Stern Avengers Infinity Quest Pinball

Repairs, Restorations, Tweaks and Insights

Introduction

April 7, 2024

Back in 2021, I visited the Pinball Lounge in Oviedo, Florida. I played some Avengers Infinity Quest (Premium) but it didn't click and the game fell off my radar. About 2 years later in 2023, I was at Reboot in Dunedin, Florida and played AIQ again. This time I was hooked and started looking to get my own. I'm not a big Marvel or Avengers fan!

Shaker Motor Installation

April 7, 2024

Stern Spike 2 games, such as Avengers Infinity Quest, support shaker motors. These are "good sized" motors with offset counter-weights on each end. When the motor spins, the counter-weights spin and shake the pinball machine. This shaking is often connected very well to the ball movement and/or sound effects, providing an additional level of immersion. Sadly, these are not included with the Premium machines.

Stern offers an official shaker motor (part 502-5027-01) and Pinball Life offers their own (part PBL-100-0020-00) for a little less. I've always found the Pinball Life parts to be excellent, so I saved a few bucks and got the Pinball Life version.

Installation of the shaker is very straightforward. The cabinet already has the mounting in place, it's just a few bolts and attaching a wire.

The shaker is installed at the front right of the cabinet, to the right of the coin box. There are 4 pre-drilled holes with t-nuts. This is shown below.

The picture below shows the shaker motor positioned and attached with 1 of the 4 machine screws.

Once all 4 machine screws at tight, the safety cover is attached. It is held on with 2 small screws as shown below.

The wire from the shaker motor is then routed to the opposite side of the cabinet and attached to CN2 on the cabinet board. This is the reddish colored connector.

That's all there is too it. Avengers Infinity Quest will automatically use the shaker once it is installed.

Installing Stern Insider Connected

April 7, 2024

My Avengers Infinity Quest was built shortly before Stern started including Insider Connected in all their machines. However, Stern does offer an upgrade kit (part 502-5420-01). The upgrade was not very difficult but did require several steps. I did not take photos of the process, leaving me only able to share the before and after images below. Notice the artwork on the right apron has not been replaced with a white "scanner".

Playfield Pictures

April 14, 2024

Pictures from Avengers Infinity Quest's playfield.

Miscellaneous Pictures

April 7, 2024