Well after a long search, I’ve finally joined the Jack*Bot club. Wanted to find another under-appreciated (and undervalued) 90s DMD with great gameplay & code. I have a strong feeling that JB is a long term keeper, very similar to how I feel about BSD. Wanted this one really bad for tourney & group play with friends.

Please excuse the clown puke. She’s getting stripped, ripped & all the bells & whistles under the hood. Really looking forward to shopping this one

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Quick question: Are there enough dimming GI effects on Jackbot to warrant purchasing the GI OCD board? I know it’s really beneficial on certain games that have lots of dimming effects (like BSD or DM), I’m just wondering owners opinions who already have it installed.

Yeah I'll be putting NG LEDs everywhere like I always do. I've just never installed the OCD boards before. The one for the inserts isn't even in stock now anyway, so I'll probably just hold off on both for now. I just don't see the value of installing the GI OCD if there's no GI dimming effects programmed into the game.

Ordered a whole bunch of parts & upgrades yesterday Still figuring out my bulb order. That clown puke has got to go! Excited to tear into this shop job & finally get her setup in the gameroom.

Yeah I've been spending a small fortune this week. Mirrored BG, various LEDs & add-ons, cliffys, new pop hardware, flipper rebuild kit, plastics, rubbers, etc. I'm probably going to buy the OCD anyway when they are in stock. I don't mind because I'm just really thrilled with this game. It's a great feeling when you know you just purchased the perfect addition to your gameroom.

I'm just really looking forward to getting all the blue & red GI bulbs out of there. They've washed out the colors of the playfield artwork & plastics so badly. It's going to look so sharp when I'm done with it

I was going to start a thread, but I might as well post here instead. My Jackbot is just about finished. All I have install is the CPR mirrored BG, because I didn’t have the correct trim & lift bar for the new thicker glass. That said….

BEFORE
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AFTER
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I’ll just post some ideas I had that turned out pretty well….

I rebuilt the pops. Cleaned & new coil sleeves. Clear bodies, multicolored skirts, EVO pop lighting, new red caps, new sockets resoldered. These came out awesome, thanks to the cool white underside lighting that really brightened up the pop area. These EVO lights raise the pop caps about 5mm, so you’ll need to use spacers to raise the bagatelle so it doesn’t rest on the pops & wear off the bride artwork.

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The original plastic just didn’t pop enough, so I bought the replacement plastic from PPS, which has more colors. I used clear mini posts & used a variety of colored rubbers for the bagatelle. More color the better on this game.

So the translucent red pops light the artwork from underneath & wash all the nice plastic colors out. So I added a spotlight by the bagatelle exit area with a bright optimax cool white bulb. Now you can see the nice colors of the bride artwork.

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Photo of the matrix lighting added behind the ramp. I ran two 12v flasher strips to each side of the back panel & tied them into the left/right eye flashers.

Also added purple strips inside the spiral ramp, tied to the GI.

I already had the Freeplay40 red/blue ramp, so I added red/blue matrix strip to add some additional hued lighting & tied it into the GI lighting. Colored frosted bulbs in the GI is awful. It washes out the playfield art & all the plastics. But if you install white GI bulbs, then add some colored light, the effect is subtitle & not severe.

I actually moved those colored strips to the back edge of the playfield & pointed them up towards the ramp. Ended up looking a lot better.

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I also added some flashers to the backbox. I measured to place a purple flasher in the center of pinbots visor, then ran the wire to the visor flasher in the center of the playfield. I also heated some thermal plastic & created a visor blackout guide for the backbox, just to contain the light strictly to the visor face on the back glass. Not pretty but it works well.

I also added a red flasher behind the bride’s heart, and then tied it into the super pop playfield flasher.

Little touches that most players won’t notice, but Jackbot lovers will

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I thought I took a better photo from the side, but you can see the black spacers I used here. Got them from pinball life. I can't recall exactly what size I used. Either 1/4 or 5/16 I think. You just want to raise the plastic enough so that the art doesn't rub off on the pops. I also had to use slightly longer hex screws to secure everything.

There was plenty of clearance where the ramp exits onto the bagatelle area, and the exit guide simply slides into the riveted bracket at the bottom of the bagatelle. So being about a 1/4 inch higher didn't effect the path of the ball at all.

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The only thing I could not locate during my build was the back board artwork decal. That must have been a custom item & never produced for sale.

Installed the CPR backglass tonight. It’s thicker than 1/8” but thinner than 3/16”. The old WPC trim didn’t work, so I had to use System 11 trim & lift bar from pinball life. The lift bar was pretty snug after using friction tape. Had to tap in with a rubber mallet, which was a bit nerve wracking.

But it looks good! Nice colors, a little darker overall. The “mirroring” effect is laughable at best. More like a cloudy gray than a mirror surface. But I’m glad I purchased.

OLD TRANSLIGHT

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NEW CPR MIRRORED BACKGLASS

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Yeah that's what I have installed in the backbox. 2SMD frosted cool white. The visor flasher effect is somewhat diminished due to the darker BG, but it works for me.

I'm declaring this Jackbot shop job done. Time to play the hell out of it & go on a couple nice Casino Runs

Here's how I look at it....

1) The CPR glass looks better in person
2) It has brighter colors & isn't washed out like a translight
3) CPR's mirroring is what is it is. It's never going to be as reflective as a classic 80's backglass.

I have a CPR Blackout backglass, which is pretty good but not great. I have a CPR Taxi blackglass where the rear view mirror is muttled grey & doesn't reflect at all. This Jackbot backglass is similar to Taxi. It doesn't reflect at all. But it's a big improvement over a washed out translight. But you are correct that the "Pinball adventure" line is harder to read because it has that muttled mirroring.

I have frosted cool white 2SMD in my backglass. You could add more frosted LED strips via matrix connections if you wanted to brighten up the CPR backglass. I just have no interest in doing that though. It looks fine in person for me, and my well lit playfield draws everyone's eye anyway.

Your best bet is to reach out to Classic Arcades. It's possible they may be willing to do a custom run for the drop targets. I'm sure most the owners in this thread could use a new set.

They're licenced to sell Bally/Williams decals through PPS. Give 'em a shot.

https://classic-arcades.com/shop?olsPage=products

The jazzy saxophone soundtrack to Jack*Bot is one of my favorite things about the game. It's unique to all the other pinball soundtracks out there. Personally I'd never swap that music out.