I have joined the club with a Premium. I am really enjoying the game so far.

Two questions-

1. I'm a little frustrated that Stern now includes Insider. They are kind of like the cable company when they add new channels I'll never watch and increase the price of my service telling me it is better and worth more. Since I assume I cannot realistically remove the Stern Insider feature from the game physically I wanted to see if anyone on here has done anything creative to cover up that code reader box on the apron? It looks terrible - and I assume that was on purpose so people would see it in a bar/arcade environment.

2. I saw through searching that at least one pinsider put the playfield protector on and had a few notes. Has anyone else done so? What was your experience with this game? Tips and tricks appreciated. Doing a topside teardown seems to me to be harder on this one than some of my other titles.

Thanks for the responses all! So is this just a photo or something you printed and cut out to go over the reader thing? I like the look of it.

The magnetic apron (while really nice looking) is probably more involved than I would like. I'm going for as original as possible with a tweak to this reader thing. For now I'll probably just unplug it as suggested.

To those that enjoy the reader and features - more power to you. To date I still have never used Scorbit with my GNR. I'm just not into this stuff. As often as I can in life I keep my phone away from me and don't like to pick it up unless it rings. Pinball is an escape and when I see things that want to integrate into apps and keep me looking at my phone it makes me cringe.

If Stern wants to offer me rewards (free invisiglass or discounts on accessories) from my playtime and achievements I'll hook it up.

It would be nice if someone made an apron magnet (sized just for this spot). It would look someone like the magnets that JJP put on GNR (and maybe other games I'm not sure).

Anyone have a good brand of USB stick they recommend for the update? The 64GB one I had isn't being recognized... going for something smaller. I'm assuming they need it to be in Fat 32?

Thank you both - will do that this morning. I figured it had to do with the file format. Every other game I ever updated would update on an 8GB stick and therefore the need to partition it differently never occurred to me. I will work on this today!

Curious if anyone else on here had trouble getting the Ninja Camp VUK protector to work properly? No matter how I situate it - the ball won't trigger the switch. It seems this product is just far too thick. Has anyone had similar issues?

So I installed it twice per their instructions. I can’t see any more play on either the top half or bottom half to pull it in one direction or another. It seems it may just be too tall / big? If I nudge the ball with my finger down the vuk switch activates and kicks ball up.

Unless I misunderstand their instructions the bottom lip portion should be on the bottom of the playfield as opposed to jammed into the hole. I’ve pulled it out and reseated it twice with same results. Either I’m missing something (always possible) or it’s design is just a hair too “tall”.

I do not have my coin door open.

I followed the installation instructions and photos. So I did not install it upside down if that is what you are asking. Picture below. I also centered the part per the instructions and ensured that my finger could trigger the switch freely (which it can). I actually installed this part with a portion of the topside torn down so I was able to really center it. When it didn't work I had to reinstall it from the bottom up because I didn't want to tear all the parts down again.

I assume I have done it correctly because the small lip is poking out the bottom of the VUK (where the coil mounts back) and I can't see any more "play" to pull it down lower.

Here is my problem - when the ball goes into the VUK it doesn't trigger the switch. The ball sits up too high because I think the ninja camp part may be too "tall". Before ever posting here I started by reaching out to them 4 days ago but when they never responded I figured I'd check on here if you guys had an easy solution. I think it likely just needs to be returned for a new one or I will likely just install the Cliffy and call it a day.

When the ball goes in - no switch triggers. If I push the ball down with my finger the switch triggers (so there are no other mechanical reasons why the switch won't trigger). If i remove the part completely game acts normally. It seems to me I would have to bend the switch way more than a little to get it to reliably trigger.

The purchase receipt from pinside said I should PM Aniraf for issues with the product. Is there an alternate contact I should be reaching out to?

IMG_2890 (resized).JPG

Thank you. I really appreciate all your time and effort and the photos. I think I am reasonably confident that mine is just defective somehow (probably too tall). I'm sick of tinkering with it and just installed the Cliffy solution instead. If NinjaCamp ever replies back I'll just return this to them and hopefully they will refund me.

I will say the top of my protector does look "taller" than yours. Makes logical sense then that the ball is sitting too high on the extra material.

To answer your question - there was no way I could have snagged the switch as I removed the coil/switch every time I installed. The only difference was my starting approach (top versus bottom) which changed after I put the playfield back together.

Happy to move on and just play my game now. I have a bunch of other projects to do and spent way too much time tinkering with this. The Cliffy install took about 5 minutes and just works. I would recommend that one if you are willing to wait for Cliff to get to your order.

Appreciate your help - however I'm just going to stick with the Cliffy solution that I have subsequently installed. I'll try to mail this back to them if they ever reply to any of the PMs to either account I sent.

To answer your question, you may be right that when I pushed down on the ball it was "tighter" which might indicate it is too wide (as opposed to too tall). I was just focused on the fact that I couldn't make it "fit" any better than it did and I wanted to really give it a shot to ensure it was a defect versus my install. That said, I installed and removed it enough times that I think I gave it a more than fair shot to get working.

Assuming these are hand cut/printed and can vary a bit from product to product I can understand how some might not work on occasion.

No need for you to spend more time on this but I really appreciate your efforts! This community is amazing!

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.

The $500 "Treasure Box" isn't something I find much value in and I will choose not to buy it. I don't feel outrage or anger, I just don't want to buy it and so I won't.

I'm confused by the reactions in this post. People are expressing outrage at levels which seem inappropriately high to me. Furthermore, many of these same people are ready to line up and spend the same amount or more on expression lighting which is about $50 worth of materials (at best) and can't wait to hand over their money to Stern.

I bet the package sells out (not to me) before Christmas. Why is Stern charging $500? Because they can and will get it. They are a for profit company and don't owe us anything. I understand this reality may sting a bit - but it is reality.

Lastly - do we think Geddy and Alex signed these for free? How much can they be paid for their signature? How much is okay and how much is wrong? Why no outrage towards them and only at Stern?

I'm positive that didn't happen. During their downtime they almost certainly were soldering node boards... which might explain some things...

I did not see it in a key post - but my shooter rod does not seem to be launching the ball far enough (it often takes 2-3 shots just to get it out of the lane). It does not look crooked or misaligned and as far as I can tell unscrewing the metal portion where the ball rests before launching and trying to "slide it back" isn't improving it much. Anything I'm missing?

What is the best distributor to buy the Rush accessories from? I've looked at a few webpages and either they say "coming soon" so you can't order/backorder or they don't even mention the accessories. Even Stern's own website doesn't let you order them.

Come on - let’s be fair: no one HAS to mod anything — some pinball people choose to mod everything whether it needs it or not.

I believe many of the people who ordered from Flip N Out pinball are still waiting. Locked in with deposits we'd have to eat to cancel...

One thing I wonder is whether Stern enforces the penalty for cancelling or if that is just Flip N Out. The frustrating part is watching all these other places get inventory and sell out (then get more inventory later etc). How can these other vendors continue to get what *appears* to be unspoken for inventory while other distributors have unfulfilled pre-orders?

I don't understand the business model so I'm honestly just asking the question out of curiosity.

Did anyone else install the side armor? I noticed it comes with 3 additional screws (per side) which seem completely unnecessary to holding the armor down properly. Am I wrong? I hate to drill 3 new holes (per side!) into my cabinet for the purpose of "protecting" it.

Are you sure? The rails on my Ghostbusters and my Simpsons Pinball Party do not have the extra screws. Neither do the ones sold by Pinball life...

https://www.pinballlife.com/black-button-guard-side-rails-for-stern.html

Kind of funny how Stern can't deliver any clear or accurate information to distributors which (if true) then the distributors shouldn't be bound to buy the items and should be allowed to reduce their orders from Stern without penalty... in which case the distributors should not be holding cancellation penalties over potential buyers.

However...

If you want to sell a game quickly you have to take a small hit and it is clear that ExSquid gets that and that is why his game sold. I respect that more so then a person who is selling something for $50 off MSRP while they complain that there are no "serious buyers" because the game has been unsold for 6 weeks. (not calling anyone in this thread out - just something I notice generally on these forums)

I think you were expecting interest from the wrong crowd. I'm not sure how many people at Pintastic (which I was at for a couple hours) actually own a Rush game. Those that do own a Rush game likely didn't see your mod because they didn't wait in a line to play a game they own.

I believe there is a setting which resets high scores after X games. That may have been what happened. You can change that setting.

They do warn you these balls may magnetize if the game uses magnets. I wonder if in your case they are making it harder to react to the magnet?

Before you cash in that combo you want to be safe!

Cointaker has one for sale too…. for like $15k…