Hold on to your hats ladies and gents. Due to a butter cabinet selection, #302 just got on the line and I placed my order with Pinball Life for a few accessories. So we are officially in the 300's my friends!!

After what seemed like a slow summer (but waiting for Xmas is always slow, right?), things appear to have picked up in the sleepy little town of Benton, WI.

Nice! I just got word that my #250 shipped today!

Which lane do you shoot for? I like the furthest left lane.

Besides the reactor 3 EB and replay EB (if you so choose), are there any other EB’s?

I like the second from the left lane. reactor 6 gives an EB as well, but I think that's it.

Here is something to try if you want bass from the subwoofer to sound more accurate, tight, not so muddy and fluttery...seal off the two small ports underneath with something solid and see what you think...no disrespect to Scott or the team but I've spent half my life in Car Audio (built many custom enclosers) and the other half now in home audio. Building a subwoofer sealed gives you better control, power handling and you can get away with smaller enclosures and inconsistencies in tuning it. Ports have to be tuned, proper length, proper material to reduce port noise. No matter how good the subwoofer is, the enclosure is at least 85% of the importance of the drivers ability to reproduce accurately...
Thank you for taking the time to incorporate a subwoofer in this game as the music is Incredible Scott! It was nice not having to add another subwoofer under this machine. I might be being a little anal (reasons above lol) as it's a pinball machine but it's a pinball machine playing awesome music that helps get your heart pumping

Yep, left-most lane. Seems easiest to me on my instance.

How long ago did you get the add on confirmation email? Trying to get a good guess as to how much longer I might have left since I got that email a few days ago! Exciting times!

It is not, but it's PinballStar and not Spooky direct since I bought someone else's spot.

I didn’t even realize it was a ported enclosure... you’re right, you can tighten it up by making it act as a sealed, much steeper rolloff.

What did you use to deal it with up? 1/2" MDF?

I just had 3/4" MDF laying around but 1/2" is plenty. Thinking about possibly removing the sub enclosure if possible and covering them on the inside...will see

Thank you for the kind words! This one is definitely not tuned, so I will admit that, but the reason I added the ports is that this is not a super powerful system like most are used to designing. Although, it is more powerful than other machines in the past. At first I had the box 100% sealed and it sounded good, but I could tell that the sub was struggling pretty hard. I opened the system with the ports and the sub was able to breathe better and there was a significant increase in the sound output.

I think the main issue is that in pinball machines, screens are needed to be over the ports and the sub itself. I think these screens are causing sound issues, but I am not 100% sure and unfortunately, they have to be there for commercial use.

Also, this is a HUGE step up from the open subwoofer design that most, if not all, machines used in the past. You need special open air subwoofers for application like that and those are not cheap.

I hope that explains my thoughts on this! I am definitely going to work on improving the design for my next adventure.

--Scott

What are your thoughts about upgrading the amplifier or adding a dedicated mono amp, and upgrading the subwoofer? How much cubic feet are built into the current sub box? Is the box sealed with caulk on the inside (I would assume not)? I used to dabble in car audio back in the day as well. There are lots of affordable but good options out there for car audio. Was just thinking how viable it would be to upgrade these components for nice tight bass. I've got an unused Alpine 10" Type R with a class D mono amp that I'd love to put in this machine!

Do it! The only issue you are going to run into is finding a dedicated 12v supply that can handle this. I ran a car audio system in the whitewood and used a 65 amp 12v supply.

I do not know the technical details off hand of the box.

--Scott

I've built several boxes over the years and tried building ported boxes, but I was never happy with the results. Yes - you do get more volume output as the rearward movement of the woofer is able to bounce sound waves off of the back of the box and through the port. But the port tends to over-emphasize certain frequencies and it's really hard to get flat response. It also allows the sub to move more freely, but this translates into less precision - ie muddy bass.

You are correct - metal screens do inhibit air movement and reduce overall output.

Maybe the solution isn't one size fits all - you could have a free air boxless woofer with a screen as the standard option (same thing we've had in pinball for 40 years) and offer an add on option for a no-screen, boxed woofer for a small upcharge. I know I would be fine with a 100-200 upgrade charge for better bass. You could pre-build the box/woofers (and seal them with caulk) and it would be simple for spooky to drop one in as an option.

Received the add-on email on 8/8 and the shipping confirmation/tracking number email on 8/23

Awesome advice, I wasn't aware of this. What type of material? Can you send a photo showing what you mean?
I'm imagining a piece of wood partly covering the port hole.

Cool thanks for the info!

If you want a quick way to see if you like it try like 4 pieces of packing tape over them first before working on a permanent solution!

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Yeah, definitely try and block them with something temporary first. There is a reason I put the ports there.
--Scott

A word of caution to anyone having Spooky install mirror blades, you may just want to do it yourself. They installed the blades too high on my game, which is causing horrible glass rattle. Even taping up the glass doesn't help. You can literally hear the glass scrap against the blades as you slide it. I'm not sure what the resolution will be, but it's going to be a pain since the blades are installed with adhesive tape, and from what I can tell, a lot of it.

Hmmm. That's not good, and surprising. I'm going to have Spooky install the mirrors on mine and hope for the best. I've never had to peel off mirror blades but it definitely would be hard not to destroy them without taking a really long time separating the adhesive from the cabinet. Any chance you can shave down the top edges so that they don't touch the glass?

That's not something I'd feel comfortable doing, especially without removing the playfield. I doubt it could be done without nicking the cabinet too. I've been going back and forth with Spooky, so hopefully they'll have a solution. I will say their support is pretty great, they respond very quickly, even on the weekend!

The game is awesome of course. Installed a few mods, and have been having fun with it the past two days. I just need to get this mirror blades issue resolved, because the glass rattle is ungodly.

Make sure to let Charlie know. They will make it right.

I’ve said it before and I’m not shy to say it again. I hate all blades. They eventually look like crap and they ruin the cabinet when you try to remove them. My personal, STRONG, opinion is they are the worst thing to happen to pinball in a long time. I almost picked up a used AC/DC till the list of mods came along, most of which I would have removed except the ColorDMD but when I saw mirror blades I passed.....bought one NIB instead.

Sorry, just my blunt opinion. Seen to many examples of scratched and ripped blades than I can remember. Pet peeve of mine.

Anyways, back to pinball! Looking forward to my blade free TnA delivery this week!

Worse then Pin Stadium lighting?

Yes, because at least when you remove those and throw them away they don’t ruin the cabinet.

Folks
My TNA has started to fire out balls when it shouldn’t - what would cause this? There is no switch matrix or active switch debug so hard to find what this might be?

Neil.

Check the trough and shooter lane switches. There's a switch edge test to see if switches are registering. Manually check, then use a ball to make sure all the correct switches are registering.

My TNA now throws an error on startup and the drop target 1 wont come up when you start a game. Can anyone lead me in the right direction to fix this? Thanks in advance (inage of error attached)

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Pick up some 30lb or so fishing line and some gloves .
Once you start to get it behind the blades you should be able to break the adhesive free by lightly sawing and pulling.
Re tape blades with a thin 3M double sided tape. Reinstall

While we're on the subject one of my drop targets seems to be lower than the others and is catching the ball on soft shots. It usually clears on one lost ball cycle but sometimes takes more. Is there a simple fix before I start playing around?

Yes, lift up the pf and look at the drop target mech. Smple screw to raise or lowerto adjust the down position of the drop.

For the other guy with drop one issue, look at the mech and take a pic. Sounds like a wire off a coil is my guess.

My TNA now throws an error on startup and the drop target 1 wont come up when you start a game. Can anyone lead me in the right direction to fix this? Thanks in advance (inage of error attached)

Ill take a look thanks

1st off... really sorry you had this happen. We'll get you a new set to make it right.

We've personally installed more than 125 games worth of mirror blades to date. With 2 per game, having 1 set too high is .004%. Unless they set both of them too high then it's .008%. Damn human workers!

As Mr. Panda stated, check the trough switches... also, and this may sound silly but it's happened more than once, be sure you have exactly 4 balls in the game.

As always, don't hesitate to reach out to us directly for service questions. We get a ton of emails lost because people use "support" at Spooky, "tech" at Spooky, etc etc. Wrong addresses get here somehow (how I don't know but they eventually filter through) but it can take days.

The correct address is: [email protected]

1st target drop down switch needs an adjustment I suspect.

Darn I'm guilty - I actually used the wrong email too

Would the best way to remove the old mirrors be to heat them up a little bit with a heat gun to loosen the tape?

It looks like spookypinball.com email is hosted on Google G Suite. Would be super easy to make an alias of [email protected] that goes to the same mailbox or email group that [email protected] goes to. I know I have been guilty of emailing [email protected] in the past! You did respond though!

We've only had to remove 1 set here... my guys just slowly worked them out with brute minion force.

The cabinets are all lined with black laminate, so I'd be afraid the heat from a heat gun might warp that or also loosen the glue that holds the material in place. The fish line trick sounds viable to me.

Check out this topper that goes over the topper we made at Pinball Life! Respectful nod to High Speed definitely intended.

HOT ACTION PINBALL!!!

https://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=5389

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When there's a NO RAMPS topper let me know

NIB TNA owner here, myself (#225) — how can I tell if my mirror blades were installed too high? I’m also getting very loud rattling from the glass when the sub fires, -especially- when a reactor is destroyed.

Chris in service suggested using painter’s tape on the glass, and that improved it, but it’s still an issue. Maybe it’s the mirror blades? Not sure what to look for...

Thanks for the great machine and great service! The whole family is loving the game!

-B

Glass rattle is pretty normal with the sub in TNA. If you want to check to see if your mirror blades were installed too high, you can see or feel this with the glass off. It shouldn't be higher than the glass channel. I installed 2 layers of electrical tape all around the edges of the glass to make it really snug. This will remove the rattle.

Thanks for this, I’ll take a look tonight and try putting on more tape, too.

I want to say this is an abnormal amount of glass rattle (it is -really- pronounced!) but I don’t know for sure.

Thx for the reply, I’ll try more tape and check the mirror blade height and report back!

Pinballpro sells this product. Not sure if it is better than electrical tape.

http://pinballpro.net/shop/anti-rattle-tape-ar-1/

#259 is set up safe and sound. Chris at KingPin Games has been great to work with and I can highly recommend him if you are looking to buy a game. The only issue I ran into was that the screen did not work initially, but suddenly worked as soon as I touched a cable behind it. I couldn't find anything loose so I don't know, but it works now so I'm not worried. Lighted speaker grills, mirror blades, shaker motor, knocker, and official cup holder all totally worth it. Now to figure out how to get good.

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congrats! Great looking and playin game!

What number number in production are we at guys?

#259 was done last week, so around there.

#250 being delivered Friday.....A week late cause I've been out of town on business

I've had mine for a week plus now, and it's fn amazing. 10 out of 10 good. Just nothing else like it. The sounds, the lights, the rules, it's got it all. Anyone that is on the fence about getting one, just do it.

Any more code coming Scott? I'd love to see a High Score table for the co-op mode. My kids and their friends usually don't even care about pinball, but they're loving TNA, especially co-op.