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Part 3: 2008 Stern Batman Pinball * Updating code, cleaning & more!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·24m 41s·analyzed·Jul 8, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Batman code update, battery replacement, maintenance work, and playfield cleaning on 2008 Stern machine.

Summary

Mike Dimas updates a 2008 Stern Batman pinball machine with the latest code version, replaces a dying backup battery, installs a tilt bob, cleans the playfield, and performs maintenance tasks including replacing coil stop screws. The code update significantly improves gameplay with new animations, music, and sound callouts. He also counts the machine's 133 light bulbs as a challenge.

Key Claims

  • The 2008 Batman code version 2.02 had a flaky light bulb issue where the machine would enter ball search after sitting in attract mode for 10 minutes

    high confidence · Mike Dimas describing the issue that prompted the code update

  • The new code update likely adds a multiball to the right orbit, which was previously minimally used

    medium confidence · Mike Dimas speculating about code changes based on gameplay design philosophy

  • The backup battery was reading 0.9 volts before replacement, which is critically low for a 3-volt battery

    high confidence · Mike Dimas measuring the old battery voltage with a multimeter

  • The replacement Duracell battery measured 3.2-3.3 volts

    high confidence · Mike Dimas measuring the new battery voltage

  • The code update made the game 'practically hollow' before in terms of animations and music, and now it's 'a whole new game'

    high confidence · Mike Dimas comparing gameplay after playing several games following the update

  • George Gomez puts hidden targets in weird places on pinball machines

    medium confidence · Mike Dimas's observation about a hidden target in the outlane and connecting it to Gomez's design philosophy

  • The 2008 Batman has 4 factory LEDs on the playfield (not counting the flasher)

    high confidence · Mike Dimas inspecting the board-mounted LEDs for the jackpot and Commissioner Gordon callout areas

  • The machine has 133 total light bulbs (Mike guessed 98)

    high confidence · Mike Dimas counting all bulbs after removing them from the machine

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm on a bit of a time crunch, so I have a little bit of time to do an update to the code, and then I'll have more to resume in the future.”

    Mike Dimas@ 0:20 — Sets context for the episode's scope and motivation

  • “I mean, the game is practically hollow compared to all the extra animation and music, sound, call-outs... it's like a whole new game basically so that code update was critical and it is so much better now”

    Mike Dimas@ 14:46 — Demonstrates the dramatic impact of code quality on player experience and game satisfaction

  • “this thing's heavy and it's nickel plated it's shiny it's not like all dull we got dull less dull and even less dull that's like chrome friggin plated”

    Mike Dimas@ 12:41 — Shows appreciation for quality components and attention to detail in restoration work

  • “If you don't, there's a good chance the heads will shear right off. I've had to deal with at least four or five or six of them over the years that have sheared off and it's not fun”

    Mike Dimas@ 22:09 — Identifies a common maintenance issue with Stern coil stop screws that should be addressed proactively

  • “This is kind of a George Gomez type thing, right? Putting targets in weird places like that.”

    Mike Dimas@ 19:45 — References Gomez's design philosophy of hidden/unusual placement elements

Entities

Mike DimaspersonBatmangameStern PinballcompanyGeorge GomezpersonFuture SpagameLyman SheetspersonElectric Batcast Arcade PodcastorganizationWe Are PinballorganizationFred Marcocompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Shenanigans creates detailed video documentation of machine restoration and maintenance as educational and entertainment content

    high · Multi-part video series with detailed walkthrough of code update process, maintenance procedures, and component sourcing

  • ?

    design_philosophy: George Gomez intentionally includes hidden targets in unusual locations (e.g., unreachable target in outlane) as a signature design element

    medium · Mike identifies a hidden target in the Batman outlane and connects it to Gomez's known design approach

  • ?

    product_concern: Code version 2.02 for 2008 Batman had a flaky light bulb issue (ball search in attract mode) that was corrected in the update

    high · Mike explicitly describes the bug and confirms the update fixed it; confirms gameplay is now significantly improved with animations and music

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.074

0:00
Okay, I guess just, uh, whoa. Okay, I'm just gonna... wow. I'm Mike Dimas, and this is Involve Shenanigans.
0:15
Alright, Batman, episode number three. I'm on a bit of a time crunch, so I have a little bit of time to update the code, and then I'll have to resume in the future. But if I'm going to be doing anything to this machine,
0:36
I might as well hit the record button and take you along for the ride. Oh, also, I was at storage, my storage, my garage yesterday, working on Future Spa, and look what I found on Future Spa. the mint original coin box for batman i had left it over at the garage so add that in to the equation excuse me diet coke is kicking in all right so what we're going to do is uh go hit up the old laptop and go find the new code we are currently on version 2.02 and if you watched the last video you know that this code is weird oh i got a flaky light bulb because um if the machine is just sitting in a track mode for like 10 minutes it goes into a ball search hey fellow shenaniganders if you are enjoying what you are seeing why don't you click on these three dots at the bottom of any video and then find this heart, click on that, and hey, look at this. You can buy me a beer. You can use the slider to buy me 500 beers if you really like, but this is a way you can send thanks, and I very much appreciate your support. If you do so, your comment will be highlighted, and also I will give you a shout-out. So thank you for all your support. And I'm assuming the code update will fix that and whatever else it does. probably adds a multiball to that right orbit.
Deadpool
game
2:21
So I don't know if that multiball exists right now. I haven't spammed the right orbit. But I think that the right orbit was so minimally used that they incorporated a multiball into that to, you know, prompt you to shoot that right orbit a little more.
2:42
Does that arrow there look incandescent still? I mean that red arrow right under the spinner doesn't quite look as bright as that one.
2:51
Got a couple mental notes I got to make here. Or maybe I should put them on paper. Because mental notes, no bueno. They don't last.
3:01
My storage space up there is not a lot. And you put something in that storage space and it goes out very quickly. So I'll write those things down. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Anyway, let's go look up this code. Windows 11 is just weird. Still getting used to it. Here is my flash drive or USB drive.
3:27
I've got chroma.rom, which is a color DMD file. Where, oh where, do you find the effing format option?
3:38
It's not there. apparently you gotta go to this PC and then right click and then go format like why do you gotta make it so difficult start erase okay now format complete close now I always have trouble finding the stupid thing gotta go back to this PC this is the worst video ever right now double click this I guess there now drag this over to here alright it's not taking too long actually boo how does Batman theme song go nanananananananananananananananana Batman there we go okay now I saw like a eject USB Drive button somewhere but no that's vanished now so now we got to go down here and here eject flash drive alright this is not the one I normally use so it is 8 gigabytes though all right let's head over to the machine all right say goodbye to all the audits and all the history of the machine but it must go so it's been a while since I did this but I know we're gonna move dip switch 8 over and then got our USB guy right here hit that oh I made a noise that's good and then what do we hit a this button or something oh what is this press select to begin okay I got to open the door to press select get me back there hello do I get a pull the interlock switch I guess so pinball eat wrong am i doing this right this does not look familiar Update game code Hitting enter on Coindor 2 Press select to update
6:19
Look at that. We're in business. Step 1 of 2. Erase the flash. Okay, well that wasn't too bad. Now I just gotta sit here and probably wait for 45 minutes.
6:35
These codes are notoriously long. It's 634. Okay. Remember that. And we'll see how long it took. Okay, it's 638.
6:51
Only four minutes have gone by and we're already on step number two. 17 of 29,000 thousand or a million whatever we're like 60% of the way so it's going pretty quick oh I forgot to check the time but we're almost there it's only been like another minute let me check my watch here 640 okay we're almost there see what happens update complete remove memory stick and it even tells you set dip switch 8 to off okay press select to reboot or power cycle game I like this select select will reboot the game let's try yeah that worked Batman Dark Knight whoo there it is it worked that's pretty sweet LFS, Lyman Sheets shout out, that's cool. A lot of these factory high scores are usually like employees or friends of employees or something. But I saw LFS as in that, Lyman Sheets shout out.
8:41
Okay, so one more thing I'd like to do. is check on this battery and see if it needs to be changed. So I'm going to pull that out and usually you want to do that with the machine on so you don't lose any data. But there's no data to lose but I'm going to do it with the machine on anyways and then we'll measure the voltage and see what it is. Okay I'm clearly doing it wrong because it took me several attempts to figure out how to pull this thing out. It's just was clipped in there pretty good and uh definitely was doing it wrong because should have come out a lot easier i made it very difficult on myself so let's see what voltage this is at three volt battery so it should be more than three volts this is also not gonna work very well is it how am i gonna do this you know what maybe can help this guy somehow. You want to hold this battery?
9:47
Yep, thank you. And then, now that ain't going to work. Alright, that was a good idea. Maybe if I get him to hold this is also a conundrum in and of itself.
10:00
What if I do that? Is that going to help at all? Maybe. this is quite the challenge okay how about this point nine volts I'm thinking that is probably not correct so what I'll do okay fine I'm not giving up just that easily let's see nope I'm gonna be giving up very shortly though how about I put this like this yeah see that okay we're onto something here and then put the battery under all this okay we're getting close look at that one side done now you need to get the red lead underneath and no okay let's just use both my hands I'll be right back. This Duracell battery cost me five bucks. That does not seem like a screaming deal at all. And I don't know, maybe it was on a further discount, but let's see.
11:24
3.2 volts, 3.3 almost. I can't believe the other battery actually saved anything at all with 0.9 volts that's crazy I double checked it and sure enough it was 0.9 volts or whatever but this was a much needed little upgrade so we'll add that to the Batman expense list all right let's slip this guy back in much easier going in than out ultimately like I'm trying to pry under here to I'm trying to jam something in here to force it down. Ultimately, just pulling this lever up did the trick and it kind of just fell out, landed right here. Fortunately, it didn't go down there because that would have been even more frustrating. But all right I think I about out of time but I did exactly what I wanted to do in the time frame that I had So we'll do some more stuff and things tomorrow.
12:31
Okay, one last thing before I wrap up. I had to install a tilt bob, and this, I don't know where I got this, but this is some heavy duty friggin' tilt bob. this thing's heavy and it's nickel plated it's shiny it's not like all dull we got dull less dull and even less dull that's like chrome friggin plated that thing's heavy but that's the only one with the screw thumb screw in the side all the other ones are like hole less you gotta use like a Tinnerman clip for bottom and i tried the tinderman clip thing which is you don't know what that is it's this thing here you squeeze that you slide it up your shaft there your tilt bob rod but the tilt bob rod is very thin and this doesn't clamp onto it so tilt bob sure to fall off but yeah none of these have holes so i need the kind of hole to get one of these screws in so i had to go with this guy which is fine and i can't tilt it can you hear it so there we go tilt bob installed okay i'm back to do some more batman stuff we played a few games last night and i can tell you the code is significantly better than it was when I was first playing it. I mean, the game is practically hollow compared to all the extra animation and music, sound, call-outs. Let's hit the button and see if we get another one.
14:36
No, I wasn't waiting long enough. I think the reason that there was only one match on the initial audits when we inspected that is due to the code. and there's like match animation now like it's a whole new game basically so that code update was critical and it is so much better now so what else going over my expenses here looks like i ordered this tilt bob 2024 and it is 11 bucks at marco that's an expensive tilt bob so we got 18 bucks i'm calling it canadian battery five bucks flipper rubbers five bucks allen wrench 10 bucks and leds so let's play a game how many LEDs do you think I basically how many bulbs do you think are in here? And that's going to be the number of LEDs I used including the one flasher.
15:47
I thought I just saw that somewhere. Anyway, I'm going to guess 98. Okay, I'm writing that down. 98, that's my guess. We'll count these bulbs after and see who the winner is. I swear last time I played this game, I guessed the exact freaking number of bulbs. It might have been, I can't remember what game it was, but I swear I guessed the exact number. So I got money on me on this one. Oh, also that light not working is actually a flasher. So that's not an issue. And then I'll check this light here and see if it just looks a little Less red than the other so I'll double check on that make sure I didn't miss a bulb And that will throw off our whole count so we can't have that
16:42
Yeah, so my plan now is to finally actually clean the playfield It's a little bit of ball track very little
16:54
Yeah, it's a little more visible there But yeah, I'm just gonna reaching all the nooks and crannies. I don't got me a pinned snake yet. Maybe one day I'll get one.
17:07
Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas or my birthday or something. But the before and after on this ain't going to look all that impressive because it's already very nice.
17:19
So about time I do that, though, and get that off the to-do list. And what else is on the to-do list? Code. Done. That ramp plastic? oh I found that Marco has that ramp plastic in stock or was it pinball life it's a two-piece set hey hands off my gear oops I hit the flipper button there and it comes with those screws and the spacers and the whole works for like $9.99 US but I may just go ahead and try and make a plastic and it will be like zero US. You know what I mean? I got the old scroll saw here. It's come in handy so many times.
18:06
And what else? So lamp under crane. And red light. Yep, that's it. Not a whole lot. How ironic. I am listening to the Electric Batcast Arcade Podcast while I was cleaning up this play field And I think I done And she is nice and clean and shiny Just used Novus No. 2. Cleaned up my target faces.
18:47
I cleaned scoops, outholes, shooter lanes, ramps, path of the deads. These back metals, this bat ramp here.
19:01
I did the paw pumpers, the skirts. I got as well as I could in the lanes. And everything turned out beautiful.
19:18
Just used little rubbing alcohol pads for the target faces, although they are friggin' pristine. Look at this. It is one of the sexiest out holes for a 2008 machine I've ever seen.
19:36
This is kind of cool. I never really noticed this before. There's a Target in here, one you could never get on purpose. It's a little Rachel Target. This is kind of a Gomez-y type thing, right? Putting Targets in weird places like that. Like I'm thinking Snick Target on Deadpool.
19:57
Gomez likes to do that kind of thing. Oh, yes? You said what? Oh, okay. Yeah? All right, I will keep up the good work. You chill. Sorry, I just had a little meeting with the inspector.
20:24
Oh, new balls. I can novice these guys up. Brand new. Oh, what do you know? Nice and shiny. So I think I'm good to pick those in.
20:44
And, oh. I'm just thinking how much time I have left, how much time I want to spend. Let's at least check this bulb and then count our light bulbs. You got your bet? Alright, get ready. I thought there might have been something going on with that LED, but there is nothing I can do about it because if you see right there that is another board mounted led you got that one for the jackpot and that one for commissioner gordon you kind of just see it right there so there is technically four factory leds on this machine but good eye me good eye all right let's count some bulbs and see if I won. Okay, actually, while I have the hood up,
21:51
Kale, I think his name is, the bat cast there, reminded me of something that I've been meaning to do.
22:00
And that is change these crappy screws on your stern coil stops. Because if you don't, there's a good chance the heads will shear right off. I've had to deal with at least four or five or six of them over the years that have sheared off and it's not fun you gotta pretty much remove the whole base plate sometimes you gotta tap re-tap the bracket and it's a big pain in the butt so i thought while i had the hood up i might as well change my coil stop screws and this is my these are the ones you want to use the the allen head black hardened screws and i've got myself enough i just need a couple um lock washers but i've got a bag i've got a whole bag full goodies here there's another lock washer so i'm gonna do that as a future proofing before i put the hood down all right these are future proofed whatever that means there will be no future because i'm bulletproofed from that that's what that means anyway those are changed and I feel much better about it.
23:24
A little tight getting into this area, but got her done. And I know you've all been waiting in suspense.
23:37
First, let's throw these guys right in the trash and let's see what we got. All right, here we go. One, two, three. Should we speed this up a little bit? Alright fine. 39, 30, 31, 32, 133 light bulbs. I was way off.
24:27
So, whoever guessed 133 or closest without going over, you are the winner. And you win another episode of Batman next time round.