For what it's worth, I haven't received any messages from you about this. And I apologize, I haven't check in on this thread in a few days, so I'm just catching up. I'm sorry you had problems with your VUK protector. All VUK protectors have been made from the exact same model, so yours shouldn't be taller than any others, and height shouldn't have anything to do with it since the ball should just be dropping through a hole with no bottom surface but the metal of the mech. More likely, there may be some sort of a printing error we didn't catch in the walls of the protector that are overly narrowing the opening and catching the ball before it can settle to the bottom. Anyways, I'll PM you for further resolution.

Every game I score under a billion I will have to toast to rebillionizing lol

Yes, it's probably easier to reach the 2112 mode. I think I've been a lot closer to it than Book 2.

I think you need to play Cygnus 1 and 2 in order to play 2112 no?

I think you're right. Granted, I haven't reached 2112 yet, never mind with or without playing Book 2. But the latest version of the rule sheet I have does say this:

"Collect enough years to reach year 2112 (and play both Cygnus modes) to start the final wizard mode."

Note text I bolded. Assuming the rule sheet is accurate, you're right. You can't get to 2112 without first getting to both Books 1 and 2.

Anybody out there ever have the ramp quit working....stopped going up and down?

yes! Game number one in Feb this year. the c clip that held in the rod which keeps the ramp connected fell off. took me quite a while to figure it out! C clip wasn't pushed all the way on at the factory. fine ever since!
I am now claiming this is the best game ever. the nuance in the code is genius.

Common. Either a mechanical failure or a chip on the special node board that drives it has burned out. Pray for the mechanical failure.

Dalton is blowing up RUSH on the new code in HARD mode right now. He's IN 2112/HARD at the moment. 31 Bil, Ball 1 (had extra balls) as of this post:

https://www.twitch.tv/daltonpinball

went into diagnostics and then to lift ramp stepper motor test.....and nothing happens...no test nada. suggestions?

First, did you have the white pin inside the coin door pulled out so the playfield had power while in the menu? If no, do that and test again.
If yes, proceed...

Examine the special node board that drives the ramp motor carefully. If it's blown, there's a square chip on it that should have burn/scorch marks on one side of it.

Thanks. Will check it out now

Here's a pic of a blown one, so you know where to look:
Node10- Damage pic (resized).jpg

There's also a key post in the topic index for this thread that discusses some connectors to check that may have come undone if you discover that the chip isn't blown (hopefully not blown, but too common).

It appears my chip has not been damaged. As you suggested, I will look in the index of this forum for where to turn next.

IMG_0750 (resized).PNG

Good news. I'd check the connector outlined in the topic index and also make sure the motor to ramp linkage is all connected.

Is your clock still working? When the chip blows, you lose both ramp and clock.

Yes, the clock appears to be working. Strange.

Does anyone know the pinside handle on here for Ed Robertson? Thanks in advance…

Also check for tight zip ties on cabling, between ramp motor and Node board. There’s been cases of that causing a couple of issues, maybe you got lucky and it didn’t blow your chip.

OK, scratch that comment. Went into Drum Clock Test and nothing happens. Is it possible that the chip is fried with no visible discoloration?

It looks like the top of the chip may have a little bit blown off. I wasn't sure if it was a jpg artifact. Maybe look at it closely.

Hmmm. I am not able to perform any of the node board tests (and yes the white plunger is pulled), but I can perform the node bus tests. Is this normal?

My Bond isn't here yet to check, and I don't remember. It seems like you SHOULD be able to do node bus tests. with the bypass pulled out.

Is the ramp the only thing that's misbehaving with you play a game?

Ramp is down and dead. Clock lights up, but the hand does not move. This could be a sign that the chip is indeed fried.

Did you reseat all the connectors around that Node 10 board?

I'd zoom on that chip with a phone and take a high res pic to see if that little area where the lettering was missing was a piece of chip blown off the top.

Haven’t seen you mention it, are you getting the Node 10 Failure message on your screen, when powered on?

If not, did you do any work on the machine, and forget to plug something back in?

MapleSyrup

That sounds amazing. 1.7B here and I've only reached Cygnus 3 times.

No failure message. did not do any work on the machine either.

So far, that’s a good sign.....

When that particular chip blows, does it give a message? I don't remember that it does. The machine can still communicate with the board (which would throw a node error if it couldn't), the board just can't drive the ramp and clock motors anymore.

Got a new board being sent my direction. I would bet that resolves the issue. Thanks to the posts out there trying to help me figure this thing out! It reinforces my belief that this hobby has some of the best folks out there.

Definitely post what you find out, one way or the other.

Do ensure you give all the connector pins/plug contacts and zip-tied wires related to this board a once-over when installing the new one. Maybe you'll find something you didn't catch originally and can address it before risking having another board blow out. Good luck!

Did you ever get your TM magnet issue resolved? What was the final solution? Mine stopped working a couple of days ago.

4.2B today, was so happy, before I had a look on a post earlier (64B in hard mode by https://www.twitch.tv/daltonpinball)

Capture d’e?cran 2022-12-06 a? 23.20.30 (resized).png

Do you have a multimeter?

It's most likely either a blown transistor or a shorted magnet. A multimeter will help you figure it out.

Without going back through the thread, I do believe it brings up the red message of death “Node 10 Failure”, from what I’ve seen. Doesn’t mean all scenarios will be that though.

Just posting a helpful adjustment I've made - when the ball shoots out the bottom scoop and goes straight down the drain with no chance of saving it (for me this happens about 25% of the time), setting the ball save timer to two seconds instead of one makes a world of difference.

I agree with this. Probably a lot! I'm certainly not one of the "better" players or at least not since I had decades with little to no practice.

I HAVE A QUESTION: Who here prefers to keep a pile of quarters handy and play the game arcade style rather than setting it to "Free Play"? Honestly I haven't gone searching the forum to see if this question has already been discussed or polled. If there's another thread I'll gladly move my thoughts there.

IMHO I say "Just say NO to Free Play". If I can afford to spend thousands on a game then I can afford to keep a roll or two of quarters circulating through the machines. Once I finally get more games I'm going to get some custom made tokens.

I'm a NEW home user, closer to age 60 than the 10-25yo I was when I was around arcade pinballs and video games all the time for one reason or another. I always needed quarters. Quarters or tokens. I was probably hanging by the jukebox with a "radio edit" single version of Working Man playing.

When I started playing Rush Premium this year, the first game I ever bought, I had it on free play. I've enjoyed, but I hate not getting rewarded with a free game when I deserved it with the loud POP. Or hearing the POP upon matching and hearing Alex telling me I have to play again. Like, "Come on, honey, Geddy's telling me to play again, I can't disappoint him."

Anyways, that's my story.

Are you on the side of Free Play or coin op?

Free play. Maintenance of my pinball machines is demanding enough without me having to go emptying out the change box every now and then. Why would I want to make extra work for myself?

Anyway, it's not like the knocker sound goes away just because you're on free play.

I did this for iron maiden - it worked as a piggy bank for about 1000 plays or something. Everything is on Freeplay now. Not that I sell machines but that's a toughy to explain, coins through the slot.

I can see the heavily routed ETPM or scared stiff with a poor Bondo job and sloppy redecal "home use only, 20000 plays because it was a piggy bank" - which isn't all lie, right?

It forced me to get cash, spend cash and spread it around to get change, so I could then play... or stop in, buy a pack of gum and get a roll of quarters... all in the name of nostalgia and recapturing my wayward youth skipping school and playing pinball at the mall. Never drugs though, for some reason I just said no to them.

New premium owner here. Anyone having any issues with the ball getting stuck on the gap between the ramp and the time machine when the ramp is up? I have only played the game a handful of times and it has already happened a couple of times. Maybe the gap is too wide? Is there any adjustments there? Thanks Mìke

Also, what is everybody doing for plastic protectors? Which ones? Thanks Mìke

RUSH Pro - Initial thoughts;

(Got my pro delivered yesterday. Left flipper was working intermittently which ended up being a faulty node board. Thankfully my Stern distributor is great and had a tech out to me within 3 hours of me calling, and he himself ended up coming back at 9:30pm that night with a new board and made it all ready to rock)

* Here is my initial thoughts. I LOVE the gameplay. It's different and it's challenging. It's a machine that is very unforgiving if you aren't 'in the flow'
* The music is killer. The callouts aren't. Way too few and the voice acting from Geddy and Alex is wooden to say the least
* The lights and art are awesome. This is a very attractive machine, and mine is only a pro! I have a few mods on the way so can't wait to spice it up
* The rule set is hard to figure and seems a little convoluted?
* The screen has too much info and is confusing and the video assets could be MUCH better (more concert footage and more exciting footage etc)

Of course I may change my mind on half of this in a months time but interested to see if you seasoned Rush pinheads agree with most of that or if I am misreading the game... Either way, this is a super fun and super attractive machine!!

Watch Raymond's 5 minute RUSH tutorial its great to get an overview of what's going on at first. He has a longer video that does a deep dive also.

I think the 5 minute one has been posted in the thread a page back or so.

This tutorial is awesome! Thankyou

As an operator, used game seller and a home player, I can tell you that people do put a value on not having any paid credits on a game and will categorically avoid purchasing used games with paid credits regardless of condition.

So this question comes up from time to time (especially on the arcade forums).

Total personal preference obviously... but I would say that as I got more games in my collection the idea of loading money in and messing with the coin doors never appealed to me. When I have time to play I like to fire off game after game and it would be too tedious to deal with coins. The software tracks all the stats like games played, etc and that's just fine for me.

I think I've noticed a trend that people new to the hobby like to do the coins and as they get deeper into the hobby the novelty of it wears off.

You're entitled to your opinion. But I find the callouts a lot of fun. Like, a lot of fun. They make the game for me. Sure, the guys aren't professional voice actors, but IMHO that makes the callouts that much more personable. And many of them are really funny.

If you feel you're not being entertained enough, go into the settings and bump up the humor level for the callouts.