Heighway Pinball - Full Throttle (Motorbike racing theme)

[swinks]

One thing - that dude at the ball lock is rather creepy - Swinks - mod needed!

maybe a mini lcd with laps remaining and other images, of a hot girl in a bikini

[pinnies4me]

One thing - that dude at the ball lock is rather creepy - Swinks - mod needed!

.... a hot girl in a bikini

Now you're talking!

[Strangeways]

Full Throttle Tutorial by Bowan

utoplay=1&rel=0

I really enjoyed the video and it was a great way to introduce the product to prospective buyers. Stern should watch this video and learn that the product is what you are selling, and not self centered egomaniacs seeking attention (GOT video)..

[swinks]

under the hood

[Retropin]

Groan.. stick down LED strip. Bottom end of the market lighting

[oldskool1969]

It is their entry model and really only a translate. You can get the full screen upgrade I believe?
Good for pub siting.

[GORGAR 1]

Good theme :) but dam ugly cabinet.

[shaneo]

I took delivery of a Full Throttle last week.
Incredible shot range, speed, more speed. There is one shot which I believe to be the fastest in pinball - the "fast lap" shot. It has and killer soundtrack, it's really well themed and LED back lit panels on the side are killer. The light show is also superb as is the artwork package.

The tech inside it what it should be - modern. Same with the cab styling -modern. It's not meant for folks who still think cricket bat can't be aluminium.

Rule set is complex enough without being too hard to remember.
The PF LCD is an absolute nesscesity - that's why it's there. You just don't get a moment to look up at the back box area when you are playing a ball - think MM busy-ness except on a wide body.

It's well built - putting the cabinet work of my "late model" games to shame. The unconventional PF glass and frame grow on you very quickly. It great not needing 1.2m behind all of your games so you can get the glass off - this assembly just lifts up. It is heavy however. Mine is powder coated and will soon be chromed, along with all the trim

An off the shelf commercial 27" LCD panel from Alibaba is the go if you want one up the back but it's really only those not playing the ball who will look at it. I'll get one anyway just to follow the crowd. Plug it into the space HDMI out

It has some teething as do all new games and new manufacturers. All small things which are easily addressed.

Their tech support is outstanding - I've have a couple of these teething probs and they are dang quick and helpful.

This is definitely a game for those not wanting same old remake/reissue/outdated technology - this runs on a Debian distro, the boards are connected via USB cables, there are 2 HDMI port's on the puter'. It has wireless, 2 ethernet ports. There are no micro-switches anywhere except for the shooter lane. It uses a toroidal and and the boardset does not get hot. All boards are in the cab - none up the back.

Honeymoon now over- this is the most fun/fast/cool pinball I've played. Style and substance.

Pricing was a bit over the cost of a Stern Pro model but you are talking apples and oranges - calculator vs computer, and it is far better constructed than any of my modern Sterns. On par with the pre 2006 cabs.

[robm]

Great review thanks

[Retropin]

Great to get a review... and a good one at that!

Can you post some pics please?

[KBRI1700]

Sounds like a fantastic machine.

Did you move on any machines in your collection?

[oldskool1969]

  good stuff. Congrats on this beauty.

[pinsanity]

This is another example of how pinball needs to evolve to both survive and grow.

Great to hear it get some positive feedback.

[oldskool1969]

very impressive on the game table swap. Not swop ( bloody journo's )

https://youtu.be/UxBPauQ4Wjo

[shaneo]

I've had the game a few weeks now and it's getting dialled in very nicely.
I did have to make plenty of adjustments but no game new or used is ever setup to your own liking.
The game is very sensitive to levels and angles - when it's not quite perfect it's a great game but when it is, the shots just fly and lead on to the next one.
Simple things such as adjusting pop/sling switches, a ball guide adjustment. Mandatory flipper adjustments and de-slopping of a couple of coils was also in order.
One of the USB hubs was not adequately fixed to it's mount and one of the USB cables just would not sit right.
Next is get the dang black rubbers off and replace with white. Then the thing will be insanely fast.
 
I had an IO board fail when updating it and have had to send it back to the UK for diagnosis. It's a bummer as it means a 1/4 of the playfield has not lamps/coils/switches but sometimes things fail.
These boards are PIC32 based and we think it may be stuck in update mode. I did suggest they (Heighway) SSH into the Utilite (the industrial Linux box it uses) and see if they could diagnose remotely but I didn't have the time to set that up with the current work sched so it was shipped last week. These Utilites are very cool with 2*HDMI, 6 USB' card readers etc.

The game is very sensitive to levels and angles - when it's not quite perfect it's a great game but when it is, the shots just fly and lead on to the next one. The shot angles however, are unconventional but when they flow, you really appreciate the engineering and design principles which underpin pinball.

When you raise the PF there is no mass of spaghetti wiring. Everything goes to it's local IO board then to the Utilite and back via USB. Of course there are power requirements for the coils/lamps/etc but they are distributed from the 4 IO boards.

For all it's greatness, it has makes the other games, such as Acca, feel like a toy and the wide bodies feel clunky and slow (and they sure are not). Unfortunately the others just won't get played much anymore with this monster in the room.

KBR - nothing is leaving just yet, but I was tempted. Suggest you swing past one evening this week and we'll make our arms feel like they are going to drop off.