Quoted from kcirrick:History of my Jurassic Park Premium
Placed $1,000 deposit for the machine with a popular seller
Four months later it’s ready to ship
Seller emails incorrect invoice – over charging me
Contacted Seller – no response
Paid what was owed – not what the invoice said
Advised Seller and asked for corrected invoice
Received response and corrected invoice was promised, but never sent
Took delivery, installed, meticulously leveled and waxed the machine and start to play
Immediately get an amazing amount of ball conga lines heading straight down the middle
Nedry out lane is very greedy
Super noisy T-Rex – am told by Stern that this is normal
Installed the Stern topper – modified with quality dinosaur toys
Stuck some toys on the play field
Made multiple minor adjustments to stop balls from getting stuck here and here and here and he...
Replaced warm white GI with green – definite aesthetic improvement
Replaced round headed screw that interfered with balls entering left half pipe with flat headed screw
Replaced white flasher dome on left side of play field with blue dome and minimized flasher brightness
Minimized back glass brightness during game play
Installed Tim’s code – Fantastic improvement – should have been this way from the factory
Repaired the T-Rex after screw fell out of his jaw and he stopped working
After rebuilding T-Rex the "normal" super loud noise was no longer so super – Thanks Stern
An amazing amount of balls still parading straight down the middle
Nedry is as greedy as ever
Random screws/nuts occasionally roll down the play field - reinstall and tighten them
One LED strip on the Stern topper stops working – something shorted the EXPOSED soldering?
Asked Stern for help – no response – fixed topper with some red neck engineering
Installed cool alternate translite with characters from the movie
Created new free play apron card matching the new translite sticking yours truly in the pic
An amazing amount of ball conga lines still heading straight down the middle
Nedry, Nedry, Nedry…
Covered rivets that interfere with balls entering T-Rex ramp with home made laminated T-Rex sign
Malformed Raptor leans right and barely moves – temporarily wedged a rubber grommet next to leg to straighten and improve movement
A successful shot to control room means 90% chance the ball will immediately drain
Fabricated a swinging paddle to redirect balls preventing 99% of drains from control room
Balls persistently head for the Nedry out lane or down the middle and drain like they were on rails
Fabricated parts and added them to out lanes to reduce drains – not much help
Adjusted level, (leaned left), to reduce Nedry drains – pretty successful
Now left out lane drains more – at least it can save the ball sometimes
An amazing amount of ball conga lines still heading straight down the middle
Last straw - Opened coin door to find cash box covered with metal shavings fallen from play field
Desire to douse machine with gasoline and strike a match is overwhelming
Is it just my machine? Does Stern even HAVE a quality control department?
John Hammond, “When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked.”
This machine would have fit right in on Isla Nublar
It seems Stern mistook frustrating for challenging when designing the game
Challenging good – frustrating bad
Stern should be ashamed of their half-assed assembly line
It would be a fun game if one could play it without balls draining so fast as if it were a feature
It would be fun if I wasn’t having to constantly repair and adjust a factory fresh machine
Once in a blue moon the planets do align allowing a good score
Over 1 billion, over 1.5 billion and over 2 billion but good games are rare
Players make liberal use of the activated left flipper start button combo to end games early
Four months after taking delivery I sold this Jurassic Turd
Others might not share my experience, opinion or feelings, but this particular machine was jinxed before I even took delivery. It’s a beautiful game and I know a lot of people really like it. I was excited to get it and I tried to like it, but I found the machine so frustrating that it was going to give me my second heart attack. In the future, I’m going to stick with machines at least 20 years old. My F-14 Tomcat has been running great and I haven't had to touch it since getting it all fixed up thanks to Pinside help. I should take delivery on a shopped HUO Revenge From Mars prototype next week to fill the space left open by the departure of JP.
Thanks to those folks that helped out when problems arose with the JP. I'd like to say it's been fun, but...
Thanks for sharing,now Im not so sure I want this game? I have a premium coming in December. What the hell is going on with Stern? I thought my Dialed In was a nightmare dialing it in.
I'm half way through reading the other JP club thread,and I'm really questioning my choice in buying this game. I'm gonna finish the club thread before I decide if I'm going to pull my order or not. Right now,it's not looking like I'll buy this machine.
I know the game is hard and somewhat frustrating,but I didn't expect the same frustration in trying to get it working 100%.
Plus Stern leaving you hanging,is what really concerns me the most.