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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

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.

Thanks for this, John. Exactly the same point was made to me verbally only a few days ago. The 'exchange for nudges' option ensures that you don't get a decent win and it doesn't offer it at all if the current win is too high. Ignoring the cherries is, I think, possible as the code stops looking for winning symbols once it finds a cherry. Telling it to stop looking appears fairly straightforward but you would then need to avoid the GAIN code which looks for an alternative when it finds a win. Obviously, it won't find one if the whole point is to ignore the lesser win. That is far more difficult. I'll take a look when I get some time. Please don't hold your breath 😊

Thank you. I appreciate it's tough going but I hope it will be useful for someone. These gambling blocks seem to annoy everyone these days! Back in the day, they probably saved a lot of people some money 😄

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.

Its sounds good bernard but if you remove the gain code then what would happen on unlimited nudges 🤔. Id hate to fluff the jackpot and then think it doesn't matter as gain will nudge the bars in but, without the gain obviously this isnt possible unless its a different bit of code for the unlimited nudge gain .

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 😜

Amazing stuff bernard and.hats off to you for this great work which definitely adds a better game to these mpu3 clubbers.

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

Hay @jane.sharpe7 the buttons are not set right in the background on this game so test mode wont work... but you can add the right ones for back door (I'm not very good at this but you'll get the idea I hope)... Go to design then select Edit Mode right click & Draw a checkbox - Right click on it & change it to value 23 - this is the back door and when checked gets you to back door open repeat and draw another and assign value 22 - not sure on MPU4 but this gets you to this state when checked - VPT on the display and the start button cycles through in & Out. Draw another button and call it 21 (I think) and that when checked and un checked gives test plays - not sure what value the test switch is as I don't really know MPU4... think this is Refil. When you've worked out what the switch numbers should be, un check them all and update switches into the Game configuration area (think this is right for service, refill and test???):- you can work it out by trial and error... Uncheck Edit Mode and the buttons work as you think they should. Save on exit Enjoy

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

Hi, Great restoration work. Congratulations.

Well done, it looks good, nicely repaired

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

I’ve just tested it, and it works; I’m using MFME V20. You’ll need a newer version.

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 🤞🤞

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.

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

What a great project .look forward to seeing the progress

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.

Yes it seems to credit no problem that way, thanks for the offer Graham I just ordered one from steve at swallow

Hi all, I think I mentioned these devices a few weeks back so I thought I'd purchase a few and have a play. If you're not aware these devices can emulate ROMs and come in all the sizes and will do masked ROMs too although I haven't got there yet. Amazing so far and so many things I haven't tried yet. They are about a tenner each but the time and effort they save it's a no brainer. The devices can be flash programmed in seconds so no waiting 20-30 mins to erase ROMs and re-burning when you're testing patches to code. Then plugging them in to test and finding they don't work! (yep we've all been there) Once installed in the ROM socket they can be re-programmed in situ via USB. Here's a pic using an MPU3 card... Also big and smaller brothers. They do devices for larger chips but I don't need them as yet. Another advantage of these is you can save multiple images which can be selected by the jumpers so changing code can be done in seconds. Of course in the case of MPU3 & 4 you can't put them in the case as it's not deep enough but that's fine just for testing purposes. Another advantage is you can put the whole image on one device and patch the CS lines to the empty sockets (not tried this as yet) but it's all explained in the blurb. I needed to use these due to trying to defeat the CHR and CRC check as burning traditional ROMs was taking all day. It can now be done in seconds. I'd like to thank John Parker for his assistance with this and taking the time to explain it. Cheers John you are a squire and a gentleman sir. For the guys out there that like hacking ROMs for changing the gameplay, I think these devices will be a godsend. It does also mention in the blurb you can change bytes on a running system, not tried that either but it's all terrific stuff.

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.

Yep I have a few sets ,, I had a them printed last week

Bingo Bell, I have the original version. 5p play with a dual 10p/5p coin mech and single 5p token mech. all payouts made in 5p tokens. 10p in gives one play and one token change. auto start spins reels three times and any numbers that fall on win line will light up the corresponding number on the top bingo card. after three spins the player has the option of two nudges which can be used on any reel to gain more win lines. Number 46 in the centre line is always lit as a free number. An experimental machine from BF running electro tech 50v with operating boards running on a 24v supply. Edit.. Missed the main feature out where a possible random bonus can occur during any game. As the reels spin, The machine will light the full bingo card and can repeat.

Well, first of all, I can't tell you what a relief it is to hear, unprompted, that you find it interesting. It was an incredibly interesting time to be in the industry and with such a great company and bunch of people, many of whom still meet now. Stegarv66, consider that we were 300 people and often the 'game' itself was down to 10 or 15 people, so although we would have seen it, in answer to your question no. Also we tried to get a new game out of the door every 8 weeks so for us it was always looking to the new machine! sulzerned, you are dead right and forgive my oversight, the SRU (stepper reel unit) controller was the controller in the EWN and you have just (by coincidence) introduced the next chapter or are you hacking my machine..... ha ha. BF74, I never did like that very crude % control. Apart from anything else, unless it was dead right you could hear the double flick of the solenoid arm as well. It was also an unfortunately simple method to keep the PO% down. Bit like cutting a stop off the old reel stop disk to make sure it never landed on a particular symbol. BTW I still have SWP's, Astra, Coinmaster and Gamesoft to go yet! ( but I'm not sure if they should go in here? ) Again, thanks people.

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.

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.