The two tiny holes just below the flippers are alignment holes for the flippers. You're supposed to put a toothpick in each hole and hold the flipper bat, with band on, against the toothpick and then tighten the screws below the playfield to get the right position of the flippers.

As for the two remote holes, I have no idea. I have an early production machine and the holes in my remote are in the lower right hand corner and along the bottom just below the "T" in the word "CONTROL". Kind of odd placement but they must have been designed there for some reason.

I know about the adjustment holes but curious about the other four . Mine and others have two holes in the remote and one below each flipper pivot point . Wonder if it was designed for one of those wire guides similar to system 11 games .

I had a similar issue with mine and a Cliffy scoop protector that was bent and installed slightly wrong. I removed it and replaced it with a new Cliffy, but the ball kept hitting something on the way up the VUK into the ramp flap. I read in this thread that if you can identify which side the ball is hitting (the front edge or the left or right sides of the scoop or ramp hole) you can adjust the VUK by adding washers to the OPPOSITE side of the assembly under the playfield. I used my cell phone video on slow-mo to record it, and it showed the ball hitting the front, right edge of the scoop as it was fired upward. So I added 2 washers under the bottom left screw (there are 4 screws holding the assembly to the underside of the playfield) and since then, it has yet to miss the hole. I've played the game many times since, with dozens of VUK shots successfully firing up through the ramp without a miss. So that's another option to adjust the angle of the VUK assembly if you don't want to bend it. It worked for me!

New in the club, bought mine yesterday as a late christmas present for myself

Lots of dust to remove. I will tear down everything and clean it properly. Will also do the usual stuff like changing all rubber and get new coil sleeves.

SS (resized).jpg

Looks like a nice example. Congrats and welcome!

I know that the coffin lid has a spring, but should it be another spring for the "body" plate inside (the plate with the corpse decal on it)? I don't have a paper manual and both pdf manuals from ipdb is really fuzzy so it's hard to read them properly.

Also, I've read the service bulletin where coffin door opening shaft (part# 04-10419) was changed to #04-10419.1 I can't find any information on how they differ and thus I don't know what part I currently have. Any way of knowing that? Service bulletin says the new type is used after 10/20/96 but my PF is marked with a date a few weeks before that, which means I don't know if its still the (bad) original part or if someone have changed it later on.

Just picked one up today, very fun game. Kinda dark tho. What are you guys using for gi? Thx

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I like this title on the Darkside but I use a frosted dome LED for GI. It provide more of a glowing effect. Comet, Cointaker or Pinball Bulbs have them. The slime Pinblades are a must IMHO. I have the ( PinBits) blackout mod also.

Yup, comet forsure and I've been trying which blade to put in. Tilt and pingraffix both have nice ones. Also will add a green trough led

1 more question. The gate on top to get u into the lab, what do you have to do to trigger it?

You can manually trigger it in test/ solenoids. The game does it with the mode change from Dead Heads to Lab.

I believe the game alternates opening and closing the gate between Dead Heads and the Lab

There’s my SS. You can’t really see it but it’s there.
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Thx for the replies.

While I was playing, game said 13 more hits to enter the lab. What should I be aiming at?

The Monsters Lab is one of the 6 goals to start the Stiff-o-Meter. The requirement is 20 pop bumpers. Once you have 20 pops hit, you finish the Monsters Lab.

Thx

Roll over switch in the left orbital before the ball gets to the Deadheads.

Thx for all the replies, very helpful. Now, if I can figure out why only half the blackbox light are on I'm 100%. Fuses all good, spider lights work good, tv light works, but other gi lights up there not on.

Find the online manual at ipdb.org and determine if it is a particular row or column. I had this exact problem on a Johnny Mnemonic, and it ended up being a bad connection for one of the pin connection on the power driver board.

Will do. Thx!!

Did you have to cut around the blackbox bolts or does it lay over them without issue?

Found a few loose wires on plug for blackbox gi, it's all workin now. Thx fr advice. Now, the flasher bulbs behind scared stiff and eyes on upper right dont come on. are they only in game play, or should they work in attract mode?

Flashers: gameplay only.

Eyes...do you mean the skull pile? If so, gameplay as well.

I just cut them out.

If you mean the Big Hairy Monster (upper right) and or the Wolf (lower left) those are separate flashers. You can test them in Test Mode/Flashers/

Thanks

So, I just realized that my shooter assembly is completely f-d up; Wrong springs, busted tip, too many spacers and not sure about shooter rod length either.

I didn't find the shooter assembly in the scared stiff pdf manual (strange) but according to https://www.moll.no/pinball/jsparts/SS.php the shooter rod is "ball shooter knob w/shaft-eyeball, partnr 31-2590". I know the shooter rods exist in different lengths and just want to be sure the one I currently have is at least correct in length.

So, anyone having the eye-ball shooter rod and please could measure its length for me, that would be great. Thanks.

I'm looking for the bones covering the outlines, left one on mine is cracked. As anyone know of any?

Planetary has both the right and left... $8 each.

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-03-9613-1

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-03-9613-2

Hi, could anyone tell me how you program in messages onto the DMD display?

I finally became a proud owner of Scared Stiff just over a year ago, and the previous owner had put some great little birthday messages for himself and his family that appear on the DMD on start up on or after the given dates, so I would like to delete these and make some of my own if possible.

I have tried a factory reset, but this hasn't deleted these messages, and they look far too good to simply be the personal message option using the coin door control buttons (although I haven't learned how to properly use that function yet either).

Is this something that has to be programmed externally on a computer and then added to the machine via a memory stick, or some such?

Forgot to mention, I have added the colour DMD, but it was still the orange DMD when I bought it.

Bought. Thx!!

Grab a picture.
A factory reset would have cleared this off. You can set it in Service Menu -> Utilities -> Set Custom Message.

If the "Set Custom Message" is blank - i.e. the messages aren't listed there - then go into Tests -> Dipswitch Test and hit the Start button. When you do, a 4-letter/number code will appear on the screen. Write it down. Likely in this case, the previous owner made themselves a custom ROM image and hard-coded the message in there. (No, you can not do this with a simple "hook a PC up" method.)

You’re probably seeing the birthdays the developers put in. These will come up on the dates when your power up the pin. They’re like an Easter Egg so they can’t be erased.

Hi Coyote, thanks for the info.

The custom message is definitely blank, so I have followed your instructions and got the 4 letter/number code from the dipswitch test.

How do I use this code?

Ah, I forgot about this - and if you have NVRAM installed, you will continue to see them until the game is powered on until the day rolls over.

That would make sense, as they are nicer looking messages than just basically entered digits.

So I take it's the same messages on all Scared stiff machines? The message I saw today was a HAPPY BIRTHDAY EEDIE (something like that) and also had 1/5 displayed next to it.

Cheers to both Coyote and Wayinla for the help.

Yeah - it's burnt into the ROM. An Easter Egg - like all the flipper codes that WPC games have. It'll be gone tomorrow (again, assuming you do NOT have an NVRAM installed..)

That's alright then.

Obviously I just wanted to remove them if they were another owners personal messages. Never occurred to me that it may have been the developers.

Thanks all, another little problem sorted!

What's the correct way to remove/mount the two main ramps?

I've previously removed both ramps by unscrewing a bazillion screws, removing the whole coffin assembly and a shitload of nerve-wrecking-plastic-ramp-bending (mainly to go free of the coffin and get the two "fins" inserted in the back-panel free). I must admit I'm kind of scared (stiff) over how to reassemble the whole thing again. So, is there a "best way" of doing this that I have failed to see, or will I just have to do my best and hope I don't break anything?

Edit: I just remounted both ramps, surprisingly, it found it easier than removing them. For future reference, what it did was:

1. I put the coffin assembly in its "spot" in the bat-ramp and then slid the coffin assembly into the playfield from the side (dragging the ramp along in with it).
2. Fastened the coffin assembly to the playfield underside with 1 screw so that it could hang reliably on it but still with some moving slack.
3. Continued to put the bat-ramp into position on all fastening spots, including the fin in the backside. Bat-ramp is now in correct position but only screwed loosely in place.
4. The tricky part now is to get the bone-ramp entrance in place as it is under the bat-ramp. Carefully slide the bone-ramp entrance into its position and make sure to get all those annoying cables under the ramp through the playfield hole. If those cables were longer it would have been a lot easier, as it was now I had to get my hand in below both ramps and put the cable connectors through the pf hole while holding the other ramps, that's why the other ramps need wiggle-room at this moment.
5. When cables are going down simply screw and tighten the bone ramp where it should be.
6. Tighten all screws for the bat-ramp and coffin assembly.

Recently purchased a ss. When I get the dancing boogey man mode, they dont move. Is there a setting to adjust or am I missing ssd's something else? Thx

Dancing boogies were on the prototypes but not on regular production games (either straight cost cutting or because the thin flailing arms would eventually break off and end up jammed in the ball trough). More than one person has made a kit to add them back (requires an extension to the slingshot arm mechanism and the original style finger puppets to fit over the extension) which works fine in a home environment where plays are reduced and the owner has access if an arm happens to break off.

@Morpheus was making some sets most recently and people said they were great. Unknown if he still is making them or has any more but you can send him a message and inquire. Here is the thread where he was making them:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/scared-stiff-slingshot-extensions-dancing-boogieman-mod

Yes once you have the boogie men slingshot arm extensions installed, if you're asking about the moving boogies during the disco, there is also a menu setting to turn this on and off. When you get the boogie man mode on the spider wheel, the slings will fire to move the boogie men (dancing) . However this is quite loud from the mechanical firing of the slings and actually quite annoying.

So far over 2000 games with my moving boogie men and arms still attached. You can get nice looking similar looking ones for pretty cheap.

Thx

I apologize in advance regarding this question as I am not sure if it has been asked in various ways.

Is it common to have an issue with the right VUK not always kicking the ball onto the ramp above? I am looking at a restored SS and it seems that early games seem to fire up and onto the ramp with success and then it seems to be fit and miss. the current owner has bent the blue steel flap up a little which helps but sometimes the pin tries a few times and then the ball ejects under the ramp onto the PF.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!