Magic Respins by Thomas Automatic

[ramegoom]

Anyone know anything about this little beast? It's a counter-top slot-like machine that uses a 13 in. vertical monitor, Made by Thomas Automatic Machines, Inc., coin-operated, and pays credits of some sort. The machine I have does not operate, however, the monitor and power supply is OK.
Here is the logic PCB. Does it look familiar? Part number A100-001C:



It looks like one of the eight EPROMS is bad, as far as I can tell (reading a lot of 00's). Eight EPROMS in it, four 16K, and four 32K. One of the 16K chips is suspect. All of the TI logic chips are house-numbered, showing "England" as the mfr. source.

Anyone ever see one of these, and MAYBE someone has this logic board collecting dust on a shelf??

Thanks,
John
>>

[ramegoom]

Added an image, hopefully someone recognizes this one.

[ROCKET]

I have seen those boards in the past dated around 1989-1990  area look on the board see if there is a dated code somewhere ??
post a picture of the countertop please .. I have a collection of electronic countertops from 80"s to current day
the two molex connectors are unique to the machine from what have seen in past .

I was thinking for a moment that I have a device made by no coffee yet ??? that  would let you take various boards made by other company's .then you can actually  plug them into to play on another brand of machine --problem here is its not a
"EDGE-CONNECTED" board so that wont help you .
I was thinking on the lines if your board is total garbage ?? you still have the rest of machine that you could salvage for a playable game .

Rocket

[ramegoom]

Actually the rest of the machine is in great condition. All the chips on it show a date code of 1981 or 1982. I did a read on the EPROMS and they all seem to have what I'd consider normal...until I read H5. Loaded with mostly zeros. That's a giveaway. And it's an old 2716 chip, not the most reliable one of the bunch. If I can't get the original game up and running, I'll probably convert it to a countertop bowling machine with a trackball - somehow.

I'll send a few images, need to get the camera fired up.
Thanks,
John

[ROCKET]

I looked at your board again and again my mind is saying I may have one like it or similar to it ??
in the room that I NEVER TOSS ANYTHING AWAY --BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU NEED ??
let me check today to see if i have something on that lines .. probably in same condition as yours ??
I bought out a old timers complete inventory back in 2002 that had close to 1000 used boards of every brand you can think of for countertop and upright games .. i saved them all ..

[ramegoom]

Here is the machine. It takes quarters but doesn't pay out. Must be some sort of credit pay, I really don't understand it. If you have one of these logic boards, I would be interested in it, give it a try to get it running. The graphics on the glass are really nice so it'd be good to get it going.

[ROCKET]

That is to clean to modify into another game ..if you cant fix the board or find one ---hang loose one will turn up

as a tech &  collector of a wood & metal made counter tops in that condition as you said the glass alone is in great shape .


most award glass  are worth more than entire machine to the correct person ..
I have original MERIT 1984 RIVIARA POKER GLASS for uprights in 14"-inch hole display that are worth more than entire machine because most were made with 20 -inch displays only a hand full of uprights had the tiny monitor .. much of the original glass is worth more than machine .. but yours is wood in great looking shape .. the machine looks like it was a ENGLAND BUILT MODEL ?? with the symbols

I would just leave it alone .. keep watching ebay a seller in CA. I cant think of his name .. sells on ebay gives a month to pay .
if that helps locate him always has vintage items manuals -boards --etc one will come up if he does not have one in his ebay store 
 

[ROCKET]

IF YOU HAVE TIME POST A PICTURE OF THE BACK PLEASE
its got a 9-inch CRT mounted sideways thats cool in itself . most of  all of my old ones run the 9-inch CRT's
problem is even with good eyes you need to squint to see screen lol

is there a fan on back door or the side ??
being nosy where did you find it ??
does it have a lazy "susan" under it for spinning the cabinet around ??

[ramegoom]

Here's the back of the unit. No lazy susan, just a flat bottom:


There is no fan on the box, and it's a Wells Gardner monitor. Inside there is a panel for resetting the machine:


Some of the lights work, some don't and there is not so much as a blip on the monitor. I got the game from a friend in CA who had it for years.

[ROCKET]

 
very nice condition I am impressed .. fix the board find out info on google etc as to who Thomas Automatic inc. arcade or gambling/gaming equipment is  for schematics you have a nice piece of history . looks around 1982 .
 try the monitor/chassis for years to identify would be your fastest on that part . hop on KLOV see if they list it ??
thanks for posting the pictures .. pos karma to ya ..
Rocket

[knagl]

there is not so much as a blip on the monitor.

That would almost make me suspect that the monitor and/or power supply (chassis) for the monitor is shot.  Even if you have bad EPROMs, you should see some kind of flicker when the monitor is turned on and/or off.

[ramegoom]

I'm going to plug in a JAMMA test system into the monitor. Oddly. if I unplug the RGB connector to the monitor, the screen lights very faint blue, but once the connector is intact, it goes very blank. And, tripping the coin switch has no effect on the board, and no sound from the speaker no matter what I do. I checked the power supply, 12 v, 5 v, and so on, worked properly. And the logic chips have 5 v on the rails. Only thing I can think of is the game program on the eprom, but no codes no nothing.

I'll examine further this week, hope to get some response from the logic.

[ramegoom]

ROCKET: Any chance you found that board?

Upon further testing: Some of the lamps glow when it's powered up, but not full brightness. Those transistors on the PC board control all the lights - 24 of them - and seem to be semi-powered up. I replace the battery and replaced all of the EPROM sockets (lots of corrosion in those gold-plated sockets) but nothing. Dead to the world. All of the logic chips have the usual 5 volts to them, so the board is powered up. And the power supply, a standard arcade style supply, puts out +5v, -5v, and +12v. There is an additional transformer that puts out an additional 5v to something - not sure what. And there is an isolation transformer in it for the CRT.

But that logic board doesn't want to respond to anything. Doing a google search, there is really not much info out there on this machine. The company that produced it made five different machines from 1981 to 1982, then appeared to have gone bust. If I can't find a logic board, well, the future of this machine as designed isn't looking very good. I will likely convert it to an arcade machine since that cabinet is really a nice piece. I was thinking of putting a Coors Bowling JAMMA into that cabinet and all I would need to do is figure out a way to position a trackball in front of it. Then I could remove the coin acceptor and put a couple of control buttons there.

I just can't leave this one alone...

[ROCKET]

I started writing my reply before reading your entire post --the part about the battery & research etc ..
 
I looked at over 1000 boards that's a unique board you have with the molex connectors  on the board--- all the boards i pulled the drawers open they are stored in .I can see edge connectors on all of  them .>> no plugs <<<
so unless you can get a schematic on the game .. that's the only way you will be able to substitute a non original game board into that .

of course you can plug any game you want into the monitor etc but as far as that one its a "odd duck" with the molex plugs on the board itself -

one quick note i have done on old boards that don't work that you have nothing to loose .. is connect it outside the inboard slide it fits in have rubber gloves on when doing this so your not dealing with static or human electrical interference -power up machine and flex the board lightly and notice the monitor to see if you get any new images ?? a broken printed circuit is common and the flex joins it temporarily etc if that's the case you can repair the board you have . then the trick is to mount it with leg mounts to keep it in the exact spot it needs to be . another thing i have done is leave machine on -- have a mini electric heater blow warm air at the board area to see if the expansion from the heat makes a broken circuit connect again 


the only board i have  that is close
is the 1982 digital controls little casino board .

i have a complete game black and white monitor then a later game made by "PACE" that runs the same  edge connector  the board is 6-inchers wide x 12 inches long and after it plugs into the edge connector has a interface board right into molex plugs  to go to the buttons etc

 during that time period  late 70's early 80's  all these guys knew each other building these proto type countertops that some obviously made it to pat . then marketed -- many were partners etc then a few split up went one way and the other etc . there design concepts although close had minor differences .your machine does not resemble any of these guys inventions ??
that's why I would not be surprised it came from England ---Australia ????? did you do any research of who is Thomas Automatic inc.?

also did you try a new battery on your board ? to see if that helps boot the game somehow ?? its worth a try  it may not be there for memory savings alone . also notice the date of battery ? just to see when it may of been serviced last ?? did you find any years on the monitor to pin down dates ??or a model number we can use if its a Samsung 9-inch - Hitachi -Clinton -Orion -etc
as I mentioned on first line i did not read your entire post before writting you back .

 honestly my 2 cent opinion would not convert it . I would wait .. give me a day or two to get this ebayers name ??this guy comes up with the stuff nobody else finds --I should know his name I purchased enough off him over the years all antique game boards or manuals etc even doing a search for manuals on ebay will give you a idea of who made the game where it came from etc . if there are any parts out there etc . I would think there is a member on the forum that is a electronics expert --I mean expert on the items on your board if you sent the board to him he may be able to trace the printed circuit if there is a bad spot etc .

that wood cabinet is "UNIQUE" in itself in design with the "rabbit" cuts to slide wood into wood -all the buttons is unique vs most games only had 8 buttons max -its just a pretty looking cabinet -Would hate to see a trackball mounted on it then a month later find a original board ?? let me find that ebayers name I will PM you when i get it . if you want to sell it as -is PM me .
Rocket

[ramegoom]

Thanks for the efforts. I have been playing with it and found the monitor is perfect, 100% working as I plugged a JAMMA system into it. Standard EGA.

Then I installed a 3.6v battery on it. No change, no response whatsoever. I tried "twisting" the PCB while powered up, no blips. Tried removing the suspect EPROM, no difference.  Reflowed all of the connector pins, looked under the magnifying glass for cold solder joints, couldn't find really anything. It is as clean on the inside as on the outside. Even the monitor has no screen burn...must not have had a lot of hours on it. This sucker is dead. dead.

The IC's are all house-numbered, made by TI mostly, and have B101, B102, B103, etc. as part numbers. I'm sure they're all early TTL, but they have effectively locked into their design by having TI print their own part numbers on the chips. All the IC's have voltage on their rails, the CMOS memory section of the board has the 3.6v from the battery, and nothing looks burned or corroded (except the sockets for the EPROMS which I already swapped). I even swapped the power supply with a new one, even though I tested the old supply and it tested good - no change. Oddly some of the lamps controlled by the on-board transistors are dimly lit when it powers up. Jumping those transistor E-C junctions brings the lights to full brightness so they all seem wired correctly. Everything tells me this board should work, but there is not even a crack from the speaker, nor is there a blip on the monitor.

There's an on-board crystal that I will scope out to see if it's active, that will be next. Right now, I pretty much walked away from it, giving it a break - and me too. I realize it's too nice outside of the unit to switch over to another theme, but on the other hand, if I can't find a suitable replacement board, I'm stuck with a pretty machine that sits and does nothing. Schematics? Impossible to find so far. They didn't even print the company name on anything inside the cabinet. The company that produced this machine didn't stay in business more than a couple of years, as far as I can determine, and they didn't have a very big product line. Should have gone to cabinet-making instead.

I read that is was the first "amusement-only" slot machine made, revolutionary for its time, but obviously, not very desirable. Sort of like an 80's trade stimulator, no coin payout, just credits. So, it's very unique, but I like things that work. So unless I discover some obvious bugaboo with the board, I'm really inclined to go the conversion route.

We will see.....