I have the same 2 you guys already mentioned. Also have this one, which is a different size, but might be worth verifying.

20230806_104329.jpg

Is this bulb with yellow condom the standard bulb for this location? Mine has a red bulb with no condom.

Just joined the club. She’s a little rough and has spent the last year in the basement of a non pinball person so I’m sure I’ll see a lot rigged inside

IMG_1185 (resized).jpeg

Also I found only those 2

Also to you first of all thanks for answering me, that is bigger and is regularly installed on my

Did you remove the old artwork first? What kind of paint did you use? An oil base?

The original art is silkscreened onto a painted cabinet. I used acrylic latex paint. I got the color code by having Home Depot scan the wrap. The wrap came off eBay but was actually shipped from a pinball wrap supplier as it turns out. I can’t name them from memory. I wanted a good, level, sealed base for the wrap to adhere to. Also the blue paint helped hide any uncovered areas.

IMG_3703 (resized).jpeg

IMG_3750 (resized).jpeg

Thanks Bush! It looks awesome! I’m thinking of going the same route. My game has lots of dings annd missing wood and the previous owner did a poor job painting it; the paint actually rubs off to the touch. I wanted to avoid emptying the game but that would be best if sanding. What type of paint was it? An oil base or something else? I have read this type of artwork won’t stick to latex paint

Edit: Duh! I see you said acrylic latex paint!

Looks awesome, I am yet to do this myself on the side of a cabinet and wanted to ask questions and get feedback from those of you with experience like in the post before.

looks like those decals are actually really good, of course it is hard to tell unless we are there but it does look good in the pic.
In the picture I see a long seem line at the corner, is this where the front decal and side decal meet or did you cut the side decal 1 cm short of the end? Was this done on purpose or is the decal short?
I would have preferred the decal to be cut flush with the angle of the cabinet if possible, but that is just me I guess. I would want to cut out the section for the legs (like Stern does it) and install protectors. I am thinking that if you install the protector over the decal (or the legs) it will curl and the decal will come off as seen in many restorations when this was not done, as the game move, gets shaken or else, the decal starts to curl up.
no?

Hey guys, I see a cpu and dmd EPROM version 2.03 out there. Any one know if I should bother updating to the latest?

The main cabinet is three decals, left,right,and front. You must consider what happens as the machine is handled. If you let the wrap meet at the corner it will curl and lift over time. Especially where hands are rubbing it. If you wrap around the front an inch the vinyl adheres well to itself, stays tight in the 90 degree turn and doesn’t lift over time. Regarding the leg areas, I have MustangPaul’s clear LED leg protectors with felt between the leg protectors and the wrap. No issues there. I’m sure there are many good ways to perform this job. Mine has performed well in the two years since completing. Disregard the leg protector wires dangling underneath. I ran out of nylon wire clips and am waiting on the time to purchase more and neaten up installation.

IMG_5180 (resized).jpeg

I used Bondo body filler to level areas of pealed plywood. I then sanded level and painted.

Thanks for the tips.
So do you install the front first and the side over the overlap coming from the front?
Corrct?

3.01 is the way to go.

https://www.pinballcode.com/lw300

I'm interested in upgrading the code on my machine - how exactly does somebody do that? Do I need to buy a new ROM chip or something?

Exactly. You need a new game ROM and 1-2 according display ROMs

Does the display roms need to be changed as well?

<blockquote

I got my code update off ebay. Came with everything you need and took 10min to install. Well worth it

Get it here https://mattsbasementarcade.com/product/lethal-weapon-3-pinball-data-east-cpu-display-rom-chip-set/

Or here for $22

ebay.com link: itm

ordered, thanks!

Don't forget to donate a few bucks to ChadH who made this code update!

My LW3 has chad's code, and a ColorDMD, since those came out.

Recently the display has been getting "corrupted". At this moment it looks fine, else I'd snap a photo.

But a large percentage of the time, the display will start showing gibberish like something's corrupt, to the point where you can't even read scores.

Is this likely a RAM chip of some sort I need to replace? I'd not think it's a ROM chip since it seems fine a lot of the time.

Edit: as I was done posting, it started glitching:

Got the original display? You can swap that back in and see if it's doing the same thing. Or perhaps grab a display from another similar machine.

Otherwise, I would first try and re-seat every cable for the display (both ends). If that didn't help I would try re-seating the ROMs. Last ditch effort, reflash the ColorDMD firmware (download latest version).

Good luck.

I updated my LW3 to the 3.01 code. For the most part I am very happy with the updates - it cleans up a lot of the random voice lines playing all the time and improvs a bunch of the order of operations stuff which makes the game overall play and read better. My only gripe was how it changed all the defaults to make the game much more difficult. I am not a pinball pro so I went through the adjustments menu and was able to mostly change everything close to factory again. I'm doing well if I manage to hit all three LW saucers at all, so you can forget about managing to hit them in order.

There is one thing that bugs me though. I can live with the lower scores for repeated ramps and bank heists, and I do miss the random fight modes popping up all the time, but that's all fine. But the one thing I really miss is the extra ball at 3 ramps. I was able to trigger that fairly reliably, which extended my games and was (in my opinion, anyway) more fun. After the code update, it's apparently now set at 17 ramps? I don't think I have ever hit the ramp 17 times in one game.

I've been through all the settings and I don't see any way to change the extra ball ramp count. Has anybody been able to change this, or is it not an option?

+1 to this; would love to know

slizzap - thanks; I pulled open LW3 to look at the right flipper (it's been getting stuck "up"). There were a couple of wires to that flipper that were bent badly (I know I dropped the playfield on the underside once or twice - my little things to hold the playfield are broken off). I know reading on DE flippers this could be a bad diode.

Well, after bending the wires back... the DMD issue hasn't recurred! Weird!

Where did you get those blue coin reject buttons? Those are slick!

Question about replacing stand-up targets - I have noticed some games you all have posted here have clear yellow and others have opaque yellow. Does anybody know which color was factory? Mine are pretty busted up and I'm not sure which to order.

FWIW when I bought mine last year it had translucent standup targets, which didn't seem right to me. I did some research and whatever I found at the time led me to replace them with opaque targets. Either way I prefer them.

LW3 OEM stand-up 3D square targets are transparent yellow.
The four targets on the left side get pounded by the skill shot entrance shot, and are prone
to breakage.
Data East redesigned target switch buildup around the time Rocky and Bullwinkle and friends
came into production. So there are two styles of OEM Data East 3D square targets made.
[ out side of target face and color]
Data East Star Wars was in production with opaque 3D yellow square targets. However, sample
games had leftover transparent 3D yellow targets from LW3.
-----------------
The switch target up grade was adding an additional backing blade to the front "target on stem"
contact blade.

Are the upgraded ones opaque yellow and the transparent ones are the old version? Or are there "upgraded" transparent ones as well? PBR has both for sale but I can't tell if they are different other than the color

I know PBR makes their repro targets with Gottlieb designed parts.
So it is how PBR makes them the way they want....
Data East/Stern, target-on-stem and other manufacturers make their target design their own.
Parts are slightly different... contact points are at variable heights etc. etc,etc.
--------------------------------------------------------
But here are two pictures of Data East OEM targets... 3D opaque yellow square face, 1992 era,
and later.
Here are the two variations.
IMG_0001[1] (resized).JPG
The one on the left, is the upgraded target with added backing blade.
IMG_0002[1] (resized).JPG
The one on the right, is the OEM target design that
Data East used through the 1980's and early1990's.
IMG_0003[1] (resized).JPG
I hope this helps.
This is one reason why pinball parts get new associated part #.

Cool thank you, very helpful pictures!

I have an original shooter in perfectly working condition.
$330 usd shipped

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I’m sending my lockdown bar, hinges and rails out for powder coating. Ive seen red, powder blue, a silver done. I’m thinking yellow. Any suggestions? I’m keeping the gun, legs and coin door black.

I do my own powder coating and always start with the legs. I think they stand out the most. I did metallic blue on LW3

Got any pictures of that? Sounds cool!

Still available! Make me an offer

The lw3 is at a friends house, anyone know what metal the gun handle is made from? Can it be powder coated?

I just sent mine out to my powder coater. We’ll see what he says

https://pinballplating.com/quick-exchange-parts/data-east-lethal-weapon-gun

Hello fellow Pinheads.

I have a question regarding the unoffical 3.01 ROM for LW3. Before changing the ROM to this new version I was awarded with an extra ball after the first 3 ramp shots consistently. It seems the new ROM changed this behavior to 17 (fixed !) ramp shots without a hint of me being able to change it in the settings. I do accept this as a challenge as I personally don't have a hard time hitting the ramp but if some friends come over to play who do not consistently get the ramp shot, this seems to be a tough challenge for some. I found two settings in the extended adjustments "49 - save ex balls" which obviously saves the extraball in a match and "42 - extra ball percentage" ( can be set between 0 - 50). At first I thought I could increase the value to increase the chance to get an extra ball in less than 17 ramp shots but setting this to 0 then 3, then 25 and at last 50 didn't change anything. I am still stuck on 17 ramp shots.

Does anyone have a clue on how to manipulate the settings to lower the ramp shot count for an extra ball if it is even possible with the new ROM Version?

Best regards

I had a similar question when I updated to the 3.01 ROM - I'm not a great pinball player and I don't think I have ever gotten to 17 ramp shots in a game. I was able to change settings to revert some of the other "hard mode" changes like having to shoot the 1-2-3 saucers in order, but I never found a way to change the ramp award back to 3 ramps. I believe those settings you mentioned are related to the chance of Leo granting an extra ball, not the ramps, because I tried changing them and never see an extra ball from ramps.

It's disappointing - I really like the rest of the changes in the ROM (after adjusting the harder changes to be closer to factory) but I don't think there's any way to change the extra ball on from ramps.

Thanks for your reply. That's a bummer. I now changed the Ex Ball Percentage to 50 and switched the Game Mode (LW 1,2,3) to 01 so the first LW 1,2,3 it doesn't matter in which order I play the Stunts after the first completion it is fixed to 1 then 2 then 3. At least I am now getting an extra ball every now and then from Leo.

Best regards.

Yes.  If Extra Ball is enabled, then collecting it at the ramp is fixed at 17 shots.  And there is no Adjustment to return it to the previous way.

Previously, it would start at 3 shots, then increase over time (across games) as you collected it and eventually would bug out and never be offered.

Not being a fan of rules that are altered based on previous games (why punish a player if the guy who played it yesterday did really good?) and really not liking how the Extra Ball ramp shot would eventually bug out, I decided to lock it to a certain ramp shot number.  I settled on 17 so it wasn't way too easy, while making it not completely impossible (although I agree, it is hard).  My thought was that by the time a decent player got to Ball 3, he my be up there in ramp shots... let's say he's at 10 or 12 ramp shots on Ball 3... then he might think "hmmm, at 17 I get an Extra Ball, I'm going for it!" and takes on that challenge.

Before, you wouldn't know what ramp shot would grant the extra ball until you got close to it and the display warned you it's coming on the next shot.  Having it be a constant 17 lets the player know that it will always be there at that point.

That's really interesting, I had no idea that the previous code worked like that or that it would eventually bug out. 17 ramps makes sense for skilled players so they don't end up getting bored with 4 balls (at least) every game, and although I personally miss the easy extra ball, it gives me a goal to work toward as I improve my skills. I'm getting closer!

Thanks for the insight and also for the work on the code updates. The game really flows with the updated code and the ball save makes it a lot more fun for less skilled players too - especially the short ball save after the 1 saucer kick-out. Those drains were brutal. Really the fact that we can hear the whole "What Leo wants, Leo Gets" line without cutting itself off now makes the game at least 3 times better alone.

I have an older code version as mine still says multiball and not tri ball, but mine is fixed at 3 everytime, way too easy, makes the game basically a guaranteed 4 ball game. I haven’t looked in the settings to see if I can change that, this is a good reminder for me to check. I have Chads code on Hook sitting next to LW3 and it really turned that from a ramp ramp ramp game into a fun game that you want to hit all the shots. I haven’t switched to Chads code on LW3 because I think some of the problems that people had that he addressed aren’t on my code version so it wasn’t going to be a huge change for my game like it was for Hook.

Thank you Chad for the explanation. Totally makes sense and I am happy living with this change and challenge. I was just wondering if I missed an adjustment setting whatsoever. But this totally clears things up for me.

Have a good one and best regards

Going to LED a friends game. Any suggestions? I like the brighter more modern white. I think comet calls them Natural I could add some color but all white does look good and brings out the art on the pf and plastics

Thx for any help.

Mike

Our game isn't back together yet, but we use cheap ebay cool white's in all our route/sell stuff and it looks great. Probably pop with mirror blades too