I have had three new in box machines in the last 2 years and none of them came with the slingshot plastics. Key fobs and target stickers is all that I got

I swapped out the glow in the dark titans for the purple pinball life ones yesterday. Game is a lot bouncier now it's crazy. Took me a number of games to get used to it. Also put the larger ring under the ring by the launch exit. Made a huge difference. Now those sloppy shots that snuck down the middle are bouncing the left flipper. Game feels much more controlled now. I replaced all of the rubber on the lower half of the machine and highly recommend it. Does make the outlanes a little too easy. Will probably move it back from center to top for that. The reaction to the uv light is also pretty awesome. The more stretched rings glow more than the less stretched ones but it's a really cool effect. I also got the purple post rubbers to replace next time I take the ramp apart.

I have the pinball life shaker in my game and over the last few days I've noticed it is starting to squeak. It's only a few weeks old. Has anyone ran into this and is there a fix? Gonna email pinball life here in a bit about it. Really annoying and it's definitely coming from the shaker. I turned it off and no more squeaks.

The launch exit rubber is not in the stranger things manual. I believe it is 3/16" Post Rubber. I also bought a 5/16" Bumper Post Ring to go below it. It's kinda hard to get a good pic of it but I do think I like it better than the glow in the dark. It took a lot of getting used to with the kinda white/green color on the flipper. The purple looks much better when the uv is off IMHO

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It's a great machine to practice post passing on as it is more difficult than others. I find most of Brian Eddy's machines are this way for me. Been practicing a lot and I can get it pretty consistently on it now and even used it in league on an AFM and MM a few weeks ago. I used to find those impossible. Thanks to these games my Borg machines are a breeze to post pass on.

1.6 billion is my high score currently. That's a good score.

Those posts under the demo were bothering me. Mine looked like they were nearly ripped in half. Took a lot to get at them but taking the opportunity to clean and do adjustments.

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The drops don't touch the posts on my machine. The ball had eaten a line in the stock stern hard plastic sleeves. My pirates has the same line which I'll be replacing soon. Those look worse to get at than stranger things. I also did some work to guardians tonight. That game had maintenance in mind in the design process. Super easy to work on.

I'll check that since I have it apart. They look like they are far enough away but definitely sounds plausible. I have the same marks on my pirates posts in the tortuga thing though which is why I figured just ball damage.

After checking closely I think you are right about this. The nicks in the hard plastic sleeves are little lines and not standard ball wear you would see with age. It will be interesting to see if the softer pinball life ones damage quicker due to this or not.

I went ahead and rounded mine off a bit. Just used an X-Acto knife and took the corner off. In my inspection of everything I noticed dimples under the ramp flap lol. That ball must have been hitting it super hard

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I noticed the same with Titans. The pinball life ones are much better so far for me and play more like the standard flipper rubbers. The slings and other ones though are a lot bouncier but that will change as they get older.

I've kept my flipper power at full strength for both. Dial in the demo for that and get the fans. This is not a game you want less power on lol

Does anyone know how to adjust that mystery up post? The mech design is not in the manual and it's very different from the standard up posts like the left ramp ball lock. I don't see any way to adjust it other than to shim it. Mine is hitting the ball about 20% of the time as well.

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This game can be a handful for sure. Going thru a bit of an annoyed state with it. Trying to get the left and right orbits dialed in and it is not easy. The right orbit rail on mine doesn't move at all so there really is no adjustment available for the rail. Only physical adjustment I can make is small variations on the one way gate coming out of the ball launch. That leaves me with left-right level but changing that undoes the left orbit adjustment to not hit the sling. There is more wiggle room on the left rail but not enough to really change where it is hitting the sling.

Hey at least I have the left kicker going all the way around the orbit from time to time now. Never could get that in the past lol.

It's one of those things where you have the machine playing the way you know it for months and then screw with it and it feels all wrong. I just wanted to get rid of having to nudge the machine coming out of the mystery and make the right orbit a bit easier for newbies to the game but feel like I've gone and screwed it all up lol.

I'll get at it tomorrow and hopefully sort all this out.

On my game that's a hard number lol. I'm at 6.7 at the drops and 6.56 at the flippers. Seems I have a bit of a bow in mine lengthwise. All of my machines have this variation though.

So, spent a ton of time trying different things to get the orbits dialed in. Ended up spending the most time levelling the machine. Ended up putting the ball guides back to a neutral position where looping around the bib didn't end up with a sdtm. Then rechecked the level with my tools. It was nearly perfectly level.

I tried everything. Raising just the right rear, got worse. Put it back and raised right front, both left and right orbits got worse. Put it back and raised left rear 10 turns... It got better but hitting bottom of the sling. Raised the right front by 10 turns and it's better still. Now hitting flipper 90% of the time.

So for me raising the left side improved my situation oddly. Now I'm seeing the ball get hit by the up post more but those come more nicely to the flipper. It doesn't feel like it's off level and according to my tools it's less than a quarter of a degree left high depending on the spot.

I'm now at a bit over 6.6 degrees at the flippers with all the adjustments.

I've noticed this as well.

Wanted to follow up on the pinball life shaker squeaking in case any of you all run into it. Been talking with the folks over there and tried a few things to get it to quiet down but nothing worked so they are going to replace the unit. So far all of my experiences with pinball life have been fantastic.

The flipper rubber was an early fix that didn't do much. Remove the post on the one way gate and adjust the spacers under the demo for the proper fix.

yes, some people take the spacers completely out. You can raise or lower the demogorgon depending on if it's hitting low or high. Mine was always hitting the bottom lip and bouncing out so for me the solution was shorter spacers. I actually dropped it even more after the initial fix and you can use washers or whatever you have on hand to use as spacers. I played with several different sized spacers before settling on where mine is at so it's very machine specific.

Yes, leave the top screw out so it's easy to remove in the future. The top screw is not needed.

While you have the demo out to mess with the spacers remove the spacer under the nose of the demogorgon on the one way gate. It keeps the demo from sitting forward and is not needed.

How has your reclear held up to the torture of this game?

I recommend you keep the flippers full power. Game shoots much better that way

yeah, I find the ramps can be hard to dial in from time to time. Some days I can be on it and some days just miss over and over again. I think that is why I dislike the modes with the ramps so much. I'll shoot up into the pops to avoid follow the compass, mirkwood, and find will lol.

yeah I just did that to mine. You have to remove the ramps as you have to loosen the entire demo ramp display thing. I've done it so many times at this point it didn't take too long. You probably don't have to take the sides of the ramp off like in my pic. I was working on something else there as well and had to resolder the flasher so just took it all apart. Ramps have to come off to get to the screws for the entire assembly. Remove the optos and the few flasher connections under the playfield and the ramps come right out.

I also sanded down the edges on the outside drops so they don't dig into the new post sleeves. Seems to be working as they have no damage yet.

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On my machine the fans were required as the demogorgon, even after fixing, was not hittable after 45 minutes of play. At 20 minutes it was getting harder to hit. I play my machines for hours each day though so your mileage may vary. If you don't play a lot of back to back games and the machine has time to cool down between them then you probably will never see the issue.

you can also try to short plunge into the scoop thing for 10 mil base. That one you can just short plunge to the left flipper, dead bounce to the right, then flick it in for the 10. Nice thing about that one is if you don't touch any other switches you can try again. Just don't do it at league night lol

The drops are like the easy lit upper lane skill shots on many machines. Just hit the flashing one to collect but not worth a ton.

Doing well and completing the modes is worth huge bonus points. I always focus on the completion of the modes once started. Not only is mode completion a huge bonus but so are the map pieces that come along with them. I've seen so many people completely ignore completing the modes and wonder why their score is so low. Building that bonus up and completing lanes to increase the bonus multiplier is usually my focus.

I do enjoy the demogorgon modes though but going that route, while still very lucrative, doesn't net any extra balls for completion so if I were in a competition I would not focus on the demogorgon and instead go for modes and bonus just given how dangerous the drops can be. After 3 modes you get that extra ball and usually by then I'm close to the burn it back extra ball. That said I had a nearly 200 million what's that last night. Love when that mode gets rocking.

you can try playing with the level a bit. On mine the ball out of the mystery does not follow the ball guide. It bounces off it usually twice so raising the left front by 2 or 3 full turns moved where the ball hits on the sling down. It now hits the very bottom of the sling on mine so a tiny nudge as the ball connects with the rail the second time puts it reliably at the flipper. It's surprisingly touchy

Hopefully you get to play the game before the tournament and find out these 2 things

1. Is the left mystery shot eject hitting the sling. Can you nudge it to safety?
2. Can you hit the demogorgon in the mouth. If the answer is no avoid the demo modes as bash completion is dangerous

both of these you can watch others play to judge as well. Also take note of how the right orbit is feeding. From people I've talked to who have played some out and about it seems adjustments to these two things are not made by many operators. A lot of tournament people I've talked to really dislike the game because of it. That and they feel upside down is cheap. When I bring up play in tournament mode it gets blown off as not gonna happen. In league and even in the tournament I just played it we didn't use tournament mode on any of the games either.

I complete that demodog mode all the time. Hit the two targets under the demogorgon repeatedly as they are pretty safe. The early code had you hitting a lot more to complete I think. If I remember right it was almost double. It's good practice since it's part of the final wizard mode.

I have a confession to make. After almost a year and a half of owning this machine I've been neglecting it for a few weeks. Leagues are starting back up and I even played my first tournament in 15 months over the weekend ** cough I came in first Cough* but I've not been playing this game much. Not any of my pins TBH. Just working and playing out at the breweries.

Tonight I really wanted to get back into STh and played a bunch. Ouch was the first hour tough. I don't think I cracked 200 mil in the first hour. Then I had that breakthrough game that really felt good. It's not my highest score ever but it was my best Total Isolation ever. 230 mil just in TI 1. The shots just kept hitting over and over. It was flowing like I had not seen in a while. Real blast when I'm clicking with this machine. It's why when I do come back to it I can't walk away for 2+ hours straight.

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Also found a bug in the display for entering your initials for the TI champ. Crazy it's 230,000,000 even.

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Btw is between.

Don't worry about the elastic band method. It was an early fix. Adjusting the height via the spacers is the way to go. Also remove the spacer on the one way gate under the demogorgon chin.

Yes you have to completely remove it to do the fix. It's not that hard and don't put the top playfield screw back in when you put it back together. The two lock nuts under the playfield are more than enough. Makes it easier to take out if you need to adjust it some more.

If it looks like yours is hitting low start by just removing the spacers under the demo completely as well as the one on the one way gate. That will likely resolve it. You can tweak from there by raising it some with washers if you think you need to.

If it is hitting high add washers under the spacers to increase the height until you make it reliably

because once you remove the 2 spacers lowering the demogorgon that spacer on the one way gate will tilt it backwards. You don't want that. I can see no reason for that spacer on the one way gate in any configuration. The demogorgon is designed to center itself after being hit.

Search spacers

Now that I'm out playing in leagues and tournaments I'm not playing my machines as much as I was. I like to reset my games when friends come over as everyone likes putting their names on the leaderboards and I've only managed 500 mil as the GC in the last 2 weeks since the last reset and I've not seen TI1 yet lol. For me I can definitely get out of practice on a machine.

I tried this today. I found it's the same spring used for the auto launch mech. I had a few spares from some work I did on another machine. Cut it down as seen in the pic. Maybe it's a little better. Definitely not hitting the side as hard but I don't think this alone is the fix for my machine.

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As some of you all know I've had some strange issues with the optos under my demogorgon over the last year+ that I have never been able to resolve. Stern had me replace nearly every single opto under there, swap node boards, you name it. Basically it came down to 2 issues which continued to be a mystery,

1. The center lane exit opto under the demogorgon would sometimes not register a clean shot to complete words or start demogorgon modes
2. A clean mystery shot would sometimes trigger twice or not at all.

After a lot of back and forth, and even Lonnie checking out some of the issues, Stern sent me all new one way gates for the entire demogorgon area. Lonnie, from a code perspective, had a couple of ideas. He believed that the one way gate was failing to stop the ball from entering back into the center lane exit opto and that he believed the drops may be a tad low causing the ball to sometimes hit in such a way that it would bounce around and be missed by the center lane exit opto. Apparently there is some code in that area that is expecting the one way gate to be doing it's job.

I took the machine apart today and replaced those one way gates. It's far to early to tell if that will fix anything but the one in question did look a tiny bit different. The big thing though seems to be the drop adjustment. Mine was in fact low by a tiny margin. A bit more on the left than the right. I made the adjustment to that and the ball does seem to be moving smoother through that whole area.

Fingers crossed that the combo of the new one way gate and the adjustment of the drops resolve the mysteries.

I had to adjust the left target on the right ramp so on weak BIB where it comes back hugging the rail it hits it and lands on the left flipper. For me all that meant was making sure the target was perfectly centered in the hole.

It's funny, I feel like I can get so much farther on JP and I've only ever played it on location. I have yet to see any of the chapter wizard modes on Stranger Things but I have completed everything else. I'm obsessed with completing the modes though for the really high scores. I suppose if all I wanted to do was see the wizard modes I could do that but the score would be bleh.

2.1 billion mostly off bonuses and demogorgon modes.

Yes, it makes it easier to get that plastic off. There is a shorter one on the other side as well.

Got mine mid Jan 2020, it will never leave. Just rolled 4000 games on mine. I've got probably 3500 of them lol

yeah, Stranger things gets the vast majority of play still. Looking to get an avengers premium so maybe that will change a bit soon

I love when quarter hunt blows up like that. Doesn't happen often but getting the multiball while the mode is going with 2x is something else. I love that mode. Rip the spinner and hit the pops to keep the score sky rocketing

It comes with service rails. Everything since Munsters has I believe. My guardians came with the poles and it sucks

Turn the trough eject power down to minimum and put mylar on the edges if it bothers you. Won't see it at all but just turning down the power to min has kept my shooter lanes looking brand new

On my pro I started to notice the fade about 30 minutes in and at 45 minutes in my demogorgon shot was not makeable. At 50 minutes in the left ramp was barely makeable from either flipper. The fans completely eliminated all fade on my machine.

I've had a rough go of it on this machine for a while and today finally had that break through game. Was 1 mode from starting the season one wizard mode. Had a monster can't stop this though. Over 450 million. Totally bungled total isolation 2 though. First one was pretty good. Quite a long game and thank goodness I had the flipper fans but I just couldn't get the left orbit to start that last mode. Was driving me insane.

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yeah it was strange, had no problem hitting it the whole game until it was what I needed for the wizard mode lol. That quill scoop on guardians is the same way for me.

Covid has not been kind to most manufacturing companies. Stern is doing pretty good but the demand is through the roof right now. I have an aiq premium on order and it's been delayed a few times now. Trust me they want to be delivering goods just parts shortages are digging in. We have to be patient.

contact stern support https://sternpinball.com/support/contact-us/

I can't believe someone would buy an le without knowing about the white projection surfaces.

The default position of the post is up. A spring under the playfield pushes it back into position when the coil is off. The coil is used to retract the up post. It's an easy to get to mech and not much to it. Look to see if there is anything it could be getting caught on. I've adjusted mine slightly to make sure it is more centered in the playfield hole.

I had a similar decision recently and decided to upcycle my guardians into an avengers premium. It's on order to sit next to my St. Now if only it would get built by stern lol.

Machine is already sold and gone. I do miss it but it was a opportunity I couldn't pass up.

The pinside hatred probably didn't help also. If this was a more popular title it would still be in production and likely more code updates. Compared to where this game started though Stern really did a ton to improve this title. Too bad it wasn't more popular

I've played the premium and I didn't really care for the projector much. The main screen, drops, and spinner had good projections but the ramps I would have rather they just put the pro ramp decals on. The TK lock was cool and the first time the ball stuck up there was a wow moment but that one mech was not enough for me. I walked away glad I went with a pro and I was really expecting I'd want the premium to possibly upgrade to.

Ultimately I did decide to upgrade and get rid of my Guardians and get a premium avengers if it'll ever ship. Now that game has some real mechs and ramps that make the premium a much better game for me.

I totally forgot it was there and didn't even notice it. Mine moves pretty freely though

yes, that is what he is talking about. I've played the premium several times now and I can't say I've ever noticed it. I have my pro setup so that it is pretty loose though and moves with ease from a nudge or a ball hit. Didn't see much difference. Not something I'd be keying in on as a differentiator is my point

I prefer the perfect play purple from pinball life because the effect it has of turning pink with the UV is awesome. It also looks really good with the UV kit off. The Titans are a cool effect but I really don't like how the flipper rubbers look without the UV kit on.

The perfect play rubbers are a lot more bouncy than the Titans and it gives the game a very different feel. I didn't like it at first but now I prefer it

They have all of the rubbers for the entire playfield available. You can use the ring data in the manual but I think a few are missing. There is also the db on titan's website to get the list https://www.titanpinball.com/kits/index.php/view/id/1551

I've replaced everything but the rubbers in the pop area. Not a lot to replace on this machine. Since the pic below I've also replaced the post sleeves by the drops. That requires the ramp to be removed to do.

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Plus if you buy the premium uv kit you'll be able to purchase the likely cheaper premium Stern Connect kit since you won't need the apron

As a home user I have no desire to spend money on this for any of my games. I can see why ops would want it for the easy access to data but none of the op features are in the first version from what I've read. Could not care less about the achievement features.

If they start sticking new modes and game features behind a paywall with an app I'll never buy another stern game. The rumored price increase will likely cause me to cancel my aiq premium order as another 1k is not what I agreed to when I ordered all those months ago and I don't want this app connected feature.These are not $60 Xbox games but 6-9k pinball machines.

Thank goodness spooky, American, cgc, and jjp exist. Might actually change my order to cactus canyon cause they are making real updates to make the games better.

from the factory both sides are in the top hole. The game designer has said he intended it to be in the center hole from the factory but they went with the top. I have mine in the middle

No one could say it's cheating. Every machine in the real world is setup differently. Some at steep angles and some really floaty. Some have tight outlanes and others wide open. Each game will be tailored to whatever level makes the op the most money. Heavy tournament area probably steep and open outlanes. Typical bar area it'll be closer to 6.5 degrees and outlanes closed up.

Might want to start reading through the thread. Key posts are your friend

Spacer fix no question

Sure, you just have to make sure that you know whether it's hitting high or low from that flipper. If it's hitting low you need to reduce the height of the demogorgon by replacing the spacer with washers. It is trial and error. In my case it was hitting very low and reducing the demogorgon height by more than half a spacer was the solution. Target the left flipper as the one you're trying to dial in and the right one will follow.

If the demigorgon is hitting high then you need to raise it up. If you have a cell phone with slow mo video that really helps to diagnose what the issue is. Most of the ones I've seen are hitting low and bouncing up and hitting the top of the demigorgan and popping out but I know there are some that hit high. If it is hitting high you want to add washers to the existing spacers.

The good news is once you remove the demogorgon the first time it's really easy to do so again so dialing it in is not that big of a deal

Lol, I'm still waiting on the machine I ordered a long time ago.

complete season 1 and season 2 modes at the orbits and ramps. 4 modes total. TI2 is at 8 modes total.

Stern released an updated ramp from the original build. It was meant to increase the height of the ball off the ramp. It solved it for some people but for those like me it didn't do much. I've talked with Brian about it and his suggestion was to just remove the spacers.

The shot is not meant to be impossible. As Chuck said the original code didn't have the bash mode. On my machine the only way out of demo 1 was to drain lol. That was not fun. Bashing was only added because of the lack of success people were having making the shot. Once you start getting deeper into the game you'll realize how important that shot is and how much skill you need to have to make it while 6 balls are flying at you and the ramp is going up and down

mines nearly identical to this. maybe a bit farther on the left but really early on the right

Isn't bs mode always the third mystery award when you are not in a multiball or mode? Kinda like a nod to strobe multiball in afm being the third one there.

That's the trick isn't it? you need to not be adding time or balls via mystery

I actually did manage a true afm style dirty pool not too long ago. Had a ball behind the drops and hit the drop and shot it back up into the demogorgon. Sad nothing happened.

I knew there was a set path to get it other than random. It's not easy though and it feels like it is intended to be seen more by people that generally get farther in the game. I rarely see it before TI 1 but my mysteries are generally add times or add a balls.

500 games in a week is impressive. I play a lot but pretty sure I've never managed that in a week. I do enforce the no quit rule and turned off the reset game feature on all my games. My son hates it but he's gotta learn how to deal with those bad balls and come back.

It really helped me out recently in a tournament. I was playing on stranger things and this one played very different from mine and I was struggling to adjust. Not friendly out of the pops or mystery and the demo was only ok. I kept missing the skill shot and was struggling to get it under control. I had managed 2 locks for tk though and was setup well for ball 3. The guys I was playing against were only going for demogorgon which I nixed right off given the inconsistent hit rate. I was last in the group and had less than 10 million going into ball 3 and needed more than 60 million to win. Managed to short plunge to the left flipper, backhanded the left ramp starting the mode and tk. Easily won the match and got the knockout bounty for that round. Man I was sweating it though.

BTW Bounty tournaments are super fun. Even though I only came in 6th I still walked home with 100 in bounties.

I also restored a beat up import F-14 last year and just sold it back in December. This machine is much easier to work on and now that the kinks are well known it's not as much trial and error. Won't be a problem. Early on before the solutions were well known it was quite frustrating even with just the pro. Get the tk lock plastic fix and be prepared to adjust the demo and you'll be golden.

I wish I could get cointaker to send me the AIQ premium I ordered way back when and was told it was ready to ship to me from them on September 3rd. Here I am on the 22nd and the machine has still not left their warehouse with only "It'll ship tomorrow" every time I ask.

You may have to remove some plastics but the fixed sides of the ramp billboard thing can be adjusted a little. There are 2 mount points per side to the main ramp base that you can loosen and adjust a little. It's not much but you should be able to get it not to catch. If it's out of the adjustment capabilities of the current holes you could always enlarge the holes in the ramp sides to give more adjustment.
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Hard to say. I've been told I'll have a tracking number today. We'll see. Definitely frustrating but Cointaker has had some health issues recently which have affected things.

I was just cleaning my machine and I noticed some strange things around the inserts that seem to be under the clearcoat. Anyone seen anything like this before? Seems to be on the edges of the inserts. You don't see it when the game is on but it's clear when the game is off. It almost looks like the inserts are pulling away from the clear? I feel nothing on top of the playfield. Is there anything I can do about this?

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I don't feel anything when I run my finger over it. Seems like it's under the clear coat. I'll send the pics to Pablo and see what he says

could be. I emailed Pablo and will see what he says. Mine definitely seems to be getting worse and you can clearly see it from a distance. It first started on the final showdown insert a while back and I didn't really think much of it. Just a tiny hint of what looked like a scratch or something on the upper left side. Last night when I was cleaning though I noticed it was now on more than half the inserts and it's getting worse on the main one. I think the black on the playfield is amplifying it but if you look in the upper left corner of the final showdown insert there is a bubble forming into the main area of the insert. The machine is so far out of warranty at this point I doubt they will do anything. I love the game so maybe somewhere down the line I'll buy a replacement playfield for it.

I am in shock at this but the Stern quality team took a look at the pictures I sent, determined that this is a defective playfield and they are sending me a replacement unpopulated playfield when the next run of pros are done in late nov-dec. Honestly I have only had amazing service from them. Pablo and the entire quality and support teams over there are awesome. A bit speachless to be honest. I was not expecting that

Thanks! yeah I'm not worried about timing. The machine is still playable for now so as long as an insert doesn't fall out or something I can wait. Pablo said it won't be until the next run of the pro's happens which is currently scheduled for late nov/early dec. With parts stuff that could easily go into next year I'm sure. My distributor also got involved with this and it's a big one so that probably helped move it along as well. Still though they are going above and beyond here and I'm very happy with the outcome.

I'm actually looking forward to it. If it was an old Williams machine I'd be worried but there's not a lot under the playfield on this one and I've already had the top mostly apart so many times that I can do that in my sleep. I'm going to look into having the clear coat redone once it gets here as this machine is never leaving my home and I'm going to want this play field to be perfect. I also accidentally scratched both ramps underneath doing all the repairs so I'm going to look into flame polishing those as well while I'm at it.

I can see why they would call this a major defect as the inserts are pulling away from the clear causing bubbles. It's only been getting worse and I'm sure over time it's going to get a lot worse. I certainly hope no one else is having this issue. My machine was one of the first off the line for the home use pros.

I had a guardians for a while and was getting some major digging into the clear by the scoop. I put the le protector on it before it got really bad and started chipping but it was going to real quick. With that issue I can see why a clear touch up would be ideal instead of a complete playfield swap as it's on the edge and repairable.

Are they really a high end consumer manufacturer though? The pins are designed for a commercial environment managed by commercial entities. Even the sales process through distributors is very commercial oriented. "the pins" are designed for home use and use very different materials. I don't think Stern has made that transition to consumer or is even looking to really do that. An operator probably would not be caring too much about the ghosting inserts or the fact that it's getting worse. In fact after 2 years they are probably trying to sell it off for the next big thing. They expect the ops to be able to work on the machines and keep them making money.

I'd like to see them selling consumer oriented versions of the pro and premium without the coin mechs and with quality and warranties tailored for that industry but I doubt that's going to happen. Aren't ops still the majority of sales for Stern?

I love working on the machines so for me, after 2 years and 4k+ plays on it, I'm more than satisfied with a replacement playfield. I can understand how others would have a different view though.

After 2 years and 4500+ plays on my machine it was determined I actually have a bad playfield and stern is sending me an unpopulated playfield free of charge. The written warranty isn't long but they go above and beyond on support if you are not a complete jerk to them.

that must be for mando got excited there for a second

I replaced mine once somewhere around 1000 plays when I tried out the alternative ramp. Other than that after 4500 plays it's the same piece of mylar. I did change the setting that leaves the ramp up when in attract mode.

Also would be an indication your shots are hitting low. You will want to adjust the demogorgon height. Lots of info in this thread on how to do that. After proper adjustment I almost never get glass hits anymore. Used to be horrible.

For sure would be in on one for Stranger Thins and also for Avengers AIQ Just got the button masher high score last night.

I don't think I've ever seen the game show anything regarding the button. I like the idea of using more dnd appropriate terms

I have more pins in my collection and it still gets the most play. We'll see now that AIQ is here how things land. I've already been close to the final wizard mode in less than 2 weeks on that one yet no where close on ST after 2 years.

My problem is I tend to try and maximize the modes and I take a lot of risks that if I was just trying to get to the end game I wouldn't but I just can't stop myself. Mode completion is so extremely valuable and for me rewarding. I get to ti1 regularly and ti2 less often but usually once every other play session or so. My best games score wise at nearly 3 billion I don't think i started ti2. Rocked out the demo modes and had a nearly 400 million bonus on one ball if I remember correctly. Couldn't get my phone in time. I really wish they add a bunch of champion leaderboard things. Aiq is spoiling me as everything has a champion heh

Well, Chuck does put this game in a similar bracket to NBA FastBreak, Munsters, and World Cup as far as easy to complete. Not sure I agree with that as I've completed NBA a number of times but never Stranger Things. Munsters doesn't even have a wizard mode and that goal defeats the purpous, and World Cup is truly the best beginner game. He is a much better player than I tho

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/wizard-modes-how-many-here-have-finished-a-game#post-6561562

I'd go out on a limb and say Guardians, AIQ, and Stern Star Wars are easier than Stranger Things. I've been much closer on all 3 than Stranger Things

I can't bring myself to time modes out, Just not fun at all to me. Since I own it I'll gladly take as long as it does to see it all. I've had AIQ for just a few weeks and I nearly started battle thanos last night. Now there is so much more to that game than the final wizard.mode and I know I left a lot of points unearned but I wasn't even trying to get there. Guardians took me 7 months to get butted up to save zandar. Didn't even bother to go after it again and from what I understand from those that have seen it I'm not missing much.

might be a good idea. My slingshot plastics are showing wear spots on the unprotected post with no screw. UGh I was gonna get the clear plastic protectors and never got around to it and now I notice it. Also see it on my old Stern Pirates.

Pretty sure it was run will the 4th demogorgon mode

Run Will!: Multiball mode similar to trap em. Phase one, shot the demo during the hurry up to lock in the jackpot value. Phase two, all the drops are lit for jackpots. Collect those to light the Demo for a SJP hurry up. Trick is, the ramp will lower and raise every second or two. Complete the SJP to start the jackpot phase again to work towards another SJP hurry up.

A lot of the haters never gave it a chance even though it was released with really early code. Then the pandemic shut down locations and they just never revisited it. The game is so different from what was originally released. I really feel like those of us that continued to send in audits and talk with the designers helped shape the game and it's so much better for it. I've heard a number of people at tournaments say the game is really growing on them now that they are playing it more. The shutdowns really hurt this game a lot

check to see if the ball stopper is hitting the ball on the way out. On some machines it's slamming into the ball not giving enough time to leave the area causing the ball to hit the rail and do that trajectory. There is no software adjustment but you can cut down the spring that returns the post to the up position. There is info in the thread on the modification.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-club-join-our-party/page/224#post-6353362

The mission bonus potential is where the big points are. I've had games where the bonus was larger than my score at the time.

If you're bashing the demogorgon in that mode then you may want to look at adjustments. Non multiball demogorgon modes are not timed so get control of the ball then sink the mouth shot. Good points for and even better with 2x going.

Sounds like the demogorgon is sitting too high which is common. Glass hits usually occur when the ball hits the bottom lip and then flies up over the Demogorgon smacking the glass. Since adjusting mine I don't think I've had a glass hit when before I was really afraid I would break the glass. Never heard such hard hits on any other machine.

After removing the spacers, or reducing them in size using washers or something, the ball can make it over the bottom lip and work as designed. There is a lot of info on this but it's easy to see with a slow mo camera. Steps are remove the demogorgon from the machine, remove two black spacers that are on the demogorgon mount, then remove the spacer on the one way gate under the demogorgon and I bet your luck will change.

Lots of info and pics in this thread on doing this mod

I don't own both but play AFM in league and at a friends house. I enjoy it but I don't think I would own one to sit next to Sth. I like to have diversity in the lineup and try not to have too similar layouts.