Deal 'em up! Just brought this one home yesterday. Got lots of rules to learn because I really have no idea how to play it yet!!! Way, way, way more to it than my other three.

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I've been trying to get more acquainted with the rules for WPT. I haven't seen one posted anywhere, but is there a printed set of rules that gives details on all the different modes and features? More in depth than just an apron card hopefully and not just a shot chart. More like a flow chart maybe, the kind that tells you what you have to do to keep moving along. This game feels like a Choose Your Own Adventure book that way. Tons of different ways to go through it.

Having said that, what exactly is the purpose of the Spin-A-Card feature? It's pretty when the lights move around the drop target cards like a roulette table, but what do you do with the card you land on? Is there any significance to this or does it then open up some other feature like if you hit the drop target for the card you just landed on?

Jackpot! Thanks a lot bud, that's perfect.

I've had my WPT a couple weeks now. It's working really well. I got a few parts the other day and replaced about 6 of those IDC bulb holders that had the little plastic clip on the leg broken off. Rubber ring kit too that I'll put in at some point.

Both of my 4-bank drop target assemblies were at times not reliably resetting. I went in and did that washers behind the bracket service bulletin change. And it has helped. The targets on the right side seem to be great now, but the bank in the middle still has the 7 of spades not always resetting. This is the target on the right edge of those 4 and close to where you shoot the ball into for Poker Corner.

I took the assembly out and looked it over and it seems fine. I put a new sleeve into the coil as well in case that was causing some of the issue. It all looks to be operating as intended and I don't think the top of the target is somehow getting caught on the lip of the playfield from underneath.

I can watch that 7 of spades during gameplay when the coil is firing (the three times fast thing) and it doesn't look like it is even moving. Which to me doesn't make much sense if that coil is actually firing. It might be the coils on the other target banks I am hearing? If that was the case, and it is only the 7 of spades staying down, how could it feel the need to keep trying to reset it, but that middle bank doesn't appear to be actuating?

It sure doesn't look like the arm on that plunger could somehow not be pushing up on the target. Unless I am missing something? There are two screws and nuts on that reset bracket arm that appear to be there for some kind of adjustment. Would the screw on one side not be out or in far enough and it's somehow not pushing up that 7 of spades.

Just wondering how else you guys have fixed or corrected these drop targets to give me some more ideas on what to check. Thanks.

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Just a random observation... I'm surprised they included the call out for being dealt 6-9 off suite... as "dinner for two".

It definitely appeals to all of those. And the sense of humor, lol... like when Vince Van Patton gets on you when you get a tilt warning. "Oh, this guy is out of control, Mike!" haha

Are there alignment dots for the upper flippers like there are for the lower flippers? I took my upper flippers out to replace the cracked clear tubing underneath them and to clean the underside of that upper playfield and wanted to get them put back in correctly. Just not sure where the rest position of those upper flippers is supposed to be.

With that in mind, is there an official way to use those alignment dots? And I mean where do you want the dots relative to the end of the flipper? Should the end of the flipper cover and be exactly centred over the dot? Or just in front/above it? I sometimes will align based on the rails leading towards the flipper contact surface and aim to have that in one straight line. Or other times have the centreline of the flipper follow that line down the rail, which ends up with the flipper resting in a position a little bit further down.

All these alignment things change how the game plays significantly. More so on the lower flippers than the upper ones like on WPT. Not just where the ball is going to go when you instinctively hit it towards a ramp or target, but also in how you can play the ball with various flipper tricks.

I have a Getaway for example, and if the flippers are adjusted a little bit further down at rest, then when you send a ball through the supercharger ramp and it comes back down to the left flipper, if you hold that left flipper up and let the ball roll off and onto the right flipper, you can one-time it back into the supercharger ramp. Makes for some crazy points when actually in supercharger mode where the first shot gets you 5 million, then 10, then 15. I've had it up to 35 million for those shots all in that 20 second timer.

I think part of this with the alignment dots is that no machine or designer/manufacturer always put their dots in the same place with the same intentions. It's rarely mentioned in any of the manuals though, other than trying to mimic the angle you see in a photo or drawing of the playfield. This is probably getting pretty far into the weeds of playing competitively, but every other sport or game has some pretty specific ways to get up the playing surface or court or whatever, whether that is pool, or volleyball, or darts. Not pinball though. Every set-up seems a little different. Not to mention the differences in clean balls/fast playing surface, coil strengths, playfield pitch, etc.

Perfect! Thanks for sharing!

Mine came to me with some mods installed. Of them, there were three small LED strips that I decided to remove. Just didn't like the way they lit things up.

The stacks of poker chips are a nice touch. I wouldn't have done those myself, but don't plan on removing them either. And the apron / card spots got done up nice with a few real playing cards and poker position markers.

And my translite is one of those alternate ones. I like it even though I don't mind the bizarro caricatures of the WPT cast on the original.

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Haha, you aren't overthinking it. I've wondered the same thing myself. Guess it's meant to be mysterious!

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Although if you want one that really grabs people's attention, go here and search for "NSFW" https://www.ministryofpinball.com/

I think we’re not the only ones to notice Shana is a hottie. She went from being married to Vince’s brother to some porn star. Yikes. Put that image up on the alt translite lol.

So with all the comments about the original translite being awful, is there like an abundance of them for sale or available if I actually wanted one?

I don't mind the alternate one I have, but would rather have things more original. Goofy caricatures and all. Anyone selling their original? How much do you want for it, shipped to Guelph, Ontario?

It's not exactly the only game with bad artwork. I'm a big fan of Back to the Future in real life. The movies, the car and to some extent the pinball game. But that one gets my vote for the worst artwork and mostly it's because they couldn't get the rights to use MJF's likeness. That to me is what constitutes terrible artwork... when the lead character or actor in your theme isn't even on the game. Mike, Vince and Courtney look weird, sure, but at least it's them that actually look weird and not the nephew or friend of the designer or artist that stood in for the image.

What might be going on with one of those drop targets if it registers during the game and you haven't even launched a ball yet?

My ten of spades does this. Not all the time, but when it's doing it, it thinks it has been hit and lights up. So an opto switch issue presumably. Is cleaning it with a little rubbing alcohol on the end of a Q-tip going to help?

This is my only game with these board mounted optos. My other games are older Bally/Williams like the Getaway and those optos are two separate pieces for sensing the ball going by as opposed to the piece of drop target plastic.

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

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

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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?

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??

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).

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.

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 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.

Right on. After seeing, repairing and maintaining 3 different games, would you say there are any little differences in the machines on how they play or are set-up or dialed in? Little adjustments or modifications that you liked? Lighting that helps or hinders play?

Interesting experiences having routed machines as well as HUO. Seems like when enough small things get a little out of alignment or loose, it has a much bigger impact than just the sum of those little things. I also like the factory settings. I've played around with turning off the hold posts for certain sequences and that can change the pace of play a fair bit.

One thing on mine that I have noticed is that my left ramp assembly will jump a little if you miss to the right and hit the post instead of getting up the ramp (upside down scoop... not sure what the correct name of that thing is!). Like the ball will clank off it and it sure seems like the wire rail moves a little. I think it is the ball catching a tiny bit of air and hitting it from underneath, but not sure. Looking at the picture above of the upper playfield, it might be that the small ring on that post is at the same height as the larger rubber ring on the two posts behind it and then when you hit the front one it transfers that force to the rear one. Like maybe I need to slide that front ring down the post a little bit so the two rings aren't lined up and touching each other?

I also realized the other day that the upper playfield does indeed have alignment dots for those upper flippers. I had asked about that a while back as I couldn't see any. I moved my game into a different room and the better lighting let me see them.

One other thing on rules and strategy I just realized. Those triple score lights in the inlanes are activated anytime you complete a hand with the drop targets. I didn't realize that earlier. Simple and obvious, but I missed that somehow. I mean you end up making drop target hands a lot anyway, but now I know that if I have a big shot worth having the triple score active for, I can purposely make a drop target hand before going for the big shot to maximize scores. Like before you make a poker hand advancing shot up either ramp that will complete the hand with the river AND complete a city, I always try and roll over a lit triple score to turn the 1 mil award into 3 mil.

When looking, try and get it so that what is behind the clear upper playfield in that spot is the white plastic piece underneath below the pop bumpers. Without that white background they are almost invisible.

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If you're describing it as a sweet shot, I'm assuming it's going quick and pure around that orbit and so I would not think it is related to the leg levelling or height adjustment of the legs or playfield.

What I do think is probably happening is the ball is catching something just a tiny bit on that outside track so that when it makes the corner and comes back down, it pushes it out towards the middle of the game just a little bit more than it should be.

Start by checking that metal rail that curves around the upper right corner. You don't necessarily have to take it out completely, but it could be that one of the metal tabs that is welded on to it has broken off and that portion of the rail is sticking out too far. Or it could be one of those tabs just isn't tightened down enough and staying in place because the screw got loose.

Also look for any post rubbers or other target edges that are along that same outside path and try to determine if the ball is catching them on the way around. It is probably only something minor but significant enough on those fast orbit shots to get the ball off it's intended path and go right down the middle.

My WPT hasn't had this issue, but my LW3 game did. On the right to left orbit, if you nailed it quick, it would rocket right down the middle with no chance to get it with the flippers. For me, it was a combination of a broken metal tab on the outside rail AND a stand-up target that was sticking out just a little bit too far. Fixed those and was good to go. Which was a relief because it was super annoying to rip an excellent shot and your reward is losing the ball. As I'm sure you're familiar with!!

Post pics if you can. Maybe also show us how your flippers are adjusted at rest. That could be part of it too. And double check the left to right levelling of the playfield just to be sure that isn't it.

I found a never used original artwork translite recently and decided to put it back in instead of my alternate one. I kinda like things to be as they were when leaving the factory. My apron cards got changed out to playing cards and dealer chips and some stacks of poker chips were added on top of some of the plastics. Tastefully done though and I'll leave that as it is.

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Do you have a close-up picture of this area on your game? Mine doesn't do this thing you're describing. Maybe yours is missing a small bracket or similar? I can compare to my own if I know what yours looks like.

No power settings for an individual coil like this. Most likely is the plastic sleeve inside the coil is worn out/dirty and needs to be replaced.

This is a really good thing to replace if you're new to maintenance. Simple access and straightforward to disassemble and then reassemble.

The bracket that holds the end of the coil down and in place can be unscrewed with two screws/nuts. Once that is loose, you can tilt the coil out with the plunger and spring still in it. You don't need to unsolder anything to do this. Plunger should just slide out. Remove it, inspect it, place it aside for a moment.

Inspect the spring. Make note of how it was installed. Do this for everything you take apart. In fact, take lots of pictures of your own before you start so you know how it was installed.

The coil should now be in your hand (with the wires still attached). See if the plastic sleeve slides out. It is probably filthy. Normally you replace those as opposed to clean them, so you'll need to be buying replacement parts from time to time. Sleeves are pretty universal but they aren't all the same size. Diameters, lengths and also how that collar on the end is. Notice how you can only slide the sleeve in from one direction? Remember how it was when you took it apart and reassemble the same way. Or even better, download the WPT manual from the Stern website and then look up that part in the manual and confirm it is correct.

WPT has an incredible manual with colour so you picked a good game to have that as a resource. Some of the many games from Bally and Williams in the 90s are spectacular games with craptacular manuals lol.

Let us know how you did.

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Nice thing about the sleeves being common sizes across pinball machines is that if you buy a kit, you can use them in other games as needed.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/CS1992

"Player 1 had a great game!" Wow, no kidding, Vince!

Crazy game on WPT tonight. Got all the cities done, got all the drop-target hands done and was one poker corner mode away from the ole grande finale. Stacked upon stacked and the scores went bezerk. Fun game.

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WPT is the only game I have that uses the flat, coin batteries in the backbox. It's a CR2430 battery. All my other games using AA batteries get changed out yearly, regardless of their appearance or the date on them. I was wondering if these flat, CR2430 batteries are more or less likely to leak the way the AA batteries sometimes do? And should this battery still be changed out yearly or is there some other frequency that is better (like every two years, for example)?

Ooooh, I like this. Thanks for the tip! Those CR2430's aren't readily found in the local places it seems, but AA's of course are everywhere. I'll look to get some Lithium ones for the pins. Cheers.

He gets some pretty funny ones going too. Had the "dinner for two" hand yet??