Hello Pin heads,

I am new to this forum and actually new to the world of home pinballs. I just acquired my first machine, X-Men Pro, will be delivered next week.. The game is pristine and HUO certified. Have no mods, just the LED upgrade. Was wondering what additions you guy think I should consider. Images and were to purchase would be welcome.

I maybe jumping and should perhaps enjoy the game as is and then perhaps look at the add on.

Thanks

I did something strange with that ball gate at one time. I was having some strange issue where a ball going into the lock from the Phoenix shot would sometimes trickle out of the Rogue lane instead of going in the lock area.

I checked it out and then noticed that there is a post under one of the plastics in that area above the Rogue lane. Well it just so happens that this post is the right distance from the ball gates left mounting point to also mount the ball gate that way. So what I did was I mounted the 1 way ball gate so it was going up and down (at the end of the Rogue lane) instead of side to side (at the back of the lock area). I basically just kept the left side mounted and pivoted the right side of the ball gate up to the hidden mounting post.

This did cause the game to have some timing issues like you described. It seems that the game is pretty specific on how much time it gives the ball to get settled on top of the locks rollover switch before giving up on the ball and trying to correct it. The game is used to the ball hitting the ball gate in the back of that area and immediately coming back down to the switch. If it doesn't "see" the ball on the switch very quickly it assumes something is wrong.

This behavior was pretty unacceptable in my opinion so I mounted the ball gate back correctly. I later bough another ball gate to mount in the up and down position at the end of the Rogue lane (along with the original ball gate mounted as normal). This works fine and prevents any balls from trickling out the Rouge lane. No modifications were needed and as I said....the top post to mount it is already there under that plastic. I see no other reason for that post actually. It could be possible that the ball gate was originally planned to be there. Maybe they thought it was better that the ball bounce back from the gate and get settled in the lock quicker was a better option.

Just curious, in your case....why didn't you just put in another screw to hold the gate in place??? Seem like a pretty simple fix.

More Deadpool please! Have him be swapped out between players. He really saves the game for me.

Ummmmmmm, IDK.... Figured I'd get it later. Wanted to get everything put back together. Also wanted to try without it. The rouge shot did sometimes bounce back, and I figured it might work without it.

Now that everything is on, it's alot harder to put back, but I got re-installed.
It took a #6 machine screw, lock washer, and didn't need a nut, since the bottom bracket (receptacle) was threaded

Mine broke. took all of 2 games to realise why it's there. was ending up with 2 or more balls in play and a direct hit would send it out the back and roll round and out.

Sometimes when Magneto goes to release one ball, two will fall out. The game knows there are 2 balls in play and will hold on to one if it goes back in to Magneto or go back to regular one ball play if I lose one.

Is there a good way to prevent this from happening?

something has to be amiss with the lock switches in magneto. make sure that the ball sits nicely on the gate mech and that the switches register correctly. I had to make the 1st switch more sensitive as it was pushing the ball too far to the right which caused a lot of lock problems.

-c

Titan rubbers incoming for my game...should be fun. Have never torn down an Xmen/LE...anything specific to watch out for that's wierd?

I cant really remember anything tricky when I broke down my pro. Pretty straight forward.

Thanks Craig C, I'll dive in to those switches tonight.

Hi guys, i noticed something weird on my xmen tonight. After the xavier vuk sends it to the ramp, a storm hit gets registered on the switch. So I'm getting spotted all these unearned storm hits. Is there a way to correct this?

Everyone knows I am the biggest XMen fan out there.

On my LE, I can get a decent score every game. And as per my video I uploaded to the Captive Ball Mod thread, I have been to the wizard modes (not to the very end though...) more than once.

But I would like to say that when I played Xmen Pro at the Swedish Open, the IFPA World Champs and a couple of pre-comps ... I got my f******king ass kicked. lol!! I don't think I got over 10m on any game.

Dunno what it was .. nerves probably. I tend to just crap myself during competitions.Maybe I need to see a shrink.

Now I know why people hate the game!

If you're not playing well, this game will whoop your ass.

rd

The pro version is also much faster playing then it's LE counter part. Maybe that had something to do with it? Maybe you weren't used to the pro?

How is the Pro faster? It's near identical.

Only changes are spinning disc and moving ramp. They don't slow down gameplay at all. Pop up NCs maybe, but they are rarely up.

ACDC pro is faster than Premium/LE, no question... Due to no drop targets to slow the ball down. The ACDC pro in Sweden IFPA venue was possibly the fastest machine I have ever played. However I still managed 59m.

rd.

People seem to say that the NC slow down the game because the ball can sit behind them for a second, but man...I've been screwed over by them returning the ball from a direct hit STDM or out the side many more times. I have stacking on and seems like they come up a LOT (3 times a game?), which I actually don't mind because IMO they're one of the main attractions of the LE. The whole "jiggle" thing before they drop is unique and I really like it.

The NC pop ups are the only desirable feature on the LE, wish the pro had them. The pro is better in every other way and the wolvie is an issue on the LEs. The magnets whip the ball around so much, the spinning disc is useless.

You can reposition the Wolvie on the LE to make it no different than the pro. And the spinning disc, I like it. The start to Magneto multiball with the four balls stuck to it spinning around until the whole machine vibrates is cool. As well, the disc adds an element of randomness beyond the magnets imo.

The only part of the LE I could do without is the moving Ice man ramp. As soon as it is moved over I get performance anxiety and can't hit the shot to save my life...

I wish the magnet holding the four balls would pulse to throw the balls instead of just dropping them. Usually, one will go down the middle at least.

Got a XMENLE a couple of weeks back. It's a great game with really well developed code. I made it to danger room the other day for the first time. Do you have to defeat all of the villains to make it to dark phoenix or just start them? If you have to defeat them is anyone making it to DP on normal settings? Seems rather impossible. I do good to start 3-4 villains and maybe beat 2 of them.

This is definitely an under rated game in my opinion. The playfield is completed loaded for a stern.

You have to defeat them. It's actually not that hard if you use the side targets to keep re-lighting villain at the scoop.

Closest I have been so far is: Brotherhood and Hellfire MB's finished, Sentinels/Juggernaut/Sabretooth finished, Omega Red started, Shadow King not started. That's with stacking on, so I used weapon x to finish Sabretooth and Magneto for Sentinels.

Sabretooth is easy! Don't waste weapon x on him, use it for Omega Red.

In theory, sure, but seeing as most of my drains have been magnet-caused? Not so cut and dry. I can snipe shots all day, and Omega Red usually doesn't need more than one hit on wolverine at any point that I've seen..

Primary reason I sold the game: magnet drains.

d'aww...sorry to hear that. I love magnets and the unpredictability in games. It's one of the big reasons that I got real into Metallica early on...Sparky and Cross magnet would just screw me over all the time...also one of my favorite things about Iron Man. I think the "worst offender ever" in the magnet kills category though HAS to be Addams Family....man.

Don't mind some random magnet action at all in a relatively shallow game like TAF/IM. Loved the magnets on my GNR because they were only used during multiball.

But, X-Men is so awesomely deep and requires you to complete so many shots/modes to get to DP that a magnet drain felt more devastating than on a shallow machine.

I hear ya. It's pretty frustrating to be deep in the villain modes on ball 3, trying to relight Hellfire, and you just graze a sensitive part of Wolverine and he cuts your ball(s) off for touching him the wrong way.

That is why you switch to the Newton ball setup and get rid of that giant playfield blocking figure.

Yeah...no. I'm not into redesigning the playfield. It went to a new home last night anyways, and now I have a chance to track down one of my games on a want list. Was a fun month. I recommended the belt to the new owner, but told him about the newton ball option as well, so I'm sure he'll decide what he wants to do with it. He has two wolverine figures to play with, one of which hasn't ever been used. I'm really glad I got to own the game for a little while and play it a good bit, it's a lot more solid game than I think people admit.

Yes, the switch ON the Storm ramp (about half way down the ramp) is too sensitive.

The way the game is programed is when the Xavier shot is registered it counts the Xavier shot. Then it triggers the VUK and tells the game to ignore the next Storm ramp hit as a Storm hit.

Since your Storm ramp switch is too sensitive it is triggering when the ball goes up the VUK and actually hits the ramp. THAT is being ignored, but then when the ball rolls through the Storm ramp switch it registering that hit (which should have been the first switch hit and ignored).

Just go into the switch test setting and send some balls up the VUK. Make sure it is only registering the Storm ramp switch when the ball is actually activating it. If the ball hitting the ramp from the VUK is setting it off you need to do some bending on the blade of the switch so the switch does not activate when it shouldn't.

DugFreez, thank you so much, this is awesome information. Although its going to make starting and completing Storm much harder

I'll adjust this switch tonight

Loving this machine!

Any thoughts as to what is the best wolverine replacement with the captive ball mod?

The bank looks ok, wondering if there is something better.

Thanks,

-c

After reading this and the LE Wolverine fix threads for some time now, I thought I would throw this out there. Pinbits sells drop dead foam. Wouldn't it be possible to cut a piece to go on Wolve's belt and the use something like black tape (or something similar) to hide/secure it? I'm thinking it could be done without looking like a cheap fix and the tape would not reduce the space for the already tight Beast shot...

Just a thought...

IMG_4017.JPG

Got the Storm/Xavier switch issue squared away and went on to have the game of my life last night.

I didn't realize that if you have Brotherhood or Hellfire multi lit but don't start them you can keep going back in to the Blackbird to start other villains much easier. I wound up getting to Dark Pheonix. There are some HUGE points in there, and the sound FX are awesome. Cyclops to Storm combo gives extra time and about 7.5 million for the combo.

Unfortunately I couldn't beat Wolverine, so I couldn't enter the Danger Room on this epic game, but man, this machine is awesome when you get those combos dialed in.

I took wolverine off and used that foam on the metal post that wolvy sits on and it works great!

That actually replicates the "feel" of the captive ball mod.

The post is about the same width as the captive ball.

I also played with the post only before I did the ball mod.

If anyone is on the fence about the captive ball mod, you can take off the figure and play with the post, and it'll give you a very good idea of what it plays like. Put some insulation tape on the post if you don't have the foam, it'll save the ball from damage.

rd.

I have put off asking (as some people seem very touchy on the subject), but what is the status of the captive ball kit? No updates for a couple of weeks on it's thread. Issues still seemed unresolved at that time and the Mezle Mods website still says it should be ready by April 1st.

I'd love to know too. I want to try this out, but I would like the complete kit.

Maybe someone should PM TMezel?

Last I heard, he was testing the new switch on his machine and then getting the kits going again.

Hi guys, new xmen pro owner here, super excited to get it, all goes well it should be here tomorrow.i was hoping someone out there can help me with a few questons? Whats the latest code that should be running in the pro? And whats the best way to set the game up for me it will be to have hero stacking off, if any of you guys have any advice on best way to set it up I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Simply check on Sterns website for the latest version of the code. Your version displays on the DMD when you power up the machine.

Do a "factory reset" on the machine, and that will make it "as it should be" and wipe all the high scores as well, so you can start afresh.

rd.

Not sure what factory setting is, but turn hero stacking off for now. It makes it easier to understand The flow of the game.

The Newton ball kit is available again from TMezel at the link below:
http://mezelmods.com/collections/x-men/products/x-men-wolverine-newton-bracket

Make sure to get the whole kit if you don't want to track down the pieces and target switch yourself.

how difficult is it to install?

Soldering two wires from the old switch to the new one is the hardest part and even that is easy. The rest is putting in posts and a Newton ball. Very easy install.

The switch has a plug so you can solder it all on your bench.

I was wondering about that. I will probably try to find the same size plug and add it to the newton kit switch. That would pretty much make it even more plug and play and easy to swap.

If you do find the plug, let us know so I can make one myself.

Just got my x-men pro through the week. wow what a game, I truly love it!! having a copy I noticed so much more than playing on location, The gambit hurry up is worth big points if you can get it done in quick time, I noticed I can usually beat omega red, have any of you guys got a strategy when it comes to collecting hero's and fighting villans? would love to hear about it, x-men rocks!!!!!