It very well could be a correction for an unanticipated problem. Meteor is a standard size play field. Big Game was the first of the Stern wide bodies; It has a wider, more shallow apron angle which would affect how the ball would rebound.

Big Game was produced in 1980 so that is in the timeframe. For whatever reason that Stern employed it, the result ( for me anyway) is that I get these surprise rebounds with the bar removed.

I just recently bought a Gottlieb pin and there is a rebound post placed under the apron to facilitate bumping a ball back onto the play field. Others tell me that Gottlieb did this on some other pins, too.

It is a nice touch to get one last chance to save the ball. It keeps you on your toes.

I assume you are talking about those arrows coming from the saucer getting blown out with the ball constantly landing on them. A couple of the arrows on my play field were destroyed by that saucer shot. My restore guy repainted mine to look like new. I have some .010 plastic in that area to protect those arrows. A piece of mylar would also protect the arrows.

Your kicker arm cannot really be placed too far forward. About the only thing you can do with a kicker arm is rotate the entire assembly in the play field. I tried tweaking my kicker arm and just made things worse. The plastic dam worked.

Some .020" polycarbonate works great for this dam. .020 is light enough and easy enough to bend a 90 degree angle with a bench vise, or even fold it by hand like a piece of paper. It is also thin enough that you can cut it with a pair of cheap scissors from Walmart or Amazon.

Pick your poison

You can get a 10-pak for $13.00.

https://www.amazon.com/EasBriight-Plexiglass-Transparent-Flexible-Painting/dp/B0C6X7FGYQ/ref=sr_1_2

or

a 2-pak for less than $10.00

https://www.amazon.com/Sibe-R-Plastics-Supply-0-020-Thick-Polycarbonate/dp/B085W6WZD6/ref=sr_1_3

It is nice to have some of this material in your inventory.

Having some .030" polycarbonate is also nice to have in inventory. .030" can be cut with scissors but it can be a challenge.

https://www.amazon.com/Lexan-Sheet-Polycarbonate-Nominal-GENUINE/dp/B07BC5TJ3G/ref=sr_1_8_mod_primary_new

If you look carefully you can see the plastic I have installed to protect those arrows.

Pinside_forum_7999323_1 (resized).jpg

It's me missing a second check for the dip setting re: the background sound starting when it shouldn't. v12 should fix this. Does it not? IIRC barakandl tested the updated v12 rom and it was ok. I have yet to get to my machine to put it in though (emergency rearrangement of pins in basement last month prevents me getting to many games....)

I guess I need to make sure I have v12 in there.

Side request - if anyone can butn me a 512 ROM with v12 compatible with the Weebly board, it'd be appreciated. I'll cover costs - just send me a PM.

(At the moment, my Burner and eraser are all still in storage. )

slochar can you post a link to v.12 to make sure we all have the right one?

http://tsqmadness.com/slochar/ZIP/

latest versions always there. I don't post the direct links to the file as the filenames themselves will change over time as new releases are put up and the older ones replaced that way there won't be a dead link.

Also, it will show on bootup the version number in the match display, so you can test your machine directly without taking out rom chips. If it doesn't show the version number there it's not one of my rom mods.

Got it. Thanks.

I would pay for a set also.

I’m hoping there will be more playfields produced. Wasn’t sure what was happening with that.

Did you contact them? I assumed they weren’t limited. Just needed to get in a list.

I did in Aug. In Nov I reached back out again, but didn’t hear anything. Maybe they just haven’t gotten to it yet. Just wanted to make sure it was still an option and if anyone else had gotten the playfield from them recently.

FantasticPinball facebook has been quiet for a while now but Greg is still checking in on Pinside… anymore Big Game playfields on the way @fantasticpinball?

You need to get under the PF and physically grab the mech and bend it one way or the other.

The problem is that it's not a left/right bending, but a forward (away from the beck) or back (towards the solenoid) which you can't really bend.

Yes that in fact is what I mean Bending the entire thing will get the arm closer/further away from ball
20210903_032212 (resized).jpg

EDIT: Bending the Coil bracket

Oh! Huh, okay! I'll give that a try if I need to once I'm back up and playing. Thanks!!

I tried bending that arm when I was having my saucer eject problems. It did not help me at all.

Here is my take on it. You can bend and twist that arm all day long and the ball is still going to launch on a trajectory that is perpendicular to the axis of the pivot point of the arm assembly. If you want the ball to launch at a different path you will need to rotate the entire saucer assembly parallel to the direction you want the ball to travel. This means the red plastic triangle needs to rotate. And the hardware the arm is mounted on needs to also rotate. And to do this you will also have to move the solenoid mounting hardware, as well, or the coil plunger will not line up.

If you have twisted an arm and managed to change ball trajectory I will stand corrected. But bending and twisting the arm did not work for me the 2 times I tried.

When you start playing again and if you still have the problem, make a dam from a piece of cardboard and try that. You don't have to install it. Just stand there and hold the cardboard in position and keep hand feeding the saucer.

If a blocker dam of cardboard does not help then try the bending the arm.

Yep, this is the fix for 90% of that problem though.

I would like to get one as well. I passed on one early on because I wasn't ready for it at the time. I hope I didn't miss out on one.

Spoke to him end of December, requested one. He asked a question for clarification which I answered, and then silence. Even after poking twice since then. Hope he's okay.

perhaps he is to busy working and not able to deal with this right now. what he did to recreate this playfeild is no small feat. he has a lot of ambition. I hope he's having fun with what ever it is he's into

It’s been awhile since I last collected all the numbers on the bingo cards, but I did tonight. To have that epic, fast meltdown sound going on, then the triple bonus…still a fun fantastic game!

Now imagine it with 5x bonus!

Brought one home today! There are some advantages to going into 5-10 people’s basements per day for work…

IMG_4302 (resized).jpeg

Pretty good shape, Accord got a workout today…

IMG_4306 (resized).jpeg

IMG_4307 (resized).jpeg

IMG_4308 (resized).jpeg

Now that's a solid day at work!

Nice score. It looks to be pretty good condition.

I have decided that I would like to put a new play field in. mine. I have asked Fantastic Pinball if he will be making any more BG play fields.

Stay tuned

Damn he stopped making them already?

As I stated earlier in this thread, I contacted him in December, we exchanged info - but I never got a confirmation. Pinged him several times after, silence, despite him posting on threads here in Pinside. So, I hope he is, but ..

Follow fantastic on Facebook. He's definitely still making playfields

As far as I know he keeps no lists… he runs a playfield, puts it on Facebook and first come first serve. I wonder if you sent him a stripped one to sand and send back if you’d get it faster? You might as he wouldn’t have to have wood cut and inserts glued and sanded…. It may be a faster way to get one?

I sent him a PM around a month ago. He said he would make a post to start a list. I imagine he is busy.

If you check Facebook he has a big game post for people to comment if they are interested in buying one.

No FB account. Can't. So I also contacted him here.

That's what I did as well got mine a couple months ago but be a while before I get to it have two other swaps to finish up.

The eight ball swap is going on eleven years should really finish that one.

Holy heck. Only 11 years. I think my TZ took me a_ year.

I have several pfs torn down as well just for cleaning and rebuilding.... need to get back to those too.....

Does anyone have a set of instructions cards? I’m missing my left one.

I just printed mine from IPDB

Is this some sort of prototype, or someone’s hand painted pf?

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/413518918294998/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post

Wow. Very cool. It has a door bell on the front. Haha. Don’t think it’s a prototype. Just looks like a custom paint job.

My vote goes to it being some prototype

Adding the picture here for posterity:

BigGame.jpeg

Now that's an interesting thought.... a narrow body BG. Hmmm..... although it looks like it's still the wide body in the pic, it got me thinking seeing it in the meteor BG cab.

Yeah with it being narrow body, I wonder if that was the plan to start? Tsskinne sent me the ipdb link where they say there was a plastic playfield prototype but no one has ever seen one. Haha

I’m pretty sure that’s still a wide body.

It is, the flipper who bought it had the bidding up to $1350 before I blocked him

I agree. It’s got different color inserts in front of the drops and the inlane guides from early in the run.

I agree with prototype.

It is a Big Game, or wide body cab. No doubt about it. You can verify if you compare the apron to an apron on Meteor. There is the extra space between the apron cards and the the center graphics with the tape on. Also can verify by looking at the split metal in the middle of the apron.

It is a neat looking play field.

Thanks to Quench for grabbing the pic and posting it. The ad is gone.