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Gentlefolk, I've uploaded a new set of ROMs for Barcrest's Royal Exchange. The original imposed a gamble limit of £20 for all initial wins less than that. The new version will allow a gamble of the current win up to a maximum of £100. Here, I've attached a Word document explaining how this was achieved for all folk who, like me, used to think "How did they do that?!". Please be aware that it is not for the faint-hearted 😊 I'd like to thank chris217 for reintroducing me to the wonderful world of 1980s fruit machines, Sulzer Ned for drawing my attention to the idea the the emulated ROMs can be tinkered with and Eddie Coxon, who advised me of the programming language used and provided me with a huge manual and lots of helpful advice and hints. Now that you all know exactly whom to blame, I hope you enjoy the new version together with this documentation. Best wishes, Bernard ROYAL EXCHANGE GAMBLE BLOCK REMOVAL.docx

I had a go at making some replacement backlit bands for Tensation a couple of years ago. They came out pretty good, but it was a lot of time and effort. Sadly, I no longer have access to the printer.

Yesterday I took the Win stepper apart to soak it in vinegar overnight, and today I cleaned it – it was just like slime that came off. I lubricated it where necessary and put it back together. It took a bit of fiddling about and fine-tuning.

So, I’ve made a bit more progress; I didn't have time for the project for a few days. The parts that had been sandblasted have now been painted. In the meantime, I started working on the mechanical score counter; I completely disassembled and rebuilt it. That was certainly necessary, as some parts were already wearing against each other due to stiff movement and a lack of grease. I also installed the coin tubes.

This one had be going for a while. Fault was no sound although on the bench there was sometimes and it was very dependant on humidity and temperature. What normally happens is the battery vapours contaminate the board surface and it becomes conductive. Any trace voltage around pin 2 of the audio output chip will cause the chip to effectively switch off and there will be almost full supply voltage on pin 8 which is the speaker output. It should sit at half voltage (6V ish) but this was more like 11v! After deep cleaning the tracks and components that connect to pin 2 it started behaving but still not quite down to 6v. I then left it for a while to work on something else and when I returned and powered on there was no sound again! The voltage measured on pin 2 was about 0.6v whereas it should be approx 0.02v. So it was leaking again somewhere? Next thing was to remove the sound output chip and the two little yellow caps that are connected to pin 2 and see where the voltage was coming from. Well lo and behold it was still there. There was nothing else connected to pin 2 so a lot of head scratching started. The next thing I noticed was that the track ran underneath the sound synth chip so this had to come out and look what I found underneath!!! The track runs through where it says R28-30 and this stuff was sticky and conductive, could be tobacco film who knows. Anyway a good clean on the board and the chip and no more stray voltage.

Started removing rust from various parts of the Reel today; disassembled the motor... but immediately spotted a problem. It clearly hasn't been looked after; there was hardly any grease inside. There is a worn bronze bearing, and there is significant play in the output shaft (can this be ordered? Otherwise, I'll have one machined). I'm not sure if the output shaft is supposed to be like that, though. Fortunately, the gears are still in good condition.

well done bernard. i will probably do NIFTY 50 today to rid the petty 50p on the solid silver so you at least win a pound. I unblocked the nudges and cash prize on STOP THE CLOCK so the nudges go to 12. it so far runs good. I think the club machine blocks were more aimed at the DOUBLE OR NOTHING gambles so the machines didnt get smashed up. can you imagine having 50 quid and do a double all or nothing and it lands on lose

MDM 1981

Hi everyone, it’s been a while. Time for a new project, tipped off by a neighbor. It was listed on Facebook Marketplace (Netherlands). A Bellfruit Full House; there was only a photo of the front, but you could see the damage to the artwork. Asking price: €20. Naturally, I couldn't pass it up. This machine needs a lot of love to get it looking good and playable again. Fortunately, the machine is complete; the instruction sheet is inside, as are the build year and serial number.

Pinball Heaven stock them on eBay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371532527747

I’ve had a bit of time again, this time to work on the mechanism control sequence timer. This one was also covered in rust and grime. The gearbox was almost seized up; I could barely turn it by hand, but luckily a bit of penetrating oil did the trick. That could easily have cost me the motor. I’ve also started dismantling the door; I’d already taken it off. So that various parts can be soaked in cleaning vinegar.

It was time to clean the credit count sequence timer; it was dirty and covered in rust. It was quite a job to get it apart. Fortunately, I’d already replaced the AMP plugs on the switches. After a thorough clean, something wasn’t quite right when I was putting it back together – I kept losing the screws from the switch terminals. It turned out I’d turned the 4-sided rod the wrong way round, which meant the screws didn’t fit. So I took it apart again and paid close attention this time. Some new bulbs (6V 2W) had also arrived, so I replaced them straight away. I also fitted new film capacitors for the RC snubbers. The old ones were already starting to crack and their capacitance was barely there.

So, for the past 2 days, I’ve been busy further derusting the transformer. This was so much work that I decided to take various parts to a good friend who has a sandblasting cabinet. In the meantime, I had also contacted (pb) BF74 (Ron) for a piece of schematic for a Dutch cabinet, if he had one. I received a complete schematic of the Full House; I couldn't be happier. I also ran a test, most problems were some residual oxidation on the relays and some AMP connectors that have not yet been replaced.

Thank you, sir - I do agree, but I also wonder who would have risked a gamble of £50 or thereabouts forty years ago? 🤣

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371532527747

Sorted thankyou both of you

Thanks, Sulzerned. Luckily, I was able to buy them from an online pinball shop.

Still very usable Mike. If you can get some decent hi res pics of a bottom glass for sag you could go down the perspex route which would be cheaper than glass printing.

Thanks Dave 138, that puts my mind at ease. I assembled the reels today; they were finally clean enough. I went ahead and replaced the AMP connectors while I was at it. I also received replacement bulb holders today; the old ones were too rusty, so I replaced those right away. Does anyone know what the switches on the side of the reels are for?

When I worked for Bell Fruit, we never did any maintenance on the reel motor. I don’t know if Ron can confirm that. It was rare to have a motor problem and, if we did, we just fitted a new one. There again, the machines were not very old.

Thanks, Dave 0138 and Zulzerned. It’s a lot of work, and progress is slow. Started on the reels today. Found black, oxidized contacts, seized bushings, and rust. Needed a lot of contact cleaner to scrub everything clean again. Tomorrow I’ll take the motor apart (but first, I’ll read through Ron’s thread one more time). I’ve taken reels apart before, but this is much more complex, and I don’t want to make any mistakes. Here are some photos of the process.

Hello, my name is Victor French Collector, and my passion for collecting slot machines, jukeboxes, and arcade games started with an old ATARI jukebox. I’m also passionate about vintage chip technology, like the TMS or the 4004. As I explored these worlds, I discovered the Ace Coin Equipment machines from the Series 100, and I fell completely in love with these models. i love making Dump of ICs and Manuals/ Schematics Redraw. i m also a good member of MO5 Assaciation of old french Machines preservation.

Does anyone have any other Summit Coin roms ? I Have Ultimate Nudge already, I am got the tech running on my JFruit emulator. If you are interested you can try it at Click to Play Ultimate Nudge

Excellent stuff and, you're right. £50 was a huge amount of money 40 years ago but some would have been unable to resist the temptation! It's great to hear from another who is prepared to attack the codes on these wonderful machines. It always astonishes me that there are so few comments along the lines of 'I wrote the software for these back in the 1980s'. I suppose it was a long time ago, though 😜

Brilliant, thank you for doing it Bernard.. 🤩 Another challenge for you if you get time.🙏 This is an issue I think spoils the fun on Royal Exchange for home use.... When you exchange for nudges there's always a pesky cherry that stops you getting a better win, would it be possible for the software to ignore the cherry and nudge in a better win? John

Great work Bernard. Can't say that I understand it. Impressive though 👏. Thanks for sharing and explaining 🙂

Sweepstake next?

A wee update on this the machine is all back working albeit it needs a new alphanumeric display,a thank you to everyone who commented on this post especially netdent and midibob who helped alot. Cheers Brian

Layout NCU.rar

Will do 👍👍

Cheers nick ,, I wouldn’t imagine there would be many of these around now,,,

Can't say I have. This was a time where everybody and their dog was making rebuilds. Some like this are quite tasteful. Some...not so much Nice to see it emulated maybe in the future. It probably runs the same tech Good find! Oldskooler

Well done, it looks good, nicely repaired

Great work.again . Glad you managed to get hold of the 6v bulbs too.

Yes, I’d say so too, sulzerned that’s what I’m planning to do as well

Morning Nick, yes that would be the plan I think! It's finding someone with the machine and the time to be able to help! Fingers crossed someone sees this that can help 🤞🤞

I actually forgot that I have the top glass 😂 it's a bit ropey but okay

Hi just got my first barcrest horizon machine (RAINBOW RICHES) and I have joined the site to gain experience in maintaining my new interest

Newbie ... looking to delve into emulators, all fun (and games). Hello from North Yorkshire ...

i Can't believe this thread is over 16 years old and sort of still going 😁 Anyway as for the project. When i started this in 2010 i was always hoping that others would take part and improve on what i did back then(which they have).Materials depend on backlit and none backlit. The best way is probably to look through the thread and see what different members have had success and failures with.

Starting to take shape now! It's going to be good to see the end result 👌

Nice job on the shot blasting and really makes a nice difference

What a great project .look forward to seeing the progress

Nice find. It should keep you busy for a while.

Lovely looking machine Marco! Can you take a picture of the MPU, is there a battery on the board?

It could be the motor on the main control timer is sticking, With machine switched on your can turn the end of the main control timer shaft by hand which might free it off OR, It could be the variator timer, specifically the variator's cam switch. First, when machine is in credit, two timer's should start clicking away on the main panel. One is the rotary hold/nudge selector with wires around it's board, the other is the variator timer with a red cam which operates a cam switch as it turns.. When you press the start button, the main control timer starts, the reel motor starts and the reel solenoids lift to allow the reels to spin, normally the main control timer would complete a full revolution without stopping but this would allow the reels to run in a sequence. To stop this happening the cam switch on the variator takes over the power to the main control timer motor and makes it stop and start as the cam on the variator turns. As this action also starts and stops the main control timer motor This 'Varies' the stopping time of the reels to prevent sequencing. Once the reels have all stopped in their 1,2,3 sequence, the control timer takes over from the variator and restores the circuit to it's own motor to finish the timers full revolution. Now if the cam on the variator fails either the switch collapses, any of the wires have become loose or disconnected even if the variator motor fails then there will be no circuit to the main control timer motor and as soon as it starts it freezes in the same position with the result your machine just sits with the reels spinning and won't do anything else. if you get stuck post pictures or better still a video of your machine.

Once everything is apart you should have the unit looking like this in small and lager version shown. NOTE.... An important point to remember is the main timer control cam shaft with it's red and grey cams are all set in degrees of operation which is crucial to the running of the machine. you must ensure that none of them are altered or moved in any direction or the result will be cam switches being operated in the wrong order or not at all. normally these cams are tight fitted and do need some force to move them but still treat with caution. The red and grey cams are set together in degrees around the shaft to make dwells in the cam of which the roller of the cam switch will run in and back out only one time, in turn this will activate the cam switch. A single red cam does exactly the same but usually to operate a switch more than once during the game cycle.

Disconnect the motor from the gearbox by removing the spring clip across the back of the motor. the gearbox is held to the timer side plate by two small screws either side of gearbox but leave for now as it's still connected to the main timer cam shaft. Remove the far end plate away from motor by the three securing nuts on the rod clamps.pic 2 You can now remove the main cam shaft by releasing the hex nut securing it to the gearbox shaft.pic 3 disconnect the motor end plate via three locking nuts and disconnect the gearbox from the side plate by removing the two small screws. the grey cam switch holders can now be slid along and off the three securing rods.

Next, look at the underside of the timer and you will see the clamps that hold the cam switches in position. held by a screw, when the clamp is released the cam switch still wired can be removed from the holder. pic 1. Once all switches are removed there will only be the motor wiring holding the unit to the main loom. As it only has two wires and connectors abut 4 inches along it too can be disconnected from the loom but check wiring match and should look similar to pic 2. As all the switch wiring is in order in the loom it will also keep the switches in order so they can't get mixed up.