What do you consider a "great deal"? Just curious...

Anyone know what these originally cost from factory? I realize it isn't relevant to market price but I'm curious if all these HUO people are actually profiting...

What was it you installed? Anti glare back box?

Very cool. I hate the illumination as is... My Twister is the same (single tube light bulb that glows...)

Good call!!!

I have a Ghostbusters Pro and just got TSPP recently (was looking for awhile). Naturally when I spent $5k on GB a TSPP popped up at a great price. I went for it.

GB is great but very hard. It has made me a much better player. On theme alone it pairs better with TSPP but truthfully you should play it because some have been turned off by the challenge. I'm amazed by how many people use cheat codes on video games and hate hard things. I'm an old school gamer - my GB is next to Donkey Kong and Baby Pac. Those games are hard as nails and give you no quarter. Pun intended.

Need some help from the club. I removed the upper playfield and upper ramp on it. Now when putting it back I wonder if ALL wires get routed through that center hole or just the ones on the playfield itself. In other words - the wires coming off the top ramp for the switch and some lights do they go around the back or down the middle? Any help or photos would be appreciated!

Most games have loud knockers to indicate new high scores achieved, specials earned or other major milestones in the game. I usually disable the knockers in my games because they annoy me in home settings.

Has anyone upgraded their flashers to LEDs? What did you use? I upgraded a Gottlieb System 3 and found the ones I used were a bit over the top and was hoping there was a middle ground available!

Thanks! I'll take a look at the standard one! I think the strobe effect is too much but I want something a step up from incandescent.

I'm going to ask a stupid question... maybe stupid maybe not.

Finished changing out coil sleeves and I noticed that after launching a ball (and the ball hits its first target or two) the kicker in the ball trough fires once. No ball in it it just fires. Game does this consistently. Kicker never fires any other time unless it is supposed to! Multiball works normal no extra fires.

My stupid question is that I can't remember if the game is programmed like this or if I messed something up changing coils. I can't imagine it was programmed like this!

Actually yes! I noticed that Comic Book guy doesn't score anything on the skill shot!

Game came with 4.0 - is that my issue?

What do you mean "it pops okay"?

Correct. I have seen some translite material designed to make the translite clearer and those may potentially help with glare as well but the site was German based and I never ordered one.

You can't do it easily - but checking the ramp under the garage for cracking / being broken is also key.

Either way you'll put a Cliffy protector on that ramp... Either to fix it (like I had to mine) or to preserve it.

If the couch releases all 3 balls at once what is the likely cause? A bad gap on the end where the coil releases?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/eos-stern-simpsons-pinball-party

Just in case anyone here can help? Specifically even if you just run active switch test and tell me if your left switch is active without you hitting anything ???

CL is a waste of time.

Glad you solved it (fingers crossed).

Yes many of the bulbs aren't fun to access. It makes LEDs especially under the ramps in the GI that much more important to do!

Anyone get the ball stuck here on the upper play field frequently (nearly every game.). Any suggestions on what to do to resolve? See photo!

image (resized).jpeg

Thanks guys - I'll look at the spring and rebuild if replacing it doesn't work.

That's the most commonly broken one (I think). There is a guy from Russia on eBay that reproduces them (see link below). We are waiting to hear on the quality.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ebay-scam-advice

I am eager to see what you think because I may order a few parts... or perhaps I'll do the entire set as a group buy for people on here (but I'm guessing we all want similar parts!)

I'm probably the only one in this thread that added LEDs and NVRAM and left everything else stock...?

I may do that one day. I did also do the Side rails because mine had button wear.... but personally I'm just not a huge fan of making the play field all crowded with toys and extra stuff. To each their own - I do like seeing how creative people have been and I love how much passion people have for The Simpsons.

Disco Stu likes Disco music...

So I recently replaced my shooter assembly and then noticed the auto plunger for multiball wasn't firing normally. I discovered the ball shooter was just pushing the ball up away from the autoplunger when the ball rests in the shooter lane.

Pushing the rubber shooter tip down hard helped but didn't 100% fix it. I'm thinking I need to add washers to the shooter rod near the spring to keep the rod held back a little more. Anyone encounter this?

Welcome! Shoot the garage!

Yeah that spot doesn't wear badly or anything. Weird choice for Mylar. I'd probably try to remove.

All back together and clean!

IMG_0044 (resized).JPG

Wow.

I considered the same thing since TSPP had no official topper (or did it I honestly don't know?) I don't see an issue with using it even though I'm typically a purist when it comes to mixing themes (i.e. people who put ANY Nintendo toys on Mario Pinball even when they clearly do not match the same 90s era artwork). This is "old Simpsons" art style but I think it still works.

In my opinion this topper is way better than some of the really crazy things people are doing with TSPP.

Disco Stu... loves disco music.

The tree thing reminds me of a Brussels sprout to be honest but I LOVE your colors in the Cooling Towers.

You mean you wired the coil backwards by accident? You likely have a blown transistor on the driver board. You'll want to test and replace that and you'll want to replace the diode on the coil as well if it has one.

You don't find it challenging to start all the modes and get to Alien Invasion?

This is why pinside is so great - when people talk strategy and give tips and reviews/comments like this. Makes you see a game in an entirely different way.

Did you change the diode on the coil after you fixed the transistor? The diode may have burned up when it was wired incorrectly. If you don't also replace diode then you can fry the transistor again... even when wired correctly. Don't bother testing the diode it costs 10 cents. Just replace it.

The coil is fine just replace the diode. Easy and costs literally pennies. No need to buy a new one.

Did you replace the coil diode?

I'm sorry I misunderstood that the problem didn't move with the coil. Okay I agree it must be something else.

Could it be the testing of the transistor in circuit is your problem? Sometimes certain items test okay in circuit even though they are bad.

Wow. Never knew such a feature existed!

Naturally do what makes you happy. But since you asked for opinions: You list are great options. Be careful with the extra toys on the play field. I know I'll risk hate for speaking my opinion in this thread but so many people load too many ugly tacky toys on this game it looks terrible. Many don't fit the artwork style theme. Others look great. Choose wisely.

I think you will really enjoy TSPP. You definitely play the crap out of your games. There is a lot of value to be found in the depth of TSPP.

I love mine. Spent nearly 18 months looking for it and nearly 1 year cleaning it up and rebuilding it. I still have a few things to make mine perfect. Lately I’ve been neglecting it (I recently got MMr and a week later a family member had a medical emergency which tied me up) but hope to put some hours on it this weekend!

There is a thread on pinside where someone ordered and got them and compared them. Decent quality if I remember the thread correctly. The guy who makes them has also posted on here. You are safe to order them just use PayPal and don’t gift - do a normal transaction.

Unless I’m mistaken the gizmo is GI light related only whereas the full device is designed to make sure your controlled lights retain the fade effects and don’t ghost. So I don’t think the Gizmo is a substitute for trying to make TSPP look and operate normally with LEDs in the controlled lights.

I presume your ghosting is on the controlled lights right?

Here is the thing - are you trying to have the game look as intended (fade effects etc) or just not ghost. That is what this product does. It makes the fading effects and the game look more original.

If you just want your existing LEDs to not ghost then buy some of the premium non ghosting LEDs.

I did not LED my flashers. Honestly didn’t feel it needed it and I like the fade effects when the sirens go off for multi ball.

Is it me or does EVERY “HUO” Simpson’s have just under 300 games played? Is that just the number that the seller thinks is believable?

To the OP - a great condition version of this game top of the mark is in the $4,500 range. You should assume that the game isn’t HUO and that if the game has latest software the 300 game counter is meaningless as well. Buy only on condition.

I rebuilt all my flippers and mine feel the way you describe compared to my NIB Ghostbusters and MMr. I think it’s just how the game is. Of course I’d have to compare your game to mine to truly confirm.

I recommend testing the switch when it isn’t installed to see if the wiring is solid before you put it back together. This will help you eliminate a wiring issue versus a physical issue (ie ball not triggering switch).

Access the switch physically and then put game in test mode. See how switch works. Be careful not to short anything when the game is on.

People on Pinside mod things just for the sake of modding them sometimes. Some people spend hours modding and minutes playing and sell. I wouldn't assume that all upgrades were intended on getting maximum bang for buck with any of the people who heavily mod.

That being said I have no idea what sound files he was using.

Spend the $15 bucks on NVRAM (or less) and never replace a battery again.

Batteries are EVIL in these games.

You need them especially on the garage gap ramp.

Can you show a photo?

Sometimes launch problems are the shooter rubber being on incorrectly or the plunger not being forward enough.

Does anyone know where I can just buy the drop target decals or does anyone have them scanned ready for printing?

Thanks but I’m looking for the Ichty and Scratchy 3 drop target decals. I’m not looking for any mods or anything unoriginal to the game.

Agreed. NVRAM installs on this game in 2 minutes (or 3 minutes if you go slow). Most of the time is spent opening the game.

Why would ANYONE have batteries on this game? That MPU would cost $300-400 to replace?

Just a tip to save you time - NVRAM is plug and play on this title. Way better than remote battery holder and is cheaper in the long run. Don’t waste time moving the batteries.

https://nvram.weebly.com

http://www.pinitech.com/products/6264_nvram.php

Take batteries out first. You will lose your high scores regardless (they are stored in the chip you are replacing). Stinks to lose your scores but it will never happen again.

Very easy. Don’t wait until you have board damage to do it.

I don’t think people’s experience is good measure because someone may have no ghosting and you’d get ghosting. I’d recommend just spending the extra $1-$2 and getting non ghosting so you aren’t in doubt.

Personally I’m avoiding doing any LEDs in the inserts until I feel like adding the LED OCD board. I don’t want to lose the fading effects.

No to be a naysayer but doesn’t lighting the game up that much ruin having certain lights highlight certain parts of the game at different times? Just seems like too much light for a title that isn’t very dark to begin with. Maybe it’s something I just have to see in person to understand?

NVRAM takes less than 60 seconds to do and costs about $20. No brainer upgrade. If any battery leaks you’ll have a $200-400 repair. Why worry about it? Plus your next set of batteries will cost close to $10 anyway...

When a game is drop in NVRAM there is no reason not to do it immediately in my opinion.

Also - to the other poster with the LED question - you will lose all the awesome fading effects of this game if you Led the inserts without using the OCD board.

When you removed the upper playfield did you potentially leave wires or something in the way?

To your last comment about the voices - licensing rights can be funny and there is a strong possibility that the voices in the show can't contractually be used in any other product without further consent or payment to the actors. It can also be that someone "else" owns the TV script/show/production and would need to consent to that being reproduced as well. Multiple hands out for money and approval rights (which can hold up a game) mean "stay away" and do something differently. So it would not (legally) be as simple as moving the sound clips from a DVD copy over to a pinball game.

Did you look at the switch underneath the playfield to see if anything is disconnected/broken off? I forget off the top of my head if these have diodes or not but checking how the switch is (or is not) wired is step #1.

The other thing to do is connect your multimeter to the switch ends and see if you get a beep when you close the switch. That tells you if the switch is mechanically working.

Chances are it is a physical issue with the switch (wiring or otherwise not making contact). You should rule those things out before looking at anything else in the game that might be causing this.

Does the game continue to play after the error or does it stop entirely?

This is an error with U210. Do you see anything going on with that socket? Is there a pin out? Bad solder? Trace lifted? Take a look at the back of the board too. This area is just under the batteries (I hope you are running NVRAM and not batteries that may have leaked?) Take a photo of that area (the batteries and just underneath it). The more I think about this the more I wonder if you have damage from a battery that leaked.

What errors does it give you? You said "errors" so I am wondering are there multiple messages? Or is it only referencing $F0FF.

Are you sure about the error you got when you put in the 4.0 version? That should have read $4FFF (guessing you missed an F?) Just trying to make sure we nailed the problem down correctly.

So if the LOTR board (with Simpsons ROMS) gives you this error in the Simpsons game and the Simpson's board works in LOTR (with LOTR ROMS) and since you have tried multiple simpsons rom versions it seems it is not your roms or your boards.

My next best guess? Power issue? Have you tested the power at the board on its various test points to verify it is accurate?

Glad you got it straightened out. This is why I asked whether you could play the game or not after the message because my game also posts something about the checksum but does not impact playing and it is not an error.

You only learn by doing.

I agree the head isn't ideal (in the sense that it looks bizarre) however I like that it kind of looks like Rudy's head from Funhouse. I wonder if the designer did that on purpose. In that sense I don't think I'd want to see a game with Homer's full body on it. Perhaps you can just find a better looking Homer head? Just my thoughts...

I know but I think having the head which sometimes talks during the game was a nod to Rudy (except it doesn't have eyes that move because of the obvious complexity/costs involved and also I believe that feature may have been patented by Williams and the patent was likely still in play in ~2003).

Regardless - I wish the head in the game looked more like the one on your bank. Maybe there is one out there somewhere that will work better!

If you are looking for other feedback (not sure if you are or not) I would also note that the skyline looks great but some of the characters randomly floating in the sky seem odd (flying character okay but couch in sky does not). Couldn't you place them on a street or somehow better separate the skyline concept from the characters being randomly thrown around on the artwork?

This is 100% personal preference but I found that anything other than warm was "too bright" and "too white" in this specific game for my taste.

The GI aside - be careful about putting LEDs in the inserts or you will lose the fading effects. The LED OCD board is a must on this game to retain the behavior and look of the insert lights if you plan to LED the inserts.

I have never heard of NVRAM being "hit or miss" except games which require soldering and people mess it up. There is an issue of certain games with clocks that no longer keep time and impact midnight madness (not the case on this game).

For this game and nearly all games NVRAM is 100% the way to go: never replace a battery again - never lose your high scores - and in this game plug and play. I just don't see any reason to have a battery on this board (especially AA batteries which can ruin your very expensive MPU).

Correct - 6264 version. Plug and play - no soldering. You remove one chip and replace it with the NVRAM. The only thing that can go wrong is you can bend a pin (if you do bend it back carefully). Ideally use a chip puller to pull the chip (they cost a few dollars) or you can use a small flathead screwdriver carefully.

https://www.pinitech.com/product_images/ram_locations/ramloc_whitestar.jpg
Photo above shows you what chip you swap.

1/4 and 5/16 will do most things in a pinball machine -- but you should have a set of all sizes because I find myself grabbing other sizes for various items. Get magnetic ones and thank yourself later as dropping parts into the machine is a common issue.

Keep in mind if it keeps spinning you may need to look at what it is screwed into (sometimes another nut or part below that needs to be held tight).

Agreed. Mine had the fix as well but the weld point was still broken and it caused all the balls to dump out at once (or some other issue I forget now) until I did something with it to make it more "solid". I since got my hands on a new part but haven't installed it yet because the game is working fine now.

To the person posting the issue I'd recommend you put balls in that couch and just watch what it does and what is getting caught. Visually you can hopefully see something. Use test mode and fire the solenoid (have a friend or family member help) and just keep testing/watching to see what catches it.

Thats a boot message you see by DEFAULT unless you turn fast boot (or quick boot) on in your settings. You are seeing it because the NVRAM reset that setting on you.

Nice job upgrading to NVRAM. One more game saved from batteries.

Check the upper playfield's position and the wires / harness associated with the upperplayfield. I think they can get in the way of that kicker for the garage.

It must be a substitute somehow... but I don't know for certain. I would reach out to barakandl on pinside who sells NVRAM ( https://nvram.weebly.com/ ) and get his input. He could confirm whether they substitute (I suspect they do if your game works). If that is the case his NVRAM (or anyone elses) designed for the game should work fine.

I do not believe that your ColorDMD's issues are tied to this - especially if the game otherwise continues to function. Do you have all the latest game ROMS that ColorDMD needs?

Regardless - get those batteries out of there. This is an easy NVRAM upgrade.

Good pickup - yes it is U212 under the batteries for the NVRAM chip.

https://www.pinitech.com/product_images/ram_locations/ramloc_whitestar.jpg

Flippers need to be rebuilt after awhile. Depending on how many "miles" you have on your game they likely need to be rebuilt.

Nearly all the games I get (absent the ones I bought new in box) need flipper rebuilds. It seems all the people I buy game from don't like doing this and so the flippers are almost always in not great shape. It isn't fun but in my experience no game in home use only will likely need them rebuilt again anytime soon.

This game was not fun because it has 5 flippers!

I'm not sure of other options but be wary of pinbits - other threads on here indicate they aren't operating their store right now but the store is still taking orders. People are waiting weeks and then getting paypal refunds after hearing nothing.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/anyone-place-an-order-from-pinbits-recently#post-6230902

Did you confirm the VUK coil for the mini playfield is correct? If you have a routed game sometimes an under powered coil is installed and perhaps after moving the mini playfield around you haven't found the "sweet spot" for the underpowered coil. Also, I have found every time I move that playfield I have to play with the wires and positioning a bit to stop the bounce backs. I need to move the playfield for cleaning now and I dread what will happen when I put it back.

As for your other issue I looked in the manual and you appear to have the right coil on the ball eject. See Page 20 of the manual for some good reference info on the coils/power. Is the coil getting really hot to the touch after it starts throwing the ball loudly?

I believe there is a coil power setting in the adjustments however given you didn't change it before putting the decals (are we talking inside decals like the blades?) I doubt that is your issue. May be worth just testing the transistor associated with the coil which appears to be Q1. If you have a spare coil handy that matches you could try replacing it but I don't feel like that is your issue. I could be wrong though.

I'm just throwing things out to you that I would check given that I have no experience with this problem.

Looks like the right coil on the mini playfield VUK so glad to hear it is working better. Your issue on the trough kick out is still puzzling!

People often ask why I never did LEDs on the inserts of my Pinball Party... and the reason is that I didn't want to lose the nice fading effects the game has with the incandescent lights. As everyone on here knows the LED OCD board fixes this for you and I finally got around to installing one for this game.

I realize many people don't care what the game does after the LEDs are installed it as long as it is brighter but if you want to see a with/without LED OCD board video I made (with my poor editing skills) see link below.

Top video is inserts with LEDs bottom video is same LEDs with the OCD board. Works like originally intended by the designers. You can see the smooth fading and transitions that make the LEDs look like incandescent lamps. You have to watch this video on a computer screen. You likely can't see the difference on your phone. In person it is night and day because as we all know LEDs don't picture/film well.

They call the product OCD for a reason. Many people do not care about this stuff and I understand that. Personally I think it looks so much better to run it like this. The customization options are nice too (brighten/dim certain inserts for example) but I haven't tinkered with them yet.

For those interested: http://www.ledocd.com/ [I do not make or sell them nor am I affiliated - I'm just a customer!]

That's a great way of showing the difference it makes. You can really tell when the games lights function normally (this game has a programmed light show intended to flow smoothly) versus just having LEDs in them going off somewhat randomly and not fading in/out.

I have other games I don't see this as necessary for (Who Dunnit, DE Jurassic Park) but I think if someone LEDs a Pinball Party they should consider it.

I don't know The Sopranos game really at all (played a game or two at a show once). I wonder what might cause changes?

Can anyone confirm for me - how is Homer's head supposed to be positioned? Is it supposed to be turned slightly to the left (aligned with the Moe's plastic basically) or should it be looking straight down the playfield. I recently took it off to clean it and now its aligned straight but I've seen a few videos where people have it at an angle.

I thought I put his head into a notch set by the mount but maybe I missed it?

I made the mistake of cool white in my GI which I recently swapped out to comet warm white (less bright and better colors on the game). Inserts are all cool white comets to give them a bright pop and I used the LED OCD to keep the fading issues. I think one or two inserts I color matched to make them slightly brighter/more intense because of the bulb/insert placement.

I've only seen pinstadium in one game and it looked like a car with high beams on was shining in a pinball machine... so perhaps the bright cool white color is what you want in the game? Or is your issue that you are getting too much glare from the backbox light making it harder to see the game?

Or a better joke fitting to the Simpsons might be... it looked like Aurora Borealis in a pinball machine. [insert Simpsons GIF here]

giphy (resized).png

Have you seen theses in sunlight version? They are not ultra bright like the regular non-retro ones but they may mix well with your Pinstadium.
https://www.cometpinball.com/products/retro-smd-bulbs

HUO versions of this game seem to have asking prices of $6-$7.5k. Its a big range.

What's it worth? Well depending on your local market and how nice the game is that's up to you. How patient are you? I think if someone listed a TSPP at above $7k no matter how nice they'd maybe take awhile to find a buyer at that price. [Edit - recent pinside archives shows I may be wrong on that]. Other variables include how many toys are on it (that you'd have to remove) and how hacked up it is. People love toys on this game and some people hack up the harness and do other bad things to add them. Or maybe you find value in the toys and don't mind the added price.

My personal opinion is the only modifications which add value in this game are Cliffys, LEDs with an LED OCD Board (otherwise the LEDs don't work correctly and the fading effects are missing) and a color DMD or pin2dmd. Everything else is just stuff on the game I wouldn't pay a premium for.

The market is hot and prices are crazy but if you pay attention you'll see some stuff starting to sit awhile. Many people (not buying) comment like "great price" and "this will go fast" but they aren't the ones opening their wallets and many games are sitting at the inflated prices.

Maybe 4 years ago when I was TSPP shopping I looked at a number of examples of TSPP. I saw a couple of toys wired up with those "wire taps" to controlled lights. I just remember seeing the tap the first time and learning fast to ask a seller in advance if I saw toys in the photo how they installed them. Maybe some remembered wrong but I'd get responses like soldering, splicing etc.

So to be fair based on that experience I was making a (probably overly broad) comment about mods in general versus mods that are "mass produced" for Pinside sales which may be more reversable.

Does Pinsound make the original sounds better/clearer or just adds new stuff? Or both?

You'll never know number of plays because they are reset when the software was updated and can easily be reset regardless.

You can move a color dmd with a software change - and you'll need to make sure you secure power from the appropriate place as well which will be different than the Wiliams pin since the hardware is different.

If you want to LED the game - make sure you look at the LED OCD board. This game has a lot of fading effects that you lose when you upgrade to LEDs and the game looks odd without it. That should be your FIRST mod. I recommend you buy it before you spend money on toys that don't actually improve the game or make it look better. I used regular 2smd cool white comets in my TSPP and then the LED OCD board to prevent ghosting and preserve the fading and original effects built into the game.

Last tip - there is a great tutorial on youtube I linked below which teaches you to play this game. Spend as much time watching that video and learning the rules as you can. It seems many people are too obsessed with modifying this game that they don't even bother to learn the rules and PLAY IT! I've met several that have fully loaded games but don't know the rules and it surprised me.

Yes inserts. They don't make GI ocd boards for Stern games like they do Williams. Sterns just need it for the controlled inserts.

If I recall correctly the ball save (sometimes referred to as freeze time in settings) is not enabled on this game by Factory Default. Regardless take a look through your settings and you can find the setting and confirm/adjust.

Your light board is working incorrectly as it should only light completed modes (and blink on the one that you have actively selected). If they are solid lit to start a game you have an issue. If it worked prior to messing with the game you should disconnect it and reseat.

By the way - you don't have to complete a mode for it to light solid - you just have to start a mode and then end it either by completing it or draining the ball. Then it will light solid for you and count towards Alien Invasion.

Did the game come like this? Or did it only start doing it after you unplugged stuff or did other things to the game?

That board definitely has had some work done to it and you can see the resistors do not match. My first solution (absent someone on here that knows better) would be to look at the schematic and replace with the appropriate value resistors (which likely match the values of the untouched one - but I would confirm first).

I'm guessing when you remove one of those top two resistors you will discover one as open.

I can't tell for sure but are there burn marks under those top two resistors or is that part of the board itself?

Agree with this and all of the above comments.

I usually rebuild all my flippers when I get a game. That aside even though it is possible that all 5 of your flippers could use a rebuild chances are your problem is mechanical in nature and independent of a rebuild need... the upper playfield flippers have a few more things they go through to reach the top and a few more parts that can bind or otherwise hold the flipper back. Manually flip the right flipper and compare with the left. See if you can "feel" something holding it back. Also sometimes the upper playfield's position can impact the flippers and cause them to drag a bit if not set right.

Once you get the timing down you should hit the couch shot consistently. On my good games I can do it 3/4 or 4/5 times.

EDIT: I remember after I rebuilt these flippers when I bought my game I started to have problems with one of the flippers. I noticed that the spacer (see below image which I circled in red) was not set the same way on my "bad" flipper as I had it set on the good one. I forget exactly what the issue was but somehow it wasn't right. That might be worth checking on your game.

flipper (resized).jpg

It is all a matter of person preference (try it and switch if you have to) but I would not mix the cool white in the spotlights as it would not match the sunlight and would be too "different" for me. Just my opinion. Having a mix of "white" light versus "yellow" light would bug me and seem odd.

Not sure on the OCD question as I do not have pinsound.

I think the question was where to put it (since the pinsound was in the way). Or how best to fit both in the backbox so they don't get in the way of each other.

You mentioned an issue with the batteries never being changed. Have you inspected where the batteries install to make sure no leaks occurred? Regardless makes sure you get the batteries out (put NVRAM in) before they leak on the boards and cost you hundreds of dollars. It is a $25 upgrade you can do in 5 minutes or less that will make it so you never need batteries again. Honestly that's a higher priority than cleaning the play field.

For cleaning I use Novus 1 and microfiber rags. Various types of wax you can use after that.

The DMD could be on its way out but I'd start by reseating the cables that go to it (unplug and plug back in). Do so with the power off.

I'm reasonably local to you - if you need any advice with the game or need to swap/troubleshoot parts I can help.

Cliffy is usually behind so it may take a bit for those parts to come in. You'll want to do a tear down after you get them because stripping most of the playfield twice is more work than its worth (versus just waiting a couple weeks to do so). I'd try to get as much dirt off the game as you can in the meantime without taking too many parts off.

Recommend considering Titan rings (versus regular rubber) if you are doing a full shop job.

Yes - for this game it is plug and play - that one appears to be compatible.

The bulbs are all mostly 555 wedge bulbs with some 44/47 bayonet base bulbs. The flashers are 906 I think.

Anyone can just reset the plays in the settings... and the plays also reset when the batteries get replaced (until NVRAM is installed).

136 plays is low for a HUO game that is ~15 years old. Safe to assume they've been reset a number of times by battery replacement alone. Hopefully.

Word of caution: decals aren’t the easiest thing to do WELL. I’ve seen a number of poorly done decal jobs that are coming off or otherwise applied poorly. Don’t trade faded original for a poor decal job. Some people are very good at decals but most just THINK they are good at them. To do it correctly requires a lot of work and I don’t think you’ll get the bang for your buck/time.

Just my opinion of course.

As stated by another pinsider you can get a lock via a mystery award but I didn't realize that you could actually commence the couch multiball without the final ball hitting the spot on the couch. Maybe someone else can confirm whether the "final lock" can be awarded or whether you always have to earn it.

That makes sense.

Are you potentially losing balls from the couch because the couch metal part is broken? Mine did that until I found a way to repair it.