Johnny Mnemonic
Williams, 1995I have a guy up the street (15 doors or so) willing to sell a Johnny Mnemonic for $800. I have a single pin (WCS 94 bought 2 years ago for $1200) and I'm interested in building my collection. I'm guessing the Power Glove matrix would be tough to fix if it's broken but he claims it's "working 100%". I'm also guessing he doesn't know much about it either way. Anyways, I'm going to check it later today. Anything I should look for and when does that price stop being a good deal?
Quoted from drshaw:I have a guy up the street (15 doors or so) willing to sell a Johnny Mnemonic for $800. I have a single pin (WCS 94 bought 2 years ago for $1200) and I'm interested in building my collection. I'm guessing the Power Glove matrix would be tough to fix if it's broken but he claims it's "working 100%". I'm also guessing he doesn't know much about it either way. Anyways, I'm going to check it later today. Anything I should look for and when does that price stop being a good deal?
Done deal, a no brainer unless it's blown out.
I presume the fact that you have not responded means you're busy getting it / have gotten it / are now playing it....
If not, go get it now! That's OK, we'll wait.... 
Later,
EV
Going to check it out either later tonight or tomorrow. Really hoping that the condition is decent and that the glove works 100%. If I do a search on JM tables it seems like everybody has had issues with their glove in the past and unfortunately, I'm not the most handy guy with maintenance on these things.
Post edited by drshaw : spelling
Quoted from drshaw:Going to check it out either later tonight or tomorrow. Really hoping that the condition is decent at that the glove works. If I do a search on JM tables it seems like everybody has had issues with their glove and unfortunately I'm not the most handy guy with these things.
Doesn't matter. For that price you could pay a tech to fix any issues you would have.
Most JM's broke pretty quickly on route, so they didn't get much play (I.E. NICE playfields!)
ENJOY!
JM is in the house. $800 held up. It's in unbelievably good shape. Cabinet has zero fade and hardly any wear. Had zero errors in the test report when I picked it up. Glass was filthy and play field needed a good wax but it had no holes or fade or chips or lifts or any problems. Really, the machine is in great shape. Replaced the balls and probably 10 lamps. It seems to play 100% flawless although I'm not familiar with the table to know exactly if something is amiss. I'll probably replace the flippers, they feel a little mushy.
Quick question: In the test report now (after the move), I do get a "Check Switch F5 'Ball In Hand'". I put my fingers up the underside of the glove in the Single Switch Test and F5 always remains open even though I'm pushing in the switch inside the glove near the magnet. I haven't even looked in the manual to see if that's the switch in question though, it just seems like "ball in hand" would be that. It's weird though, because the glove behaves fine in game and doesn't drop the ball unless I tell it to or the timer runs out. Maybe I'll start another thread on how to troubleshoot it further... but again, it seems to play flawless as far as I can tell!
I feel pretty lucky to have come across this.
Quoted from drshaw:Quick question: In the test report now (after the move), I do get a "Check Switch F5 'Ball In Hand'". I put my fingers up the underside of the glove in the Single Switch Test and F5 always remains open even though I'm pushing in the switch inside the glove near the magnet. I haven't even looked in the manual to see if that's the switch in question though, it just seems like "ball in hand" would be that. It's weird though, because the glove behaves fine in game and doesn't drop the ball unless I tell it to or the timer runs out. Maybe I'll start another thread on how to troubleshoot it further... but again, it seems to play flawless as far as I can tell!
I feel pretty lucky to have come across this.
It sounds like you have a break in the wires of the ball in hand switch? Are you sure it's plugged in? It could be that the previous owner disconnected it. Here's the funny thing about Johnny Mnemonic -- one of the best things you can do to make it play more reliably is to unplug, or better yet completely remove the ball in hand switch. When the switch is in there (and working), if it ever intermittently loses contact, which it very commonly does, it will drop the ball. But if the switch is pulled out completely the game compensates for it being gone and holds and drops the ball just fine. You'll have a permanent credit dot, but it's worth it!
You should be STOKED! I love my JM. The glove is relatively easy (and cheap) to fix, and you will love how fast it is. Sweet deal.
@bobbyconover- thanks for the tip, I'll keep that one in the archives for future use.
Yeah, I have the credit dot going right now. I also found a bunch of goodies (manual, lamp kit, fuse kit, plastic sets, flipper rubbers, etc..) inside the cab. It just keeps on giving, unfortunately, I feel like I won't be able to rest easy until I get that switch figured out.
Wow! Congrats on a great score! You're going to love the game.
As for your ball-in-hand switch issue, I'll second bobbyconver's recommendation that it might be one of the wires that's broken going to the switch. I took my JM to the MI Expo, and when I got it back, it had the same error. All I did was undo the two screws on top and removed the plastic glove, and I could see exactly where the wire had broken off the switch. Quick solder job, and I was back in business.
There are also a couple of bulletins relating to the glove/switch;
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/3683/Williams_1995_Johnny_Mnemonic_Manual_Addendum_2.pdf
http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/3683/Williams_1995_Johnny_Mnemonic_Service_Bulletin_85.pdf
Enjoy!
Later,
EV
Quoted from EchoVictor:As for your ball-in-hand switch issue, I'll second bobbyconver's recommendation that it might be one of the wires that's broken going to the switch. I took my JM to the MI Expo, and when I got it back, it had the same error. All I did was undo the two screws on top and removed the plastic glove, and I could see exactly where the wire had broken off the switch. Quick solder job, and I was back in business.
Yep, that's exactly what appears to be the issue, one of the wire leads has been disconnected from the switch. The existing solder pad is clean and should be a quick job. My crappy soldering skills might even be able to pull it off! I need a new iron though, my $10 radio shack special takes like 25 minutes to head up and only stays hot for 1 minute. Makes for a short window. Also, thank you for the bulletin references, they'll come in handy (pun).
Now I just need to figure out the best way to approach this game. Go for multiball as soon as possible? Try and complete modes and go for Powerdown? Any tips? I've played it a dozen times and my scores have been weak.
great score there drhsaw..... the cabinet on this game is beautiful. almost every one of these pins i've seen has that typical cabinet fade in the red area (turns light orange). the reds are gorgeous on this one. congrats my man!
Quoted from drshaw:Now I just need to figure out the best way to approach this game. Go for multiball as soon as possible? Try and complete modes and go for Powerdown? Any tips? I've played it a dozen times and my scores have been weak.
Unfortunately, the Achilles Heel of JM is the unbalanced scoring. Easy way to get really big points is do the left inlane / right ramp or right loop combo to get the "throwing spike" awards. The third of these awards is "Spinner Millions". Once you light that, just hit the spinner shot over and over, and it'll rack up a ton of points.
My normal scores are in the 3~4 bil range. My two top scores with Spinner Millions lit are over 13....
Later,
EV
Thanks for the tip-- I still haven't looked up the rules and I'm just playing it casually based on what the playfield is highlighting. I did somehow stumble into a Frenzy mode (announced by the Rudy voice: "Frenzy" and laugh... a nice touch) where every target was 15m. Even that session was only around 2.5b though. I'm liking the discovery but eventually I'll want to start playing with a purpose.
Quoted from EchoVictor:My normal scores are in the 3~4 bil range. My two top scores with Spinner Millions lit are over 13....
Holy Shit!
Nice!!!
Time to start playing my buddies JM for drinks!!!
Quoted from EchoVictor:The third of these awards is "Spinner Millions". Once you light that, just hit the spinner shot over and over, and it'll rack up a ton of points.
My normal scores are in the 3~4 bil range. My two top scores with Spinner Millions lit are over 13....
Don't forget the most important part -- once you get the spinner millions going, you want to get your bonus multiplier up and "hold bonus" through both the throwing spike awards and the hand grid. If you pull it off you can get billions applied to not only the ball on which you score the crazy spinner millions, but also multiple balls afterward. It's pretty ridiculous.
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