I hear ya'. I'm not too thrilled with JP art blades in today's market. I've seen Stern's optional blades in person. They look good, but I dislike the same mirrored image on both sides.

Exclusive art blades are a feature of the LE's. I'm told to take extra care of LE art blades as there would not be a replacement.

n00b here,

Never owned a pin before and decided on a JP Premium NIB over a STh Premium. It get's delivered on Monday.

Lurked through the thread and read about some of the major issues, but what should a rookie be on the look out for? I'm a beginner player, so my eye isn't keen enough to know if it's user error or manufacturer error. How soon would I see defects on the PF due to ghosting, pooling, dimples? Are there major mech issues too?

I’ll be a new owner also and researched the same thing. Here were the major points before playing that I found:
- do an inspection of the playfield including making sure nothing is loose.
- put a coat of “blitz” wax on
- clean and inspect the balls.
- enjoy!

I thought the game was dark; had to add the Omegas, too. So much of a difference.

hello everyone, I have a problem with my t-rex on my premium, the head goes up and down without stopping. impossible to operate. if I restart a game, it's the same it goes up and down without stopping before even launching the first ball. do you have any advice for me? Thx.

Same. Agreed.

Until you add the stadium lighting, you dont realize just how dark the game is. It needs it.

You should be fine. Unless something is majorly wrong, just set it up and enjoy. I pre ordered my pro model, and there is some minor pooling on a few posts, but no other problems. Of course, there will be some adjusting and tweaking to be done. That's normal

Did you go with omega or fusion? If only they had blur on the fusion.

Really comes down to the lighting in the room. If it’s well placed and the right brightness, there’s no need, especially so if you have anti reflective glass.

But in a dark room, extra lighting be it Pinstadiums, Omegas, DIY, spot lights or whatever really help lift those shadows. So much easier on your eyes as well.

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I have pin stadiums on a few of my games but in my opinion this game does not need them, If you’re having a hard time seeing on this machine I’d hate to see you play any game in low light. Obviously this is totally an opinion thing but I love Pinstadiums on many of my games, but I would never waste my money putting it on this one.

Just got mine today and mid way through setup. Unfortunately someone forgot to put a build date on the cabinet. I’ll email stern to see if they can look it up by serial.

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The playfield should also have a date and the underside of the cabinet as well. Those are assembly dates for those parts, but will give you a rough idea of when your game was built.

My cabinet date was 3/11 and game date was 3/19

Was your game shipped directly from the Distributor or drop-shipped from Stern? It seems that some games are still trickling out of the factory (another Pinsider has a JP Premium with a 4/15/20 build date which was a few weeks after they shut down). Maybe you have one of these rarities?

Ok thanks I'll look again. I looked briefly when inspecting for loose connections but didn't see a date.

It was picked up by a distributer straight from Stern around 4/30. I lucked out and found/bought it the next day.

Playfield looks gorgeous with no pooling or issues that I can see. I'll be able to do a more thorough inspection when I give it a wax tomorrow

Update from Stern is my final inspection was 4/20/2020. They sent me a screenshot of the card. This also supports the partial covered date on the pf of ?? 04 2020. The ?? being halfway covered by the ball kicker.

If it was inspected on 420 that may explain the missing sticker

Haha great catch! It all makes sense now

I was just in a Raptor MB and the TRex ramp Dino insert was flashing multicolored. Lost that MB on a two-fer drain and the insert was still lit and flashing multicolored after the skill shot for the next ball I took a few shots at it and drained.... anybody know what that was??

Nice!!!

Were you currently in a paddock mode and a control room mode? If the left ramp was lit for multiple reasons, it will flash multi-colored to indicate this

Half the time I shoot the right ramp, the ball bounces on the guide rail and doesn't give me a clean shot to the upper flipper.
Anyone else adjust this?

Yes theres a bunch of threads/ posts in here suggesting what to do. You basically loosen the screw holding the frame and keep doing roll tests until you dial it in, it's not difficult

I noticed it just after I caught the Spinosaur - so I was on that paddock.

Rainbow left ramp arrow means King of the Island multiball is ready.

So close.....

1st time owner so sorry for the noob question.... For those that have these at home and free play what do you do with awards like Match? The match video is fun but having a credit award is silly with free play.

We do the only thing we can do.
We yell, "yea! I won a free game." at my house.
Then we press the start button and continue with our daily lives.

Haha ok so I’m doing the right thing! I wasn’t sure if there was a better setting.

You can always hook up a ticket dispenser and turn your house into a redemption arcade.

But if you lose your fondness for the match video, you can set Match Percentage to "Off" in the settings, and the machine will skip the match sequence and jump straight to Game Over.

OK...n00b back again,

Have had the machine for 1 complete day (405 balls played), and noticed the ball would fail to make the shooter horseshoe sometimes. Not a ton of times, maybe 10 or so balls....but enough make me look it up. I didn't want to bother my distributor/Stern just yet (waiting for something major).

I saw the post on this thread and the fix looked pretty simple. I used this video to help me as well.

Tested it manually and with the automatic plunger (although I couldn't figure out how to put it in test mode), and it hasn't failed yet.

Everything else seems to be fine. Now to make sure my raptor is moving the way it's supposed to, hmm...... It's not getting stuck anywhere but I haven't noticed it "dipping." I saw the there was a test setting for the gate, but I couldn't find a test for the raptor itself.

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The raptor only moves when a ball hits the strike plate target in the back of the cage. It is not controlled by a solenoid or game play software. Just a simple bash toy.

For the new guys... if you’re having a tough time with side drains it’s worth the effort to move the side drain posts to the lower position. The right one is a pain! For some reason they used a screw post and it’s really tight to get to since you have to unscrew from the top. I had to disassemble enough of the helicopter area so that I could get a small deep socket in there. Maybe someone will chime in with a trick there?

I was struggling to break 100M (embarrassing) and first game after I hit 201M which makes the game much more enjoyable!

gblack Could you please post a picture of what you're referring to?

You don't need to screw them out. You can tap them out from under the playfield with the the right sized piece of metal. I used a mini screwdriver.

Do not knock posts up. The threaded posts can cause damage to the wood on the way up. Screw them out and out.

Lowered my out posts on a BKsor and a STh two of sterns newer machines and both machines out posts had to be screwed out slowly. I would not knock the out. I think they are threaded in.

I tapped it in too. Yes, damaged the wood in that there are no longer threads in those holes. No damage to clearcoat. Have done it once on JP and twice on HOH. I was very happy with the tapping, but I can see how many, (or most!) would not want to do it.

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I have contemplated tightening up the outline. NEDRY has become my evil nemesis. Ruins most every game. Thanks for the permission to go easy on myself and starve Nedry. Now, for that O shot......what’s the secret?

A really nice dinner first, then some light music and dancing, gets it done every time.

I didn’t see that one coming......nice.

Looking for some help on that metal ramp guide in the shooter lane. Ball keeps getting stuck coming down behind the metal guide.. at first I thought maybe this had popped out but looking at other people's posts it looks like this guide should be popped out.. unfortunately mine appears to extend out way too much and I'm not sure how to fix without bending or taping it down.. anyone else have this issue?

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this piece should rest on the stronger metal guide. try to bend i back. i guess you have to remove some parts to do so.

Covers came in....here is the direction I went. Thanks for the tip. Cheers.

BTW, also one for WOZ.

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I have been worried about protecting my game in hopes to keep it a long time and decided to add the slingshot and rail guide protectors from PL. They were easy to install and I did notice that the plastics already had a couple dings so I think it was a good $10 investment. I chose clear but they also had a neon green that would have illuminated nicely if I played in the dark.

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My t rex ramp always registers fine but have a problem with the too many balls rejecting off air ball stopper or the sign with the two lights at the top of the ramp. It will come up off the ramp slightly, smack one of those and then roll back down the ramp.

I'm getting this occasionally also - maybe only 5% of T-rex ramp hits and only on really fast shots. The problem is when it does, it's SDTM. Anyone solved this?

I wanted to share some pics of Mods I added.
The Amber Egg from Ebay, was too large for a shooter Rod.
The Control flasher bothered me, so I removed the top plastic, and the flasher dome, as well as lowered the height. I added a cut off a regular flasher dome to diffuse the direct LED, but I may diffuse even further. The Amber Egg lights Nicely.
In the upper right, I added a Bronto, and vegetation to cover the light socket and direct light.
Now the light, illuminates behind the tree with a nice glow, and still lights the tower, but is hidden better.

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