I moved the ball accelerator mod to its own thread if you're interested https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/halloween-ultraman-ball-accelerator-mod#post-7855835

I wanted to check with Ultraman owners to see if there was any interest in our super clear acrylic screen protector. It replaces the stock PETG one that comes in Spooky games. Originally we offered it with our IPS LCD upgrades but we've started selling it individually when customers asked. It's very optically clear, abrasion resistant, anti-reflective and removes almost any aberration (sort of polarizing/rainbow effect). It's 3mm thick and really makes the screen look really nice. The reason I'm asking is because we're sold out and to make an order viable takes a large quantity because the material isn't extremely common with any of our suppliers and it's recently increased in cost. We did a lot of searching for the best material and this extruded acrylic with it's special coatings is really top. If there is interest between all the modern Spooky game owners (anything with a metal backbox door) then we can place a larger order and keep these available.

You can see pictures on our site here:
https://pinballmods.co/acrylic-screen-protector-spooky-pinball

We will do is keep it at $46 for anyone who buys it with an IPS screen upgrade as the bundle, otherwise they are listed at $55. It will take 2-3 weeks to get them cut and shipped to us.

The difference between the stock screen and the IPS screen is astounding. We make it a direct replacement, plug and play. The IPS screen has amazing blacks, super crazy resolution and very low levels of white backlight bleed. We've sold a ton of these to R&M owners and the feedback is astounding.

https://pinballmods.co/upgraded-ips-lcd-spooky-pinball

You don't need to buy now, don't need any money or commitment, just need to know if there is interest so we can judge our order qty. You can PM me if you want to keep it out of the thread or email [email protected].

I'm hoping to pick up an UM CE this Sunday. If all goes well, I'd like to do this upgraded IPS monitor and clear protector.

If anyone is interested in the plastic deflector upgrade, just send me a pm. It still has the protective film intact. I traded my UM this past weekend.

Thanks

You guys see the teaser for the Netflix Ultraman movie?

I climbed the Ultraman ladder this morning and all the stars aligned. I played the Zetton seven ball multi-ball and ended up with a score of 95 million. I was slightly confused at the beginning when the mode locks the balls. The screen told you how many were locked however, some call outs would help. The game is shaping up nicely. Keep up the good work.

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Nice work. I believe the callouts were recorded years ago, at this point. I agree, it would be nice if they were more specific, but I don't know if they even have those in the bank to bring out. I doubt they will get new lines recorded for specific modes.

Nice. I have not got there (Zetton) yet, haven't updated to the newest code.

... but I uncorked a score flirting with 120 Mil a few days back. Saw just about everything else and left a LOT of points on the table on my EB.

Game is just getting more and more fun as it nears completion. Still gets a ton of plays at my house.

I'm finally in the club. Picked up a UM CE with only 250 plays yesterday. This thing sire is Pretty, I love the art package. I got the comic book when it came out with black glass cover.

Question on the new code. With the in lane subway lifter when did the original sound for that get changed and can it be changed back to that original sound? I'm sure some people got annoyed by it but I thought it was great.

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My new UM that arrived a few weeks back had some minor cosmetic issues, and a servo issue that developed in the first two weeks. AJ quickly took care of me and I couldn't be happier with the level of service provided. This was my first NIB (and 3 weeks later Scooby arrived). I've never delt with any other pin company, but from what I've read, others need to take note of Spooky's "just make it right" for the customer practice. I hope they continue to do so as they grow.

Looks like a few signature plates on the speaker/display panel. Was there info on how to request that?

Every game comes with the autographed Bin Furuya plate.

Every game or every CE?

Every game. Email Morgan (Squirrel) and she will send it to you, if you didn't get it.

Congrats and hope you enjoy your UM as much as I enjoy mine. Great game.

Have you updated to the latest code? 1.13 as of Nov 2023.

The Subway Lifter light and sound cue haven't changed that I have noticed but sound levels for everything have been played around with a lot.

You can try changing some of the default sound volume levels in the Settings.

You can also turn Flipper Training on/off for the ball lifters (flippers will double-flip by themselves the first time a player has a ball is about to come out of a ball lifter)

And you can turn "shake on ball lifter" on/off which has the shaker motor do a little rumble when a ball is about to come out of a ball lifter

RM

If any of you are interested and use Facebook hop over and follow my page "Spooky Luke". I am going to start sharing a bunch of the behind the scenes photos of the game design and engineering of Halloween, Ultraman, Scooby Doo and I have even been known to drop the occasional future title hint. I'll try to share something cool atleast once or twice a week that nobody has had the chance to see before!

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One of the funniest thing for me in modern pinball is stacking modes and mb. Which is not always easy in UM, because mb are timed or need risky shots.

So here's my humble 2 cents to make stack more reachable:

- start Baltan by locking 3 times in whatever lock (at least for for the 1st mb), maybe as an "easy" setting for Baltan. The "hard" setting would be to complete the 3 locks in a specific order.

- no timer to complete Bemular (at least for for the 1st mb), this way you can keep it almost ready for when a mode starts.

I love the game, and have no clue how difficult it would be to code these options and no pretention to know better, but as Spooky have been listening to us, I give it a shot

With Spooky teasing the announcement of their next title, any word on an update?

I'm working on it right now. Trying to cram in as many new kaiju into this wizard mode as possible.

YEEEEEESSSSSSS

RM

While checking the Spooky for announcement today, I spot this picture:
Is it me or is it an UM with the HWN code?

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Love to hear it Thanks for the quick reply.

That's absolutely HWN code on an UM. In the past they have explicitly said something like "NO! Only *employee name*'s copy of the game has the ability to run swapped code without bricking". So the question is, are they covering their (legal) asses, or is there actually some safeguard in place to prevent code swapping? I'd believe either; someone brave needs to just try it and report back.

Clearly they were trolling. But yes, they've stated something along the lines before that their agreement included not having one firmware for both or allowing their HWN content to work on a non-HWN pin. Makes sense, otherwise you're downloading and using their IP on a machine that didn't pay them for it.

Keep adding Kaiju. I’d be happy to wait longer for more Kaiju.

We expected that to be posted quite a bit more quickly. There are three games in the world with that ability: 1) Ultraman (code beast) at Spooky Pinball 2) Halloween (code beast) at my house 3) Ultraman (code beast #2) with Matt Kemp. To answer the question posted below. Yes, there is a safeguard in place that prevents the code from being swapped, thus preventing us from getting sued by either of the licensors.

...okay, okay. I'll believe it.

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That has to be a pic, notice how blurry it is. Also, looks like blue tape in the upper right corner.

As a HWN owner, how are UM owners feeling? I absolutely love HWN now, even if its tough!

The game is a lot of fun, at least to me it is. My mom, bother, and sister-in-law came over and we played a 4 player game. I’ve never finished the game, but know enough and can show enough to overload new players quickly. I have them a very small amount of goals and was also instructing in the fly. Everyone enjoyed playing the game.

Everyone was less enthused about draining after doing a few shots of Ragon and then having to start all over on the next ball. Mode progress has been my biggest wishlist option since getting the game. I don’t even remember if you need to start or complete modes to unlock the higher level stuff, but I think being able to go in and finish off a failed mode would be a nice option for the player.

Hopefully neither licensor sees this post!

I’m willing to bet the licensors know and have approved that capability on a limited amount of development games.

Had a couple of good games today. This game sure is a blast to play.

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Nice. My high is still in the 50 mill range.

Sigh - where does RGB 2 (middle led strip) plug in?

Hope this helps.

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So - I saw that but I think RGB 0 goes there. That's why I'm lost.

Yeah the diagram is wrong compared to the board. The board is labeled RBG 0, and RGB 1. Spooky needs to update that then. I’d plug it in there and see what happens. Worst case give support a call.

Can’t wait to see what’s next.

Just doing the rounds on Pinside. Figured I'd share that Matt is working though this update while on holiday in the U.S. It's weird having him in such a close timezone. I'm used to working with him from like 5pm to 2am. Still hoping to have something soon(ish); which should include a large update for Ultraman and small(ish) update for Halloween.

There was one open connection I tried first that I thought was correct place but nothing happened so I assumed it was wrong spot. After tracing wires all over I finally just replaced the light that seemed to be the right place. Lo and behold even though the light was working - I guess the "out" connection had gone bad because all is well and my LED strip is back working - and yes I bought the LED protector strip from Amazon and installed it.

Not that it matters but I play Ultraman a lot more than my Godzilla. Every time the ball makes the upper playfield ramp and crosses over to the bridge ( I have the mod) I pump my fist or if another player does it give a hi-five. Alien Ripley Edition or a used Ultraman - best value in pinball right now?

I'm halfway through the servo replacements - Anyone else who replaced the Baltan servos with the three-pack from Amazon have issues with the screws holding the servos down and not being tight? - both with the old screws as well as the new ones. Seems the original servos were more secure in place. I was thinking of some type of threadlock. Don't want to reassemble the whole thing and have to redo it.

Hmmm. Assuming you got the Treedix 3 pcs MG90S 9g Servo Motor Micro Metal Gear pack from Amazon, I definitely had to use the new screws that came with them (the original screws were too small) but there is a whole pack of screws in there of different sizes. Try using one of the others?

RM

Try putting the servos in at the top and then the screws in from the bottom.

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Great suggestions, thanks. Yep, treedix M905S, I may have the bag of screws somewhere...

Working on taking Ultraman apart to take it down to the basement in pieces due stair setup. Of course out of all the cables in the backbox....one connection doesn't have a quick connect, the LEDs. Grumble grumble...on the plus side, this beats any older game that has a billion cables to connect to the boards, ha. The worst was Doctor Who

.

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Yeah. I had the same situation. It wasn't that bad.

Remove the strips from the head and tuck then down into the cabinet.

Did exactly that, thanks!
Will take the backbox off tomorrow, just glad that I got the playfield out. Pretty happy overall with the labeling of the wires! One thing about the artwork that I've been wondering about, anyone ever ask why the ultraman logo is cut off at the plunger? Doesn't seem like it would have ran into the white behind the coin door, but if so, remove the white on the right side since it barely peeks out anyways. Just curious

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Made it downstairs and around my dumb stair design with no issues after taking everything apart. Because my stair design doesn't allow for a dolly, I screwed in handles on the bottom of the cabinet so I could get a good grip on it, and then used a dog leash through the backbox access hole to make an adjustable height handle for the second person. Worked like a charm!

And even better news, everything went back together with no issues and the game plays great still!

Also played with the LCD settings, looks way better after turning gamma on, bringing the contrast up and brightness down.

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So I ended up buying 2mm hex bolts with nuts ($6.99 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3VMMFPB). Took a bit more work (reading glasses doubled up) but the servos are far more secure.

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