I am in on a pro. should have it in a couple days! Excited!

Has anybody written a strategy guide yet? I'm starting to get my head around how the major modes of the game works and the shot multipliers, etc, but looking for some more in depth explanation of the rules. If such a guide exists, is it possible to add it as a key item for this thread?

Edit: Looks like a rulesheet based on .83 code is located here
http://www.tiltforums.com/t/star-wars-rulesheet-0-83/2812

Has anybody had their ball bounce back out of the loop when coming in from the right side when Hoth was lit and The ball hits the posts that pop up? Happens to me lots on a really fast/hard right loop shot, kind of annoying, my strategy now has been trying to hit it in a way where it's not going so quickly.

Yes, I also took a look and found the screws that hold each individual post were a touch loose, so I tightened them up. I've still had it happening a couple games. One game I shot that shot about 4 times in a row before I managed to get it so it wouldn't bounce back out. Maybe because it's still new and fast? I did put brand new silver jets in the game, since the stock Stern balls looked really hazy. That could be the little bit of difference with the extra speed from the better ball.

Looks like code 0.87 was just released

PRO V0.87 - July 26, 2017
======================
Fixed:
- Far right mini target was no working properly in v0.86; will now work correctly.

Tweaked:
- Changed the priortiy of TIE fighter hurry up lamps to be higher than Death
Star III mission.

PRO V0.86 - July 26, 2017
======================
Fixed:
- Removed Accelerator switches from reporting they are bad in tech alert.
- Game will no longer crash during mini-wizard modes if you complete them
during the grace.
- Made 2nd Hyperspace multiball in the same game end correctly.
- Made 2nd Victory multiball in the same game end correctly.

Tweaked:
- Shortened one of the speech calls for choosing Han.
- Greatly slowed down how fast the shot arrows blink esecpially if there is
more than one color the arrow is cycling through.
- Added left side flasher to the TIE fighter explosion.
- Greatly reduced the scoring of most of the game.
- Tweaked default High Scores to reflect new score levels.

You just install the latest, it is cumulative with all the past updates.

I was poking through the feature adjustments on the new code and came across this. I hadn't noticed anyone talking about the official topper, but motorized R2D2 and projector sounds sweet!

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Holy smokes, who's shipping those games? looks a little rough 'round the edges. Hope you signed "Subject to inspection" when you took delivery

When you say reject, you mean the ball bouncing back out on the right loop Hoth shot before the post in the top of the loop rises to trap the ball? I get this a lot, the faster the ball is moving the worse it is, seems to need to be a shot that rattles around in the loop a little before it passes the u-turn or has a weird spin or a weaker hit to get it to stick. I feel like if they had moved the double posts down a half inch or so, it probably wouldnt be so bad. I'm not sure what you could even do yourself to soften this shot up a little bit so it doesn't bounce out of there.

I've tripped across this maybe-a-bug twice on the new code, i am about 50 games in on the latest version. I am not sure the exact steps to repeat, but in code .89 on the pro... it seems having two mini wizard modes at once, like Battle over Endor, and Destroy the Death Star, in two different games I've stacked other multiballs during those split mini wizard modes (like Tie Fighter and/or Hyper Drive) and then some interesting things end up happening.

The double posts and the upper loop post end up going up at some point in all the craziness (usually i end up getting all 6 balls in play using the add-a-ball), because it thinks a ball is trapped in there, but there is no ball in there (timing of the posts rising must have just missed it). Then one of the balls from my multiball ends up going in the right mystery scoop, and it doesn't realize its in the scoop, so doesn't spit it out.

At some point i am down to one ball left, basically i can't shoot the loop shots (because there is no captive ball to trigger the opto to drop the posts), and it doesn't want to spit the mystery scoop ball out either. I ultimately end up draining the one ball I still have control of and then the loop posts drop, which then ends my mini wizard and multiball modes. Then I wait for ball search to release the mystery scoop ball, and everything goes back to normal single ball game play. I'm pretty positive there is no switch problem in my scoop, since ive shot it in there a hundred times in other non stacked multi balls and regular play and never had a problem. Ive stacked mini wizard modes with the other multiballs lots, and it doesn't always happen, but there is some combination of things happening to get this bug and both times its happened it was during the crazy stacked multi balls.

I am thinking the false/phantom ball trapped in the loop maybe is causing the mystery scoop problem . Perhaps the game is keeping count of where the balls are and is counting a certain number in the trough, and then assuming there is a ball in the loop, plus the ball that is still in control hitting various things and doesn't fire the right scoop as a result. I'll keep trying to reproduce this one, but just thought i'd mention it here in case someone else has noticed something similar.

Both of these games I blew up the score pretty crazy. 1st game where it happened was 6.9 billion, and my other game was like 4+ billion.

The Lightsaber Duel is so fantastically done. I especially like when the movie clip starts for the mode, the blue and red GI turns on in sync with Obi wan and Darth Vader powering up their lightsabers. The music is intense, my favourite mode for sure! I added a Polk Audio psw10 sub woofer to my setup today, and it is so awesome with this game!

On My pro, I am still on code .91 when this happened the other day, but I had the right side of the loop lit to start Escape from Hoth, but also one of the white shots was lit to start Escape Boba Fett on the same right side of the loop shot.

So I shoot that shot, of course it puts the posts up and locks the ball in the loop and starts the sequence where I can choose to Escape Hoth or Pass, but before I can make my selection, the game jumps straight into Escape Boba Fett mode with the strobing GI and the posts drop while the selections screen is still up for the scenes, and of course my flippers are frozen at the moment, so I watched as my ball dropped and drained down the middle during a really great game.

I don't know if quickly hitting the action button to select the scene would have helped unfreeze my flippers before that drain. I sort of had that deer in headlights moment and was momentarily paralyzed to do anything because the game did something I totally wasn't expecting. The game didn't end up starting Escape Hoth mode (no multi ball was started), and the mode was basically ended and showed I had finished all the Hoth Scenes after that drain. I am curious to see if I will trip across this again in the newer code, even though there is no mention of this in any of the read Me docs for .92 or .93.

Cranking up your shot multiplier and moving it to the right loop before you start the mode is also key.

Yes, you are right! If you lock the multiplier on when its lit any other time... like after knocking all the drops targets down 3 times (Can it light from the pops or from a Mystery Award?), then it should work. I hadn't noticed that it didn't affect Hoth Mode 1, i had to go play it and check for myself just now. Figured I'd forgotten to lock it on that shot when i did Hoth Mode 1 before. Which leaves the question of whether rule-wise we feel the multiplier should work for it in Hoth Mode 1? I mean, we can use multipliers any other time.. seems silly to argue against it there?

I crank in a few hundred million on Boba Fett in this short video with the multipliers

Here's a quick question for folks, maybe just pro owners (or premium/LE). On code 0.93 I've noticed when I start a new game and when I shoot the left ramp before I have qualified Endor, the ball returning and hitting the switch on the left inlane triggers no sound in the game, even though it lights up the insert properly. Once i start any other mode, or whatever it seems to trigger a sound normally with the left ramp shot returning to the inlane and hitting that switch. also, If i have the ball go through the left inlane without doing the left ramp shot first, it triggers the sound correctly in the same scenario where Endor is not yet qualified. Just wondering if anybody else has noticed this, or something flooky is happening with my game. I've tested the switch, its all working correctly, so no issues there. also played with the glass off a bit and I convinced this is just a small code issue. Its not a game breaking issue, but just kind of caught my attention when i was expecting a sound to trigger.

Edit: I just tracked down a few videos on YouTube that had gameplay and saw the same behaviour, so I know this is not a problem with the game, but something in the code for whatever reason. Non Issue really. Just an observation.

Installed a Pin Stadium kit with the UV Glow option for the flashers this weekend and I have to say wow! The pictures are from a frame grab I did from my camcorder when the UV was triggered. I tied into the flasher by the Tatooine scoop, and it triggers in a very nice way when you hit shots for modes. Such a nice effect and hard to appreciate it from pictures alone. The glow gets triggered and is a very quick effect, like a lightning strike. Highly recommended, and easy to install. Took me less than 10 minutes and no tools required.

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Its the split second that the UV glow is on. it is not this color all the time, only when the flasher fires. you can adjust the color on the GI portion to be any color you want though.

your best approach is to have good ball control and trap up when you can, unlock and move the shot multiplier to the shots that are lit when you are in a mode. Listen for the thunk thunk thunk sound telling you your shot multiplier is going to time out.... shoot the 3 targets under the playfield LCD screen to keep the multiplier from resetting, and also increase it by 1x, up to 20x or 40x if you have been awarded a Double Multiplier award.

on modes that are hurry-ups, start with the hardest shots first to start the hurry up and then shoot the easier shot to complete it.

I installed Pin Stadium Lights in my Star Wars Pro a couple weeks back, filmed a bit on the installation and going through the settings on the app. I am pretty happy with them overall. They kick major ass during Boba Fett mode, and the UV Glow option for the flashers was definitely the way to go for this game.

Glad to hear the video helped! I also had lots of questions before I got started with the install, but Scott from Pin Stadium was a huge help, and they're quite simple to install now looking back at the process. I'd be interested to hear if anybody has tied in the Pin Stadium flashers to a different flasher than I have in my game (Red Flasher behind the Tattooine scoop). I might experiment with moving mine around to see if I can get some different effects.

I am not sure if this applied to the problem i was seeing on my game prior to 1.0, but sometimes when I had some crazy games with a few stacked multi balls (like a 4+ billion point game), if the ball went in the Tattooine scoop, it didn't always eject it, then i'd have to wait for all of the balls to drain before the game would go into ball search and release what was in the scoop. I had a couple crazy games lastnight with new code and hadn't had this happen so far. Guess we'll keep playing and see if it's working all the time now. My issue was on a Pro.

Hopefully your ‘dealer’ didn’t charge you a fee to take it to his shop, being that new it should be completely covered under warranty by Stern for an issue like that.

I’ve had that happen once on the Hoth shot on earlier code. Was lit to start a scene, but also wanted to start Escape Boba Fett. Went to scene select and disabled my flippers and dropped the post, ball went straight down the middle.

I may do that this evening, but at best it wouldn’t be ready until sometime tomorrow.

Does anybody know what happens when you finish all 4 Heros in the game? I completed Jedi multi ball using Han lastnight and got to pick a new Hero, but I fizzled out soon after that. wondering aside from score if I really need to keep playing to see something super cool, or am I pretty much done now and it’s just and endless loop?

Yes, I can confirm that the bass and treble controls are under the utilities menu, I have adjusted it since I added an external powered subwoofer a while back.

After a little more digging this evening, it appears that there is no wizard mode beyond Jedi Multi Ball. you just loop through all the characters and do all the objectives again, rinse and repeat.

which leads me to another question. The games flyer says NINE distinct multiball modes, so we have:

1 - Battle Above Endor
2 - Destroy the DeathStar
3 - Escape Hoth
4 - Escape Tattooine
5 - TIE Fighter multi ball
6 - Hyper Space multi ball
7 - Victory Multi Ball (for completing the shots in multi ball modes 1-4)
8 - Jedi Multi Ball
9 - ???????

What is #9? Am I missing something from the list, or is there another wizard mode/multi ball mode in the works?

I thought about how silly a jar jar multi ball would be and just realized the 9th multi mode would be Midnight Madness! I did play Midnight Madness in code .91 a few months back (I totally forgot), but I have not noticed if it is still able to be turned on in the latest version, or maybe I just go to bed too early these days.

One of my strategies for getting to the Emperor was as simple as just letting the mini-wizard mode multi-balls (Battle above Endor, Destroy the Death Star, etc) drain out as soon as I started them, but keep one ball in play. Save your energy for the next objective. There's always a risk you drain all of your balls on one of those final scene multi balls, while completing them is not part of the objectives. You can focus on getting a high score on this game by micro managing your shot multipliers to death, or simply chase the modes you need to qualify Jedi Multiball. Only the very best (or lucky?) players will be able to do both. On my game where I defeated the Emperor, I put up a score of 3.8 Billion, and i figure it took me 25-30 minutes. Factory defaults for extra ball awards and I have not tightened up my outlanes. Playfield at the recommended pitch of 6.5. Be good at trapping up the ball and taking a moment to look around the playfield and read the LCD screen to see what you need to do next.

you don't need Victory multiball to get to Jedi multiball. If your goal is to get lots of points too, then sure.. you can totally play those modes out. If you just want to face the emperor (Jedi Multiball), then you should do as little as possible to get there. The longer you play, the sooner you become fatigued, and then make stupid mistakes when you're down to ball 3 and 1 mode away from starting the wizard mode. My best scores on this game are 7-8 billion, mostly from just stacking things and really moving that shot multiplier around, but not really being dedicated to finishing all the modes. Now that I have played the game a couple different ways, my goal is to work on being able to consistently finish the game while also working on my high score.

i suppose that is a problem for some, i know it usually was for me early on. I will play the regular multiballs out, like Hyper Space and TIE Fighter, and end up increasing my Jedi rank a few notches that way. I also will use Jedi Training as my path when i plunge a new ball, if its available and makes sense to do so. once you've played through all the modes to get to the point you are nearly qualified for Jedi Multiball, you should be pretty close with all the training. Practice up on those wide shots off the left flipper to get those hardest Jedi training targets down.

make sure your pitch is set at 6.5. Also, I have probably played this game a few hundred times before I got to the emperor. I expect it'll be a while before I get back again.

Email cliffy, he has some... I ordered a set for the shooter lane. The drain/trough doesn’t really seem to need it, so I just put Mylar down there, but he might have a solution for that now too. There’s really nothing else that needs protection on that game

Anyone who hasn't had an opportunity to see what the Midnight Madness mode was like back in code .91-.92, you can check it out here. The link should start the video right when Midnight Madness starts.

Saw a SW pro fail on location after about 4000’ish plays, it had a shaker motor.

here's something quirky I noticed about video mode on my machine. I have not noticed a pattern yet. sometimes when you are playing the mode, hitting the right flipper makes the ship noise out of the left side of the speakers, hitting left flipper makes it come out of the right-hand side. Other times I notice right flipper makes the sound come from the right side speaker, and left is left. Not really a show stopper, just an observation... Anybody else notice this? or see a pattern?

I have confirmed there is no such mode. Basically just resets the 4 characters and you play through again, and at this point you are just playing for score.

I think if you've beaten Light Saber Duel already, you should have the choice to pass it. OR it should be worth double points the 2nd time around, triple on the 3rd, etc, or do something like on Metallica with Crank it up where you can just collect 5 million if you pass it.

I’ve done it, you need to finish all the modes, get 100 TIE fighters, complete Escape Boba Fett, Complete Lightsaber duel, and advance your Jedi training to Master to qualify the final wizard mode. It actually starts out as a single ball mode and adds more balls as the mode goes on.

Or at least give us the option to pass it and just take a small amount of points in lieu. I would also like them to do that for the Video mode. The only time I am excited to play that is when I have the multiplier cranked up. It’s not worth playing otherwise

I haven't seen Midnight Madness again since .91 code. I am not sure if its because it's been removed, or if its because I don't usually play the game that late at night... but for anybody who has not seen what the mode looks like, here's is a clip of it in action

This has been recent issue for me on my Pro... and maybe it was drifting over time and I didnt notice until now, but a strong left orbit shot that travels all the way around almost always ends up going straight down the middle on me, when previously I recall it would always go to the right flipper. Checked the leveling and pitch, all good, and sitting at 6.5 at the bottom and top of the playfield. Thinking my next course of action would be to loosen the last two nuts/bolts on the end of the guide coming out of the right side of the orbit and pushing it out a bit to the right like a half millimeter and retightening to see if that changes it. Anybody have a similar issue and resolve it with a change like this? Anything else I should look at before i start adjusting guides?

Right orbit (resized).png

This is probably what I'll end up doing.

The pops can be very rewarding sometimes. I quite often get Jedi training, which saves me a lot of time trying to do it through hitting the stand up targets around the playfield. Hit the orbits when they aren’t lit for anything and the gates should send the ball into the pops.

The more I practice shooting for orbits, the more pop rewards I get. They can also light any of your planets to start a mode, bump your multipliers, destroy tie fighters, etc. Start to work it into your strategy and you’ll shortcut yourself to finishing your objectives for Jedi Multiball easier.

Shaker Motor, Pin Stadiums with the GI + UV Glow, and an external powered sub (I like the Polk Audio PSW10)

I was thinking of doing a journey to Jedi Multiball video at some point, as I can fairly consistently get to it, but I am still trying to get my head around the steps to quickly complete it. The first time I ended up getting there, I actually finished really quickly through some luck without understanding what I was doing. The last few times I just kind of flail around and eventually drain and the game starts back at the beginning where you can select one of the remaining heroes. Jedi multiball is hard to focus on because you're just so tired by the time you get that far, plus the lighting effects are like a mix of whats happening during Escape Boba Fett, and Light Saber Duel.

If you have Pin Stadiums with the UV+Glow installed and the flasher is hooked to the right scoop flasher, you are in for a real treat during that mode. The game will cycle between strobing the blue, and red GI which is kinda dark, and then goes through a flasher phase too... it's just so cool!

Spoiler Alert!! If anybody is interested, I recorded an over-the shoulder view of the Jedi Multi ball mode on my pro. I didn’t beat it, but it’s still freakin’ cool. I have Pin Stadiums and the light show is sort of a mix of the Light Saber Duel and the Escape Boba Fett modes, and then cycles a cool flasher phase for a bit.

I dont think I've ever been awarded a Special in the game... Extra Balls and replays, sure. Is there a special even programmed? or is the adjustment leftover code from whatever game they used as the template for this one?

Heres a short clip of me Escaping Boba Fett while moving my 20x multiplier around to all the shots. Filmed this one a while back and never listed it because the channel content was getting a little too Star Wars heavy.

Shot sequence once you start Boba Fett is always the same... Left ramp, right loop, right ramp, left orbit, and finish it with a left ramp shot. Keep the hurry up alive/increase it by hitting the 3 bank targets under the playfield LCD. Being able to trap the ball and slow the game down is really the key for this machine. To start Boba Fett, shoot for the white shots, or just start shooting combos out of mode and the white shots should start appearing for you. This mode is especially hard because of the strobing GI. If your eyes arent great, I recommend turning on lights in the room to take a little bit of the strain off.

Good luck!

I find the Jedi Multiball is cooler if you are not doing well, as it cycles through the Red/blue/and Flasher lighting effects. When you drain and lose the mode the music and emperor doing his speech thing is kinda cool the way the music builds up and then kicks you back to the beginning of the game. When you doing well you dont really see anything cool before you start over.

I shared a video of the Jedi multiball where I lost the mode in post #4859 and it cycles through a few phases of the GI. I have Pin Stadiums on my machine, so it also went through a cool UV light phase a couple times. When I have done well and completed the mode, I didn't see any of that stuff other than Blue I think...

That topper better be damn amazing when they finally do reveal it!

Saw that new code was updated, seems like mostly some system level cleanup items. One item that stood out to me is

Added adjustments for backbox and cabinet speaker types to the service menu
UTIL->VOL. Supported speaker types are "8 OHM" and "4 OHM". The amplifier
power curve is appropriately adjusted for the selected speaker type.

has anyone had problems with any of their speakers that may have resulted in this addition to the adjustments? or is this more for the folks who want to change out the stock speakers for something else?

Just this afternoon

There are literally no changes to the gameplay/rules.... at least in the read me file

Here's a little exercise I'd like everyone to try with your game if you are able. Make sure you are in a generally quiet room. Now start your game (don't plunge yet) and listen closely to the crisp and clean sound coming from the backbox speakers. Now stick your head down under the cabinet and listen to that same sound from the cabinet speaker. If you haven't noticed a difference yet, reach up and hit the lock bar button to launch the ball and listen to the call outs. Notice any problems?

verified on a few different peoples machines that there is some distortion coming from the cabinet speaker output. Seems like it may not be limited to Star Wars, but is a base system code update that was made to Spike II games a while back, and so far we've found it to come from a batman 66, and Aerosmith. have not confirmed any other games at this point as we have not tested. I have rolled back to version .91 to confirm the distortion does not exist on that code version, and see it reappear when upgrading to the latest versions.

Also, I believe it may have been introduced in version 1.01 for Star Wars, but i do not have any earlier versions other than .91 to confirm. It is very subtle distortion, will be more noticeable depending on your ears and what you have your volume levels set to.

Right, regardless... the sound coming from there is slightly distorted, it didn't use to be this way. Perhaps related to mixing to mono. I think this may have been introduced when they added the features for adjusting the cabinet and backbox speakers bass/treble separately. I had originally noticed this issue on my own game back about a month ago and I thought perhaps it was an issue developing with my board. I swapped in another Spike II CPU board and the problem persisted. I had also ruled out issues with the speaker itself. This then got me thinking it was potentially a design flaw with Spike II on that cabinet speaker channel... but I now believe it to be code related. I had sent an email to Stern software support, but had not heard back. Figured i'd mention here to confirm others notice this. Its not a show stopper by any means, just an observation I made.

It's not a problem with the speaker, its a problem with the audio coming off the Spike II CPU Board. However, a better speaker geared to optimizing lower frequencies will probably exhibit less of this distortion problem.

The issue with the distortion or 'clipping' of audio from the mono cabinet speaker is what I believe to be something that Stern was handling correctly pre 1.01 code where they added the ability to independently control levels on the backbox and cabinet speakers, along with bass/treble, and now ohm ratings with the very latest 1.04 version. In audio engineering, there is something called 'Pan Law' which deals with mixing a stereo signal down to mono. Essentially before a stereo track is mixed down to be presented in a mono application (such as the single cabinet speaker), each channel should have a gain reduction of -3dB to make it balance out properly and not introduce clipping. This is something I wrestle with all the time when we are filming and two people are wearing their own microphones, but sometimes each person's microphone picks up the other person. Rather than present each person in their own left or right channel, we mix down to mono and it often introduces some interesting clipping because we forgot to do the gain reduction before the mix.

The opposite is true as well. If you take a mono track and mix it up to stereo, it will be about 6dB too low because of Pan Law.

Stern simply needs to go back and examine what happened to the audio processing code that was handling this previously. I can see a call to a routine getting missed if they were doing all this plumbing to add the new system features. Again, this is likely a problem on all Spike II games that got these audio level adjustments earlier this year.

with the more recent versions of the code, LSD doesn't come back until you've completed the battle with the Emperor. Before a code update it was annoying because I'd get LSD like 3 + times in a game and it slowed me down trying to complete the other objectives.

You need to be out of mode, and shoot the white shots. If there are no white shots, there might be light blue. You can turn those shots white by shooting those. Usually some combos will help you start getting white shots lit. Once you start Boba Fett, it’s a left ramp shot, right loop, right ramp, left orbit, and finish it off with the left ramp.

The shots are hurry ups. You can shoot the 3 bank targets under the lcd screen to increase the timer and value on each required shot.

Yup, I got an email back from one of the programmers that work on the operating system level stuff and he acknowledged that he had experienced the same thing and thought it was a mixing issue and was working on a fix. I haven't tried it yet, but am downloading now and will give it a go. Release notes say "Enhanced center channel clarity." so I guess this is it!

Sound is way better mixed in this updated code. Layering of music and sound effects seems much more seamless. Clarity improvements all around. I’m hearing details in certain things that I did not hear before. Cabinet speaker fuzziness is gone as well!

It goes off every time you destroy a Tie Fighter, and is more noticeable during Tie Fighter Assault when you are bashing the lock bar button. It will go off during some cut scenes, like destroying the Death Star during the Battle above Endor. It will also go off during the match sequence explosion scene. The Tie Fighter rumbles are not too crazy. I think it shakes most during the match sequence. I think it also may go off very subtly when you make a shot for a mode, though I am having a brain fart at the moment and can't be sure. I find the shaking in Star Wars a lot less intense and better integrated than the one that happens during the beginning of Storage Facility Multiball on Ghostbusters, or Electric Chair Multiball on Metallica for example.

The mini LCD inside the game is basically one of the "toys" which likely ate a lot of the BOM up. I wonder if they could have forgone the extra LCD and added a few other features instead. The LCD is cool and helpful, but it really doesn't feel like you'd be missing much if it was gone... and maybe we'd feel like the game wasnt so barren if the LCD translated into another 2 or 3 cheaper playfield features scattered around.

For as long as we have waited for this topper, it better be freakin' amazing. It better shoot lasers, beep and boop like R2D2 and give HJs using The Force. Will releasing the topper at this point bring any new sales for the game? I'm thinking if it is nothing sort of awesome, then it may warrant a few folks to pull the trigger on the game. For folks like me who have had the game pretty much since day one, I don't really feel that excited for the topper anymore, and it would have been an easier sell when I first got the game and was still in the honeymoon phase. I still love the game, but I feel like I am done putting any more money into it other than regular maintenance. Maybe my tune will change once it is revealed.

For getting the crazy scores that you get, are you just managing your multipliers closely? I can quite regularly finish all of the objectives and do the emperor in about 20-25 minutes, but my scores max out around 8-9 Billion. I am thinking just putting a little more focus on cranking up my multiplier to 40x and hitting a hyper space hurry up a few times would leave some pretty good rewards. Saw Jack Danger put 2.4 Billion on one shot with his Hyper Space Hurry Up racked up to 40x. Lately, I have been playing the game just for the modes and working through the characters and not chasing score much, but I think I want to spend some more time optimizing my scores.

Sounds like a leaf switch for one of the standup targets might be sensitive enough that vibration from the flipper firing is causing the switch to activate ? Put the game in switch test mode and see if any of the targets are overly sensitive?

For the shaker, video mode when you crash into an asteroid shakes way too much! Match sequence is a little rough too. Everything else feels good to me.

Some people like to leave the goodie bag, but I always pull them out and stow the contents away somewhere safe. Manual is handy sometimes, but you can also download it online. Sometimes the bag has some cool keychain plastics, or replacement plastics. I’ve never heard of the lack of a goodie bag still being attached affecting the sell value.

I notice that I sometimes get two balls ejected if I am rapidly hitting the lock bar button to destroy tie fighters, and it’s usually just as the multiball is starting up. I am not certain, but it almost feels like a code timing thing. It hasn’t bothered me enough to seek out a solution. It also isn’t putting more than 3 balls into play, which is the correct number for TF multiball. If I am starting TF multiball by shooting TF targets on the playfield instead of mashing the lockbar button, my balls get ejected into play properly.

Also remember that the higher your multiplier is, it takes shots away from your multiplier. When it's at 2X (the default), you have a spread of 3 shots. as you increase the Multiplier, it will drop down to 2 shots, and then finally to 1 shot. Choosing to play with R2D2 lets you have higher multipliers before it removes the number of multiplied shots available. I believe it moves the rightmost shot, so in theory, if you locked the default multiplier on the Death Star, Endor, and Hoth shots, once you've maxed out the multiplier, only the Death Star shot would still be multiplied. I don't recall the Multiplier thresholds for it moving to 2 shots, and then 1... it varies from character to character I think, but definitely, R2D2 is the one you want to use if you are actually paying attention to multipliers and want to optimize your results.

Also, apparently Leia Multipliers default at 3X During Mini Wizard modes.

One more thing.. the multiplier times out if you aren't constantly hitting the 3 bank targets under the playfield LCD. When you hear that THUNK THUNK THUNK sound, your multiplier is going to time out soon and go back to 2X and you need to fire a shot off at the 3 banks to reset the timer. This 3 bank shot is what makes playing for multipliers risky (it could easily fire the ball right back down the middle). As someone said above, just park your 3 multiplier shots on Death Star, Endor, and Hoth and forget it if you don't want to manage the overhead of multipliers and just enjoy the game. You don't need multipliers at all unless you are playing competitively. You can beat the emperor without ever worrying about the multipliers, and if you've made it that far, you're probably going to have a pretty impressive score anyway.

Nothing top secret. Holding one of the flippers buttons down during attract mode will give you the option to start competition mode, which essentially makes all of the seemly random mystery awards deterministic. The callout you heard was totally random and a bunch of them can be occasionally triggered in attract mode by hitting flipper buttons.

However, there are a couple other flipper button combinations you can do in attract mode that are sort of Easter eggs. You can google them easy enough, and I am sure they are buried in this thread somewhere as well.

I have been able to go back. I had noticed in 1.03 and 1.04 and maybe earlier that there were audio problems with the center channel audio (these had been fixed in 1.05 since I did this)

I actually took my game all the way back to .92 or .93 no problem and then upgraded back to 1.04 to confirm the center channel distortion was, in fact, a software issue, and not a hardware problem with my sound processing on the CPU board.

I have not tried downgrading from 1.05 since then, so it is completely possible they changed something to prevent you from going back further.

When Stern sent me a replacement CPU board, they left an Aerosmith LE SD card in it. I had assumed it was Star Wars, so didn’t pay much attention. Long story short, it ended up reprogramming one of my node boards when I powered it up, and after I swapped in my Star Wars card, the game seemed to play fine, until Light Saber duel, and then the final shot to the inner loop to complete the mode would catch and then release the ball with the mode never being able to complete. Installing 1.03/1.04 code again didn’t seem to fix this issue. I went back to .93 and this somehow forced the node boards to update, then I was able to upgrade back to the latest version and all was good again.

Video mode, no. Lightsaber duel.. just complete it once and it won't bug you again until after you defeat the Emperor. Lightsaber Duel is a requirement to be able to battle the Emperor.

Nothing special for finishing all 4 characters. It simply lets you pick a new hero again.

Can you share where you got these? I've been thinking of adding some to my game, but was always weary about how big they would actually be. these look to be a good size.

I will usually pick Han for league or tournament games, since it’s a pretty quick path to some big points. Choose +5 tie fighters each ball, get yourself setup for Tie Fighter multi ball. Crank up the shot multiplier as high as you can and lock your multiplier on the hoth shot... rake in some easy points on the Video mode and then take it into the Hoth mini wizard mode, and hopefully be ready to stack Tie Fighter multi ball on it. A load of points for very little work!

Is Stern going to produce these new art versions of the game, or is this just a concept thing?

Midnight Madness used to be a Multiball mode back in .91 version of the code, but for whatever reason they removed it in a later code update. My guess is it didn't fit into some guideline set forth by Disney on how they can use the assets. I have a short video of the mode on our Youtube Channel from a couple years ago

When you set your clock, then wait for when the clock rolls to midnight and either be in the middle of a game or start a game within that first minute. Doesn’t work with this game anymore, but a few Dwight games have midnight madness

Took these a while back for a friend who was reassembling and asked the exact question. Hope these help!

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Are you saying that a clean shot through the left loop (the Death Star shot) is not making it all the way through when the shot is not lit? or the ball is not getting locked in by the posts when the shot is lit? Either way i've never experienced a problem like this on the game with the left loop. Where i would every once in a while get a reject which is common on the Star Wars Pro models is the right loop (Hoth shot) when lit to start Video Mode, or pick a mode, etc. Sometimes if you shot the Hoth shot too fast/hard, the timing on the post wasnt quick enough to trap the ball in there. I've seen this on Premium/LEs as well. Stern adjusted the timing on this a bit with some of the past code updates and it was much better afterwards.

In the case of the left loop (Death Star shot), check to see that the two posts that raise up to trap the ball are level with the playfield when they are not engaged. Again, I've never had a problem with this, but its possible something shifted when it was being transported. Also check the pitch of the game, should be dialed in at 6.5. Seeing the video would be helpful. I'm sure whatever the issue is will be a super easy adjustment.

Ah, Ok. I would check that the lever on the switch for the gate is on the right side of the wire. The gate wire should be on top of the lever on the switch. Sometimes they can get flipped and that might possibly cause the binding. Also, check that the lever on the switch is moving freely. if its getting bound it could cause the wire to not swing enough. Double check the pitch as well, always worked nice for me, but hard to say if the machine was out a half degree, might make all the difference.

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That theory sounds plausible to me, maybe the wire gate needs to be bent in a bit so the opening is not wider than a ball. I've also seen gate covers for sale by Mezelmods that have the rebel alliance or empire logos on them specifically for these types of gates (https://mezelmods.com/collections/star-wars-stern/products/star-wars-pinball-gate-assembly-covers?variant=42269466888), guessing if that's the problem this would help eliminate it completely. You can probably bang something out on your 3D printer for this in the meantime.

I actually want the game back now so I can install the light baffles myself! haha