I’m just waiting confirmation on my LE order.
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider f3honda4me.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
This is so deflating. I went from feeling like a kid at Christmas to just super bummed. Anyone know of any distributors with an LE available?
Quoted from chuckwurt:Third. I say the club thread gets to decide this.
I like STH
Quoted from ZMeny:Ive been using STh. It just feels right haha. Looking forward to the LE when it arrives. Until then, Should I Stay Or Should I Pro
I have that song in my head now.
On that note I’m guessing LE will hit the line soon since stern said they’ve been making pros for weeks already.
Possible fix for demogorgen shot difficulty
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-stranger-things/page/68#post-5385952
Quoted from ZMeny:SDTM Greg, Zach, and Chuck are in the STh club!
It’s a fan layout that doesn’t feel like a fan layout. Great take and the pro I played on location made me feel the same way.
Quoted from Kharris:My wife wants the premium too but it seems to me that the projector shows the same thing that is being displayed on the lcd. So I’m going with the pro, pray for me for angering the queen lol.
Not sure why you think that. In the video it’s definitely not the same thing displayed on the lcd and projector at the same time.
Quoted from kpg:I think the projector on the LE/Prem will look pretty good in a dark game room ...
But as for streaming, and why they have held off for now, it's likely because they play in well lit rooms so you can see them play on camera, which likely washes the shit out of the projected images.
When Deadflip streams it, I'm almost thinking they are going to do it in a very dark room this time.
I'll also say if you don't have a light controlled room where you are playing this, the LE/Prem projector may be a waste of money for you. I just don't see the effect working great (or even at all) in a room with ambient lighting.
I think it's going to look like this image quality in a lit room, maybe a little better. I think projector screen expectations need to be set for this so you aren't disappointed. I feel if people don't set this expectation now, and they start getting their Prem/LE setup, a ton of people will be on Pinside very unhappy because that had unrealistic expectations.
[quoted image]
Who plays in a room lit like that? My pin room is relatively dark, as are most people's when I go to play at their house too.
Quoted from delt31:At least for me, when you have people over for a party. For Christmas I had extended family over and turning off the lights so one of the many games would work properly wasn't going to happen as it would impact others and cut off that social feel.
When I have people over, the social chat happens in another area since pinball machines are loud and not easy to have conversations next to.
Quoted from Yelobird:Isn’t that the Reason for a game room? Less yap more flap! Lol
HAH exactly!
Quoted from jandrea95:sooooo, help him out? maybe tell him your experience purchasing from your local distributor? id be curious myself what others are seeing.
Distributors can’t advertise less than msrp. Talk to a distributor, buy a couple games, create a relationship, and you’ll find deals.
Quoted from delt31:Yep that looks as bad as I thought it would in the light. Happy they're going to show it though
Let the cat out of the bag. Pro all the way in this one and I'm a premium guy.
Art looks good. Hoping updated code drops as well.
That’s about as bright a light you can put a pin under. Brighter than home or bar use etc. I bet in your average home it would look just fine. Every home I’ve been to play pinball had dark game rooms.
Quoted from CyberNinja24:Greetings guys!
Feel like I need to stay on this thread.
What’s everyone’s take on the incredibly awful, washed out, POS projector that Stern is ruining our lives with?
I’ve been in on the LE from day one and plan to see it through.
Any thoughts?
Look at these images Jack Danger posted from his iphone, unedited and unfiltered. The projector looks great. People are underestimating how good this is going to look in person, in the average intended environment. The stuff you've seen so far at CES was in super high bright lighting that no one really plays pinball in, or using image settings that were for the room and machine rather than the projector.
91a6ef853a8eb866749e33d1450f233daa496314 (resized).jpeg6ebe89a31c25a95fbe6386934fca6f2efdfdfa38 (resized).jpeg
Quoted from chuckwurt:Yeah i have the same setup in my basement.
Anyone know when we can expect the LEs to ship? I’m hearing end of January but that seems ambitious.
I'm actually surprised it wasn't sooner since supposedly stern has been cranking out pros in secret since mid december.
Quoted from Trindawg:Haha!! Funny! I ordered the ninja balls from the ball baron. They’re so shiny. They’re on the way.
Just don’t use them with games that have magnets. They tend to magnetize pretty quickly.
I’m stoked I think it looks great. Much better than the pro stream. I like how pissed the demogorgen looks when it shakes.
Quoted from Lermods:Quick update on our spinning sign mod..some cosmetic modifications. We've been shipping this version the past week or so and all new orders will look like this.
[quoted image][quoted image]
Looks great!
Quoted from tomdotcom:All pinball machines get ball trails, even with Titans, etc.
If you don't already own JP or Maiden, I can't see why anyone would buy this game instead? Keith spoiled us with 2 of the best games ever made. After watching a few streams now, Stranger Things seems to fall way short. I still look forward to playing it though
So why post this in the owners club thread? If it isn’t for you, ok, but there’s the “other” thread for that. :p
I sold my JP and will buy STH.
Quoted from dri:I paid in full since two weeks back. Does that mean I get it first?!
Just means you paid way before stern actually needed the payment from distributor. :p
Quoted from SLCpunk2113:Any word on when PRE are going to ship? I'm about to jump out of my skin!
Probably not until late feb early March.
Quoted from rs812:That would be great! The only problem I see is that there are no switches on the demo to register hits. Only an opto set to register it going into the mouth. Numbers 2 & 5 in the diagram
Hits that don’t go into the mouth are registered in some way. 100%.
Quoted from chuckwurt:Totally agree. Bring on the power meter.
Ala AFM saucer heck yea!
Quoted from chuckwurt:No a powered sub outside the game. It sits underneath. I just piggy back the stock sub in the game. This game is the only game I’ve ever seen that absolutely needs a powered sub with it.
I got mine ready, and I use the pinnovators sub line mod. Gets a lot cleaner sound than the old alligator clips, and super easy to install/uninstall.
Quoted from chuckwurt:Yeah my setup doesn’t look clean at all. Haha. But sounds awesome. Doubt I’d notice a difference if I got the pinnovators stuff.
You should try one some time, it's relatively inexpensive at $35 and it literally takes 60 seconds to install. I thought the same, there wouldn't be any difference, but there was a very noticeable difference in the quality of sound. I originally tried it on IMDN and it was drastic.
Quoted from chuckwurt:When I disconnected it this morning to work on some things I played a test game and was like, “yuck”. Haha
Oh I know, you get used to it and the sound feels empty when it's not there LOL
Love the game. Been playing the LE lots today now that it is set up. No problems hitting demogorgen. This LE is amazing looking and the machine is a lot of fun to shoot. Very engaging.
I can't get a ball to make the telekenesis lock except maybe once every 20 tries. Doesn't matter how perfectly I lined it up and how hard I hit it. I wonder if I need to increase the right flipper power maybe. The ball just never gets up the lock diverter to where the magnet is. It loses all momentum the second it hits the diverter, gets halfway up, and just drops back down the ramp. My pin is set to 6.8 degree pitch.
Quoted from chuckwurt:Same here. I haven’t heard back from stern but I sent them a video close up of the diverter consistently missing. Hopefully they can help. I have one other idea I’m going to try. I’ll report back with my findings.
Thanks keep us posted for sure!
Quoted from Robertstone0407:chuckwurt so played a bunch of games with some people and my lock is doing a lot of similar things. I almost feel when lock is lit they need to either use holding voltage and keep the mech in Ramp to the lock or add a time adjustment. I watched it and it’s firing late and it knocks the ball upward into the top of the lock bracket and it deadens the ball
This is my suspicion as well that the timing window is so short that only a ball hit exactly at very specific power and timing will make it, all others get rejected. It seems to me like it needs to hold its position longer and fire slightly sooner.
rs812 great posts, made both of those Key Posts
Mine is exhibiting a strange new behavior. Whenever any coil fires, half the playfield lights flicker on and off quickly. Flipper coils, pop coils, bumper coils, etc = lights flicker. It's actually super annoying. Will see what stern support says. Power off /unplug then power back on does not fix.
Quoted from rs812:Sounds like a loose plug.
Hope it is that simple, though.
Yea I'm digging around now to try and find anything that could be loose. Also checking into a possible fix for TK lock that was suggested.
Quoted from rs812:Sounds like a loose plug.
Hope it is that simple, though.
Fixed the flickering. It must be a loose cable. Don’t know which I just tried pushing them all down. None seemed loose but it stopped
TK Lock possible fix. I cannot take credit for this - Zach from flip n out sent it to me, and someone else had sent it to him but I wanted to pass it along as it worked to fix my TK lock. Before doing this, I was lucky to make 1 of 20 shots to TK lock (testing glass off so I could just do it over and over). Now, I make about 9 out of 10 times!
There is a plunger attached to the diverter that the ball rides up to get to the magnet. On the back side where the plunger is, there is a mech with 4 screws you can loosen and then the mech moves back and forth. This changes the maximum angle of the diverter. What you want is for the top of the diverter to be just enough for the ball to go through without pinching the ball. Mine was much too close to the back and pinching the ball so it was preventing it from going up all the way! Loosen the mech, and then use your finger to hold the plunger in the fully up position (which flexes the diverter) and then slowly slide it back and forth until the diverter is correct as described above, and then tighten the mech on the back side.
After adjusting it a few times - it is very finicky and you may need to make micro adjustments to dial it in - it now works drastically better. Here is the pick Zach from flip n out sent me, and again credit to whomever sent this to Zach. You're awesome!
edit: credit to lodgingdolphin!
Any one with a pro want to measure the opening of the demogorgen mouth with pic? I can measure my LE in a bit.
Quoted from C0untDeM0net:Looks like it's about 35mm wide and about 43mm high on mine[quoted image][quoted image]
My LE is about the same.
Quoted from Aurium:Can anyone confirm the LE has a better clearcoat? I was on the fence about ordering those playfield protectors for mine when it comes, but this is good news if the LE's have a better clear on them...
My LE has the normal dimples but no pooling
Quoted from Pinhead86:Does anyone else have this happen to there Playfield? I have an LE with 111 plays. It looks like the ramp is digging into my clear coat. It’s not very deep, you can’t feel it with your finger but you can with your nail.[quoted image]
Are you sure that isn’t Mylar? Mine has Mylar where the ramp comes down
I'm thinking maybe to try and just DIY LED strips into the game maybe, and save myself $230-ish dollars. I know I won't have the fancy plastics etc but that doesn't bother me. If the game was really amazing, I'd drop the extra money for the kit. The code could get it there and maybe then I'd consider it. But this whole move has definitely made me think twice about future stern purchases and rather than buy every new stern release I'm going to be very picky instead.
Quoted from cooked71:It's integrated in the code so you'll likely need their kit.
Does it come with some kind of new special node board? Or does it plug into existing plugs on existing boards? If the latter than it's totally doable DIY.
Quoted from knockerlover:People drop hundreds of dollars on pinstadiums for their other stern games and this burns everyone’s chaps?
There’s a difference between a mod and an accessory to “unlock” part of the game. Also pinstadiums are terrible. This is not that.
Quoted from chet218:Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this like the whole CGC medieval madness color DMD cost on the LEs. My point is, people will complain but still buy the kit.
Not the same thing.
Quoted from Dr-Willy:That’s weird.... perhaps some distros rolled it out early?[quoted image]
No, stern considers STH a 2020 game so it had the price increase.
Quoted from chuckwurt:You might be interested in the pinstadium version of this lighting. I’m hoping to see what he has cooked up this weekend.
I bet it’ll cost like $200
Quoted from j_m_:even at half the price, the pinstadium option wouldn't include a new apron (with additional lighting), the (8) new UV inked plastics and the 2 controller boards to tie into [code driven] lighting effects
You can probably put LED lights on the existing apron. The pinstadium option apparently will be interactive and work based on code, as the actual code is tied to an existing board already on the pin - the new board doesn't actually have any code.
So basically all you'd be missing is the plastics. If pinstadium comes up with a cheaper option for the UV coverage say in the $100 range that is code integrated, I'd be a buyer. I'll skip the plastics and also stern can go get bent.
Quoted from chuckwurt:Chas sent me this checklist for dialing in the ramp diverter and magnet. Let's mark this as a key post so others can access it easily. Click the image to see the full PDF.
[quoted image]
This is gold. I was about 70% on mine as I had done the one adjustment already. But my guide was WAY too high at 2 1/4”!! Bent it down to 2” and now that magnet lock is butter.
Quoted from mzhulk:Nothing against pin stadium but I spent 8900 for my LE now people are being cheap and trying to save 100. I purchased the stern kit, it's factory looking, and fits the game perfectly, plus you get the new plastics, it's a no brainer.
It has nothing to do with being "cheap". It's principle.
Key post! Thank you for posting. It’s a shame stern didn’t do this. Then again it’s a shame stern made a lot of bad choices with this pin.
If you have a link where the material can be purchased, that would help!
Quoted from dri:Ok, here’s the sob story. I went all in on Stranger Things and more or less ordered an LE sight unseen. Stranger Things is a dream them for me and my previous Sterns I’ve waited until I’m happy with what I’m seeing. I only did the impulse buy before with Tron, another dream theme. Near enough did the same with Star Wars, but I still can’t get over that game. Anyhow, reports were starting to pour in of the projector. Completely washed out. Reports of “it looks better in person” was some of the paid commentary. It does NOT look better in person. What you see is what you get. This is my only beef I have with this game. I had other griefs about some shots being shitty and what not but as code keeps dropping all will be forgiven in the end. My game plays near perfect now.
This post: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-stranger-things/page/85#post-5400822 speaks of a canvas type called Black Diamond. This YouTube video teaches you how to sell it in 2 seconds.Seeing is believing, as my teaser post showed (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-club-join-our-party/page/38#post-5480839).
I was going to wait until someone came up with a kit you could simply buy, but this shit can’t wait, it looks awful! I sourced some of that Black Diamond (be creative, it’s easy to track down) and got some 3M adhesive sheets, a corner cutter and some supplies, like scalpels and knives. I cut out all the targets at first but it turns out that the BD material does not reflect at a certain angle and completely washes out the image. This also holds true to the viewing angle as well, it’s a little bit like an old TFT, but slightly better. So, I simply replaced all the flat surfaces on my game (it goes without saying, the ramps are not applicable). The material is very easy to work with and comes mounted on a .5mm plastic sheet of some sorts. It also seems very durable. I put some mylar on it just to see what it looked like but it did not work because mylar is glossy. Matte floor graphics vinyl is my next approach if the target surfaces wear down. I also replaced the left ramp billboard, it washes out in the angle towards the main billboard so be aware of that if you try this at home. Using alcohol on the projection surface is no problem either.
Does Black Diamond improve the visual quality? The brighter the room, the better it looks in comparison. The game emits a LOT of ambient light, I have my inserts turned down as much as I can and I also turn down the backglass to a minimum while playing. I’m happy with the results as the image does not have the white washed out image anymore and this time around it actually does look better in person, believe it or not!
I recorded in two different light settings, the first one is with the light I play my games in, ambient light is mostly from other machines. The other setting, a couple of minutes into the video, is with my shop lights on, which is insanely bright and no sane person would play pinball in that light, but it gives you an idea what Black Diamond is capable of.
Enjoy!
Quoted from beelzeboob:Great! Could somebody please tell us WHERE THE HELL YOU'RE BUYING SMALL AMOUNTS OF THIS STUFF??? What's with all the secrecy?
I mean, I called Black Diamond but got their voice mail. Do you have to get it through a dealer? Because I'm pretty sure the guy at Best Buy will look at me like someone hit him over the head with a Louisville Slugger if I go in there asking for a 1'x1' piece of projection screen.
Also, dri , did you paste it right over the white screen, or remove the white screen gently so as not to ruin it (or replace it again if the BD stuff didn't work out)?
So many questions...so few answers.
This
You're currently viewing posts by Pinsider f3honda4me.
Click here to go back to viewing the entire thread.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stranger-things-club-join-our-party?tu=f3honda4me and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.