Here’s my Lightning story. I bought it around 2015 in a package deal with Andromeda. I was planning to sell it pretty quickly because I thought it was too similar to Black Knight, which I already have. It had some MPU issues, so I put it in my climate-controlled storage unit and forgot about it for a few years. Last year I got on an early-Stern kick, so I pulled it out and gave it a full-on restoration. I got the backglass from John Greatwich, which is an excellent repro. Installed an Alltek and a new set of plastics, and rebuilt J1 for the MPU.

Wow, was I was wrong about the similarities to Black Knight. Lightning has a much better rule set, and I’d say it’s more similar to Medusa. The artwork is chaotic but in a good way, like a Heavy Metal magazine. My biggest problem is that the ball likes to jump the flippers.

Things I’d change if I had the code and compiler:
1. Add an option to release the captured balls at the end of the game.
2. Make the attract mode lighting less schizophrenic.

Jappie what don’t you like about the multiball rules?

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I’ll do it RD. Remind me in a few days if you haven’t heard from me.

I bought my Lightning in 2015, but didn’t officially join the club here until this weekend. It took me that long to move it up to the front of the project queue and finish it. I was originally planning to sell it, but after a few days of playing it I think it might be a keeper. I’ve put about 40 hours into it, so that also motivates me to hang onto it. Such a fast, fun game.

Man, that is beautiful!!

I did the Yoppsicle upgrade to Lightning and liked it so much, I’ve done 3 of my Bally pins too. It’s very satisfying to know that you’ll never fight with a crappy insert socket again.

I’ve always had trouble getting my spinner to work correctly, and I suspect it’s set up wrong. Would you mind taking a pic of that area for me?

I also spent a lot of time on the inserts for my restoration. I thought of selling it, but I’ve put in over 40 hours at this point. It’s a good tournament game.

I got my backglass from John’s Jukes (https://www.flippers.com), and it’s perfect. I don’t see it on his website, but it’s definitely worth emailing him to see if he has any.

Oh man, I’m sorry to hear that. Good luck in your continued search. My original was pretty bad.

The whole game is in storage at the moment - I’m feeling guilty reading this thread. After I recover from my hernia surgery in a few weeks, I’m going to swap it back in. Oh wait, just found this post with a good pic:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-lightning-club-welcome-to-valhalla/page/2#post-4212091