Spooky should offer an ISO image that people can use an ISO Writer program to write to USB and avoid this whole issue altogether.

Just wondering why you’re testing springs half way through the production run - shouldn’t all of these problems surfaced during development and testing?

Mine should ship this week. Guess I need to shovel the driveway.

I’m 141.

Kaiju are near

141 reporting for duty!

It was serving multiple balls on first setup but a quick go over on connectors seemed to solve it.

And a first for Spooky, it came with a coin box! The only problem, no lock hasp on the wall to hold it in place meant the coin box fell into the playfield and knocked on some stuff. They need to add that piece to keep the coin box in place!

That said, it looks like they learned from previous games and they added a lot more slack to the wiring inside. Hopefully that cuts down on the wire breaks.

I have no idea what the rules are so it was a bit confusing to play but it shoots well, except that god damn right orbit shot that’s like 2mm bigger than a pinball. All in all I like it.

Hmm, got stuck in infinite multiball. No matter how many balls I let drain it would always serve them back up. Had to reboot.

So far, I've had the following bugs:

- Pressing start button wouldn't work. Button works in test. Reboot fixed it.
- Forever Multiball. Reboot fixed it.
- Sound cut out for a minute. Came back on its own.

The left out lane post kept coming undone. Put a drop of locktite on it and it’s been fine since. Not a huge amount of threads on that post.

Honestly though, this is the best out of the box experience I’ve had - the quality is top notch.

Interesting bug. I was in a battle and lost my last ball, game ended but it kept playing that video of Ultraman being picked up while I entered my initials. You can see the battle meters at the top.

89AEC3EF-9643-4A72-86B9-4D97A3D91D14 (resized).jpeg

I am a Mac guy as well and if you use a new USB and copy the files it works. Just don’t format it with a Mac.

Have to say, the full screen video changes are so much better! Especially around multiball! Now I understand what I’m supposed to be doing so much more. There’s a lot of screen tearing issues on the video playback though. Also why are the titles so low resolution?

Now that you’ve helped address some issues, I’m going to make more demands:

I beg of you to use different typefaces. That font is quite possibly the worst thing in the game, plus throw in the white outline plus red body and it’s unreadable most of the time. You did so well with R&M, what happened? The Spacium screen countdown is particularly bad.

It would be nice if the middle playfield did something other than that one kaiju mode. Maybe allow it to progress the spinner shots during the time the upper playfield is active. Seems weird that there’s this pretty active middle playfield that does nothing. Every shot in the game should do something or be interactive.

The inlane sound effects on the last release were fine but you added some sort of mechanical whine noise. It is now more annoying.

The right side drop never seems to grab the ball anymore, like it’s not firing fast enough. Last version worked fine.

I’m still not sure what I’m supposed to do when the kaiju health meter gets to zero. There’s nothing telling me what to do next. In “normal” health meters the boss dies when it’s zero.

That said, I’m really enjoying the game I swear! This update was a big improvement, thanks!

Yeah, just copy it to the USB as-is. Also be aware the game will boot to attract mode and you’ll think the update failed, but after 30 seconds the update screen will appear.

Wish that was on the screen somewhere!

Glad to hear the plan about info text, I’d be happy with that. If you used the logo font that would be even better!

What I mean by the resolution on the videos is when it prints the names of the monsters on the full screen clips, the text is clearly jagged, as though it was resized along with the videos. It would be nice if they were system generated at native res to avoid that.

If the worst I can say is the typeface is bad that’s a pretty good game. I can see from this update it’s getting better and better.

What’s the difference?

I’ve noticed the beta scoop can be a bit sticky. What’s hanging up balls there?

You get health on the 2nd playfield? There’s zero indication of this on the playfield or screen, at least that I’ve noticed. Adding some feedback would be great!

So a bit more time on the game with some other people playing it and commenting. They mentioned a lot of the stuff already mentioned here like the readability of the text and the general layout of the main screen, but also had some other comments:

- The lights for the face - the eyes, nose and mouth. They seem to light up randomly. They don't really convey any info.
- The rules and modes were very linear and the stacking opportunities limited - once a mode is running you can't qualify a multiball anymore for example.
- A ball save on a quick drain from the second playfield seemed warranted.
- Why there were multiple selections for cashing in spacium for points when you could just select 1M multiple times.
- The skill shot when put on the drops doesn't seem to match which drop is lit.
- The right shot with the drop seems to only randomly hold the ball so the rules for it seem obtuse. Maybe this is a mechanical issue on my machine?

Anyway they came away impressed and looking forward to updates.

Oh yeah, they also really wanted the inlane elevators staged.

I did that center shot thing and it wasn’t obvious what would happen. Maybe some text saying shoot the ramp for Jirahs?

I think giving information is probably the biggest issue I’m having with the game right now. Needs more voice work like “shoot the flow ramps” for more modes.

Just for the record #144 played fine out of the box as opposed to my standard edition R&M (maybe one of the last games built) which required a week of tweaking. So I guess ask for yours to be built on Wednesday?

Can anyone explain the right drop target logic? That one is still a bit confusing. And also the Pigmon lights. No idea.

I bought the game BECAUSE of the weird layout and funky inlanes. Everything is so cookie-cutter now and I love weird shit.

I have no issues with them during multiball. Part of the challenge.

I’ve made the skillshot to the drop target at least a dozen times now and it never holds the ball. Is this a hardware or software issue?

I’ve experienced the same behavior- hit the lit drop target, get skill shot failed. Pretty consistent.

The problem is, on mine I nail that shot, the drop shoots up for a second then releases. 9 out of 10 times. I don’t know of it’s a software bug or what but it’s not a consistent enough shot to bother with.

While on the subject, I wish the skill shot started at the drops and could be rotated to the stand ups. It’s slightly annoying to have to rotate it each time.

1 out of 10 times it holds.

Get a brand new USB key. Copy the file to that USB. Eject the USB and put it in the Ultraman. Don’t open anything on the Mac.

IMG_7266 (resized).JPG

Here's a fun new screen. Same new Windows-formatted USB I used for the 1.06 update. The code_UM.pkg is the only thing on the drive.

I noticed that the install instructions you have on the site are for 1.06 which seems to be quite different in that it talks about a zip file, etc.

I'm on a Mac by the way.

For Mac users, you can use the ISO image and Unetbootin:

https://unetbootin.github.io/

Use the defaults for "USB Boot" and when it's done writing, plug the USB in and turn on the game. A bunch of scary Linux screens will come up - just ignore them until you get a blue screen that offers reboot. Turn the machine off, unplug the USB, and turn it on. It'll be updated now.

Spooky, consider throwing the text in a tmux session and putting a loading screen up so you don't terrify the non-Linux people.

The code is a bit confusing - things like the timer on the modes that just end, and damage to Ultraman, plus playfield lights with no text that serve multiple purposes… I dunno, I hope it gets worked out.

Hey Spooky, the ISO update link on your site is for 1.0.7.

Can you get your shit together please and update things in a timely manner? This isn't complicated. Now I'm stuck sitting here when I have time on a weekend and I can't update my game because you half ass this stuff that really should take like two minutes to fix.

The link to the docs is 1.0.7: http://www.spookypinball.com/UM/UM_restore_instructions_1_0_7.txt

Those of us on Mac can't use the pkg version, we need the ISO version.

I feel exactly the same way. It’s not bad, I just don’t feel like playing it for the same reasons - I thought the upper playfields would be cool but all they do is take up space and offer limited playability. The bad display graphics don’t help either, nor does the sleepy music during some of the modes. The game just doesn’t gel for me.

Both my R&M and Alien continue to deliver while I’m basically waiting until the run is done and maybe the software improves before moving the Ultraman out. This is the last time I buy sight unseen and unplayed.

I hosted a tournament last week and Ultraman was the only game that had problems.

First the upper playfield flipper link broke, which was a huge pain to replace. Then the lower playfield one broke too!

After that, the plastic above the drops broke off, so airballs were going crazy. Finally had to pull the game from the competition when the left lifter got jammed.

I’ve never experienced so many problems with a brand new game.

I figured out why my left elevator wasn’t working - one of the rockets off the ship model had popped off and was jammed in the mech.

At least the ship matches now as both rockets have fallen off.

If he was so bad why did he last so long? Hasn’t he been developing for them since Rob Zombie?

I’d really like to know the story behind his exit, especially since that exit screwed my game so hard.

Lots of text staying on the screen bugs. Volume control screws up music playback. I also noticed problems with bonus display.

This was all from my first game after the upgrade.

There’s Free Play in the Pricing section.

Any word on all the text display bugs?

What’s an Ultraman CE worth these days? The ads are all over the map.

Even if there’s a new code release, the fundamental design of the playfield and the graphics will be the same, and both are flawed.

When you choose a red typeface with no underlayment or make score displays so small as to be unreadable, and don’t understand why that’s bad, says a lot. Everything in this game was someone’s conscious choice. The whole thing is clunky and unprofessional. Plus now it’s an orphan board system!

They’ve got the look down, but they’re still doing amateur hour on the layouts and quality. I think part of my opinion is formed because I feel stupid for buying the hype from R&M (which manages to rise above the same cheap feeling through design and software) and thinking Spooky had finally made it.

I might get another Spooky in the future but it’ll be used and fully sorted. But even then probably not.

The three levels looked more fun than they turned out to be, and also FOMO.

Unfortunately I’ve had zero responses to my for sale ad at 7K. Looks like I’ll need to drop below 6K to sell it. It’s the most I’ve lost on a pinball purchase ever and I’ve owned over 250 games in the last 25 years.

I’d just keep it and hope the market turns in a year but I only have so much space, and there’s no way I’m letting it sit in my garage in a box while I wait for that to happen.

It’s not a BAD game or anything. I just wanted a Foo Fighters more and I didn’t have to wait a year to get it.

If only they could get jeweled inserts. After replacing UM with Foo I realized that’s why I think Spooky games feel so homebrew.