For both updates, logged in/not logged in, really hasn’t helped.

PM me you email address. You may be able to download from my dropbox.

Robert

FYI, the link that is available on the API web page is the same one that was shared out by them to people who had contacted them on FB earlier. So, the link that I've got set up is still the same version and a valid mirror.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VOQNke6sYFryvWK2gTAfiC6L1gfacERH/view?usp=sharing

The computer I left working on it at home at 5 am seems to have completed the download during lunch, so may have a shot at getting it into the machine this evening. Perhaps there's no need for an ellipsis at all.

Our beloved ferret is off polishing ABBA code. I am hoping internally AP keeps working to polish this code as it still needs more debugging. I can bring up the TEAM vs mode screen with right flipper/start button but it keeps adding ‘Hunter 1’ to both sides. And even so there is nothing to indicate I am in vs mode (i presume it would be like Jurassic Park now has coded) while playing.
Am I doing something wrong?

Download for me took just under 2 hrs.
I let the game upload overnight but so far so good.

May I ask someone explain what the Neutron Bomb in the game is?

Code successfully installed.

I played the new code once or twice at TPF, but didn’t notice much difference there. After five games last night, this seems like a step in the right direction. The game kept track of balls much better than it had previously and also heard a lot more callouts. Have not had a chance to play any multiplayer games yet.

Working properly, I love this game’s geometry, style and shlock. Hoping AP keeps on keeping on with this title.

Couldn’t agree more. The new code is a definite improvement. If they don’t abandon it, I’ll consider future AP offerings, I have 3 in the collection so far.

My game seemed to take a long time to install the code, maybe 30 minutes, then the solenoids didn’t activate even with test mode, just the ufo and tank. Our internet was slow yesterday, maybe I’ll download again. Agree with the positive comments on this game, great flow, fun to play, challenging and distinctive modes. It’s also beautiful pinball art.

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Make sure you reformat and completely erase the contents of your thumb drive. I had some fragments on mine (even after deleting) and that caused the install to fail.

The install does take a long time tho even when it works.

As already stated, yeah this upgrade takes a good bit of time. Regarding the solenoids not firing, this may be the issue some have experienced with the HV overload safety (I think that's what it is?) tripping and requiring a reboot (with 30 seconds of sitting powered off) of the game. On a game I work on we had this happen often when the coin door was opened... very frustrating during leagues/tournaments. The fix for us has been to remove an extra capacitor out of circuit. See my post here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/galactic-tank-force-owners-club-get-your-ice-cream-here/page/22#post-8008168

Alright - Finally after a 7 or so month wait my game is here. Have not been successful in acquiring the DE I requested and have ended up with LE 109

I have some questions if anyone could help me here please

How do you control the tank tread lights - The remote doesn’t seem to do anything ?

Does the machine connect to the internet ? It asks me to select the online enable then says it will need a reboot but what are the steps for this please as if i turn off and on again nothing has changed

I’ve got the download - Do i plug the thumb drive into the dongle wire inside the coin door ?

Left wire form - The ball kicks itself off every time it runs down there about 2” before the end. Does something need bending or adjusting ?

Have turned up the flipper coils to 35 - is there a preferred setting number that’s been found ideal ?

My 4 button control inside the coin door isn’t working properly. same issue i had with the Stern one. I’ve stripped and cleaned it and rubbed and wiped the contacts on the circuit board but the volume up button doesn’t work. Fitted my stern one and that is working. Any suggestions on a fix or a new unit is needed ?

Thank you

Turn game off. Plug thumb drive into the dongle wire inside coin door. Turn game on. Screen will tell you what is going on.

When finished. Unplug thumb drive. Turn game off. Wait a couple minutes. Turn game back on.

LTG : )

-Wifi: Yes it connects, but it doesn't really do anything for a home user case. No wifi updates/or functionality like insider connected

-Coil Settings: In this thread there is an excellent coil setting guide that totally changed the game for the better. I did all that were mentioned here exception of the VUKs, on mine it was blowing balls out of the wire forms at the higher settings. Update: Here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/galactic-tank-force-owners-club-get-your-ice-cream-here/page/7#post-7664222

-Wire Form: Not sure what you mean by the wire form, you mean the VUK that goes up to the ball lock? is it falling out before it gets down to the flippers?
-Buttons: hope you get that figured out, haven't had issues like that on mine

Download under 5 Minutes, when i work all other in your part of the world sleep…..

Can someone pin this post #339 (or this one I truncated down and lightly updated) to the Key Post? This totally changed my game for the better for me.

Continued from quote:

List of adjustments made so far (Slightly updated by Top Fuel Friday based on code updates/new things I've done since this posting:
1) Set the slope to 6.5 degrees and level side to side
2) Turn down the treble on the back box amplifier. It was turned all the way up from the factory and I adjusted it to about 25%. This takes the edge off the SHRILL sound the game makes when counting the score after a drain was PAINFUL to my ears. American Pinball if you read this, I’m begging & pleading that you to make this awful sound less harsh in future code updates
3) Set the outlane opening to the lowest setting to close the outlane opening down and reduce the drains down to an acceptable level.
4) Ordered the (free) reinforcement brackets for the tank to mitigate the airballs from American Pinball if not already installed. There are two, one underneath the play-field and one 3D printed plastic one behind the targets under the tank.
(SE/LE Only) - Also ordered the covers for the notch in the tank treads where the wires are to be routed that was missing in my box (For LE /Signature Trim Only).
5) Ordered the Orange Plastic Protectors for the slings (Pinside Market https://pinside.com/pinball/shops/shop/1256-upkick-pinball/08566-galactic-tank-force-plastic-protector-set-american-pinball )
6) Adjusted the height of the magnets flush with the play field and tightened the bolt. It was loose and the magnet was below the playfield so balls were getting hung up there, other users have reported paint chipping around these magnets. level them and do #7 below
7) Add Mylar squares over the two exposed magnets to protect the play field, just to squares cut from a roll. The pieces should be large enough to cover a centimeter of the play field in all directions from the magnet
8) In the settings:
a. Adjusted the Power setting of the center post to 25. This is VERY IMPORTANCE. The game is brutally difficult and frustrating if this isn’t functioning as it should to protect from Strait down the center drains off the tank. This alone turned the game from “I’ll be getting rid of this quick” to, “I think I’m going to keep this for a long time”
b. Set difficulty EASY.
c. Set game to 5 balls
d. Increase pop bumper coils from 14 to 16
e. Increase the left and right VUK (Vertical up-kicker) coils that pop the ball up onto the ramp by about 3 IF yours is having difficulty popping the ball up into the lock area or making the bend on the right wire form. (You may be good from the factory though so don't adjust if you have no issues)
f. In the sound section, I turned down the Sounds and turned up the speech and music to further diminish the awful score counting sound
g. Set the knocker to physical
h. Increased knocker setting to heavy use
i. Increased shaker to heavy
j. Connected the game to my WiFi
k. Set the game to Adult mode. Note that there are no curse words and that this adds a little more humor to the call outs for example: “What the Fudge?”
9) (LE/SE Only) Ran the power to my tank treads by plugging into the soldering iron plug inside the cabinet and then routing the wires out the opening in the bottom of the box. This involved loosening the metal grates.
10) (LE/SE Only) Found the wire to attach to the light in the tank turret in the wire harness inside the lower cabinet and connected that.
11) Installed update to newest software which requires a 32gb usb drive and 45 minutes - https://www.american-pinball.com/support/updates/
12) Install community tank target reinforcement bracket - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/galactic-tank-force-3d-printable-under-playfield-tank-target-support

Added 9 months ago: **Update** I received the supporting bracket for the tank standups that were being bet backwards. It was very easy to install. I question weather the brace that goes underneath the table is adequate to keep the the standups from bending back. I think not. I'm still getting Air Balls that hit the glass every single game. It is sort of disturbing having the ball smack the glass during a game. My machine has maybe 20 plays on it. I believe AP needs to come up with a better LONG TERM solution. For the bracket instillation I watched the well done YouTube video. Amusingly, during this video I learned that the top of the tank opens up and a robot pops out during game play. This is a cool feature that is just now working on my game. It would be SMART for American Pinball to include a simple "QUICK START GUIDE" to tell people things like "remove the packing foam around the robot" when setting the game up.

There must be some people that enjoy the default difficulty, no?

I feel like that's a lot of the charm of the game.

Having said that, I don't know what adjustments the location near me did to the game.

I'm not super great player by any means, but mine was borderline playable, I made those changes the first week of ownership and made the game a ton more fun for a home setting. the outline post could be left the same (mine are as they shipped from factory) but the coil settings and a few of the menu changes really amp'd up the gameplay.

Thanks for the replies. There were some things i had already done ( like play with the Amp. I’ve turned up my sub to almost full, same as the bass and the treble is about 1/4 from start. I’m playing around with the sound now . The balance of speech and music isn’t in par. I’ll get there soon
The control button issue i have solved - It was a poor connection on the inline molex plug further up the loom. Disconnect and reconnect and now it’s sorted
I’ve adjusted the pops , the VUK’s on mine seem fine. The magnet is ok.
I do reccomend trying out the flipper coil increase.
I found the lamp in the turret to have come out in shipping.

1 major issue i had was the pops weren’t working. i adjusted all the leaf switches to real sensitive but turns out the right pop they had assembled wrong and the spring was ontop of the skirt and not below it.
Now they are all firing and totally changed the game play
The wire form is the rail the ball runs down the left side from the diverter. i got some pipe grips and a cloth and squeezed it in a touch where i saw the ball flipping out - all sorted now

The centre pop up adjustment is great thanks now

What makes the turret light up ?

Will do the update when i source a larger thumb drive

Does the lunch box come with the limited or just the signature ?

Anyone know if AP will be at Allentown?

They don't seem to be on the vendor map ..

The wait a couple of minutes part on power cycling did the trick for me. I'm liking the new code!

Any idea where the release notes are for this code. The new code usually has release notes. Have they failed to do that this time? What are some of the major changes to the new code? I’m really afraid to download this code if it is full of bugs. I am so disappointed in the rollout of everything this company does. It’s really depressing.

I like what I am seeing with the new code, though it would be so much easier to evaluate if a change log was released. How long could it possibly take to draft? Atomic shied seems to work more often and smarter. Can now click through more (though not all) of the cut scenes we've watched so many time. Also seems like the UFO/cow is triggered more often by default, which is good since it's by far the most lucrative mode of the game. Sadly, the game still features employees -- and ex-employees -- which completely takes you out of the "world under glass." Same thing with Godfather. I've made this comment before and I doubt it will ever change, since they are even featured in attract mode.

I've owned almost every Spike 2, some very briefly, some more than once. I still contend that this game, when set up properly, shoots as smoothly and as fun as any Stern.

Regardless of the current bugs, the new code is better than the old code.

Absolutely agree - I havent seen any game wrecking bugs (but prob am not looking hard enough). Regardless, new code plays much tighter, smoother and seems to flow much better! Hope they continue to refine as its a fun game to play.

Not sure, plus they haven't been able to put together a decent manual in a year +.

Robert

I’m finding the music becomes quiet a few mins into a game - say on the 3rd ball out of 5 . Once it drains and starts again the music is normal again. Speech etc is not affected

Do you mean a more decent manual than 1.0 which is available at the hp?

Uggh, I was hoping that would have been fixed! Some sound effects still work, but the background sound stops, like you said, until the next ball.

Still, glad to have an update with obvious improvements.

I was waiting until after the new code was released before I commented on an issue that my SE has had, in case the code fixed the problem. It has not.

After someone plays a game that lasts longer than just a couple minutes, some of the feature lights will be “stuck” on after the game has ended and throughout the attract mode and into every other subsequent game and in tests modes. The only way to get the lights back in sync is to turn off the game and turn it back on again. It’s not always the same lights and I don’t believe it’s a wiring issue as it corrects itself once the game has been turned off. If this has been an issue for anyone else, I’m not sure of a solution has already been discovered. I’ve tried to look. Thanks for any help.

IMG_3892 (resized).jpeg

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Why is it that when the "Shoot Again" insert is lit and the ball is lost, that the ball count still advances? Anyone else? And as a side note, what does it take to earn a Badge in this game?

I got a bit lost after reading all the thread to the actual size spacer needed for the ball
lock pin adjustment

Is the AP supplied parts correct or am
i better off sourcing my own ?

I absolutely love my GTF and it seems its only gonna get better with new updates.
But as I kept looking at the theme, it seemed a bit…. familiar yet missing something.. then AHA! The light went in and i began to work towards a few minor tweaks in the theme that seemed “to me” to elevate it to cult status..
Below are a few minor ones i made.. as well as a custom topper for said theme

IMG_2654 (resized).jpeg

IMG_2655 (resized).jpeg

Great job on the topper and capturing the Mystery Science Theater 3000 vibe!! Looks fantastic - well done! Chris

Excellent job!

That is amazing and I want one.

WE'VE GOT PINBALL SIGN!!!! <chaos ensues>

I'm an old Mistie from way back in the day. Love that topper. Also love my GTF, the new code really settled it down and although the physical ball lock is still hit and miss, it never fails to release the ball after a few tries, so it is working......eventually. Other than that, no problem with the machine whatsoever.

That is a great topper ! Thank you for the picture !

LTG : )

Have you not got the sound drop out issue when playing through any ball for more than a few mins ? then it comes back real quite then disappears again?

I had this happen. I've only played two games since updating the code, and it happened on one of them.

Mine does the same...

Robert

I did have that when the physical ball lock was trying to release the balls during the "launch" of the fighters part. Almost like the machine was trying to figure it out and couldn't do game play and working to release at the same time. When they released as meant I did not experience a sound drop off.

I wonder whether to re download and reinstall the update again to see if it clears any glitches …. ?