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!!! 
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! 

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, 
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; 

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

[uniman]

Please forgive me while I babble on about the Ultra Series, writing this for the Universal area.

If your reading this and own a Universal Ultra, please log on and share your machine with us! 

Universal Ultra Memory Switch Table
You can access the Memory Switch Table by pressing the green test button 14 times.
There are two 8-bit pages. They are pages 0 and 1. Each page has eight binary bits listed as 0 thru 7.
After pressing the test button 14 times you will see a zero in the Coins Played Meter and Win Meter, and four zeros in the Credit Meter.
Coins Played Meter is the page number (0 or 1)
Win Meter is the bit number (0-7)
Credit Meter is the current bit setting (0000 or 1111)

To access a page (0 or 1), press the Bet One button.
To access a bit (0 thru 7), press the Spin button.
To change the bit setting (0000 or 1111), press the Max Bet button.

What they do;

Page 0
bit 0          Tower Light
0 = Tower light flashes for Jackpot, Call Attendant, and stays on for Door Open
1=  Tower light stays on for Jackpot, Call Attendant, and Door Open.

bit 1        Starting Speed for Max Bet
0 = Normal
1 = High                           Note: Normal is better!

bit 2       The Third Reel Reach Feature
0 = no feature
1 = feature on        (If you get two 7's or higher on first two reels, third reel spins longer with special sound) very nice

bit 3       Reel position Detect Error
0 = Disabled
1 = Enabled   (detects if reels were moved, gives errors 81-84) I've never messed with it

bit 4      1st - 5th Lite Lamps
0 = all lamps always on
1 = synchronizes with played lines

bit 5    Jackpot Tower Lamp
0 = activated for top jackpot hit (either flash or always on from bit 1)
1 = activated for all progressive hits

bit 6    Hit Sound mode
0 = synchronize with payout
1 = no synchronize with payout (Note: not as described, two different sounds for coin-in and payout, both are sync'd)

bit 7   Reel Stop Data
0 = Same as existing models
1 = Smooth type action   (smooth type action??, it shakes at every stop!!)


Page 1

bit 0        Reel Pre-move
0 = Normal Start
1 = Delayed start action when game starts (Now this is a strange one!  Every 51 spins the reels reverse about 1/2 inch and then go forward as normal. I found the code in the game chip, and yes, every 51st spin???)

bit 1    Super Reach
0 = No change
1 = More reel speed reduction after normal reach feature (I have found this only on Super Jackpot 7's. Very cool feature! Special sound with the third reel in slo-mo. It is random and does not happen with every reach feature. Generated more often with wins than loses.)

bit 2   Random Nudge
0 = no action
1 = nudge action (This works on mixed bars or two mixed bars with wild/multiplier symbols only. And only on single line games, but not Twin Crowns or Twin Cherries.) Cool feature but do not know how it could be applied in a casino without major explanation?

Bits 3,4,5,6,7 on Page 2 not used.

If you clear the RAM, these settings are lost, must re-enter.

[TZtech]

Good Old Universal

Over here we know them as the 8116, 8800,9400 and 9600. This was the first machine I got training on and  worked on when i started in the casino biz (Sun International - South Africa - 1998)
At that time they had almost 90% market share in the SA casino's and there are still plenty of the ultra's in SA. Very easy to fix and pretty reliable exept for the slantop. Removing the backplane board from that is a nightmare
and should have EPROM listings somewhere. Will try and locate them.
Have softcopy manuals for the Ultra -Drop me a line if anybody needs them.
Should have EPROM listings somewhere. Will try and locate them.

Regards
Ian

[uniman]

TZtech,
Eprom listings would be great! 
Copious amounts of Karma if you find them. 

I do not believe the 9600 ever made it to the United States. I have a partial browser based manual for the 9600 and looks like an upgrade of the 9400.
I have a soft copy manual for the Ultra, but it was faxed, by Universal, and the schematics are very difficult to read.
If you have legable schematics I'm interested!
Also have no info on progressive two-way communication.

Here is a manual pic of the 9600 Slant Top and manual page.

By the way, what is a Condor? Is that a brand of bill validator?

[TZtech]

Hello Uniman

Better late than never. Have a look at this site. It lists all the universal games approved for the western cape province in South Africa.
http://www.wcgrb.co.za/Downloads/LOC/200904/Aruze-Software.pdf

There are a bunch of Universals (Now Aruze) other product in there but it does have 95XX ,96xx,97xx and even 02xx listings. As far as i know the paytable chips are identical worldwide.
Also found a 8116 gamebook. As soon as i have scanned it i will post it.

PS - Condor is a make of programmable coin acceptor. The universals over here all use CBV bill validators.

Regards
Ian

[uniman]

FANTASTIC !!!
It was worth the wait. Thank You!

All games listed as 95000's and 96000's I'm sure are Ultra Series. I see they made Double Jokers Wild, Phantom Spin, and Double Thunder in Ultra Series. Never seen one. 
The hunt begins!!

              Thanks again! The copious amounts of Karma begin!     

Uniman

[StatFreak]

Jim, is there a way to tell which listings are Unis, aside from the 95000 and 96000 values in the third column?

[TZtech]

Hi SB

Anything with a hardware LOC of ZT0058 or ZT0057 is a Ultra. ZT0057 is the slantop and ZT0058 is the upright. There was also a model called the sunrise (ZT1900). Cant remember what the difference was to the ultra but the SW works across all 3 platforms.

Regards
Ian

[uniman]

Hi SB

Anything with a hardware LOC of ZT0058 or ZT0057 is a Ultra. ZT0057 is the slantop and ZT0058 is the upright. There was also a model called the sunrise (ZT1900). Cant remember what the difference was to the ultra but the SW works across all 3 platforms.

Regards
Ian

Thanks Ian,
I notice only the Game or sometimes called the Personality chips are listed. Did they list the Machine or System chip associated with the games or the sound chip(s)? 

I know in the US the (Machine) System chip was 94024 for all games. And, all games I've found use the same sound chip.
What I find puzzling is there is a sound test for "respin sound", yet no sound is there?
I see Phantom Spin is one of the games listed and that game respins. Maybe you need that Game chip installed to hear that test? Or maybe a special sound chip?

From what I can tell, the Sunrise Slot is the Ultra with a newer version of Main PCB.

[TZtech]

Hi

Yes - Each game has to be approved individually. If you go to the site www.wcgrb.co.za you can actually select what category of approval you are looking for. Under the Aruze tap there should be a system approvals selection which should give you a PDF of all the system chips.
There is also info for IGT, Aristocrat etc etc but please note these will be different from whats available in the states.

Regards
Ian

[bikerman]

Is it worth getting  universal machine? I have a guy that is looking to sell a firey doubles machine that is ot working.

[uniman]

Is it worth getting  universal machine? I have a guy that is looking to sell a firey doubles machine that is ot working.

I assume this is an Ultra Series.
Depends on the price and what's wrong with it.
If you can get an IGT S+ for the same price, I would say get the IGT. (Can't believe I said that)
The reason is parts are very hard to find. The dollar bill validator cannot be upgraded to accept newer bills.
If the main board is bad, good luck finding another.

Now the good points; very rare machine, few were made. So you would be the only one I know who owns a Fiery Doubles. They are that rare. Stereo sound and big backlit reels are nice.
If the problem with the machine is constant error codes like hopper jam, reel error, etc, chances are the problem is the board making good contact with the backplane. This problem can lead you on a wild goose chase real quick.

[dpalmi]

If you can get an IGT S+ for the same price, I would say get the IGT. (Can't believe I said that)

Did you really just say that?!?!?

 

Dan #2

[pistachio62]

I just bought a Universal slot machine, it's a Super Stars & Stripes, and I'm having an issue with it... It turns on, but it appears as though its calling for an attendant for repair. Its flashing a bunch of numbers that don't have any relation to the codes on the inside of the machine. The coin rejection solenoid keeps clicking back and forth and the light on top is flashing. None of the fuses are bad and none of the buttons on the inside are working. I was wondering if anybody knew what was going on? Thanks, I know this is an old topic, but still... The codes are as follows first it flashes a 1 and a 3 and then 0 and a 1, then 00 in the first spot and then a 1 in the third spot with a 0 in the fourth. Thanks in advance...

[uniman]

I just bought a Universal slot machine, it's a Super Stars & Stripes, and I'm having an issue with it... It turns on, but it appears as though its calling for an attendant for repair. Its flashing a bunch of numbers that don't have any relation to the codes on the inside of the machine. The coin rejection solenoid keeps clicking back and forth and the light on top is flashing. None of the fuses are bad and none of the buttons on the inside are working. I was wondering if anybody knew what was going on? Thanks, I know this is an old topic, but still... The codes are as follows first it flashes a 1 and a 3 and then 0 and a 1, then 00 in the first spot and then a 1 in the third spot with a 0 in the fourth. Thanks in advance...

First of all, welcome to NLG pistachio62. 
You mention "first spot" & "third spot" & "forth"??   Not sure what that means? There are the COINS PLAYED, LAST GAME, WIN METER, and CREDIT METER.
But it really sounds like you need to perform a RAM clear. It is a very simple procedure. Click this link; http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=1295.0

Normally you should see codes 13 and 50 flashing when starting up the machine. Code 13 is "power interupt" and 50 is "door open".
After a RAM clear you should see codes 19 (All Clear) and 50. Close and lock the door and the 50 should go away and 51 will flash. Code 51 is "door closed".
The Insert Coin light should be flashing. When the Insert Coin light is flashing it should then accept coins.

Perform the RAM clear and let us know what happens.
Uniman

One more thing, your machine is an ULTRA SERIES, right? 

[pistachio62]

Thanks a ton, I did mean Coins played, last game, win meter, and credit meter, I just wasn't looking at the machine, and got lazy... Sorry... I'll Try this tomorrow and come back with the results, thanks again...

Sorry, I'm not quite sure how to tell if it is an ultra series, but i'm pretty sure it is...

[uniman]

Thanks a ton, I did mean Coins played, last game, win meter, and credit meter, I just wasn't looking at the machine, and got lazy... Sorry... I'll Try this tomorrow and come back with the results, thanks again...

Sorry, I'm not quite sure how to tell if it is an ultra series, but i'm pretty sure it is...

Hey, no problem. Just want to make sure we are talking about the same thing.
If it is ULTRA SERIES it will say so in the upper lefthand corner of the reel glass.

Another common problem with the Ultra's is the main board not making good contact with the backplane. If after your RAM clear it is still acting up try gently rocking the board by pressing on the white pull tabs on the board. DO THIS WITH THE POWER OFF. Then power up again with a RAM clear.

One more thing, I've been having trouble logging on at various times. If I don't reply within about 36 hours you can email me. Click on my name to get my email address.

[pistachio62]

I'll Have to check tomorrow if it is an ultra series... Whats the difference if its not, I really think it is, but still what is the difference?

[uniman]

Totally different MPU board, reels, hoppers, etc. RAM clear is one button instead of three.
But I suspect yours is an Ultra, don't think they made SUPER Stars & Stripes until the Ultra came out.

[pistachio62]

I know it is an ultra, it has the same mother board as the picture that was on the reset Ram page... and will do on the e-mail deal... Sorry I didn't address that in the last message...

I have another question if thats okay... How much is a Universal machine thats in pretty good shape worth? Are they rare at all or whats the deal with them as far as pricing goes... I didn't pay that much for this one... Also are bill acceptors common in these machines?

Oh and thanks again.

[stayouttadabunker]

Pistachio, can you show us a nice picture of it? Please, pretty please?