Vector is not a well rated game. I bought one as I loved the artwork and the sheer complexity of it (double backglasses, 9 drops, out lane saucers, 2 or 3 multiball, popper, more speech than any game of era, a fantastic timed shot for how quickly your ball travels over the main loop, in playfield display, 4 flippers, rollover ....)
And of the 9 drops, 6 of them have individual solenoid control so the game can reset them correctly when you have a multi player game
Being honest, my Vector and I have not had the smoothest or most loving of of relationships. I collected it in January this year (a stressful business as the game died during my inspection of it at the seller's house, he knew nothing about pinballs and thought I had knackered it) and from the start I never really hit it off with this game. The previous owner bought a cracking example but had done zero maintenance for two years so components were literally falling off the underside of the playfield - causing the short that killed it when I first tested it
But all that has changed. I am now a Vector fan and have joined the small band of brothers who think it is an underrated game. I have read reviews that said the game needed to be well tuned to be any good - and I now wholeheartedly agree
Firstly I got it working properly -
A pinball friend came over a month ago and really enjoyed it, he asked me to sell it but as I had committed to taking it to NERG I said I wanted to give it a few more months
But it is having played a number of its peer group at the 8 bit flip and a midlands league meeting recently that really changed my opinion of it - gorgar, xenon, medusa, fathom, x's and 0's, future spa. I have had to enter the groove of a slower playing machine
And finally, twigging that hitting the targets on Vector in the right order (upper defenders and hype targets) rapidly accelerates your progress to both locking balls and to releasing 2 or 3 ball multiballs
People will vilify me, but of that list, I would only take fathom over it of the six games above
And of the 9 drops, 6 of them have individual solenoid control so the game can reset them correctly when you have a multi player game
Being honest, my Vector and I have not had the smoothest or most loving of of relationships. I collected it in January this year (a stressful business as the game died during my inspection of it at the seller's house, he knew nothing about pinballs and thought I had knackered it) and from the start I never really hit it off with this game. The previous owner bought a cracking example but had done zero maintenance for two years so components were literally falling off the underside of the playfield - causing the short that killed it when I first tested it
But all that has changed. I am now a Vector fan and have joined the small band of brothers who think it is an underrated game. I have read reviews that said the game needed to be well tuned to be any good - and I now wholeheartedly agree
Firstly I got it working properly -
- 4 rebuilt linear flippers
- 2 rebuilt slingshots
- Replaced top flipper with original 2" one, put weaker coil on it as original is STUPIDLY powerful
- Carefully adjusted EOS switches to stop the air balls vector is infamous for (the rebuilt lower left, upper left and upper right flippers all caused air balls)
- Cleaned high voltage switches to make flippers more responsive
- 9 rebuilt drops with new correct targets so the game looks so much sharper
- Rebuilt popper, with lots of faffing adjusting the leaf spring
- Adjusted the metal ramps
- Cleaned and waxed it
- Got the (mint) double back glasses nice and clean with all working bulbs
- New sony speaker in the floor of the game to make vector's huge range of speech more clearly audible
- Adjusted a metal ball guide so the "skill shot" actually meant something
- Cleaned up all the solenoids so the 5 saucers were snappier
- Adjusted one way gates so balls did not get stuck
- Cleaned up the shooter mechanism and stretched the spring so it had enough oomph
- Adjusted dip switch settings so hitting the upper defender drop targets in order means something (means you only need to knock three upper ones down and not the three lower ones before locking a ball)
- Adjusted leaf springs so the slingshots are as responsive aś inefficient linear slingshots ever can be
A pinball friend came over a month ago and really enjoyed it, he asked me to sell it but as I had committed to taking it to NERG I said I wanted to give it a few more months
But it is having played a number of its peer group at the 8 bit flip and a midlands league meeting recently that really changed my opinion of it - gorgar, xenon, medusa, fathom, x's and 0's, future spa. I have had to enter the groove of a slower playing machine
And finally, twigging that hitting the targets on Vector in the right order (upper defenders and hype targets) rapidly accelerates your progress to both locking balls and to releasing 2 or 3 ball multiballs
People will vilify me, but of that list, I would only take fathom over it of the six games above
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