Looks awesome! Minor typo -- "Andvance in Rank", and also "successive" is spelled wrong. I like the font choice, though, that's good attention to detail.

Thanks for those pinballgeek!!!!

Since you're reviewing the files, could you make one with 5 balls per game?

I am buying my first pin and I was wondering is there a recommended method to fully test STTNG to ensure everything is working? It has been fully shopped (w/ neutral zone cliffy and LED's), is there anything I should make sure is done?

Thanks,

Brian

"fully shopped" is a bit of a dubious term. it means different things to different people. the first thing i would do is remove the glass, lift the playfield, and look at the subway. if it's dirty, the game has not been "fully shopped", and you will likely get opto problems cropping up periodically.

make sure you know exactly how the game is supposed to work (The Pinball Arcade version is good for this -- i mean, the ball physics are all messed up, but you can learn the rules and when things are and aren't supposed to happen). before agreeing to buy the game, play it for a good long time and make sure every switch is registering properly, and the game isn't doing anything funky. (note: the Delta Ramp shot is much harder to hit in real life)

you want to avoid the game if it resets unexpectedly at any point.

probably the most common problem is the game spitting out balls (usually from the left VUK) when it's not supposed to, resulting in an unscheduled multiball. bad solder or dirty optos are generally the cause.

also make note if there is a credit dot (ask if you don't know what this is) and go into the diagnostics to see what is causing the credit dot. if it is complaining about the Borg Lock switch, don't worry about it, that probably just means nobody has hit a ball up the delta ramp and into the back of the ship in the last 90 balls. (if a switch doesn't get hit for a very long time, the game starts to worry that that switch is broken). any other switch error you will probably want to take a closer look at -- remove the glass, investigate if it's registering properly.

definitely check the ramps for cracks. lift the playfield and inspect the subway for cracks. look for wear on the inlanes and near the Romulan's head on the playfield (that's where the ball usually hits when it's launched from the left cannon, which is the one that gets the most use).

check that the lights in the Borg ship work. check that you can "stage" the upper flipper correctly -- that is, press the right flipper button in halfway, and ONLY the lower flipper engages. push it in all the way, and both the lower and upper flipper engage.

make sure both cannons work. (sometimes on startup only one cannon will move -- that's ok, as long as they both work in game)

make sure the flippers have enough strength to make the alpha and beta ramps. the delta ramp is a very hard shot, and a lot of people tend to mistakenly blame their inability to make it on a weak flipper.

for a guy's first pin, i would hate for him to pick up a STTNG with problems. that could be a nightmare. if you're going to start with STTNG, i think it's best to start with a nice one. (but don't worry, even a top-quality STTNG will present you with plenty of ... opportunities ... to remove the glass and fix things! )

You can test both cannons using the cannon test mode.

Under "Test Menu", you'll have "Left Launcher Test" and "Right Launcher Test".

Now, it's a little weird, from the manual:

Press the Enter button and the display shows the status of the switches. This status should
correspond to the position of the gun assembly. Press the Up or Down buttons to rotate the gun
assembly. Press the Enter button and the gun kicker should fire. Any other results indicates a problem.

"Behin each Mission"
"U.S.S ENTERPRISE MISSIONSI"
"SHoot Neutral Zone"
"WARP FACTORI"
"Delta Quadrant Ramp ro increase Warp Speed"
"Begin Mission By Aqueezing Trigger"
"TOP IANES LiGHT ADVANCE IN RANK"
"Shoot Advance in Rank When Lir"

impressive, but this time try typing it with your eyes open!

check for battery acid damage too

CONGRATULATIONS!

I think this game would make an outstanding first game!
Why? First off, I feel this is the the single best game you can buy in its price range, others may feel differently about it, but this is my opinion.
Just to touch on the maintenance aspect for a minute, even NIB machines will break and require maintenance so no matter what you get, you will need to fix it; even the newer Stern Star Trek I purchased NIB was not trouble free; I had problems with the drop target, the Vengeance ship, a ball popper, the CPU board, and a light board.
There is a single reason that people say STTNG can require a ton of maintenance and the sole reason for that is the massive amount of features this game has. The playfield has three ball diverters, 23 optical switches, two proximity sensors, two gearbox assemblies with motors and linkage, a drop target, and three VUK assemblies. There are so many solenoids in the game that an additional driver board had to be added. Nearly all of these machines were on location and were maintained by an army of technicians with vastly different skill sets and whose solitary goal was to make the machine work again, this often times meant that the "temporary fix" used to get the machine operating became permanent; a single game can have many of these hacks causing several unrelated intermittent problems.
On the positive side ... it's all fixable and when fixed properly, this game will play as reliable and trouble free as any other game out there!
The side bonus of having a STTNG is that you will be exposed to nearly everything a pinball machine can have from a maintenance perspective so that when you get your 2nd, 3rd, 4th+ machines you will already know how to fix them.
Even machines sold as "fully shopped" can be nothing more than a routed machined that was somewhat cleaned and tested meaning the switches and lamps are all functional.

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Thanks for sharing these, great work!

Wow thanks for all the inputs! I will have one busy weekend

It's a great wide body, and you can mod it out fairly easy. A shaker motor really brings it to life.

I agree. I love mine.

Also, be aware that STTNG is a heavy sucker to move.

you aren't kidding, I don't know if this is the the heaviest, but I sure don't want to move this up/down stairs ever again.

I've been trying to contact Pinbits as their STTNG shaker kit is out of stock, but they are not responding. Is there an alternative way to add a shaker? Thanks.

Star wall
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Pinbits gets them in every once and awhile, but they seem to sell out immediately. Easy install. Iam a shaker freak, and have added one to almost all of my games. Keep checking their site. When you do get one make sure to adjust it down, it is very strong. Also PEZPUNK has done some great things with his, and has shared great information on this game in previous pages.

I would like to see some pictures of the different side blades installed. I am not sure which way to go on this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Call Pam directly she's helped me out that way before ... Things listed out of stock may have one sitting on a shelf!

Me and my friend carried it out of the arcade it was in for 6 months without a dolly and legs. My one hand started to give out when we got it to the front door from all the way in the back. Thankfully I didn't drop it.

Wow, carried it. Your desire for a great game must have given you super strength.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I did have to tweak a few things (including some scary oven time to flatten some of the plastics) Now it seems everything is working well.

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I also have some warped plastics (mainly the ones around the cannons), how long in oven to flatten them?

I set my oven to 150F with two clean single strength scrap glass sheets about 10x14 and a heavy glass bowl to warm up. Once they did I put in my plastic parts between the glass sheets and put the bowl on top. Baked for about 15 min (saw that it was mostly flat at that point) and turned off the heat. Once it was cooled to room temp I had very flat plastics.

Quite scary but it does work.

That's cool. I will have to try that on some of my plastics. No issue with the back of the plastic (the silk screened side) sticking to the glass?

Yeah I am curious about that too. I have done the baking in the sun method with limited success but I used wax paper between the sheets of glass and the plastic, just to prevent this very issue.

I did this once on my star trek plastics and the oven got too hot and the paint did stick to the glass.
So; you need to be careful for sure.

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PinGuy,
That backboard... how hard was it to install?
I have one for my machine; but after looking at it; I kinda felt is was too much work.

Mine was done during a complete restoration, so from my perspective it was really easy. I had to do something with it cause it was not in a happy place at all as I had bare wood visible above the lanes with the game assembled.
380 (resized).JPG

There is one screw that prevents this from being easy job, it's the one in the picture below with the arrow pointing to it...You have to disassemble most of the upper playfield to get to it
doh! (resized).jpg

Side note: if you ever loose your left orbit opto, you have to do the same tear down to get at it, so do them at the same time.

Great info thanks. I was thinking the same thing... I have a new PF ... but don't have any immediate plans swapping my PF.

Very nice, this machine isn't an easy swap, so may as well disassembly everything and clean it all while its apart, and do all the mods you want while putting it back together.

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In my case nothing stuck but I watched it closely and cut the heat as soon as I could. My Ferengi Plastic was really bad and already had a crack in it; so I thought it was worth a shot. Now it looks much better.

I exchanged my backboard for an illuminated one. To do this you obviously need to remove the original one - the only thing you need to completely remove is the borg ship if i remember correctly. It actually wasn't that hard to do, so I'd remove the backboard, apply the decal and re-mount it. Can't remember the laneguide screw being such a big problem.

I used parchment paper on each side of the plastic to prevent sticking. It has non-stick properties but will not melt at oven temps like wax paper will. I've done it several times and never had paint transfer.

maybe its not, all you have to do is remove the top corner playfield plastic PN 31-1803-1 to get at it (some parts removed for clarity)

IMG_0381 (resized).JPG

I have noted one issue. It seems sometimes the Neutral zone hole does not always trigger (advance in rank hole does instead). Any suggestions for this?

i think you need to hit all three yellow targets at the Neutral Zone to start one of those modes. if it goes in the Neutral Zone hole without hitting the three targets first, i think it falls back to Advance in Rank (or Command Decision if lit).

edit: actually i'm not sure. it's 3am and i'm sick, i don't think my brain is working right...

That happens when it doesn't actually hit the middle target enough to register, fairly common. You can try to adjust the switch gap on that middle switch to make it more repeatable but it's still not 100%. There's an interesting story about how SR and the design team struggled with the whole setup and that switch was the solution they came up with but I don't remember the details.