Okay. Count me in. Two questions for you guys:

Is it worth it to put a shaker in an IJ? Doesn't seem like it's really well integrated (or used much).

What's your vote on LEDs in this game? Is it a game that lends itself better to incandescents (like LOTR, IMHO)?

Anxious to hear the pros and cons on the shaker. I was going to put one in, but it doesn't sound like it's utilized well or often enough. Opinions?

Here's an interesting question: If I send my gun out to get nickel plated, is there any way to still trigger the plunge while I'm waiting for the gun to get back, or will it basically disable the machine? Trying to figure out a way to have my cake and eat it, too! (I haven't taken it apart yet, so I'm not sure!) Thanks...

Anybody have any experience with the Pinsound board? I'd love to have the original soundtrack playing rather than that MIDI crap. Do you just upload it to the board or is it an involved process?

Very funny...I came on here to post exactly the same problem about the air balls off the center targets, especially when the ball has just come down off the ramp onto your flipper. I've decided to just put plastic protectors on everything so I don't have to worry so much. Doesn't seem like there's much you can do with a drop target. Flippers are at factory strength, and if I tweak those back, I'm afraid I won't get the ball up those steep ramps. It is what it is...

Another two questions to see if they're normal: Does the ball fly off the ramp often? Mine does sometimes, and whacks the biplane. And does anybody else have the ball getting hung up on the left side beneath the ramp when it comes off the pops? Sometimes I have to nudge the machine to get it down the left orbit. Didn't know if my level is off or what.

Certainly adds to the "pinball adventure"!

Does anybody know if all the reorchestrations are done for PinSounds on IJ? It looks like they're still working on it on their website. If anybody has one and has feedback I'd love to hear it. Don't want to buy an incomplete product.

I'm still tweaking mine out, but it was my grail before I even got it. How did you fix the POA problem? Was it that you couldn't get it down that first left-side path? That's what I'm dealing with now...

When this product is done and tested, I'm a customer. Really excited about it, too, because I think the chintzy midi files in Indy is the weakest part of the machine. So hurry up!

Right. I meant when you're completely done with the IJ mix, I'll buy the board. IJ is the only machine I have where the MIDI sounds just don't work for me. I always thought it should have the real orchestral sounds from the movie. When the whole thing is done for that machine, I'm buying! Doesn't make sense for me until then...

Yes...PLEASE let us know when it's all done. It's awesome.

I had that happen, but it's because the optos beneath the center hole are either dirty or malfunctioning. That's why you're getting the "You Cheat Dr. Jones" all the time, because it thinks the ball went in there without targets dropping. Don't know about the other stuff though.

This sounds like one of those unrelated things that happen when you work on your machine, and you think it's related. Infuriating!

Trying like hell to adjust my POA. Bent the little exit metal to make the ball drop center (so I could get it down that first left lane), then had the bright idea that if I pulled it forward a little more, it would give the ball more time to get to the left side on a tilt. All it did was allow the ball to pick up more velocity and shoot off the walls on either side straight into the pit. *sigh* This thing is a royal bitch...

Thanks. I'll try it. I do have the pitch set to maximum to keep balls from flying off the ramps, so maybe that effected the path of adventure.

Now get back to programming that soundtrack...I'm looking forward to it!

And by the way...your English is better than my German!

For all my IJ brethren:

Just tinkered with my POA. (Gosh, that sounds dirty!) Anyhoo...someone suggested that you bend the metal piece that guides the ball onto the POA. I played with the level of the mini playfield as well as how far forward or backward it goes. The only thing that worked, regardless of the left/right level, was tweaking that piece so that the ball falls directly on the center of the post below. That way, it will go whichever way you pitch the POA.

Also, because I've got the back legs jacked to keep airballs down off the ramps, it messed with my POA pitch and sent every ball into The Pit. I used a previous suggestion and raised the front/back pitch up by putting fat washers under the front bracket. Worked like a charm!

Now the only thing that concerns me are the violent airballs hitting the glass so hard it shatters...

I got about 10 modes in one game. For some reason, I can't master the mode shot, nor the right ramp consistently. The two most important shots in the game.

Looking on the bright side, I DID see the Michigan J. Frog Easter Egg in the mine cart mode. Great stuff...and a 20 mil bonus!

Fourth barrier on the right...and it's only after you hold the flippers when you start a game.

Not that I know of, but congratulations...to me AND you! Now I know where to play an IJ next time I'm in Kauai!

I don't use my hand for the start button.

But you get to see a frog dance. Duh!

Anyone here ever get the translucent backboard with the lighting effects? Is it any good? And does anyone have any video of it in action?

Also, I have to replace my drops. Anything special to watch out for? Can I just disassemble the coil assembly so that I can take the drop targets out and not have to desolder?

I've listened to the samples you posted and I have to say they're awesome. I have only one complaint. I'm assuming you had to use lines from the actual movie that were rerecorded when the game was made. The only one I absolutely HATED was "See you tomorrow, Indiana Jones!" On the game, she says it with such attitude...my family walks around the house saying it to each other. But I'm guessing in the movie (and when it comes up in your audio file), it sounds so lackluster, like she's falling asleep as she says it. It really loses its effect.

I know that when you go into the sound test, you're able to isolate certain callout samples--it doesn't seem like you can do it with all of them, though. I wonder if anybody knows how to extract those callouts from a ROM to a computer? Perhaps there's a way.

I hope you don't take offense at my one criticism...after all, it's not your fault! You're doing incredible work and I hope you continue through to the end.

Yep...you're right! The second one is the good one. The first one sounds like she's drunk and tired. Is there a reason you didn't or can't use the second one? I would think you'd want everything to sound just like the original...only better.

I hope no offense is being taken...just trying to help you make a better product from a consumer viewpoint!

I didn't know that!!! That's awesome - thanks! How long do you think until you're done with everything?

My IJ is going out for a HEP restoration, but when it gets back, the Pinsound card is the first thing going in.

Sounds great. Just needs some mixing to be perfect. You left out the "see you tomorrow" part though!

There's a setting in the menu to enable/disable the buy-in button. I'd tell you exactly where it is in the menu, but my Indy is currently away on vacation.

You're confused. That's WOZ.

When you sneak the ball in behind the three standup targets. Shorty says "You cheat, Dr. Jones!" Hence the title of this thread.

One of many reasons it's my favorite game.

You suck.

I'll never see that score in my lifetime...unless somebody else does it.

I think it's pretty random as to where the guys pop out of in the bar. If you're on the right side, you'll get a bunch on the right, but they'll sneak a few on the left to shoot at you if you're not paying attention. If you're on the left, vice versa. Every now and then I get lucky and hit the extra ball swinging doors, and I think I only finished the shoot out once or twice.

Black nickel plating on the gun. You can thank me later.

Mike Chestnut. That's who did mine.

Oh...and you're welcome.

End of last year.

??? You're missing your biplane? I have an old spare. It's yellowed (for that retro look!) but it's a biplane. They sell replacement ones as well.

Don't remember how often the drops reset...I thought it was after you lock 3 balls for the multiball and it starts the process again. Or if you're doing the steal the stones mod where you have to keep hitting the targets. Sorry if that's wrong...I haven't had my machine since January.

I had my machine jacked all the way up in the back to keep the ball from flying off ramps. Game was lightning fast even pitched that high. What angle do you have the PF at? Usually it should be 6.5, but you might want to consider putting those back legs all the way up, especially if you can't get down the POA.

I had all Cointaker WW in mine...and immediately hated what it did to the backglass and GI. Far too yellow-y and washed out. It ruins the retro feel of the game. Indy is one of those games (like LOTR) that cries out for the warmth of incandescent bulbs in the GI.

LEDs in the inserts? You betcha. Just don't color-match them because it looks like poop. The letters on the inserts get all green and blown out...yuck. Warm white everywhere, and don't forget the LED OCD board so that they behave like incandescents. It's also nice to not have to remove the POA to change bulbs ever again...

The brightness of the LEDs washed out the backbox colors as well...made it more yellow than orange. I'd send you pictures, but HEP is working on my machine now...and Chris was in full agreement with me about changing back to incandescents for the GI (and not just to make a customer happy...I wanted his honest opinion!).

Keep in mind that with LEDs in the inserts and incandescent GI, the inserts can be too bright by default. That's where the beauty of LED OCD comes in...you can adjust the brightness of each individual bulb from your laptop so that it's tweaked just the way you want it to be. Awesome.

Will do. He's got it in his gallery now. It's the one marked for "RR".

That's not the same playfield.

Did you try just cleaning it first? Some compressed air in a can does wonders. Make sure it's completely dead before you go rooting around in there.

Looks like it from the flyer:

1267f1.jpg

It's pretty easy, actually. (I'm not in front of my machine, now, btw...) It's in the menu, I think under the feature adjustments menu. There's a setting for disabling a buy-in. That may be causing your confusion because the menu may call it something different than what the button says.

Thanks for getting my back, Scotty! And I'll be in Kauai the last week of August (everything's booked already!), so I'm looking forward to meeting you and exploring parts of the island we've never seen before...in our previous 17 visits!

Your loss. Best island in the chain...if you can sneak it in, you won't regret it.

And hey!...it's got Scotty!

If you let me know what you need done before I come out, I can try to come prepared.

The jackpot lights correspond to the same jackpot inserts in the middle of the playfield. When you complete the three jackpots during the main multiball, you "collect" the three treasures in order, which then lights super jackpot. The backbox mod shows you at quick glance what you've collected so far (as if looking at the playfield didn't accomplish the same thing...probably why they took it out of the production IJs).

Hope that helps.

Nope. Shouldn't light until you earn it. Where did you get yours from, and what did you hook it up to?

Sent you a PM. But the picture you show and the one he shows in the ad look different. Are the lights three sockets on a piece of wood, or is it a PCB light board?

The one I referred to in the PM were on a piece of wood.

You're no longer allowed to come to my house and play mine.

I've never completed more than 6 or 7 modes - nowhere near Eternal Life Multiball. I'm very jealous! This is my favorite game (as we've talked about), and I concur with the above post. Put in a Pinsound card and it'll transform the machine. You ARE invited to come hear what it sounds like at my house. But no touching the flippers.

What he said...

Upgrade the speakers and you'll hear what you're missing.

Take the entire ball stop out and line the area with dead drop foam. It's the only solution that works consistently. Trust me on this.

And yes...you'll have to play with your POA and tweak it to get it just right again. It's a balance of forward/backward positioning, coupled with left/right positioning and the bend in that little metal tab where the ball enters the POA.

A pain, but you'll get it done!

I've lost count of how many times I've said this: Take. It. Out. Line the back of that area with dead drop foam and throw the scoop in your coin box. Thank me later.

Nope...

https://www.pinbits.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=131

An essential thing to have in your repair kit. I can assure you, you'll eventually need some somewhere. I'm working through my second supply order of the stuff.

It's all metal back there. You're lining the backsides of some ball guides that forms a V back there, as I recall. So the ball smashes into the foam-lined V (smashes is WAY too strong of a word), and rebounds nicely...right into the hole. The mode hole scoop was a major design flaw; best to just take it out altogether.

Okay...IJ is my grail machine, and I spent about the price of a small car to try to get it where I wanted it to be, quality-wise, before I said f**k it and sent it off to HEP.

IJ is NOT a machine you want to over-mod. Tron? Yes. LOTR? Certainly. AFM? Of course!

But IJ just looks too cheesy when you start jamming figures in there and putting lighting where it doesn't belong. And the shaker doesn't really do much for that game, so skip it (and I have shakers in almost all my machines).

Here's what I did to mine, and I think it looks amazing (as did Chris at HEP):

PDI glass
Brass trim on everything (rails, hinges, legs, habitrails, apron guard) and black nickel-plated gun by Mike Chestnut (RIP)
Pinsound card with reorchestrations
FF speaker upgrade
Color DMD
Motorized plane propeller
LEDs in inserts ONLY (all warm white, controlled by LED OCD card) and LED flashers
Incandescent GI and back glass
Gold captive ball (which Chris put in...it's really cool)
Jackpot lighting mod
Bridge lighting mod

And I think that's it. Really more than enough for that game, IMO. (The last two were supposed to be in the original version of the game, but were scrapped.)

Have fun, and let me know if I can help in any way.

I PM'ed Deanearp 3 times, but have gotten no response...

Yes. Find out about the dancing frog easter egg and go for that instead. Worth only 20 million, but far more entertaining.

http://hem.bredband.net/b257182/Cows&Easter.htm#I

I'm tired of saying this, so I'll just quote myself from now on.

If Chris at HEP couldn't figure out a solution to the scoop rejection problem, neither will anybody else. Use the above advice that I'm getting tired of repeating and never worry about it again.

No reason to suffer. Get some 3M 467MP Adhesive tape from the wonderful people at PinRestore (pick up a bunch of other great stuff as well) and coat the entire underside of your Cliffy. It's what Cliff uses on the front lip of the Cliffy already, anyway. Stick it on, trim around the Cliffy with an Xacto knife, and reapply. Voila! Scroll down on this page to find it, and look around their site. It's helped me numerous times.

http://pinrestore.com/Supplies.html

Someone has posted pics of this on Pinside before. A search on threads about the IJ mode hole should net you some wonderful pics. And no...I'm not taking mine apart to take pictures for you.

Dr. Willy...I'm-a gonna let you take this one from here. I think I just ran out of Xanax.

Those optos are always problematic, and hold a special place in my heart. My first IJ problem when I got my machine. Change out the optos and you should be good to go. If not, there's a connection problem or a problem in the opto board. But it should just be the optos. First check that they're not misaligned...there's a whole lot of balls slamming into that area and they could have moved out of alignment.

To be clear: It was dead drop foam from Pinbits, and the double-sided tape to hold down a Cliffy (which is a misnomer because it's all like one sheet of adhesive) is from Pinrestore.com.

If you had a Pinsound card with the reorchestrations, you wouldn't be able to hear it anyway.

That thing looks like Laura Palmer. Get her unwrapped and plug in!

I have the jackpot light board and LCD color DMD. It fits.

You must not have read it too carefully, because they're right here, just as I said back then: http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-16824

You're welcome.

It should fit. They're using RGB LEDs on that board, so it's a really low profile and can fit between the speaker panel and LCD panel. I used a couple small rubber washers to lift it off the speaker panel; using normal standoffs won't allow it to sneak under the color DMD.

And you shouldn't hesitate to get the one from Norway. It was reasonably priced and I had it in under two weeks. No worries there...

That will do it. The board looks much bigger in the photo than it really is, but look at the standoffs for a perspective (you won't be using those, however). you can take two of the smallest post rubbers and bisect them and you'll have four rubber washers that you can put between the board and the speaker panel so that it can breathe and isn't flush with the wood. You should be good to go!

My game doesn't shut up. But I have the Pinsound card with reorchestrations. Endprodukt added a shit ton of new callouts (the game even curses when you lose your ball!). Each character talks when you complete them, and there are callouts every time you hit a lit shot in every mode. Tons of callouts.

Get the Pinsound card for it. Trust me on this (from a guy who considers IJ his grail!). Congrats on the pickup.

I'm running mine off the same power supply, but I don't have the topper.

There's a whole thread about Pinsound that I started 2 years back. I have my game wired for stereo and I'm using the reorchestrations that Endprodukt created. There are a ton more callouts and you can customize which ones to use and which ones not. It's fun to hear Indy curse when you lose your ball. And the actual John Williams score in stereo is ridiculous to hear with that game; you'll never be able to play one with the MIDI sounds again.

Order the sound board and PM me with any questions or if you need details.

Sure. I've got a special place in my heart for Canadians...especially the ones in Alberta. Especially the ones near Moraine Lake, which I visit frequently because it's one of the most beautiful places on Earth. And since I'm a moocher, I always need places to crash when I'm up there, so ask all the questions you want. It won't cost you anything. Really.

Left flipper.
Right flipper.
Mine goes to the Y most of the time.
Screw the tape. Take out the backplate and put foam all around the enclosure. Thank me later.

Mine is jacked to either 7.5 degrees or even 8. Of course, check your level from side to side. I think you do have to partially remove the playfield to get to the screws underneath, but I don't think it has to come entirely out. Shouldn't take you more than a half hour to do all of it.

7.5 Could be more...

It does fly off the wall...but that makes it necessary to switch lanes once or twice to avoid the holes. More Indiana Jones-ish, if you ask me. He's usually running from trouble...not taking a leisurely stroll.

The problem is that you put WAY too much foam around the left side. It should only go in a U around the back of the hole...you shouldn't be able to see it from the player's perspective at all. You see where the foam is actually hanging over the lip of the hole? Trim it just behind there so that there's no overlap...and add a little on the right side wall as well - there's nothing to stop the ball rattling around over there. You just want to pad BEHIND the hole in case it overshoots...that way it hits the foam, which deadens the velocity and helps the ball drop into the hole.

No foam on the roof, and good catch on the ball guide. Perhaps you don't need it on the right side (although for some reason I remember putting it there, but not on the ball guide). But you definitely have to start it back far enough where it's not hanging over the hole.

You. Don't. Need. It.

He says the ball sticks with all that stuff 8 of 10 times. Mine sticks all the time with just the foam backing and no strike plate...and I have it set to 7.5 degrees (if not a touch more).

I have to disagree. The mode hole shot is one of the hardest in pinball...when you make it, it's supposed to stick. Imagine if every shot in pinball was just chance? I don't think people would play it for very long. This is actually a well-known design flaw that Mark Ritchie even talked about when I spoke to him at TPF last year. The second well-known flaw in that game is the airballs off of the standup targets (which is why they give you eternal life when the ball flies clear over your sling plastics and drains).

The shot IS supposed to be 100% - and you're ripping yourself off and making the game f-ing frustrating for no reason.

Yes...behind the target bank and the mode hole are the two high-wear areas.

...and Mark Ritchie is wrong. And the GOT orbit problem was "as designed" by Steve Ritchie.

Man, you gotta hand it to those Ritchie brothers. They sure design games that are wholly dependent on luck and chance.

Actual conversation with me and my wife last night:

Me: IJ is still my favorite game. And it should be my coffin, too.
Wife: Why waste the game? How about we put your ashes inside the game and the kids can keep playing it? Better yet, get an Ark of the Covenant mod and you can put your ashes IN the game while people still enjoy it.

Friggin' brilliant.

So keep your eye out for an IJ, fully modded with Boob's ashes. The only question is, does that increase the value or decrease it?

It's the ONLY one to get.

I've never had a problem with this (I think I did it on Congo and POTC). I just applied it freehand, no squeegee, and everything was fine. I would say that maybe it was because of the chemicals you used and you didn't allow sufficient time to dry before applying? I know with cabinet decals, you have to wait 2 weeks after painting or you'll get bubbles. I don't think you have to wait that long after what you did, but that might have caused the bubbles. Don't know about the lines, though...

Variety is nice, but I could never go back.

Warm white LEDs in all the inserts and flashers, incandescent bulbs in the GI and backbox. It keeps the retro feel of the game and you don't have to go digging around to change insert bulbs...especially on the POA, which is a PITA.

PS - You'll also have to get a LED OCD board to make the insert LEDs behave like incandescent bulbs. Makes a HUGE difference.

Yes...just getting under there is a PITA. Can you imagine doing it for each bulb? And then you have to tweak the playfield pitch just perfectly which is time consuming in itself.

No...I meant getting under there, which meant removing the POA. You'll see when you put it back in how tough it is to tweak the angle just right so the ball can go down every lane.

There are two ways to do it.

Trial and error.

I'm not shittin...you have to spend some time with it using a ball to see how it drops onto that playfield, adjusting the bent metal piece to center the ball drop, then tweaking the left right angle by playing games and seeing if you can access every lane from the ball drop. It's a very exact thing and it ain't easy. The most frustrating thing about IJ, IMO. Along with the mode hole bounce outs, that is.

I don't like you much.

I'm almost sure repro playfields were never done for IJ. You probably had a different playfield put in your machine with a serial number that didn't match the game. Who cares? HEP put in a NOS playfield in my machine during the resto. He asked me first because he said some people care about the matching numbers. To me that's ridiculous. I care about having an amazing game.

I could be wrong, but my opinion is that the buyer hosed you for 450. If he didn't like the mismatched numbers it wasn't the machine for him. Top 5 games restored with Mirco playfields don't lose value because of the playfield...they gain value because they look brand new.

Unplug the knocker in the backbox. Not sure why you'd want to do that, though...IJ has one of the coolest replay effects when the cracking whip animation is synced with the knocker.

NOS playfields are almost impossible to come by, and the one I got installed cost me more than many machines. But I have problems, obviously.

Sucks to be you...I live for knockers.

Gotta be in the menu somewhere, then. Now you're going to go make me look....

Okay...looked in the manual and in the menu. There's nothing there. That's because they want you to experience the brilliance of there programming when the knocker fires. It's just a little bit of awesome.

You would think it's a flaky start switch that's adding players; it's probably not, though.

When I had this problem, it was a crunched diode on a switch on the path of adventure...bottom right switch, I think it was. It sits right above the mode hole and gets squashed against the switch, creating a short that creates the problems you're describing.

See if you can take a look under there to see if that's the problem. If so, you just have to straighten all that stuff out and you should be good to go.

Otherwise...yeah - it's a flaky start button.

Good. I was right.

Bottom right lane rollover switch on the path of adventure. Problem is, the area you need to get to is on the underside of the mini playfield, which requires disassembly, I think. (It's been 2 years since I had to do this...can't quite remember.)

Double check all the cables leading to the display panel to make sure one didn't come loose. Same thing for the trough opto boards on the underside. Most likely a connector came loose under there, and the board thinks all the balls are in the trough which is why it's kicking them out. Stuff gets jostled during transport. Don't be upset about it...the fine folks on this site will help you through it!

Glad you got it fixed...sorry I couldn't be more help (I'm at Pintastic now). Told you these guys on Pinside are awesome.

I think the wood grain is sprayed on...there's probably more painted there than you think. He did my Jacks Open, and the wood grain was painted so well I didn't even realize it was fake. Really nice work! If you have a before picture you'd be able to tell.

There are special bits that I bought from Ron Kruzman - very fine diamond headed sanding-type drill bits that relieve the clear without chipping or doing damage. I would contact him and he'll sell you a set (I think it was only $10 or $15) and give you priceless advice to boot. kruzman is his Pinside handle, I think.

I can tell you that my Jacks Open looks amazing reassembled, and NOBODY notices that the wood grain is fake. Once you have all of the plastics and everything on, hardly any of it is exposed enough to the player to look fake.

20170728_150349 (resized).jpg

Doesn't that remove too much of the diameter vs. not enough depth? You don't really want the hole to be visible when you put the wireform, etc. in.