There may still be some dealer inventory of Pros. But I think this will end up being kind of a rare game in all trim levels.

Well, to be fair, that is hardly an earth shattering statement. You could say that about any pro, premium, LE game Stern has ever made. Of course anyone would take the higher trim level game any day and all day if the cost were the same.

The discussion here is whether the premium justifies 3-4k more for what you get and if what you get justifies a pinside rating difference of 7.7 vs. 8.7. To me, the answer to that is clearly no.

With this game it's a huge problem for those rating pros that only play on location due to what you say. It takes quite a bit of tweaking to this game to get it to play well and not frustrate people and it seems a good number of ops don't do that work. I've played a number of Premiums and pros in the wild and nearly all of them suffer from the mystery to sling issue, left orbit issue, and difficult demogorgon shot. Some were better than others but the ops are not putting as much time getting them to play better.

I had one op who refused to put ST on location come over to the house and try mine out and he was surprised how well it played. He thought I had a magnet or something to pull the ball into the demogorgon mouth. Nope just adjusted properly. He said he's never once played a game where that shot was successful.

Then take into account all the early reviews when the code was under revision .9. Anyone around back then can attest the game was rough. That last 10 percent changed a lot for the better. Those that play on location are not coming back to redo their reviews and many people I know just hate the game because of the early experience and don't come back to try it or don't have the ability as it's not on location anymore.

agreed, i've only played Pros on location- three different ones- and you had to slap save from the right orbit to the left flipper on two of them and the ball would hit the top of the left sling coming out of mystery and burn it back every time on all three

its a much different game with clean returns from the two orbits to the flippers

Sweet, sweet eye candy! I recently picked up a Premium. My wife wanted it! She loves the projector. She was not interested in owning the game without it (or the UV kit, another "must have" for us), so that made the decision easy.
Just added a shaker to the game too. That's another simple add-on that we put in all of our games. Just adds to the whole experience. Having that tactile feedback when you nail shots is satisfying. Guests always comment on the shakers. That's something you usually don't get to experience with location games.

the whole GAME is eye candy. the purple armor, the shooter, the topper and UV kit, the art blades, the projector...sometimes i turn it on when i don't even plan to play it because it's so purty

the first time i ever flew on a plane was first class. every other flight has paled in comparison. i feel the same way about my first NIB being STh

My previous two times that I increased combo champion were both by 1 - from 115 to 116 to 117. And then this

747F9393-EFC1-4A0F-894C-5E7C6D8A5B61 (resized).jpeg

I played a Stranger Things premium today. It seemed every time I would backhand a left ramp shot, it would be rejected and come back down the ramp. Is this normal or is this part of the issue with the premium/LE TK lock? It would happen occasionally from the right flipper as well. Did Stern provide a part or something to help with the TK lock issue?

Ok, thank you for the feedback. So if it gets rejected occasionally when lock isn't lit or when made from the right flipper, is that normal or is there some adjustment necessary? What does the part fix Stern has made available to help with the TK lock issue?

Wasn't seeing a key post on this -- Anyone seen & addressed this kind of center ramp/side panel alignment issue on their recent run pro?

The left hand side appears to move while the ramp is moving up/down. But the left hand side piece feels firmly mounted when I try to move it by hand. (Could be that the ramp itself is actually shifting and I'm just seeing it wrong too.)

Could it be that the ramp mech is rotating it too far towards the demo causing this movement/alignment issue?

PXL_20220305_033905453.MP (resized).jpg

PXL_20220305_033920802.MP (resized).jpg

Weird question and I can’t seem to figure it out. Occasionally when a ball is auto plunged or the right flipper flips, I hear the electric buzzing when you hit a ball lock and I earn 1,110 points. I assumed it was one of the light lock targets but the only way for the buzzing noise to happen is for one of those unlit targets to become lit and flipping is not lighting them up. It makes a bonk noise if it’s already lit which isn’t what I’m hearing. Any ideas?

Thanks! It’s the leaf switch behind the pop bumpers. I tried bending it a bit but it’s still kinda sensitive.

I tried it and it seems to be fixed. I just wanna say thanks for your help though. I’m a total newbie to pinball stuff and in general am not a very handy dude. I really appreciate how kind everyone is here and how clear the advice is it really means a lot

Anyone have the Stranger Things side armor on their game? I have a chance to get a set but unsure how it looks on the game. Thoughts?... or pictures.

I don’t but I’ve seen it and it looks great! I’m looking for a set as well. I have my name on for the next run of armor they are planning

Here is a video of it being installed and it gives you a good upclose look.

So for a change I swapped in Perfect Play purple rubber - nice pink glow under the UV

Have found that I can now backhand the right ramp from a cradle . It’s still very tight but def doable. I had Titan glow rubber before and it wasn’t possible. I’m guessing the rubber is just a fraction thinner.

Im not the greatest player in the world so having another option is good news for me as that right ramp still taunts me every game

It looks weirdly busy to me. I’ll be opting for powdered standard lollipops I think.

Alignment on mine is straight. I do notice when it gets pretty much all the way lowered it pushes the left pane out a bit - not the right at all.

After playing the game for two weeks now and having the worst NIB experience so far (balls flying everywhere, stucked balls etc.) the game slowed down and I was able to adjust to the shots. I really enjoy the flow now, its great!
However, there a still some major issues which are bothering me.

Bash toy:
I lowered it by removing the spacers and bent down the metal a littlebit. I also ground down the screw under the toys chin to make it even lower. It is not possible to remove this screw completely, or the ball will get stuck at the toys labia. However, I am able to hit the vagina the first few minutes of gameplay, later the ball won`t go in. So i guess its because the coils are eating up causing weaker flippers. So I installed the pinmonks cooling kit which made no difference. Lifting up the whole ramp mech could work with spacers but the ball still would get stuck at the Demogorgons lower right labia.
Anyone has a better fix than me?
My PF is pitched @ 6.8°

Left orbit feed:
(The right orbit feed fixed itself over time and works about 80% now)
The left orbit feed from the mistery shot feeds the ball into the sling. With a tight tilt you have no chance to avoid that. A little sidenote here, Brian Eddy's Mandalorian has the exact same issue on the right orbit...

Below is an image of what is happening. As the ball leaves the mystery and enters the orbit, it bounces against the ballguide, causing it to NOT roll smoothly down on the guide. After the first bounce it bounces off of the guide a second time and then into the slings. You can either reduce the first bounce by slaping the machine in the direction WITH the ball at the point of contact, so the ball can then roll down the guide and get enough jump force to make it past the sling. Or you do it like most players and wait for the second bounce and try to bounce the ball off of the guide.

That image also explains why bending the metal guide wont work, it's because the ball isn't even touching it at the end. A smoother transition would be the solution.
Anyone can help me here?

RED = BALLGUIDE
GREEN = BALLS PATH

StrangerThings-Pro-Playfield-Closed-720x1205 (resized).jpg

Does yours stop in line with the side panels, or does it rotate a few degrees closer to the Demogorgo?

It stops in line / alignment when the ramp is up is good. Just kind of squishes the left pane outwards (more to the left) a tiny bit right at the end of the travel on its way down. I'm not sure if any movement of the side pieces is common and / or inherently problematic.

I know you can adjust the length of travel of the motor in terms of how far it opens - I assume your ramp makes it down onto the playfield all the way successfully? I didn't note any of the posts talking about that so you might have to search the thread for more info.

Here is some discussion of another demo ramp problem, not really your issue but some more info on the operation of the ramp in general:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-club-join-our-party/page/166#post-6159699

abe have you checked your side to side pitch? being off a half a degree could do what chuck said and cause the post to hit the ball on its way back up, pushing the ball too hard into the guide instead of letting it roll out on its own

post was hitting mine no matter what I did. Had to cut the spring down to have it come up slower. Wish there was a software delay setting for this.

Thanks, that helped. I was in perfect level, but the ball still bounced into the slingshot so I pushed the ballguide slightly before the spinner with my two thumbs short and firmly to the side- didn't even have to remove the ramp. I did that a few times always checking back how the ball bounces off of the guide. It worked, but the entrance of the metal guide is now bent lightly into the oposite direction due to the new curvature, so the "burn it back" shot feeds now more towards the tip of the flipper. But I'm quite happy with the tradeoff, and I just nearly made it to the wizard mode.

The balls are hitting the Demo too low. That makes sense since its much easier to hit with cold flipper coils.
Is there a way to bend the ramp maybe?

I just wanted to say that I think this is the most beautyful playfield I have seen so far. The color sheme and shades are stunning!!
Will the Cleland Audio Mod work with insider connected? https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-cleland-sound-mod/page/10

Cheers

It works great with the pro models. Can’t speak to the premiums.

Does anyone feel like this game is the spiritual successor to Iron Man? It just kicks my ass so hard, especially the right outlane, for some reason. The rebound from the drops makes the War Machine kicker seem tame by comparison. And looping Burn It Back 3X build some crazy speed on the ball, I’ve had it jump the flipper. I love a game that fights back, and STH fits in that category for me. It’ll be a great league/tournament game.

Just so I’m sure, there’s no real way to test the behavior on a given machine to see how the ball would run if the left post wasn’t impacting it - basically you can’t put a ball there and hold the coil energized (down) in any test, correct?

Instead it’s all diagnosing if the post is hitting the ball?

Would be nice if you could hold the coil in a test for a second just to verify how it would return if the plunger was out of the equation.

Problem with taking the post out is, that the ball will come out faster because it wont get stopped at the post anymore.
I took a long screwdriver and waited untill the ball got released and pushed the post down in that moment.

Thinking of trying this on mine. Is that spring just the regular one you find on the Slings , VUK etc on Sterns. I couldn't see it in the manual. The post assembly not in the Pro manual, and in the Premium manual the spring wasn't labelled correctly.

It is a standard spring. I think I pulled one out of my bin from an old williams flipper coil for F-14 and it was exactly the same so I cut down the old williams one and saved the stock one. I'm pretty sure I've now lost the stock one though lol.

I think it was this one https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/10-376

Previously in the thread someone recommended a Bally Williams spring with a couple coils cut off. I haven't tried one yet, I think that's really my next route in trial by troubleshooting / playing around. Where my guide is now, burn it back return is great, mystery return is ok - it hits the bottom of the sling and doesn't activate the sling, but still bounces enough that it could be more controlled. Generally if I hold the left flipper up it will bounce off unactive sling -> flipper -> over to right sling -> over to jackpot scoop. Every once in a while the spinner catches the ball returning to where it feeds to the flipper, and I'm reminded of how nice it could_ be.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-club-join-our-party/page/204#post-6269447

https://www.pinballlife.com/williamsbally-flipper-return-tapered-compression-spring.html

Here was the post I did with a pic of the spring and how far I cut it down https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-club-join-our-party/page/224#post-6353362

you know, that post fires once when i start the game, when the first ball goes in the trough, every single time. it also fires the first time i shoot the shot behind the drops, quick enough that it doesn't hamper the ball getting stopped as it should. so weird *shrug*

also, i think i figured out that what the balls are getting hung up on in the mystery shot is actually the square hole in the bottom ball guide that's cut for the opto should i just put mylar over it?

What does a make in the center lane under the Demo get you in terms of letter completion for advancing the demo modes? It seems to jump me forward an awful lot vs. hitting drops individually, not sure if it grants 4x letters each time or what?

It gives you the remaining letters that are currently "active". So it will give you up to 3 letters (assuming you have to have one drop already down to get behind there).

it literally only happens the first game i play after turning the game on. very weird

i meant shooter lane, not trough. like i turn the game on, it runs the startup sequence. then i press start, a ball kicks into the shooter lane, that post behind mystery fires super quick. then the first time i hit the shot behind the drops, right when it registers (before it gets to the opto) the post fires again, very quickly, so quickly that it still catches the ball and the animation plays if mystery is lit, then it releases the ball like it should

and then i play for 2 hours and it never happens again that whole time

After a couple hundred plays I gotta say Im really digging this game. Definitely sticking around for a while. I just switched out the Operation Mirkwood music for Herbie Hancocks “Rockit”, the quintessential early 1980s jam, its awesome pinball music.