Mine did this on the first game after getting it set up. I thought I bought a game with problems at first, but it hasn't happened again. I think its some kind of bug with the code, but I don't know how to repeat it.

Ok, that makes sense. The game must be trying to give player 2 a second target to shoot for since only half the eyes are available. I think I'd rather have the saucer award a casino game vs a lock since either eye is an easy shot from either flipper.

Those are the only ones I am aware of. The bride's "moo" for the casino award is my favorite call out in the game.

I've noticed the same. It sometimes seems like the total is a little lower than you would expect when there is a multiplier.

I also have a Judge Dredd which seems to do the opposite. You'll have 150m, get a 25m bonus, and somehow end up with 187m when the next ball starts.

Once the visor closes those balls come back at a furious pace.

Was your playfield freshly waxed when you picked it up? My JB will have a higher rate of balls being rejected from the eyes and balls flying out of the ramp entrance when freshly waxed, but has settled down after some plays.

MK3 hint. It's an embedded advert for Mortal Kombat 3 which was released around the same time by Midway. If it lands you get an instant EB. Supposedly, if you hold both flips just before the tumblers start rolling it helps land on it.

I only shoot foot hit me...

The earlier productions of JB have different eyes that do not catch the ball as well which is most likely why you are getting frustrated with rejects. The later production games have scoops instead of saucers for the eyes. Supposedly, the eyes were redesigned because the saucers from the pinbot design don't work as well with the newer higher powered flippers.

Thanks for the heads up. I had been checking the CPR website every so often waiting for this to pop up.

I received the new CPR mirrored back glass today. I looks good lit up, but overall is a little disappointing.

1. It looks like the image was created by sticking an old translight on a mediocre quality scanner. It has that poor quality scan fuzz to it, especially obvious on the fine text and Williams logo.

2. You can see the printing lines from each pass of the inkjet or whatever process they used to print it.

3. The dark background sections have very little contrast. I think new bright cool white LEDs are going to look best with it.

4. The glass has rounded corners and is slightly larger than a standard glass. This prevents the cabinet lock from engaging. I am going to have to take out the lock and try to hammer the cam up by 1/4".

5. Mine had a couple of small but very noticeable scratches right in the center.

A lot of these items are really nit-picky and not that noticeable when you step a few feet back. I just thought I'd share initial impressions.

I'll post some pictures to the thread, but I probably won't get a chance until the weekend.

It does look from playing distance when lit up, but I'm sure it will be easy to capture the gripes with some close shots. Overall, it's ok but I don't think I would have purchased it if I had the opportunity to see it in a showroom first. The mirroring did come out great.

I don't think there is anything wrong with it other than the small scratches. I think that's just what the product is. It's not worth paying international shipping both ways to send it back and it isn't terrible. I still plan to use it once I have the chance to remove my lock and hammer the cam up so that the larger glass will fit.

Were you able to lock yours in place or was the glass too tall?

Were the corners of the glass rounded or squared off like the stock glass?

Finally posting some before and after shots of the CPR mirrored glass vs the original translite. Sorry my photography skills are awful, but the CPR glass is the definite winner in person.

The first two photos are the original translite with ambient light on/off. The next two are the CPR glass with lights on/off. The difference is probably more noticeable in person than in my crummy photos.

The second to last photo is my best attempt to show my major gripe with the new glass. You can see the horizontal lines from each pass of the printer head. This is even more noticeable in person and can be seen from playing distance, but not much beyond that. The final photo shows some missing spots in the mirroring.

My back box has comet cool white in the stock socket locations. You are going to want the brightest bulbs you can get with the glass as it's not as bright as the translight.
DSC_0004 (resized).JPGDSC_0006 (resized).JPGDSC_0007 (resized).JPGDSC_0008 (resized).JPGDSC_0012 - Edited (resized).jpgDSC_0014 (resized).JPG

Regarding color DMD... which looks best on Jack*Bot, LED or LCD? Or, do you prefer to stick with the standard orange DMD?

I generally like the LCD with smooth feature on for other games, but I wonder how that would translate with the rather basic animations of Jack*Bot.

If you enlarge the final photo of the playing card and turn up the brightness on your monitor you will see speckling on the mirrored surface. These speckles are defects in the mirror finish.

I just got the color ROM on my new LCD display. I am really impressed with how well it came out. I have only tried it on scan so far. I'm going give the highly acclaimed dotXL a try next time I pull the speaker panel.

I've given every color DMD mode a chance. My final verdict is that they are all great. I would be happy with any of the modes, even Tiles which is the worst of the six in my opinion. My favorite? Hires. Scan is a close second and DotsXL is quite a ways back in third.

Have you folks ever received a special from the slot machine? I've played a ton of JB on location, on iOS pinball arcade, and more recently at home. Today I received a special for the first time. I previously didn't realize that was possible and none of the online rule sheets list that as an option.

Did the blue/red replacement ramp ever come to fruition? Is it still available? Any info is appreciated.

Though still quite uncommon, I have been a little luckier with the MK3 hint. I even got two in one game (separate casino runs) on location once. MK3 hint seems to be streaky. Once I see it rotating in the tumblers it seems to hit that game or shortly after.

I want one! Please let me know when one becomes available--no rush.

Yes, Jackbot.

https://www.pinballinc.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=102

What's the deal with the math on the end of ball bonus?

If I understand correctly, the bonus is supposed to be 3mil for each card + current vortex value + dice wager = total, then factor the multiplier.

Often the total seems lower than it should be. Today I had 50mil on the vortex alone but the total for all three only came to 46mil. Is there a software bug, or am I confused about how the bonus is supposed to be calculated?

Did you install from under the playfield with the game on?

Check for shorts, especially to the slingshots?

I just scored the "dirty pool" and between the euphoria and the light show I just kept pounding the chest forgetting that I need to hit the ramp to collect Mega Visor™. By the time I remembered the timer had expired followed by a quick drain. Oh well, I'll finally get a mega visor one of these days...

The robot babe says "dirty pool, old man" and you get the 1.5B. I'm not sure if there is anything unique on the DMD, but you get a wild lightshow.

As the visor is closing after Jackbot 15 you have to get one of the balls loose behind the visor but not locked in an eye. If you lock it in an eye the game will know and the visor will open back up to kick the ball out and you have to start over with the chest hits. The game doesn't know the ball is back there until the "newton ball" event knocks it into an eye lock.

Are you guys able to backhand the cashier from a cradle?

There was one I used to play on location that I could backhand the shot with decent success, but I just can't seem to make the shot from a cradle on mine. I'm wondering if it's a setup issue, but more likely just a lapse in skill. I can pass to the right and make the shot consistently, but I wish I had the ability to attempt a backhand when that counter is down to the last second!

Somebody got a nice clean example!

You are in multiball with a ball trapped on each flip and an eye lit... Do you shoot right-right, left-left, or cross field? Bowen goes cross field on the PAPA vid, but I seem to have much better luck with the 'backhand' shot.

It is getting stuck in the visor when launching it from the plunge? I wonder if you are missing a plastic or if the vortex is damaged. Where in the visor is it getting stuck? Maybe try one of the weaker color coded springs or a white plunger tip.

Does your Vortex have the space shuttle plastic guard to keep the ball from popping out?

Enjoy the lucrative Casino Runs while you can. Once you get better and run up the replay score the game gets stingy.

Early on I would regularly receive "extra ball" or "add 10 cards" from the slot machine and score two (sometimes even three) extra balls from casino run. Now that my score history is much higher I mostly get "Hurry Up" and "Big Points" from the slot. Casino runs are generally stingy and the bombs more frequent.

Early on I found Casino Run to be a better scoring strategy. Now, I generally do better focusing on the visor (Keno Awards and multiball) and ramp shots.

Any issues with the ramp flipping down after the cashier closes? Mine was sicking up a while back... The magnet was still actuating, so I just cleaned the bracket and was trouble free for a while. But, now it has stuck in the up position a couple of times over several dozen games.

Should I lube the bracket under the playfield or leave it dry?

Great looking JB. It's just begging for the blue inlane guide on the left.

Turn the EB buy in option off in the menu to remove the temptation.

Ok, that's going too far! You gotta have cheating on Jackbot.

Does it completely eliminate all cheating including the noise or just make it so "cheating" only happens on a set interval like on tourney mode (so I've been told).

My question for those with cheating disabled: can you still make the cow moo at the beginning of casino run?

I don't think there were any other B/W games with blue lane guides (maybe popeye?) and I'm under the impression JB was a rushed job.

What do y'all have for flipper rubber? I've been using the traditional red rubber since I thought that was proper based on all the artwork, but I just read somewhere that JB was originally issued with black rubber?? I realize most folks nowadays probably use the modern silicone options like titan where the color doesn't matter.

Pinbot had all red plastic hardware on the right and blue on the left. But back then the games had metal lane guides, the plastic ones hit the scene early in the WPC era. My theory as to why they went with all red plastic hardware on JB is that it was either a rushed or low budget effort and they were limited with available parts. Blue plastic hardware was in circulation for previous games for posts (like pinbot), but the only part they didn't already have in blue was the lane guide because nothing else from that era used blue plastic. So they just went with red plastic all around and moved on to code.

From what I can tell, JB came from the factory with black flipper rubber so the playfield art was a bust from the start.

That always struck me as really strange as if they didn't have the right blue plastic available and said good enough.

There is a hard to see third skinny post up near the casino hole. You could probably get away without doing that one but you might as well go all the way.

Maybe mine is just a franken and it is supposed to have a plain post there, but the casino plastic back corner near the jack bot's eye is supported by one of those red posts on mine. You have to look through the crack between the plastic and the visor to see it.

canvas (resized).png

A little simpler, but I like changing the five rubber post mounts to colors. Blue for the left ramp, Yellow, Orange, and Red for the ones under the visor, and Red for the one near the pop bumpers.

Wow, amazing reds on that cabinet.

Unfortunately I don't have a list for you, but just wanted to comment that this game really dazzles when properly done up with LED--probably more than most WPC games. I recommend you stick with cool white for this one.

The visor plastic is tough to find so be careful with that delicate 25 y.o. plastic!

I had ramp intermittently sticking up on mine a while ago. I don't have the machine or diagrams in front of me right now but I remember the issue was too much gap between the bracket flange and the magnet that pulls it down. I bent the bracket slightly using pliers to close the gap and it has been flawless for at least a thousand plays since. Make sure the machine is off before trying as that's a congested area and its easy to accidentally cause a short with your tools.

That looks like the JB that MustangPaul tricked out. He did a lot of custom work to it, so those decals may have been his creation.

JB is the best of all the sys11 games. That's all.

I'm obviously joking (trolling??)... sys11 was a special era of pinball and JB plays more like a perfected sys11 than WPC. There are a few other early WPC that have a sys11 feel (BR, HS2, BSD, and the alphanumerics), but none are as good as JB, at least of what I've played.

Let's talk strategy... do y'all go for the soft plunge or shoot the vortex? Personally, I almost always go for Vortex since I feel like that is a key element of the game. It bugs me that the soft plunge is so exploitable so I installed the red spring and set the 10 point switch by the bumpers on a hair trigger to try to make the soft plunge less of a sure thing. On a normally set up game I think soft plunge is the better points strategy, but, like many tourney strategies, is borrrring.

Looks like you have one of the early sample games. Please update and let us know how "sticky" the eyes are as we are told the early sample games are prone to excessive rejects. My late normal production game with the scoop style eyes has been very sassy with the rejects as of late as if the game has become angry at my mediocre maintenance habits and is fighting back!

My shooter has been inconsistent. Some games it seems like I can hit the skill hole 50% of the time and others I am lucky to get it once per game.

There are a couple of clues that your machine is of earlier production, mainly the color vs white keno arrows and the style of the ramp mode light board. However, these traits don't necessarily mean the game is a sample production. The big tell that it is a sample is the design of the three lock holes. The samples had saucer style locks with angles metal backing plates like it appears to me your game has. The regular production games have curved scoops feeding holes more similar to shallow vertical upkicks.

Some folks that have played the sample games claim that the locks tend to reject more often than the standard production games. If you find this to be the case with yours there are some tricks that others have reported improved the lock rate. You can search around the threads to find them.

Other folks report that their sample games have no issues with the locks whatsoever. However, who knows if they are just trying to pump and dump their own games in the marketplace...

I am curious how you make out with your machine. For what it's worth, my JB goes through phases where it seems to have a very high reject rate. I think level, flipper condition, rubber, and playfield cleanliness all play a role.

My impression is that sample production is less desired though not by much from a dollar standpoint.

Awesome! Glad to hear you have the locks dialed in. Maybe I should try some of that sorbathane on my regular production JB as it was giving me some heartbreaking rejections tonight. The worst example was during a casino run when I only had 8 seconds left, but a bucket on hand so I decided to go for it. I shot the return directly in the blue side eye but rejected! The return just bounced around the slings until time expired and I lost out on 800M or so. The only consolation was that I scored a dirty pool later in the game. Unfortunately I choked on the Mega Jackpot ramp shot but still ended up with one of my best scores in months.

JB is such a fantastic game. It is a top tier WPC game and unbelievable that they sell for so cheap given the low production.

So you are saying that if Max EB is set to anything other than "off" then if shuts EB off completely? I have always played with standard settings but I'll give it a try. I have definitely encountered a few small bugs in game code, most notably the bonus scoring.

One thing I haven't figured out for sure... I think the game might award 200M for an "EB" whether you actually record an EB or not. But, I'm not sure.

Pretty sure mine has LED flashers in that location. I will check for you but might not have an opportunity for a day or two.

If they are the flashers that I am thinking of they have an unusual trait in that when I shut the game off they glow pretty bright for several seconds after--only noticeable in the dark. I don't notice other flashers glowing like that but maybe the others are all incan.

I have small tower LED flashers in both eyes. Both flash during a solenoid test. I tried a couple of different solenoids. Interestingly, they flash even when the solenoids don't fire due to the cab door being open. As best I could tell the other flashers on my game, which are a mix of LED and incan, do not flash during the test.

My JB has balls shoot the gap every once in a while especially when the play field and rubber is freshly cleaned. I always considered it a feature but maybe it's a bug.

I like cool white for GI on this one due to the dark playfield and space theme. I think the white rubbers look the best but that's a little more subjective. I think the one on here with the plain upper plastic on was a custom job. Welcome to the club!

Congrats and welcome to the club!

I don't have any advise on the prepackaged LED kits, but I highly recommend cool white for GI on this game--the cooler the better as it compliments the blue/black play field and space theme well. I installed the high output Comet Opmax on all lower GI sockets and Quasar on the more hidden upper ones with great results. Jackbot has excellent GI compared to many of the other WPC games which often require spots to bring up to modern standards.

You are also going to want non-ghosting for the status boards on the ramp (2) and upper playfield (4). I had to switch the yellow and green on the ramp lights since green LED is blinding and "light game saucer" is frequently blinking. "Mega Ramp" is lit very infrequently so the green works well there. I also had to swap the pinbot mask flasher on playfield center to a bulb with lower output as a standard 8SMD was borderline seizure inducing.

Any strategy tips on which order to collect the casino games?

I usually try to grab the slot when the keno card is empty as it seems to more often give the better awards in that scenario. Otherwise, I'll go for poker first since it's not as lucrative as keno or dice when deep in a game. I never waste a cheat on poker unless there are three aces lit since the added bonus isn't as great as with the other games.

I also try to cash in keno early if possible to eliminate the risk of accidentally hitting it on a fresh visor which ruins the opportunity to open the visor with an arrow shot.

Checking in to let y'all know that I just did the dirty pool. One helluva light show for a WPC.

Is your game a sample? My guess would be it came off the line on the 34th day of 1995, so early Feb build.

I think the last four digits of the S/N is the production number. Mine is 2062. My build date is so faded I can't really read it, but it looks like maybe 95-262.

We are going to need a breakdown of 1.1H vs 1.0R.

OP, sorry this burden has been placed upon you, but this is a major development for a largely forgotten 25 year old game like this!

Compared to other games from the WPC era I think Jackbot has one of the best rule sets and balanced scoring. I can't think of any improvements so I am really curious what changes were made. LED wouldn't have taken the time to just fix a couple of barely noticeable bugs on a three year old forgotten game, right?

Everybody Loves Raymond, S4:E23

Screenshot 2021-07-02 22.58.19 (resized).png

But I must admit I am jealous of the reds on that cabinet. Maybe mine still had that much red back when this episode came out.

My folks told me they were watching ELR and saw Jack-Bot. I didn't believe at first since TV/movies usually de-brand the games, but there it is!

I am at over 4000 plays and still only have one slot machine Special.

For those of you with the color DMD.... does yours glitch on the card hand image during Pinbot Poker after a successful cheat? Other than that, the color DMD programming knocked it out of the park. I think it benefited from being one of the less popular and thus later games to get the color treatment.

Regarding plastics... my observation is that most games that haven't received a replacement plastic kit will have a broken casino game plastic. Poor design on that one with the narrow spot right in the center along the rubber. At least some large washers on the post above and below the plastic will keep things playable and looking decent. Second is chipping of the plastic over the eye locks. The narrow tips on the return lane plastic is the final problem spot.

It's my only SS and I've had it a couple of years. Games play quick, so probably averaged 5-10 games per day in the early days. Probably more like 3 games a day now. Thankfully JB has had very little down time so far. I think partly because it is an inherently reliable game but mostly luck.

Just got three cows on the same casino run... I've had quite the dry spell lately so I think she is being generous.

Any updates on the LED special code?

A cow on the tumblers awards an instant special for 500M and a credit. This is different from the usual Special award since you have to cash out the casino run to collect a regular special and don't collect if you go bust.

Question about the "hit-me" blackjack hand... is the awarded card based at all on game play or truly random? I understand that shooting for "hit-me" is basically asking for a drain, just curious on how that mostly ignored portion of code works.

Just had a casino run spin with all tumblers hitting 45mil. I got a knock and I'm pretty sure was awarded the 500mil special. I don't recall ever getting a 3x match on casino run so that was a surprise event.

I estimate I'm at around 5000 games. It's awesome that such a basic playfield and ruleset can still dish out a surprise now and then. The other one-off phenomena that comes to mind is the Slot Machine special I got a few thousand games ago. Until then I didn't even know that was a possible award on the Slot Machine. Still waiting for that one to surprise me again.

I have LED on all GI, the 25x Keno card, and white/green inserts... traditional incan on the rest. I don't have the OCD boards and really like the way the lighting presents. I have never played one with the boards so can't make a comparison, but I really don't think it's necessary on this game. There aren't any dimming effects in the programming that I am aware of.

If you decide to skip the boards I recommend non-ghosting bulbs for above playfield ramp mode indicators (light game saucer and mega-ramp) and right lane award (cashier, mega-ramp, EB, 25M) since ghosting on those is obvious and annoying.

Congrats on the JB acquisition. Replayability on JB is as good as it gets. I have several thousand games on mine and zero desire to add another game since JB keeps calling me back for more. That being said, I do have an Old Chicago that occasionally gets some love.

I installed a couple of red/blue bulbs in the GI on either side at the back of the playfield just for fun, super bright cool white for the rest.

Good luck with the shop. JB is remarkably easy to maintain compared to other games from the era.

Great work with the backbox visor and bride heart custom flashers! Fantastic ideas--your game is looking great.

I have the freeplay red/blue ramp, but it's still sitting in the box after a couple of years. I might copy your matrix lighting example when I finally get around to making the switch.

The mirroring on my CPR backglass is excellent. I can see the cloudiness in your photo and mine definitely does not have that. However, the printing on mine shows obvious banding from the printer passes. It's not too noticeable from playing distance, but it is there and I am pretty disappointed in the quality overall. That being said, it does look unquestionably better overall than the original translight, so it stays.

I switched to 2SMD cool white bulbs in the backbox to counteract the lower transmission. I also had to do a little custom work to find a solution for the trim. I ended up not even using a lift bar so I have to use some rubber or a sweaty palm for friction to lift and remove it.

My JB has slowly developed a non-issue over the last thousand or so plays. The trough to shooter lane eject occasionally needs a second attempt to get the ball into the shooter lane. The trick is this only happens when loading up for a 3-ball multiball. Never had an issue on routine non-multiball trough eject. I'm assuming there is some sort of voltage drop phenomena present while the game is giving the fancy multiball lightshow that leads to the failure.

It probably only happens <10% of the time and the game usually corrects with a second coil fire after a few seconds. Occasionally it will require a rough shake, presumably to get the failed ball to re-seat in the trough properly to close the trough opto.

I play for the long game. Rather than get too excited about individual game scores, my metric of interest is how high I can run up the replay score. I gradually ran my JB replay up a few million every cycle until it reached 5.9B. I wanted that 6B so bad, but my skills slipped and replay dropped into the 4B range for the last couple of years.

Over the last few months I have increased play and laser focused on my skills. Replay just reset at 5.8B... So close to that 6B goal. Just had a big game to kick off the next 50 game replay cycle, so I am off to a great start!

Merry Christmas to all you JB enthusiasts and owners.

Nice work! Make sure those wire forms are shoved deep and snug into the playfield receiving holes. The most prominent flaw with my JB is a deep playfield scratch on the left (red) eye from the wire form coming loose on the leading edge and a ball grinding it through the clear into the wood. Luckily it's concealed when the visor is closed and only barely visible when up.

Also, you should change out those post sleeves so they are color matched to their corresponding keno lanes. From left: Yellow, Orange, Red!

Casino Run was most generous tonight. I had an early spin that awarded an EB triple... so, three extra balls and a Special for the triple match.

Unfortunately, I squandered that generosity and came up just shy of a "high roller" score.

Can you describe the decal with more detail? It is not clear to me which you are speaking of.

My next shop task is working the pops. I can snap some shots of the solar jets text while I'm in there.

I have played one on location that went SDTM almost every time, but that shouldn't accepted as normal. I would try altering something slightly with the eject to see if that helps. Some ideas:

1. Ever so slightly bend the scoop.
2. Replace the coil sleeve.
3. Loosen and re-tightening the coil bracket hoping for slightly different alignment.
4. Try the same for the coil frame to playfield screws.
5. Bigger or smaller rubber on the coil stop.

Another possible temporary fix is try cleaning, and/or waxing (especially in the casino lane), along with new balls. My ejects seem to shoot differently after some tLC.

My casino eject usually bounces in the lane before coming down and serving a flipper. Maybe 1 out of 50 will roll out without bouncing in the lane and be a SDTM threat.

What do you folks run for a playfield angle on JB? I have mine centered on the leveling bubble and it has always felt so much faster than anything else from the WPC era. I'm thinking of giving a different angle a try and wondering if I should go up or down to start.

I usually try to leave it just a little dirty to slow things down, but I got carried away with the naphtha and Novus 1 this weekend... This game is so fast that I feel like I need to tighten up the flipper leafs to get an extra 0.01 seconds of response.

Is there something about Jackbot that makes the ball move so crazy fast compared to other WPC games from the era?

I just had a bricked shot return so fast that it bounced off the center pin into the blue eye lock. Crazy stuff!

JB was released with black rubber on the flippers while I think PB had red. I'm under the impression that black rubber plays slower than red so maybe that was an attempt by the designers to mitigate the stronger WPC flippers?

My JB had modern silicone flipper rubber when I first got it and I soon switched to old school red rubber. After many thousands of plays my original red rubbers are just about spent. I'm going to try black next to see how that changes the game.

What are you folks running for flipper rubber? Do you have any opinions on the best flipper rubber type for JB?

Today my 10 year old tells me that he figured out a trick to get unlimited ball saves on JB. He goes on to explain the soft plunge method that he figured out on his own.

I'll have to take notes on his method as I probably only have a 20% or so success rate keeping the soft plunge out of the jets. I have a red spring combined with black rod rubber to make the trick extra challenging since I'm not a fan of the impact the soft plunge has on the game.

That's a decent score even on a machine that is set up to be forgiving. Did you get deep into the Jackbots or was it a Casino Run affair?

I swapped a powerball in Jackbot as a novelty. Makes for an interesting element to multiple player games creatively using locks to stick the opponent with the ball. Probably not a good idea to have it in there after a fresh coat of wax or Novus1 as it might get fast enough to break something.

Hopefully you get back soon! My suggestion is to try to get that last JB with a ball trapped up and try to send the next ball up toward the visor right away. Hopefully it gets hung up in there and you can collect the dirty pool as that's much easier than banging on the visor.

Points from the chest hits really add up even if you can't open the visor back up for the final super.

Congrats on your recent acquisitions, VikingErik and NinjaBoot. Jackbot is the ultimate "one more game" machine. Fish Tales is a close second. Hopefully will get my hands on one of those someday.

Mine is mostly LED and I think it looks great without the boards--totally not necessary in my opinion. You will want special non-ghosting frosted bulbs for the award lights above the playfield on the ramp and bagatelle. I had a tiny bit of ghosting on a couple of those and it is very apparent since they are bare bulbs. Another suggestion is to use a downsized flasher bulb for the visor insert in the middle of the playfield. If you go with a full size white bulb it is so bright that it will disrupt your vision when it fires.

That being said, everyone who installs the boards raves about them on JB and every WPC. So, if you plan on keeping the game you probably won't be disappointed.

I think I remember that being the custom work of someone in this thread. Then the game popped back up later with another owner. User MustangPaul comes to mind, but maybe he was the second owner. I looked back in the thread but didn't see it.

No spacer on mine. It looks like the top helmet plastic flexes up in the middle and is slightly bent down on the sides, so without the screw the end will hang a little higher. The screw on mine is the same as the others that fasten down that same plastic.

My late production version with the scoops still rejects a fair amount, though much less than 50%. There have been several posts on Pinside both in this thread and elsewhere on modifications to help with the prototype games. From what I remember, most solutions involve careful placement of dense foam under the mask.

I recommend setting the game up just a little steeper and using old school black flipper rubber just like the game originally came with. The fancy titan style flipper rubbers shoot with more speed than the classic black rubber. For a more extreme suggestion... try a powerball and see if that sinks the shot better. I have a powerball for one (of four) in mine and for whatever reason that one has a much lower reject rate than the traditional steel balls.

Megavisor cheat is the dirty pool. Don't shoot for that last jack-bot until you have a ball trapped up ready to fire just as the visor starts to close. Megavisor is way too hard otherwise!

No idea on the function of the unused plugs but mine has them as well.

Mine will rarely hang up if the visor traps a loose ball that is not in one of the lock scoops. As you know, the machine will go into ball search after a few seconds to free up the ball. However, the ball will rest in the groove between the play field and the top surface of the visor and won't come down without a little nudge. A minor annoyance.

The alternative is to mount the visor a smidge lower, but then you end up with hang ups in the recess that will probably be more frequent. It's a little flaw in the game design. It rarely happens when I am playing (once in 100 plays kind of odds), but seems to be more frequent with more novice players.

I can't try to verify right now, but the easter egg should be [20R, L, 5R, L, 24R, L] while in attract mode. I know I have done it on mine before. It can take several tries since these long button sequences are harder to accomplish than you would think,

A couple of unusual games for me recently...

First is that I received a SPECIAL on the slot machine. That's only the second time I can remember getting that award in several thousand games. It was on ball three of an exceptionally low score (under 200 mil) so maybe that figures into the logic. I always thought specials were worth 500 mil, but this one only awarded 200 or 300 so I've either been wrong all this time or the casino run special awards differently than the slot.

Second is that I had, by far, my best ball 1 ever. I completed the mega visor including the ramp for just shy of 8 billion. I cheated a little bit by doing the dirty pool. Unfortunately, I didn't do much with the next two balls and didn't get an EB on the game so ended with a disappointing total of just under 10 billion.

This promo video is great! I had not seen it before. The game shown is obviously one of the prototypes with the saucer style eyes, different colors on the casino inserts, alternate plastics for the ramp indicators, and no bride stickers on the drops.

Watching the video reminds me of how silly the cabinet art is. The play on Creation of Adam combined with the ridiculous robot arm wearing a cuff to partially conceal a cheating ace makes the cab one of the best from the era.