So, you’ve purchased a TRON: Legacy PRO pinball, now what? Here’s my recommended set-up:

Here are my top 5 mods:

1. Cliffy Ramp protectors. Stern does put one ramp protector on the right side of the right Orange Light Cycle ramp. The after-market ramp protectors add protection for the left side of the Orange Light Cycle ramp and both sides of the LEFT Blue Vehicle (it is no longer a light cycle) ramp. There is no hole for the left-most protector. You can use a soldering iron to make one, but you will also need a screw, washer and nut.

2. Mantis protector for the scoop. While the Cliffy scoop protector provides better protection, there are currently issues with its flap eventually protruding on the right side, preventing balls from entering. Do note that Stern has placed a strip of Mylar at the scoop entrance.

3. Playfield underside-rails for pulling up and propping up the playfield. Nice to have and Stern no longer includes them on the PRO models.

4. A LED light for the Blue Disc inserts. In general, I am not a fan of LED’s because I feel too many LED’s make the playfield overly bright. I did replace the ones in the Blue Disc inserts with white 3-light LED’s from Pinball Life because the factory incandescent bulbs are too dim. I also put one behind the TRON insert.

5. Mini Arcade v.2.1 mod. It truly is a nice-looking mod, but do realize you will be looking at it a lot (when you should be following the ball).

Here are my top 5 set-up and settings suggestions:

1. Take the time to level your pin, both the pitch and left to right. Some owners complain that a hard shot to the GEM loop is followed by a SDTM drain. This rarely happens to me.

2. One flaw with the current code on the PRO version is that there is no reliable way to get an extra ball. Attempting to get an extra ball in pinball adds another layer of strategy. This is especially desirable in home environments where there are fewer thrills in attempting to reach a replay or high score. To correct this missing element, I modify the settings to award an extra ball at a set score of 15 million. You can increase it as your play improves, but I found this is a good starting value.

3. Change the INSULT level to HIGH. You’ll get more speech! You can also adjust the strength of the slings. I was happy with the factory setting. You can also move or remove the post(s) in the outlanes. The factory setting is hard, which I am also happy with.

4. Play around with the percentages for the extra ball and special awards. If you want, you can also grant extra balls in place of specials, but don’t make your pin too easy. You’ll want to EARN those long games.

5. The playfield will get very dirty. You will get black dust everywhere and the loops behind the ramps are very hard to get at. I think the black dust is coming from the spinning disk, but some owners have replaced their black rubbers with white ones to minimize this. Even the balls will get black dirt stuck to it (much more so than other pins), so I’d recommend cleaning them regularly. One bottle of CP-100 playfield cleaner and polish will do the trick!

Enjoy your TRON! It’s a keeper!