And that’s the concern. Another year of updates sounds brilliant but if it’s 3 months or more between each one and it’s Halloween then ultraman alternating that’s not that many for ultraman and we still have so many basic things missing…

This code feels like 0.50 not 1.08a in my view… so we need another 5 big updates to get a decent v1 release….

That's not correct, or it shouldn't be on 8.0a code.

During Jirahs Battle mode, the middle playfield left and right targets should be lit Blue, and hitting them should add life bars to Ultraman. There should be a sound and the life bar goes up a bit on the display.

The VUK hole behind the drop target in the center should be lit Purple, and hitting the VUK takes life away from Jirahs (but it's a low rate hit, like 2% - you have to hit it a few times for it to show up on the display as a red "-5%" or something like that). There's an audio cue for this too.

RM

Yeah I agree fully. There is no reason why regular small code drops shold not happen for both UM and HWN, like every 60 days.

Sooner for bug squashing (.a , .b, .c etc)

RM

So true it hurts

I guess i need to pay more attention, but those progress bars are tiny and it feels like 'chopping wood' on that middle playfield when you are in the jirah's mode.. pretty sure there no animation changes for anything on there though during that round. I just think there could be a lot better use of that playfield during that mode

Yeah i am expecting regular updates like every month really for this game now there's a dedicated person on it. And more so for tiny updates like the settings menu additions etc. I guess we will see. These games are not cheap to buy!!!

Keep in mind, they said for another year, 6 months ago....

The +3 and -5 or -10 are very hard to notice.

jeeez...

Then said it again recently when 1.09 dropped for HWN. Both UM/HWN will receive code updates throughout 2023

They have implied previously that the "chopping wood" feeling is kinda on purpose. Really supposed to progress the mode via the spinners up top. Peeps (like me) were complaining that the mode kept ticking down while the ball was meandering thru the second playfield/subways, and that the second playfield was doing absolutely nothing beyond killing the timer...so taking away the timer and giving at least some purpose to the second playfield during the mode was added.

I will sit there and plug away at that vuk now and then purely out of spite for the other players in my house. But that's only because it is fun trolling the fam every now and then.

Well currently i just let it drain when it goes to the middle and shoot the right ramp again. Feels like a waste of a playfield. there's loads of other features you could add. For example qualifying add a ball if you get the mb going or qualifying a double scoring timer for the mb to once running.. Current code just feels lazy and basic..

I hope the update counter started on 1st jan 2023!!!

Fawzma is gone. The new coder has just begun. This first update from him is really good considering that he spent the majority of his time on rebuilding the entire framework. Then he managed to change the UI and added a bunch of animations, movie clips AND replaced all of the old clips with higher def versions. I havnt been more excited for this game than I am right now. I think this programmer has something to prove and I think we’re in good hands.

Fair point. We have gone from “this does nothing” to “ok, this does something, but isn’t very fun”

hopefully just a pit stop on the way to something better.

Don't sell it completely short.

It does give you a chance to boost up your Life / Time Bar and it also allows you to stack a mode on top of Jirahs if you planned ahead. Drop to the Middle PF, Boost your time to max, select Mode 2 and rack up major points during your Jirahs Multiball.

IF you can add the Dirty Pool / 2x PF Magnifier to the process, even better.

Is Fawzma gone-gone? Is that confirmed? Because frankly that'd be the most positive news possible for my outlook on this game. I love the theme, I enjoy the layout, and I think the framework for rules/modes is all great... I constantly defend the game to anyone that tries to deride it. And then I go play it and I'm faced with game-breaking bugs, total crashes, and unpolished code all around.

I can't imagine the patience you early buyers must have to ride this out. The crashes + "show stopper" bugs didn't bother me as much when I first got the game, but now that I'm trying to actually work my way through wizard modes and stuff it can just be very frustrating when you're on a tear and suddenly get a black screen.

Sure would be nice to know how long that 2x PF multiplier lasts considering the impact. Am I missing that information somewhere, is it for the length of the ball or is there a timer? This is the kind of polish I'm talking about, it's tough to come up with scoring strategies for a game with no rule sheet available and very minimal information conveyed on the screen.

AJ @ Spooky confirmed that there's a bug with the ball search (see the email below). So I guess for now just ignore the fact this game (18 months after release) does not have a functioning ball search and try to identify the problematic opto.

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Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I just got my ce in the low $6s and I do like playing it when it plays. I couldn’t imagine spending 9-10k at the beginning and still have this Many issues. It’s why I didn’t buy scooby even though Rick and morty is my favorite. I bought r & m way after but the code on that rocks. Too much of a gamble for me

The code could make this a great game, but my faith has withered. The implementation of spacium is confusing to new players and time consuming to the experienced. The basic rules still lack clarity and polish. That's not even mentioning the lack of callouts, instructions, and bugs. No manual, almost no adjustment menu, 3d printed parts, and hot glue... Even if it's an entire year, I don't see this thing ever being completed to industry standard.

I hope I'm wrong. I'm locked in for the ride because of the financial hit, so we'll see...

Yeah i'm on the 'code coaster' for the full ride, bought my ticket a 18 months ago at full uk retail, though i only got on the ride end of october 22!!

The spacium interface is terrible and slow. If you choose an item but you still have >0 points, but less than the min for another award it doesn't auto exit and you still have to move and select exit. I've also had it lock up a few times where you can't select anything. Does that on the monster select to sometimes aswell. Annoying when you are in a good game and end up having to reboot...

The secret is to have mostly bad games. Haven't had a software crash yet. (Stuck balls/lost balls yes)

I have not had a reset or a freeze since 1.08a was uploaded to my game. Dying for some fresh code, but not really running into these issues here.

I've now busted two Beta Capsules. Just sent AJ an email, hopefully they can send me another replacement. Wondering if I shouldn't try and add more soldier or possibly epoxy to the base to try and make that joint more sturdy.

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It is an awful design. I reengineered the item on my Halloween to eliminate the problem. At one time Spooky had something in the works but they never implemented the repair. At this point it is unlikely they will. If you get creative, you can eliminate the socket which combined with flasher bulb is the weak point. Here is what I did on H78. You can easily do something similar.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/halloween-owners-threadhes-coming-home/page/64#post-6761131

I did something similar:

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I still get multiple balls in play at the wrong time during gameplay. I checked everything, but wonder if it's opto related in the subway?

Really annoying and all the switches in the ball trough are working 100%.

Anyone else get multiballs at the wrong time during gameplay?

Check post #3488

Basically, most of my optos didn't line up with the holes cut in the subway which caused a whole bunch of issues. I moved optos to align with the holes in the subway and everything went away and works perfect.

Really, cause Spooky has stated multiple times the holes dont need to line up with the optos. Seems like they would work better with no plastic in the way, ut I havent really had issues (Knock on wood).

They told me the same thing but I drilled a new hole and lined my optos up and haven’t had a ball stuck idle in the right subway ever since. It matters.

My game would not work without them lined up through the holes in the plastic. If the plastic didn't matter, why drill holes in the first place?

Haven't had a single issue after I lined them up properly. I love spooky but I am amazed they stated that it wouldn't affect the optos.

How did nobody else bring this up!

When the subways start getting dirty those opto’s transmitting through clear plastic will start to give problems I guess and it’s easier to clean an opto than get into the subway and clean, so yes better to have them transmitting through holes.

Thanks Rarehero for the pic of your playfield and Lpeters for insight that it’s not broken but a new design! I finally have time to get back under the glass and get this fixed.

I attempted to move the plastic trim border closer to the playfield and re-drill it. However, this will not work either as the screw underneath the plastic that drills into the underside of the sculpted wall prevents me from moving it up higher on the playfield. Currently the head of that screw is placed directly against the wood of the middle playfield. If I move the plastic trim any further upwards, the head of the screw would sit on the playfield thereby making that trim piece set up higher than the middle play field, essentially creating a speed bump so the ball would not roll off the playfield. If I re-drill into the gray plastic protector to move the screw then the sculpture of the wall would no longer be parallel and that clearly is not how any other Ultraman play fields look. I’m honestly not very thrilled about this new design on this piece and having to re-drill into the middle play field.

I think the best solution would be to not use the screw at all and maybe just a dab of superglue to secure the fence sculpture to the plastic trim piece on that side. This doesn’t take any hits from the ball so I suspect it would remain in place and allow me to slide the trim piece closer to the playfield. I would still have to re-drill into the playfield but the old holes would be concealed by the trim piece. I’m open to suggestions so thanks for any input.

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Then why on earth is Spookys position that the hole alignment doesnt matter, yet they drill holes odd IMO.

Absolutely makes zero sense. Of course the holes should line up with the optos. That's why they are there. Plastic gets dirty over time, everyone knows that.

I've not had any issues on mine regarding this yet though (luckily)

Itching for new code.... wish the new programmer would jump in here to explain the plan for this game etc

Come on code update...

I need a reason to turn my game on... Would love to see a roadmap for what is coming down the line. I've been hesitant to sell my game as I want to believe something great is coming, but it gets harder to feel that way the longer time goes without any real improvements made.

Anyone going to see Shin Ultraman on it's limited theatrical run this week? Regal's doing a 2 day event; subtitles on wednesday, dub on thursday. I've heard the film's really good, little different production quality than the original series

In other news, playing a ton of UM the last week, learned that if I don't double-flip to skip through cutscenes or try to rush the store, I don't seem to have any crashes at all. Really enjoying trying to get to the wizard mode, keep choking when I'm one shot away from qualifying it

I had a ball get stuck in that same spot and just twisted up a bit of wire into a spring to keep it from happening:

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Beyond frustrated right now. Just had the best game since I’ve owned the machine (finally made it into Zetton, very cool) and a ball gets lost in the subway. Ball search refuses to trigger the right lifter, I walked away and gave it >5 minutes because (last time) Support said it should try the right lifter “eventually” (it does not). I ended the game by taking the glass off and dropping a spare ball in the trough. Entered my initials, get back to the main menu and the game immediately spits out the ball in the right subway which points to it not being a problematic opto or lifter.

Really enjoy this game when it works, but good lord does it need the code reworked. Think I’m done playing the game until an update comes out.

Bummer, I have had a couple of decent games and enjoy it but the code is depressing. Hoping we see something good soon

I have maybe 80 total plays on mine as I made it through the code pretty quick and learned that the game is a box of frustration. The layout actually works, but the code completely kills the experience. It's playable without the game ending bugs, but even without them, it's missing sooooo much. It's the slowest, worst code from any somewhat major manufacturer in recent history. Pricing is getting down to half of nib.

Is the Halloween code that much more advanced than Ultraman?

That's the hardest part to me. I actually enjoy the layout. I think it's fun to shoot, but none of the shots (outside of crossing the upper playfield bridge for multiball) have any real meaning or impact in the game. Code could change all of that for the better. There are only 500 of these games and it could be something very special for owners and it's just withering away currently. What's coming down the line? What is the roadmap? It'd be great if the new coder or SpookyLuke or SpookyBug could provide us some outlook at what is coming. It's getting harder and harder to hang on here.

There is alot of us out there in this same boat. I walked around my machine last night and looked at the artwork on the cabinet, looked at the detail in the playfield art and just kinda shook my head. What a beautiful, but boring game. I hope there is some urgency to turn this thing around. We were supposed to get an update before Halloween correct? With the length of time between updates, if this new one isn't "huge" it will just be a let down. It has to be substantial to turn the tide here.

I guess for me, there's enough code to explore and have fun with. The spacium store needs a TON of work, but the light show, music, and rules are all very fun imo. When I turn on the game, I'm expecting a slower and thoughtful experience, as opposed to when I play DP or GZ, that are more fast paced and easier to shoot "blindy" to make things happen. UM is a deliberate game, that I absolutely agree, needs more code polish, bug squashing and rules buffing, but what's there is pretty good. I will admit that on the surface (ie layout) it didn't pull me in immediately, but the non-tangible stuff is where it really shines (light show, music, callouts, etc.) It took me a few games to get there but I appreciate it more now. Differently than other games.

It's more coherent and better integrated than Ultraman by far yes. I don't think more advanced per say, but more intentional. It just feels like the framework and how it ties into the movie was better understood from the onset than Ultraman was. I had a deposit on Halloween as well so was following the early feedback on that game. Some of the initial major complaints from users, like the floating animations, are still present in the game and haven't been addressed.

I had the opportunity to play it in the arcade a few weeks ago and it felt like a more mature and intentional experience than my UM by far. I know in this thread we've often spoken to how active the HW thread is over the UM thread being due to the larger owner base, but it's more than that. It's definitely more than that. We simply don't have anything to talk about here and haven't for a long long time.

Spooky did give us some hope, but only in the HW thread this morning. LPeters posted in the HW thread that they are working hard on HW and UM every day and we can expect a LOT of new things with impending updates. Like more wizard modes and better theme integration as well as LOTS of new callouts and clips for UM at least. However, he did NOT give any kind of estimate on release which I admit is very frustrating. I love this game but want to love it more with better code.

He said "This year". Its currently Jan 11..

I've haven't owned my game as long as others but I have put about 650 plays on it. I have played through the modes several times and recently made it to Zetton. I enjoy the game play and layout al lot and enjoy the modes with Dada being particularly awesome mode. What I do see is a lack of polish in many places. Small things like the Balton scoops still being lit after locking the ball makes it confusing to players as to which still need to be hit. I know there is a subtle pulse to the ones that still need locked but for people unfamiliar with the game this isn't clear. Also the inlane balls locked lights are always lit so they are kinda useless at the moment. In general some of the colors used for certain shots in modes don't always make sense, why not always use pink/purple for active mode shots instead of mixing this with green depending on the mode. I also dislike how the shots to quality a multiball mode are basically useless once you complete the multiball. After I played Zetton the other day there wasn't much else to do the rest of the game (I still had 3 balls left to play). I had already played Gamora so the up playfield was useless and the middle playfield is only used for Bemular so it was now useless as well. I also didn't complete Zetton but since you can't replay the multiball modes there's no way to go back and replay Zetton. It's things like this I find frustrating. It would be nice to be able to replay multiballs after completion, but maybe with a higher difficulty to qualify but also awarding higher scoring jackpots. I would also like more options in the menu like flipper strength as I find my right flipper shorts harder then the left and I'd like to dial it down some or the ability to adjust the shaker without taking the glass off. More high score categories would be cool too. Possibly for each multiball and wizard modes. It the little things that make a good game great. The frame and walls are there but it still needs some trim and paint to be a truly great game.

Yeah someone from spooky needs to post in here as currently it feels like Halloween is getting all the attention. I’m sure that’s not the case but it feels like it and 500 people here paid just as much!!!

Really shouldn’t have to be waiting this long for updates… put me off other games to be honest unless Eric is involved…