Just the lower half of the playfield- under both slings and maybe a couple others but the upper playfield ones are much brighter.

I had this happen. The connections themselves were fine…but a few pins were not seated in the “molex” connectors so not making good contact. It was an easy fix but kind of a pain in the a$$ checking each individual wire. Dont recall which machine it was…but was the exact problem you described.

Has anyone seen the “in memory” screen on demo? It was a guy holding a Playfield. I had half a second to see it..

I just saw it again! It said “in memory of Dean Grover, the reaper”

Interesting. I’ve never seen that.

Good suggestions here and I will add that if its a whole section, then look to the node board. Could be connectors or something else on there.

I looked in the manual and found the connection (CN15 on node board 8). Connections look ok and the lower playfield red GI (on the same connection) is working and bright. The board in the backbox shows all power supplies as ok (red light). Was thinking maybe this naegle oil bldg is causing an issue but i think that taps into upper GI.
Appreciate the help

Just saw that yesterday for the first time.

Today is the final day of Godzilla Pinclash qualifying (https://www.pinclashtourney.com/). The goal is the largest Tokyo carnage bonus collect.

Yesterday I streamed a game that would have been the current top qualifying score. Unfortunately, the video screwed up partway through so it won't count.

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Ouch that really sucks

Dean Grover was one of the designers at Stern, and spent some time at Williams in the 90s. His obit from 2022 below, sounds like he was a true warrior:

https://www.newcomerdenver.com/Obituary/258133/Arthur-Grover/Denver-CO

"Arthur “Dean” Grover was born July 17, 1963 and he passed away on December 11, 2022. Dean fought medical battles for most of his life. His extraordinary heart kept beating through two bouts of cancer, a liver transplant and a cardiac arrest in 2009. He had thirteen bonus years, but his poor heart just couldn’t keep going. Dean is survived by his wife (Samantha), two children (Ryan and Amanda), a grandson (Zane), a daughter-in-Law (Sidney) and both parents (Mary and Rich). He is also survived by two sisters (Cheryl H and Anita S), two brothers-in-law (Mark H. and Dan S.), five nieces and nephews (Jacob, Jessica, Jana, Sierra and Bryce), two niece/nephew in-laws (Ceirra and Dylan), one great-nephew (Finn), and quite a few in-laws in Sam’s family.

Dean was an ‘Air Force Brat’ and lived in many states as a child. He finished high school in Apple Valley, CA and then attended Purdue University in IN. He graduated in 1986 and went to work for Hughes Aircraft Company. He lived in the LA area. He loved beach volleyball, biking on the strand and often hiked in various spots in California. Joshua Tree was one of his favorite places.

Dean’s lifelong joy was playing pinball. At one point he was ranked 47th in the world (currently there are 30,889 players listed). He got his first machine (300) while battling cancer. He had a collection of pinballs (about 35) and video games (25) in his home, and a few in relative’s houses too. His love of pinball was not just recreational, he pursued a career helping design and program pinball machines. He worked for Williams Pinball in the 90’s. He was working for Stern Pinball when he passed away.

His other career was as a software engineer in the defense industry. His company name changed multiple times, but his dedication to the work never did. He earned quite a few accolades from his company, and some from the federal level too. He worked for the same company for over 30 years (with a small hiatus while working for Williams) and retired in 2018.
After that, he contracted with Stern to work on pinball machines again.

Dean was intelligent, kind, caring and generous. He was loved by many and will be missed greatly.

Pinside lists Dean Grover as part of the design team for many of the games we know and love today:

https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/dean-grover

Has anyody used ninja balls succesfully in GZ.
Need to buy new balls for all my machines but half of these have at least 1 magnet.

Updated with items sold as of today.

I use them all the time and have not had any magnetism issues in my games with magnets: GZ, AIQ and TZ. I do change out around every 500 games or so, when scuffed looking.

Solved the lower GI issue FYI. I was looking at the connector on node board #9 (which looks exactly like node 8). After realizing I was a dumbass, i pushed the connection in on the correct board and we’re back at 100%.

Question, is this one of those games that really benefits on upgrading the speakers? I get the music theme pins, but what do people think who have?

Pinwoofer really sounds great , speakers alone won't do much good

Jet Jaguar is in real trouble now.

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Went to MGC and a damn giant lizard followed me home. I think I'll keep him, so I'm now in the club!

I have no idea why I did not get the Lermods plunger fix earlier. I have purchased a shit-ton of mods over the years, but this little guy is a must have for this game.

There is a shit ton of mods for this game...holy crap.

Oh ya man. I think I have helped Diddy and Stumblor buy a new Porsche and a beach house in Tahiti.

There's a separate thread for mods that's bigger than most game threads..go over there and go through the gallery!

I think by the end of this year Davey will have sold more neon sign mods than stern has sold some of their less desirable games this year. Probably true for a couple of other mods as well!

Yes, the stock speakers are poor. Sound and music are big parts of the game and well worth it imo. A simple upgrade you can do is change the backbox speakers with Kicker CSC 4”. Direct swap. Can also do 5.25” speakers but you need to get new mounting plates. Just doing that will yield a good improvement. You can also replace the cab speaker with a sub or use an external sub. And people take it even further with amps and so on. Check out the DIY audio thread. The op there has done tons of analysis and has recommendations for Godzilla.

^^^This. I followed this precisely and oh what a difference. While the speakers are definite improvements, for me the biggest impact comes with adding an external subwoofer. It really makes it sound like the big boy is stomping around, especially during the bonus tally at the end of a ball. If you have a shaker motor (which, IMHO is a must), then you'll have a total immersive experience.

Are the Kickers the same depth for those of us with speaker grill lighting mods?

I did that day two with the machine and it's indeed awesome.

This is the 5.25”. They mount flush as the stock speakers but protrude into the back box more. Maybe 2 inches?

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There shouldn't be any issues with having that model speaker and a SPIKE 2 Speaker Light Kit (if it is one of my SPIKE 2 Speaker Light Kits). There have never been any reported fit issues with any 5.25" speakers not working with any of my SPIKE 2 Speaker Light Kits.

Doug (SpeakerLightKits.com)

I can confirm. I have those speakers and Doug's kit and didn't have any issues.

Thank you. I would be installing the four inch Kicker speaker and have the Myth pinball kit but I assume they are similar.

With stubborn connectors I like to use sandpaper. I cut the sandpaper into manageable pieces and it usually works well.

Yep for me it’s a real benefits, better sound and clarity even in 4’’ speaker…. here is my mounting on my GZ, with a good EQ settings it’s a pure pleasure.
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Nice mounts! Are those your design or did you find the STL online?

Do most people keep the mesh sandwiched between their cab speaker when replacing? I read it can create vibration / issues so just took it out

I remove if I upgrade

Thanks, Yep, found the stl here..
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5318717

I have never handled a Myth pinball light kit so I wouldn't assume that. You may want to contact them and ask. Their light frames are different from mine, as they did not just take my light frames to a metal shop and say "copy this" as other, knock off sellers have done...and that is appreciated.

What I can say, as pertaining to my light kits, there have been more hurdles to overcome to get some 4" speakers to fit than any 5.25" speakers. This is mainly due to the factory 4" speaker plates having the bars running though the speaker holes on them and some 4" speakers being made with spacer rings attached to the front of them (I don't think anyone is still doing that). As far as 5.25" speakers go....the 5.25" speaker plates do not have the bars running though their speaker holes and as long as you are mounting the 5.25" speaker to a 5.25" speaker plate...there have been no reported fit issues.

Doug (SpeakerLightKits.com)

Thanks. I bought the speakers from Amazon. Easy enough to return if they don't fit.

For me, l didn’t removed the mesh, I use this foam spacer between the mesh and the speaker and no more vibration.

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If there are gonna be small kids/animals around your pin, I'd keep it. What I did was just put it on the outside of the cab instead of the inside. No extra parts needed and plenty of room for the speaker now.

To me maybe the best game I have come across . So if it’s not clicking now for you I doubt it will .

WTF! Focal makes speakers like this too! Have to imagine they kick ass as their Home Speakers are world class.

Oh yessssss, I have a kick in the butt every game , I can feel the cabinet vibrate during the game, awesome, no sub needed

Has anyone removed mechagodilla for repairs.. is it difficult?

Stern sent replacement plastics, do I just need to buff these clean with novus to get them shining, they're very dull looking and have that big white strip?

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They have a protective plastic cover layer you need to peel off the top.

May or may not have a white layer on the bottom to peel as well, but definitely the top layer.

RM

Prior to getting my machine, I bought the Chrome Candy stainless steel shooter lane fix, but when my March2023 machine arrived, I noticed it doesn't seem to need it. I am wondering if there might not be some diviations in the shooter lane ramp manufacturing or the height of the installation divets milled into the playfield with the result that the shooter lane ramp is not level left to right on some machines-- sloping to the right a bit more on some machines. This would cause the ball to hug the right wall, and hit the stainless steel lip as it falls.

oh thanks, totally could not tell that was a film on top and bottom.

Keep in mind, that replacement plastic will also crack from the bridge hitting it. Did you add a washer to the coil sleeve as described elsewhere in this thread?