Bally Mystic Gate: It works and plays

It's been awhile since I last wrote about my Mystic Gate 20 hole bingo machine.

It's been working for some time now.

To get it working I had to:

Clean all the steppers, discs and wipers
Clean the mystic line units.
Clean the switch stacks of the shutter motor.
Clean the relays under the program unit that were covered in machine dirt and old oil.
Swapped all the 55 lamps for 47's and I changed all the 1464 lamps for the card.

Not much work really for a bingo machine. The game is relatively low mileage. The clutch washers were still lubricated and in good shape so I decided to leave them as is. After all, better is the enemy of good enough.

Mystic Gate is a pretty simple 20 hole bingo machine. No side game, no strange esoteric features. Juste the gate feature really. The game has a 40 coin limit. It doesnt have a proper mixer like the older bingos and I find that the setup with the Scrambler unit and the program unit takes away from the randomness of each spin cycle compared to my older games like Golden gate, Carnival Queen and surf club.

I had a few guests over in the last few weeks and they all find the Mystic Gate really fun.

I have to admit I also think the game is pretty fun despite being very simple. I think the gate is more of a gimmick. Sometimes it's useful sometimes, not so much.

How do you play the mystic lines?

Here is a fun game I played recently that nicely demonstrates how the mystic lines work.

In this game I had the A and B lines lit. The "Press buttons after 5th ball" and I had the "Any 4 stars score 300" that should read instead "All 4 stars score 300". I guess the Backglass Screening Department made a typo.

So After shooting my 5 balls I had a nice but useless grouping

11 in the blue
12 in the red
8 and 20 in the yellow and the 1 yellow star number

By itself this number combination was not a winner but by moving the A and B mystic lines...

I moved the A line up and down to have the 20 in the blue section.
I with the B mystic line, I switched the 2 left vertical columns of the card so that 8 and 1 are now in the blue section.

Lo and behold. 3 in blue. Luckily for me, the blue odds were all the way up and I scored a hefty 192 credits.

That's the beauty of the mystic lines.

The downside of the mystic lines is that the star numbers counts only as the 5th number in a color section. Two numbers in the same color section plus the star number of the same color pays nothing. Three numbers in the same color section plus the star number of the same color pays as a 3.

Mystic Gate does have the features "Any 3 stars score 25" and "All 4 stars score 300"

With one of those features lit, I guess the star numbers are a bit more useful.

Pinball lifestyle: "The dose makes the poison"

To loosely quote Paracelcus:

"The dose makes the poison"

I might be getting close to the lethal dose of pinball... Maybe not, I have observed fellow humans with a lot more games than me. I'm safe, for now.

But I have a heck of alot of games. Alot for the small space I live in

Here is the latest pictorial inventory of my... I can't really say gameroom anymore. It's more like a game house.

Observe and enjoy!

Les cardiaques et les femmes enceintes sont priées d'éviter ce spectacle effrayant!

UPSTAIRS

Firecracker, a Bally game designed by Harry Williams, one of my personal favorite games

Bally Nip-It, the latest project. Tastefully modded by moi. Still fun.

Bally Surf Club bingo, with the mixer taken apart for a cleaning. I have a recurring problem with the neatsfoot oil that goes sticky. To be continued.

Williams Four Corners. Every picture tells a story. She is filled with secrets.

The ole Nishijin Super DX pachinko game. I've had this game for over 16 years.

Bally Hokus Pokus. Sadly, I don't have any room for this game at this point in time.

The Booz-Barometer. Circa 1958. A gift from my Ole Pa a long time ago.

North Star Richelieu. Bally Challenger one ball and Keeney Thriller. Future projects. Treasure Trove.

DOWNSTAIRS

Enjoy the view. I know I do.

Interflip "BAO!" Dragon, Bally "camel toe" Wizard! and Bally "Brass Bra" Lost World: my only solid state game

Bally Flip-Flop, Twin Win, Big Valley

Bally Carnival Queen Bingo, my first magic screen bingo.
Watling penny scale
Bally Super Wall Street Bingo. My first bingo machine. Pictures of the backglass of my game seen here were used with my permission in Nick Baldridge's virtual bingo.
Bally Miss Universe. Good looking game, awful gameplay.

... Bally Golden Gate and Mystic Gate Bingo

Keeney Little Buckaroo Upright

Bally bottomless hopper slot machine

Midway's Space Gun. My one and only gun game.

Midway's Table Tennis Remote Controlled wall game. The remotes are HUGE

AMI D-80 jukebox. My first restoration attempt.

THE WORKSHOP aka "B" SIDE

Projects and extra games

Bally Surf Club Bingo

Williams Spark Plugs Horsey game. Gambling machine in disguise

United's Singapore Bingo

Bally Star-Jet pinball. The first EM multiball that established the 3 ball multiball mode.

The Borg cube of extra games, projects and parts machines

Crazy!

Bally Nip-it Ball count unit issue ultimate repair UPDATE

I've been playing alot of Nip-It lately. I've been testing the delay unit I installed and so far the ball count unit is working perfectly. A few 100's of plays and all is good.

I did make a modification to my delay unit circuit. Playing the game, I realised that I didn't need 2 seconds of delay for the balls to reach their trough switches. I removed the second 1000 uF capacitor, dropping the delay to approximately one second. Plenty of extra time.

Here is an updated version of the delay unit diagram.

Simple diagram of the delay circuit

Delay unit with second capacitor removed

 

Dreaming the Coin-Op dream: JCM Coin Ace coin counter

Here is a bit of amusement operator paraphernalia: A vintage Japan Cash Machine Coin Ace model CS-20 coin counter.

Picked it up at the local thrift store for a song. As you can see, it's missing a cover, but it's otherwise 100% functional despite the sad looking drive belts.

It separates and counts coins at lightning speed. You adjust the diameter and thickness for the desired denomination (coin size) you want to count. It can count continuously or it can count a desired number of coins and the it stops. The counted coins come out from the front and the rejected coins come out on the side.

The change counter proudly sports a Laniel Canada sticker. Laniel Canada is a distributor of vending and beverage equipment and supplies. According to their website, the company was founded in 1935. They are still in existence as I write these words.

Oddly enough, about 2 years ago. I picked up a bunch of nickel and dime coin wrappers at the same thrift store. The dime wrappers were stamped Laniel Canada and the nickel wrappers were stamped Wico, which had the same address as Laniel Canada. Wiko Canada was also a distributor of vending and amusement parts and supplies, they were at the second floor of the Laniel Canada building.

I imagine there's an old retired coin-op in town that dropped a bunch of coin counting stuff at the thrift store.

Now I could play coin-op. Count coins, wrap them in period correct wrappers and then play whole rolls of coins in my games. Yay!

Bally Nip-it Ball count unit issue ultimate repair

I recently acquired another multiball EM Bally, Nip-It. This small category of games is my all time favorite. The expense was significant...

(and honestly not really worth it. Nip-it's notoriety stems from it being in the retro sitcom Happy Days. Otherwise, the gameplay is just OK)

...and after playing a few games, I noticed that Nip-it had a problem:

Nip-It when it first came home

After the ball in play would drain, the ball count unit wouldn't always step up. If it was the 5th ball, the game would not go to game over. This happened once in a while.

I had a good look at the schematics and made sure every element involved in the circuit was clean and properly gapped.

Bally Nip it schematic detail for ball count unit.

The circuit does go through the coin unit disc. But in first position (i.e. 1 player game) the juice is patched to the ball count unit. All the malarchy with the player up disc interplay with the coin unit disc is to step up the player up unit, instead of the ball count unit, in a multiplayer game.

The stuff regarding the ball count disc and the balls per play adjustment has to to with the game over relay. Not relevant for the problem at hand.

Basically, in normal play. Once the game is conditioned to release the ball (ball release re. switch closed) the ball index re. switch is closed (because points were scored), 2nd Ball re. switch is closed because there are no free moving balls still in play. SCM 3b switch is momentarily closed (because the cams are rotating) and the juice energizes the ball count unit step up solenoid by way of the coin unit disc.

The core of the matter was the 2nd ball relay sometimes not energizing when it was supposed to. After the outhole kicker kicks the ball to the ball trough, the 2nd ball relay should energise if both balls are out of play.

"Out of play", that is:

Both balls are in the ball trough

OR

One ball is in the trough and the other is in the captive hole (i.e. no free moving ball(s) in play).



Only then is the ball count unit allowed to step up through the 2nd ball relay et al.

The problem is that for the 2nd ball relay to energize the Outhole relay has to be energized.

Bally nip-it schematic detail for outhole relay and outhole relay

The Outhole relay is energized by the outhole switch through SCM 1c N.C. switch. The relay is then held in through itself and SCM 10c normally closed switch.


What happens is that once kicked,  the ball traveling in the trough has to be in place on it's trough switch before the outhole switch circuit is broken. Otherwise the 2nd ball relay won't energize and the ball count unit won't step up.

Nip-It outhole kicker schematic detail

A Bally score motor spins at 26 rpm and s spin cycle is 180 degrees (half a turn). So one SCM spin cycle lasts 1.15 seconds. Furthermore, a 180 degree spin cycle is divided into 8 periods (0 to 7). one period is 0.14 seconds. The ball is kicked up the trough at period 2. The outhole relay hold in circuit is broken at period 7. That allows a whole 0.72 second (maybe a bit less, my math is a bit sloppy) for the ball to make it from the outhole to it's ball trough switch. That's not much time. If the ball does not make it on time, the outhole re. de-energizes and the 2nd ball wont energize, a ball is released to the shooter lane and the ball count unit won't step up.

Nip it Score Motor sequence of operation

If the outhole kicker punts the ball, which happens every once in a while in these old games, the ball takes too much time to make it to the trough switch, the outhole relay de-energizes, the ball is not in place and the 2nd ball relay won't energize.

Basically, for the game to work properly 100% of the time, I needed more time allowed for the ball to make it to its trough rest position. I needed the SPDT switch on the outhole relay the remain actuated a second or two more to allow enough time for the ball to find its rest position in the ball trough.

This could not be achieved within the machine as it was. I needed to take out the SPDT switch from the outhole relay and put in on a delay relay that I would shoehorn into the game. I used a simple delay circuit found in a bingo machine. So basically, Bally already had this circuit in it's Bag-O-tricks at the time, they just didn't use it in Nip-It.

Delay relay schematic diagram, Inspired by the circuit found in Bally Bali bingo, but adapted by pindude152

Modified Nip-It Schematic detail. SPDT switch now on delay relay

So what now happens is that the outhole relay would energize the delay relay. The delay relay would remain energized as long as the outhole re. would be energized, but the delay relay would allow the SPDT switch to remain actuated for a couple of seconds after the outhole relay would de-energize. Enough time for the ball to make it to the trough switch. And bingo! the game now plays like it should.

Delay Relay shoehorned into Nip-It. The 2 capacitor setup looks a bit "Ghetto" but I didn't have a 2000uf 50V capacitor, so I put 2 x 1000uf caps in parallel. It works but it aint pretty. 

Up until now, my mantra was "the problem is always inside the cabinet". But for nip-it it turns out the solution was outside the game. When the game was brand new, it probably worked like clockwork but after 40 years, the game still works OK, but not perfectly under every possible circumstance, so to palliate the subsidence of the game into kipple I had to slightly modify the game, especially if I intend to operate this game.

Urban exploration: Moss at waste water treatment plant

Here's a few pictures of moss growing on concrete at a waste water treatment plant.

Bally Nip-it: Desperation, the mother of invention

Here's a picture of Nip-it with two multimeters and the PF apron removed.

Let me explain a bit.

I'm play testing the game with an intermittent problem and I need to know the exact moment when the Outhole relay and the 2nd ball relay are energized. I obviously can't play the game and look at the relays at the same time. The solution: put a multimeter on each relay set on ACV.

The interplay of these two relays is critical for the proper operation of the game. The Outhole relay,  2nd ball relay and the ball trough switches affect the ball count unit stepping up and the multiball logic of the game.

I'm playing the game and paying close attention to the actuation of the aforementioned relays by way of the meters when a ball drains. All in the hope of catching the bug.

More details in a future more elaborated post.