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Jaws shark eat ball mod! Install and first impressions

Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)·video·16m 29s·analyzed·Apr 26, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

Don installs Jaws shark ball-eating mod, finds it fun but complex to fit precisely.

Summary

Don installs and reviews the Jaws Ball-Eating Shark Mod from Interactive Pinball, a 3D-printed aftermarket modification that adds a shark mechanism to catch and eject balls. The installation is detailed and moderately complex, requiring careful wire management and precise fitment of the vertical upkick tower. Don concludes the mod is fun and adds kinetic variety to gameplay without fundamentally altering difficulty, though he questions its suitability for tournament play.

Key Claims

  • The Jaws Ball-Eating Shark Mod is available for Pro, Premium, and James Cameron's Avatar Limited Edition versions

    high confidence · Don states: 'Trent Kennedy's at Interactive Pinball. He's got a sign-up list for the Jaws Pro, Premium Edition, and James Cameron's Avatar (Limited Edition) versions.'

  • Installation took several hours and required careful wire management and precise fitment

    high confidence · Don notes fitment challenges with the VUK: 'The fitment for, well, everything, but really the VUC—the VUC chamber is very precise' and emphasizes wire management concerns throughout the install sequence.

  • The mod safely returns balls to the flipper if misaligned, making gameplay more predictable without reducing difficulty

    high confidence · Don explains: 'instead of having the ball feed back down to you, if it goes inexact it feeds back safely to the flipper. So in that way it can be a little bit more... you. It'll make the game a little bit more predictable'

  • A live code update for Jaws occurred during Don's recording session

    high confidence · Don states near end: 'Did you just decide to update or something? Did we just get a live code update? The game code is updating, like right now as I'm recording this. Alright, newsflash, there's a new Jaws code update apparently.'

  • The shark mechanism is 3D-printed but professionally painted, delivering quality comparable to OEM parts

    high confidence · Don observes: 'It's 3D printed but then painted as well. So it came out much better than I was thinking... I love the paint. And, yeah, it looks like it should have came with it.'

Notable Quotes

  • “I thought this was kind of gimmicky at first, you know? But after play testing with it, this is really kind of fun.”

    Don@ 14:33 — Captures Don's shift from skepticism to genuine enthusiasm about the mod's gameplay value, important for credibility assessment.

  • “The fitment for, well, everything, but really the VUC—the VUC chamber is very precise.”

    Don@ 13:50 — Summarizes the primary installation challenge for potential buyers; indicates precision engineering required.

  • “I don't know if it would be great for a tournament machine, but for adding more fun stuff to do at home with this game... yeah, man, I had a lot of fun.”

    Don@ 15:29 — Clarifies use-case suitability; suggests mod is primarily for recreational/collector machines, not competitive play.

  • “Holy crap, man! It's working! The Shark eating the ball. I'm incredibly exuberant over that.”

    Don@ 11:32 — Demonstrates genuine delight at mod functionality during first test; authentic reaction to working mechanism.

  • “It works. It works. Looking back to the process, there were a couple areas that were a little bit difficult.”

    Don@ 13:44 — Transition point from installation narrative to critical assessment; balances positivity with honest difficulty acknowledgment.

Entities

DonpersonTrent KennedypersonInteractive PinballcompanyJawsgameDon's Pinball PodcastorganizationStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Pinball released live code update for Jaws during streaming event, indicating ongoing software support and iterative improvement post-launch.

    medium · Don reports mid-recording: 'The game code is updating, like right now as I'm recording this. Alright, newsflash, there's a new Jaws code update apparently.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Content creator (Don) providing detailed installation documentation and honest gameplay assessment for aftermarket mod, supporting broader community of home collectors interested in modifications.

    high · Entire video serves as step-by-step installation guide with gameplay testing and use-case recommendations, facilitating community adoption.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jaws mod designed with gameplay safety consideration: returns misaligned balls safely to flipper rather than creating risky ball paths, differentiating from more aggressive mod designs.

    high · Don explains: 'instead of having the ball feed back down to you, if it goes inexact it feeds back safely to the flipper... It'll make the game a little bit more predictable'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Interactive Pinball introduces ball-eating shark mechanism as post-market upgrade for Jaws machines, demonstrating continued aftermarket innovation for recently released premium title.

    high · Don's detailed installation and positive gameplay assessment confirm functional, professionally manufactured mod available across Pro/Premium/LE tiers.

  • ?

    technology_signal: 3D-printed components with professional finishing (painting) now achieving OEM-quality aesthetics in aftermarket mods, signaling maturation of DIY/custom manufacturing techniques.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.049

0:00
What's up everybody? How you doing? Welcome back again. It's your boy Don from Don's Pinball Podcast here once again with a box of goodies that was delivered to me by Trent Kennedy from Interactive Pinball for this game right here. Jaws, in this case the Premium. It is the Jaws Ball-Eating Shark Mod. Doesn't really have a name that rhymes, but we're going to open this up and I can't wait to show everybody how my experience is putting this guy in. Let's go. All right, I've decided to do this narration style. So here you go. We got the box. Let's get the box open. What's in Trent's box? Open that lid. Come on. Cut that tape off while we're waiting here. Look at that fancy dust cover, man. I wonder where that guy got that. I bet I got some more in stock if anybody be interested. All right. Are we really going to cut off? There we go. Okay, the box is open. Here's what you get when you unbox this thing. You got the red snorkel. this will be for the Vuck later on the vertical up kicker as it were, lovely shade of red this is the control board that will go underneath the system and kind of run the whole thing, run the micro switch provide power, LEDs, all that business, what else do we got this is the subway system so this is what transverses the ball from the shark's gullet back up to the red snorkel via this next bit of kit oh look at this, here's the shark so this is what I was impressed with, it's 3D printed but then painted as well. So it came out much better than I was thinking. And in the game, the thing looks fantastic. You'll get to see that later on. Get your finger out of there. Don't get bit. You got some incisors there. But, yeah, good quality on this print. I love the paint.
1:41
And, yeah, it looks like it should have came with it. All right, this is one little bit for the undersleeve part. All right, a little bag of parts. All your hardware is in there. There's a little wire harness with the LED. this is the second bit on the trough that goes on the underneath part let's get to that big oh we're gonna you can save for last there it is there's the vertical up kicking device so this connects to the subway and the red snorkel drives the whole thing got a micro switch in there and it's made out of the same materials as a jerry ramp it looks like solid fill great print great piece of kit and it's uh it's perfectly engineered man if it's completely flush and everything there's the micro switch on the back that will sense the ball when it's in there and then we'll send it up that vertical up kicking coil get rid of that box there's what you get man there's the whole kit for the premium version that's been no secret that i i love this game and what it offers and so when trent reached out to me for a chance to install this and get my impressions of it i i dove right in is what i did heck of a tail to spin uh is what we have so the first thing i'm going to do is hit start. So I can drop that shark. That was the first part of this. Then we'll power off this awesome game. Of course, safety first, right? What else? Oh, yes. So Trent has a whole YouTube video that I'm using to guide myself through this process. So I won't quite do a step-by-step install, but really I'll show my impressions, kind of what I did, and then we'll get to play this thing and see how much it actually adds to this already amazing game. All right, let's continue get that lock bar out of the way. We're going to get the glass off, and it's time to go underneath the hood for Jaws Premium to install the ball-eating delight. There's not a name for it, but that's what we'll go with for now. Set that glass aside. Pop the top, sir.

high · Don notes: 'It's 3D printed but then painted as well... I love the paint. And, yeah, it looks like it should have came with it.'

3:34
Oh, yeah, safety first. Protect the R plates. Yes, yeah, I like that. All right, now these guys right here, these are my play field jacks. I found the designer that people were using. I printed these with TPU, so they're nice and flexible. And these are great, man. They just support the whole play field, so you don't have to work arching your back in the cabinet. Lift that whole thing up, man. Look at that. Fantastic. Again, safety in mind. Now we can access the back.
4:04
Oh by the way I got chicken buckets available if anybody wants to switch out the chum bucket for a bucket of the kernel Just holler at me All right, so I've got everything laid out in the order we're going to be using. We need a quarter-inch nut driver, a number two Phillips, and really that's about it. So the first bit starts on top. We go ahead and remove this little face plate. There's three screws in here. They're held in place with some little rubber gaskets. You remove one of them, and Trent will show you. It's the one in the middle because that will accommodate this next little bit of plastic that goes in there as a spacer to hold the LED light, which will light up the shark's gullet when he pops up there. So you pop that guy on the back, and then it's just a simple reinstall of these guys. Make sure they're flush. They've got the little rubber O-rings on there, so they have some give so you can make sure it's nice and flush. I'm testing with the ball to make sure there's no hang-ups. And then that went in just fine. this little plastic cover on the back is going out. We're going to replace it with that red snorkel, and there it's gone. So that's what's going to receive the balls here in just a bit.
5:09
All right, we need to go underneath the play field now for the majority of this install, which went a lot better than what I was thinking, man. I thought this was going to be an overly complicated mechanism and wires everywhere. Is it even going to go back together? It turns out it did, yeah. You release a clip and then it's just a matter of Let's see there's a main drive screw That holds in this Gusseted pivot point I'm not an engineer Oh yeah just pop that little guy out And the whole assembly The whole assembly will come out There's that little gusseted rack and pinion plate Again not a technical term I don't know what it's called A little hinge bolt Look at Bruce there all right get rid of him yoink and we'll drop in boom our new one there he is ready to go four screws hold it in uh you put two in the bottom and then two are going to go in with the led assembly here in a bit okay yeah he's a shark we get it all right here's your little led light assembly with two of the bolts this will go into the uh the pre-drilled shark holes there there it is all assembled with the wires running down. The little alligator clips will clip in. And yeah, so that's that bit. Then we've got to get to the subway, all right? So this is the bulk of the install here. I'm showing where I removed four bolts, which we are not going to reuse because we use longer ones. Yeah, there's the fourth one right there. And then this is the subway that just kind of mounts in. This uses the same screw holes, but you got the three inch screws that come with it and yeah we just run those guys in there there it is in place fantastic look at that uh yeah good job guy good job all right time for the next bit this is the vuck tower right the vertical up kicker this is the guy that this is the only thing that gave me a little bit of fitment problems only because it's so precise i just had to loosen a few of the top screws there they come that part comes pre-assembled where that black bit is that holds up on the top of the play field on the other side this goes around the whole back of the machine or back of the play field so once i loosen it up it fell right into place then i was able to tighten everything in in place and it's it's working awesome so there we go um what's this bit oh yeah that's me loosening the top screws so that top black place of plastic would go all fit in there snug perfectly precisely and then there's this little wire harness that comes off of it. You unplug a little bit on this bottom board here and then this new harness will plug into that spot and then there's a little expansion or junction spot there where the piece we just pulled off the board we're going to put back into the wire harness.
7:58
It snaps in right there. Beautiful. Then there'll be one more piece for the control board there at the end. all right so this is the oem bracket you just remove that guy just a couple of screws there and then we going to toss it because we got the replacement assembly right here This guy these two pieces come together and then the whole thing mounts in that spot there. So this is going to be the new track for the shark mechanism as it goes in and out. It also helps to shuttle the balls into the subway system.
8:30
And, yeah, as you're tightening these down, you just want to use your fingers there and make sure everything's lined up good. Yeah, and that's essentially the under system there. All right, Bruce. Bruce 2.0. He's ready to go in. This went in surprisingly easy. I thought this was going to be a lot of jiggering and things. But essentially, the whole thing slid right in there, and then I just had to get that bolt assembly hinge, pivot rack and assembly linkage thing, again, not an engineer, back in place. And then you just throw that screw back in there that holds the whole thing on the pivot point. There's a little cam to reattach with a simple C-ring. That's pretty easy. and then that part's all finished. There we go. Tighten it up, guy.
9:17
That's a great screw job. I'm glad I included this footage. I didn't want to edit this out at all. I wanted to see exactly how long it took me to put this screw back in.
9:27
You got it? Look at you go. Don't doubt the process, man. All right, control board is in place. There are two screws that hold it in. there's alligator clips I put in so they'll run the LED and then this is the final screw of two for the control board and then there's just a couple of things to plug in and then the underside is complete at this point so a couple of spade terminals come out here, this is going to plug into the micro switch and I followed the video's instructions I used the left most and the mid point to put these in and I'm happy to report that it's functioning perfectly so that worked. And then this is a little bit from earlier. It goes into the control board.
10:10
Click. And then that's in. Those spade terminals are in. The VUC is VUCing. And I made sure to leave enough play in this cable harness so as the boat goes up and down, it won't get caught. That was the only thing. You've just got to watch that and make sure there's enough play in there. Then we're going backside here to put the red snorkel in. I got a little LED strip from another mod I put in just so I'd add some more light back there. Why not, right? More lights, more fun.
10:36
So this is what's going to return the ball back there. Also, it doubles as a ball shield to make sure nothing gets flying out of there because we removed that polycarbonate piece that was in there earlier. And then, man, like once this is in there, you're like, you're complete here. Tighten it down. There you go. Nice snorkel's not going nowhere.
10:57
Yeah, okay. Alright. Let's test it out. Let's test it out. Oh, there's new Bruce 2.0 And this is fun, from the perspective of the player You can look straight down his gullet With that red light coming out So I do like how that works And then this is me just feeding the balls back in there Game's not even started This is just in attract mode But that micro switch is running off that control board back there And the Vuck is just throwing the balls Let's force feed them That's four at once, boom, there they are Holy crap, man! It's working! Shark eating the ball.
11:36
I'm incredibly exuberant over that. I want to fire up a game, and let's see how she plays. Come on. Game play time. Let's fire it up.
11:53
Ha ha! Thank you I see something burning Shoot! Ow! Thank you. So, there you have it. Shark eats ball. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. It works. it and it works. Looking back to the process there were a couple areas that were a little bit difficult. The fitment for the, well everything, but really the Vuk, the white Vuk chamber is very precise. So it does fit in there and it did go in just fine. I had to loosen a few screws just to get a little bit of play to get it to get it ever so slightly where I needed it to be. Wire management is a thing to be conscious of. Make sure there's enough room for the wires leads the wire harness going to the boat to be able to move freely up and down. It worked fine when I installed but I had to be mindful that I was routing my wires properly. There are some engineered openings in the subway system to allow for that so just make sure you follow along with the video. The video was great. Step by step took me through everything and I gotta say I thought this was kind of gimmicky at first you know but after play testing with it this is really kind of fun. You know, it registers the hit whether you hit the shark or there goes into the mouth. It just adds an extra dimension of, you know, kinetic ball movement and it doesn't do it in a way where, you know, some mods that alter the gameplay or add ball paths really change the difficulty of the game. Really, instead of having the ball feed back down to you, if it goes inexact it feeds back safely to the flipper. So I guess in that way it can be a little bit more, you It'll make the game a little bit more predictable, but not to the sense that, you know, the Black Knight Sword or Rage Sword just safely returns to your flipper. Or the 007 mod that puts the ball from the Vuck directly back into a wire form. This is really fun. Yeah, I did enjoy it. You know, make up your mind if you want to put it in your machine. I don't know if it would be great for a tournament machine, but for adding more fun stuff to do at home with this game, which should be bolted wherever it goes because it's so phenomenal, Yeah, man, I had a lot of fun. So Trent Kennedy's at interactivepinball.com. He's got a sign-up list for the Pro, Premium, and LE versions. This was an install on the Premium. I can't imagine that it's much different for the LE. In fact, I can't think of a single reason why it would be.
15:56
But there you go. Jaws, why don't you take yourself a little break there? You've been working pretty hard. So email me, don'spinballpodcast at gmail.com. I'll put a link down to Trent's address here down below. And, yeah, holler at me. Did you just decide to update or something?
16:11
Did we just get a live code update? The game code is updating, like right now as I'm recording this. Alright, newsflash, there's a new JAWS code update apparently.