Hi there fellow pinheads,

I am soon to be working on an XF machine that belongs to a work colleague. I have not seen the machine in the flesh as yet however he has sent some photos.

He is missing the motor and gearbox that drives the filing cabinet. Wondering if anyone has a spare motor/gearbox assembly for sale? Has anyone tried to retro fit a generic style assembly in place of the original similar to the one in the photo. It is a 10RPM, 24 volt, 0.6amp CW and CCW HAVE assembly for about $45?

Also as can be seen in the photo he has some damage on the lower playfield. What would you suggest to repair this area? Hi I am assuming that the inserts need leveling beforehand but as far as the missing paint would you recommend touching it up as best as possible then maybe putting some Mylar down or is there an overlay sticker available for this area?

I’m sure plenty of more questions to come and looking forward to discussing with you all.
Cheers

0BF6ED51-8F3F-47ED-9322-84B066E206D2 (resized).png

AF0FA43D-4550-412A-8B1C-8DD587788158 (resized).jpeg

Recently picked up an X-Files.
Quick question about the plexiglass in front of the DMD.
Mine has a tinted film on the plexiglass and a friends machine does not.
Was that a random factory thing? Or did one of the previous owners of my machine ‘mod the plexi’ ?

Thanks

70698204849__BFE5C50A-D10A-4FED-B8D7-A96E9D7BFEB8 (resized).jpeg

Probably anti glare reflection film. So the DMD doesn’t reflect on the glass and make it hard to see what’s going on.

Logged a bunch of time on my X-Files
This weekend. Looking forward to the ChadH code update!!

My X-Files code update is nearing completion. I am looking for one or two beta testers.

1) Must have a good understanding of how the rules functions today.
2) Must be able to burn your own ROM. In this case, only need to be able to burn the single CPU ROM which is a 27C010 or 27C1001 or 27C101.
3) Must be able to offer timely feedback.
4) Must not share the beta ROMs with anyone to avoid confusion when I release the final version.

PM me if interested and provide me your email address.

For as pumped as I've been (and you know I have been ChadH ) I wish I could beta test! Unfortunately my subway is doing a very weird thing in multiball right now. The game loses track of the 3rd ball in Cabinet Multiball. It's not a physical hangup or anything, just doesn't recognize the third ball in the VUK after it shifts down. So I end up with a one-ball multiball, then when that drains, I have to wait for ball search. Happens in about 90% of my cabinet multiballs. Not sure what to make of it. Anyone else have this happen?

Probably best to go into switch test mode and take a close look at all the switches in the same Row and Column as the Super VUK switch.

X-files-switch-matrix-VUK (resized).png

Hey Guys, I had to keep my mouth shut up until this point. Now Chad allowed me to share a tiny bit of information

As he already announced the update will be released to some more beta testers soon, if everything goes well, it will get released to the public in the following weeks.

I have been working with him since the very beginning of the project in February. We were discussing some ideas back and forth and up until this point we have created something we think suits the game very well.
We did not only fix the things which were obviously broken, we also looked at the entire game and made tweaks where needed. Without going into details too much and sharing precious details. Here is a small tidbit.
One of the main objectives was score balancing throughout the game. The code originally felt very unbalanced especially comparing the Multiballs to the Modes. This has been taken care of, it’s now worth playing the Modes as well. In fact the average scores for a game are higher now, which makes it easier to get a Highscore.

That’s about all I want to share at this point. Trust me there is many more coming. But I leave that up to Chad to announce

Well here is one more thing.
A very little teaser video.

People who are familiar with X-Files can see up to 5 changes in this short clip. Let me know what you guys think it is

Also a big shoutout to ChadH for letting me be part of the project. He is such a nice and talented guy to work with. I had a lot of fun sharing my ideas and beta testing the game. This also marks another DE/Sega game is done improving. I really hope we can work together again at some point.

Can’t wait for all the reactions once the update finally releases.

Great it really happens!

5 changes in that short clip? hmm

- Bonus Held new feature
- new sound for Shoot Again
- may be some changes in the DMD Bonus animations

Awesome Midway-Man !
Balancing (mode) scores is exactly what the game needs
Let me know if more beta testers are needed

After many years of waiting, I joined the club today. This will be the last pin I ever buy. So she will get the white glove treatment.

Can't wait to learn the rules and then update with the new code. A sincere thanks to Chad for knowing the truth was out there... And bringing it to life!

Read this entire thread in two days, good info as always. After my first day of playing my XF, a couple thoughts. I don't think the left ramp is as hard as people seem to think, and I'm not that good. On two occasions I got the inner loop to ramp to scoop... It was crazy fast and one of the most satisfying sequence of shots I've had on any pin in a long time. This game is really good!

Oh, and I don't know who this ChadH is but he is Fucking awesome.

Welcome to the club! I think X Files can be one of the faster older games out there. I just rebuilt my flippers and it’s insanely faster than it already was.

Are you sure about that being the last pin you ever buy? I don’t think I could ever make that statement.

ChadH did an awesome job with improving TFTC code. I still have that game. I’m very much looking forward to his work on X Files.

Data East Jurassic Park too, phenomenal job. I was sad to sell X Files when it was initially rumored that Chad was going to work on the code, but it was lowest on the totem pole at the time. And that's not a bad thing, XF is an awesome game! I do miss it, hence why I'm still lurking around here lol

Yes, "buy outright" anyway. I may still trade etc. But I think between XF, HW, and BSD. I have a great lineup to keep me happy.

Now, if only someone could make a pinsound custom music and sound mix for this pin, like on BSD, it would be a dream come true!

I am really enjoying this pin. I like the varied shots and nothing feels better than ripping some combos at 88 mph. I am really not understanding the bad rep this game sometime gets (other than from the "it's a Sega and they all suck" camp). The ramp shots are fun, the inner orbit screams the ball back at you, the pops will do their thing long enough to chug a little beer, and the modes are cool. It's not deep, it's just fun! (My high score is only 18 mil but I am working on it lol)

Really excited to get to "Blood", and maybe by then the new code will be polished.

It is a great game. Everything you mentioned is how I feel. It can be nice and fast! I really like the super pops sound effects. Have you tried a subwoofer on the game yet? If not, it's a must with that soundtrack! Modes are enjoyable as well.

Blood isn't terribly hard to get because you only need to start, and not complete modes, but getting extra balls in the game will help you get there easier. There's an extra ball offered if you complete the cigarette smoking man mode.

You can also get an extra ball if you rip the left ramp enough times. I think those are the only 2 EB's the game offers other than the compensatory one if you don't score high enough by ball 3.

I have not yet tried the sub, but I hear it really enriches the soundtrack. I plan on adding new speakers, cab decals, precision flippers, and anything else I can sneak past the wife...

I would do this before anything else you plan to do to the game. It’s that much more awesome. The rest of the stuff is nice too but I think the effects of the sub will really wow you.

No sub hooked up yet. Going to do that this weekend. But I am playing it more than any of my other pins. It's so addictive. Have no idea, after three weeks of owning it, why there is so much disdain for this pin. It's fun!

A month in and really enjoying this pin. Getting familiar with the rules and I can't wait for the updated code. It really does need more balanced scoring. Making jackpots more valuable will be a great start along with the skill shots.

Probably the thing I like best is ripping combos between the inner/ outer orbits and ramps. I do a lot of cradle shots to hit the ramps and I probably can hit them 60% of the time. Not sure why some have such trouble with them. But sometimes I love to rip the ball coming out of the super fast inner orbit to try to keep the ball flying. Sooooo satisfying when I succeed as that ball just roars around the pin. Yesterday I hit four outer orbits in a row on the fly during the shoot the cancer mode and holy smokes it was fun. I think I hit 3 ramps, 3 inner orbits and 4 outer orbits in that mode at over 400K a shot. Best score for me to date at over 21 million.

Again, cannot wait for the updates!

The project is progressing very nicely…
So who is ready for another teaser coming tomorrow?

IMG_4580 (resized).jpeg

Hellz to the yes!

Yeeees

Hey all! New to the club and I’m having an issue with the filing cabinet not registering hits. The optos in front of the crate work in switch test but nothing happens in game when I shoot the cabinet. Any ideas what I should be looking for? Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Iirc, there are two sets of optos in front of the cabinet. Are they both working? Does the file cabinet motor work in test?

Ahhh didn’t realize there were two sets. The cabinet works fully when the pity multiball kicks on for Mulder ball 3. I just can’t shoot the cabinet to start it on ball 1 or 2 or while playing as Scully.

Someone said their cabinet worked in test but not in game, turned out to be bad ROMS.
Perhaps this is your culprit since it works when prompted on ball 3 from something other than a hit from the ball?

I've owned 2 of these and likely will get a final 3rd.
It may be my favorite SEGA ever.
They did ooooook on location and both were sold to pals.
If I got another I'd instantly COLOR DMD it!

Before posting another teaser I want to post all the changes which could have been spotted in the old teaser.

1. Increased bonus scores.
2. New "Bonus Held" feature.
3. Changed "Shoot Again" sound.
4. Shortened "Shoot Again" GI animation.
5. New bonus count flasher effect. (Although this was hard to see)

The new Truth...

I CANNOT WAIT to try this out!!

Even though I waited 12+ years to buy this pin, I am super stocked I finally have one right before a code update!

Thanks to all who are working on this!

If anyone wants to give an update on the code progress, I won't be mad

Please, I beg. Someone help me make this make sense. I bought an xfiles…the magnet optos work great. Above the Playfield I see a red beam and across from it a receiver lens. Totally normal, Works fine. The Filing cabinet optos however have two clear lenses pointed at eachother and the transmitter is below the playfield with nothing across from it. I ordered a new set of optos, installed them and the shit still don’t work…what am I missing here?!? It’s driving me crazy.

23676558-C79F-459C-A51C-855E19CCBEBF (resized).jpeg

EF2A48D7-DA2A-4BFF-A985-EA0963487EF7 (resized).jpeg

This is a good question.

A LED is actually has a diode (the 'D' in LED) semiconductor junction. As such, when current is applied, it 'semi-conducts'.

But photons (light) can flood the junction, making the diode a 'photo-diode'.

Because of the specific characteristics of the manufacture, the photo-diode will be more sensitive to a particular spectrum of light... which if you apply power to an LED it will emit light... in that same spectrum.

So you can use exactly the same LED part as a transmitter and a receiver.

In your picture, the LED is visibly bent out of alignment. It has to be pointing perfectly at it's complementary transmitter/receiver.

If aligning the LED's that are on the board doesn't help, I would be looking carefully at the connectors. This is a high-vibration area, and sometimes the connectors aren't making good connection and might need to be rebuilt.

Let us know what you find!

It is supposed to be like that. The red one below the playfield is just a status led and has nothing to do with the actual operation.
I don’t recall but it is either permanently on once voltage is present. Or it changes state depending if the light beam is interrupted. I can check tomorrow.

Ever made a Windows update? So you can just guess how much longer it takes when it states 100%

Just saying, I won't be mad

Opto madness resolved, bent post was coming into contact with pcb and kept it permanently out of alignment plus there was a bad solder joint on the new pcb. Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Hey all. Just finishing up my X-Files project and have a couple last tweaks to go. Do you find that the ball gets caught in between the playfield and the file cabinet and if so what have you done to resolve it?

It does not appear as though there is an adjustment to move the filing cabinet a smidge closer to close the gap.

20230814_164622 (resized).jpg

The 'fix' for the magnet post destroying the playfield was a spring steel plate that covered up the insert light.

I've adjusted that plate several times to be just a bit closer to the file cabinet to help with the problem you are having.

I don't have an answer that doesn't involve spring steel.

You can sometimes make this less of a problem by adjusting the playfield pitch, but in my experience you don't fix this completely, you just decrease how often it happens.

Ah yes I have seen that plate. A friend of mine made one from scratch. I did add a bit of dampening foam to the assembly so that the filing cabinet at its lowest point now rests up about an 1/16" higher than it used to. Not sure that helped at all but I played for about 30 minutes last night and it didnt get stuck there but I suspect it will eventually but might be better than it was. Thanks for the reply!

Anyone that have pin2dmd or colordmd (colorized) in their X-Files?
I can only find these 2 examples in this members forum:

DMD extender: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/thoughts-and-rules-to-x-files/page/4#post-3038180
This is 7 years ago, maybe what turned into pin2dmd?

ColorDMD: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/thoughts-and-rules-to-x-files/page/10#post-3724990
I guess no one have colorized ColorDMD for X-Files and you only get the standard options!?

VP forums has colorized X-Files (not very good IMHO but at least some attempts). However, have not seen anyone bringing it to "the real world"

Any input or resources most welcome

https://vpuniverse.com/files/file/9454-the-x-files/

I have a Pin2DMD I need to resell that I bought for this. I don’t think I’ll ever get around to installing it because I’m too confused about how the Pin2DMD project works. Not as straightforward as ColorDMD it seems. Didn’t realize that until I got one. I paid $245 for it.

I used a Pin2DMD in mine, it worked and looked amazing!!

IMG_4639 (resized).jpeg

IMG_4641 (resized).jpeg

IMG_4643 (resized).jpeg

IMG_4657 (resized).jpeg

Thanks and great to hear qbass187
Which colorization files do you use?

Thanks @play_pinball, will check out the color VP files!
Would like to buy, but guess it doesn't make sense with shipping and tax from US to Europe...

I looked up what it would cost shipped, and I think it would be about €280, not including VAT. I approximated the size and weight of the box so this is just a loose estimate.

If anyone stateside is interested, DM me. I'll wait for the day ColorDMD finally finds its way into the X-Files.

You have to go to VP universe and request the physical pinball file from the creator, I believe his name was Beastmaster.
Do not use the virtual pinball file that free on the site. It will not work.
It’s pretty simple. Drop the file onto the mini sd in the pin2dmd and you’re good to go.

Thanks - got it and BTW think it is fair to pay the ones doing all the hard colorization work
pin2dmd ordered from https://germangamingsupplies.com/PIN2DMD-Display-Evolution-activated
Cant wait to get colors on X-Files - a machine that really deserves it