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. These early games had artwork directly printed onto the cabinet. 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. At some point, cabinets were changed from direct printing to decals.

Standard Edition

Numbered Standard Edition with sticker on playfield apron

2.1.2 Emerald City Limited Edition

Emerald City Limited Edition

This edition had a production run of 1000 games. Production began in April 2013. The cabinets for this edition were directly printed.

2.1.3 75th Anniversary Limited Edition

This edition was also referred to as the "Ruby Red Limited Edition" or "Red Ruby Limited Edition" in some advertising. A production run of 1500 games was advertised, and production began in August 2014. The cabinets for this edition had decals for the artwork.

75th Anniversary Limited Edition

2.1.4 Green Edition

This edition was listed on the pinballs.com distributor website (aka Automated Services) 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 (like on the standard edition) 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 in 2021 that 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

2.1.7 Prototype Games

A number of prototype games made their way into private hands. These can usually be identified by a "P" at the end of the serial number. A few early prototypes sometimes have a blank playfield apron without artwork.

Unfortunately, early prototype games cannot not run the current versions of WOZ code, and are essentially stuck at more or less the code version that was developed on them. Version 1.07 was one version found on prototype games, and in the change log for the code versions, it is noted as "unreleased".

Attempting to upgrade to current versions (7.x or later) can either result in a kernal error on boot (for games running an Intel Atom) or can result in a full boot, but the game displaying various switch errors and will not start a game. It is not clear if or what versions after 1.07 can function on prototype games. However, two separate individuals commented that version 1.14 and version 1.16 were able to run on early prototype games when those versions were initially released. In another instance, a prototype game made in March 2013 with an Intel Atom was shown to be running version 3.00.

One early prototype game owner noted that the first versions of the main driver board used a different serial interface for the LCD screen behind the crystal ball, and newer software is unable to drive it. The game owner speculated that replacing the driver board with a production game board version may then allow newer versions of the software to be installed and drive the crystal ball display.

Note that JJP has declined to offer any support for prototype games, and that they have said they do not have copies of the old version 1.x code used on prototype or early production games. The full ISO versions for 1.18 and 1.24 found in the archive.org wayback machine appear to be incomplete and do not function, unfortunately.

It was noted that with a later prototype game made in March 2013, it was close enough to production games where the Intel Atom computer that was used on prototype games could be replaced with an x86 motherboard and CPU that matches the hardware in production run games, and then the game could be updated to run current versions of the code. Additionally, the monkey mechanism was lacking a proximity sensor in prototype games, which could be added using production parts, and wired to the controller board.

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)

4.2 Motherboard & CPU

4.2.1 MSI H61M-P31 Motherboard

• MSI H61M-P31/W8 or MSI H61M-P31 (G3)
• Used in Wizard of OZ.
• Motherboard Quick Install Guide
• Motherboard Manual for H61M-P31 G3. Note that the main differences between the G3 and W8 versions is that the W8 has a TPM security module header (which isn't used) and 1Gb ethernet jack on the motherboard, while the G3 doesn't have a TPM header and only has a 10/100Mb network jack.
• Accompanying Hardware:
  • Intel G530 CPU or Intel G540 CPU
  • 4GB RAM DDR3-1067 or DDR3-1333
  • Crucial V4 64GB Internal 2.5" (CT064V4SSD2) SSD (solid state drive)

4.2.2 MSI H81M-P33 Motherboard

• MSI H81M-P33 Motherboard
• Used in The Hobbit, Dialed In, Pirates of the Caribbean, Willy Wonka
• Can be used in Wizard of Oz running version 6.06 and above.
• Motherboard Manual
• Accompanying Hardware:
  • Intel G1840 (Dialed In, Pirates of the Caribbean, Willy Wonka)
  • 4GB RAM DDR3-1333
  • Crucial M4 64GB Internal 2.5" (CT064M4SSD2) SSD (solid state drive) (The Hobbit, Dialed In) or SanDisk 32GB SD8SBAT032G SSD (Pirates of the Caribbean, Willy Wonka)

4.3 Driver Board

4.3.1 I/O PCB Assembly, All Drives Populated

• [1]
• Used for Dialed In, Hobbit and Pirates of the Caribbean.

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.

7 Repair Logs

Factory mis-wired power connector for ATX power supply. Image courtesy of PinSider Goyomex

In at least one case, on a Pirates of the Carribean, the power wires to the ATX power supply were pinned incorrectly from the factory. Once this game was connected to a properly wired residential outlet with ground fault protection (GFCI), the game would trip the breaker. Excellent sleuthing uncovered this factory error.

8 References

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