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Hi there, happy to be back. I was (eventually) the project manager for the SWP Product and that will certainly be mentioned in time, I am trying to be as historically correct as I can.

Can I just say again that these notes are taken from my perspective so I am bound to figure large in them. If this seems self indulgent or self promoting it's not meant to be so be honest, re-direct me if I drift off subject. The appeal of Development and creating new ideas and (truth is) actually being “recognised” for my abilities was beginning to appeal to me. It was here where I learnt how to create, wire and programme the analogue computer (for that was what it was) from the schematics prepared by Alan and Howard Parker. I never knew what a schematic was and the consideration that it bore no resemblance to the actual physical layout took a while to get my head around. As by way of explanation consider the London underground schematic is not geographical and gives no idea of the distance between two points! Constructing them as we did with a hole cutter, a plastic tray, a rivet gun, a soldering Iron and several rows of SAIA or Starpoint (more of them later) rotary switch timers, dozens of Omron relays and yards and yards of tri coloured wire. Bad Boys Race Our Young Girls But Violet Generally Wins Oh my lord where did that come from…. Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green Blue,Violet,Grey, White Isn’t memory a strange thing, I can forget anniversaries but that came from no where? Anyway, I digress (sounds Welsh?) Working for the first time with Alan and Howard and Ron (Watts) I learned how the machine was wired and constructed. I was also introduced into the world of ‘programming’ as indeed that was what it was, sequencing the operation of the timers and cams so that the various components operated in time during the game cycle. As a simple example the reel motor had to start momentarily before the reel stop solenoids were lifted or the reels would not start quickly and together. Oooh if I remember it was 10 degrees before, now where did that come from! All these little ‘sub routines’ would be recognised for what they were many years later with the introduction of the computer programme, perhaps it was around even then I don’t know. Furthermore I was also exposed to statistics, probability, chance, randomness and game structure and I eagerly started to read about them and found them fascinating. Although basic calculations could be worked out and a free running machine could be constructed to record the wins on meters without a player, believe it or not, the only way a machine was percentage tested was by sitting there with a black coffee (Nescafe) and a fag (Marlboro). Playing the machine over and over again and trying to get maximum return from the benefits offered via holds and features was second nature after a while, all the time recording on sheets of A4 paper the result of each game and what you had done to influence it with hold or hold after win etc. Example…. 6421 Gr | Gr | Or |.......|......|.......| 6422 Gr | Gr | Gr | H1 | H2 |.......| 20p | H 6423 Gr | Gr | Gr | H1 | H2 | H3 | 40p | HAW And so on. By the way I guess the payout amount is wrong but you get the idea hopefully, and the big number? That is the game number and until you got to around 5-6 thousand the results, apparently, were not very revealing unless they were really crazy by which time you knew there was something wrong with the design. With a 3 reel machine and 20 symbols per reel the full game cycle was 8000 games and until that number was achieved we sat there and played - and played. This was the boring bit but it helped that I had a colleague to share banter with and Charles Hazel or Bingham, was that man. One episode that was amusing was brought about while checking the percentage of a machine and realising that I had not recognised a 'Grape' win, or three grapes appearing in the win line. This was about 40p or some small amount and this appeared to be bringing the percentage payout down and certainly should have appeared more often than it had appeared to have done. I checked the spec and the glass and and there was the win symbol but looking at the third reel there were no grapes and the wiring had not accommodated the win either. It had been missed out of the design. I wont mention the guys name but he did go red from embarrassment! I mean 'what' are the chances eh? I found that I was really happy in the development arena. I began to notice that the later endeavours from the research area incorporated electronics, micro processors and plug in circuit boards some of which could be seen in the ‘extra secret’ development area. Plug in sub boards could be seen on a back plane and discrete components such as transistors and capacitors could also be recognised none of which I knew of at the time. So I decided it was time to get some serious studying done and I enrolled in Llandaff technical college for a course in Micro Processor Controllers and Electronic Circuitry and turned up in my Vauxhall viva HA ( to give a time reference). I was not alone as several of my colleagues decided that this was the way to go so we used to got to college and this was an excuse for another night out! Working with industrial research and development teams and being exposed to ‘cutting edge’ technology of it’s time meant that much of the stuff we were exposed to was ahead of the college’s mediocre supplies. I began taking orders and quite often delivered components, circuits and odd parts in to donate to the tutors which they were grateful for and helped me to become friendly with the tutors. All this was sanctioned by the company as it gave us an ‘in’ to the University. As an aside here it was during this period of development that we were working closely with Texas Instruments and as we were about to take a great deal of their products, particularly the TI 9980. This was to be the heart of the new system I was told. Anyway, one of their consultants came to work alongside us to help with the interface. The guys name was Peter Crow. I can remember some years later the hilarity caused as a receptionist in a hotel took down the names of myself and my colleagues. Martyn Stork, Frank Bird, Peter Crow and Ian Wingfield when we all booked into a hotel for the night. Cheeky girl laughed and her name was Abigail. Part of the development of the Electronic system for JPM was the adoption of a cutting edge drive for the reel unit, those spinning wheels that display the recognised symbols such as Oranges Grapes and Lemons etc. Again as an aside here, many people are unaware that the symbols or Icons of fruits, are actually supposed to be a hangover from the early days of coin operated machine in the US. Or at least this is what I have heard from many people both in this country and the states and it is the subject of much conjecture. Most people (well those not on this forum anyway) probably don't know where the term ‘fruit machine’ came from. The modern day ‘fruit machine’ is actually supposed to be a result of several American companies around at that time one of which was called Bell and they produced chewing gum, or so the story goes. They developed a machine along with the Mills company (again so the story goes) that dispensed the ‘Bell’ fruit flavoured chewing gum and sold them in early coin operated machines that used the reels as a gimmick. The game would play and the customer would get delivered a fruit flavoured gum! The ‘Bar’ symbol is again, supposed to be, a representation of a stick of chewing gum and the Bell symbol, well that goes without saying. Of course the typical bar owner would always have a little ‘book’ on the side and you could give the guy a dollar or two and bet him that you would win your stick of gum. If you did he would give you back a prize whose value was based on an arbitrary amount depending on the fruits that came up or perhaps the Bell or the Bar symbol would have been the top prize and gave perhaps 10 to 1 on your stake. Of course the odds were heavily in favour of the Bar (for Bar read Mob, of course). In any case enough of ancient history, the next step (sic) is into the future with the Stepper Reel unit!

Apologies.. Been a strange couple of years hasn't it? I have some more to add ( at last ) for anyone interested - let me catch up what I have done before.

I've been working on a different project, but got side-tracked onto this - a friend said I should post over here, since it's for real fruit machines It's an early proof-of-concept of an auto-rom patcher, that means you wouldn't need a Chr chip any more, even for the 'scrambled' lamps, in at least some mpu4s (just done a Barcrest as a test). Here's a quick demo using MFME, you can see the characteriser is completely clear (zero'd out, just like when it is missing). This has been tested on real hardware - by another guy who is working on a cool project to potentially make replacement Chr chips (it's what inspired me to make this). So it adds the code that decodes the lamps direct;y into the rom itself, so the rom no longer talks to the chr chip, but instead does the decoding internally in 6809 code.

these can be done in full mirror finish but the company that does it takes an age to do a prototype, this is why i took another route, they are not mirror like the originals but they are well acceptable, ive done a load of work on this glass stuff & sold one glass, ONE, did it for the love of it really & to prove if you try hard you can achieve anything. sold decent amount of the S80 Programme cards . oh & now you all know im a man of my word, might take a while but we get it done in the end ....

Another picture from back in the day, looks like an episode of Sweeny. The Customer Service crew! Left to right Dave Mead, Russel Grimble, Huw Thomas, yours truly, Steve Bryant and Martin Stork. My guess 1980 ?, Just had the Fiat twin cam HTG79W.

That's right, if this ROM is burnt and installed in a real Andy's Full House it would no longer need the Chr chip installed If there were a Chr chip left in there, it wouldn't cause problems, as the patched ROM now never gets to interact with it.

Still a fair bit of work to do on all this, but here's a demo of doing a patch. MFME won't be needed (for real machine users who don't use emulators), as that dropdown list will grow as I build something to scrape in the 8x 'magic' numbers per game (used for the lamp mapping). So they select their MPU4 ROM file, select the name of the game from the list, then click 'Patch' button. I use MFME here to show what's going on with the Rom it is using, and then to show the patched ROM working with a completely zero'd Chr chip (same as when machine has no chip installed) at the end

Well there's also another project going on over at DIF by user andrew96, where he's working on making replacement chr chips - so don't throw those old machines away! I am on another project, but I'd decided to knock up a quick initial version of this, that'll be super basic: - initially just MPU4 Barcrests - you'll need to find the 'MFME Layout', and look up the 8 numbers to manually type them into the patching program I'll get it vaguely working and sling it on Github so other programmers can take it further - as I'd imagine this could be expanded to cover MPU3, Bwb etc, though I'll be needing to get back to working on Arcade Simulator in my spare time (which is never enough!). WIP interface, having a bash at this today:

Chris's fruit machine emulation boots are almost infinitely large to fill to be honest, he dedicated literally decades to FME, and was an lovely bloke to boot (from our private chats back during the mfme2mame times). It's a vibrant scene for the small numbers involved in comparison to other less niche scenes, but we have some dedicated hard workers in all disciplines, so I'm just hoping we can do him proud mate!

Slightly different method required for Cash Counter - vid of it running with no Chr chip via MFME:

At long last I have spent some time giving this classic some tlc! Had it a few years and picked it up at a local auction house, it worked when I picked it up but needed a good clean and service. This is happening now, I have the reel deck stripped and the clutches soaking in neatsfoot oil as per Ron's guide. I guess I will need to look at the control deck, I'm getting some squeking whilst in credit from one of the modules, looks to be the one at the very back? Also the earthing looks suspect? I see an earth wire has been extended and was hanging loose? Looks like it might have earthed the control deck? Maybe you could advise me Ron, should be clear in the pics. Cheers Ronnie

PCP - Blankity Bank Tech: System 80 Time to get your 2p's at the ready for this bank holiday release from me. Keyboard shortcuts in the notes. Thanks to: Wizard (RIP) for MFME The Mecca for a group buy for the machine @AK45 for testing. Plays in MFME V20.1 only Blankity Bank.zip

The wait is over 2017 - 2021 good job im a patient man !! Ian was true to his word and has delivered this set of near perfect EWS Red Glasses im over the moon 😄

Hi folks, I've been pretty busy lately. Here's my System 5 repair I've just finished. Mega happy when this booted up

I'm on it. Sounds like a decent bloke, on the phone. He's going to ring me back. Curiously, I already have a machine called Zig Zag, but it's a conversion of a Bradley Challenger from pre-war days. That's for when I have my 'other' hat on!

Fuck me John looking through all the threads and numerous posts across all forums you have brought to life a whole new game since Chris left us, you, Andrew, Tony and many others across all sites have given hope to the scene, many thought and some may not like this that Chris's death was the end of everything but knew with the outcome of great people like yourself breathed life again into our whole realm, you have my respect mate and have done for a while just like a few choice others. Many including myself thought that when the main MFME man left us it was game over but talking to those on and off the grid I just knew that you would give us hope and pay it forward to keep the pot still boiling. @orchid obviously knows you better than everyone else and even though we have clashed at times he too has my respect (but still don't like him), it is not for just what you are doing with Chr's and AS but to know there are still good and honest hardworking people on the planet that keep the flame burning for what we truly love, is the main backbone to it all. Whether MFME or MAME the goal is to keep emulation alive and kicking, Chris will never be forgotten in my book but reality states that someone has to take the reigns for the greater good and I couldn't think of anyone better than you and would bet that he would say the same thing. **You all know I live off the sleeve and don't give a fuck what others think but if truth really be told my statement says it all** Take care all and @johnparker007 keep kicking fucking arse!!!!

Brilliant work everyone this is what scares me the most about my mpu4 machines is the chr going tits up , but with the progress and dedication you guys are putting into this is fantastic thank you very much everyone 👍from mpu4 lover ♥️

Wow man. I fumbled with my real life BWB and was able to clone the chr and patch other to work on the Monte Carlo chr chip It was a lot of luck involved for me though. Your method seems the way forward for sure Great work bud, really this will help anyone that has real hardware but not a lot of original game boards J

Hi guys n girls ive hopefully managed to get my hands on a rare rom set for super line up after quite a long search for them anyway massive thanks to Mr p as he promised, he delivered the goods, only for me then to open my rom card up to discover I may have already had a set I believe the l on mine is low percentage. Anyway here's both sets hope there useful cheers Tony. line up.zip

What it does is patches to stop the protection part of the Chr check running, also stops the Rom checksum being ran, and then reroutes lamp code that would talk to the Chr chip to my (portable) routine, that based on the challenge in the register, puts the correct responce for the lamp column ref'd by the challenge in the register, then returns. Pad a few NOPs over the remaining Chr lamp code and Bob's your uncle

Ok I'm starting to work out how to wind down this project while keeping chipping away at it. I think it'll just be something like I work on this one day a week, and slowly build up a collection of patched ROMs that are publicly available. I'm going to try using google drive for this: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SbF_3mxL50yvEKJ_19_gSLzC146YuwIP?usp=sharing So this will contain a live collection of ROMs that I've patched. As I've found there are various signatures etc... and I don't want to have Arcade Sim project on hold for much longer - I've managed to manually patch other ROMs I couldn't before, with different chr/checksum disabling techniques... Ultimately the program will be mature enough to also release, however it'll be a while to get it to that state, and I simply don't have the luxury of time to work on it! I've also set up a shared google sheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UgSIzNq6-Rpg7Iugt50RE0CikWIzOw792lRXCAjPWnY/edit?usp=sharing So this will be updated, as people with real machines hopefully try these out and let me know whether it worked correctly (including lamp mapping). Sorry it can't be faster, but Arcade Sim has to take priority - it's been something like 35 years without the ability to patch the Chr protection out of the ROMS including the lamps... what's another year or two for me to slowly roll out the project as I get time If you have a machine that you really need a ROM for, hit me up, and I'll add you to the 'requests' tab on the sheet above... and look to get those done earlier, though it's more about me implementing more patching strategies into CPR that will drive what machines are available. I believe BwB machines will need more work, so I'm ignoring those for now! And just focussing on the many Barcrests that need these new patches to run without the Chr. I've stuck an initial one (Action Bank) in there, so ROM hackers can have a look to see how I did the lamp remapping. It's a routine, that can be more size-optimised, I will have it down to less bytes in future - it was just a test I knocked up late one night!

lol I changed it to CPR already, and made a logo/icon of a chip with a heartbeat! Bonus video of another Barcrest MPU4 running without a Chr chip, with all lamps correct

Looks like it on this video

I’d rather have a photo of a ctl each way shuffle than a mk2 ews.

Well this will be the last update but I might do a video but I'm sure you have all seen an EWS in action. It's not perfect by any means! slight white showing at the edges of the t moulding, the new stuff I got was a fraction too narrow! I will black the white bits with a fine brush. Still need to cut the inner cash door but that's about it. Going beside EWS will be chances unlimited in the house!

PCP - RunnaRoundTech: System 1Fancy going for a run, then give this 2p game a run for it's money.Keyboard shortcuts in the notes.Thanks to:Wizard (RIP) for MFMEThe rom provider@innfection for the image used@AK45 for testing.Play using MFME V20.1 only RunnaRound.zip

I’m trying to understand the point of this zippy? It it so you can play two machines in the virtual arcade at the same time? J

I have to explain first of all what brought me back to this forum. During a long lunchtime exercise walk around the ex WWII aircraft hangers in Llandow, my colleague picked something up from the grass verge... would you believe it!

The bug will be the layout John. When people make the layouts it can be a bit of a guessing game to get those belly glass lamps assigned correctly, especially without a reel lamp guide from the machine manual. Awesome work on this stuff mate J

One of their many Bf conversions, This one fitted with the Up & Down nudge. Good auction start. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393553150684?hash=item5ba19882dc:g:dgMAAOSwFy9hLi9x

Phew - it's all ok I used the original layout, with the emulated Chr chip data and the original unpatched ROM - the lamps are still jumbled on that bottom Blue Moon logo! So it's a either a bug in the layout, or in the 8x 'magic' values set up for this machine. If someone has a real Blue Moon they need doing, and the lamps are wrong with the CPR rom, we can quickly enough (by trial and error in MFME), get it sorted on both the layout and the resultant Rom. But it's not a bug with the patcher itself (I also did a couple more test machines that use this system, and didn't notice any lamp issues).

Excellent news, and thanks for sharing the information! I have a friend who has a Cash Counter machine missing the CHR so if this could be done so that the machine actually runs then he'd be over the moon.

Thanks to everyone involved All i read is good news in this thread

Hopefully it'll not piss anyone off, though I guess it might depress the value of spare MPU4 Chr chips for machines than can now be patched, so apologies if anyone was stockpiling those! Hopefully two are going to be tested in real machines for the first time over the weekend (that are missing working Chr chips); Super Hyper Viper, and Classic Adders & Ladders. Let's hope it all actually works lol Though I'm pretty confident they should (famous last words)...

Would it be this one, JPM brought out some very good games in this cabinet. It will be great to see it back in working order again.

Here's a quick vid of Andy Capp running (with no characteriser, but all lamps etc working correctly), in an 'almost' auto-patch. You have to currently provide the 8x values from MFME to the patcher for the lamp mapping, and I think there probably will be another option or two required: I may choose a less juvenile name for the program I won't be going crazy on this project, as I do have to get back to working on Arcade Simulator project as my main focus for my free hobby time when I get to do FME dev. So I'll probably chuck it all on github at some point, so others can continue to develop it for more compatibility with other Roms etc.

lovely job mate on the ctl and worth all that effort as well not sure what this dislike is on the mps2 version but some of us just cant afford the mk1 😏so here is a mk2

Back in time to the halcyon days of the mid 80's with Exchanges Galore. Thanks to Fruitworkz for the existing DX & Reels, @evo1 for testing and as always @Wizard for MFME. ******************************************Exchanges Galore DX******************************************Released - 2021Author - Dave PookManufacturer - Barcrest/Associated LeisureStake - 5pJackpot - £1.50******************************************Shortcuts...0 - Enter 50p9 - Enter 20p8 - Enter 10p7 - Enter 10p TokenG - Gamble Nudge TimeC - CollectA/N - AutonudgeX - Exchange1 - Hold/Nudge 12 - Hold/Nudge 23 - Hold/Nudge 3Space/G - Start/Gamble` - CancelQ - Nudge Up 1W - Nudge Up 2E - Nudge Up 3R - Reject******************************************Thanks to...Fruitworkz - Existing DX & Reelsevo1 - TestingWizard - MFME******************************************

This machine reminds me of one particular service call. I had one Superchance give holds after wins on the Kings, Queens and Aces Did not believe until tried it out and there it was hold after win. Not all the time but only if there would have been a hold selected for next game but that should have been cancelled by the wins. Bit of a head scratcher until realised two pins on the underside of just one relay were wired the wrong way around so came from JPMs factory like that. Rang JPM to let them know what I had found in case there were more out there but they just thought I was taking the piss.

Oh Yessss

Haven't posted here for a while although plenty of boards have gone through the workshop, no time as per usual. Anyway one today had me head scratching for a few minutes. The board came in with 'no boot' as the fault which is usually most of the transistors, resistors and track around the battery area. In this case someone had been here before and had done quite a few repairs. On first inspection I noted the volume pot was missing and on boot up there was nothing although the RESET was good and there was activity on the ADDRESS lines. The DATA lines however were very low, under 2v. First suspect was the CPU which was innocent. Fitting the volume control just gave a continuous farting noise? So where does one go from here? The DATA lines go to all the support chips, RAM, CTC and the Synth chip!! A bit of luck intervened here before I started socketing everything. Checking the waveform of what there was on the DATA bus by the SIO chip showed about 2v p to p. Travelling back towards the CPU I noted it got slightly less per each chip ending up at the Synth chip where it was the lowest. Probably only talking about 0.2v per chip but that made it about 1v difference. Now the synth chip looked like it had been removed and replaced but probably not swapped and it hadn't been socketed (grrrr!) Anyway, once removed, socket fitted and replaced it then booted first time and ran as it should. The chip in question is the AY-3-8910 and these are now becoming difficult to source at a reasonable price. prieces on Ebay seem to vary between approx £18-40 which is ridiculous. I don't even look at the Chinese rubbish as the phrases fingers and burnt spring to mind! Even the Yamaha equivalent YM2149 is getting scarce although I have ordered a couple.

welcome back frank and for contributing further and letting us share a insight into what happened and the process youve gone through etc happy days p.s cant beat a jpm token randomly found to trigger a memory , amazing how such little things can spark us back up again , i look forward to seeing and reading more from you

Oh yeah, I see what you mean, they're not going across from left to right in that bottom Blue Moon logo! Strange - I'll make a note, have a look into that when I get chance

An amusing little find So when they made Blue Moon, they were using a new routine for Chr Protection / ROM Checksum disabling. But, they left lots of fake 'signatures' in, seven of them! I think these were intentionally placed to confuse ROM hackers (who would have been burning ROMs, then trying them in the machine, then seeing it'd not worked, over and over), it's a very unlikely amount of false positives Blue Moon now working fine without Chr chip

The insert coin lamp is controlled by two cam switches. Cs1 on the main control timer and Cs21 on the payout timer. With mentioned no payout on three oranges and star, there should be two switches on reels. One to change the Bells from 10p to 25p token and the other is actually to give an option on the oranges of a 10p coin or 5x2p depending on which way its switched. With there being three wires connected, If wires off that switch or wired wrong will disable oranges payout.

Thanks Ron, I like it too, one I remember playing back in the day, it sat beside lots of Brenco machines, the cool bit for it's time is the credit counter, had to clean that up as it was sticky. I might sort the earth out, I see one was left adrift on the 2p pay slide! Cheers Ronnie This one will take pride of place in out log cabin, just need to clear it with the wife!

All have found new happy homes 😃

A friend of franks and co worker has just told me that jpm had there own inhouse magazine i wonder what interesting stuff it has inside, i am hoping we will hear from frank and his co worker on the mecca again , if not and i am sent anything i will share it here its so awesome ... got me fingers crossed