Shadow bug?

Has anyone seen this happen on The Shadow?

  1. Start Khan or Sanctum MB.
  2. Put a ball in either the Khan saucer or mode start saucer. 2X timer starts.
  3. Tilt with the ball in saucer in MB.
  4. Game moves to the next player but the ball is not released from the saucer.
  5. The next player is blocked from shooting the saucer.
  6. If this player or a later player starts a different multiball, the ball will eventually get released when they drain down to zero (?) balls.

Stuff to note:

  • Very reliably happens in testing every time.
  • No switch problems on the game, and both saucers function normally other than this problem.
  • If this problem happens, I can take the glass off and physically grab the ball out of the saucer, drain it, and the game behaves normally – doesn’t end ball, etc.
  • The machine is on the latest game ROM version. We also tried a factory reset, but it didn’t change this behavior.

Yep I’ve seen that exact situation a number of times. Also feels like deja vu writing this response :thinking:

I swear I seached and didn’t find this thread, also started by me. :frowning:

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so yet another tilting to gain advantage thing to look out for.

Pretty limited scenarios where it’s advantageous… Purposefully tilting during a multiball… At a no-keys tournament.

So if you lock balls in BOTH saucers then drain during triple jackpot timer, does that lock the rest of the players out of both multiballs and all modes? Have we actually found a screw-your-neighbor game worse than Getaway?

Will pull glass on my Shadow tonight to check if no replies by then.

I didn’t test it, but I’d be interested in hearing the results, including whether you can remove the balls from the saucers at the start of the next turn.

Would be great to get confirmation that yours has this bug with the one MB saucer too.

So what else is on the complete list of Shadow bugs?

  • Tilt while ball is in the saucer during multiball
  • 6 / 7 font error in the score in a multiplayer game
  • Stuck in single ball Hotel Monolith when double draining the end of ball save
  • Endless video mode with no phurbas left on the screen
  • Continuous ball save during second Final Battle (bug or feature?)
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I just tested this on my Shadow and yes it does lock all players out of both starting Modes and starting Khan Multiball.

Also, If any player starts Shadow Multiball while balls are stuck in both saucers, after you drain down to one ball, you will be in a one ball Shadow Multiball (balls still stuck in both saucers). Drain that ball, and the ball stuck in the Mode Saucer kicks out and AGAIN you are in a one ball Shadow Multiball. After draining that ball, the ball stuck in the Khan saucer kicks out, and you are back to normal single ball play.

The above test was done by starting Khan Multiball first, then locking balls in both saucers, and tilting.

If you start with Shadow Multiball, lock balls in both saucers, and Tilt while still in multiball, the next player can start Shadow Multiball and the Jackpots score as Triple Jackpots! This only works by starting with Shadow Mulitball, not Khan Multiball.

Of course you can only score 2 of these “cheap” Triple Jackpots because then the Super Jackpot is lit at the Khan Saucer, but there is a stuck ball there.

Everything above works the same when only locking one ball in the saucer (except you can earn Double Jackpots, not Triple).

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I got busy and you beat me to it. Very nice testing, looks like you covered all the possibilities. Good thing this situation is pretty hard to set up, although it sounds like the game does eventually recover and play correctly after a multiball empties the saucers.

I just confirmed the software behaves the same on my game running LA-4. Tilting with balls in both saucers advances players without ejecting. Starting Shadow multiball in this state allows unlimited triple jackpots.

One additional bit of info: after you’re in one-ball multiball (game ejected the mode-start ball), if put the ball back into the mode start hole it will start a 10 second timer for double jackpot, and at the end of this timer it will eject the Khan ball. At this point the game seems to have recovered: both holes lock and score normally and your now two-ball multiball ends when one ball drains. I tested this with the super lit so couldn’t actually score it, hence timer expiring, but I assume Khan will eject if a regular Jackpot remains and is scored in this situation.

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Does this only apply to balls put in the saucer during multiball as a doubler? What if I put a ball in a saucer to start a mode and tilt then? Will this same behavior occur?

Untested. My semi-educated guess is that it’s a MB-only problem.

Ball in saucer for double jp scoring does not score double jp in normal multiball even thow saucer holds ball and says jackpots doubled. It still Scores 100 mil as normal.

Now you’re making me wonder if I actually got the points when I got the triple Khan super the one time I ever did it.

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