Godzilla in da house !!!

After 16 months of waiting, finally here.

Some minor tweaks and cleanup needed (someone at Stern a little too careless with the lube spray) everything seems to be working well.

Now lots of tuning it up.

RussM

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Try to see if it’s a mechanical issue vs power issue or something else. Have you looked under the pf to see if it’s binding or something? Is the motor getting power? Is anything unplugged? Tried reseating associated connectors to node boards?

I bought some other "fix" from someone else for this and it doesn't work for crap. I'm gonna have to try this one.

Start with one washer and move the bridge by hand to see if it hits the plastic. If it still hits, add one more and try again. You want the sweet spot between it not hitting the plastic but still allowing a ball to fall through the bridge when it is open/broken.

Thanks, very helpful, worked out great.

hey before you listen to any of the other people and start bending or gluing shit, turn your auto plunger power down.

I had ball stick here when I first got it. But after adjusting the auto plunge power down, it hasn't happened in 1500 games.

Go in the settings and reduce the power of the auto-shot and the lane feeder.
That fixed it entirely for me

Evan, does it respond at all to the building test in the settings menu? There you can actuate it by sending service commands. If it responds to commands from the service menu, but doesn't ever lower in play, check your Building Exit switch (#53) in switch test and see if it registers when a ball rolls through the exit gate.

Hi,

It does not respond to the building test in the settings menu. Strangely enough, I also don't get error messages. Mechagodzilla motor works fine in the test menu and in-game.

Thanks,

Evan

Made it to Planet X a handful of times now and feel clueless on getting more power-ups after for KOTM. Anyone have a specific strategy they use to pick them up efficiently?

I got the Chrome Candy shooter lane fix because it’s metal and I prefer the look. It works great. I only had a rattling launch maybe 1 out of 4, but now it’s pretty much zero. Very pleased with it.

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I had this obstacle too. Study carefully all the things that up the power ups at the rule sheet. And try to keep them a goal from the start of the game, rather than waiting until late when you need them. Even then it ain’t easy.

http://tiltforums.com/t/stern-godzilla-rulesheet/7210?page=7#heading--powerups

Thank you for the tip

Will try the new balls a bit
If I see problems will go back to stern ones

Great tip , thanks
Will do it right now

Installed a fan where the coinbox usually sits. That ac adapter in the backbox is sure handy. Hopefully, this will keep the temps down inside the cabinet.

Just ordered your speaker lights yesterday. They really look incredible. Can't wait to get my Zilla and get them installed.

GL at the show.

Did you drill a hole in the cabinet? Otherwise, you're not reducing the temp of the cabinet overall.

The only thing that really needs cooling is flipper coils. You can zip ties some fans to them (or pay a lot more money for pin monks more elegant solution). You can find a thread for the diy solution here, and pin monks stuff in the market.

A fan sitting down at the bottom of the cabinet won't do much for the coil temps.

And your game shares a Bday with my dearest mom. 2/24. Congrats and enjoy this amazing pin!

I haven’t posted much here, but thought I’d share my GZ prem with newly powdered armor by Steve at Pinball Refinery. He does a great job. Boom Boom woofer added in the cab, shaker, mirror blades, and soon to be installed Speaker Light Kit. Such an awesome pin!

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Node Board 10 is your issue. Stern got a bad bunch, mine included. Open a ticket + contact your distro. Sucks because we can't play the games we paid so much for and waited so long for, but whatever. It will get fixed!

EDIT: SOLD

If anyone wants the chrome candy version, I have one I'm not using. $10 shipped in the US (50% off). PM me. Just supply your own double sided tape.

Thanks, I'll make sure to pass that along in the support request.

Appreciate it!

Evan

FYI, tape (with thx for the info): https://www.mcmaster.com/7139A21/

I found an additional type on eBay I might give a whirl in comparison:
ebay.com link: itm

Stern was low on supply and probably harvested a stash from the Rush pile....

Got my premium unboxed today and have a couple questions.

1. There is a post behind the upper flipper that does not have a hex screw attached. Is this normal or is something missing?

2. Behind Mecha Godzilla on the plastic is a black plastic wire holder with nothing attached. Why is it there?

3. Flippers seem very strong. Scoop eject is also strong. Should I decrease their power?

I lowered the trough eject to 160, I will keep adjusting that one down for sure. No major issues so far, the game is fast.

Edit: March 7 2023 is the build date.

Happy to finally be here.
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the post and the wire holder are there to prevent stuck balls. for these and other weird things you can compare your pics to the pinside gallery to see if it looks normal.
can lower the flippers if you want, make sure you can still get it up the ramps even once the coils warm up. You'll be able to get away with lower power if you cool them probably.
scoop eject, you can tweak for gameplay. mine will bounce off left flipper, roll up right inlane and barely hit that rollover which advances jets. If you think that's too easy, you can turn it down a bit lower.

Congrats and welcome! Rarely these days is a game so universally appreciated as GZ. It’s really a complete package. Enjoy yours!

In the Heddorah smog monster mode, it says to hit the switches or light switches to increase value then shoot a green arrow. Dumb question: what do I do with the switches to increase value? Which switches?

I did this to my Avengers and my Mando. Pickup GZ on Saturday. It will get one as well.
Almost silent. Internal power supply fan NEVER comes on and it doesn't require any modification. Just remove one screw from the power supply.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacing-stern-spike-noisy-ps-fans/page/13#post-6863406

A 'switch' in pinball is anything that registers once the ball interacts with it. This can be any standup target, any rollover, any drop target, any rotations of a spinner, any pop bumper hit, literally anything. Many modes count the number of "switch hits" which just means start shooting the ball around and hitting things. Typically the most popular way to get a bunch is to rip through a spinner.

Yeah you just have to hit anything and shoot a green arrow to collect that value. It’s not something you need to really pay attention to it just is around in the background and it you have an opportunity to hit a green shot do it.

Hey all, tried searching for answers to these but this thread is a bit much. Appreciate any help on the following issues/questions in the Premium we finally received after an 18 month wait!

- The ball feed mechanism is pretty aggressively slamming the ball into the shooter rail, which is causing a divot and wearing through the ckearcoat already. Is this normal?
- The game seems to randomly switch to using the auto shooter for new balls. If I go into the options and toggle it on and off again it stays off for a little while, then starts auto shooting again seemingly at random. Is this a common issue?
- The counters on the kaiju battles are not increasing. I've defeated a few of the tier 1 baddies now but they still show as 0/X. Is that right? I'd thought it would increment...

Appreciate any help!

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Lower the trough eject power down to 180-190.

Search: eject for better answer. Hope this helps.

Thanks! I was clearly searching for the wrong terms.

Morning everyone,

Quick question, I noticed my building at the 1st floor\level was a little low and a slow rolling ball would get stuck at the entrance until the ball search kicked in. So I went into the service menu and adjusted the building default position accordingly and everything was fixed and it showed saving adjustment or position. However, it seems anytime I turn the machine off, the building goes back to that position where it’s a little too low vs the position I adjusted\saved.

I tried searching the threads, but couldn’t find anything specific on anyone having a similar issue.

Am I doing something wrong as I assumed making position adjustments would be saved and would be remain persistent even after power cycling the machine or am I missing some setting or step(s) to make the change permanent regardless when machine is turned off?

Thanks for the help.

Recent NIB GZ Premium:

Found bits of broken black plastic in bottom of cabinet. Looks like pieces of the rear playfield glass channel.
Sure enough, the center of the installed intact rear playfield glass channel bows downward in the middle, preventing me from simply sliding the glass all the way in.
Ordinarily, I'd simply loosen the screws holing the channel in and move it up a bit.
Can't do that because - no screws. Apparently this is now installed using double-sided tape, so I'll have to pry off the center part and move it up.
At the factory, someone must have mis-installed the first one and broken it getting it off. The second one was "mostly good" and they let it go out like that

Found a sticky greasy spray all over the inside of the cabinet on the right hand side in one area.
Realized it's the lube spray Stern uses on the metal sliding rails.
Someone got a little careless with the spray can and never cleaned it up.

Playfield clearcoat seems very thin - I can see the outlines of the inserts right through the clearcoat and feel them with my finger. Also has noticeable orange peel. Seems a drop in quality that should not happen.

People have posted that Stern stopped using the playfield centering brackets; those are back in now.

Needed the Abe Flips shooter lane fix - balls inconsistently rattling out of the shooter lane

Had balls going into the building lock and getting stuck at the gap between the metal subway and the VUK assy; did the "business card" fix. Seems to be working.

Had balls stuck next to the arm of Mechagodzilla (will do a plastic post/rubber fix)

Had balls stuck in the side of the rotating Mechagodzilla ramp (will do the hex post fix)

RM

And my birthday!

RussMyers that sucks…..I am seriously re thinking about my GZ pro spot I have in the June run. Is anyone else noticing thin clearcoats?

Sadly typical of Stern QC as of late. Interesting about the pf alignment brackets. The support person at Stern who told me “the new cabinets don’t need them” was either full of it, wrong, or misinformed - all equally poor. My pf also orange peel - not happy about that since day 1. The game is great but all the quality stuff is shit-tacular.

In a home environment, with good maintenance, I'm not too worried about it.

Keep it clean and waxed, check the balls regularly and replace them when needed

And...I'd rather this than the chipping/pooling/spalling clearcoats that other manufacturers have had issues with

BUT

For the prices we pay, I expect glass-like smooth tough clearcoats that last and look nice for years to come.

It's not too much to ask.

RussM

I am thinking of replacing the Red GI bulbs with Flame LEDs from Comet.

Anyone do this yet?

Any idea as to how many I need? Counted maybe 12?

RussM

I wouldn't do it personally. There's enough rgb in game to create the scene for me already.

Edit: I also read that as changing the GI
To red flame led.
So my bad. I was thinking you were going all red gi. Lol. That would be hideous

I put three in my game, one in extra spotlight facing Godzilla next to building that I added. Two inside the building. I can only notice them after game is over.

Yes I did that for my whole playfield, all of the red GI... It's a great look! Don't recall how many but can try to check...

Just recently got my premium. Had quite a few small issues and down to the last two. My building is not always recognizing balls being locked but I see some solutions here that I will try. The other one is that when I have the destruction jackpot on the magnet and ready to drop, it drops pretty far from the flipper. I can just barely reach it. is there are way to adjust that alignment? I thought maybe it was a game leveling issue but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I think that would be too much. Those flame LEDs flicker at a high frequency and you don't want your gi doing that.

I can recommend replacing the cool white gi with warm white. That really improves the feel

Interested to see what you do, I was thinking about this too. There is also a blue flame one correct? I haven’t been under the playfield yet, but wondering if I can put it on the heat ray insert when it’s activated and ready to use.

Had both of these problems.

For the building lock, seems to be the ball getting stuck on the gap between the small metal trough and the VUK vertical scoop.

I tried the "business card" fix - cut a piece of bus card - thick smooth paperboard, and tape a piece to the bottom of the trough so it bridges the gap; not so far in that it interferes with the VUK.

Takes a few minutes and costs nothing.

Seems to be working.

No idea what to do about the ball drop for the destruction jackpot - I can barely reach it with the left flipper too.

LMK if you find a solution.

RussM

Not a bad idea.

I fiddle with it all, maybe try warm white in the GI as well; lots of blues and green on playfield so don't know.

Fun to experiment though

RM

I put blue flame starpost lights on the slingshots and I really like the effect they put off.

So am I the only one that has this issue?

Thanks for the help.