Definitely. My spinner almost literally exploded during the best round of Super Spinner I have ever played. I was really hammering that thing, which is good, as I'm normally useless. There are two weights which clamp around the bar, and the front and back plates with the graphics on. JJP sent a replacement, but I haven't installed it yet because I can't be arsed to take the right ramp off. Instead, a healthy dose of Gorilla Weld epoxy seems to be holding it. If it flies apart again, I will bite the bullet and replace it.

Two minutes seems a long time. I have a Pirates next to mine and they take about the same time.

Timed it for you.

0s Flick switch!
16s Pop
32s Text appears (loading files)
48s Game is up

Hope this helps you to work out which step is taking too long. Mine is a LE by the way, I don't know if different versions take longer/shorter.

(Although I'd wait 20 minutes to play this game - it's bloody brilliant! )

Really starting to get this game now, after owning it for a few months... Multipliers FTW! Managed my first million today, which is good for me as I default to the 'flailing while swearing' technique. It's all strategy, and as others have said, it just flows. Love it. Well done, Pat and JJP!

Wow! I only just broke 1.5M! Definitely more practise required, I think.

On a related note, a gentleman who had never played pinball before in his life ("I don't get why you like those things!") played Wonka at my place today. 30 mins later, he said: "I'm staying here today - this thing is great!" And now he wants one. Conversion complete!

On a related note, what's the best way to get the black washer *out* of the playfield hole? I've tried twisting it, pushing it from the back with a small screwdriver, etc. and that little fella won't budge! Is it threaded, or just a bung? I didn't want to use much force as I didn't want to do any damage!!

Surely that match animation has to be one of the best in all of pinball!

Hmm, definitely noticeable. I haven't upgraded yet (busy!), and mine certainly doesn't look like that. The curtain is also noticeably stuttering in the match animation, and as you say, the game over screen is very jittery. What's that all about? Agree with you on the OCD thing

Every time I try this, it causes a state of panic and the resultant flailing sends the balls down south. More practise required.

My right flipper is weakening after ~30 minutes of play. I changed the coil sleeve, and that improved it a bit, but it still seems to do the same thing. Looks like it's the overheating problem. Does anyone know where I could get some flipper fans here in the UK? Anyone importing them?

It was not the overheating problem! Dry joint on the middle lug, sparking away like bonfire night. Lessons I have learned: 1) Don't assume. 2) Investigate properly.

Oops!

Dry solder joint (resized).PNG

Could be that you need to replace the coil sleeve? Just a thought, if it's binding as zaphX suggests.

I hope so, as I'm going to install it. jimbodeanny has been doing some great work documenting this, and he says (at the link below) that the issue seems to have been fixed in beta v5. Must say thanks to jimbodeanny for his tenacity and for pointing this out to us all (and JJP of course). I can't find any specifics in the release notes regarding the animation stuttering, apart from 'updated some display effects'.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/wonka-v137-update-choppy-animations#post-6404902

Just installed v2.0. Very nice! Got to see some things I haven't seen before and beat my GC score quite easily! (Actually not difficult - I'm pretty useless really.) Do you think it's now too easy to get Super X? I know that can be changed in settings, but I usually like to keep things default.

Yes, saw that tonight - very cool! Loved it.

I backed up my settings onto a USB stick before I installed the update. This was a full update (not delta) from 1.33. As I expected, high scores, pictures and settings were erased. I restored the settings, and everything's back - although I have already beat my previous GC score. Quite easily, and I would call myself an average player at best (and that's being kind to myself!)

Damn, that's a good point. Is this game too easy now?

Edit/addition - I used to work hard for those playfield multipliers, and now they're available after a bit of flailing around... hmm.

Are there extra add-a-balls now? Had several multiballs where extra balls were kicked into play. I couldn't see the screen because I was concentrating on the flail-fest happening at the flippers.

Did you press Enter or the start button on the front of the cab? I pressed Enter the first time!

Just something to check - is your machine levelled horizontally? The balls don't seem to be rolling very quickly to the left.

That's rough. How long have you owned your game?

Ach. It's strange that it happened in so many areas of the playfield at roughly the same time. There have been a lot of people who have tried to get to the reason behind this, I'm sure... Just throwing ideas out there, I wondered if you'd recently changed the game's location or the temperature/environment it's kept at before the pooling started.

And I totally agree it's a great game! I can't get enough of it.

I'm sure that's fine. Mine does the same thing with lots of messages during start-up. If it says 2.0 in the bottom-right of the screen during test mode, and the game plays without issues, then I think you're good to go.

Yep must agree. Do try v2. I still think it's too easy to get playfield x though, on default.

I'm getting some rejects from strong shots up the right ramp. Almost like the ball hits something at the top of the ramp and comes screaming back. Can anyone see anything unusual here? I wondered if the ball was getting some air-time and hitting the plastic protector. Thanks for any help.

20210804_132552501_iOS (2) (resized).jpg

20210804_132648684_iOS (2) (resized).jpg

One day soon I, too, will get to experience the famed Wonka's Office*!

(*without taking the glass off. Haven't done it yet.)

Agreed. Same over here. In fact I'd have put it in the top position if I could muster up the bravery to hammer out the black plug from the top hole! Just the second hole makes a difference, and the game a lot more enjoyable, imho.

Brilliant post pcprogrammer - completely agree. Wonka absolutely rocks. You might want to try BM66 - I have one in my collection and it's one of my mates' favourites. Good rules, and the assets are hilarious, especially after a couple of beers.

Certainly not for me! I do appreciate the ease of the left ramp, as it's a way to get balls under control, but I have days when I cannot hit the TV saucer despite many, many flailing attempts. I love the left (kid multiball) lane... so satisfying when you nail it! The flow is great.

If you want a bit of a treat, switch attract mode music on - the pure imagination music is great! (Although the Jersey Jack one's somewhat irritating.)

It typically plays ~15mins after switching the game on. Sometimes the Jersey Jack music plays instead. Double check in the system settings menu that Attract Mode Music is on, as it's off by default. Well worth a listen!

I removed the rubber from the post between the two inlanes when I installed the (cheater?) post at the bottom outlane position. It seems to work ok.

Game Settings -> Wonkavator Multiball -> Stored Locks - set to YES to keep locked balls between games.

Game Settings -> Wonkavator Multiball -> Lock Behavior - set to SHARED LOCKS if you want players to be able to steal others' locked balls.

Game Settings -> Wonkavator Multiball -> Recover Lost Locks - set to YES if you want the lock to reopen when balls are dumped for other multiballs.

Hope this helps.

Hmm, never had this before. A few things I'd check:

Does the Wonkavator work in test?

Tests -> Device Test -> Wonkavator

Is the diverter enabled?

Games Settings -> Devices -> Disable Elevator Diverter

Also I wonder if some sort of tournament mode might be disabling it? Just guessing here, as I'm not in front of my machine right now.

Just had a further scout through the manual, and I'm again guessing, but check System Settings -> Competition Mode is set to OFF.

chillme I've been thinking about this. It's either a bug, as naf_llabnip suggests, or a setting we don't know about which disables the stored locks setting.

Is your software up to date and the right software for the machine? I'm no expert, and I'm probably thinking way outside the box now, but if SE code was installed on an LE or CE machine, could this happen? I'd think there were safeguards in place to prevent that install from even happening, but it might be worth reinstalling the software. Just a thought.

Just a chance guess, but have you removed the black cube shipping block from the inside-back of the cabinet?