If it bothers you or you feel the gameplay is too slow, you can disable the stop posts in the feature adjustments menu.

You can disable the ramp stop posts in the game feature settings. That fixes a lot of the SnG gameplay.

I don't have my WPT anymore (got it for only 2600 new when they were going for cheap from Stern distributors) and had it a few years and liked it but I was wondering... anybody else have problems with the center drop target bank 'bricking'? Didn't see any mention of it in here. I tried fooling with the rubbers behind it, using stronger springs, changing the reset coil to a stronger one to compensate for the new springs, I just couldn't totally get rid of it. That bank just got hammered with those straight on shots. I would've liked the game more if I could have licked it, so aggravating.

Anyway I loved how all that normally relatively empty space behind the back board was loaded with all the cool mechanics.

Got the same issue after changing rubbers (and even filmed it in slomo to find out what was going on). I found a solution posted on some other forum regarding stern drop targets bricking in general (can't recall where now). I simply dragged out the springs and hooked them about halfway up the spring. Problem gone!

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Interesting; I have the same problem on that 9 card that you filmed. Is the spring easy to get to? I haven't gone under there in a while. Good to know tightening the spring is all it takes... I was dreading replacing the whole mech and then having some brand new card stickers while others were worn.

Springs were pretty easy to get to, I did it with my fingers. Needle nose pliers would probably work even better. Just unhook spring at the bottom end, drag out and hook again higher up on spring. Good luck and I hope it helps in your case.

Springs are easy to get to. You can take the opto boards off for better access if needed.

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Yes. But there are settings which will make it *not* hold the ball on shots to flop/turn/river, which help a lot.

I never had any bricking on the other two banks on the sides since they are angled shots, only the center one bedeviled me because they got smacked so hard and straight on. Almost wish I still had the game so I could continue experimenting with it.

I don't recall where I saw it, but someone on here commented that when one of their drop target opto boards kept registering a hit even when it wasn't, they fixed it by replacing a small transistor or component on the board of some kind. Like it wasn't the opto pair themselves or the plastic connector, it was some little piece that failed (shorted or became disconnected, I'm not sure).

Am I going to learn anything from trying to do some continuity checks of the various components on one of these boards? Like to see if there's a break in the circuit to help identify what my problem is.

On my game, I have three of my four boards with a single issue. Two of the boards have a target constantly being registered as a hit (the 3rd target on one of the boards and the 4th target on another). The third board has one target that never registers even when you do hit it (the 4th target on this board). I swapped the boards around and the issue moved with the boards, so I was to conclude it isn't the electrical connector or the drop targets themselves nor the wiring going to the bank.

Anything you might suggest to try and narrow down my problem on a single board and single target on that board?

So after owning this machine for a couple years it has started to launch balls on it own during play like unlimited multiball. I believe this to be part of Service bulletin 163. I have all original boards as the ribbon cables are still glued in, and have never been unplugged as far as I can tell. I am going to contact stern, but I am guessing they will not provide me a new board as called for in the service bulletin 163 since it has been 15 year since this machine was built. Are the updated boards still available for purchase if Stern cant provide one?

Can someone remind me where in the manual (I assume it is in the manual?) it explains what the different circuit board LED's are supposed to be doing? Like on the CPU board I have LED 3 flashing quick versus staying solid and I don't know what that means. I am trying to chase some phantom registering of two of my drop targets. 10 of clubs and jack of diamonds. The jack of diamonds will reregister a lot during the game too even when you aren't touching anything and the ball is still sitting in the shooter lane. Like something is a little loose or vibrating. I pulled off the J1 and J6 connectors on the CPU board and when powering it back on, these targets were off. Which is good, except after I launched the ball and got the game going, they phantom registered again and then kept doing it. So somehow touching J1 or J6 is affecting them??

Have you reseated the connectors on the drop target boards themselves?

Quite a few times. Not this latest go though. I was working in the backbox partly because of the easy access and not under the playfield.

In trying to map out how many connectors there are for these drop targets, we have the one that is right on the board itself. Then not far away, is a connector for the wire jumble. One of those per board. Then the jumble gets harder to follow as it combines with many other sets of wires. The last one I guess is the one on the CPU board itself. I believe this is J6 and also J1 (coming and going pairs).

I'm also a little suspicious of it being the ribbon cables. Mine look fine, but they aren't terrible hard to pull out and it got me thinking maybe that's the issue? I have replaced the ribbon cables on my other games, but all my other games are from 1990-1992 and WPT is not nearly as old (2006).

Ribbon cables...on the drop target banks?!??!??? That doesn't sound right at all to me. Hold on...I'm going to go check mine downstairs.

No ribbon cables on the drop target boards below the playfield. Reset those again. Don't know what ribbon cables you're talking about, nor what they might have to do with the drop targets.

I meant the ribbon cables in the backbox. I know there aren't ribbon cables on the drop target assemblies themselves. I've just seen enough dumb, unexplained oddities on other games when it comes to sounds and displays and other erratic behaviour that if it could have been related to bad ribbon cables, I would have gladly changed them out.

Having said that, one of my phantom targets is working again. On the leftside bank of 8, the top 4 (when the playfield is down) has the 10 of clubs not working correctly. This is opto circuit 3 on that board. The lower bank of 4 has the 4th opto circuit not working correctly and that is the jack of diamonds. I previously had swapped the boards around between the two leftside positions as well as the middle and the problems followed the boards. So I figured it couldn't be the game side wiring or connectors or backbox or whatever.

My tech guy said the boards were fine though when he tested them. I was going to do one last swap test and move the lower left board over to the right and see what happened. If the problem moves I buy four new (expensive) boards. If it stays put, I get to keep digging for the mystery issue. But to my surprise, the jack of diamonds is now working fine and so is everything still on the right side. So it didn't travel with the boards and it didn't stay put either. Yea, it fixed itself. Wonderful. Why? No clue.

Probably a poor pin connector on the board, which still doesn't make much sense since it isn't failing over on the right side. So maybe the combination of the left lower connector on the wire side AND the board with the poor solder pins made for an overall bad jack of diamonds.

I've still got the ten of clubs issue and I plan on swapping that with the middle board to see what happens. Maybe it fixes itself too. Or maybe the Matrix gets reset and none of it matters anymore.

More and more, it's sounding to me like a poor solder pins issue. You may want to remove the boards and inspect the pins themselves where they meet the boards on both sides and look for issues, like broken solder, loose pins, or what have you. In fairness, it's stuff that I'm not terribly good at seeing myself, so perhaps it may be best for you (it would be for me) to take them to someone else and have them inspect and possibly repair them for you.

I doubt you'll need to buy new boards, as it does sound like they are working in certain circumstances...that leads me to believe that it's probably related to the solder connections more than anything else, and that if the solder at the pins gets re-flowed, you may solve your issue(s). I'm not terribly good at soldering, so I'd leave it to someone else to do so for me, and pay them. It'd certainly be cheaper than several new boards.

Most likely a problem with the optos, yes.

Hi all. I’ve been thinking of joining the club but what was once considered a great “value pin” has increased in price. Is this still a good pin at $4,000? Or would you get something else? I guess we cant call it a great bang for the buck pin anymore sadly

Still an excellent game with lots to do. Great implementation of "poker" concepts. Still horrible art.

As with every game... it's worth it if YOU get $4,000 of enjoyment out of it.

Good points. I’m glad you like the game. If I can find one for $3,500 I think I will grab it. I heard it’s a must to remove the left gate under the mini playfield and reduce the pop up posts to only work on the river to achieve better flow

It's a competition mode bug. Believe me I looked for it several times and could never find it. It's annoying when it happens, but it's pretty rare.

You, uh...you're joking, right?

One might think all the “X needed for Keefer Invitational” status messages might be a hint.

Hi all.
I don't own this pin so I'm looking for a favor.
Can someone with an original shooter rod take off the tip and measure the entire length of it - from the end of the handle to the tip?
I'm hoping to make a couple custom shooter rods and may reward the first person to respond with a prototype.

Thanks

Big picture I'm not sure either. I have had some monster games like you're saying and I don't always know why. Some awards get really high and I'm not sure how they got there. During those multiballs, sometimes you get the "jackpot" by hitting the targets at the top of the upper playfield and it's 300k. Other times it's 1.3 mil. Each one. I don't know how they get built up like that though.

A thing I try and do though with that triple shot multiplier is to use it when you're about to get the River card as it will 3x your hand prize. And anytime you won the city, it will 3x that prize. That can add up significantly because the city prize of 1 mil becomes 3 mil and the 2 mil city becomes 6 mil. I think there are a lot of medium sized ways to get bigger scores rather than one set way and some 20 million super jackpot (that it doesn't have).

I broke 2 billion after updating to 14.0 code. I recall having been told it must be a fluke, perhaps a stuck opto. I shared the audits and nothing was flagged by reviewers. Unless there's something flakey with the board or chips it could be genuine. Safe to assume a flawed machine, but I wonder if it's possible to recreate.

It was years ago, best of what I can recall specifically; All hands of poker, except Royal Flush, were achieved on ball 1. Ball 2 launched with Mystery activating All-in Multi-ball. Making all of the targets was requested and accomplished. It was a flurry of activity that I truly didn't understand. Ball 2 ended with billions. I wish to try again and record the effort. Perhaps expose a machine flaw or scoring technique.

I can't say I've ever gotten anywhere near 2 billion, but after talking strategy on here the other day, I did put up a 170 million point game.

Only changes in the settings (Ver 14 code) I have on my game are to not use the left or right posts except on the River. The game plays a little faster and lets you do more during multiball modes while the clock is counting down. No glitches that I have seen creating phantom award situations.

I did find another good use of the 3X scoring award from the inlanes... and that is when you are in one of the Poker Corner modes and about to hit one of the red arrow shots to score. Spot the Tell for example, when you hit the correct arrow out of the six, it awards a million+ and if you do it while having gone over the 3X scoring switch, it jacks that up to 3 million+. Easy enough to do, especially when only playing one ball at a time. I had always just lit the 3 X scoring feature whenever I could, but now I use it more strategically when a bigger scoring target is coming up.

I got this game a few months ago and have been working out some of the kinks it came with. One thing I noticed is that if you hit the left ramp while a ball is locked it awards a shot towards starting the multiball. Is this normal, a rule setting, or do you think something is messed up? Also, IIRC the left ramp does not progress hands if a ball is locked. In switch test it appears everything is fine.

The ace in the hole is a physical ball lock right? It holds the ball until you hit it four times and then releases for MB. What I am questioning is the ramping counting as one of those hits to start MB.

The ramp should never award locks (there's no light for it). Sounds like a row or column short, or some other matrix problem (for even more fun, possibly only manifesting when certain targets are down).

I'd go into switch test and play around and see what you find. If nothing obvious, make sure every drop is down then try again. A final possibility is something bad happens only when a ball is in the jail.

I played WPT for over 30hrs non-stop and scored 4.2billion in total. A score of 2bil is a dodgy switch. Most likely one of the ramp switches so it's constantly awarding you hands, I've seen it happen in person, or another switch which constantly awards you MBs.

The audits are also faulty on this machine. During the same 30hrs I never once started one of the MBs according to them.

Yea, I agree, a goofy machine. It sits in storage until I'm ready to restore. I'm curious if its faults are likely hardware or code.

Wait a minute; you played a 30hr game. Incredible. I can't imagine pushing 10hrs; I'd need an entire pot of coffee and then some.

Have rejoined this club.....3rd time around.