So...I'm not a pinball CAD whisperer, by any stretch, but here's what I see:

Lock loads from an inner loop shot from UR flipper.
Locked balls act as strike-able captive balls?
Pop-up bash toys to block each ramp.
IJ-style scoop is in front of left front pop.
Something is in front of that, too?
Ramps return to same-side flipper.

It looks like there's a magnet in front of the right pop, but there's a disc in front of the center lock, too. Both magnets? One spins in LE?

Love the red logo, hope that's on the pin. I've been wondering if they might go with too much yellow and it looks like the answer so far is no.

If it's Nightcrawler, can we assume it's a mode where they alternate? There would be some strategy to choosing which ramp you want open, etc.

What's going on in the drawings where it shows inserts that would seem to be underneath the ramp entrances? I can't visualize what that's about.

I wondered if that was the case. The ramp in the video is clearly homemade, so I figured it's possible that they use metal in the design process until the ramps can be molded.

That moving third ramp rumor is the one that's most interesting to me. I can't visualize from the CAD drawing where it goes. Is it meant to have something to do with the IJ4-style moving scoop, or perhaps the VUK up by the ball lock?

That said, the video also showed the right ramp being metal and we know from the inserts that isn't the case, so I wouldn't read much into it.

I'm wondering if the odd scale of Wolvie is practical in nature -- perhaps it needs to be balrog-big to house the bash switch mechanism. Or maybe the idea is to have something really attention-grabbing for a person to notice when they walk by on route. It's so obviously out of scale that there's got to be a reason.

Not to be a downer, but neither of them appears in the lamp map or cad in the video. I think they got specced out.

Anybody listen to Gary's speech from the nw pinball show? There wasn't really any new information, but there was one place where he seemed to indicate that the sound improvements made for AC/DC are carrying forward to XM. I'm wondering if others interpreted it the same way.

Apparently I'm going to keep plugging the nw pinball show videos, because I watched the David Thiel interview last night and there was some new information in it.

* He mentioned having 9 villains and 9 heroes, each with their own mode and music. (Confirms what we've heard, and is almost more than is represented by inserts.)
* Mentioned wizard modes, plural.
* He referenced many times that the "young guys" had lead on the code with support by both Lonnie and Lyman, primarily Lonnie, and that they were big fanboys and focused on authenticity.
* He personally watched like 40 hours of XM movies and animated shows, plus read lots of comics, so he could get it right.
* He used putting Lady Deathstrike together as an example of a character that needed research -- interesting because she's got no insert, is more of a Wolvie villain, and I don't think is even on any of the cabs.

There's a diverter behind Mags; looks like a gate-style and not a post.

What I'm wondering is how a straight shot will work if that lock isn't lit -- does it come around and out that inner loop or just drop right back out? Kinda looks like it'll bounce right back.

A few impressions from the pic:

Wolvie seems to be angled more towards the player. Still looks like he's floating over the playfield, and he's still big.

Is there a lamp on the inlane right ramp deflector? That's new.

The illuminated arch windows aren't illuminated yet.

Shame the left ramp/right ramp dock is blurred out.

With a little zooming you can see metal ramp protectors on the right ramp. Yay to that.

You can also see a metal bracket that shows where the right ramp/left ramp dock is (by the blue flasher dome).

There seems to be some weird support wireform contraption under the right ramp when at rest; perhaps it can trigger a switch and overcome the issue of dropping the ball past the inlanes?

I can't understand why they wouldn't just post a real playfield pic, already, especially after pulling the shop job the first time around. Stern is silly sometimes.

I wonder what happens when you've got 3 in the lock and then start one of the (apparently many) other multiballs. Either they'll have drop from Magneto for all of the mbs (which would then potentially spoil the predicted spinning disk magnet mb start when you actually start Mags) or it has to be a 6 ball game.

Also, the Nightcrawler targets are clearly meant to be hit from the front only -- there's even exposed metal on the sides. Will the side flipper perhaps be disabled during the mode?

Love that Stern posted the rulecard. For me, they upped their game with that move. It's particularly cool that Hellfire and Brotherhood will allow you to choose from multiple villains. I assume Emma Frost will be one of the former and Mystique will be one of the latter.

I'm betting the software will have some compensation for the fact the ramp bypasses the lane and that a successful shot will still progress towards Mystery (say, the ramp switch itself randomly awards one of the lanes) but we'll see.

It's not like WOZ, where the bulbs change color. There are instead 3 bulbs of different colors in (some?) GI locations, and these will be used to change the color of the playfield illumination. The inserts aren't involved; it's limited to the playfield lighting.

David Thiel has spoken of writing the themes for each character, etc. It sure sounds like it's all custom.

Speaking of Mr. Thiel, did everybody see this info he posted in the FB discussion of the new pics?

"this spinning is not like previous discs in that is is geared down to spin slower. Its effect on the ball is less chaotic. I like it a lot more than previous discs."

The animated series theme would be perfect as an attract mode tune, the way SM used the old Spidey song. It would be a great easter egg for the fans.

Also Stryker, plus some characters/modes we already know. Each is marked as "Ratchet" or "Devastator" or, I think, "Mad."

Cyclops is marked as Starscream, and whatever is at the bottom of the lefthand column is marked Bumblebee. So either there's some equivalence to the TF modes or they are being used as codes.

Who can say how Devastator and Ratchet work in TF? I'm not familiar enough with it.

The "voices provided by Marvel" wording has always struck me as a little odd because it doesn't make it clear if any custom voice work was done. I'm starting to suspect that what we'll get is sound clips from the series plus custom voice work done by Stern. That would explain both the non-Blum sound of the voices in the video (they'd be the custom work) and the confirmation by knowledgeable folks that Mr. Blum is in the game (via the clips).

Just a theory; I am in no loop whatsoever.

Does the SAM system have on-the-fly synth capabilities like any PC sound card would? I always assumed so. Spidey certainly sounded like it. If so, compression wouldn't be an issue.

The news is a little disappointing but, on the other hand, the LOTR roms were 5MB. A lot can be done with limited space.

Speaking of ball launching...any concern of that w/ the Nightcrawlers? Since they go up and down on a timer, it seems like there would be times when a ball would be rolling over a target when it pops up.

Loving pretty much everything this has revealed. The voices sound great to me (Mags is wayyyy better than the first vid suggested) and the tunes/dots are top notch. Lots of fan service in having the characters called by both the code names and real names, using different character voices based on the character relationships, and the like. The disk and ramp both look like they'll be integrated into gameplay quite a bit.

The most encouraging thing to me was actually the Juggernaut mode. It indicates that the villain battles will have the narrative many have suggested would be cool -- shoot one shot to knock off the helmet and then bang Xavier to hit him with the psychic blasts. That kind of theme integration goes a long way, in my opinion. If all of the modes have been thought through like that I'll be pleased.

Thanks for the vid! Feel free to just keep it rollin' and not worry about what happens/doesn't. Any footage is good footage, sir.

Akuma, I remember that well. They used to show it about once a month on Sunday mornings and as a little kid it would infuriate me that there was never a new episode of what was clearly an awesome show.

In the comic-con video just above, I could have sworn I heard Iceman say "The X-Men are my amazing friends," which I would take as a clear easter egg reference to the Spidey and His Amazing Friends show that featured Iceman and the occasional X-Men appearance.

I don't currently have a three flipper Stern to check, but shouldn't changing that behavior be a simple matter of swapping the wiring of the leaf switch?

I have mine all set up and because understanding the rules is really important to me, I took the glass off and set out to answer the questions about stackability and progression, etc. (Some would disagree with doing this, so, you know, spoiler alert.)

Here's what I found, and bear in mind that overall I think the game's a blast and it's understood there's code yet to come.

You can't start heroes or villains until you play Mags once, as Gambit reported. I found the lanes worked the same way he explained.

Wolverine multiball doesn't seem to exist yet or has some requirement that's not communicated. I couldn't start it no matter what I tried.

Stacking: basically, none. Once a mode is started, villain or hero, you can't make progress towards anything else except lanes and locking balls towards Mags. Hellfire hits don't count, character shots don't progress, etc. This goes for heroes, villains, and (I think) multiballs.

There isn't mode progression memory that I could find. If you start Cyclops and make three shots, you start over the next time. (And I'm not sure he's complete-able in the current code. It seems that it only registers shots after the spinner has come to rest first, which can't happen 9 times in the time given. Holding the ball right there and pushing it through, I couldn't complete it in time. Maybe other shots start to qualify, don't know.)

Starting all of the heroes, but not completing them, doesn't qualify the mini-wizard.

There you have it, all info subject to change, this is based on 20-30 mins of rolling the ball around with a rag in the trough.

(FWIW, I do like surprises, so I let most of the modes just time out and tried not to pay attention to the dots/requirements of each mode, focusing only on the stacking and progression questions.)

In my actual gameplay (relatively few games) I find that the ball is very trappable, the ball times are average, and actually completing modes is tough. It's difficult to light the lanes as many times as is required with the safest shot passing them over. Gonna have to dial in Xavier.

Some other notes after more live play:

My Wolvie registers every time.
Backhandable shots L: scoop, Beast (best way to do it), Gambit, Wolvie.
Backhandable shots R: Iceman (barely, but consistent), Cyclops
If lit, the scoop will award add-a-ball during Mags, and will award it as a re-start/extension if you drain down to one ball.
Scoop is generous in awarding extra balls.
The ball doesn't always go into the scoop when it dribbles down the left side, maybe 50%. (Is this the same for others?) I get drains from this. Nudging helps.
The adjustments have a combo champion and award, but it isn't in the code yet from what I can tell.
The adjustments have mode start set to hard by default. I tried medium and it's the villain mode start this seems to impact. Good for guests, so they can see them, but I put it back.
Xavier can be dialed in pretty well -- it's an important shot to light the lanes and at the outset Xavier to Phoenix for the lock is key.
Magneto starts with either 4 locks, or any ball locked and a number of hits to the captive -- this is great, non-pinheads will be able to get there easily, as that's what gets bashed if you are just flipping like crazy.
The Storm ramp is very forgiving compared to, say, STTNG. You don't need a full power shot by any means.
No NC yet for me (20 plays or so).

I'll throw in on the theme feel question.

As a longtime X-Men reader who probably wouldn't have bought a NIB LE for anything but this precise theme, I think it's a home run. It's absolutely packed with character appearances (there are at twice as many characters in the game somewhere than are represented on inserts), there are many nods to the relationships between characters (wolvie/jean, wolvie/sabertooth, etc.) and all of the classic lines you'd expect make appearances. I don't have the mode rules too locked down yet, but particularly for the villains they are appropriate to the characters.

Theme integration is the thing the game does best, as of the current version of the code.

Mine's done it two or three times, but very rarely.

I got around to doing the basic protections of my XM today and none too soon. I found small clearcoat chipping at the inside bottom edges of the scoop, and also at the edge of the ball trough. I'm trying the Hard as Nails technique. Also put pinball pal protector in the shooter and on the magnets; we'll see how that holds up.

Try backhanding it. You've got to be quick, but at least on mine it's quite doable. It can be trapped when it comes back, rinse, repeat.

Exactly! That's the current issue with the progression -- LOTR depth with IM challenge; two great tastes that go only ok together. Easily fixed, though, and the earlier prescription would ease all ills for me -- no mandatory Mags, no need to complete each character.

Speaking of completing rules, do we need a separate XM rules thread? As I've played I'm noticing some rule depth that wasn't immediately apparent. One time I finished Cyclops in about three shots; I think comboing Storm and/or Rogue had something to do with it.

Rogue mode is curious; you can complete it very quickly with just a couple of shots to any character, but I'm not sure if it's as simple picking a power or two to steal and hitting the shots multiple times, or if there's more (or less) to it.

(I also had a thought, and this is probably wishful thinking, that once you pick a character to mimic in the Rogue mode maybe Rogue's shot doubles as that other character's shot for the rest of the ball. Cool idea. Pure speculation.)

I think there's an Omega Red bug. When it starts with Beast, which it likes to do, no shot on the playfield is lit and nothing I do can get it to switch to the next character. And I've hit that Beast shot plenty.

This. You just need to keep banging away at the lit shots and eventually his helmet pops off and you hit X to collect. I've done it a few times.

I'm on the fence about this one. When we get Weapon X multi in the game, you'll want to be able to repeat that and stack with other modes. If any of the hero modes do have a completion bonus that impacts scoring (speculation) then you'd want to be able to restart them. Theoretically, if you get rid of the completion requirement I'd be ok with it.

Which brings up another point; I don't know that we know yet if there *is* a completion requirement to get to the minis. I tried that one time with the glass off and started all of the hero modes to see if the mini would light and it didn't; however, it could be that it requires the not-there Wovlie multi to light, or it could just not be there yet. It's a TBD. Anybody light all of the villains yet? Best I've gotten is four.

I've got the shaker installed. It's really well used w/ Mags (this might be standard shaker functionality, I've never had one before, but I particularly appreciate that it goes off whenever you hit a jack) and is in other modes, as well, to a less noticeable extent.

I squeaked onto the leaderboard with a 25.5 and I've got two other low 20s. (There were a couple of extra balls in those games that I'm not sure how I earned -- one of them I think comes after starting your 4th hero mode or has something to do with Beast.) I mostly sit around 10 even in a good game. As it stands, multiple Mags rounds and actually completing a few modes seem to be where the points are.

Do those in the know have any news on the rumored early this week code update? Any chance for today?

That's the Xavier mode. You can go searching or if you hit him again it will light the shot of the mutant you are meant to hit. While we're on the subject, I noticed a bit ago that the side standups are possible options for the mystery shot.

It's a consequence of making the mode starts easier to obtain and removing the Mags requirement. Because of those two things, you are more frequently in a mode (where side target hits don't count) and doing less banging around trying to get one started.

I suspect the Weapon X multi might function like the Brotherhood/Hellfire multis and be the roadblock when it comes to getting the Danger Room wizard. I've had a couple of times now where I have had 6 or so heroes lit solid, but Wolvie is always blinking away, even after I felt I got pretty deep into the multi.

However you cut it, I'm finding that both mini-wizards are more full-sized wizard than mini-wizard in terms of difficulty reaching, even after the code update. Battle Royale in SM, for instance, was definitely easier to reach. You didn't have to achieve super jack on the Doc Ock multis to get there, which would be equitable to having to beat WX or HF/BH as in XM.

One more note re: HF and BH multis -- they are set to an "easy" start by default and there is an "extra easy" option, as well. Haven't tried it yet, but I will.

So, I tried turning the "reset wizard with new ball" option in the 1.2 code to on. What happens is that after you drain, any mode insert (hero or villain) that was started but not finished stops blinking. Any finished mode stays lit.

The character inserts (by the shot, not in the x) for a started mode stay solid, though. Heroes still take more shots to start the second time, even if you didn't finish them and they got "cleared" between balls.

Long story short, because mode completions still carry forward, and completions were the only thing that counted for wizard in the first place, the only impact on the game I can detect is visual. Perhaps there are more plans for the adjustment down the road.

I also tried setting HF/BH multis to extra easy start. Didn't seem to make a difference; still 10 hits.

Ahhh. That makes sense.

Perhaps Deadpool will be the all-lit-but-not-completed mini?

I think the ramp could be well integrated if they altered two things. One, the timing on the ramp move is just slightly off. It's always moving just before my shot completes into the left dock, ruining the looping benefit. Two, in some modes it always seems to be opposite from where it would help (Sabretooth is coming to mind), so a simple adjustment to the default start position would fix it. It's currently in a "I can see how this will be a valuable addition" state rather than "oh, this is helpful, cool" state.

Seems like there are a number of us who have had issues with the 8 driver board. My understanding is that it is a new part; perhaps they've got some initial QC issues. In all likelihood, the timing of the code release and your issue was indeed just a coincidence.

Based on the behavior of the "reset wizard at new ball" adjustments setting, I think it's possible that after the final wizard is fully implemented, one or both of DR and DP is going to lose the completion requirement by default and become mini. What that option does is, upon losing the ball, clear any mode that wasn't completed. As the qualification stands, that doesn't change anything. If completion wasn't a requirement, it would.

I'm coming out of the closet: I'm 100% on team shittybeast. I love it and will be bummed if they change it. Just like with good rock and roll, sometimes the charm comes from the imperfections.

Strength in numbers, friends. We need warmup jackets. To your point, Rob, they'd be flame retardant warmup jackets, of course.

You sure the insert was still flashing when it was done? I beat it once (...once) and had that same experience of thinking I hadn't finished, but it's like Wolvie multiball and resets to the beginning after you get a super jack. When I finally drained, I noticed the insert had gone solid.

Somebody had posted a rundown a while back that said hitting the wrong shots incurred a penalty in that mode, so maybe that's what you ran into. I haven't experienced it enough to notice that.

Yes, this. What I've seen is that when mb ends, the sentinel shots suddenly all start to hit, and the animations for them show, and the timer rapidly runs down to where it should be. Basically, it's like the mode has to catch up to what happened already. I think if you finish it, though, the light just goes solid and you don't see this behavior.

Ugh, I hate it when Marvel spoils a big event on purpose to get the media coverage. I'm 10 issues into a 12 issue series and they blow the arc. (Not blaming you, Akuma, I'd have run into it no matter what.) That said, it's, what, the third time he's died? I've lost track.

It does handle the relays, yes. The relays are mounted under the playfield, but they are activated by the transistors on the AUX board.

I don't know the exact wiring, but in some fashion or another that's got to be how it goes. I think I was the first to report an AUX board failure and my symptom was that all of the AUX components except the Wolvie magnet failed (which is backwards from what many others have seen). The GI didn't switch at all. The new board solved all ills.

My suspicion, given that everybody seems to report a different combination of failures (it's wolvie, it's NC, it's the lights, etc.) is that it's actually the IC on that board that is the main culprit.

There was a long discussion on the ghosting problem and it isn't related. As I recall, somebody was able to identify that one particular wire in the harness needs to be isolated and tied off from the rest. A quick search isn't turning it up, so it's probably buried in one of the many xm problem threads.

I'm curious what would be possible to do with the game in a small amount of time. Having no sense of how long changes "should" take, mind you, if we accept that no substantive update is going to happen, what are the bare minimum things we could hope for if someone were to put in some personal time, or be given, say, a couple of days to do what they can before calling it done? I would assume that any new modes (combo multiball, Deadpool, original Wolvie mode, replacing "Wizard Mode" wizard mode) would be right out. The question is, what simple changes, if we only got a couple of them, would give us the most bang for the buck? Here are my nominations.

1. Combo rewards: extra ball at 25, 10MM score bonus at 50, whatever. I'd love a double playfield or something but that would probably violate my rule of making the changes easy to implement. The combos are being counted anyway so it can't be all that hard to award some bonus when the counter hits various levels.

2. Change Dark Phoenix qualifying so that villain completion isn't required, only that all villains are started. However, make the jackpot value for Dark Phoenix dependent on how many modes were completed, much like with ST or STTNG. This would make Dark Phoenix much more reachable for players (I suspect that many, like me, find the multiball completion requirements to be a roadblock) and give them something other than Danger Room to play for. Plus, there's still incentive not to time out modes. (If "Wizard Mode" still required all villains to be complete, this would also mostly solve the problem of Dark Phoenix being skipped when Wizard Mode lights.) Again, this doesn't sound all that hard. It's just a change to the qualification check and a change to the Dark Phoenix jackpot value.

If I got those two things, I think I'd be satisfied enough to consider another Stern. What do others think? The game here is to keep nominations to a short list of theoretically easy-to-do things.