Since Spike can do microsecond pulse duty cycles (Spooky, JJP, American, Multimorphic are stuck with 1 ms as their minimum pulse) I think Stern can make it better with code improvements to the magnet duty cycle their hardware allows, but it will likely always be an issue to some degree with long play games.

I'm already working on a bracket that will plug into the Tibetan Breeze flipper cooling kit to also cool the magnet. The Godzilla-specific kit will be 3 flippers with an optional magnet bracket (you can also use an existing Tibetan Breeze kit and get the 3rd bracket option separately). Hoping to have the Godzilla one and the magnet bracket out in about a week.

So, just using a $15-20 Raspberry Pi Wifi dongle. That's some markup.

I don't think Stern is really set up to handle custom font work well. They messed up the kerning on Deadpool and it was screwed up for like a YEAR until they finally fixed it. It's not rocket science. Once you get your tool made it can spit out custom kerning tables for pretty much any font you want to dream up. Someone at Stern just has to WANT to.

Perspective.

The app's pretty basic. Being super-generous, let's say it was $100k to develop. That's about $30/machine, fully amortized by the time Godzilla is done. So we're at about $50/machine with the app and wifi dongle. Dunno what they're using for QR reading, but would not be surprised if it was a basic webcam because QR codes are not complicated so a low res webcam is fine. Those Chinese "door lock" QR code readers would also do the job (see example below that looks a lot like what Stern's using in the videos). Whichever case, about $10 in quantity. So $60/machine.

No idea what art you're talking about that was any significant cost. Payroll raises are completely untethered from the online system.

There's also server fees for the data management of the system, but again, those are not crazy if they're using AWS and managing it themselves, and I'm sure the upcoming OP fees will more than cover it.
QR-door-lock-reader (resized).jpg

I tried to always have a font that matched the content of games I worked on, so I am intimately familiar with kerning tables. When I see monospaced text in some crap localization, it drives me bananas. Unfortunately, it's pretty common, still.

But yeah, if someone at Stern went all Steve Jobs and got onto fonts they could pretty quickly have some sweet tools to handle this stuff painlessly moving forward and get very legible theme-specific fonts on their pins. Wouldn't even have to drop acid first.

Okay, forget about one-time amortization. The AWS management will be *extremely* basic since the kind of data it's tracking is not complicated (even if they add operator error and revenue tracking - for an additional fee). If Stern's doing 3 games a year, you have a generous $300k to keep the pretty basic app fresh, and that's still about $50/a machine on a rolling amortization per year. Haven't seen the node board, so I can't comment on that, but I would be shocked if it adds $30/machine in quantity. How complicated does it need to be? Power and a USB or serial interface and that's it. Spitballing components and development, only about 20% of that price hike is actual costs.

I'm POSITIVE something like that has to be in the works. It's too lucrative not to be, and the hardware is now included with every machine they sell.

I'm just talking about the bump we got in retail vs the cost of that network/online bump. And analyzing what we got vs the sizable price jump, it's hard to see the size of the bump as much less than an opportunistic money grab because Stern knew people would excuse it due to the pandemic and "new hardware" (even if that new hardware is essentially pretty cheap).

Moving forward, when those features are added for ops or tournament players or other monetizing, I guarantee that Stern will have those costs covered 5 fold by fees to access those advanced services.

I wish they had kept the Japanese like the Pro. Weird they took it off for the Prem and LE...

The art IS cool, I just think it's weird that the Pro is the only art package with the Japanese katakana characters for Godzilla on it. It's kind of part and parcel with the whole Godzilla vibe. Why remove it for the Premium and LE art packages?

Austin powers, too.

Maybe an attempt by Stern to keep distributors selling in their territories? More expensive if they have to ship cross country. Whatever it is, it's dumb and not eco-friendly. Think of the excess fuel and CO2 for that nonsense.

Funny you mention flow. The sinking building changes the ball paths, and hence the flow at each "stage". Pretty cool evolution of the Dr. Who Time Expander mech, IMO.

Yeah, I hate those pretentious pinball douchebags that watch streams and decide which plays better.

Seriously, though. There are situations where a Pro is ok. Iron Maiden is one example. Both are very good, and the Pro plays differently, so either is a great choice. TWD I would give the edge to the Pro. That crossbow sucked as the frickin' laser beam in Austin Powers and it still sucks in TWD. If it were gone TWD Prem/LE would be objectively better. It DOES happen that Pros can be the best version, just not super often. The Prem/LE is usually the better player experience. But you really need hands on both to make that decision in any kind of credible fashion.

Any practitioner of the first Delphic maxim can't be bad.

Redemption.

I've taken baseline temps for the magnet in 0.77 before code was updated to 0.79 because the magnet handling is supposed to have changed, and this will be a good way to see if it improved the temps and by how much. The magnet does get pretty hot. 166F in 60 minutes of play, with no end in sight, so I could see it breaking 200F in another hour.

I'll try it again after an update to 0.79 and see where it's at, but this is what it looks like now...

An add-on for Spike Tibetan Breeze kits to cool the magnet is underway.

godzilla-temps sml v.77 (resized).jpg
L Probe/R Probe is because I'm tracking temps on opposite sides of the same magnet coil.

Stern's like "Eco friendly? We don't care about no ENVIRONMENT!"

No, I do the fan tests after I have the baseline tests done. But given the experience with flipper coil testing/cooling I would be surprised if once cooled these get over 120F, and would hope I could keep them in the 100-110F range. The only challenge is I have to direct the airflow two ways to cool around both sides of the larger, flatter coil area of the magnet, but I think I have that worked out.

Anything's better than nothing, but I'm hoping for more. 15% on 200F is still 170F, which is crazy. That said, I prefer the more aggressive ball grabs and holds, so I hope that isn't dialed back too much, especially since a cooling option will make the magnet fully functional at full power basically as long as you want to play.

.77 is the baseline only so I have a before/after comparison to see what kind of improvement the magnet handling changes made. .79 stock will be tested and posted next, then I'll do .79 with active cooling.

Yeah, those lengthy ball holds you can watch the temps go up on a pro.

I'm interested in trying the Prem/LE now, but the Pro is a flow monster. Really fun to shoot and flowy combo chains all over the place. I can't imagine people being disappointed with the way it shoots. Very fun.

Direct link:
https://f002.backblazeb2.com/file/gamecode/godzilla_pro-0_80_0.spk.zip

PRO:
V0.80.0 - October 21st, 2021
============================
- Godzilla Magnet - optimize magnet firing parameters
- Godzilla Magnet - fixed an issue where disabling the Godzilla Magnet by adjustment would not completely disable the magnet
- All Modes - made improvements to mode shot flashing arrow priorities
- Cities - Paris background city has been updated
- Cities - New York background city has been updated
- Building Damage - adding white arrows to indicate when shots will damage the Building
- Building Damage - default difficulty will now allow Building to be damaged on upper floors from Building Bash
- Building Damage - adding shaker motor when building is damaged
- Bridge Attack - adding shaker motor when bridge is damaged
- Powerline Attack - fixed an issue when Powerline Attack is started it would flash the Shoot Again lamps creating the illusion of a ball saver active
- Powerlines - fixed an issue where the Action Button would light up when completing sets of targets
- Destruction Jackpot - adding shaker motor when Destruction Jackpot is awarded
- Heat Ray - added a delay between button press and Heat Ray % animation start
- Tier 2 Battle Modes - added light shows and shaker effects to card intro animation
- Monster Rampage - increasing scoring for each Rampage letter collected and showing awarded score value on display
- Bonus - adding "Total Bonus" to the final screen on the end of ball bonus countup
- Score Frame - allow the score frame to be visible during Godzilla intro if a new player is added
- Light Shows - adding more light shows to the game
- Insider Connected - fixed an issue where sometimes player names would not be correct in the Score Frame

- Adjustment Changes:

- none

- System - Updated to V2.92.0 on OS: v2.3.0

- Address Insider Connected game registration corner cases.

PREM/LE Specific:
- Bridge Attack - when Bridge is destroyed and multiball is lit the Bridge mech does a destruction animation
- Bridge Attack Multiball - fixed an issue where mode could not be started if the Building Stepper was disabled
- Super Train Loops - now diverts the ball after 5 consecutive Left Ramps

More magnet tweaking in 0.80 according to the readme.

0.79 cut temps about 20% compared to 0.77, but at the cost of a much less grabby magnet. In the 2 hour test I had many instances where magna grab just didn't grab. The ball has to be moving much more slowly for it to catch it in 0.79 compared to 0.77.

Hopefully the fine-tuning of 0.80 fixes that.

Looks like flipper coil temps will be in the range of TMNT/Led Zeppelin/Mandalorian, so only mild fade after long sessions.

I've made it with stock power, but it would be MUCH more common with just a couple bumps more power. The upper flipper is kind of a wimpy coil to begin with, and then the power's not high. Bonus is, it doesn't get hot very fast at all.

There's a setting on the system menu where you choose the amount of shaking. I believe it's set to maximal from the factory.

Stern has a kit to add a headphone jack to the front coin door. I don't think it's included with the LEs.

Official kit is here:
https://shop.sternpinball.com/products/stern-headphone-jack-kit-for-spike-1-system-games

Much less expensive 3rd party kit here:
https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-spike-2-headphone-jack-assembly.html

This game has a lot of breaks programmed into it and actually it helps keep the flipper temps from getting too far out of control.

I'm fine with the magnet grabs, and actually preferred the more aggressive grabs of 0.77.

It feels good to me, but it's not as fast as others mentioned because it's a incline ramp on the back side. The ball is gaining elevation as it comes around, jumping over the center part in back and coming back to playfield level as it returns to the upper left flipper. That elevation rise and jump costs a little speed.

The incline also will make a poor shot roll back out as it fails to make it up the slight incline to the jump.

Dead simple. The facade just screws off and there's plenty of room in there for lighting.

I personally think that some uplighting on the front of the building might be aesthetically pleasing, but the damage indicator insert lighting on the playfield could probably be mirrored into the building to light up the windows as the damage increases. Definitely a lot of possibilities to improve this area on a Pro.

Godzilla_Pro building (resized).jpg

I have no interest in doing building lighting mods, I was just posting a pic for the person wondering about the possibilities. I also think an uplighting mod (maybe two segments of tiny hedges to hide a couple LED strips?) for the front of the building would look nice.

The upper flipper is a smallish coil and turned down (too far, IMO) in the settings. You can turn it up a bit and it feels better. There's a lot of overhead available since it doesn't get that hot at all because it's very conservatively powered.

You're not crazy. The first thing I noticed was the upper flipper felt off. Once I looked at the coil and settings it was clear why. Fortunately there's plenty of overhead to make it feel a bit stronger by just turning up the power a bit.

The default Pro power settings on v0.80 are Right 230, Left 220, Upper 160.

When it lights up, do you see the red ring through the foam? If so, someone just put the Prem/Pro foam in there and covered up the LE speaker with the thin foam piece that isn't supposed to be there. On the back side, what brand are the speaker panel speakers? The LE ones are different. That would be another way to tell.

Yeah it looks like you just got an entire Pro speaker panel with all the fixins.

Your cabinet speaker, however, is not like the Pro so it may be correct.

Speakers are wrong, too.

Haha, no kidding. EVERY pin I bring in to mod I tell myself I won't replace the power supply fan because the pin's going away when I'm done, but literally day one every time I change the fan out because I cannot stand that high whine with the terrible fan they use. Gomez says a better/quieter power supply is coming, but...when?? It's been more than a year now.

I replaced the speakers AND put a small amp (the on board one is kind of wimpy) in an Iron Maiden Premium. Also ordered the parts to put the LE-style ring kit in it. It sounded GREAT. Note that the post spacing on the speaker plates is different on the LE with the larger speaker, so at the very least you need the LE-style speaker plate adapter to use larger speakers.

Here's where I talk about the installation and the parts you need (with part numbers):
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/replacing-on-board-amp-with-external-amp-for-iron-maiden

Yeah, you should be fine with the speakers and correct adapter plates, etc for the larger speakers.

Unless the PBL speakers come with the molex pigtail installed on the speakers you will need to solder, though.

The amp on the Spike board is the same, so buying better speakers (and the adapter plate to make the larger 5.25" speakers fit) will make your Prem sound as good or better than an LE.

Pinball Life sells the Stern LE speakers with links to the adapters, etc you need on the same page:
https://www.pinballlife.com/stern-le-speaker-set-5-14-4-ohm.html

But you can just buy the adapters, etc and spend more to buy better speakers. Also, don't forget to upgrade the speaker in the cabinet, too. The Pro/Prem is a cheaper cab speaker than the LE.

Ebay has the Goldwood 8024 I think is the same as the Goldwood 208/4 ones in the LEs (for $20):
ebay.com link: itm

Might as well make a Freddy and Jason to put in there while you're at it.

I'm no godzilla expert, but the eras are mixed up, though. This machine seems like it's heavily focused on the late 60s early 70s Godzilla. Also, scale would be an issue. The 1963 GvK just looks wrong. King Kong is essentially the size of Godzilla. It deprecates Godzilla's size, IMO.

Seems like a bad fit, but people can do whatever they want on their machine. It's for their happiness, not mine.

So did Stern upgrade the ground wire for the DBV lead going to the coin door on Godzilla, or is it my imagination? The new striped one looks a lot beefier. Maybe a UL listing compliance change for the 120V to the coin door? It seems like the old one was like 22AWG and the new one is like 18AWG...

I think in general the order is:
Small Pro run (for locations/dealers mostly) -> LE Run -> Prem Run -> wider Pro run. Maybe some small deviations for a show, etc (like Expo-bound premiums that were on the line).

Because there's clear over the art on modern playfields, unlikely. Although if you have a crappy Mirco playfield it *could* pull up the clear and maybe art with it. There's a number of videos out there where Mirco clear is just coming off in chunks, but that's more a Mirco problem than a mylar issue. Unlikely to happen on Sterns.

If it's like the Pro, there's an opto pair at the entrance to the ground floor of the building (in front of the blue rubber bumpers on each side). Likely one side or the other of the sender or receiver is off center from the hole in the lane guide and the edge of that hole is triggering the opto from vibration.

Adjust the optos until smacking the playfield with your open palm doesn't trigger them. Basically you want the sender and receiver centered in the hole of the lane guide. You should be able to adjust the bracket both the optos are mounted to from the underside of the playfield (loosen, adjust, tighten, lower PF and test), but it will be a little trial and error since you'll be doing it blind relative to centering the optos on the holes of the lane guides.

Looks beautiful. I still can't for the life of me understand why they only included the Japanese katakana for Godzilla below the name on the Pro and left it off the Prem/LE. It's integral to the theme.

Stern is such a mystery sometimes...

Wait, back this up. Is that like delayed signal to your hand, or your hand refuses and has its own ideas/social life, like alien-hand syndrome?

Also set up to start the game from the factory. I hate that function (although it's GREAT for location), so I changed it immediately.

No, I know about the brain surgery stuff. I'm just wondering if it slowed down his responses or gave him Alien Hand syndrome where the hand gets a mind of its own.

Are those LE badges plastic now? I don't see any metal showing through...

Yes. This is a negative change since 0.77. The grab was great in that rev and earlier, but .79 and .80 are much worse. I assume it's all part of the dialing in process, but it would be nice to have a menu option for how strong the magna grab is.

Flip n Out has them listed:

Pro
https://www.flipnoutpinball.com/product-page/stern-insider-connected-retrofit-kit-for-pro-models
insiderkit_pro (resized).jpeg

Prem/LE
https://www.flipnoutpinball.com/product-page/stern-insider-connected-retrofit-kit-for-prem-le-models
stern_insider_kit (resized).jpeg

Quake hold museum putty becomes museum pudding over time with the heat under the glass. It WILL ooze and drip eventually. Not recommended.

Yeah, I've seen news stories on it. I knew you could get it from accidents/brain injury, but I didn't know you could get it from brain surgery. What you mentioned just sounded like it, which is why I asked. One guy that was on 60 minutes had a hand that would grab the remote and change the channel all the time. It really very visibly frustrated him. I can't imagine dealing with it in a pinball scenario, but it sounds like you're managing ok. Is there a chance it will fade as your brain heals?

That works well with the game since when you're chaining that loop, you're spinning him around.

They kind of blew past this slide with calculations for the Godzilla Prem/LE building (weights, force needed to lift, drag, bearing load, etc), but I love this kind of stuff, so I grabbed it.
godzilla building calculations (resized).jpg

They'd probably lose the audience fast, but I totally wish they'd go deeper into the engineering side of things. I find it much more interesting than the software side of the development. I mean, it's PINBALL. Mechanical action is the name of the game.

I appreciate the sentiment, but thank me for emptying your wallet?
animal-house-thank-you.gif

It looks very similar to the Avengers disc setup, so adjustment should be similar/same. Here's the relevant page from the Agengers adjustment doc...

Stern_disc-adjust (resized).jpg

Iron Maiden Premium plays a LOT differently than the Pro. Having had both, I prefer the Premium.

JP and Avengers? Pro is fine IMO.

Godzilla? I have a Pro currently, but I think if you had a choice to make, the Prem would be worth it. That rotating jump ramp, magnetic mechazilla, bridge diverter and collapsing building are all very cool and tightly integrated to gameplay.

I knew what you meant. Just having some fun.

I think as more people get experience with the benefit of Tibetan Breeze kits keeping the coils cool and flippers snappy, you will start to see them bleed into tournaments. Some games need it more than others, but all can benefit from having the cooling in a tournament. It's only a matter of time, IMO. Once you've experienced the benefit, it's hard to go back.

Speaking of which - the green special launch edition kits are shipping starting tomorrow. I got backed up because a restock order of the wiring harnesses ordered months ago got held up in customs and I literally ran completely dry so I couldn't make new kits.

There's a direct link to video of the session in the pinball expo thread here...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-expo-2021-new-location-/page/10#post-6578460

Yes there is. Default is Hybrid, which is a mix of the rock and the symphonic versions.

If you really want a Prem, you might be able to pick up a show model after a pin show IF you know who is going and contact them WELL BEFORE the show to buy it.

MGC is up next this weekend. See who's bringing new Godzilla Prems for the show and contact now. GO!

Pinside calendar is here to plot your early premium acquisition:
https://pinside.com/pinball/events

It's ~151mm x 34mm.

But just pull it off. It's thick textured vinyl and comes right off (this could be a problem for location play now that I know this - kids pull off anything not nailed down). You can get it off undamaged pretty easily and then use some 467MP if you or someone you sell it to wants to put it back for a "factory" look.

I just took it off the one I have now that I've made this journey of discovery on your behalf. Easy peasy. I'll put it in the goodie bag with new 467MP already on it so some future person can peel and stick it again if they want.

Seriously. I'll send you some 467MP to put on it after you sell it, making it peel and stick just like it was in the factory before they defaced the speaker panel with it. Pull it off carefully, put on the 467MP I'll send you, and toss it in the goodie bag. The best solution.

Hold on and I'll get you a pic of what the decal looks like with the 467MP returned to the backside. Stock look.

Hey there, slow down. That is not a universal Pro owner concensus. I own a GZ Pro and the GZ Premium (or LE if you have the dough and luck) is clearly the one to get for the best experience in this case. Completely obvious.

I also stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.

Sounds like an ethernet connection issue in the backbox. Post a picture of the backbox inside to see the cables.

Edit: Reversed switch wiring. I didn't read carefully to see you're playing with the door open.

Your connector in the backbox is probably wired reversed for the power cutoff switch. Verify it looks like this one.... (I'm thinking yours will be the opposite at this connector)

cutoff-connector (resized).jpg

If this IS the case, you can safely swap the connectors on the switch at the coin door and it will work right. But verify yours is REVERSED from what this pic shows in the backbox.

I'm out of ideas as to the cause now.

I say just unhook the two connectors at the door, pop the switch out and reconnect the connectors so the switch is just inside the cab, unaffected by the door and will play normally with the door closed until you can troubleshoot with Stern.

Report back once you have the fix!

If that's your excited face, I want to see your not excited face.

Maybe good feedback for sk8ball to have some callouts added for what shot to hit in unclear progressions.

And personal request - more time before hitting a flipper button generates a callout, and more than one callout available. Right now the reset time is way too short, and it says the same thing over and over.

Keith used it in his expo seminar, too.

Are the switches intermittent in switch test mode (testing them by rolling a ball, not with your fingers), or only in the game? If they're intermittent both places, you need to adjust the switch arms to get a better press on the switch button.

I didn't say anything about whether or not you could afford a Premium. I simply said that your assertion that ALL pro owners preferred the pro was wrong. A case of absolutes being wrong absolutely. As a Pro owner myself, I see the value in a Premium and prefer it. Let me refresh your memory...

You weren't speaking for yourself with this statement (note the absence of "I" or "me"). You were somehow asserting your opinion on the wider pool of "pro owners" with your personal opinion and wrong conclusion. I was just repairing that fault by pointing out that I am a Pro owner and do not agree, and surely there are more like me, just like there are some like you. I wasn't saying you can't have your opinion, just saying you can't put your opinion on other Pro owners and say it's theirs.

It sounds like the arm is putting too much pressure on the switch button, so there's not much room between pressed and not pressed and when the arm relaxes to the home position it can't always get high enough to release pressure on the button. Definitely think bending the arm a little to release some of the pressure when at rest will help the switch fully release so it registers consistently.

If that doesn't work, the switch itself may be bad inside.

You have a short, probably a bit of errant solder in one of the GI sockets this is not that uncommon to make it out the door having this error with Stern's high-quality final QA check. Post a pic of the screen with the error and I'll tell you which sockets to check.

You might find this thread entertaining (same problem):
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spike-2-node-9-overcurrent-protection-gi-failure-stern-jple

Wow, really weird there's not a slim post where those two lane guides don't quite come together.

I'm not sure how it could be attached securely. It seems MADE for a slim post. I'm not sure why they'd leave it like that. Out of sight, out of mind, perhaps?

Check all your plugs to make sure something didn't come loose. Start with the board on the left side inside the cabinet.

Could put some 3D printed bushes on the left and right side and then one in the center for continuity with the dot hidden behind it.

It doesn't know it's at the top and it's trying to turn then timing out and stopping. If that's what it is, it's not good. Will burn out the motor.

Go into diagnostics and make sure that the building diagnostics show that it knows where the building is at every stage. If it gets lost you need to adjust the switch or opto (don't have an LE, not sure how it triggers where it's at doing this blind) so it knows when to stop the motor.

Same. I'm sure it looked ridiculous, but there was no one around. On a JJP game it would take your picture and make it your high score photo, so at least I was spared that humiliation...

Yes, it lights up. You have to press and hold the button to charge the ray (while not losing the ball(s) in play - sometimes it's a feat) when you release it launches.

You can loosen the shooter with three screws on the inside of the cabinet, adjust, and re-tighten to center the rod better.

The glass channel is just a plastic insert stapled to the cabinet, surrounded by the side rails. Basically you have to see if the tightness is from the guides or the rails. Maybe back off the screws holding the rails a 1/4 turn and see if that loosens it up first.

Did you answer the confirmation email?

I didn't have any issues.

Seems like a corrupted download or bad usb drive.

I'd delete the one you have and try downloading again, then reformat the usb (not the quick format, the slow one), unzip the files and transfer them to the USB again.

That hasn't happened to me, but it sounds like a bug. Try to pay attention to what led up to it happening and send the as many details leading up to the sound cut and then reset to [email protected] or [email protected] to help them track it down and fix it.

Secret Applause Jackpot homage?

I made a post here with pictures about removing it and rehabbing the sticker for reuse if someone wants to:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-godzilla-official-owners-club/page/28#post-6582369

I'd do a guitar/piano pedal before I did that. Seriously considered it.