Is there currently a 2 ball multiball (with its own rules) if we release the trapped ball during gameplay?

Right now, HWN/UM ruleset looks a lot like LOTR: 3 main multiball modes independenty qualified and started (but not stackable), along with 6 additional modes that CAN be stacked in, matching LOTR's movie multiballs and Ring modes. Putting a 2ball multiball with separate rules (maybe more multipliers?) at Meyers in addition to the physical ballsave would be equivalent to Gollum MB and would give the games a solid base ruleset.

Just MHO. I left Pincinnati with a better impression of HWN/UM than I entered, but it still needs work.

I know you want to defend this game, but I think your timer is broken. I played HWN at Pincinnati and the delay between an upper playfield drain and getting the ball back on the flipper is a fair bit more than a trip around even the longest ramp.

I don't understand why Spooky started started programming the software for these games without staging. Games have had ball-staging since at least ST:TNG, that was 28 years ago. No Fear has it, Who Dunnit has it, even the Spooky game immediately preceding these two had it.

There's lots of subway entrances on these and it sucks standing around waiting for the ball to get back to the flippers. Please don't defend bad design. Spooky says staging is coming, how about sooner rather than later?

Another cause of airballs is non-waxed playfields. The ball should slide more than roll when flipped... if it gets a good forward roll, it'll want to "climb" posts and targets when it hits them due to the rotation. Make sure the playfield is waxed and slick.

No Fear and Who Dunnit handle it that way: if the VUK is empty, the first ball to enter it is kept there and another ball plunged into play. Staged ball remains in the VUK from there on out unless needed for multiball, or removed manually.

We didn't "think" anything, we were TOLD in no uncertain terms that Bowen was going to be working on Halloween and UM.

No, he's right. We were told certain people would be working on these games, and that turned out not to be true.

Bowen said they have not implemented anything he suggested.

I bought into HWN 100% because of Bowen and Eric's alleged involvement. After R&M, I was absolutely wanting more of their creativity. Over the last 5-6 years, I've found there are certain rule and game designers I really enjoy (Lyman, Keefer, Elwin), and that games from others just don't engage me the same way. I added Bowen and Eric to the 'want' list after R&M.

Consulting, employed... terminology doesn't matter when they're actually KICKED TO THE CURB

He was not:

This is 100% about statements they made, please see the screenshot posted.

I don't consider someone to be "consulted" on a game if you toss their advice and don't use it.

Whatever dude. We waited because we were told Bug and Fawzma were aiming to make these games every bit as good as R&M. However, people aren't seeing that kind of progress, hence the griping and continuous sales of both games and spots for losses.

My game (HWN) is about ready to go, but I don't think I've ever been less excited to get a new pinball machine. From what I've seen and played, neither title is very compelling or creative. They're not *bad*, but not exciting either. Basically, exactly what I feared when I read Bowen was out. Can't really do much except hope it gets better, or bail and sell.

I don't want a refund. I don't want to pick on Spooky either. HWN and UM aren't bad games, they're just not (yet) the kickass games I was expecting with Eric/Bowen involvement.

It's as if I ordered a Godzilla from Stern, but inside the box was a Turtles instead. Yeah, it's nice, but not what I was expecting and not what I wanted. That's about the best way I can describe my disappointment. I still hold out hope that there is something really cool coming down the line, but the longer we wait, and the more issues that crop up, the fainter that hope becomes.

Use the Halloween chart, and sub Bemular for Sanitarium and Jirah for House.

Every game I've ever bought new has needed tweaking. Some Sterns have been far worse than turbo's UM. Turbo just wants to whine about his financial loss (which was 100% self inflicted - wait til the game is done before dumping it next time). Here's a tip: the owner's thread is not the place for former owners to whine about their own mistakes.

It's a known bug in HWN so likely the same issue here. Once you get the stalker/dada mode going it should resolve itself.

I think that battle mirrors HWN house MB: knock the drop target down on the top PF and shoot the crossover ramp to defeat Micheal Jirah.

Think they light up as you play pumpkin beta capsule modes. maybe they pulse (or not) to indicate success/failure

might be the right side lockbar latch.

Mmmm I don't recall this at all. People were certainly still crapping on Whitestar as opposed to WPC (flippers and sound were inferior) and also Stern's newsprint-quality cabinet art, but even back then folks recognized TSPP and LOTR as great games. They were happy Stern was finally making something worth buying (Monopoly was a good start but ehhh).

Exactly. And all that complaining got us SAM, which fixed the sound and helped the flippers. Cab art still sucked for years after but complaints eventually got that fixed as well. Not sure what "feign shame" means but the complaints were basically "this is good but can be better" not "I'm embarrassed for owning this." Maybe CA had a weirder vibe but we in midwest pinball central were very happy to get our hands on LOTR/TSPP.

HS2 Getaway had the underrun bug causing the ballsave to roll back to 255sec. Wonder if this has a 16-bit underrun, 18 hours of ballsave!

Not sure if the rules are different in Ultraman, but there are three scoop modes that use the drops in Halloween. One starts with them up and you have to knock them down to start progression to other shots, the other two involve hitting certain drops and not others. Plus they are used to qualify modes and optionally for the skillshot. Not exactly useless.

One thing to be aware of, short plunging will cancel the skillshot. Ball has to go around for skillshot to stay active (this includes the JM lock).

It's not for advanced players either because the code is still very unremarkable. Plays like an average 90s game, and I was expecting better than that after Rick and Morty.

I posted a 127M game in the HWN thread. Finished every pumpkin mode and was 2 SJP from the new wiz mode. My Sanitarium playfield plays very difficult and I got tired of trying to restart that MB over and over.

You can combine exactly two things in this game: a scoop mode and a main mode. That doesn't cut it (hah) these days.

TBH I haven't touched HWN since my GZ Pro showed up. The difference in code between the two games is astronomical.

TOTAN still has shit code but its a pretty game to look at.

Whoah, wait, which multiballs are stackable? In Halloween, there is no way to combine main modes, let alone their respective multiballs, and the Jack-o-Lantern multiball also runs completely independently. Are UM's main modes stackable?

I don't consider freeing the rightmost captive ball to be "multiball" as there's no rules involved, it's just an extra ball on the playfield, and anyway the last time I did that it locked me out of starting pumpkin modes til the extra ball drained.

The games need more features.

Look at GZ... it has 4+3 kaiju battles, 4 multiballs and maser cannon mystery, somewhat comparable to HWN/UM 8 scoop modes, 3 multiballs and blood store. BUT: GZ also has the jet fighter attack mode, the magnagrab + imposters, saucer attacks, secret+city combos, monster rampage mode, powerline attack+tesla strike mode, loop awards, tailwhips, destruction jackpots, the 3 allies and their benefits, godzilla powerups, rage combo feature, hedorah mode, the heat ray feature, super spinner...

I'm not saying Spooky needs to even come close to matching all of this, but they need to add at least a couple more features to UM/HWN to add some variety to gameplay.

Yeah I wasn't expecting them to switch from p-roc to yet another homemade board and basically have to rewrite the entire OS and menu system.. again. My three spooky games are each on completely different boardsets and software platforms (pinheck, p-roc and pinotaur), which kinda sucks for troubleshooting and longevity. We're what, 8 months in to HWN/UM deliveries and still lack basic menu functionality due to the reset.

Agree on messy sound, my glass rattles when Loomis soundalike speaks, they still haven't run the callouts through a high-pass filter like folks have asked. No option to adjust callout/music levels. Spooky ships with some of the best audio hardware in the business, but the software so far is a let-down.

Things like the powdercoat rubbing off and lamps getting hit from underneath were problems on Rob Zombie, why are they once again problems on HWN? Does Spooky not take notes and make corrections?

Too many steps back and not enough forward so far. I don't want to sell HWN as there are definitely aspects of it I do like. Hoping Spooky can eventually get everything resolved. I really want them to succeed, and will probably hold onto the game til they say it's finished.

Edit, was a switch on RZ, but same problem...

Please do something to expand and build out the droptarget 2-ball feature. Having something here to bring into main and scoop modes would go a long way towards giving this game some variety. Imagine if R&M only had adventures, gromflomite and the mystery, but no meeseeks/mania or dimensions... that's where I feel HWN is today. Need at least one other feature available at all times IMHO.

Apologies for talking HWN in UM thread, but they're similar enough to both benefit from more features.

just don't let the arrow move to unavailable modes?

I remember posting something like this right after getting my game. Then I learned it works great til the backstop bends back, then nothing goes in the hole. You have to keep bending the deflector back down every couple dozen games

There's an ad for a NIB UMCE for $6700 just below your post... methinks you'll be keeping it for now.

Couple months will be the one year anniversary of HWN/UM release... it'd be nice to have stable code by then.

So when is Halloween day? And don't say Oct 31, that's too far out for a code update...

The audio input cable to the amp has likely pulled out a bit and you're hearing a nasty ground loop. Make sure the input cable is pushed in all the way.

The 1993 DE model, not Elwin's.

According to your profile, you live in Xenia, which is much nicer than most of the city of Dayton. Apples/oranges. Yes, the suburbs of Ohio are pretty nice.

His glitch sounds similar to the one I had on 1.09 where I had the Judith ball on the playfield (2 balls in play) but the mode start was enabled and killed the flippers when one ball went into the scoop.

One thing I remember about my glitch was that the game released Judith early, right after loading the 2nd ball into the shooterlane. I figured the eject vibration just knocked the droptarget down and started the 2-ball early, but now I'm wondering if the eject knocked the remaining balls up the trough just enough to trigger the 7th switch, causing the game to 'drain' one ball immediately and releasing Judith (and reverting to single ball play) before it could even launch the 2nd ball?

Yes these amps are inexpensive and are prone to developing cracked solder joints on the terminals and jacks.

Regarding the hiss, I was able to eliminate all background noise on my HWN by running a new 3.5mm male/male cable from the display to the amp, but outside of the wiring harness. I think the existing cable is picking up noise from inside the harness.

They fixed the mac issues with updating.. why can't you do it yourself?

This is one thing about Spooky, AFAIK they've never ever released any service bulletins for any of their games.