I've been meaning to start this thread for a while now. You beat me to it. I'll have to put some pics up of my baby. It's still got the original art in really nice shape. Playfield is close to perfect. No bubbles in the topper. PDI glass, chromed coindoor, siderails, etc. mirror blades. I'm still working on the lighting but currently I've got colored non-ghosting LEDs in the inserts and I'm using a mix of normal and colored incadescents for the GI.

The color DMD is next on my list for MODs.

So far I've got:
-Bigfoot spolight MOD from Pinball Life (my favorite)
-Missing Mountain from Red West (close second)
-Rear mountain LED illumination (from eBay)
-Yellow rafts (from eBay)
-Bear MOD (from Michaels, with my own homemade bracket)

Does anybody have the waterfall MOD from Pinball Decals? That looks cool but is really pricey and the youtube video doesn't really help much

Yeah, I think the rafts were around $35 with free shipping from the UK and I ordered along with the rear mountain LED lights. The Bear is about $5.00 from Michaels.

The rafts are really cool and they match the rafts on the playfield inserts.

"Multimillions." The switch in the right inlane opens up multi-millions and if you hit the spine chiller ramp you get the award.

So, Nordman made Blackwater, then White Water. What's next? I hope its not Yellow Water or Brown Water. Blue Water would be nice.

What

What about the sign for Insantiy Falls/Whirlpool?

Hell yeah! I was watching the signs on eBay thinking, those are cool but wouldn't match without all the signs being done. Those are dope!

Here's my White Water. I'm still working on getting things just right.

01_White_Water.jpg

More
02_White_Water.jpg03_White_Water.jpg

And more

04_White_Water.jpg05_White_Water.jpg

Only when he turns his head. You can get these at Pinball Life. They're awesome!

Where are the pics? I'd love to see it.

My friend linked me to this the other day. I only knew some of this before.

White Water, Williams 1993

Cow 1: During Attract mode, with no credits, press the following sequence:
3L, 1S, 15R, 1S, 23L, 1S. This also gives a DOHO on the saw blade.

Cow 2: During Bigfoot Hotfoot, the fifth item in Bigfoot´s Cave is a cow.

Cow 3: When the cow in Bigfoot´s Cave has been collected, getting the Mystery Canyon as a Whirlpool Award will show a picture of the Spirit pulling a string on the legless cow. A loud "moo" is heard.
This picture can also be seen very briefly in the Vacation Bonus award.

Cow 4: When you shoot "Disaster Drop" there's a display effect where you see a splash of water coming at you. At the end of the effect, when the water splashes, there it is: in the lower left corner of the display.
You have to look very carefully because you can only see it in a fraction of a second.

On the backglass, the man with the surprised look on his face is artist John Youssi.

The yeti is based on designer Dennis Nordman, he even has the photos where he modeled for it.

http://hem.bredband.net/b257182/Cows&Easter.htm#W

Also, if you have the L-5 commercial rom and you like to use the "auto-replay %" feature to configure your replays (this feature uses the scores from your last 50 games to determine the score you need for a replay), then here is how you get this feature to work in "free play" mode.

1) Put the game in COIN-OP mode.

2) Set your replay percent to whatever your preference (I like 5%).

3) Play 50 games in coin-op mode until the auto-replay % kicks in. This is a little bit of a pain but not too bad. You can either feed it quarters or open up the door and add credits (it's also fun to use the replay boost feature in coin-op mode).

4) Once the auto-replay % feature has kicked in in coin-op mode (you'll see the replay go from 90,000,000 to some other number, depending on your scores), THEN switch the game over to "Free Play"mode.

5) From there on out the auto-replay % feature will work, so your replay amount will change every 50 games, even though you're in freeplay.

**If you don't do this and try to put the game in "auto-replay %" mode then the replay will always remain at 90,000, or whatever static value you set it at, no matter how many games you play.

Here's another tidbit of info:

My Bigfoot fur had seperated at the hands. I did some internet research and it was pretty inconclusive as to what type of glue would work. Brian Kelly recommended contact cement, which is probably the best permanent solution but the permanentness of it, along with the fact that I'm not very versed in using contact cement, lead me to look for something else.

So, I was in Target and found this Loctite "Vinyl, Fabric and Plastic Flexible Adhesive". I put it on Tuesday, let it cure for 24 hours and so far its been holding up great. Dries clear too. I'll let people know how it holds up in the long run.

Loctite_(Vinyl_Fabric_Plastic_Flexible.png

You have to slide the protector forward. It's slotted so that you can do this. It can be pretty challenging to get it just right so that there are no hangups. You may have to use washers or other metheds to get it to work just right. You might try to adjust it without a teardown of the section but you're probably going to have to remove the ramps, etc. in that area to dial it in.

Making sure your game is properly LEVELED can really help too. My White Waters were both very sensitive to leveling issues. Not having it levled right causes all sorts of weird stuff (ball taking too long in the whirlpool, more hangups at the VUK, balls getting caught up in insanity falls ramp, etc.)

Yeah doro-mini that looks good. For the steal you got that game for you can get the nice $200 boulders and not feel bad at all. The original boulders are often shot.

By the way, WH2O crew, I got my initials up on two of the White Waters at PAPA. One was the hard one with the wonky kickout and the rubbers removed from the outlane posts. I was soooo close to Rivermaster.

Could be a leveling issue. What you should do (in my novice opinion) is remove the upper playfiled and all of the ramps. Get a 6" level and put it directly on the playfield, both at the front and the back. Get it leveled. With the upper playfield on there its hard to get the back end leveled as well because there's no place to put the level for a reading, that's why it's good to get the game leveled when the upper playfield is off.

While you're at it clean everything with Novus 1 (and Novus 2 in the rougher areas), replace all the rubber, and put Cliffy (and maybe mantis) protectors on it. Then wax it and reassemble. Put new pinballs in.

You pretty much need to do all the cleaning and whatnot anyway. In my experience the leveling can greatly affect the amount of time the ball stays in the Whirlpool. If you want to put in reproduction ramps (they cost around $600) or reproduction boulders, this is the time to do that too.

FYI, if you put LEDs in the GI then the dimming effects for the game won't work. For example, when you hit "ride the whirlpool" the GI and backbox lights all dim down and the whirlpool lights and flasher light up. There are other dimming effects that get ruined by putting LEDs in the GI or backbox as well.

Mine has a hidden magnet that drains the ball as soon as I get Bigfoot hotfoot to start.

I've had 2 WH2O's and I've never broken that bulb. I've probably played close to a 1000 games. I wonder if there's something set up or alligned wacky on the ones that easily break those bulbs. How are you even hitting that spot?

Have you leveled it correctly? Both front and back? I'm not saying that's necessarily it, but the leveling can affect the length of time in the Whirlpool big time!

What's the spotlight for?

Congrats!

By the way, to update on my earlier post, the Loctite "Vinyl, Fabric and Plastic Flexible Adhesive" is still holding Bigfoot's fir on great.

Here's ANOTHER thing I figured out that might help some people.

One of the earliest playfield wear spots you'll see on a WH2O (the first being the VUK dent) is the switch slot on the right inlane where the ball drops down from the upper to lower playfield ramp. There is a piece of mylar there from the factory but it's too high! The ball drops right between the mylar and the switch slot and will tear that area up, especially becuase of the exposed wood corners from the switch slot.

Mine had the slightest bit of wear starting to show there (some cracks in the clear) so I installed a Cliffy universal switch slot protector. That helps protect some of the area but the top of the switch slot is still exposed! So, I took a tip from Adams Family Arcade here on pinside and got some of this clear static cling vinyl.

http://www.amazon.com/Grafix-9-Inch-12-Inch-Cling-6-Pack/dp/B002J6CO9I

This stuff is great because, unlike mylar or the self laminating sheets, it's non-adhesive. I ran the lower edge under the Cliffy and it's holding there great. I may even eventually remove the Cliffy and vinyl over the whole switch area.

Delete

I think the first one is actually the 'after'.

My favorite is still the bigfoot spotlight. But yeah, fix your ramps and boulders first if they need replacing. New ramps make a huge difference!

I've owned 2 now and a hard plunge goes to left flipper on both. Every one I've played in the wild has gone to the left flipper too. Something seems off about it draining like that. Missing the skill shot should not equal death.

Although you should get another ball if it drains like that. Hehehe.

Yes. See the little hole in the Bigfoot's Cave boulder? That usually gets a ziptie to hold it down.

No LEDs in the GI or backbox. It kills the fading effects on the game, and there's a lot of fading effects going on with this particular game.

I've heard other people mention this and I suspect that this is a flipper problem that causes that bulb to get hit (especially if you're breaking it from a direct shot off of the flipper.) I've had two White Waters, I've put tons of games on them, and I've never broken that light. The ball's trajectory just doesn't get you to that spot. The most I could see is it breaking on a ricochet, but I've never personally had that occur. You might check to make sure you're flipper is alligned correctly. You might also check to make sure you've got the right coil in your flipper. It should have a red label (and I don't think that's listed in the manual.) I can get the specifics if you need it.

Putting a low profile LED there is an easy fix.

I think the manual infers that you put a blue (FL-11629) flipper coil in the upper playfield. That's the wrong coil. The correct coil is red. There are some other differences as to how that flipper is set up too.

Most of the wear spots are either from kickouts/ball drops or because of planking. For some reason they were really prone to planking. You also see a decent amount of wear on these from uneven insterts. In certain areas the diamond plate is not enough protection.

Finally got my auto-replay up over 300,000. It's now officially at 304,000 (3 ball play, no ball save, no extra-ball on replay). Yippie!

Just to update, I've had the clingy (non-adhesive) clear vinyl under the right inlane drop for months now and it's working like a charm. I still have the cliffy over the switch hole, but the clear vinyl covers the spot just above that and below the Mylar (which is exactly where the ball drops).

I've seen that area get pretty bad because the ball is constantly dropping right at the top of the switch hole. Due ball repeatedly dropping at/near that switch hole that whole area is more susceptible to damage. The clear can crack, then the paint will chip and eventually the wood around the top of the switch hole will splinter. Dirt from the ball gets ground into all the cracks. Putting the clingy vinyl there cushions the ball drop a little, and prevents dirt from getting ground in there. Luckily, I got mine on before any real damage started but I've seen lots of others that get a little trashed in that area.

Anybody ever seen this plastic piece on the underside of the their whirlpool popper where the ramp and eject mechanism connect? I'm thinking it's a non-original part but figured I'd check to see if anybody has seen one on theirs.

Unknown Plastic Piece.jpg

This could be a leveling issue. If the leveling of this game is off a little it can have a pretty drastic effect on the ramps.

It would take a bit to do all that counting, and also try to tell you where they are locatated. Your best bet would be if somebody's got an LED map from a kit they'd be willing to share.

Keep in mind LEDs in the GI are going to kill all of your dimming, and White Water uses quite a bit of dimming (unless you can get a hold of Herg's GI OCD mod).

Yeah, whirlpool bulbs are 555s.

I installed them on my first White Water and it was mildly tricky. I would remove the target lights, prefit everything, measure 3 times and drill once. I haven't put them on my new WH2O becuase the playfield is so nice that I can't bring myself to drill into the playfield (even the underside). I keep looking for signs of damage but I haven't seen anything.

A few months back a did some tweaking to my Bigfoot so that his chin wouldn't rub his hands and wear off the paint. I also got his chin repainted and have info on the paint type and colors. Anybody interested in the details of stuff like this?

Here's my thoughts on it. I say "yes" BUT don't castrate your game in the process. The original coil kicks the ball out something fierce and you have to gain control, which is tricky.

A lot of people reduce the coil strength but do so in a way that the ball kicks to the (unactivated) right flipper, then bounces over perfectly so you can cradle it in the left flipper. This makes the game SO MUCH EASIER. Lyman Sheets exploited that in a previous PAPA and got some crazy high score. You can get multiple, multiple whirlpool completions on a regular basis like this.

What I did with mine is put in a weaker coil to prevent damage, but it's still a bitch to get controll again after the kick. If you try to let it bounce off the right flipper it will drain down the center, so you must try to control with the right flipper, which leads to all types of variations on where the ball ends up. It's not exactly the same as factory, because the kick is weaker, but the amount of skill needed to regain control is comparable to the original design.

I have a 26-1200 in mine, which is what a lot of people use to get the easy kickout, but you can adjust the coil so that it kicks out a little weaker so that the ball won't bounce all the way over to the left flipper.

I saw that a few weeks back. Pretty cool. I don't think it will fit with the original missing moutain. I'd also like to see a wider shot to see how it looks on the playfield with everything else. Anybody got one?

Do you mind posting a pic of the whole playfield?

It requires a daugher pcb that you'd need to develop.

Bowen Kerns mentions the progressive music in hiw White Water tutorial.

Yes, what he said. I would also check the subway fitting from the whirlpool to the lost mine (to make sure the ball isn't getting caught up somewhere).

If you plung it just right it will go straight down the middle, but if you don't score any points the ball is kicked back out. The true commecial roms do not have ball save (L5 is the latest one). The home rom L6 adds a ball save feature and, more importantly, fixes the hold-bonus glitch (on previous versions the hold bonus that saves your river class after you hit disaster drop 6 times never works). I used L6 but turn off my ball save so that the game plays as close to factory intentions as possible.

It's not uncommon to see that there. I don't like that rubber there because it there's a switch down below that that will never trigger if you use it. Doesn't make sense that the game would be designed that way.

See here for different configurations
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/white-water-wh2o-boulder-garden-layout

That doesn't sound right. I had an L2 rom at one point and didn't have that issue.

Can't wait to hear it. Some of those sounds are going to be tricky. Are you going to need horns for the end of game music?

Yeah, all that color in the backbox is overkill mang. Less is more!

Mine are incandescent now but I've done some experimenting with LEDs that look a little more yellow (which I like) but are still close to the incandescent. The incandescents can come off looking a little orange for my tastes. What I don't like is the harsh on/off of the LEDs since parts of the light show have those lights "scrolling" up the river. I'm waiting until I get a chance to install my LED OCD board to swap them out.

If I remember right, the cointaker frosted in warm white was what looked the best to me (just a little more yellow than incandescent and not too bright.) I'm going to try pink before I make my final decision though.

I've got both boards but need to buy the LEDs so I haven't gotten around to installing yet. The LED OCD will work with incandescents so I may go ahead and do that one soon but the GI OCD pretty much needs all LEDs so I have to purchase those first.

One of the main reasons I bought the GI OCD was to LED the backbox, which pretty much looks too orange/yellow for my tastes with the incandescents in there. One thing I'll really hate to give up though is my blue incandescents in the back. They give a really nice light that matches the aqua of the game really well.

It's attached to the ramp, no? It's pretty a quick job to just remove that whole ramp.

To get "secret of the cow" you have to

(1) Complete the Bigfoot Hotfoot (i.e. you'll activate hotfoot then shoot Bigfoot's Bluff to get the map, then the key (unless you already have them), then the camera, then finally the cow) and

(2) After completeing Hotfoot, you need to get the "Spirit of the River" award from the Bouldergarden. Once you do that, you'll get the "Secret of the Cow" and then get your Spirit of the River Award.

I don't even know if you get any points for Secret of the Cow but it's cool.

Yep, the animations are much better in color because you can really see what's going on.

No repros that I've ever seen. I have seen them on eBay once in a blue moon.

There are a couple restored ones for sale now if you do a search. Expect to pay crazy money (over $6,000) for anything that's been restored.

I've seen it most on the right side of the playfield (below the hotfoot targets) and it often runs up into the area around the whirlpool (keep in mind there is no ball travel there). The other spot I've seen it is the entrance to the left loop. I imagine it could be anywhere though. The only place you can't really check would be back loop.

It can be a leveling issue. It might also be that the bottom of the whirlpool isn't fitting into the playfield/lightboard hole just right.

Just make sure you're carefull if you have to remove the Whirlpool light board, the subway, and the opto down there. First, take pictures before you take the stuff apart. Second, make sure the spacers are all there for the screws when you reassemble and that you have the right screws. Third, make damn sure the spacers are all in place and that you have the right screws before you reassemble.

I've seen multiple Whitewaters with spots around the whirlpool playfield art where screws have come up through the playfield art from below because people either forgot to put a spacer back in or they put the wrong screw length in when reassembling that area. That's the one playfield area on mine and it pisses me off every time I see it (thankfully no ball travel in that area and it's mostly obscured/hidden by the whirlpool, still though, effing savages with their wood screws).

Yep, just remove the back mountains and it's right there. That area should have a clear plastic kidney shaped ramp cover with three screws and three black spacers. The last spacer should be replaced with a significantly shorter one. This will prevent the ball from hitting the microswitch and eventually breaking your ramp where the microswitch is screwed in.

Pinball Decals MAY make an alternative fix. I'm not 100% sure on this but I believe their "Bigfoot Bluffs Ramp Cover" is designed to cover the whole area so the ball never hits the switch and doesn't require the spacer trick I mentioned above. If you go this route doublecheck with them first. http://www.pinballdecals.com/PartsByGamePages/WhiteWater_Page.html

By the way, that LED job on the translate looks pretty good. Do you mind posting a pic of the backbox with the translite removed so we can see what bulbs are in there? If I can ever get around to installing my GI OCD I'm going to LED my backbox as well.

That looks like it to me. Let us know if it fits/works. Judremy's method is first method I was referring to and it's the cheaper, more practical approach, but it does require you to find a new spacer (cut down your old spacer) and it does bend that plastic piece. That's the method I've always used and it works perfectly but the "Ramp Cover" you have there seems more user friendly and perhaps less invasive.

You're the person who I learned the mod from. Thanks!

Mine is kind of tricky. I don't know if my spring has been replaced or not but it's the stiffer variety, not the loosey goosey type. I wouldn't say it's that hard but it is very common for me to have to take a couple shots where I don't clear the hump, or I overshoot and have to let the ball drain to re-try.

I wonder if I've got the wrong spring in mine. If I pull back the plunger all of the way the ball is going to FLY! The amount of play between being too short, just right, and too long is very small. I like the difficulty though.

I put a cliffy switch protector over the switch cutout there. The switch hole there seemed extra susceptible to damage. I've never seen any playfield damage there.

The main places I worry about (excepting the VUK which should be cliffy protected) are the drop from the ramp to the right in-lane (this is one of the main spots I see chewed up on other White Waters) and the landing area from the skill-shot. I put down a piece of clear cling vinyl right below the factor Mylar in the right in-lane and then put a cliffy over the switch cutout. The cliffy keeps the vinyl from moving and this has prevented wear here.

Next time I do a tear down I’m going to put some vinyl or Mylar in the area where the skill-shot drops. That area tends to get dirt and I don’t want to wait for the clear the wear through to do something about it.

I also have a piece of Mylar down to prevent Lost Mine kick-out wear, but after reducing the coil strength there I’m not sure it’s even needed.

Hmm, if I even get to 1/2 way back mine is gone.

Okay, I see. It wouldn't suprize me if what I have in there is the original spring. Hardly anything had been touched on mine other than the ramps. It was pretty damn clean when I got it.

They aren't cliffies, they are mantis protectors. They are a tight fit, but they fit. I haven't put them on mine yet because (a) no damage to that area so far, and (b) when installed them on my last WH2O they required new holes and I'm really OCD about stuff like that. I don't like to permenantly change anything, even if its just the underside of the cabinet. It's kind of stupid actually. Just my hangup.

But yeah, they work. They can slightly change the play on those two targets and the entry to No Way Out. I don't mean this in a bad way, just slightly different because the ball can glance the protector where otherwise it would be glancing the target itself.

Yeah, from the bottom. IF, I remember right, I had to do four new holes for the mantis protectors and then I also think I had to move the actual targets back too and drill new holes for that. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on the need to slightly relocate the targets. It's been a few years.

Fur doesn't cover the screw. If you poke around back there you'll see. There is a recessed screw.

Mine is aligned with the pin. I'm pretty sure its factory.

Hard to come by unless you buy the whole moutain set. Pretty dumb if you ask me. They could sell lots and lots of this specific boulder if they'd sell it individually. Not that many people are willing to buy a whole boulder set just for that one boulder.

FYI, one of those flipper coils is wrong. The left should be an orange one. FL-15411

Some people just keep shooting the center and picking up letters from the right inlane but that's boring. I tend to do that only in small spurts. Multiball and Bigfoot hotfoot are good opportunities to pick up lots of letters. If you're past class 4, then bite the bullet and try to complete the river class by hitting the center shot and getting spot letters from the right inlane.

There is also a "hold bonus" if you hit Disaster Drop 6 times. This will carry your river class over. This feature does not work on any rom set but L6 (the home rom set).

Another great way to pick up river letters (my favorite) is to hit the Spine Chiller repeatedly. If you light up the "spot river letter" in the right inlane each time you'll pick up river letters plus get the "multi-millions" award. You can pick up river letters really quick this way. Its still pretty difficult to get to class VI on one ball but it happens.

The other thing you might come across if you have the L6 rom is that the "extra ball" award from hitting the Disaster Drop can block out the "Hold Bonus" award, which happens at 6 drops. For example, sometimes it will say "Extra Ball at 5 drops" and then 50 games later it might change to "Extra Ball at 7" drops. Any time the extra ball award falls on 6 drops, the extra ball takes precedent so you won't get your hold bonus at 6 drops. I stumbled on this because I wasn't getting the "Hold Bonus" at 6 drops and then realized it was because the Extra Ball award was falling on that number of drops. Once extra ball changes to another number a drops (typcially every 50 plays) then the "Hold Bonus" award will come back.

Yep, normal. You'll also get spotted rafts and hazards by hitting the Disaster Drop ramps at times.

This doesn't sound right. I don't think Boomerang Bend is supposed to properly register until you hit both switches on the loop which runs behind the mountains. The ball needs to travel all the way around the loop to give you that hazard. In other words, even if the boudler garden kicked the ball up past the first switch, the hazard shouldn't register unless the ball goes all the way around the loop to the other side. Spine Chiller definiately should not spot you Boomerang Bend. Disaster Drop, on the other hand, could spot you that raft as would hitting the lite kickback targets after your lite kickback is already lit.

This is normal. If you want to "earn" the flashlight too then put the game in tournament mode. Then you'll need to get into the lost mine 3 times to start Goldrush.

Make sure you have it oriented right. If I remember right the instructions have the board upside down or reversed in some way. I can post pictures of mine installed if you still can't figure it out.

Yes, this! Bottom left corner of the playfield.

The picture in the installation instructions has that little board flipped 180 from how it was on both of the WH2Os I've had. Sounds like others had the same issue.

Do you have the right flipper coils installed?

It came with two different coils on the lower flippers (at least mine did). I know I've got the original coils on mine. Contrary to what you posted, the manual shows two different coils as well. I've seen quite a few WH2Os with two blue coils on the bottom flippers but they're usually beaters and I've assumed they were just incorrectly replaced.

I don't know the exact reason for it but it seems logical that they felt the left flipper didn't need the power of the right because the only obvious ramp shot is disaster drop. Every once in while I get the spine chiller from a cradled ball on the left flipper, if I hit it just right, but I'm assuming it was designed to make the spine chiller either really hard or impossible from a cradled ball on the left flipper.

A higher number on the coil means LESS strength (according to this anyway http://www.pinballmedic.net/coil_chart.html )

So the blue FL1-11629 coil is stronger than the orange FL1-15411. The left flipper takes the weaker orange coil. So with two blue coils, your left flipper is STRONGER than the design intends.

If you hit the shot well you sould be able to make the spine chiller pretty easily from the RIGHT (blue coil) flipper. Obviously your milage varries depending on the circumstances. But from a cradled ball on the right flipper, you shouldn't have much trouble making it up the Spine Chiller ramp as long as you aim the shot correctly. If your shots are aimed well and you're still barely making up that ramp you might look into rebuilding that flipper.

Now, from a cradled ball on the left (orange) flipper (this is the weaker flipper) it is very very hard to make the Spine Chiller shot because that flipper is weaker by design. I normally need some play on the ball to make that shot from the left flipper.

I agree with this. If you were really good and consistent you could hit a slow shot up the left loop but that's crazy accuracy to do consistently.

I usually tend to hit it when I make a left loop shot that isn't all that clean. The ball gets caught up enough to slow down and can't make it all the way around the loop, then it falls down through the secret passage.

The other way it tends to happen is on multi-ball and a ball gets knocked in there either through No Way out or the left loop.

On less frequent occasions I make the shot from the right loop but that's pretty rare.

It's the optos at the top of the ramp (by Bigfoot) that trigger the completion of that ramp shot. check the metal bracket behind Bigfoot to make sure it's secure and not blocking the optos. After that I'd check alignment of the optos, then clean them, then check connections.

I use incandescent blues in the whirlpool (as opposed to LEDs or whites with blue rubber caps). Also, I use a blue flasher cap for the whirlpool flasher (I may have put a blue LED flasher in there too, I can't remember.)

I also use blue LEDs for the river letter and river class inserts. Looks better in my opinion.

I keep the mountain flashers red because blue there doesn't look right to me.

My GI is all incandescent at the moment but I do use blue incandescent bulbs in the rear of the game only. The soft "aqua" blue color seems to match better to my eyes. This also darkens the area around bigfoot a tad so when my spotlight mod comes on its more noticable. I may switch over to LEDs and use a GI OCD board. I won't switch to LEDs in the GI for this game without the GI OCD board because it sacrifices the dimming (and WH2O uses lots of it).

You can see pics of my game at the bottom of page 2 of this thread if intersted. I've made some changes since taking those pics but the blue incandescents are in there.

He has another one where he used shooter tips (those might be even better than bulb covers due to added cushion).

I'm just going to go ahead and say this . . . "Plumb Bob Square Pants" would be a great user name.

The credit dot may be due to your ROM version as well. I didn't go back a look but I think L6 no longer triggers the error for that switch.

What I did was to remove the ring but leave the post. I've never had a problem with the pop bumpers or excessive drains out of the boulder garden. I have the right outline set to the largest opening.

Yours is the original Red West missing mountain. After those became unobtainable a Pinsider started doing his own version, which is what you see above.

No, it was just a mod. Here you go
https://sites.google.com/site/redwestwh20/

As I understand it, he had some health problems and has not produced them for many years. Lots of people have tried to contact him and purchase but I haven't heard of anybody successfully doing so.

Check your manual again, the left flipper uses a weaker coil: FL-15411

Hmmm, doesn't seem normal compared to my experience with L-H6

On my machine, depeding on spin and trajectory of the ball, a shot to Disaster Drop can end in a drain, especially from a cradled shot from the left flipper. Shots to Disaster Drop at speed from the left flipper will drain much less often. Shots from the right flipper to Disaster Drop almost never drain. The other Disaster Drop drain is a shot that doesn't make it up all the way up the ramp and will usually drain when it rolls back down the ramp. I always wondered if that was why they called it "Disaster Drop".

As for Boomerang Bend, that shot is so damn dangerous that I don't go for it as much but I don't recall having any drain issues off the loop.

Based on the above, with my machine anyway, the drain has more to do with tragectory and spin than the way the ramps are inherently set up. I do not take Disaster Drip shots from a cradled ball on the left flipper because the chances of a drain are pretty good. Otherwise it's a fairly safe shot (as long as you can collect the ball afterwards).

It resets unless you get the "hold bonus" award by completing Disaster Drop 6 times during a game, in which case it will hold over the river class for the next ball only. This feature ONLY works on the LH-6 romset (all previous romsets are faulty). Also, the extra ball award "floats" around to different numbers of Disaster Drop completions so if the extra ball award happens to fall on Drop number 6 then it will cancel out the "Hold Bonus". After 50 games or so the Extra Ball will move again and that should free up the "Hold Bonus".

My votes go to the Bigfoot Spotlight and the Color DMD.

I'll add that the bracket that holds the optos under the whirlpool can be a bit of "tricky" area. I've seen the screw come loose and the optos therefore fall out of place. It's also pretty common for people to lose the spacer on the long screw holding everything together and THEN SCREW UP THROUGH THE TOP OF THE PLAYFIELD when working in that area. Be careful about that. My suggestion is to take pictures and if your spacer is missing replace it so that you don't accidentally put a screw through the top of your playfield when working with those optos or replacing the Whirlpool lights.

It's designed that way, however, the unfortunately side effect is that it causes wear on the playfield. You can put a weaker coil in the mine (do a search here for the type of coil, the info is out there) but I highly suggest against "castrating" the game by making the kickout a "gimmie". What I did on mine was to put in a weaker coil but adjusting the kickout so that you still have to skillfully control the ball off of the kick.

Aside from changing out the coil you can play with the "tightness" of the bracket and that will affect the strength to the kickout to some degree.

Yeah, I found some stuff that's specific to attach vinyl to fabric and it's held up really well. I used it to glue Bigfoot's arm fur to his hands. I still need to do a write-up on that and the chin-wear factor. I got about 1/2 way through the writeup and lost steam.

I've heard of this on early versions I believe. Check the area to the right of the upper flipper. If it's yellow there you at least have an early production model and that could be the explanation. I belive the optos were moved from the ramp to the playfield. You do need them to register that ramp shot.

It's in the manual.