Just been to pick up the Judge.

Will soon have him in my court!

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Yet another fan of the ColorDMD. I had to sit down when buying it with the Aussie/US dollar exchange as it at the moment, but it looks absolutely stunning and well worth the cash.

It looks super cool, you'll not regret it. I've ordered a ColorDMD for my AC/DC as well as I am so pleased with the Dredd one. Two ordered in as many months! My bank account is looking very depressed, though I am happy

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I got AC/DC NIB and assumed I would only ever own one machine. Then the bug bit again (as everyone said it would!) and I fancied a '90s Bally/Williams machine. Dredd was one of the ones on my wishlist as I love the theme and I played it tons back in the day and thought it was completely different to Accer Daccer. One came up for sale, it was a beauty, so I bought it and I love it. No regrets at all.

All three Deadworld bulbs were blown on mine when I got it, so I replaced them with one orange flasher and two red GI LEDs (They were spares – I think I may have been a little over-zealous when I made a previous CoinTaker order!). It looks great.

Looks brilliant, would love to re-decal mine but I don't fancy the full disassemble.

I'm going to get some Playfield Accent Spotlights to brighten everything up a bit. What's a good LED to put in them? A 3 LED? A 4? Or does the reflective cone fire out the light fine if it's just a regular one-light one?

I'm guessing mounting them on a spacer and not just straight to the slingshot screw is better for light distribution and lessens ball rebound hits? Not that it makes any difference on my AC/DC as I'm forever realigning the buggers.

I've got the blue one, it is essentially a small strip of LEDs that you stick to the ceiling of the wooden panel that the backbox sits on. It has a long wire attached on one side that you feed up into the backbox and piggyback connect to either J116, J117 or J118 on the main board.

It does light up the dark back of the playfield rather nicely, but it's a simple construction (LED strip, cable, sleeve, connector, I'm guessing a resistor). You're paying for the convenience and easy 'plug and play' nature. If you can make it yourself, then I say go for it as it will be cheaper and you can buy a strip long enough to span the entire width of the playfield.

I often get a credit dot appearing as the Judge reckons Switch 68 – Captive Ball 3 is faulty. It appeared when I switched on the machine this morning.

I guess this is down to the machine assuming this is the case as it hasn't been used for x number of games. The captive ball section is a tricky shot at the best of times and I don't seem to make it very often.

'One more game and then I'll take the glass off and fix it' I thought. On the last ball of my session I hit the shot and cleared the dot. Marvellous

They look fantastic guys! I envy your unfaded side art.

I put some spots on mine as well Tjohejsan. It makes such a difference.

I'm awaiting some new Great Lakes Modular flipper boards as my left one is super stiff and the right is super loose. Looks like sometime in its life someone put a metal one in the left and a plastic one in the right.

And yes, I did remember to order two different boards due to the fire buttons.

Had a quick look...
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Also, here's an "artist's" impression

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Your towers look fantastic Mancave! I've always thought the stock 'flat' ones look a bit cheap.

I can't get the PDF to open or download.

Will have a go on the wife's PC later.

On Mac with Chrome it cuts to a page that says 'Loading' and it never does. After downloading the PDF it makes a file that is 0k in size.

Hopefully the wife's PC tonight will make it all work properly.

Sweet machine parabol420, welcome!

The spotlights really make a difference. Though I've put one on the 'Air Raid' wireform just above the left upper flipper, and I always seem to get a ball stuck in the spotlight's cone.

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The little piece of transparent plastic I took off to put it there obviously makes a big difference! I think I might re-locate it to the very back left corner.

As for the double ball plunge, mine did that for a while as the machine had no idea where its balls were. I found that the bracket the crane exit opto is attached to had become a bit bent and was leaning too far towards Deadworld and perhaps the opto wasn't registering every ball drop. As a quick dirty fix, I wedged an old post rubber into the gap below it which straightened it up and, touch wood, it's been absolutely fine since. I'm loathed to actually fix it properly now as it works so well!

Thanks for the pics and tips parabol420, I'm definitely going to move my spotlight: it's more trouble that it's worth! I placed it there to light up that side of the machine and bounce back some of the light from the mirror blade that I've put in.

My friend has just put in a few of Comet Pinball's lighted LED strips into the darker corners of his STNG and they really do make a difference. I'm going to get some and experiment.

As for the metal drop target bar, I think it's been discussed quite a bit about how difficult it is to find. It shouldn't be too hard to home-make as it's only got (I think) four 90° bends.

Oh Dredd you temperamental old thing...

It's been working fine forever with the Deadworld mod, but now the crane has somehow got out of sync with the planet. The crane goes across, drops down in a space between the ball holes and stays there whilst the planet spins and the balls bump the crane as it goes past under it. On the 'Unload Planet' test, the crane does all the right movements back and forth and up and down but in the wrong place. After a while it gives up, stops and like above, gets bumped by the balls in the spinning planet.

What do you think? Opto problem on the interruptor under the playfield? or am I going to have to do some adjustment on the crane screws like described on this page? http://www.iobium.com/tuning_judge_dredd_for_the_locki.htm

Any ideas or tips would be much appreciated.

Wow ok.

It's been off an hour or so with left three balls in the planet. Switched it on, pressed Start and it did the 'Missing Pinballs' routine.

It emptied the planet perfectly. A few games played and the Deadworld multiball has worked ok.

I've no idea. I'm happy it's recovered, but I will keep an eye on it

I would recommend Marco and Great Lakes Modular too, they have super fast international shipping. Replaced both my flipper opto boards with GLM ones ordered from them and they are brilliant. Took a bit of fiddling to fit the left one, but that was my fault as I replaced my start button microswitch with a slightly different one which stuck out too far!

They are considered GI I think. String 5 on the General Illumination test.

My playfield always feels like its going to come off the rail when I pull it towards me, but it still clicks and rests ok, just a bit closer to 90° than my AC/DC which has a definite angle. I often have the window open whilst working and I do worry that the wind will take it and slam it down!

And Deadworld is back misbehaving like I described several posts back.

I have no idea why it sometimes works absolutely fine and other times not. Just given the crane optos a good clean, but no joy.

Have filmed the problem, using my terrible cinematographer skills.

Any ideas or tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks Cynric, I'll give them a check.

Looks super cool, nice one!

I am so on for having a go at this mod after I've ironed out my Deadworld problems.

Totally agree, though yes the shipping, plus Aussie/US dollar differences aren't pretty.

The only problem is that the 'Life for Terrorism' crime scene graphic appears as just a black screen on mine. Is everyone else's behaving?

When my machine takes down the middle 'D' letter drop target ready for the Safecracker, it makes clicking noises like it's still attempting to drop it. It was worse before I cleaned the drop target mech and now stops after a few seconds.

It's been a while since I removed it, but I seem to remember it is held on with several screws and with a bit of jiggling and removing of connections, it will just come away. If not, just remove anything you need to get at it and reverse when putting it back in. The connections are keyed so it should be difficult to connect it up again wrong. I took pictures when I did it just to make sure!

My springs were really caked in dust and grime and after a good clean they work a lot better. I used this opportunity to add some aftermarket J, U, D, G and E stickers to the drops. Make sure that there is a millimetre or two clearance along the front of them so they don't get stuck against the wood. One of the letters on mine can sometimes be a bit lazy (occasionally dropping very, very slowly), it's on the list to fix one day, but I can live with it as it doesn't happen too often.

Just replaced the captive balls with some green Glo-Balls. A bit more fiddly a job than I expected but not too much of a headache!

I get a credit dot a lot because the last switch doesn't get activated very much (I find it a tricky shot!), so hopefully with these balls being slightly lighter it should fire more often.

I think they look great also

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Just the regular florescent ones. I thought they would be brighter in normal light.

Interesting to finally play a Pinball Arcade table that I own in the flesh! If the 'emulation' is correct then my real Dredd needs some slight adjustment as the ball doesn't go down the left outlane as much on the digital table.

Now when is the Deadworld mod patch coming out?

I did this too, it makes a vast improvement to the dingy bottom of the playfield.

I have mirror blades on mine and they really do add a bit of extra light to a dark game.

I love the apron screen! I think I might have a go at that myself. I wonder if it will work with a ColorDMD?

I'd imagine the flashers don't add anything at all to the alternative translite artwork like they do with the original. Such as the bike lights flashing during the Chain Challenges etc.

When I got my machine, the left and right flippers had different stiffness which was annoying. I replaced both with Great Lakes Modular ones like in your pic.

They work absolutely fine, but the upper left flipper often stays up until the right flipper button is pressed or the ball hits a sling or something. The flipper boards have LEDs to show when the flipper is pressed and it is showing that is 'at rest' even when it is up. I think the magnets might need reversing or adjusting.

I've always thought that the theme put people off. The stigma of the dreadful Stallone movie is strong – thank god it wasn't released two years later as a movie tie-in ! I loved the 2000AD comic as kid so was always attracted to the machine, the fact it's a great game as well is super cool. I'm never letting it go!

I'm just about to start a complete flipper rebuild as one of them is suffering from the old 'stay in the up position' problem and thought I may as well do the lot.

Have noticed that under the lower flippers are a couple of holes/indents in the playfield.

Was this for something that was planned at the prototype stage and scrapped, like a peg or something?

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Ah very clever! Useful to know, thanks Dredders.

I had difficulty even fitting mine as the microswitch I got to replace a broken one in the start button, stuck out too much. I had to remove the whole fitting, install the flipper board and put the button assembly back in carefully bending the contact outwards by 90°. There is about 3mm clearance between the two!

I had some interference from the left launcher as well. I flipped the magnet over, moved it around until both LEDs went out and then stuck it down with tape. It was a fiddly process, but it solved the problem. I still get a little movement from the right flipper when launching the ball, (I've got a GLM right flipper board too) but I can live with it.

Mine works fine, except the 'Life for Terrorism' crime scene, which just shows a blank screen for some reason.

Ooooh nice Deadworld ring! Mine is chipped and scratched to hell.

Yeah mine does that too. I'm running the 1LAT Deadworld mod ROM.

Absolutely. Colordmd is so very cool on Dredd.

I've got the 'dull' gold one. I like it as I assume it would be more authentic to the one on the Judges' uniform.