I mean, thematically it makes complete sense. You can’t hunt for quarters when you’re dealing with demodogs.

this game is just late to the party, so the newbies liking it are very welcome. It will help the resale value of the game... keep the hype going

Great, thanks very much for the info.
cheers

If you are not completing the modes you are giving up huge bonus possibilities. It's not uncommon for me to double my score early on with bonus. 100-200 million bonuses are common for me. I always try to complete modes and collect those map pieces. Quarter hunt, combined with tk multiball and double scoring can be huge.

Agreed. I was referencing how the audio files are played for the modes and how the songs would be cut short if you cannot keep a mode going, or another game event triggers another audio track.

I have not been having that problem but I focus on completing the modes. The cleland songs play pretty much all the way thru most of the time.

True, I have been slowly working on this and hope to have something in the next couple of weeks.

Yes, please post your thoughts in my sound mod thread. The only thing is, I really only want 80's songs that were in the show at some point.

Ahhh, ok I had half seriously suggested Pac-Man fever for Quarter Hunt, but I don't recall hearing that song during the show.
Thanks for your work on this.

If I play Stranger Things on location it will be a surprise because I've only had the latest Cleland code on mine. (Downloaded it and created the SD card image while my game was on its way)

I say this very sincerely, the very best thing about getting a new game is joining the Pinside club and finding people who love the game as much as you do. I haven’t been this excited for a pin since I started the Metallica thread in 2013 (and I still have it). Community is great.

I respect that. But as someone who lived in that era, I’m probably going to pick songs that resonate with me. It’s no knock on your choices, which I think are already great.

Agreed. This is one of the better ones too which is key with all the “caressing “ this game may need to get it playing to its full potential. It’s a really good game though and worth the work. Welcome to the club!

I don't want to be that guy, but I just waxed my game and holly ball-eroni batman, this thing is fast, balls flying everywhere after taking off the demo ramp...

with that said, how is everybody else's PF holding up? mine has some really nice dimples pretty much everywhere in only 500 games so I estimate by 2000 it will be covered, however the dimples by the ramp are bigger, wondering if there is a game here with more than 1000 plays to report on this...

I know I know, this is not for a dimples debate, , just curious to know because of all the flying balls these games has... earlier today I think someone posted a broken pop cover (maybe it was on Stern's FB page - can't remember -)....

just curious.

Yeah, this is one of the most active club threads on Pinside (thanks Chuckwurt). Tons of great dialing-in tips and rules suggestions. It’s a testament to how far the game has come, and what good code can do.

3800 games played on mine and the upper half of the open play field is starting to look like orange peel, lower half near the flippers has craters everywhere. It'll be a while before that area orange peels. Ramp flaps have also taken a beating.

Love this game, seems to be smoothing out.

ok good to know it will smooth out, I do not care really about the dimples, as long as they are uniform and even then I just dont care, lol but was wondering.

Instead of glow in the dark rubber try Pinballlife Stock purple perfect play...incredible.

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yeah, I just need to order those! purple is my favourite color because it is my daughter's favourite color, lol...
I also going to replace a couple lamp sockets... I am getting the occasional flicker on the inline lights, these are under the flipper assembly I think so I will replace them all..

Any recommendations?

how long, no idea. I am enjoying it now but I - recently discover - that I enjoy diversity... I only have room for 3 games for now.

Right now I am contemplating selling AIQ to finance a GNR. Goal is to have 4 pins at home, no more no less, with 4 I will have a happy rotation and perhaps a more stable/bolted to the floor line up.

AIQ is a great game, but the code does not click with me and even though it might looks like it is deep to me it does not feel that way, the layout is different and smart but it is not a shooter I love. Sure the combos are fun but it really does not have the flow and speed I like...

So Stranger Things is my favourite game. I can tell you that I like what Brian Eddy does and I prefer this type of coding - I do not like shallow games - so Stth has a fun mix between old school 90s and modern that I like, it is not shallow and it does not require a degree in pinball science to play, plain fun.

I never played a Lyman's game so maybe I am missing out (or maybe I did play his games), I did play EHOH once, do not know if it was good or bad after one play.

I am an 80s kid so grew up in the arcades, and 90s pins era are fun for me but I get bored of them very quickly so I need a better ruleset than that without getting too complicated or I lose interest. I have zero interest in studying pinball strategy or reading a pinball manual about its rules.

soooo... what was the question again? sorry I am not getting a lot of human interaction thanks to covid and pinside is the closest I have had to socializing in months, lol.... got sidetracked.

I've struggled with the flipper lane lights on all of my sterns. I've replaced the sockets and still flickering. I'd start by replacing the LED's with ones from Comet pinball. Since replacing with those I've not had any flicker so maybe sterns bulbs just suck.

You must really be new to the hobby. I started with 1....then 2...then 3. Upped it up to 6. Kids came and I downsized to 4. Now I am considering going back up to 5. I say this in jest because, you start getting crazy and thinking....you know I can put a game over there. Hey, we don't use the dining room. That is a waste, let's put a pin in there. (In reality the dining room and living room are a complete waste of rooms)

Eddy and Popadiuk are my favorites. Borg and Ritchie are next. I have one must have on a game. That is a left orbit that loops around. Can't stand it when the left orbit doesn't come around to the right flipper. It is ok to have an up-post or gate that stops the ball sometimes on that orbit. I like fast moving games. This is why I don't like Lawlor pins.

It is interesting that you say that you don't like shallow games. IMO, Stranger Things is a shallow game compared to most Sterns. Which is one reason I love it. One thing I don't like about Sterns is the complexity of the rules. I loved the 90s WMS, because I always knew what I needed to do. I am a middle of the road player and with WMS games, I had a chance to beat the game.

My 2 favorite games are Medieval Madness (Strangely I don't miss it because I got a stupid amount of money when I sold mine) and Theatre of Magic.
Johnny Mnemonic was a guilty pleasure. Great game. Atrocious theme.

I have moved on to Sterns because they were more reliable. (though many of you have seen how I am unhappy with the QC issues with Stranger Things)

I gotcha, sorry for my long winded explanation as to why I might not keep it... just wanted to make conversation... haha

All that to say, Mando + Brian Eddy, if this is true... this might turn out to be an epic table. I dont think Eddy ever made a crappy table and I feel like these veterans are trying hard to stay relevant when they have younger designers pushing to be the next 'best designer' creating new and different game layouts...Keith Elwin comes to mind even though I dont think I like his games.

Is this the first game since Space station to have dedicated colored GI strings?

As cool as that is, the purple always being on bugged me, because it changes the art on the plastics. I thought I’d try swapping them out with white (I had some spares from changing GOTLE to warm white). Here’s the result. The game was actually too bright now, so I dialed the GI brightness back to 60%. Of course, this is going to destroy the Upside Down mode until I get my UV kit. So I may swap it back for now - easy to do if you make changes from under the playfield. Thoughts?

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EDIT: kept the purple LEDs everywhere except the slings and lane guides. I’m happy with the look now.

yup, it all started with getting one game for my 40th birthday and now looking at getting a 3rd one... and it's only been 3 months? mind you been obsessed over pinball for the past 6 months.

Interesting, I never noticed that. Stern did thoughtfully use violet wires for the lamp sockets that are supposed to be purple. I might keep the slings and lane guide white, and switch everything else back to purple (i.e. factory).

Has anyone noticed sounds from other pins? The Upside Down award sounds are definitely from Iron Man, and I think I even heard some Wheel of Fortune sounds at one point.

I noticed some GOTG sounds yes. Maybe some lazy Lonnie code leftovers?

I don’t mind reused sounds if they’re cool. But I’d definitely like to remove the WOF sounds.

After months of back and forth, Tilt sent me replacement ramp decals. The old ones were too small and didn’t match the rivets.

The new ones... are too big. I can always trim the decal, but good Lord.

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And a goopy mess to clean up.

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New decal installed after I trimmed the bottom. Not perfect, but I give up.

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so did not get a lot of responses on the shaker.... only one YAY and another NAY... so what is it?

My stranger things is all dialed in, even the saucer makes around the burn it back sometimes.. so I just want to keep making it better!

I dont notice it at all, maybe buy some speaker lights.

Shaker on this game is just average in my opinion.

My EHOH shaker implementation is genius in comparison.

Yup. Add a shaker, not like it's a big expense, just don't expect to be blown away. Slightly below average in my opinion.

I like frequent but subtle shaker action, which is what we have here. It’s not going to rattle the glass, but it’s definitely there a lot if you set it to “Maximum”. In a world of $600 toppers, it’s kind a no-brainer $110 purchase.

I add the knocker to pretty much all of my Sterns. It's one of the first things I added to my SThLE

New owner questions (I did search the thread first for an answer): what causes the “Burn It Back” insert to come on, and what does it mean when it is lit? And, does anything special happen if you loop this shot repeatedly, or is that shot always the same (awarding 1 BIB no matter what)?

Haha. Yes, I’ve read that rule sheet about 5 times, nice work. I still don’t know why there is an insert for BIB though.

Note to Stern: give us something cool for looping this shot repeatedly, even if it’s just a callout. Like when Steve Ritchie says “You’re on Fire!” in No Fear. Actually that callout would be perfect!

Ah, got it. The insert lights to indicate that an award is waiting (Light 2x scoring or Spell of Protection).