Some buttholes are nice and tight and others are goatse

I thought some of Travis’s points were totally valid, and some were more his personal preference.

I haven't watched the stream and don't plan on watching any further until I get my game and can make my own impressions, but I had similar feelings with ACNC. I initially found it pretty rigid and frustrating, similar to what you mentioned of if you aren't hitting the mode shots you aren't racking up any significant score or making any progress to speak of, but eventually it grew on me.

I think variety in home pins is a big factor, and I've found I began enjoying ACNC a lot more after I got a simpler more forgiving machine like Monster Bash and the contrast makes me appreciate switching it up to a more brutal exacting game where you have to sharpshoot or make no progress.

That’s why I like the Spooky pins. They’re different.

If you’ve been around for a while, all the new Sterns are starting to sorta mold together. Lots of colourful art explosion, every shot adds points, and aim for MB after MB after MB. Just sorta gets boring after a while.

Don’t get me wrong - some of them are great games. But they all seem sorta the same after a while.

I’m looking for different stuff these days. Dare to be different. Bring it on.

rd

Absolutely! The longest delay in the game occurs when the player loses a ball on the upper playfield. The issue really is not having anything to shoot on the middle playfield. Any time you reach the upper playfield you are already in the house mode, so you can never make progress towards sanitarium mode. Why even have the ball travel from the upper playfield to the middle playfield? I think the solution is simple, don't start house mode until the start of multiball. Then allow the player to reach the upper playfield more often but increase the difficulty of starting multiball. The playfield if fun, let the players shoot it more often. Require them to complete multiple shots to each spinner before they can shoot the crossover ramp or use virtual locks and require them to shoot the crossover multiple times before it starts multiball. It's less noticeable on the middle playfield, but it's the same thing. There I wish they would take advantage of the physical ball lock. Complete a sequence of shots to light the scoop on the middle playfield. Then lock a ball in that scoop and launch a new ball from the shooter lane. Require another sequence of shots on the middle playfield to release the locked ball and start sanitarium multiball.

I don't think there are jackpots in the pumpkin modes, only during the three multiballs. Have you played the pumpkin mode where you have to shoot the individually lit drop target? That is my favorite mode in the game. For those that haven't played it, one of the drop targets is lit green. You have to hit just that one target. After a successful hit you have to shoot an orbit to reset the drop target and a new drop target will be lit green. In my opinion that is the perfect length for these quick modes. Another mode I though about would be similar to what I mentioned above, but light up all the standup targets, including the ones on the middle playfield...why not. The player must shoot 4-5 of these targets to light the orbits for 15-20 seconds. Since there are less shots, each successful orbit resets the timer. The final shot will be lit after the player successfully completes 3-4 orbit shots. I just prefer quick modes like this that have those multiple phases and multiple shots lit at once.

PS: Again, I don't want this to scare people away. The game is already good. I just think with a few additional rule tweaks it can be even better.

Halloween / Ultraman is not a brutal game. It's more like Lord of the Rings, where the majority of the shots lead to the in lanes. I think that's why my favorite mode is the one where you have to hit the orbits and drop targets. Those are the shots have a bit more risk / reward.

I haven’t had a chance to play either. Look forward to seeing one. I’m hopeful I’ll get a chance within another month when more make it out

And just to say, I get this is all very early code with lots of stuff needing fleshing out before polish on animations/sounds/scoring-balance. I still mildly regret not immediately pulling out the CC for Ultraman and figuring out the details later. But I’m sure I’ll get to see them in the wild and in friends collections soon enough anyways.

I remember being kinda down on ACNC when I first saw one, though I did notice the big improvement in build quality and saw the skeleton of a good game.

It’s kinda interesting. The shots are generally safe and beginner friendly in that you get lots of safe returns, so I guess in turn they make the code a lot tougher. I wonder how novice players feel about it.

Just an FYI there are some UMs out on Pinside marketplace with no markup.

Not standards though. I wouldn’t pay thousands more for stuff that makes no bearing on gameplay.

I always like watching Travis and his reviews .He always reminds people he is a tourney player first and foremost and I like that he puts that out every time .I got a laugh out of him talking about a pinball company guy calling it bush league with the multiball insert .I’m taking it that employee was from Stern and they should look at the back of LZ where 2 songs are not lit up fully

Absolutely 100% agree with this. No denying the new Sterns are incredible - great rules, great shooters, incredible art and sound - but if you own or play 2-3 of them they begin to feel a little samey. I think its mainly because Elwin's been the designer for most of the recent batch, and designers always imbue games with their signature feel. I'm not bashing them by any means, I own 2 (IM, AIQ) and I love them they are works of absolute genius. BUT they do feel very similar to play. I also had JP2 for a month and again, just the feel of it is very similar. I really wanted something vastly different this time. Honestly, I think most people will be blown away by Godzilla, and perhaps if I didn't have 2 of Elwin's games already I might have been interested too, but no it's not for me.

Halloween on the other hand looks soooo different, it grabbed me right away. It really is like nothing else out there, and already seems to be brilliantly themed to me - as a fan of the movie it's exactly what I would have hoped for. I for one am glad there's someone out there taking chances and building awesome machines like this - just means more variety for us pinheads, and that's a very good thing.

Right on. I was thinking that too this is just unique and I absolutely love horror and of course halloween. Carpenter is my favorite director and this was instant buy for me. I will have to live with less polish and my first shot at a spooky. I only have 1 stern and 4 DMD bally/Williams and also ordered Godzilla (love that theme too unfortunately lol). But equally if not more pumped for Halloween. Just hope some movie clips get sprinkled in I'm fine with average animation I've seen of clips mixed in are there

Sorry, got caught up counting our coins for the month and doing a few repairs. With the code update coming decided to put off streaming until Sunday. Sorry everyone. Will post when going live on Sunday.

I bought Halloween because theme wise and layout wise it hasn’t been done before. Nothing like it. That’s a good thing people.

It takes a lot of games to figure out a pin. And I’m looking forward to playing those games on mine.

Sunday is going to be a big day. Can’t wait to watch the new Halloween code streamed. For the first time we should be able to gauge the game with completed code, rule adjustments, assets added, assets integrated, callouts added, lighting modified, music fine-tuned and ball staging implemented. Being able to follow the progressions during the stream will indicate Spooky got it right. No pressure.

Edited to reflect how true this is in todays world.

Question...why is everyone assuming this is going to be a code update of that scale? Where was that said? I'm just asking in case I'm missing obvious sources of information. Do I need to follow Spooky's facebook page?

Completed!?!?!?!? We are on this for a year this is only like the 2nd real version lol! Still super early with only a tiny portion of the final features etc. We are just getting to the point I would consider roughed in. Nobody has even seen the sub wizard or wizard 7 ball yet or wizard mode clips or anything!

Yeah, not sure the word 'completed' was ever used, especially this soon after release.

I cannot begin to explain to you how much I appreciate this perspective! We are not a perfect, well oiled 40 year old giant company. We are just a bunch of guys throwing as much content as we can in really unique games that we hope customers love. Just trying to make something really cool for everyone to hopefully enjoy! I think we will continue to deliver that for years to come.

No.

It won’t be anywhere near complete code.

Like Stern and JJP and all the others, that’ll be in 6-12 months.

rd

I'm a newbie but feel my collection will be well diversified, as other have mentioned
Zep
Hot Wheels
Godzilla
and of course a future proud owner Spooky Halloween. Spooky is progressive and listening which is important.

Really excited

Sorta. They’re all new games.

Do yourself a favour and buy some 80s and 90s games.

As I told someone a few months back, “most of my favourite games don’t have ramps”

Now he owns a Centaur and a Firepower.

rd

SpookyLuke absolutely, just keep doing what you are doing, the machine looks fantastic! Can't wait to see how the rules and code mature to take advantage of that awesome layout, hopefully you guys are having fun coming up with new ideas.

Also no-one is really thinking the code is anywhere near complete after Oct 1st right!? OMG it's got a looooong way to go yet...

That’s a Dwight game. He probably considers its “finished”. Like he did with Ghostbusters for the longest time. lol

<hides and waits for Dwights fanboys to enter and fire up>

Lol

rd

why wait! Dwight gets a bad rap because of munsters. GB at the fully matured code is f’n awesome. TMNT…great out of the box. SW although not for everyone…great. He is not nearly as bad as people say.

<RD types out huge post>

<RD chickens out and deletes>

lol

rd

I agree with all the above comments of looking for something different. I love my MMr and AFMr. Want something cool to break it up.

Not trying to be a pest, but....

Lol.

Has critical comments and "what they should do"

Never played the game. Ok!!

At least you mention the code is early lol.

Well I think it's great that we are getting some updates, but when the math starts to not make sense. I ask directly. If there is an issue. Or they need more test time, that's fine. I think we all just want to know when machines will start rolling out to us commoners. If I get a call tomorrow and then I am officially 3 weeks out
(Spookys words from email "Approximately 3 weeks before your game goes on the line you will get an email from the sales team asking to choose butter cabinet or no butter cabinet, shipping info, etc.") then that is fine. But for now. According to the numbers given. I should have had an email weeks ago. So I just keep asking politely and directly hoping that once it will be answered directly and I will be fine with whatever the answer is.

We’ve all been there
Mines normally so brutal it’s best not seen

October 1st .. Are we getting hints of updates today ?

Thanks
Matt

52 got my email from spooky this morning

I had the opportunity to play Ultraman at Helicon Brewery here in Pittsburgh. Shout out to Helicon as it continues to be the best place to play pinball in the nation. Yes I said it!

I'm not going to comment on Ultraman as a theme b/c I absolutely have no interest in it at all. I will say that the sling shot sound could be the most annoying sound I've heard in some time. It sounds like someone checking out items at Target. I haven't checked the Ultraman thread but I can't believe people wouldn't comment on this as it's that bad. Spooky - needs to be fixed.

More importantly, I was there to see how this game shoots. To keep this high level, it's an interesting shooter. It's like two games in one. It has flow for sure as the ramps feel good, orbits are fast but then the left side with the hedge shots and the two minis really slow it down. Quite honestly, I wasn't thrilled but I wasn't disappointed. It's unique. It will likely be a nice compliment to a shooter from stern but on it's own, if it was my only game, not so much. It definitely flowed better than other spooky games but again, I'm just not sure if the constant flailing on those mini pfs will get boring/frustrating after 400 plays.

I really liked that flip up shot to the 1st mini and I liked how the return ball on each inlane snuck up on you a little - very similar to how Michael is in the movie. That was cool although I would like the return from the mini to the flipper to be faster.

Code on the game - I'm not going to comment. It's ultraman but for me, it felt very very early. There is so much talk about the code right now and animations, I think we all agree, it needs to mature BIG time but confident Spooky is going to do it.

On a side note, this def felt like the most well made spooky game to date. I've played them all and this one felt great. I didn't notice insane shaking either of the glass which was good. The ball on the 1st mini did get jammed after it went behind the target and the vuk would shoot it up, hit the target down but the target didn't remain down. This pattern lasted until I turned the game off b/c the game was registering points each time the target was hit so ball search never went into effect. Spooky - fyi for a potential bug.

EDIT - I forgot to mention, I was able to get the ball from the top mini to the left drop ramp and that was very cool. I can see that working in well with Michael being shot and falling off the balcony.

I got my email today. #56. Hope to get before Halloween!

Spooky: " we will be working on some updates in the month of October"

Pinside response 'Great news! See you October *1st* 8 AM, with the finished code!"

Lol

Same! Number 58. Bombarded Squirrel with questions as well. I apologized for that....haha.

Oh, believe me, it's been brought up many times, along with suggestions on other things to do or ways to improve it. I think the fact that there's less of us Ultraman owners, along with it just seeming to be a more "chill" group of buyers for whatever reason, stuff that's said over there just isn't getting a lot of attention (from Pinside, not Spooky!).

Cool! Was it a "3 weeks out" email?

Received e-mail for #54 this morning!

Yessss!!! Love seeing people getting their emails.

There has been some good ribbing and fun times here lately about the status of code. Spooky Luke acknowledged they have a long way to go. I played 20 games of Halloween and 10 on Ultraman last month and it was running the “first version” of software. On my best game of H, I was able to complete each level three times, until draining on the 3rd time of the top level. I could see the software wasn’t fleshed out well, at all. There was a lack of mini wizard and wizard modes or I would have seen them. The game shot very smoothly. I am excited to see what “version 2” of the code looks like on Sunday. It will be a huge step forward and I’ll be able to witness a plethora of enhancements.

I did not say, Morgan did say that there would be a follow-up email with an invoice

Hello!

We are beginning to gather the parts to manufacture your machine! Before your game is put on the line, we need to get final confirmation on a few things.

What type of cabinet you want (butter or regular)

Shipping information

Address

If liftgate is needed

Contact person and phone number to schedule delivery

Warehouse receiving hours if shipping to a warehouse

Before we asked what specific add ons you would like for your game, but not any longer! Minus the butter cabinet, CEs come with all the in house add ons we offered before!

Unfortunately we no longer can do special requests/modifications. We have more games to build than ever before, and we don’t want to delay you any further!

IF YOU ARE NOT READY FOR YOUR GAME YET, now is the time to tell us! We will not build your game if you are not ready, just please let me know!

Also,please let us know if you plan on picking up the game in person instead! We are here Monday-Thursday 7-5 CST to help you get loaded up! If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to reach out! And as always, thank you for supporting the love of pinball through us

Gotta get those cows warming up. Spooky needs two cows working four ten hour shifts to produce enough butter for just one butter cabinet. Supplementally, Spooky always get one more cow to work four ten hour shifts and make enough cheese balls for the Spooky crew for that week. The Cow Union says Order Order Order those big, bouncy, beautiful, butter cabinets from Spooky.

Finally got to put some time on the game with the new code. And to my surprise, the game still sucks just as bad. I guess you can't fix design flaws with code. Who woulda thunk?

This might be a dumb question, but what is “if liftgate is needed”? This is my first pinball machine purchase ever so I’m new to all of this. Lol

The delivery truck has a hydraulic gate to get the game to ground level. Otherwise you need a delivery dock.

Got it, I guess since for me it’s a residential home i will need the life gate.