My Mom got her Gozilla Premium a few days ago. She really wanted a Jurassic Park but Stern never shipped it. She loves Godzilla second only to dinosaurs in general so it's a good consolation prize.

Damned if that game isn't fun as hell.

Had been a bit of a pinball hiatus for me, and am largely oblivious to how the hobby / market has been the past few years.

I guess. Well. Welcome back me.

Thanks. I'm partial to her. She does her best and tries for shots. She's not a great player, but it keeps it fun for her and pinball events like Godzilla Multiball and the building collapsing feel like a real accomplishment to her and this machine does great handing out really fun rewards.

Have to say it's the most fun I've had on a Stern I think.

Never bought a new in box machine before. What are these little key chain looking widgets in the extra sticker bag?

What's a used Jurassic Park Premium go for?

She loves Godzilla, it won't be leaving. She's retired and I've convinced her to spend her money on herself, not save it for us when she dies. We're doing fine. This sounds self-serving since she lives with us, but, again, I was long out of Pinball (Predator fiasco and my Dad accidentally fucking my Space Shuttle having put a taint on it for me) when this came out. She had to have it.

But, I would also love to maybe go halvsies with her on a Jurassic Park. Space Shuttle, Godzilla and Jurassic Park would be just about her ultimate thematic lineup. (Would just need a LEGO pin to complete.)

Keychain thingies. Ha. Imagine that. She has them blue tacked to her computer monitor. Looks cool.

That looks awesome.

Ordered one. Install / attaching it to plate easy?

This is fast becoming my favorite game. Having never owned a Stern nor played one off location, I have a few question if folks have time.

(Premium)

1) Do these speakers suck, is the graininess due to sound design for old radio motif or is it distortion, and/or is "10" too loud?
2) I have the game with the top of the on-field bubble entirely obscured by the top line. This is lower than when I set it up and the left ramp is much easier to hit, but still definitely an event when made. Lower it some more? I feel the right ramp is just about right, and outright STDM rejections on misses are now rare.
3) About once in 5 or 6 games a ball gets caught at the entrance of the building. Ball search resolves it, but kind of annoying. Anyone else? Remedy?
4) Where do you place your level when trying to measure left/right? I had it perfect on initial set up, but after I decided the game was too steep and lowered it, I seem to be drifting left... though the level reads fairly dead. Given my experience is with far older machines with about 1/5 the things to shoot, this kind of precision is new to me.
5) Can someone link a nice text format rules / strategy document? I don't want to watch people on YouTube play for 90 minutes.

Put a shaker in today. Pretty fun. Mom loves it. At the bonus countdown she gets a smile on her face and makes stompy noise, "Kuchh, kuccch, bwuchh..." Oh, and, by the way, wait until you see what my she got for wall art. Wow. My guess 80% of you will want one, especially if you install one of these piggy banks.

Mods on the way:

The above giant grey piggy bank.
Tilt Graphics plunger face and breath button plaque.

My God, having Rodan active, finding the right time to control a multiball and hitting your breath attack with a bunch of shots lit is off the fucking hook pinball fun. Just saying.

Great, thanks, I'll try that out. And thanks for the link!

The speakers sound like shit, and the bass is barely present. The reason I asked the question is that the sound is so bad/mediocre I thought something might be wrong with it. Maybe my Mom got lemons, but they rasp and rip like a Wal-Mart speaker display. And I'm wasting money by trying the 4-ohm setting?

Awesome. Will do. Thanks!

I'm finding adjustment #98 Building Stepper Bias with a default of 150. Is that the one to which you refer? Manual is not helpful here.

God I love this forum.

That said, I got impatient and from that #98 setting mentioned above, ended up dropping that Bias to 100 from 150. Building is now perfectly flush. Your way still teaches me things I did not know about the menu system however. Did not know you could operate with the door closed. Lots to learn about modern machines I guess!

I wonder if the building being flush will help with SDTM on that tight loop return and / or some fairly common Lock rejects we've been getting?

Did so. Works great.

There is definitely something wrong with these speakers though, sounds like left is the worst. How is Stern with warranty issues? These things crackle, rip and pop even on low-ish volume at 4ohm.

Hmm. Took a quick couple videos of how my Mom's game sounds. It's worse on 8ohm.

Thoughts?

Yeah, it's also deteriorating with play. I'll call Stern on Monday.

Thanks for the info. This discussion started due to what I assume to be blown speakers on my Mom's Godzilla Premium. I'm going to try and go the Stern warranty direction tomorrow morning, but failing that (or most likely regardless down the road) maybe I'll use you folks as an option. Do you sell kits for the SPike 2 system, just amps, just woofers? Not really sure what your product line is.

Want to throw me a link to the one stop shop version you'd recommend?

Oh damn. Yeah, actually the down speaker is MUCH worse. Hadn't checked, the ear check on the left gave me a positive result and figured I'd found it. Yeah, it's garbage.

Thanks for the heads up.

While I await my replacement speakers from Stern because the ones that shipped are complete shit (see above) I've been trying to dial in the rest of the machine. (Almost certainly end up getting the PinWoofer kit, but thought I'd give Stern the chance.) Never having had a modern game in my meager collection, I'm surprised how much this all matters. I'm sure each machine is very different in how it plays, but I was wondering if you folks could give me a little help setting a few things up?

First I'll describe the playing experience and history so far:

1) Started off with the on surface level with a significant portion of the bubble bisected by the top line. It was almost impossible to hit the right ramp due to lack of momentum. This was too high. Left ramp requires utterly perfect shot.

2) Dropped it so that the top of the bubble was kissing the top line, but not visible over it. Our highest scores, such that they are, were achieved at this cant. The right ramp was still somewhat iffy, though less than perfect shots occasionally made a lazy turn at the top to score. Left ramp still extremely difficult, but easier.

3) After reading Stern's material apparently the bubble is supposed to be centered? Decided to try that, was achieved by dropping rear legs all the way down. The right ramp is no easier to hit at all, maybe harder(!?) due to lack of momentum. Perhaps less energy being carried in the ball due to so much less slope? Left ramp a little easier, still very hard shot. Scores have pretty much cratered.

4) In all cases the VAST majority of drains (probably 80+%) are SDTM from right ramp rejections (either from otherwise solid left flipper shots, or routinely on misses at the upper flip loop) combined with left out lanes, including an absolutely soul crushing number of left flipper control attempts that reverse in-lane u-turns. Basically pretty much ANYTHING but a direct in-lane feed on the left side drains. (Side note, is there an audit that shows how / where drains occur?)

So given the above, I was wondering how most folks set up their home machines? What about outlane posts? I haven't touched mine, but my GOD, do I eyeball that left post. Should point out that while I have not done anything scientific or used anything fancier than a little shelf level, the game feels good to me side to side.

Where do you set your playfield level? Am I nuts that the game is harder flatter? I think I've played enough on each that it's not just the differing geometry of the shots. In fact I think we've played MORE on the flattest setting.

I'm concerned that my left flipper is a little weak. I'm not a pro, but I'm not a rank novice, and there are shots I would definitely expect to score that die almost up, before coming back down to drain (if I'm already on tilt warnings). And I'm not crazy right, that thing is fading in power as I play it? New rubbers? Weak coils?

Would different balls help?

Does it come cleaned and waxed? Do I need to do that already?

It's totally possible there's an existing FAQ or thread covering this shit already. If so, feel free to just point me to it.

Thanks for the reply! Can you point me in the right direction / link a good source about the giving the flipper mechs a once over? Coil stops?

I'll look up flipper fans. We play more than an hour regularly.

Any drawback to dialing up the flippers?

Where do you put your digital level? When I leveled right/left I used my shelf bubble, but I mean, since there's basically no way to 100% position it, I did my best and went of feel. Feels right...

Pitch though, I'm 100% open. Cause right now, it's much less fun than it was, but, way back up where I had it originally it was a "hey look at that, we made the ramp" type of experience. :-/