've heard from many others that have payed both that the layouts and shots are very similar. I'm a big Rush fan and not Iron Maiden but if one likes the layout of Iron Maiden then Rush layout should be a hit.

In a way I'm very glad it doesn't play like a typical Borg game.

I was able to get a question asked on the Marcos live stream the other day with John Borg (Well, sort of).
I wanted to know if John could share any specifics about the topper for the game.
I was mostly disappointed with the show host…it seemed like he was real anxious to prevent John from giving any info. “I don’t think y’all are going to learn anything…people want to know IF there’s going to be a topper for this game.”
After John emphatically confirmed that there WOULD be a topper produced, the host jumped in and said “Okay! There you go! That’s all you’re gonna get.” (Was there ever ANY concern or question about IF a topper would be made??) *sigh*

John didn’t give many clues but indicated that he had a hand in the design. He said it has a moving component(s) and is interactive with game play. He likened it to the Munsters topper: “This one’s crazy. This one is really really cool. People with 7 foot ceilings: I feel sorry for you!”

The question/answer is 1 hour 42 minutes into the live stream here:
https://www.facebook.com/marcospec/videos/1102121193942357/

Wow, I appreciate all of the positive responses, guys. Thank you. I really appreciate it, sincerely.

I'm going to show him this thread when I see him next and show him all of the support from the pinside and Rush community. It will mean a lot to him. He just got a smartphone like a month ago, so he really has no idea how connected some communities are.

Thanks again, everyone. It means a lot. He has a long road ahead, but he is still with us. He's a really good person and he deserves it. I will keep this thread updated, for sure. I'll take a picture when we get it set up over there and we'll say hi.

I also played Rush yesterday at CP Pinball and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fast, smooth and unforgiving lol. It took me a few games to really get shots down, but once I did it felt really smooth and satisfying.

At first, I did horrible. After some games, I still did terrible, then I started getting games at 30+ million. One game I got 130mil and couldn't tell you how I did it. Then was back to just doing ok.

It was the Pro, so the Prem/LE could be different, also the code isn't finished, but I honestly was really happy with it. I went on and played other games, and kept coming back to this.

It was really addicting hitting shots from that right flipper, hitting that spinner, and nailing that time machine and watching everything light up. The multiballs were fun af. It was hard to hear the music, so that's just the gameplay that was really enjoyable. It's definitely fast and it's not easy.

This was just my experience and my opinion, of course, and I wasn't disappointed. I can't wait for my LE and it's a damn good music pin.

As someone who has done these PR-approved prerelease interviews in gaming (not in pinball but rather video games) I can interpret what happened in his head. The host in this sense is actually tasked with making sure that everything that is said is PR approved. As such, the host does have off the record NDA information, because the host needs to make sure that the talent doesn't accidentally talk about anything PR doesn't want talked about yet - so he needs to know what not to talk about.

(Larger companies will actually have a PR representative on the line to interject and deflect questions that the host may ask, and that way the PR person is the bad guy and not the host or the interviewee.)

The designers and developers of anything like this are, by nature, very excited and passionate about what they are doing, and WANT to talk all about things, which is at odds with the PR department. If I can use a video game analogy, it would be like Peter Molyneux. I've had the pleasure of interviewing him about a decade back (the Fable days.) The man is EXTREMELY passionate about what he does, and he talked about his stuff VERY early and before anything was finalized. Because PR didn't wrangle him in, he talked about things like "you can plant a tree as a kid and it will be there as an adult" and that feature wound up being cut from the final release years after he said that in an interview. This then started having some people get lawyers involved because, since it was PR, it was deemed "false advertising." So, that's why PR departments are VERY skittish about forward-looking statements regarding things that aren't finalized yet.

Bringing it back to this case, my educated guess on what happens is this:
1. The host was told that they are allowed to say that there is a topper, but are not allowed to divulge any details
2. John really, really, really, REALLY loves this topper and is desperate to talk about it
3. The host wanted to get confirmation on stream that there is a topper (something that is PR approved) while also repeatedly reminding John that he should not divulge any details (something that is NOT PR approved) - the "I'm pretty sure you won't hear much here" wasn't actually the host talking to the audience, it was the host telling John in a non-so-subtle way to be very tight lipped.

If details were divulged that were not PR approved, that would limit Marco's from having prerelease access like this in the future, so it is in their best interest to follow all embargoes and other PR constraints. After everything's out and done, there is usually no more PR constraints on interviews.

This interview was legally an "advertisement" - and if John revealed a design detail that wound up changing before the topper came out, theoretically you could sue Stern for false advertising.

That’s a possibility. But, I disagree to a certain extent.
I’ve worked in radio for decades and conduct interviews like this all the time. True, we’re often given guidelines of what is/isn’t off limits. In this case, they had established 90 minutes worth of report. Once John said “well, the game is out now so I can say…” that was the opportunity to probe for information because he acknowledged knowing his limitations.
The host’s job is to ask questions. Fear of getting “cut off” from further access is what prevents a host from asking relevant questions—the ones your audience cares about most. That fear, in my opinion, was coming out in the prefaced “I’m pretty sure we won’t hear much” statement before the question was asked.
Knowing their favorite Rush songs is kinda interesting but not particularly useful to the audience.

Doing this professionally, I should’ve probably cut the guy a break and remember he’s not a journalist. The broadcaster in me saw the door open wide for the hosts to run with it.

The game is out, the topper isn't...So I'm sure there's different guidelines.

I'm an amateur compared to someone with your experience - if I was in this position, I would have just ignored the topper question if it was a grey PR area.

It’s all good. Like I said, my day job instincts kick in while being an audience member.
Still relevant is the info he did share.

This is literally most machines for me. I do ok after playing for a while and then I will get some crazy high score once, never to get it again and not sure exactly how I got it.

I wonder if this will require a mantis type protector in addition to the cliffy style. (like what I did on my MET and RFM)

Unfortunately the way the playfield is CNC'd you will want topside protection no matter what. The lip is like a two step shelf. There basically is a second corner that needs covering. So mantis-style alone is not desirable.. I don't think the cliffy-design is a dead-end here, it's just something about the stern one that is unusual. Even just having the tabs go under the wood would improve things. But the scoop mech probably prevents that, or requires more disassembly.

Mantis style may make the shot significantly harder due to the narrow dimension.