1995 Williams Johnny Mnemonic

This was my first dot matrix display game. I am very glad that I bought it. The machine is in perfect shape with a few small holes drilled in the cabinet. This game plays really fast. I had it for over a year before I ever reached the Powerdown mode. This is the most realiable machine I own too. I had to adjust a spring once and that was over 3000 plays ago.
Something small I did to this game was colour black the "Williams" logo on the white flippers. I think it looks fantastic. I have no idea why some of the Williams flippers have their logos upside down.
I was reading through the manual one day and I noticed that the there should be 4 flashers behind the backglass. Mine did not have it, only #555 bulbs. It showed where on the driver board where they should be connected. I then decided to add some flashers to the top of the back box. They are just #89 bulbs in a light fixture designed for trucks. The shape of the lenses are tear drops and they look excellent. I mounted 5 to the top of the back box, 3 red and 2 orange. The two red ones on either end, are for the right and left sling shot flashers, the inner oranges ones correspond to the left and right ramps, and the center red on is for "Crazy Bob's". The effects are excellent and it took all of an hour to install.
You can see the before and after looks of the game below.
The next idea I am toying with is to add a joystick to the side of the cabinet for the video mode, and hand control. The idea of steering the "Snarf" in video mode or the hand for multiball, with 4 buttons and two hands is always too complex for the novice player. Whenever my friends play it, they are always totally lost using the four buttons. No comments please on the intelligence of my friends!


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Johnny Mnemonic 8.5 of 10


1995 Williams
2 flippers
2 ramps
Magnetic hand
Automatic plunger (yuck)
4 ball multiball, 3 or 4 at once
6 modes
1 video mode


Johnny Mnemonic has proved to be a game that has grown on me. At first I was unimpressed, then as I played and played, I found the game to be fun and more importantly challenging. It took me over a year to finally reached the Powerdown mode (wizard mode). I have put over 3000 plays on it, and still play it all the time.
The modes on Johnny are quite challenging. I have only been able to finish 3 of the 5 modes. The final Powerdown mode is quite cool, you have 4 ball multiball and 7 sections of the playfield are lit. You have to keep the sections lit by making the shots, the playfield darkens as the sections expire from inactivity.
The video mode in Johnny is the best I have ever encountered. You have 4 cabinet buttons that control the "Snarf" you have to eat all the moving balls before time expires. The button control make it tough. Each time you finish a wave, eat all the balls, you start again but with less time.
Johnny is also the fastest game ever made!! The loops are insane. The ball get going so fast you just flip on instinct.
The only problems with Johnny are the inflated scoring system, billions instead of millions and locking the balls. The hand that locks the balls can become annoying especially when you are in the grove and want to keep playing. Locking the ball takes about 4 seconds. Sometimes it gives you that much needed break, but for me I want to play now! Another problem is that the animations are so complex it slows down the CPU at times and won’t allow a lane change. I wonder if you can just increase the amount of ram for the CPU to handle this, just like adding more memory to your home computer??
All in all I will be keeping this game in my collection for a long time.

Email: kstebel@rogers.com
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