Indeed. Reckless at best. They are slowly digging their grave,, this from someone with skin in the game with a pre order.Do yourself a favor and go to the Total Nuclear Annihilation thread and read thoroughly the past history ,, Scott (TNA) is awesome,,, but he can only do so much with these kids in charge.,,especially with the remake,, $2k+ more money and less quality.. never again do a preorder with these folks. FLAME SUIT ON,, Spooky groupies will devour , but it is past due to be said. PEACE

Looks great. I’m hoping these ship out soon. Haven’t heard anything since I placed deposit and we’re coming up on two months.

We are #517 and are following through with the game. My wife would be crushed if we didn't get it especially since we have seen and played it and really liked it.

I have said many times in this thread that we will continue with our purchase. I am just not happy seeing/reading all these posts about simple things that should not even be allowed off the line much less packed and sent to someone's home.

This is a 10k pinball machine - yes a luxury item for sure but its 10k! This stuff should not be happening regardless of how big you are (i.e. you sell thousands of games a month) or how little. And sure many will say but its not that many people with issues there are far more with fully functioning games and are happy but not posting. And there tons more that will say if you think this bad go look at X thread from so and so about X game - none of that makes ANY of this acceptable from any MFR.

And please don't tell me about how pinball owners should know and be able to handle fixes on their games and that any NIB will need adjusting. This is not adjusting and a NIB game should NEVER need fixing -- out of the box or within a few plays. I get weird things happen from time to time and thus repairs or replacement parts will be needed but some of the owners in here have replaced the same parts more than once and still have issues.

As the above person said - flame away as I know my comments will not be popular but please remember the very first line of this post (and darn near every post I have made about issues) we are still following through with our purchase.

I am just preparing myself for the inevitable rework of the entire game and endless troubleshooting. Hopefully the members of this forum won't ignore my posts for help as I am sure I will need it.

Rant over.

And yes I really want Spooky to succeed they seem like great people with a passion for the game.

I had time to test some stuff. Q20 is shorted which locks the right flipper on. The board must be able to protect itself as it cuts 48 volts on the red coil chain after the flipper fires 3 times after boot up.

Spooky is in agreement and will be sending a new board and coil. I’m going to check the EOS switches are carefully also.

I work in engineering in the automotive industry. We have had serous semiconductor quality issues, most notably with higher voltage drivers. I suspect of the issues Spooky is dealing with may be related to that.
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If this is a transistor issue and since they are making the warden in house they need to improve the bench testing they are doing on the boards. Assuming they test each and every board.

Supply issues do not cover for poor assembly and lack of oversight and responsibility on the line. My frustration with what is continuing to arrive at people's doors has boiled over. I was hopeful the headaches I and others faced in the first weeks would be learnt from and Spooky would step up and address it as a mature company would be expected to do. I would be a hawk on the line if I saw photos of this stuff coming out of my shop. People keep saying Spooky stands behind their products. But who is standing infront of their products before it goes out?

Agree 100%. I wish you and I and everyone else in this endeavor ,,and espically Spooky the very best, but my best advice for anyone reading this post is,,, don't be afraid of Missing out on a new pinball game, because of the hype, I have been a collector for 48 years and I am as old as dirt. First New In Box purchase from any company that was a PER-ORDER is this one.. Although I have purchased at least 20 new games and have cycled though at the very least 130 games over these many years.,,,Scooby hit home with me and my wife, as we were both BIG fans of the original Saturday morning series as kids in the late 60's and early 70's before we even met. I gave Spooky the benefit of being a small company with growing pains before,, but that can only go so far with the good will, sad to say. My best wishes to all involved.

The red connector was unplugged. I compared the left and right flippers high drivers. With the right flipper coil high power supply detached the game now works, with no right flipper operation.

I hooked my scope up to the now functional left flipper.(after removing power from the right flipper which has the shorted Q20 mosfet) Things to note, around 10 amps peak current, then around 1 amp when on hold. I could totally see an issue with the EOS causing the high coil driver to fire over and over again, possibly compromising it. I would think a software solution could be developed? Even if EOS switch operation is perfect now, down the road issues will certainly arise from normal switch wear/contamination. I know other companies use a similar setup without blowing mosfets from janky EOS operation. flipper with text (resized).jpg

I ran the right flipper up and down by hand. The right EOS operation isn't so good and could be a contributing factor to the failure of Q20.
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At least with your decades of experience you will have the ability to work on it (doesn't mean you should have to) just think how the guy who bought this for his family feels when he realizes he doesn't have the experience to work on it in depth, like removing the upper playfield for some known complaints. Spooky did say that they are addressing the QC issues but it does seem it isn't doing much good with the latest posts and pics from owners the last few pages., never mind throughout this thread. I too, want spooky to succeed more than any other company and hope they turn this around. Maybe just maybe, Benton is in a rural area and getting qualified help is the problem as the company grows bigger.

Thank you! Very informative diagnostics here

With Scooby not sold out and the amount of companies with new games new in box to be had makes for a very competitive market and a small window for Spooky to complete the final sale.
Scooby builds are in the 400's and people are backing away for many reasons. Pre-orders for sale start at $1400 right here on pinside and other socials. That makes for a get them out and bring in the money in situation.
Really was hoping the QC would be a focus at all costs but it seems secondary to the full complete sale and getting games out the door. The posts on here of problems alone speaks volume and it is not getting better.

I've been away for a few days, and checking in on this thread is really disheartening.

Spooky needs to slow the fuck down and fix these issues. There is no excuse other than "We really need the money" to not pump the breaks and figure out how they're nearing 25% of the games being out or on the line and still being delivered with sloppy ass soldering, DOA games (that they apparently fully QA/QC tested and approved), and poorly assembled components and games. Just really inexcusable for ANY company, but these guys in particular since it seems like there low-key burying their heads in the sand at the moment.

Still have my late 700 preorder, but I am losing faith after the past few days of issues I've seen here and elsewhere.

E: That said, if we hit 700-725 and the issues are still this rampant, I'm dumping my spot for cheap and using those funds towards something else.

This is where in manufacturing you stop. All hands on deck meetings, you get folks on the page and begin finding out whose doing what wrong. It's great they are growing, but I think perhaps they are growing faster than they can handle.

I had a good conversation with Joe and kind of put my mind at ease a bit. Said I could talk to Luke too if I wanted. I do think they are working on fixing these issues so hope my early 700 game is good. That said, unless their next themes are amazing and a must have for me, I’m going to hold off and wait/ get from someone who drops out. This will imo hurt them in the future as I’m sure I’m not the only one so it has to be handled fast. At least their cs is good and fast. I’m told it’s a very tiny percentage of games. Idk I told them pinsides a shit show of issues.

Trying to sell your spot after trashing the game in the club thread...

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Qc is disappointing to see on Scooby. I was hoping after Ultraman/Halloween that it would not be. Ultraman/Halloween still needs help and code.

Did any of the new Rick and Morty episodes get implemented into the code on that machine. I know this was talked about by Spooky but i think that ship sailed.

No one in a club thread is going to buy them anyway. So no harm.

This is exactly what needs to happen. Maybe not a nice thing to say, but I see this as a training problem, an oversight problem, and possibly negligence at the employee level. Thing is, it's a small company and I'd be willing to bet the shoddy work isn't distributed among all employees. Time to have some tough discussions and either train better or really drill down on where these issues are originating. Some of these pics with melted wires and connectors - that stuff shouldn't have even made it to QC to be caught. Time to reinforce a culture where mistakes happen and are accepted, and the ones that get covered up are taken care of at the source.

A few thoughts on QC.

(1) Ensuring the quality of materials.

(2) Inspection at all stages of construction to ensure that specified requirements are completed properly. 100% inspection.

(3) After the finishing touches have been given, conducting a final 100% inspection.

(4) Preparing a documented inspection plan, addressing all stages of the manufacturing.

(5) Make Rejection's/holds due to poor quality so that losses to the company are minimum and not passed to the consumer.

(6) Making an improvement plan for upgrading quality continually. Take pride and encourage employees to preform at their best.

(7) To keep a watch and report on all issues that can affect quality including skill of workmen, condition of construction equipment, external factors.

Problem with Rick and Morty is the license was limited and expired, so they couldn't get more episodes in afterwards

I’m confident Spooky will work out the issues.
In automotive production we have things called “Quality Gates” at various steps on the line. One of the best ways to set up a gate is to have an operator that is normally on the line perform the inspection. This also creates a sense of accountability.

CE #390 is in the house! I took a drive over to pick it up. The staff was super friendly, helped me get loaded, and I haven’t had any QC issues.

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How’s close is the green to tmnt? Looks almost alike in the pictures

Same color… illusion sour apple

I am not a fan of this approach. This is likely to ensure a connection and I do get that spade connectors might have unseen crimp issues but these parts can also only take so much heat. This also makes it difficult and more work to replace a part, in this case a simple cherry switch.

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Have to think it's related to them growing and possibly newer staff? Cause while there was some issues with Halloween/UM, it was nothing like what we have seen with Scooby so far, especially all the wiring issues and such. Outside the early tweaks to those machines and the problem with the powder coating on Halloween, the QC issues on those machines were mostly smaller things it felt like, or those who got a bad batch of the same computers. But so far the scooby issues are another level it looks, so perhaps they have really had a ton of new workers who need further training

I agree. When it comes time to swap out a switch in this game instead of it being a 10 second repair its now going to take a lot longer. Don't like this method at all.

I noticed the auto plunge / plunge when hitting the "SD" plunge button often doesn't "fully powered" fire the ball. What's the fix / solution for this ?

I asked for a new launcher.

And about 18 other new parts (sorry low blow I know) just voicing my frustrations even though I don't even have my game yet.

I'd like people to keep this in mind, people complain when Spooky doesn't build them fast enough, then people complain when they build them too fast and have QC issues. Which one do you want? Can't be both... From what I've read and seen, I'd say they're going too fast with an inconsistent process that's allowing these issues to consistently creep up but that's only a guess since I'm not there in Wisconsin personally observing the process from start to finish. But that's the only logical explanation for the game with two boards of the same kind in it. Also, any blade connectors should never be directly soldered, ever. That's why you have male and female connector parts for that type of connection.

Confirmation bias is a bitch...

None of what I've seen would discourage me from buying another Spooky pin so if any of you want to offload your CE spot for free and I'll just pay the remaining balance on shipping hit me up... I doubt I'll find any takers... LOL

Yeah because 2 k is too big a loss . People think the 200 is too big a cost for transfer as well. Me I will take the 200 loss but not 2k . Any takers on number 700 something

Then you must not be all that concerned. Which is my point...

I think anyone still around at this point would be happy to wait a few months for a game that works without basic bitch QAQC problems. Just my guess.

While the 'family getting first pin' scenario does make sense that it should not fall on them to fix...it's just not how pinball machines work. Anyone in this hobby (or other electro-mechanical hobbies...like vinyl records/record players that require constant calibration if you're doing it right) for a long time knows the potential challenges that exist with new...anything.

I'll just loop back to the fact that ALLLLLLLLL the current pins coming out have their issues...from spinners that are falling apart, node board fails, mech fails, poor/rushed clear coat on playfields (good luck fixing that) and code bugs...no one is exempt.

As far as I can tell Spooky is the only one directly helping solve issues. Be thankful.

This doesn't mean that the issues should be given a 'free pass' but you're also not being hung out to dry.

CE #298 arrived on Thursday (5/11). Set it up at the office on Friday (5/12) to let co-workers play it Friday & Monday (5/15). Approximately 30 games played (with multiple players) without any issues.

Monday (5/15 afternoon, loaded game up to took home for family to play. My son played game for 3 hours, non-stop (also with multi-player games) and only had 1 ball get stuck on the blue wire form. Other than that, game played flawlessly.

Hope this will be the new norm for all upcoming Scooby-Doo owners!

This would be very much welcomed. Thanks for reporting in

Spooky is a for profit company. Speed = finishing the run so they can move on to the next title. Yeah some of this sucks to see. Sorry some of you are going through this but they will fix the issues. They have been consistent with the support.

#312 still going strong with probably 150+ plays on it. Just some minor adjustments needed after shipping.

There’s mechanical and growing pain issues which I am fine helping spooky going through.

There’s also poor soldering and attention to detail that is just low quality work and lack of respect for a 15k Canadian peso product..

Second pic is the backbox key mech has basically 1mm or less of wood holding it together..

First pic is hard to see but the connector header is snapped.

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That's rushing and trying to push games out as fast as possible. It screams a lack of pride in the work which I hate to say as the Spooky team seems like great people who love the hobby.

Can you imagine the torches and pitchforks if they weren’t? They have to be. That’s it.

All the bad components aside its total amateur hour on the assembly line. Pics over the past few days prove it.

Again, confirmation bias is a bitch... So you're going to ignore the users who are reporting fully functional games to say "pics over the past few days prove it"? Right...

that last pic looks like the pf was rested on that drop target connector in service position , i did that the first time i lifted mine out as the rubbers are in that position .
i had a coil fail and screw up the red chain, but a call and a couple emails later all was well , AJ guided me on testing the warden and removing the right sling coil and i was up and running in no time until a new coil arrived.
i prefer a soldered connection over a spade connector all day long. it would take me maybe a minute to desolder aand resolder a switch.

this thread is becoming what WOZ was in it's early days. excitement and hype, team JJP active and posting, then all the public complaining ,even from those who do not have their games yet, and just like Stern, JJP is silent here now.
These same actions will chase Spooky away also. I like having them engaged here, i like the posts about new led drivers, and ideas they post for future code, and help offered when needed. this should be a last course place to vent when all others have been exhausted, my service experience has been great with them.

Please keep in mind that not everyone who has a pinball machine owns soldering equipment or knows how to even if they did. That's the point of friendly connectors and not soldering directly where you can avoid it.

THIS ^^^^^ sad ,but True