I'm in! Miraculously found a Pro in stock. Should have it within a couple of weeks.

How can you be sure??

I like the NY accent guy. It's Bender from Futurama.

It is. Same guy who does Bender.

Just added a shaker motor. Highly recommended.

You might be losing a little flipper power. I had to adjust the EOS for all flippers. It definitely helped the shots. You still have to nail them, but not as many shots poop back out.

The pro is an amazing game. Easily one of the best I've ever played. My initial plan was to keep the Pro until I can upgrade to the Premium, but now I'm just going to keep the Pro because all of the fun is there.

The extra mechs are really cool, and you can't argue they don't make the game more immersive and interesting. However, my opinion, they don't add enough to the actual gameplay to warrant an upgrade. And I like having the Mechagodzilla spinner available at all times.

All that being said, I would have gotten the Premium if I had the chance initially. I got lucky and found a Pro while waiting on a Deadpool that's been pushed back to late this year. I'm glad I did, otherwise I would not have given the Pro a chance and now I have all that extra cash to spend on another pin

The cover on mine was a little tight against the rail next to the coin box, other than that I didn't have any issues with mine.

Karl streamed the upcoming version of code last night:

https://www.twitch.tv/iepinball/v/1272942404?sr=a

It's amazing how good this game is already, and keeps getting better.

Nobody has mentioned the goat yet.

Oh, missed that. Obviously.

They are all connected because the other two do not have IC?

Just a complete shot in the dark here, but maybe the firmware required on that node board is different for each machine. Maybe it's just the required version being installed. I'm guessing having multiple machines connected to a single IC node board was ever in their designs.

Pinstadium is definitely overkill. I'm sure it's been mentioned in this thread before, but what light upgrades are people doing for GZ? A couple of spotlights? I think if just the apron lights would stay on all the time, it would be enough.

Mine is in a dimly lit room, which is fine until Tesla Strike, or after a Destruction Jackpot, whenever all the playfield lights go out.

What in the world happened to make it easier to replace an entire building rather than a single blue rubber piece?

I mostly agree with you. I can live with the darkness after a Destruction Jackpot, I kinda don't mind that. However during a Tesla Strike, it just goes dark for too long. And I think after earning a replay too.

It's the most addictive game I've ever played. It just hits all my buttons and I can't stop pressing start. I've literally had dreams about it when I couldn't play. I didn't expect to like the theme as much as I do, but now I think it's perfect for pinball. Goofy over the top fun.

You really can't go wrong with either. This subject gets beat to death on every club thread, but it's all about budget. Get what you can afford. I have a Pro, and it's my favorite pin. Personally, in this instance, I would rather put the extra cost of the Premium upgrade into another pin.

Guess I don't understand what this switch is supposed to fix. I haven't seen any of the issues people have mentioned as the reason for this switch.

Some of us even think the Pro plays better than the premium.

I doubt you'll get much from a picture, the leafs will be bent a little different from machine to machine.

The best thing to do is go into the switch test, and adjust the EOS for each flipper to where it goes off right when the flipper has been pushed all the way up. That will ensure it doesn't crap out early and lose power on the shot.

I did this on mine, and it made a huge difference. There was almost a quarter inch of play left after the EOS went off when I first got it. After that, it was a lot snappier and the ramps were more reliable shots.

I really doubt it's a code issue. Maybe check the connections around the ball trough, sounds like it's not seeing all six in the trough.

I've had some issues with weak magna grabs. I had the playfield up and noticed the large nut holding it to the playfield was almost falling off.

The very large threaded bolt was also loose and the magna grab above the playfield was spinning and a little raised off the playfield, which it wasn't when I first got the machine.

I tightened the threaded bolt down and the cylinder above the playfield no longer turned. Then I tightened the nut so everything was locked in place.

It might be all in my head, but it seemed the magna grab was holding and pulling more. I guess I can see how the vertical position of the cylinder relative to the actual magnet could affect the grab. It still won't grab a very strong glancing hit, but I've seen it pull it from about an inch away several times now.

No idea if it actually made a difference, but it seems to. Worth checking for anyone with magna grab issues though.

PXL_20220411_144543599 (resized).jpg

Seems like that would cause a lot of havoc with shots through the building and wallop shots.

This is my first pin. Crazy amount of restarts, probably a bad habit to have.

Screenshot_20220422-194916 (resized).png

My plunge has been clunky on a soft plunge ever since I got it. However the auto-plunge and a full plunge works fine. I made sure the plunger tip was hitting the center of the ball when resting in the lane, but the problem was still happening. Finally took some slow motion video and think I found the cause:

https://imgur.com/a/cVGsENs

The ball starts to go off course at the end of the switch slot in the shooter lane. I ran a ball across there and felt a bump. It might be hard to see from the picture, but there is definitely a hump there. And the clear is cracked in that spot, probably because the ball has been hitting it:

do the humpty hump

I'm assuming when an auto-plunge or full plunge happens, the ball is either launched over the hump or has enough velocity/momentum to keep it going straight when it hits it.

I think getting a Cliffy protector will fix this if the hump is low enough. If not, I'll try sanding down the hump.

That would probably work too. Anything that eliminates that bump, and doesn't introduce other weird bounces, should work.

If the shooter tip is aligned correctly, check this out and see if it helps:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-godzilla-official-owners-club/page/202#post-6898958

Have you contacted your distributor and/or Stern about all these problems? I would start there before throwing money at the problem and hoping that fixes it.

Installing new parts isn't always straightforward. And no offense, but if you're having issues tweaking parts that the factory installed, you could likely have issues installing brand new ones.

I know it's extremely frustrating, and super annoying to have issues with a brand new machine, but your distributor or Stern will probably help you more than anyone on this forum right now.

Same, I haven't touched the magnet settings. The only time it doesn't grab well is when the ball is moving really fast.

I have a PBL shaker and it squeaks like a mouse being squished. I've tried super lube, lithium grease, all the things. Still squeaks.

So the PBL ones can squeak too. Though they do seem to squeak less often than the official Sterns.

Interesting, I'll have to try that.

This is the answer that should be given whenever this question is asked.

I don't think there is a way to create a perfect plunge every time. Like many have said, ensure the plunger is centered on the ball, that will make the most difference in the plunge. Even the tiniest imperfection in the plunger or shooter lane will cause the ball to go off center and start rattling around.

Here are a few things I noticed that affect slower plunges on my machine, full force or auto-plunges never have issues.

1. Even when the plunger tip is perfectly centered on the ball while at rest in the shooter lane, rotating the plunger rod changed the alignment just enough to put the tip off center. Either the rod itself is bent, which it didn't appear to be. Or the entire shooter rod housing isn't perpendicular to the shooter lane, which is more likely.

2. When pulling back the plunger, there was enough slop in the rod housing that even light pressure to the left or right was enough to put the tip off center.

3. The slightest bump or imperfection in the shooter lane was enough to send the ball off center and start rattling around. There were two places I could see this happening consistently on my machine:

3.a. There is a significant bump of clear at the far end of the switch at the bottom of the shooter lane. I saw several times where the ball would start to go off center here. I can feel a hump there while running the ball over that spot with my hand. And it has a tiny crack, I'm guessing from the ball hitting it.

3.b. The front of the metal flap for the transition to the metal part of the shooter lane. This was very minor, but sometimes just enough to start side to side movement in the lane.

4. I think the biggest culprit is the curved ledge at the end of the shooter lane. On almost every slower plunge, I could see the ball "falling" off this ledge and turning left. Anything that starts side to side motion in the lane will usually exaggerate the ball falling off the ledge and going left. Even the slightest turn to the left off the ledge will cause the ball to hit the staple there, which causes the rattling. Here is a slow motion video where it's pretty clear:

That video is a little more exaggerated than most plunges, but it shows what I'm talking about. The important thing to see is that it did not hit the right wall of the shooter lane and bounce left. When it went over the ledge it turned left, because it's curved. If the ball has enough speed/momentum to carry it over the ledge, it avoids the rattling issue completely.

Unfortunately there is a very small window of a plunge being "too slow" or "too fast" for making the skill shot behind the upper left flipper. Every "too slow" plunge just rattles around, and the fast ones are too high to go behind the flipper. So I guess all these issues make it a true skill shot

I'm guessing the staple is to guide balls into that switch behind Mechagodzilla, and it also seems to be the main cause of rattling plunges. It would be interesting to see if removing that staple would reduce the amount of rattling plunges. That would probably affect how often that switch is hit, but I wonder if replacing it with one of those magnetic reed switches would still allow that switch to register?

I'm pretty sure your Rage combo is impossible now. And you won't build your Gigan combos.

You can still do it. The only thing that is more difficult is getting the extra ball for city combos, since the Pro is missing one for each city.

I've never seen that shot fail to register either. But I guess everyone's machine is different.

All of my really good games on this table seem to end on a multiball draining all at the same time.

Having an issue with the left flipper. Sometimes, it seems pretty random, it's getting stuck in the up position. Pressing the left flipper button does nothing except fire the upper flipper. If I press the right flipper, it "shakes" it loose and it comes down. If a ball hits it, it comes down.

I'm not convinced the coil itself is stuck on. I left it stuck for a few minutes and the coil didn't seem any warmer. I took the coil stop off, changed it for a new one, and replaced the coil sleeve and it's still happening.

I'm a newb when diagnosing problems like this, so any help is appreciated. I included a picture of the switch test when the left flipper is stuck in the up position. Any thoughts?

PXL_20221017_174748635 (resized).jpg

PXL_20221017_174756606 (resized).jpg

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-godzilla-official-owners-club?tq=magnet+plastic+replacement+&tu=

Following up on this. I finally had some time to dig into it, and I believe the issue has finally been solved.

I checked everything about this flipper. The coil stop, the gap with the bushing, the EOS switch, the sleeve, the linkage, etc.. Everything was fine. But the left flipper was still sticking in the up position often. I knew it wasn't the coil, because I could cut the power and it would stay up. And the slightest vibration would drop the flipper, like if I smacked the cabinet or even just activated the right flipper. So whatever the issue, it was just barely causing the plunger to stick.

A couple months before this started happening, I replaced all three coil stops (and sleeves) with the ones from Pinball Life. When installing the new stops, I left in all the spring washers. Today, after I checked everything else again, I removed the spring washer from the left flipper because I couldn't think of anything else to try. No more sticking. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, or I somehow accidentally fixed some other issue when removing the washer, I reinstalled and uninstalled the washer several times. Every time the washer was in, the flipper kept getting stuck. Every time the washer was out, the flipper never got stuck.

I'm not exactly sure what is happening with the left flipper and that washer. It looks exactly like the washer for the right flipper, which is still installed and that flipper has never had any issues. So who really knows what was going on, but I'm glad I can finally play the game without flipper issues now.

the offending washer

Yes and yes. Before I installed the new sleeves I made sure they were exactly like the old ones. And I don't think they could even be installed backwards since the end of the sleeve sticks out of the bracket on the side of the linkage. The lip on the other end of the sleeve would prevent it from doing that, and the brackets would not fit correctly.

I also checked the new sleeves for any burrs or debris or whatever that would catch the plunger, they were perfectly smooth.

I figured it was something like this too, but I couldn't feel any burrs on either. Doesn't mean there aren't any I suppose, I don't exactly have super delicate fingers.

I made sure everything could move smoothly before tightening the stop down. My only guess at this point is that the washer was somehow causing the coil to get out of parallel with the travel of the plunger just barely enough for it to stick at the very end of the stroke.

With the washer installed, this is what the left coil looked like:

left flipper coil

And the right:

right flipper coil

The gap at the bottom on the right flipper is much more consistent than the one on the left. The left coil is touching the bracket on one side.

I had the same problem. Tried every "fix", it always started squeaking again.

Finally blew this game up a little and got to (early) Planet X. Amazing game. PXL_20230628_213256386~2 (resized).jpg

This has happened to me a few times too. Super annoying when I'm trying to time out the last bit of Rampage, only to have it start again on me

It's not lame if you're having fun.