Alright, just some quick thoughts after a coyote dozen games of Scooby:

First things first - I think it's amazingly fun. It's gonna be in my basement for a long time. It shoots well, plays fast, has awesome callouts, looks great, has cool light shows, sounds amazing. It really is a fantastic game.

Something I've been surprised about: it's hard. The left outlanes in particular are rough. They suck up everything. The upper right sling drains a lot of balls in the left outlanes. Not my favorite thing. And even balls coming from behind the first row of drop targets on the left will often find their way to the outlane instead of the inlane. Those two things do cause a lot of frustration. But it means I need to really improve my nudging game.

The upper playfield is fun. The bookcase flipper is taking longer than I thought to get used to. In a good way. It's so unique in the way it can both flip and throw the ball. But it does take practice.

The modes are great. And demand a lot of skill and accuracy. I like that, even though it means I'm crap at the game for now. They're fun and varied and I feel accomplished when I complete them.

All in all, zero regrets on picking up Scooby. Super glad to have it. Looking forward to many more hours

I tried both moving the left out-post to the up position and then taking it out completely…so far totally removing it seems to give me less left outlane drains…might be worth seeing what works best for you.

In my lack of patience going to ask one more question, is there a way to force those little boards that the switches plug into to "reprogram" sort of like the light board? Maybe they are just dumb boards and I can but worth a shot, have narrowed down my issue to every single switch plugged into that board being closed so I suspect it got borked during the update, I sure hope I dont have to take that thing off LOL.

Very interesting that removing it completely gives you fewer drains. I'll give that a try. I was going to move it up, but when I got under the playfield I noticed that I would have to remove another component in order to move it up and didn't want to deal with that lol. But I'm pretty certain I can remove it no problem.

Update here: I messaged the guy to see if maybe he had his pre-order number wrong. Turns out, he's got #410. So, mystery solved gang!

Our drop targets are starting to stick and getting harder to knock down. I'm sure they just need some adjustment.

Any tips on doing this before I open it up?

Jenkies!! He would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for meddling Pinsiders too.

Yup…felt like with the post gone its just less ‘bouncy’ over there so the ball simply continues down through the inlane. The top position seemed to be the safest, still had some drain potential but almost always in the ‘roh’ lane. If someone really enjoyed actively nudging a lot the lower position was keeping me more alert/on my toes.

Glad you followed up on this, Rtbreen needs to delete his post and/or change the CE number in the ad pronto. This type of mess can cause someone a sudden panic attack if they though they just "gave away" 1500 clams. The ad, unfortunately is still an active listing for CE-401 preorder for sale on Pinside.

I took the glass off and tested for the "sad scooby/not impressed" switch issue. I can make it trigger only by hitting the left flipper. No points are added, but I get constant disappointment from Scooby and Daphne cause that switch constantly triggers.

I checked - glass off - and cannot get any of the switches on the upper PF to make these sounds. I thought it was the upper exit gate, but it doesn't trigger those call outs. I took a little video if that helps, but cant add it to a post. But if anyone knows the specific switch that triggers this maybe there's a crossed wire or something.

Another instance where a simple operation manual would be amazing.

I don't know if any manual would have what sound effects are caused by which switch. They have published the switch layout, warden schematic, coil layout, etc (scroll down for links to schematic and board diagram):

https://www.spookypinball.com/game-support/

But my guess is you'll have to reach out to Spooky to find out when that sound effect is supposed to trigger to help track it down.

You're absolutely right, that's something too simple to change in code to include in schematics. I'll reach out to spooky and just continue enjoying the hell out of this game.

Can you still see the light shows? The new light board incorporates the topper into the light shows now

The current lights are still visible. I don’t have the new board yet.

Kind of like this! Cool

Scooby hit the top 100 list tonight.

#28

And people say I go overboard.
Regardless, I love this.

That looks fantastic!

You are lucky to have found Captain Cutler's Ghost, as I have looked everywhere (the past few weeks) and can't find it.

Did you just use double sided tape on the bottom of the character's feet? Any chance that the shaker motor could vibrate any of the characters loose and cause them to fall onto the glass?

It does look really cool, though. I like it!

This game not being top 15 is actually insane.

I think we can definitely get there with some more ratings! (nudge nudge, wink wink)

Needs more code first! (nudge nudge, wink wink)

We're on the case!

Those action figure sets sold out? See them on eBay but not the larger set now.

You have to piece them together unfortunately.

Updated to latest code and since the auto launcher fails to make the plunge. Anyone else have this issue? Thoughts on things I should check? So far switches all appear correct. Ball is detected. Launch is just weak.

After code updates to my Ultraman, it had set the autoplunger coil strength low.

Try increasing it?

RM

I did go through and just must have missed the setting. Off to look again.

Re autolaunch:

What's strange is when I do coil test the auto launch shoots fine 100%

But when playing it acts up for us and doesn't get up the ramp about 25% of the time. Ours is currently set at 90 after increasing it. But still acts up during play

Finally got around to installing the updated ball trap protectors from spooky. The instructions show 3 images (Daphne, spotlight, and barrel) on where to place them, but there are 4 plastics included, does anyone know where the 4thnone goes?

20230529_163037 (resized).jpg

Anyone know what numbers that have been invoiced this week? I am #615 and was wondering how close I am to being invoiced.

I saw #529 got invoiced last week.

Thanks. Starting to get excited. It won’t be long until mine is shipped

I'm excited for you. After getting mine last week, I'm excited for everyone that's waiting for theirs. This game is special.

I'm waiting to see what you guys do with the mystery ball center playfield

What’s the final verdict on adding springs to upper flip ? Unfortunately got my upper off now so I can give it a go if there is consensus .

I put a beefy one on mine and have not regrets.

I've not added one, but I do find the lower right shot (black knight I think) to be very frustrating with the stock spring. It never has enough snap to get the ball to that one shot.

Put over 100 games on Scooby this weekend…kids, friends and grandparents all had a blast! Not one stuck ball or launch fail. I still have not unmasked more than two villains in a single game…Creeper and Witch/Zombie are some faves to stack with SSMB. Black Knight is a ball-buster and I would certainly recommend tweaking the switches of both the black night loop and sling to make them a bit more sensitive. Stoked for character modes but current code is keeping us plenty busy and happy!

IMG_6876 (resized).jpegIMG_6896 (resized).jpeg

Not a single stuck ball is impressive. Haven't checked what my play count is at; I'm guessing around 50. And I've seen three stuck balls: one behind the drop targets and two at the beginning of the wireform that leads out of the upper playfield. If the ball doesn't have enough momentum on its way out, it gets stuck right as it drops.

As for tweaking switches, are you talking about increasing the sensitivity of the upper playfield sling?

That just made me think of something: I wonder if decreasing the upper sling on the main playfield would result in fewer insta drains to the ruh roh outlanes...

Basically just moving the tines closer together to prompt the switch to register a hit even when the hit is very (very) light. The ring on that seemed to be a bit stiff...I may swap it for one that is a little softer to hopefully allow a bit more 'give'. The Bk loop switch was a tad off-center so I worked it to be exactly in the middle and now that shot is very fluid (still very challenging to hit). For the sake of clarity, I'm talking about the shot on the upper in the Black Knight mode that gives you your first 'brush dip'.

As for stuck balls...guess I've just been lucky so far? It will happen at some point just like it does with every pin.

I pulled the PF up on my SD over the weekend and tweaked all the sling leaf switches to be more sensitive and the difference in gameplay is literally night and day. Previously the switches on all four slings (including the passive sling on the upper) only reacted if the ball hit them pretty hard and there was easily 2 or 3mm between tines. Using my switch adjustment tool from Pinball life I was able to move all these to within half a mm and the slings are SO much better now. Overall the game is much more "exciting" and the active slings helped me spawn a LOT more Scooby Snacks leading to my best game so far with 81 Scooby Snacks, 3 MMMB, 2 SSMB, at least played every mode with a few unmaskings, to get 9.8million for a new GC.

So, I highly recommend checking your leaf switches on the slings since 20 minutes adjusting these can make this an even better game.

Could you please include a link for that tool. Doing a search on Pinball Life did not find anything for 'switch adjustment tool?' Thanks!

Below is a link to the tool, it is a super simple bar with some slits cut into it. But, they have thought it out well and the angles are perfect to get into those hard-to-reach spaces under a Pinball PF.

https://www.pinballlife.com/ultimate-leaf-adjuster-tool.html

That tool is an essential “must have” for all pinball owners, along with a multimeter and a soldering iron.

A note to newbies though - don’t adjust your switches with the power on - if your metal tool touches a coil lug or other power source while adjusting, boom goes your switch network. Seen it happen … it’s very easy to do.

rd

Yes, what he said! Unplug the game, adjust the switches, and then to be sure none are CLOSED or too close, test it with the glass off. So, after you are done adjusting and put the PF back into playing position you can power it up without the glass and make sure the switches are good to go.

In general I would not recommend doing anything (unless absolutely necessary) under the PF with the game on, if you do you are gonna have a bad time and a sad day when a short bricks your 10k game.

I used command strips. Holding up for now, but may have to come up with something else as some of the characters’ feet don’t have much surface space.

Alright, I just can't seem to figure this out: how are the different ball saves activated? I do it by chance a lot, but I'd like to know how I'm actually doing it so I can do it on purpose lol

So currently the left outlane activates ballsave when you spell "Ruh" and "Roh", the right outlane activates the save after the 3rd time a ball rolls over it, and the trap door is raised when you collect all four lit Dog Tag targets.

What multiballs are currently in the game? Haven’t had a chance to play much with the kid but when I have played I haven’t started any besides captain cutler MB.