New Life Games Tech Forums

Hey everyone!

I'm new and all that blah blah, I found this forum very useful so far! (Finally after weeks of agonizing over what to do I finally managed to reset the machine after a battery change/acid cleanup job).

Aaaanyways! Cutting to the chase, first of all if anyone could tell me about which series of machine this is. The Translites say Golden Poker, on the eprom labels Small House Cards is what's written. On the tablet manufacture date is 1993, serial no: dy9561. A manual if anyone has it available would be most helpful.

Now onto the main reason for this post. The machine exhibits no really strange behaviour aside from minor contact issues with the coin chute select solenoids (remnants of a conversion are still present I haven't gotten them cleared out yet as I don't want to accidentallybotch anything up without a manual at hand) , but the monitor shows rolling diagonal lines of white static. Not sure how to describe it better, the picture is there, stable, sharp as a pin, no glitches or issues other then this. Whenever I disconnect a cold light tube the pattern changes. It also seems to change when I just touch the machine, thus I'm thinking some sort of ground issue, or a floating signal somewhere on one of the pcbs possibly, but have no clue where to start looking.  Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

It should say on the tablet what the model is. Some photos would help.

The model number field on the tablet has been left blank.

It has a sealed, horizontally mounted pcb cage with two pcbs right under the monitor, with a vertically mounted backboard that the boards connect into.

I'll try and up a few pictures in a bit.

Oh and one thing I mis-typed, the eproms say Small Court Cards on them!

1st pic is of the machine, 2nd pic is of the video error. The lines of static are sometimes more apparent, sometimes less, they however always stay at the angle seen, but keep changing their rate and direction of scrolling. More pics for system ident on their way.

Innards

Sorry my photographic prowess ain't the best with this ancient camera, plus Idon1t have much room to make decent pictures atm as I have 3 videos, 2 pins, and some tabletops in my shop at the moment. And the other room is just full of parts... to the brim :D

Alright I noticed the obvious was staring me in the face that it was an mk2.5. Still I'm looking for a manual, as I did find one online but it is for the reel version.

Also SOLVED... mostly...

Based on the manual I now dared to take things apart a bit (I know it is for a reel type but parts/cable locations more or less matched) so I took the hopper out to unbolt the PSU. Well... turns out someone already removed it once, and put it back simply hanging it on the bolts without tightening the nuts... and the ground strap coming from inside the psu was hanging in the air... four nut tightenings and a ground strap attachment later my problems have near completely diminished. Picture is clear, though occasionally this static shows up just very faintly for a fraction of a second (you can only notice it from the corner of your eyes it's so faint)... I'm guessing I'll either have to live with that or check every single ground strap in the game... well... for now it's fine.

If somethign working on pinballs has taught me is that ground straps are important! So don't forget to check when you're getting weird game behaviour!

If anyone has a copy of the manual for the video version (hopefully with schematics) and can upload them, I'dbe most grateful!

I'd also like to ask if anyone knows a site for jumper settings for different eprom sets for this system. I'm thinkingabout trying a few more games.

Microstar Mk 2.5 Video. That's a great game btw.

It could be that the ground connections are dirty, give it a good clean and see if it goes away for good.

I haven't seen a Mark 2.5 Video manual around but there is a Mark IV one in uploads "aristocrat_540_Video_Service_Manual.pdf". It describes the DIP settings on page 73. These are very similar spec wise.

I already have that one downloaded, I'll have a look. Still the original manual would be best. For one, I have no idea how to set the time... pressing clock init does nothing... (Maybe there's a special combo there aswell like for resetting the game?)
And the reel ,anual says nothing about setting clocks...

I do like the game and am glad that I saved it from an acidic death, I just wish the poor thing didn't have so many 'little problems'. I am missing little parts of the game unfortunately like the original lock/counter view key mechanics, the covering plate from the back where the power cable leaves the box, and am pretty sure there's been some kind of hackjob done to the hopper... (at least it's working properly despite the obviously butchered cabling on the poor thing). 

Does anyone have any pictures of what a base for this is suppsoed to look like inside/outside? Would love to have one so the machine doesn't pop coins out underneath itself from time to time when it's trying to load the cash box...

Am also curious if the connection to Hopper 2 can be used and how it can be used...

If maybe anyone has some game boards for this system for sale or perhaps has some rom dumps they could share I'd love to burn some new roms and try some other games aswell.

There's plenty of reading here on the site for how to build your own slot machine stand.  There's a file in the "Submit a new File" section created by member Neonkiss with some good pictures and dimensions for building your own (here's a direct link to it (http://www.newlifegames.net/uploads/up/Slot_Machine_Stand.doc)).  Also, here are a couple of threads about the subject:

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=896.0 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=896.0)

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=7455.0 (http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=7455.0)


As far as getting new games, you can post a "Want to Buy" message in the classifieds section of the board and one of the vendors or another member may be able to offer you a kit for sale.  Please note that we don't trade or discuss ROM dumps or binary files on the site here as there are copyright issues involved and slot manufacturers are VERY protective of their copyrighted work (even on older or obsolete platforms).

Finally, you may want to fill out a little bit of information in your profile.  Our members are scattered all over the country -- it's possible that one lives near you and can help you with any issues with your machine and/or may have a new game kit available locally.  Welcome to the site, by the way!   :3-