mario_1_up did you find anywhere else to buy this? Looking for one for my gb as well.

Stern won't replace these for you guys?

Pinballlife has a couple:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=catalog&mode=search&search_in=all&search_str=node+board

Marco also:

http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch;jsessionid=B1968A3180DC4DA945B1A8949D757031.jvm1?SEARCH_STRING=node+board

Why not call your distributor? Part of the reason for their existence is to provide after-sale support and eliminate the the time and frustration of sourcing parts for yourself, isn't it?

(Serious questions, not trying to be a smart ass or flippant, but it seems straightforward to me. I haven't been in the hobby all that long so perhaps I am naive, but I always assumed I'd just contact whatever distro sold me the game when replacement parts or tech assistance beyond my aptitude is needed.)

Bought my Ghostbusters (Pro) used, thus no distributor relationship. Mfg date july 2016. Called stern support, said they would replace the PCBs only up to 6 months post mfg date. I ended up getting one special ordered from a distributor after calling Marco (currently out of stock on Node 8 - 9 boards).

So, I realize this is a necromanced thread, but a friend of mine whom is not on Pinside tells me he had a node board failure on his ghostbusters. He says that Sterns position to him is that ghostbusters is an “old game” and they do not have replacement boards on hand for it any longer.

Anyone know where he can by a replacement node board? Hopefully not for $500. Thanks in advance.

"on hand"...
If that means never again that would be an incredible piece of information and terrible news. I'm skeptical.

Possibly they don't have any right now?
Which node board is it? Marco has node 0 (the main board) in stock, not for $500. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/520-6936-01

I also see the node 1 original has been replaced with a new part number (still out of stock)
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/520-6967-72

Yep, if not on hand means never again then...damn...

I’ll send the Marco link to him. $600...holy smokes...

The Blacknight said this would happen... ............Joey

Whoa!! These prices are insane... Are these games going to get first or third party support to keep them going years down the road...? Wow...If anyone has facts on this, i need them. My first NIB Stern may be a thing real soon, until i saw this.

A8C8DD91-8C40-452F-9A43-AE6F7974976C (resized).png

Give Rob (Borygard) a PM. I'm pretty sure he's the one that's been able to fix a number of these, and it'll cost a lot less.

$1,300!!!!!

Yea, he’s done work for me in the past. Good guy. I’ll mention it to my contact.

As an aside, I’ve had a few really nice people reach out to me about my first post. One of them made the observation that some distributors still stock ghostbusters NIB so Stern must maintain some boards for warranty work for future NIB sales on remaining inventory. Another poster noted the GOT run and how boards must exist for late era DMD to sustain that run. All of these are good points...but why are the prices so high and inventory is somewhat non-existent?

Anywho, if I get an update I’ll pass it along. Thanks.

To be fair, the $1300 one is discontinued, replaced by the $900 one on the right side of the posted screenshot (509-1003-01)
https://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=509-1003-01
That board is also compatible with Jurassic Park (Pro) (according to the product compatibility tab) so not likely to be unavailable any time soon.
That doesn't explain the out-of-stock issue.

Why isn’t this thread on fire? Seems outrageous that SAM boards can still be found, but these Spike boards are rare and so crazy expensive. I’m about to buy my 3rd Spike game, and frankly this has me reconsidering.

SAM boards were just manufactured and restocked again by Stern recently.

I think people Who own Stern games, dont want to talk about this. Makes the second hand market plummet.
Nobody wants to be stuck with lemons.

Just look at price and availability. Insane.

It should be. Simply insane that Stern is not supporting this

Has anyone had a Spike game go down that couldn't be repaired? I've not heard of it happening. The Stern Tax expense is one thing, but I don't think there will be unfixable machines. A way has always been found, especially when this many machines are on the platform. I mean, it's not like it's a one off Alien run.

I wrote a letter (actual snail mail) to George Gomez a few months ago expressing concern about the node board availability issue and asking for some reassurance before purchasing another Spike game. No response. I know he’s a busy guy, but his ghosting me (pun intended) definitely does not give a warm and fuzzy about the longevity of this platform.

We need to - as a community - start raising this question in Q/A sessions at the big seminars with Stern.

Stern is making some of the greatest machines in the history of pinball right now...their games are works of art with the deepest code ever imagined...but this issue genuinely scares me.

No one will answer that question at a show seminar. They don't want to say anything - positive or negative - that the company can be held accountable to later. It's pretty standard procedure.

What do you suggest? Prayer? I’m sure a sales slowdown would get their attention, but with games this good I don’t see that happening until it’s too late. BTW, your fan kit has been fantastic in my Ghostbusters!

You never know... I got Ritchie to answer some questions about X-Men code during a seminar in Houston he gave some years back that got the torches and pitchforks out here on Pinside and resulted in Stern finishing that game.

Stern may not answer the question at the seminar, but if questions on the boards keep coming up at seminars they will see it is an issue that needs to be addressed in some way.

Code is WAY different than hardware. There are liability issues that Stern just wants to keep unspoken.

I don't have the answer, I just know that the question will not be answered at a seminar. Maybe off the record with a close friend at Stern (if you have'em), but never publicly.

I keep hoping Stern will pick up the phone and tell their supplier, meanwell, to use the same fan I'm selling and put me out of business, but I don't think it's happening. It is a HUGE improvement quieting the stock Spike fan with the plug n play kit I sell - I don't think people realize until they do the upgrade. Thanks for the compliment.

It'll be getting wider availability soon. Pinball Life will be carrying both it and the Anubis 3D mod. Hoping to get it on Marco and BAA as well.

I don’t understand why node boards other than the main MPU are not $100-200, and available from 5-10 different vendors. I thought standardization was going to be a key feature of this new system. It’s disappointing. The boards aren’t even fused (to my knowledge), so failures are going to be inevitable 5-10 years down the road.

I really wish the dust would settle on this topic. I have been concerned about this since Spike started. Now I am interested in JP and possibly BKsor, but I'm nervous about this.

Because it's old news basically.
Node boards suck and some are expensive and people are going to get dicked over by them is basically what was accepted day 1.

Buying up node boards might be a viable retirement strategy.

And if you have the right equipment, they can still be repaired in some cases much cheaper than buying a new one. And if you don't have the equipment, Rob (Borygard) can fix some. That's an important point.

I limit myself to 1 Spike game at a time for this exact reason. For me right now I have BKSOR, before I allow myself another spike I have to sell this one. So consequently I will seldom buy a spike game. oh well.

Fair point. They aren't as easy to deal with as older boards but perhaps we'll just be forced to learn more SMT tricks and repair.
I ASSume PCBs will only be getting smaller in the future.

Problem is, I'm pretty adventurous and have yet to learn SMT repair. It just seems like such a hassle from the outside. And if I'M not doing it, there are a LOT of people that won't have the skills to fix their boards that are less adventurous than me.

In summary: It's a pain, but that's where the world is headed in electronics.

The question is, why is there such an enormous markup on these boards? Does it make sense for Stern to treat these as a profit center in exchange for customer confidence and goodwill?

What about Stern makes you think they are in it for anything but large profit? Their toppers have turned to $100/cost crap they sell for $400. Their side armor is $25/cost crap they sell for $300. EVERYTHING in the parts/accessories area is overpriced at Stern. And I'm sure that the R&D costs baked into the price of the boards is way more than a topper, but not enough to justify the crazy prices.

This isn’t just “the elephant in the room”, it’s the T-Rex in the room. If a thunderstorm comes through and zaps all the nodes boards in my Spike games, how much $ am I out? $10k?

I’m equally concerned as well. They are pinball machines, not throw away TV’s.

I called a few suppliers today and they told me Spike is the most reliable thing going. BUT, there are no ways around $900 cpus, 2-300 node boards. I would even buy a JP LE if a distro offered and original owner lifetime replacement electronics warranty for a few hundred bucks. I wouldnt mod the game and this would ease my concerns. Expect to see node boards availible for a long time though due to the mass numbers of JP for instance.

Yes but the issue is they are not always backward compatible. SO what's good for JP2 isn;t for GOT

I’m ready to call and order my JP2 Pro but am very concerned with the node board issue.

Really wanting this game but don’t want to find myself in an electronics mess a few months down the road with no other fix than to shell out another several hundred dollars in boards which could fry themselves a few months down the road.

Stern will support you in the near term, it’s the longer term that’s more of a concern.

They want you to buy new machines, not continue to play old ones.

I thought by stern releasing node board schematics awhile back this became less of a concern?

If they’d open-source the schematics or license 3rd-party suppliers to build them, yes. At least for the games they are no longer making.

Thats it, if we had that. If JP2 runs several of the same one, grab a spare, grab a TREX rebuild kit and call it good.
I really like the new jurassic park

I'm going off something I read on here about a bootloader required to get the node boards to function. Now, if this is something easily loaded after the fact or native to the chips from the factory or something completely proprietary by Stern, I'm not sure. But there could be much more than simply soldering components to a board. Hopefully it's something easily loaded.

Let’s work on it folks!!! Keep this one going. Important for us if we want these in our homes long term

The node boards have some kind of flash memory - you see it updating specific node boards with some of the code updates.

Yes there is that too. What I'm referring to would almost be like BIOS in a computer. Something like a low level instruction code specifically written to get the communication channels open, talk to other node boards and accept updates.

Was out of town for months, I come home and have a Ghostbusters Node failure I just found yesterday.

It’s on the replacement play field they took forever to send me as well and has less than 100 plays on it.

They won’t warranty it. This is about as lame as it gets.

Let us know what you finally end up doing, and how much it costs. I dread the day this happens to me.