First Race One Ball Horse Racing pinball video

First Race: Solid State One Ball Horse Racing Pinball repairs continued

First Race Solid State One ball horse racing flipperless payout pinball

This is my third detailed post about First Race, a solid state one ball horse racing gambling machine. As I write this post, there are no other known examples of this game. The manufacturer is unknown and the machine was last operated in South Africa. The machine was extensively played judging by the playfied wear.

First Race might be a prototype, a one off or the last of its kind. Who knows! There isn't any information about it.

I found the machine at a pinball re-seller in Montreal. It was sitting there for years before I acquired it. I'm not usually into electronic amusement machines but I couldn't let this one pass.

Here are my previous posts about First Race:

First Race: Solid State One Ball Horse Racing Pinball Unknown Manufacturer

First Race One Ball Horse Racing Payout Pinball: Overview and repairs

Here are a few detail pictures:

Backglass: It's made of plexiglass. Notice the lack of manufacturer's name or logo. Also notice the odds are displayed reverse of my 1949 Bally Champion. Left to right the odds are displayed decreasing instead of increasing like on the Bally Champion.

Playfield is nicely screened but artwork is sparse and the paint is thin. The rebound and flag springs are made of plastic. Very 90's.

Bottom left and right trap holes are ball returns. Center bottom trap hole pays out purse odds.

Here's a view of the inside of the front of the cabinet. Notice the coin meter. It adds up the number of credits knocked off via the hidden credit reset button.

The coindoor. Red button is for "extra bonus" feature. Yellow button is to play credits if the coin tube is empty. Coin tube can hold about 90 Nickels. Seems a bit contrary to bingo machine symbology where the red button is to play credits and yellow button is to play for extra balls. I will probably end up swapping the button lenses around.

Inside of coin door. Door is simple thick gauge steel. Very basic. The coin rejector is adjustable. Video poker machine buttons.

Where I left off last post. I suspected the shutter motor had a problem. I took apart the motor and the armature brake mechanism is definitely broken. There's supposed to be 2 tabs, opposed 180 degrees on what I can describe as an armature brake disc made of black plastic. Both tabs are broken.

The result is that when de-energised, the armature keeps spinning freely for too long. The shutter cam triggers the carryover switch and the motor powers up. It gets stuck into a perpetual cycle.

Looking on ebay. I found similar Crouzet motors that I could probably use to swap out the brake mechanism but they are all listed for 100's of dollars. That's a bit too much for me. Until I can find a (affordable) suitable replacement, I will disable the motor and push the shutter by hand.

Motor armature with the broken brake disc.

After getting a 120 to 240 Volt converter and replacing a broken relay, the machine could coin up but the shutter switches would cause the machine to freak out. Only the 6's would pay out correctly. I took out the main board and re-seated all the integrated circuits and changed out the chips with tarnished pins that went black / brown. This however did not solve the switch issue...

I took the time to trace out the wiring to a DB9 and DB25 connector on the main board. This allowed me to better understand the architecture of the game. There might be future revisions of the pinout chart...

The coin switch and yellow button go through a flimsy looking assembly with a 4093 ic with two transistors. I had my doubts about the assembly so I took it out for closer inspection.

Once the assembly was out, I could see that there was a broken wire and a broken pin on the ic socket.

I re-made the assembly with an actual pcb. Makes it less flimsy and with the new unit reinstalled. The switch payout problems were gone.

At this point I'm happy with the state of the machine. The game coins up. The switch logic is good and the machine pays out correctly. The wiring could use a bit of tidying up... all in good time. The situation with the motor is unfortunate but I might be able to repair it in the future OR shoehorn in a different motor to do the job. I would prefer the former.

If you stumble upon this post and you are into weird and rare gambling machines, please consider sharing this post. I don't have any information about First Race. I'm looking for any information about it. Where it came from, who made it, production details, documentation, manual, schematic, score and information cards. 

 

First Race One Ball Horse Racing Payout Pinball: Overview and repairs

 First Race One Ball Horse Racing Payout Pinball

Thank to Cait and Danny who shared the initial post about this game. I got almost 100 views in the first 24 hours because of their efforts. It usually takes a couple of years for any of my other posts to reach that many hits. If you stumble upon this post and you are into weird and rare gambling machines, please consider sharing this post. I don't have any information about First Race. I'm looking for any information about it. Where it came from, who made it, production details, documentation, manual, schematic, score and information cards. 

As can be noticed, First Race is shown powered up. Here are the details of what's been done so far to get to that point.

Here's a short video I posted on Youtube of the machine on attract mode:

Here's a few playfield details:

Here's a better view of the payout tube and the latch bar solenoid that spits out the coins. The mechanism didn't require any work and works properly on Canadian Nickels. The electrical tape is to stop the terminals on the microswitch from shorting out on the metal mechanism. The switch is to detect if there's enough coins stacked in the payout tube.

Look at the size of the coin box for First Race. It's huge!

The shooter lane and ball shooter gauge

Just look at the shooter lane wear by the manual ball lift and the ball detector switch.

Despite the machine being fitted with a North American standard 120V plug when I acquired it. The machine's transformer is wired for 220V input only.

Plugged as is on 120V, the transformer only outputs half of what it's supposed to.

The transformer normally outputs, 6V, 14V and 24V.

The 14V then goes to a bridge rectifier. The 14V is for all the lights.

The Transformer module will require a bit of repairs to make it safe. Notice the lack of fuses!

Also it looks like this transformer is a replacement of some previous transformer that burned out. Yummy!

I had to go downtown and buy a 120 to 240V converter to properly power First Race.

1000W is more than enough.

The main board is powered by a videogame transformer that outputs +12V, GND, +5V and -5V. 

The power supply can take 120V or 240V input and will output the correct voltages either way. But without the converter none of the lamps or solenoids worked.

Here again, a bypassed fuse. This one is for the line voltage. That's super sketchy.

I had to repair that. I also replaced the marettes by closed end crimp terminals.

There was a beat up looking relay inside the head. It didn't actuate properly and the SPDT switches (in this application only one switch is used) were bent out of shape. It's a 24V relay.

Also, notice the dodgy 4093 chip and a socket, the whole thing dangling in the breeze.

I looked in my stash of parts and found a replacement relay and base. There are industrial parts.

I solder spliced and shrink tubed the wires.

Here's the completed relay swap. Once fixed. I found out that it energises and remains energised when the game is coined up. Relay is de-energised when the ball sits in the shooter lane.

Then I took apart the shutter to inspect the switches and wiring.

Shutter motor is a 25 rpm Crouzet motor. It's geared for 50 Hz so it spins 20% too fast on North American 60 Hz alternating current I think this one is faulty... it keeps spinning for a bit too long on inertia. Looks like it has a faulty brake mechanism.

One side of the switch is a panhead brass machine screw. Other side uses an high silver content alloy contact point. All the switched were filthy and had to be burnished.

All the playfield switch wiring goes to this strip....

Then to this connector in the head. The to a DB-25 connector on the main board (not shown)

First Race is a work in progress, more details to come as the repairs progress.

Please share and comment. 

First Race: Solid State One Ball Horse Racing Pinball Unknown Manufacturer

First Race: Solid State One Ball Horse Racing Pinball Unknown Manufacturer

A beehive shooter housing and a proper manual ball lift!

Now that's a mouthful, maybe I should unpack that...

The name of the game is First Race. The manufacturer is unknown.

It's a One ball horse racing game: One balls are a type of flipperless gambling pin game that were popular from 1936 up until 1950 when they were outlawed. They can be considered as being the ancestor to the bingo machine.

I have a few older posts about fixing a 1949 Bally Champion One ball: here and some Champion pictures here.

First Race is a Solid State game. It's history is unknown but it's well traveled:

I picked up the game in Montreal. It was sitting in the warehouse of a pinball reseller. I remember seeing it there when I first visited the place in 2013. Who knows how long it's been there before that.

It's a "container pin" that was shipped from Dubai. Before that it spent some time in Oman. As explained by the seller.

It looks like it was last operated in South Africa, due to the presence of a South-African 2c coin and a English / Afrikaans sticker on the side of the head.

What's really exciting about this game is that it has a payout tube! Meaning is spits out coins. Fortunately, Canadian nickels seem to work in the payout mechanism.

Payout tube

payout chute

The main board was produced by Getronics Micro-System. It's powered by a videogame arcade power supply.

The board is top quality with a thick printed circuit board, all the integrated circuits are mounted on sockets and the microprocessor is a tmp8085ap. There's an eprom chip labeled 11-1-93 so I believe the machine is from the early 90's. There's a rudimentary lamp driver connected to the main board.

Main board

Lamp driver

Some aspects of the game do look "Home Brew", but the backglass and playfield art looks professional.

There are no information cards on the apron. The ball used is 1 inch like in the older One balls.

One ball size playfield

Looks like a two player One Ball game? I am confused...

Purse, Show, Place and Win odds.

7 Selections.

Digital "Multiplier" and "Credits" displays for Player 1 and Player 2.

Backglass art

Home made or a prototype?

The backbox insert is very well made. The displays are LED 7 segment but all the lamps are 12V, rather than the industry standard 6.3V #44/#47 bulbs. The leg Bolts are also non standard 1/2 inch head.

By the looks of it. The machine was operated for awhile judging by the wear by the top arch rebound rubber.

Is this game a prototype, a one off game, a homemade game, or maybe it's the last of it's kind?

I'm also intrigued by the "raison d'être" of this machine. Laws shape the gambling machines in any given country. What was the legal context that allowed this game to exist. Why a "One Ball" when they were outlawed pretty much everywhere else in the world!

Any information about this game would be appreciated.

So far I've managed to power up the main board. There's an attract mode on the credits displays when machine sits idle, reminiscent of the old Skeeball games. The multiplier display goes up by one every time the game is coined up. Shutter opens up when first coined up. Then machine emits a "Bri-Bri" sound and the credit displays spell "Play". I have to find a 120V to 240V converter to further test the game.

Under playfield Shutter

When I first got the game in the arcade