Jersey Jack Repair Guides

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For history of Jersey Jack Pinball see Jersey Jack Pinball.

1 Introduction

Jersey Jack Pinball was established by Jack Guarnieri in 2011, and was originally located in Lakewood, New Jersey. JJP's first game, Wizard of Oz, was released in 2013. This was the first modern game to feature a large color LCD display instead of a DMD, and the first widebody game since the late 1990's. JJP's first release was followed by several other editions of WOZ, as well as other licensed and unlicensed game titles. In 2015, JJP established an engineering team and satellite office in Bensenville, Illinois. In Feburary 2020, a press release was published that announced the relocation of the entire company to Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

2 Games

2.1 Wizard of Oz

The first production games of Wizard of Oz (or, abbreviated as WOZ) shipped in April 2013. It is a widebody pinball machine with a 26" HD LCD screen in place of a traditional backglass and DMD. The playfield is lit by RGB LEDs.

2.1.1 Standard Edition

The earliest standard editions came numbered x/1000, notated on the playfield apron. It is unclear whether or not there were a full 1000 games produced with this numbering scheme. Subsequent standard edition games did not appear to be numbered in any special way.

Standard Edition

2.1.2 Emerald City Limited Edition

Emerald City Limited Edition

2.1.3 75th Anniversary Limited Edition

This edition was also previously referred to as the "Red Ruby" Edition.

75th Anniversary Limited Edition

2.1.4 Green Edition

This edition was listed on the pinballs.com distributor website in Fall 2015, and was not directly assembled by JJP. Less than 100 machines were planned for production, according to the website. It differs from the original Emerald City LE machine in that the cabinet is not direct print and it does not have the wooden apron. The apron on this machine is metal and features the four characters on their way to Oz. These machines include a factory-installed shaker motor and Invisiglass. A custom topper was being designed for the Green Edition.

Green Edition

2.1.5 Yellow Brick Road Limited Edition

This edition was announced in March 2019 at the Texas Pinball Festival. It featured sparkle yellow trim and wire ramps, invisiglass, and a new topper design. While most other prior game editions were mainly limited to cosmetic differences, there was one functional difference in this edition: the flying monkey mechanism at the rear of the playfield was removed. It was later commented that it was removed for reliability reasons. The boardset and computer were moved from the lower cabinet into the backbox.

Yellow Brick Road Limited Edition

2.1.6 Other Unique/Special/Limited Editions

2.1.6.1 Rescue Edition

The Rescue Edition was a limited run machines that were donated by JJP, and the proceeds went to help reimburse customers who pre-ordered from the Australian distributor, Bumper Amusements, which folded in mid-2014 before orders were fulfilled. In June 2014, it was announced that a total of 22 games would be built, but JJP later said only a total of 20 ended up being made.

Rescue edition apron

2.1.6.2 Richie Knucklez Arcade Games Limited Edition

This Emerald City Limited Edition game (made around 2014-2015) was prepared for the former "Richie Knucklez Arcade Games" location in Denville, New Jersey.

Richie Knucklez Arcade Games edition apron

3 Pindemption

Pindemption is JJP’s trademarked name for their patented pinball redemption technology. As of October 2015, it was released and available for purchase.

These games have modified software and rules that can be enabled in the game menus, as well as a modified wiring harness to accommodate a ticket dispenser.

A Pindeption screen in attract mode

• 

  Pindemption Prototype

• 

  Pindemption Topper

• 

  Pindemption Ticket Dispenser

4 Technical Info

4.1 Boardset

Wizard of Oz boardset (with the Unified Power Source board)

4.5 Power Supply

Comments regarding changes to the power supply for Wizard of Oz were made by a JJP staff member on Pinside.

For boards and LED lighting:

• Early WoZ games (made prior to 10/1/2013) had a modified 5VDC/12VDC ATX power supply along with a standard 40w (then later a 60w) switching power supply (for 24VDC), and a 5VDC (and later a 7.5VDC) power supply (for LED lighting).
• Prior to the 2.0 lighting system (and WoZ games made after 10/1/2013), a UPS (Unified Power Source/Supply) board and was included in all games of the era for all the necessary logic and LED lighting voltages. It is no longer used and no longer available due to some components that were used on the board becoming obsolete.
• In preparation for the 2.0 lighting system and other future game needs, an ATX power supply (with 5VDC/12VDC/24VDC) with an add-on 4VDC/7.5VDC module was introduced with The Hobbit and included in all Hobbit games. This solution is being used to replace UPS board failures, which requires some tweaking/modifications to retrofit into UPS games.
• Beginning with Dialed In, all the boards were moved into the backbox.
• A standard 5VDC/12VDC ATX power supply started being used in WoZ Yellow Brick Road Edition, Pirates, Wonka, and GNR to power the boards and LED lighting.

5 Problems & Solutions

5.1 Flippers

See Common Flipper Troubleshooting. JJP is using Williams-styled flipper mechanisms, which have great parts availability and are easily understood.

5.2 Lamp Boards

Early production WOZ machines had lamp boards that were plagued by failures. This led to the development of 5 significant versions of lamp boards.

• Original 5v lamp boards. The boards are daisy chained, so when one board fails, other boards down the chain either cease working, or receive corrupted data and don't light up normally.
• Updated 7.5v boards. Board failures were reduced, but like with the 5v boards, when one board fails, all subsequent boards downstream on the chain were affected until the failed board was either replaced or bypassed. WOZ games built in October 2013 and later received these boards.
• Updated 7.5v buffer boards. Similar to the 7.5v, with some reliability improvements. Daughter boards included an additional circuit board attached to the female connectors that included a buffer chip. These buffer boards were reported to be incorporated into games as early as April 2014.
• Updated 5v buffer boards. Improvements on the 5v board system, similar to the daughter board improvements that appeared in the 7.5v buffer boards.
• Updated 2.0 or Generation 2 boards. The lamp boards were completely redesigned. One significant improvement was that they were no longer daisy chained, so if one lamp board failed, the failure didn't also prevent other lamp boards from operating. WOZ games built after 12/15/16 incorporated this lamp board system into the game.

JJP did offer a 2.0 lighting upgrade kit for WOZ, which included a Controller Board, LED Light Boards, Cables & Connectors, Power Supply, Hardware, and installation instructions. The kit was listed for $849.99 (in Fall 2021) and is currently no longer listed as available for sale. In summer of 2022, 150 kits were shipped to customers that were on a wait list for the 2.0 kit. It's unclear if any more kits will become available.

WOZ 2.0 Lighting Upgrade Kit

Wizard of Oz Yellow Brick Road Edition, The Hobbit, Dialed In, Pirates of the Caribbean, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Guns n' Roses were manufactured with the 2.0 lamp board system.

8 References

• Jersey Jack Pinball company website
• Jersey Jack Pinball Facebook page