Quoted from Lermods:

Our spinning arcade sign is now ready for production. Here is a video of the prototype, fits perfectly in the back right, but really can be mounted in other places. No issues with power and it will spin continuously like an arcade sign should. Took me about 90 seconds to install it. The base will be different on the production model. Wire hole will be on the other side and the base itself will be narrower. We will start making these this week.
$59 shipped will be the price, on our website now and in our pinside shop shortly.
https://lermods.com/shop?olsPage=t%2Fstranger-things-pinball-mods

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Quoted from billsfanmd:

Anyone going to powder coat their pro?... Same purple as the LE or is red more used on the pro?

Quoted from Trindawg:

It’s finally here and Setup!! Been playing for a couple hours now and absolutely loving it!!! FedEx came around 11:15 or so, brought it into my basement. Had to unbox it in my driveway. Was a little nervous about that. But they actually had to hand carry the damn thing into my basement. Made it down in one piece though!! I can’t believe how gorgeous this thing looks in my basement. Artwork is top notch! And the lighting is just phenomenal! My first NIB machine and I’m loving it! I updated it to current code and just having a blast with it.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from Lermods:

Are you getting airballs or crazy fast shots? I could make my shot on stock flippers, but balls were flying everywhere and fast.
The reflection from the projector looks pretty bad, is it better in person?

Quoted from Trindawg:

I’d like to know this as well.

Quoted from jandrea95:

Awesome to hear! Have you messed with any of the projector settings yet? Curious how your lighting is where the machine sits.

Quoted from kpg:

I saw part of your stream, nice job man!
The ramp issue does suck though, and it appears its a design flaw that was overlooked by Stern, which is unfortunate given it's only 1 of 2 unique upgrades/features of the LE and Premiums.
This exact issue was occuring on the Premium that Dead Flip streamed. They played it off as it was normal though. I hope there's a fix, but that's unacceptable if Stern left the design like this without resolving it prior to shipping.

Quoted from kpg:

Interesting, does the ramp work every time with no rejects?

Quoted from jandrea95:

Curious on this because the shot is easy to backhand on the pro. With a functional mech can the shot be backhanded ?

Quoted from C0untDeM0net:

For those that might care this appears to be the projector used in the premium and le machines. Should be pretty simple to replace if it goes since it's off the shelf
https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.aliexpress.com/item/32855408818.html
Wonder if the wireless projection a still turned on lol
https://fccid.io/2AF6A-S6000/User-Manual/User-manual-2974225

Quoted from f3honda4me:

My LE is about the same.

Quoted from bemmett:

Got my LE setup last night and got 5-10 games on it. Couple notes/questions:
1. Code is uninspiring. Very little video assets and even fewer call outs and the ones that are there are garbage. They got a lot of work to do here to make this game fully immersive. I view it just like BM66 on release code and rule wise. Lots of potential but sucks right now, plain and simple. Need some overhaul/enhancements on rules but more so the projection needs greatly expanded along with videos on LCD and call outs.
2. My projector seems to be acting weird. When I first turned on the game it wasn't working at all then came on after a little while. But noticed if I open the coin door and change settings and start a game the projector doesn't work for a little and then seems to come back on and after that works fine but tried this a few times and always had the same result. Any others seeing that?
3. When I was trying to find something wrong with the projector and in settings I did a reset on the projection settings, which seems to have deleted any default alignments that were in there originally. All were way out of alignment then, I tried to adjust them manually but wondering if anyone has the defaults that came on the game so I can compare, main screen and targets in front I think I got dialed in but the other ramps and small targets are not looking right
4. When the ball release on the left happens from Demogorgon and rolls down that left orbit does everyone's hit the sling on side and launches it, minor thing but kind of annoying.
5. Didn't get a ton of clean shots to get the lock/magnet to activate. When I had clean ramp shot it seemed to work great but less than perfect or slow shot didn't activate the lock properly and either kept going or was knocked off the ramp or sent back down the ramp.
6. Clear and everything else look great, screen and projections look good in darker room but definitely get washed out some with lighting on playfield and any lighting around, not bad as most think, overall I think it looks good.
Here's to hoping they come through with ton of added rules and video/projection assets and call outs. I'm sure they will just a matter of how long. :-/
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Quoted from beelzeboob:

Thank God for this...I thought it was just me. Yeah, my bumper shot rattles around and rejects most of the time as well.
But here's the thing about this game: It makes me feel like I REALLY suck at pinball (and I'm not THAT bad), and I think most of it is in the setup. My left kickout, when the drops are down, will frequently hit the right drop target post and then go SDTM. Really frustrating, but again, I think that can be tweaked along with the other stuff.
The other thing about this game is that I can't stop playing it. As much as I curse at it, it's a hell of a lot of fun. And I've barely touched my JPLE since I got it. Once the code is polished and the mechanical annoyances are worked out, I actually can see myself keeping this game for a good while.
But yeah...I agree with most of what you said.

Quoted from twenty84:

I only had issue #2. I put some tape on the focusing wheel to hold it in place and this fixed it.

Quoted from Lermods:

If you have something in mind, let me know. I thought the Xmas lights, spinning sign and dig would be enough for the game, but am open to suggestions. I don't want to litter the playfield with trinkets and if you put mods on the lower part of the playfield, they almost surely will get taken out by airballs.

Quoted from Trindawg:

Really? Is this legit?

Quoted from twenty84:

Anyone else notice this in the new code?[quoted image]

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 dri:

I'll let you know a few hundred games down the road. It's surprisingly durable so far.

Quoted from Dr-Willy:

I think right now everyone should hold tight and wait a little bit on this until dri and myself can prove its going to hold up over time. My premium is shipping this week, and hopefully i can get these samples on my game before it heads out to location. Id say let me beta test this on location, make sure its going to hold up and then ill let everyone know. No point in everyone doing this only to find out its not going to last over time.

Quoted from twenty84:

Based on hours of experience messing with this on my my own game, a friend who owns it and has also spent a lot of time on it, and watching several different examples streamed there are very few of these TK diverters that work as reliably as they should.
As for the software issue, I think the the idea behind it is that the diverter goes down quickly so a slow or weak shot that would not make it up the diverter can still make it around the loop (instead of sliding back doing the ramp and risking a SDTM drain which also happens too much). Thus, at least in theory, the diverter could act like the pro in this situation. I agree that there can be timing issues, but in the current code there is no way to adjust this. I sent an email to Stern about it previously, so maybe we will see some software changes to address this. Also several of us feel that the flippers get a little weaker with time making it much more difficult to make the TK lock after 30 minutes or so of play. It is possible this could be fixed in software, but I doubt that is entirely a software issue.
That said there are clearly mechanical issues here also. Tight turns have the potential to lose a lot of kinetic energy and the ball takes ~100 deg turn right before the diverter. The diverter works by essentially contacting the edge of the ball and pushing it against the flexible plastic ramp on the opposite side. This design has the potential for a lot of the kinetic energy to be lost due to deformation of the plastic ramp rather than the ball going up the ramp and there is no official way to adjust the position where the diverter enters the ramp which seems critical. Furthermore, if the ball enters on the inside of the turn more kinetic energy will be lost to the back wall of the plastic ramp. Unfortunately, the design does not make any provisions to adjust the position where the diverter enters the ramp. Even according to the Stern document, the diverter needs to be positioned with very tight tolerances (1/32") and at least on mine it would frequently move after a few games - this again may be related to large forces on the diverter due to the ball pinching action. I've solved this motion issue with tooth lock washers.
Overall I feel like everything has to be just right for the diverter to work, and even when I can get my game to that point it is very hard to keep it there. I hope Stern comes up with some kind of official remedy for this.

Quoted from C0untDeM0net:

Where did you find that truck looks perfect for that spot. Nice find

Quoted from C0untDeM0net:

After seeing Robertstone0407's post about Hopper's truck I had to have one. Showed up 2 days ago and finally got a chance to mess with it. The UV Kit took priority. I used the mount from the packaging and a command strip to hold it on. It's going nowhere and if I want to take it off it shouldn't damage the plastic at all. It covers that protruding mount in the right rear with the screw very well. Wonder what that thing is for anyway. Nice $12 feature amazon.com link »
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Quoted from C0untDeM0net:

those pumpkins would be really small. Hoppers car is closer to 0 scale which is 1:43. Something like this perhaps?
amazon.com link »
Lighting it would be cool. Have you had any issues with air balls getting stuck behind it? That is my only concern with adding things to the playfield and how often stuff gets back that way with my family playing

Quoted from cleland:

You guys are really gonna start enjoying this game
Since Pinball Browser was updated yesterday, I have been hard at work with some sound changes.
New Remix Main Theme
End Game Music Remix with sounds bytes from the kids mixed in
Quarter Hunt Music=Devo Whip It
High Score Music = Don't Mess Around With Jim
Boring Quotes Like:
Ball Saved
OhhhhKay
Here you can have that one back
Swapped with sound bytes from the show.
I'm certainly enjoying my time stuck at home and working on much more!

Quoted from billsfanmd:

I know some people hate pin stadium lighting. Their UV kit looks great for 189. Wondering how it compares to the stern kit

Quoted from HOOKED:

Installed the Stern UV kit and side mirror blades at the same time and its amazing.
May have been stated in the last 10 pages I have not read but I cant recommend this add on enough.
My pro is really starting to come together cant wait for some more updates.

Quoted from bemmett:

Honestly it's one of the odder mechs to make sense of. After I tweak it sometimes it appears it's going to be working better when I first start playing but then soon after or later games it just seems back to the same unreliable mess. I can't say it made it worse but in the end none of the tweaking I have done I feel made it better either. I'd say I get 75% of solid shots to stick(this is the tough part to quantify cause a less than perfect shot up that ramp will typically not stick), not horrible but not great either, I just gave up tweaking it hoping better solutions would come eventually.

Quoted from imagamejunky:

EDIT from my earlier post. My TK lock plastic cover trick did NOT fix it completely. Its definitely better but it's acting up again. God damn this TK lock is a finicky pain in the ass!