Welcome. I’ve done that before too. Wax gets stuck to things and plays tricks on your eyes. The playfield can also look damaged and it’s sometimes just ball trails and dirt. Glad it was nothing! Tons of helpful pinball experts here, so always feel free to ask for help. I didn’t know how to remove the glass or change a bulb in 2016. I learned by trying things, asking for help and watching help videos. Tonight I’ll finish my first RadCals cabinet restoration by suspending the playfield from the ceiling and lowering the cabinet, so I can remove the pivot-hinge bolts in the cab. I saw that technique posted on Pinside with a Safe Cracker machine. Clever!

Pics!

Sure! Here are a few pics of my Radcals project. I haven’t finished the sides yet, hopefully tomorrow. (Sorry if I’m not supposed to post these in the TNA thread).

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Hey TNA-ers!

Does anyone have a source for a shooter lane eject protector for TNA? Mine is starting to get some wear and I'd love to cover that bad boy up.

Cheers!
Soda

You can ask Cliffy if he has anything.

http://www.passionforpinball.com/protectors.htm

The Cliffy for the scoop is fantastic. This scoop can take a beating, even with mylar. Highly recommend.

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I'm filing this in the "totally unnecessary, but I wanted it anyway" category....

I've designed a bracket set that will allow for the mounting of the audio amp in a vertical direction, thereby exposing the amp adjustment controls in a way that are much easier to access and see how they are set. I've uploaded the STL to Thingiverse in case anyone is interested in doing the same mod to their machine - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4925411

The bracket is meant to be printed in duplicate, as the design allows for use on either the left or right side of the amp. I'd recommend printing with a decent infill (at least 30%) to give it some substance.

Amp vertical mounting bracket (single; printed as a pair)

As shown in the pictures below, the amp is simply re-oriented in place and still clears the playfield supports when the playfield is in the play position. There's no physical interference issues and everything seems to work just as expected.

Playfield in resting play position

I'm using #8-32 hex head bolts + washers + nylon lock nuts for a "pressure fit" mounting style to the amp brackets and then #8-32 hex head screws to mount the bracket to the cabinet base.

vertical mounting position

amp mounting fasteners (front)

amp mounting fasteners (rear)

vertical mounting closeup

The amp is mounted with enough space to accommodate the wiring and RCA connectors (if you've swapped out the 3.5mm connector), as well.

cable/connector clearance

I have a situation with my machine where a short plunge does not come back to the right flipper but ends up hitting the top post of the right sling. What adjustments can be made?

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Tap the side of the game

The short plunge should hit the top of the right sling, ya cheater!
--Scott

Really?! I’ve seen a few videos where a slow ball/ short plunge gets to the right flipper and I thought mine had some orbit rail issue going on. Thought it was supposed to as a strategy. It’s not?

I will say a fast orbit left to right DOES get to the right flipper successfully on mine.

Any effect on rejects (harder or easier to make the scoop)? I'm guessing not.

Yeah, that's by design. Smack the right side of the cabinet as the ball is coming back to push is off the rail and to the right flipper for a live catch or on the fly depending on how you play. Might even settle into a straight cradle.

If you want to move the ball to towards the left more then you need to loosen and move the right ball guide towards the left and retighten. Who cares what “its supposed to do” adjust your game to your preference.

Yeah, to clarify, the way the geometry was made a short plunge will hit the top of the right sling, but a full orbit from left to right should deliver the ball nicely to the right flipper. Some people have bent their ball guides a bit to avoid the ball hitting the top of the sling on a short plunge, but that is risky because a solid orbit could potentially go SDTM.
--Scott

Thanks Scott! Momma didn’t raise no cheater, leaving it as is!! Also I might be taking it to a show and want it playing as intended.

I was just kiddin around about the cheater part. I know a few people that have adjusted this behavior out, but it was not my intention.
--Scott

Hi TNA owners. I don't own any other Spooky games but there has been a lot of talk over on the R&M club thread about the LCD screen and upgrades. I tested out an IPS LCD screen and controller and it was a major upgrade. Someone had mentioned that they had also upgraded their TNA screen. In either case, I created some brackets to help mount the screen and controller in R&M. Maybe this also works for TNA or other Spooky games, I don't know. But if anyone is interested I'd be happy to help figure out what works in TNA (or other Spooky games).

https://pinballmods.co/rick-morty-lcd-upgrade-ips-bracket

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TNA’s monitor is attached to a wooden speaker panel while R&M’s is metal so I doubt it would be exactly the same. TheNoTrashCougar (Scott) is very active here so he would know best.

The bracket is not going to work for mounting the PCB, but the clips should work the same as R&M. All you will need to do is figure out a different way to mount that bracket and you should be good to go, but definitely needs to be tested. R&M is running a different resolution than TNA.
--Scott

Thanks!

Just stumbled across this.
Pretty darned cool.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/pinball/talking-pinball-with-the-designer-of-total-nuclear/

Apologies if previously posted, never saw it in here.

Great read! Thanks for sharing!

I just refreshed the rubbers and cleaned/waxed my game yesterday. Uh yeah, the game is pretty evil

TNA Owners... for anyone interested in the IPS LCD screen there might be a discount to be had if we can place a large enough order:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ips-lcd-upgrade-interest-rampm-acnc-tna-and-more

I believe we should have an update on the custom brackets for the screen mounting soon and some pics of one owner who's done the upgrade.

I need to adjust the finger for resetting the middle drop target/ ball lock. I did it a year or so ago, and it's worked well but starting to occasionally stick again.

So my question is: what is the best way to access it and make the adjustment? As I recall it was a real mission to get to it last time and I think I removed the whole mechanism from the playfield.

Any better ideas?

There probably isn't a better way to do it, if I understand what you're trying to adjust.

I’m having an issue (see pics). Had several multiballs that I didn’t earn. I did the drop target test and everything was fine. Right scoop eject worked fine, also checked switches and the optos all seemed spot on. Any ideas what the problem is? This TNA needs to be fully functional - it’s BEGGING me for help.

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That is probably an issue with your scoop opto. Might want to get rid of the IDC connectors on the sender (green) side and replace with crimp and stuff connectors. Oh, also check in coil test the the right scoop is working.
--Scott

Thanks for the quick reply and help. The right scoop coil is working. I will try the opto connectors, but here’s some more info in case it clarifies things. I turned the game back on and it went through several ball searches (all balls were in the trough). I started a game and all drop targets started in the down position. I went to the drop target test and they all went up and down, no error.
Not sure if that changes your advice, just wanted to make sure the opto is the issue. Thanks again for helping

When you run the drop test in the service menu, let it cycle a bunch and see if any errors occur.

Here is the easiest way for me to describe what is going on and how to fix it.

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I'm not a TNA owner, but wanted to say how cool it is that the game creator is so active on this thread and personally helps people trouble shoot their machines. Super awesome. It makes me want my own TNA even more.

Totally agree. Dude seriously cares about his game and the people that bought it.

Meanwhile... Dwight Sullivan ghosts everyone waiting for bugs fixes and code completion!

Agreed, very cool. But we need to give him space so he can work on his next masterpiece - the TNA prequel. I’m guessing there’s going to be some crazy light shows and buildings exploding and a tank that shoots the locked balls across the playfield. Listen, I don’t know if this is in the works - but people want it - I know that much.

Hey folks here are some before and after pics using the LCD harryhoudini was discussing earlier.
My TNA looks like it is supposed to now for somebody over 6 foot tall.
Definitely adds to the experience.
(Note: I tried setting the Brightness and Contrast manually but found the "GAME" setting in the presets worked great)

Before
After

Before
After

Before
After

Nice upgrade! Looks much crisper and more vibrant.

Yeah, it really spruces the thing up.
The better top down viewing angle the IPS provides, makes a huge difference.

I had a strange occurrence. Playing multihull and the ball save timer locked on displaying "9.0". It stayed on for the rest of the game and past the end of game sequence. Rebooting fixed it and it seemed to work perfectly the next game.

Loose connection? Or weird software glitch?

Very disconcerting because using the ball save timer to make risky shots is what I like to do.

Were any other LEDs stuck on the playfield as well? If so, the serial connection (gray cable) probably came loose or got a flaky connection on the green PD-LED board that the timer is connected to (check both sides of the gray cables as they jump from 1 PD-LED to the next). A restart fixes this because it forces the machine to re-establish the serial connection.
--Scott

Thanks Scott, I'll check that when I get back to the machine.

Not sure why I waited so long to do this mod but wow, it’s worth it! Custom designed decals by me.

Alice Cooper is getting the same tomorrow for the crypt drop.

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Nice looking decals, may need to do that before I install mine, much easier than after

Thanks Scott! Opto connector was the problem. I was going to remove the insulation on the wires and try to smash the connector over bare wire, but that didn’t seem possible so ended up having a friend solder the wires directly to the ID connector. Had to restart a couple times but she’s 100% now. Now I’m back to trying to get that LIONMAN mystery award.

Wild Dog Arcade is currently streaming TNA on twitch

Thanks for the props! We rally appreciate it. If anyone joined in to watch, thank you!

A shout out to PinMonk for his power supply fan for Spooky machines. I have just installed and the quieter fan is great, but what I really wanted to highlight was the quality and professionalism of the packaging and the instructions.

The instructions are so clear, the illustrations are even clearer, and the steps are logical and useful and the reminders of what to to check at the key stages of reassembly are spot on.

Now to get hold of my flipper bushings for R&M and I'll quieten the fan down on that while the playfield is up.
Thanks again PinMonk

Makes a huge difference. My ACNC went from sounding like a server in my game room to silent.

Took me a while but I’m finally in the club. Love everything about this game.

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Congratulations! Beautiful machine. I aspire to be an official member of the TNA club. One of these days.

Been on the hunt for years and it’s totally worth it. Classic 70s/early80s layout with some funky twists, mixed with an amazing lightshow and those thumping tunes? Yes please.

Hello. Are mirror blades still not available for this game? I tried contacting spooky and pinball life last year but they didn’t make them anymore. Am I out of luck for now?