I will politely disagree here. I used to buy pinball life's shakers but I found them to be significantly underpowered compared to Sterns
now that the Stern is only $10 more I buy those (from pinball life of course

to each his own and it's 100% possible maybe I just had a bad one or two from the same batch as I got them around the same time but that's my personal experience

-brian

I would suggest you speak to pbl about this privately and you'll likely find out some very interesting info about the difference or lack thereof.

Much appreciation for the shout out! I'm glad you're still enjoying them.
Here's links for anyone not familiar:

2023 Prem/LE version:
https://systemjpinball.ca/index.php/tmnt-prem-le-custom-score-cards/

2023 Pro:
https://systemjpinball.ca/index.php/tmnt-pro-custom-score-cards/

And the legacy printable free version:
https://systemjpinball.ca/index.php/2023/04/30/legacy-tmnt-score-cards-free/

Pinball life or marco for just about everything now. Avoid stern website if at all possible, lol.

Interesting I figured they probably were the same and just “rebranded” but I had 3 pinball life from late 2023 and then had to buy sterns when pbl was sold out of theirs.. and it was way more powerful after that I only bought the stern branded ones.. I wonder if there was a bad batch… who knows.

That is interesting. Do you still have the ones that you didn't like?

Man! Underpowered?!? I have a PL shaker and it rattles my window. I actually barely use it because it's too much.
The reason I went for the PL one was because it's still manually adjustable and I heard the Stern is fixed now.
As for the strength, I've lowered it 50% (1/4 turn) and it's still crazy (I live in a 130 year old house though). I've been meaning to try reducing to thr 1/2 turn and then maybe try the resistor hack. But it's far from a priority. I really only turn the shaker on when I have friends over anyways. Then I don't mind the window rattling. It's kind of fun. Like that IT Crowd episode with the phone vibration setting.

I do.. think a had at least 3 maybe 4 from winter of last year November 2023 - maybe Jan or feb 2024. . It’s not that I don’t like them but I just found the stern I got felt when pbl was out of there’s felt way more powerful. Then I bough stern from there on. I have to buy a few more now have them in my pbl cart maybe I’ll switch to pbl and give them another shot.

Do you want to sell those that you had issues with?

thanks but it's probalby not worth the time and to remove them and re-install new ones. there's nothing wrong with them just feel less powerful. I've read later in this thread that apparently they can be manually adjusted? maybe my adjustments were just low? I have to figure out how to adjust them and try them.

Oh, I thought you bought them, they weren't adequate and you replaced them with Stern authorized that solved the issue and you had the others laying around. I misunderstood.

Amazing info, thanks man! Your website is sick. Can't wait to do a deep dive on it. Since you don't play comp mode, don't you then not start at Level 1 when starting a game? I never liked that because I feel like progressing through the levels each game is a good chunk of the fun. And the high scores are out of wack if I'm level 4 but other people that play less on my machine are level 1

I've had this game for almost a year and just realized you can select a mode (not competition mode) where the Turtles level will start at 1 for any logged in IC players. Feel like I just opened up a new world since I only ever played competition mode. Sweet!

What's the name of the mode? Something I'd be interested in as well.

I think this was added in a recent update (maybe in December?) My machine automatically updates over WiFi and I saw that show up as well, and I'm sure it wasn't there before.

***Has anyone heard of or tried this "Secret Flipper Code" for TMNT 2020 before and can confirm it exists?***

Was just watching an old youtube interview with marc silk, one of the voice actors for the TMNT pinball machine (splinter, bebop & rocksteady) in the background and it peaked my interest when they started talking about a secret flipper code. I googled it and not a single hit so it got me wondering if others knew about this or if it's relatively unknown.

Heres a link to the section of the video where he talks about it:

(1:03:26 in case the marker messes up)

Has anyone done this before? Is it still a part of the current code? Now I'm curious, lol.

tmnt flippercodes:
18 1 25 Rayday
12 11 16 Loserkid
20 20 1 Trend
7 1 4 xagery
1 9 7 Silk
4 5 1 Deadflip
4 4 6 Team
3 3 3 Hello World
1 2 3 Credits

don't know more.

Okay, whoa! This blew my mind. Pretty cool. I can confirm all the listed codes work.

I didn’t know this was a thing. Now I want to know if more games do this…

a lot of games coded by dwight sullivan have this, some like 123 work on almost all games.
forgot another one this should show your serial, i think is also in all games.

8 4 7 = Serial Number?
the last one

Oh dang didn't realize there were so many! So is this just like clips of their streams/youtube videos or are they like personalized messages created specifically for the machine?

Silk and Deadflip were the only ones with recorded video snippets. Most of the rest are just brief on-screen displays of some text, or a static image, or in RayDay's case, a callout.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't think this is true. I think you are referring to the "training reset" option. I believe this option will just reset your turtles to level 1 when playing logged in, across any game mode. And you would need to train up again.

I hope they fix the issue where when playing in competition mode your training will be reset for that turtle, when subsequently playing a standard game. It's annoying. Though I admit it's made me play training more recently.

I think it might have to do with playing competition mode, starting at level 1. Then doing a training when in level 1 in competition mode. I could test this by playing competition mode without doing any training and seeing what my level is when i go back to a standard game, which i haven't done. Typically playing training is exactly why im playing in competition mode. So it's easier to get to neutrino pizza party.

This was fixed in the last update

I finally decided to get some art blades for my TMNT. It is my last game without them. They just popped up on my Facebook feed and I couldn’t resist hah

IMG_5075 (resized).jpeg

It wasn't. Or there is still a bug. I had it happen with Leo in 1.57 on our pro.

Leo was at level 4. Played a co-op competition mode with my daughter. Leveled up to level 2. Go to play a standard game and still at level 2.

I haven't had it happen again since last update. Not sure what's going on then.

Looking to join the club. Anyone interested in trading a TMNT Pro for Legends of Valhalla?

Ahh a high on my list pin. Love valhalla! Unfortunately I don't get rid of a pin when I find one I love. Turtles pro is staying. I'll find a valhalla eventually. Prices are really coming down fast. Seeing them for sub 5k now. Good luck on the hunt

Valhalla is awesome. Big hidden fan of that game. TMNT is quietly climbing the charts into my personal favorites, it’s a dark horse for sure. Nothing else to contribute, but love both games

Someone mentioned they added pinstadiums to their tmtn. I though tmnt was already bright enough but I ended up figuring what the heck let’s add some light and see what happens so I made my own custom pinstadiums using a design I modified off the hurry up pinball instructions. I like how it turned out

IMG_5617 (resized).jpeg

IMG_5619 (resized).jpeg

Hey guys so I just recently got back into putting some more games on my machine and an issue has been randomly popping up I was hoping someone might be able to give some insight on how to fix/what to look for to save me some tinkering time once I get the glass off to look at it.

(TMNT Premium) The problem is with the pizza parlor shot. "every once in a while" but more and more frequently, it seems the ball will go under the van into the pizza parlor but not activate that it was hit. It goes through and spits out the other side, but if a mode or extra ball is lit it doesn't activate and also doesn't lock the ball, basically ignores that you made the shot. This doesn't happen every time, but it does seem to be happening somewhat frequently (every 10 shots or so).

I'm guessing theres a leaf switch or something perhaps back there that isn't actuating for some reason? Has anyone else had this issue that could point me in the right direction? I'm still new to pin ownership so any handholding on how to fix this issue would be greatly appreciated, thanks so much!

I had this problem on my NIB pro when I first got it. There are optos that you can get to from under the playfield. Reseating the connector in them took care of it, but later on, I had to drop them down and realign them.

Really easy to do, and was problem free after that.

Sweet. Thanks.

Haven't attempted anything with optos before. Are there are diagrams or guides out there that would help me locate and figure out how to reseat them? Don't wanna mess anything up. It's pretty easy to get to from underneath or do I need to remove a lot of screws/etc?

Make sure to remove the balls before you lift the playfield up. I usually put a rag in the ball trough to prevent them falling out, but I’m not sure if the balls will hold in the van or pizza lock if any in there.

Reseating opto board connectors is relatively easy when you locate them. Opto’s are typically 2 separate boards, one with transmitting a light directly across to the other receiving the light, and when the lights line of sight is disrupted (ie ball crosses its path), the switch is registered. It was very common in older opto boards for connections to jog loose from shaking and reseating was very common practice. The newer sterns are much more reliant, but do need to be reseated from time to time. I’m at work so no pictures or other useful information besides this post.

Alright guys, it looks like I might be out of my depth here. Just spent about 2 hours and did not solve the issue.

So to put it quickly, I wasn't able to "find" the optos from the bottom. I tracked where I thought the general area they should be but honestly they're all tied up there with the van and everything going on in that area. I unscrewed a couple screws and was only getting bulbs. A few other screws I undid were just "holding" pieces of flat metal. I honestly don't know what those pieces of flat metal are. Looks like they go up to the playfield in some way but I didn't want to use my flathead and "pry" them up as I wasn't sure in the slightest that was it and didn't want to mess anything up. I did look at the wires that were going into the boards and pushed on them to make sure they were seated correctly but they all looked to be seated pretty well. I tried looking at the diagrams on the instructions but from what i could make of it it was pretty barebones on the underside view. I'm not sure if anyone has or knows of a reference picture somewhere to where these optos are at on the underside that but it would be a huge help if so!

On the flipside, I did get to the optos from the top. However I'm not sure they were the "right" optos. I removed the purple plastic behind the van and removed it, then unscrewed the 4 screws that hold the metal bracket with the switch that actuates when balls get loaded into the turtle van (premium). There are 2 small circuit boards on either side of this bracket that have little bulbs in them facing each other which I'm 95% sure are the optos. I pulled them from the unit (but left them plugged in) and inspected. From what I could tell the wires were all attached. I took a que tip with some windex and cleaned them up just in case. Reseated them and reinstalled.

However, I'm not sure those were the correct ones. Those optos seem to sense when the ball is coming from behind and into the loading door of the van. Unless I'm mistaken those aren't the same sensors that would sense a ball coming into the pizza parlor from the bottom of the playfield (they seem too high)? I tried getting my head down and looking under there but for the life of me can't see anything. I've already wasted 2 hours and I reallllly don't want to spend 4+ hours taking the ramps and van completely apart just to get to whats down there if it's possible to access them from the bottom. Or maybe the optos I was looking at are indeed the right ones and then I'm just fresh out of ideas.

I put it back together and played again and thought maybe I had moved something and magically fixed the problem as it read about the first 10 balls I fired at it. And then a speedy ball off the right flipper that went fast and straight into the parlor that SHOULD have activated my mode just clinked right through without any mode activation and I knew I was still out of luck.

Any insight that can be given here would be super appreciated. So frustrating.

Can you take a pic of the flat metal pieces? I am 99% sure your optos are on there, but am going from memory.

I can’t take pics for you until this weekend.

Take a look here too…
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tmnt-pro-ball-lock-freezing-game#post-6246186

There is one other thing I think got resolved, but maybe not…. When a ball whips around the parlor to the up post holding it, it sits in a way that doesn’t break the last opto path. That was the opto I had to adjust on my pro.

My premium has been problem free since new, so I thought stern must have addressed it.

Also, from the stern manual….

The assembly-
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From the bottom-pasted_image (resized).png

You get a set of pinstadium s and adjust them to bring all the colors out to their full potential u will be amazed. I have them on all my games.

Been through and read a bunch of old posts from a couple years ago. I have Pinwoofers on Metallica and Maiden. Been going back and forth about adding a set to my TMNT premium. Been struggling with adding it to a non music pin (worth it?).

Everyone that added it to your turtles, still happy with the decision?

I use external subs on all my games and turtles has a great low bass soundtrack throughout.

Thanks for linking this. Also for circling the area as I saw the pic in the manual but couldn't discern where the optos were supposed to be. Ok so if you look at your circled area there are the two vertical slots where the switches go through to the table that the ball rolls over. However I was/am under the belief that those are for the spot at the top of the table where your ball launch rolls over to get you your bonus multiplier. The optos are to the left of that area (right of that area if you're looking from under the board)... Which looks barren in that diagram above. I must be off on my assessment there but it's confusing me to look at.

Also the flat pieces of metal that i was saying looks like you'd have to pry up with a flat head are in that diagram. There are 3 of them surrounding the switches in that circled area of your pic. They sort of look like circular saw blades or ninja stars. I don't believe those are the optos?

Thanks for hanging with me on this, I definitely appreciate it.

I can take pics this weekend. The area I circled has a flat bar with two screws holding it to the playfield. If you unscrew those two screws, you can lower the bar and your optos for the parlor lock are in that assembly as shown in the manual on the upper photo I highlighted.

There are no physical switches for the prior lock, just these optos.

Those stars you are referring to are Tnuts, they hold posts above them, you won’t touch those.

pasted_image (resized).png

Tmnt with the pinnovators sub connector and a Polk PSW10 is wonderful.

The shooter groove, April hurry up, and team up music(just to name a few) really rock.

Perfect, thanks for the clarification! So the bar I'm after is the one dead center of that circle that has the 3 Tnuts surrounding it? Just remove that upper and lower screw on it and pull it down then. Awesome.

Any tips on what I should be looking for? I'll clean the optos with windex and a Qtip, but are there wires that could be loose that I should try to reseat or something like that that would be the main culprit to look for in the ball not accurately registering all the time? Or should I try to bend the bracket or something in case they're out of alignment or do you think simply the act of unscrewing, removing, and reattaching should be enough to line them back up properly?

I just edited my post to show a pic.

All of the optos have a little wiggle to them. After confirming your wiring is nice and snug, you can loosen the optos a bit and align them a little bit better.

If you do a search in this thread, you will see some people use electrical tape to block the bottom half of the optos.

I simply adjusted the positioning of mine to make sure they aligned as straight as possible.

Thanks again, and the pic is as clear as day now for sure no missing it lol.

Looked online but not seeing any clear guidance on the best way to "align" the optos. Are you just doing it by sight on what "looks" good? Are you setting a level or using string or something between them to test for alignment? Also what does putting tape on the bottom of them supposed to do?

Alignment is slightly left/right, think of it like rotating in place. No up/down.

The beam between optos needs to be fully broken to register. If not aligned properly and the ball speed is fast it will not be a clean break.

The same can be said for up and down. If a ball is whipping around it can have up down movement. If only part of the beam breaks vertically, it won’t register.

Taping the bottom of the opto halfway creates a partial break, when the ball flies by, it will in theory complete the break.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-club2020-cowabunga-its-pizza-time/page/73#post-5857865

If you don’t want to tape, you could always add a couple off washer on the opto base to raise it up a bit.

Which distributors had the premium for 7499?
Wondering if any are still available