I need advice: Bally GameMaker Plus vs IGT Game King

[RV Doctor]

I have a Bally GameMaker Plus and I am considering replacing it with an IGT Game King.   What will I gain by going to a Game King?

: Is the Game King able to hold more than 10 games at one time?  I'd heard that it can hold 39 games on the CPU board and can display 12 games at a time?

: If this is true, is it easy to switch games, or do I need to Clear Ram and burn new games like the GameMaker Plus?

: Is the sound and/or graphics better on Game King?

: Are there more games available for Game King vs GameMaker?

: Are Game King games inherently better that GameMaker Plus?  (newer technology)

: Does the Game King use a CD or is everything in EPROM?

: What is a good price to pay for a Game King?   

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,     ....Howard  (The RV Doctor)

[kforeman]

i can give you a start on answering all of your questions, but i don't know jack about the game maker so i can't help with the comparisons you want. 

the gameking uses either all eeproms for game, base, pixel, sound and character graphics (older themes) or eeproms for game and base and pc ram like memory sticks for pixel, sound and character graphics (newer themes) or a board loaded with a flash program for everything (newest themes).  so there is no definite answer for this question until you decide which theme(s) you want. 

i do know that there are literally hundreds and maybe over a thousand different themes for the GK cabinet, i'm sure some of the dealers can help you out with this. 

for a theme change you would have to change software (eeproms, etc.) thus creating an eeprom crc mismatch error.  follow the steps on the screen and ram will be cleared.  you will need a keychip to set certain options such as payback percentage, peripheral devices, etc. 

many programs are multi-game and/or multi-denom capable.  depending on the program you get, you can have up to 12 different games enabled per denom to display on the main menu screen. 

hope this helps, post up any other questions!

[tacman]

Though I don't use my Igame +'s for poker games, I can say this, the GK/Igame cabinets use a 3802 or 3902 MPU board? I believe the 3802 is eprom based where all you game chips are on eprom and I think the sound chips are also eprom based with the MMLB add on board. The configuration of using all games available on the game set using different denominations will give you access to all the games available in that game set. Newer game sets use the 3902 board and are a combination of eprom/Simm cards. Eproms for your base, game and version chips and SIMM cards for sound, pixels, cgf. You also need the MMLB II add-on board for the sound SIMM. The backing up of you game library will be difficult for the SIMM based games unless you have the needed programmer. Generally the newer SIMM based games are in the $200 range for the GK/Igame. I do not know what an eprom based game set would cost. I have seen some of the newer Igame + games in GK cabinets with only the single row bet deck. Maybe someone else can chime in how, if at all a double row or single row deck effects game play for opposite games. If you have a Gamemaker, you know its pros and cons already.

 Dan (tacman)

As kforeman posted above, the newest MPU is the 044 and a motherboard change would also be required. Again special software/hardware would be needed to copy/write to these boards. They are also very static sensitive and could be corrupted rather easily.

[midas]

The Game King uses a set of 7 eproms or combination of Eproms and Simms.  The are stand alone games like Jeannie, Unicorn, etc. and there  are game sets that have a combo of slots, poker, keno.  The game sets which are also 7 chips, have up to 59 or so games which are selectable and setup thru the Keychip menu.  On Multi Denom bases you can have all 59 games selectable at different denominations (12 at a time per denom).
The Game Maker uses single chips for eacxh game.  Thus only 10 at a time on the Game Maker.
There are games on the Game Maker that are not on the GK.
If you have a Game Maker now, keep it and get a GK also.  That way you have the best of both worlds.

There are approx. 200 games for the Game Maker and a lot more for the Game King.  But, a lot of the GK games are proprietary and impossible to get.  As mentioned in a previous post, the GK games with Simms are difficult to back up without expensive equipment.  Whereas the Game Maker games can be backed up wiith a simple buirner. 
The graphics on the GK games are a bit better, but it depends on what games you like.
So, have both machines and the best of both worlds.