Lol, yeah I saw that guy said to vemo him money and he will get it delivered.. lol

Since I was local I messaged him on Facebook. I said can you FaceTime the machine before I look at it in person. He says the machine was all packaged up but he could only send more pictures. His original pictures were from another user on here when he had his for sale. I hope no one got scammed

Just for fun, I said I would drive down immediately to pick it up and bring cash. Just needed an address

He said, "no, you need to prove your a serious buyer"

Good times on FB.

What is it with the mode timers in this game? Seems like they take twice as long to countdown compared to other games and the default "add time" on the mystery shot just compounds it. First Demodog mode..."hit the targets"...my brain says:

.

fuck-you-are-jason-bateman.gif

Are there two versions of the Demog sculpt? I’m convinced the one on location near me has a smaller opening than the others I’ve played.

there is only one sculpt but I had to trim some flashing on the inside of mine to make it a bit larger. I also had to shim it so that it was level. I used to have part of the metal showing so you can adjust it

my mystery gate snapped and I'm having trouble finding a replacement. sent a msg to distro but does anyone have a quicker solution.

I think some people have had some luck crafting a solution out of craft wire, take the broken pieces to Michaels or something to match the gauge, and approximate the bends as best you can while you wait

This Simpsons one looks taller, but if you bent it a little differently, it might work:

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/535-9043-56

Does anyone know if you can you get the side armor anywhere anymore?

Great! I keyposted that so others can find it easier.

Cool! I've been looking for that wireform myself.

HDMI out on my pro! The original owner never updated the code, so it came to me with 0.8x. I downloaded the PRE 1.07 update from Stern and plugged the usb in.

Now to find a cheap projector!

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That’s awesome. I wonder if we pro owners downgrade to version .8x and then to 1.07 premium we can have similar results

Nice! Let us know how you get on trying to find a projector and mounting it etc

Luckily my uv kit is a Premium

anyone else get the communication wall topper from Laserific? Look good in person? Leaning toward this one over the pricey stern. Thx

Yeah I have the metal apron on my pro too

Weird thing is that same guy posted an Addams Family yesterday for $8k and today I talked with someone who sent him money to hold it then said forget it and the guy refunded him his cash on Venmo. I had a long conservation with him and he said I could come get the stranger things after talking with him about it. I told him to send me a video of it and say my name in the video with his Guardian of the Galaxies machine and he did. He said the stranger things game was wrapped up in a box and in storage somewhere. I believe the guy might have been legit but just didn't want to risk a 8hr round trip to go get the machines if he wasn't..

For those wondering, it was originally ver 0.85.

Since I have to start from scratch, does it make sense to use the Darkstar material? Or should I just use the white sticker sheet from PBL?

i upgraded my pro to a premium. very similar situation you are in. i used darkstar material but i did buy the white kit from pinlife. they will eventually have a darkstar kit, but the price will be probably near $100 (opposed to $10 for white.) i suggest getting the white pinlife kit, as it gives you the sizes to cut the (expensive) darkstar material. you can buy the darkstar samples and cut them yourself, that's what i did. you don't need more than 3 sample sheets. don't put the material on the sides of the ramps for example. just the horizontal ramp surfaces. and of course the main projector area, drop targets, standup targets behind the drops, and the thin 4 standup targets. I also dimmed the LED lights on the arrows in front of the projection area to help with the projector lighting. used paper over the LED to turn them down in power. also did the 3d print of the ramp sign on the left ramp. that's a nice feature (i hear pinlife is making their own version of that sign.)

you will need other things too. if you're using a premium UV kit the stainless steel on the ball return is too short. i extended mine with the TIG welder. otherwise the ball can get stuck. unlikely, but it can happen.

Also you will have to cut your stainless steel ball return metal. the projector mounting bracket goes over the top of that metal. so you need to cut about 1/4" off the top of that return metal in an approximate 3" slice. the projector bracket hangs over the top of the ball return metal. and the pro does not have that cut out. i guess you could order that metal, but i used a cut off saw and made the cut to my original metal (and at the same time TIG welded that 1" extension so the ball does not get stuck.)

i used the stock stern projector power supply board. you can buy the cabling from that to the projector from Amazon (see links below.) but you will have to make the 70v harness that goes from the square playfield connector to the power supply (about 6 foot of two 18 gauge wires gray and black and two .093 molex round pins.) also you need to get 5v so that's another harness you will have to make (about 3 foot of two 22 gauge wires and a .156 molex housing/pins.) do you need the stern projector power supply? well if you want a stock looking setup, yes. but does it have to be that way? probably not. you could use another power supply (like the one that comes with the Apeman m4s), it connects to 120v and outputs 5v through a usb port. not the stock setup, and you have to turn that power off and on and the game power. to me it was better to just use the power supply that stern adapted to the game. cost was about $80 for that board, and had to make the board's metal mounting bracket (easy, just a single right angle bend and some holes.)

for the projector i like the stock s6000, but it's expensive. you can use an Apeman M4s projector (not the M4, but the M4s.) It's larger than the stock s6000.... so you will have to make new mounting brackets. and i'm not sure it will fit under the apron. i'm still working on that... but the stock stern projector mounting bracket will not work at all with the m4s. so you'll have to get creative and do some metal work. it's not that hard. i made a mounting bracket for the s6000, because i didn't think i could get the stern projector bracket (it's 4 pieces, and still haven't been able to get 2 of the pieces.) but at one point pinlife had the big bracket and one of the smaller brackets.

Also the M4s has to be modified to work in the stranger things game. the battery must be disconnected (easy). and the power switch permanently pressed (using a tooth pick and some super glue.) i still haven't mounted it (nor made the custom bracket), so i don't know how the projection angles will line up yet. or how it will fit under the apron.

Here's some cables you will need for the s6000 and stern projector power supply (if you are using the m4s the cabling is a bit different since one projector has a micro hdmi port, and the other has a full size hdmi port). I ended up buying both types of hdmi port cabling so i could experiment, as the cables are cheap. But what is listed below should be all you need for the s6000. If you're using the m4s the right angle hdmi cable will probably need to be different:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BWJLXXR (right angle hdmi cable, plugs into extension cable)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GBBSM7A (extension hdmi m/f cable from backbox cpu to playfield)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01787LBF0 (right angle power cable from ps board to projector)

bottom line... it's a lot of work! but getting/buying a premium stranger things is a lot of work (and money) too! and of course this all assumes you can get your stock CPU board to output HDMI video... you got lucky with the .85 software that was never upgraded, so now you can run premium software without a glitch. there's other ways to skin that cat, but none of them are easy or cheap. I'm running the Clevland premium 1.0x code on my pro-to-premium and it's quite nice. I like the fact that my $6000 pro is now essentially a premium (without the magnet back panel ball lock, which would be cool IF you can get it to work, and put up with flippers so strong they destroy everything in their path - no thanks, i'll stay with my pro-to-premium projector mod game, thank you very much....)

I have the power supply and the projector to update my pro to premium. what do the cables look like ?

that is a shitload of not playing pinball time to get the projector working on a pro, lol

i think earning the money to buy a premium through traditional means would be a lot easier than all that haha i mean toothpicks and glue and putting paper over the LEDs and stuff...come on man

also isn't .85 code like...there's nothing coded yet? like the state the game launched in when everyone hated it? is having the projector worth not having a wizard mode?

sure are a lot of compromises involved in doing this. almost like Stern didn't want you to be able to

There are many aspects to the hobby. You’d probably die if you saw how much time I’ve put into reviving $1k player machines. Some people like to work on cars, some only like to drive them.

i certainly understand, my first game was a beater F 14 that i very much enjoyed 200+ hours of wrenching on, but in this case, the juice doesn't really seem worth the squeeze. cutting the apron metal? building a wiring harness? no thanks

I don't know why I didn't just do that with my pro I had. Great idea!

After reading some more of Vid’s playfield restoration / thread and what it takes to reclear a PF purely for entertainment and procrastination from going back downstairs and continuing my top teardown of LOTR, this pro to premium stuff seems not so bad!

5-way combo on mirkwood, boy did that feel good! Now just need to finish Save Will, easily the hardest mode for me

Can't remember who it was in .. the Godzilla thread(?) who mentioned using vinyl car wraps instead of powder coating, but my thanks to them...

Wrapped my lockdown bar and sides in a $19 roll of Vvivid+ gloss Psycho Purple. Not perfect, but it's certainly a low cost alternative to powder coating.

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First image was before I wiped that smudge away and wrapped the sides. Lighting's not the greatest in the third image, but up close it sparkles pretty brilliantly. Recommended!

I think it was the AIQ thread where I saw someone using wraps. They said some of the nooks were a bit difficult - maybe in the lockdown bar, I forget?

Yup, I wrapped the rusty legs of my Fishtales bright orange. 10' x 1' of automotive vinyl from ebay is enough for 4 legs and looks great.

I have never seen a lockdown bar that looked good wrapped until the one above. Usually, large wrinkles around the ends can't be avoided.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fish-tales-casters-club/page/20#post-3512631

I'm sure this has been covered on here but didn't feel like searching This game is easy to get out of control and the ball goes everywhere. On the Extra ball/Demo Dog shot when it holds the ball for a few seconds then releases where is it supposed to end up? Usually mine will hit the upper left sling and then you have to get control. On Willy Wonka, with a similar ball release, a guy designed a cool ramp exit that makes the ball land on your flipper like 95% of the time so you have control. Not that its needed here but was just curious where it lands for most people and if anyone added rubber ring or something to redirect ball to flipper.

Best video ever . Thx.

Save Will is by some margin my least favourite mode. It’s dull, it’s tough and I don’t care for the music (one of the few Cleland choices I don’t like) . I just don’t enjoy it like I do many of the others.

I don't love the mode but the music choice for the mode matches completely. It is also the New Order song used in the show at Will's funeral.

Has anyone changed the two rubber posts on each side of the institute? Looks like a pain to get it lifted enough to swap out.

I did, during a full playfield tear down. I swapped in a couple of purple Cliffy post sleeves which are much more durable. You pretty much have to tear everything down to replace them. It's not fun. If someone has a shortcut, that would be great, but I think you'd need some interdimensional technology that doesn't exist yet.

dupe

So does anyone have the old download of version 0.85? Came up empty trying to find it on Stern's public file storage and it's too large to be on Wayback Machine.

I was afraid of that/ Looks like a hornets nest of metal, brackets, hinges, springs above and below the pf I want to add better purple ones too.

So version .85 allows hdmi out for projector on a pro? If I update to 1.07 from .85 wouldn’t hdmi out stop?

Nope see my earlier post. BUT the difference is, my machine only had .85 and was never updated. I’m not sure if something was implemented in later codes that “permanently” marks your board as a pro.

Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to backup .85

you guys are reading the .85 thing wrong. you don't put .85 in your game and magically made the hdmi work... what he was saying was the early software did not "mark" the cpu board as a Pro board, where later pro versions do this (so a pro cpu board can't be used in a premium, without stern "re-virginizing" it.) So finding a pro game with .85 allowed him to flash the cpu board with the latest premium software, and the cpu board did not complain, and the hdmi port worked.

So if you want to turn a pro Stranger Things into a premium Stranger Things, you need to find an original pro with .85 software that has never been upgraded to a newer pro software version. Well at least that’s the first step in the conversion process. And how many Stranger Things pros are still out there with the original .85 software release, well, that’s probably in the single digits if not zero

My guess is that the software looks at a non-volatile ram bit to determine if the CPU board was originally run with pro or premium software. This bit gets initialized at the factory when the game is first loaded with software and turned on. Apparently the pro. 85 software version didn’t have this code snippet installed. Probably because it was like really early. And later revisions does have this code snippet, hence the “running premium software on a pro”, error message