I picked up a TOM this past weekend, it was such a great deal I couldn't pass it up, even though I wasn't that familiar with the game. It's minty fresh, looks like a brand new PF, not a mark on the cabinet or backbox.

This is probably the smoothest playing pin I've ever played. There just aren't any dead spots like in other games, every shot is actually a shot, there doesn't seem to be anywhere on the PF that a shot just bonks off a post or an edge and drops dead.

Anyone got ROM recommendations? I have 1.2A, and sound v L-2. Are any other versions preferable, or am I good as is?

Also... is there a way to disable video mode? I'm not finding anything in the manual. I enjoy this game a lot, but the 'pinball' video mode is awful :p

So... Midnight Madness. Pretty much just a guaranteed way to score 20 or 40 million and then drain out, right? It pretty much drops it straight down the middle every time.

What does that mean?

Oh, that is an awesome tip, I will look for that setting tonight, thanks!

Neat, I didn't know that was a common problem. Mine is weak too. There's a fix?

W00t!

I just had my first grand finale! It only took 6 months.

You're already in it, according to your game's list.

There's a hardware bug, with a fix. I have ordered parts to give it a shot. It's linked in this thread:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/tom-trunk-error-leons-fix-anyone-done-this

Are you having trouble getting the angle? If yes, you might want to re-align your flippers

Or are you having trouble getting enough power to make the shot? If this, then you might want to rebuild your fippers.

I love both orbit shots on this game. They're very satisfying for some reason.

There should be a little hole in the playfield just below the flipper. If you stick a toothpick in this hole, a resting flipper should just touch the toothpick. If it doesn't reach the toothpick, then the flipper is too high.

Also, if the toothpick is blocking the flipper from pointing lower, then the flipper is too low. But it doesn't sound like you have that issue.

You should let people know your location.

High score is 2,982,300,340. It was the only time I've gotten a grand finale. I've topped 1.5 billion 3 or 4 times in the past week, and come close to another grand finale (everything was there except 1 illusion, which was just starting). I usually keep to the left half. I go for multiballs and jackpots, VANISH / tiger-saw multiball, and THEATRE. I realize I have to start making it a priority to start illusions over all other things, and I think if you can keep that up for a game you can probably pick up the rest of the stuff incidentally.

This sounds very much like the hardware design flaw, order one of Ingo's replacement boards, if there are still any available, as described in the link Canea provided.

They are actually the same thing. Ingo put it together as a nice and tidy replacement board.

I think my best ever is something like 2.5B, but I'm too lazy to look it up. 4.5B is a really fantastic score. 12B may or may not be real - when you consider a pool of 1000's of players playing 1000's of games, statistically may have happened. 111B is total fantasy land, no way that's real.

I'm curious, looking at my upper ramp, it appears to be designed to have a long hex post to support the ramp. What do other people have going on here? Do you have a support? Or an unused slot on the ramp, hovering over a post that ends a couple inches below?

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Good​ to know for sure, thanks!

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I've finished sprucing up my TOM. Stripped it bare, cleaned, waxed, and reassembled with new rubbers, plastics, protectors, cliffys, flippers, purple titan Flipper rings, new trunk, pinbits auto eddy sensor boards, LED throughout incl GI, replaced a burned GI connector, replaced and handful of borked light sockets, dismantled and cleaned trunk motor and gears, and probably stuff I'm forgetting. It plays like a million dollars. I've never seen the trunk spin so fast, and I've literally never seen another pin play so fast.

Pretty pumped.

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Ugh. Is there anything less satisfying than starting Grand Finale and draining after completing only 1 letter? :p

500M points, then start working on it again.

Yes, I used to have that happen reasonably often, and it would come to rest on the trunk board. Interestingly, it hasn't happened lately, I think the difference may have been when I cranked the back legs all the way up, and the front legs all the way down.

I have a gremlin in my machine that surfaces only occasionally, maybe every few weeks, with one of a couple symptoms. It's a long shot, but sas anyone ever experienced something like this and figured out what it is? I have additional variables in the mix for troubleshooting, and that's that I have Ingo's board installed, and Pinbits auto adjusting eddy boards installed.

- Four or five instances of trunk stops registering hits. They do not start registering again until the machine is turned off and on.
- Four or five instances of magna-save triggering without ball rolling over eddy sensor. I think in particular it's the right side triggering it, as it once or twice triggered with the ball rolling down the inlane.
- Two instances only of left flipper registering a trunk hit when selecting illusion before plunging the ball.
- One instance of the background crescendo music not playing when multiball was starting, just silence followed by the voice yelling "multi ball".

Weird things, and not consistent. Any ideas?

I have Ingo's board, I have the pinbits boards, I don't have CPU damage, and I do have NVRam.

I'm pretty sure there must be a failing connector at the mpu at this point, there just aren't any other possibilities. I just replaced U20, because it's faster to swap a socketed chip than replace connectors. If I see anything happen again in the next few weeks, then I'll replace J205 and J207. If still an issue, then I'll call a priest.