After playing 400 games on CE#1, I want to say I'm still absolutely blown away by this game. I remain a relatively average player...but I think TNA has improved my gameplay more than any other machine I own. From drop catches, to live catches, to nudges, to dead bounces....TNA has single-handedly helped me play so much better! As you can see in my stats...I still have a LONG way to go!

Thanks again to Scott for designing such an incredible machine which is the centerpiece of my modest collection!

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So how was the setup? I'm very curious to know how everything turned out after you opened up and set up. I'm very close to putting in an order. BTW, when did you order?

Haven’t set it up yet, I have a couple of obligations this weekend so it might be next week by the time I get it set up. Agh! Ordered sometime around the end of March. Not exactly sure because the distributor had advertised the machine as being “in stock” when in fact they had to order it. Apparently I’d just missed the one that they had in stock but they hadn’t taken down the ad yet.

1 week later update. Got a replacement brain/transformer box. This one has a dimmer, and strobe feature, and the best thing of all…. IT WORKS!! I now have full brightness with both rails plugged in. Hard to take a picture without it going dark when it focuses on it.

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Awesome, how is the buzz sound from it?

Would love more info on the replacement controller. Link would be even sweeter.

Glad you got it workingproperly, looks great.

At full tilt, it has a high pitched buzz, and then it started shutting off after awhile from over heating. I turned it down to about 75%, still bright enough, but it hasn’t shut off since.

I’m not sure they are doing another run on them. But the box I got this time was like 2inch by 4inchs, and actually had a brightness dial, and a button for modes.

So it sounds like maybe that basic power supply was a dud, if they’ve already switched to something else. I haven’t set up my machine yet but I’m wondering if I should just go ahead and make contact with them and get it swapped out before I install. Did you email them to initiate that process?

The old one was a larger unit. Supposedly the new unit is stronger, but half the size, but doesn’t have flash options or dim options. But my “new small one” didn’t work. Also, I had mine on 100% brightness, and it kept overheating and shutting off last night. I dropped it down to about 80%, still pretty bright, and it hasn’t shut off again. Everybody else on the recent run got small boxes it sounds like, but as far as this post is concerned, I’m the only one who got a dud. I was emailing Robert at hookedonpinball

Hey there. I'm very close to pulling the trigger on getting this great game. My only worry is size. Height, specifically. I have room but I'm worried it may be too high because of the light on top. Does anyone know the height from the top of that light to the floor?

Hope someone can help. TIA

I don’t have a measurement, but it’s like 3inchs taller than a new stern without a topper.
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Thank you. It's going to be next to my Godzilla. Is it easy to remove that red card from around the light?

Ive never looked. I’d assume it’s just screwed on. But somebody else will have to answer that one.

Yep, it's 4 screws (two each side) - so easy to remove.

These measurements are "close".. Tried to measure by myself

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Thank you for that. Appreciate it.

I believe someone else had an issue with slow light shows and graphics on the screen that was resolved with a new computer provided by Spooky. Call or email them and they can help you out.

Call or email Spooky and ask if they will still do a butter cabinet on TNA CE first, and see where the price is for it. If you have more important things to spend the money on, then obviously don't pay it if it is still available.

Butter cabinet is directly printed instead of a decal, then the print is clear coated and polished to a high shine. It is stunning in person. Pictures do it little justice.

TNA CE was my very first NIB pinball from any manufacturer and is bolted to the floor. Also, if you like your pinball cabinet to look and even feel like a freshly waxed brand new car, then butter is definitely for you.

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Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thanks for posting this. I never knew about this statistic screen. So cool! I’ve logged 389 games on my CE and have to say that TNA has made me a much better player. Of the 4 times I’ve reached reactor 9, I’ve destroyed it twice. Bolted to the floor!
This is my 2nd TNA. I had an original and sold it. Really the only pin I’ve ever regretted selling. I’ll usually walk past my other pins and play TNA most days. My best pinball buddy can’t get into the game because it’s so “simple” rule wise, but I love it. I also love the deep ruleset games, but TNA is my favorite pin by far. Kudos TheNoTrashCougar for designing an outstanding pin!
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How often do you all get into the reactor and have the ball just roll straight down to the scoop? Trying to determine if my slings are not sensitive enough. If I can get a good hit on one then I’ll get a lot of side to side action. Just tired of getting a good plunge when I need to destroy a reactor and have it go right out of it.

Often enough to piss me off lol. My slings are almost too sensitive, and it still happens maybe 25-30% of the time.

That’s probably around the same percentage as me. My tactic is to try to give a good nudge as the ball enters the reactor to get some side to side going.

First, try not to drop it down the "C." The other letters are better for getting some action up there.
Second, lightly nudge the table to get some bounce.
Third, don't hold the flipper in the "up" position any longer than necessary. Holding it up gives the ball more room to drop out of the playfield.
Fourth, check the gaps in the leaf switches behind each sling. Experiment with slightly smaller gaps.

If anyone wants to pickup a TNA pop mod along with the plunger meter I’m looking to sell both. Never installed; decided to keep my game closer to stock. $100 for both shipped UPS ground lower 48.

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Mods sold pending payment.

All great tips, thank you!

And I wish I could’ve got that plunger meter! A mod that needs another run.

Anyone know where I can get some info on the UP-Core (I think UP-CH01?). My game won't boot, and I've done the regular things. Reset PC (white button), tried HDMI cable replacement, etc. Spooky thought it might be the CPU, so I am trying to get info to help verify that before I order that board from Spooky without poking around a bit more. Thanks.

C’est quoi à droite ?

Had some people over last night and someone fired up a 4 Player game on my TNA.
At Player 4, the Machine lost track of scoring - P3 was flashing, but screen said P4. No Scoring, though. Machine never caught up after that. No scoring at all.

Power cycled and now the game will not stop booting.

Ideas?

Curious - what are your symptoms?

(a brief boot screen may show some info - I had to use my cell camera to record it and pause/play to see what it says)

I'm not sure which one you have - but my TNA CE came with the Aaeon or UP-Board model UP-CHT01-A20-0432-B10.

I ordered a spare from Sp00ky. Connected it to a monitor like a normal PC setup and it booted to a screen that wanted a password which was blank. Hit enter and it took me into the BIOS. The BIOS didn't appear to show the ON-Board memory. Trying to find a bootable media supporting UEFI (Linux, Windows..etc) = was a pita. Windows 10 IOT Core, Clonezilla and a certain version of Linux would eventually boot via USB and let me see a little more.

Clonezilla would see the onboard eMMC = which appeared blank. (if I thought I wouldn't mess up my working machine - I might have "tried" to clone the eMMC from it to the new non-booting Up-Board "SBC" and see what happened.)

I am not sure if Sp00ky sent me a machine that hadn't been flashed/cloned, had defective eMMC or my Windows 3.11 skills are just not enough LOL...

I spent a little time with my working machine - hooking up a network cable to it and doing some Nmap/Zenamp via windows and some scans using Kali = but ran out of steam and time on that..

(side note: on my working machine = the USB cable leading to the coindoor area would only allow me to save the data from the CPU. To flash the SBC with the newest code - I had to plug my USB stick into a free port on the computer itself)..for whats its worth...

These boards can be "locked down" to help prevent tinkering - so your Kung Fu must be strong. Mine is not

Scott has the answers.

If you want to play pinball and you do all the troubleshooting to lead you to decide it being bad - just get a new one from Sp00ky that is pre-loaded.

Hopefully you can get them to forget about Sp00ky D00 long enough to send you one. My ordeal of getting a working spare started in mid-December. Eventually got one in early February - but had issues. To save time I called and just wanted to purchase another one. Promises of an invoice never came. Emails, phone calls were either answered politely or never answered. Eventually late April - I just decided to send my "new" one back via USPS signature required to attention of Charlie Emery with an enclosed "happy note".. 5-5-2023 I received an E-mail with tracking information of a replacement being sent. (Sp00ky should get these to Pinball Life, Pre-loaded and ready for sale. Pinball Life doesn't leave you hanging for weeks on end. imho)

If you want to go down the Rabbit hole = here are a few links.

https://up-shop.org/up-board-series.html

https://up-shop.org/active-cooler-fan-for-the-up-board-and-up-core-board.html

https://www.aaeon.com/en/p/up-board-computer-board-for-professional-makers

https://skeletongame.com/skeletongame-powered-projects/
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Scott will have the answer.

me just being curious - are you running the newest code already? Had the game been on for a long time / heated up? Any weird boot error messages?

The scoring tweak-out is an interesting issue.

(Past forum posts with boot-loop issues seem to start with "running the newest code" and check your opto's.) I seen a few weird boot-loops on mine throughout my days of owning one. Lifting the playfield and letting the balls fall inside the trough confused the system for a minute. Ball searching/ejecting and 2 boot-loops and the issued cleared up. Also one time - I think there was a piece of wire/solder shorting out between the 2 contacts on one of the lock target opto's. I removed that short and no issues since.

Not on newest code. I can't update / download code here.

It's got whatever version was on it when I grabbed it. Machine wasn't on for more than an hour or so.
But it was the first time anyone tried to start up a 4 player game on this one since i have had it.

I will go through it this afternoon to see if it is something physical and keep an eye on the optos and their connections. Thanks for the tip.

Reseating all the opto connections got me out of the Boot Cycle.

No scoring, though.

EDIT : Disconnected and reconnected everything in the backbox. Back to working properly now. Weird as nothing was obviously loose or unplugged. But running properly now. Thanks for mentioning the Optos re. Booting Cycle. That was definitely an issue.

No scoring on the LCD? Or the score displays in the backglass are not working? If the score displays, check the USB cable from the score display to the CPU. Might have come loose. Check both sides.
--Scott

The scoring displays were locked into the Test / Strobe effect.

After disconnecting and reconnecting all the wiring in the backbox, everything went back to normal.

Thanks again.

namyzzo Thanks for the reply. It was full of good info.

Symptoms...it won't boot. Brief video (just power up), then goes to sleep cuz no input. Tried multiple hdmi. Hit the computer power button...but I always had blue from the get go.

It looks like the CMOS battery died. Got new batteries. I also believe now it's the cpu. I was gonna ping Scott after getting my head filled with info, so I could speak with him on an educated level.

I think it's around $150 to get the replacement? Wonder if that's empty or with preloaded coded...

Hmm, that is pretty odd. If you get a new PC, you will need to get it from Spooky as they will need to image it for you. We currently do not have an image that is safe to distribute, but it is on my list.

Thanks,
--Scott

Back in February I paid $150. It was supposed to be loaded up with TNA. (I don't know if any of their other games use this same computer or not). But it can't hurt to remind them to please load/test with TNA before shipping. - you can't load it up on your own afterwards,, you can only update it = Sp00ky has the secret ingredient to make it work. So, even if you buy the SBC from somewhere else = you will have to send it to Sp00ky to be loaded. (I haven't found any other way as of yet. There is talk of being able to "Clonezilla" a working SBC onto a replacement - but no idea about a TNA configured SBC..).

I think once the SBC is on/booted - you have to hold for a few seconds and then it will shut-off. A brief hit of the button should turn it back on.

"tried multiple hdmi"? = like did you try hooking an external computer monitor/TV to the 1 HDMI port on the Up-Board, or?. (this might show you the BIOS screen at least.. If it did show a BIOS screen - I am not even sure what you could do from there. If the battery went dead, did it wipe out the "boot" order in the BIOS?.. I'm not sure thats even a thing with this - but curious to know..). I think if the system is configured correctly - you wouldn't even be able to get into the BIOS. Everything would be secured and locked up tight - which is one of the purposes of using these SBC's and using for IOT type applications.
(There does not seem to be any newer BIOS update available - but I probably would NOT EVEN chance it, even if there was one.)

curious - where did you get a new battery / wire harness from?

Here is a few boot screens of the Up-Board "SBC" that wouldn't boot when I got it AND after tinkering with Ubuntu to test the onboard storage / eMMC. I just think they forgot to load it up. AJ did say if the battery went dead for some reason = it could cause the issue I was having..

Caution - I have less than no idea what I am doing. So, I wouldn't suggest tinkering on a working system LOL..

Scott is the man - check with him for sure!

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Thanks for the link! I’ve not had an issue with my computer, but I ordered one from them to have, just in case. It definitely runs warm with the stock passive heat sink.

jauge de tige de tir

Hey everyone. Just put my order in on Friday. Totally psyched!!

Does anyone know where I can get the black and yellow decals for the flippers?

Congrats, this is where I got mine:

https://www.ulekstore.com/Nuclear_Meltdown_Pinball_Flipper_Bat_Topper_MOD_p/tna_flippermod.htm

All three of the slings in the core stopped firing ? The switches work but the coils don’t. Any thoughts as to where to look?

If more than those three coils are out check the fuse. If just those three are out check the wiring at the coils. The power wire could have broke off the lug on the first coil in the core slings or a previous coil that is on the same power wire.

Mine was a broken wire. Search for recent posts by me in this thread that will show the broken one. There is a closely followed post that shows where it needed to go back to.

Found it! It was the main power wire to the core flipper. Resoldered and back in business , thanks! I love this forum…

Hey all, just curious if anyone out there has come across a rubber ring diagram? I know the operations manual lists a count of each band and their sizes, but nothing I've come across indicating where each is specifically located.
After 250 plays I've got a couple bands on the way out; one looking ready to snap at any given moment. Looking to replace just those couple bands and it'd be cool to know which lengths are needed without having to disassemble and break out the ruler...
(pics for reference)

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