Universal Ultra Slot Machine
uniman:
Thought I would add some Uni Ultra info.
Sometime in the early 1990's Universal must have realized their slot machine platform from the early 80's, modified several times, just wasn't going to cut it anymore. So they developed a new machine, the Ultra Series. It appears their thought process was the machine with the biggest, widest reels and booming stereo sound wins the player's attention. The earlier Universal had reel strips 1/8" narrower and 1-1/4" shorter than the IGT S+. The Ultra reel strips are 3-3/4" wide and the same length as the IGT. The reel glass is as large as the top glass at 12-3/4" tall. The belly glass is 9-1/4" tall, up from the 8" belly glass of the older Universals. The button deck was also enlarged.
All Ultra slots have backlit reels and stereo sound through two 8 ohm, 10 watt speakers. Universal developed the MPU using the same processor as their earlier games, the Z80. The sound program is located on a 27C256 eprom and there appears to be only one program. There is one "System" or machine chip that serves all games whether one-line, three-line, five-line, nudge, or respin*. (* have yet to find a respin game in the Ultra Series) The machine and "Game" chip are on a 27C512. I have found two versions of the machine chip, more on that later!
There is one more chip called the "Support" chip. I am guessing this chip is for communication to the DBV-145 and it is on a 27C128.
The only other external boards are a very small relay board for the handle, sound board, hopper board on the hopper, and the backplane board. Universal never had an external chip like IGT.
I believe it cost them!!! :30-
All the Ultra's I have seen have been manufactured in 1996. Games were released in 1995 and 1996 as their copywrites indicate. So the Ultra Series was short lived.
Why?
My guess is that the slot machine market was tough in the mid 1990's with WMS introducing the dotmation, IGT the S2000 and vision series, and all the video slots from Aristocrat, etc. And I believe the Ron Harris (Nevada Gaming Tech gone bad) confession in 1995 that he rigged Universal slot machines (older models) did them in.
Mr. Harris rigged Universals because;
1. They had the Z80 processor that was widely used and easily understood.
2. They had no external chip outside the MPU like IGT.
3. And most of all, all unwritten code was not driven to zero!!! What this means is the chip can be easily written to again! :25-
The second version of the "Machine" chip I mentioned earlier has all unused code set to zero. So it would seem this was released after Mr. Harris confessed. Too little, too late!
a69mopar:
I love to learn new things, Thanks for you post, Do you have any pictures of these?
Thanks again, :3-
Wayne
uniman:
Listing of known Ultra Games;
An "a" or "b" denotes a clone game.
95010- Wonder Bar 2 or 3-coin
95016- Double Marquise 2 or 3-coin
95018- Twin Crowns 2 or 3-coin
95018a- Twin Cherries 2 or 3-coin
95019- Triple Crowns 2 or 3-coin
95019a- Triple Cherries 2 or 3-coin
95020- Title Match 2 or 3-coin, nudge on third reel
95020a- AfterShock 2 or 3-coin, nudge on third reel
95021- Payload 3-coin, 2-coin?
95027- Magnificent 7's 3-coin buy a pay
95033- Super Jackpot 7's 3-line
95034- Sterling 7's with 4th coin bonus 3-line
95034a- Jackpot 7's with 4th coin bonus 3-line
95034b- Cool 7's with 4th coin bonus 3-line
95038- Double Lightening 5-line
95039- Wild Orchid 3-coin buy a pay
95040- Magic Doubles 2-coin nudge game FOUND!! in 2011, thanks KEVBOY !!
96000- unknown game
96001- Hot Doubles 2, 3, or 5-coin
96004- Fiery Doubles 2, 3, or 5-coin
96009- Total Impact 2, 3, or 5-coin
96019- Bonus 7's 3-coin
96023- Eagle Millions 3-line custom game for Soaring Eagle Casino
96025- Super Stars & Stripes 3-coin, 2-coin?
95037 - Silver Bullet 7's
? - Eagle Magic looks like clone of Double Gold-an old uni game, custom game for Soaring Eagle Casino
Bolded titles I am looking for!To keep it simple above, game chip identification is longer than stated, like 95040-2MR-0002.
95040 is the Magic Doubles game
2MR is a 2-coin multiplier game with a 2500 coin jackpot. (an "R" type game)
0002 designates it as a 97.4% chip from the table list. (my table list is incomplete)
Machine Chips
94033-19
94033-24
Sound Chip
95010-SND-0003
Support Chip
94014-005
uniman:
A few pics, just a few; :97-
I found a box of the orignal card reader bars as shipped by Universal with the full nameplate. Nice, no holes to cover!
uniman:
I have few videos on YouTube. If you do a Universal Ultra search you will find them. Believe they were slant tops.
Videos have been removed
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