Leaderboard

Good questions, no club and AWP went through the same dev teams there were no segregation there, and a for the nudge question....hmmmm. I don't have an answer but I know a man who will and this gives me a reason to speak to him! Watch this space.

Hello folks these are a few sru machines I picked this week,, most are already earmarked for Mecca members 😄 it just goes to shown they are still out there to be found ..

Some more boards giving me the run around or beyond economic repair. First one was a real pain, it wouldn't initialise and for the life of me I couldn't see why? Someone had been here before which is always a worry but they work seemed of a good standard. So the nitty gritty....on switch on there was just a short pulse to the RAM and then a few address lines died and it just sat there. IC9 (74LS138) and IC24 (74LS12) had been changed so I knew all was good in that dept and all the other usual stuff had been done. The first suspect was the CPU which was swapped but no difference. Next one was the 6840 as I've seen this stop boards booting before, but again nope! Not wanting to continue the wild goose chase I thought I'd try and think this one out. Next step was to tap out all the data and address lines to make sure there were no shorts or open circuits, which there weren't. Then it was the turn of all the other functions eg E, NMI, VMA etc. When I got to the R/W I found there was no connection from the RAM (pin 10) to the R/W line feeding the rest of the board? What a relief I'd actually found something. On the previous repair the two RAM sockets had been changed but because they were using the RAM daughterboard they had to be the stamped pin type as you can see in the pic. On removal of the socket in IC8 I found this... The via at pin 10 of IC8 had been ripped apart and consequently lost connection. So a quick rivet insert, a tack wire and a bit of solder mask to finish off and she's as good new. When all put back together it booted and ran fine. ....and the next one. This had already been deemed beyond economic repair as you will see from the pic.... The board was toasted right through just above the power diodes and various components further up the board varied in incinerated, well done to medium rare depending whether they caught the flame or not. As I was head scratching yet another board I thought, why not, and stuck it on the bench. First thing is to give it a clean and try and remove as much carbon as possible. Once done this left a sizeable hole in the board. This has to be done though as any carbon left will just track and start the whole process over again. I must admit it does look scarey but I've done this quite a few times now so it's pretty much business as usual. The next step is to make up some resin, seal the bottom with cellotape and then fill the hole. Once this has set the track needs to be re-made, holes drilled, rivets fitted and solder mask applied. New track cut and fitted and riveted. They do look close together but it's a trick of the light! I still need to drill and fit another rivet for the white power lead but that's tomorrows job. Then a bit of solder mask to finish off. All that's left is to swap out all the burnt components and the usual bits and pieces. I just hope after all this it doesn't have any obscure faults!!

Your knowledge of the machines astounds me, I was so busy with the maintenance of or the development of the 'product' that I hardly bothered with the games themselves. It was the introduction of new components and the control of change that I was involved with at the time or perhaps in fact the start of the Project Management of the SWP departure? In 1982 I had my 30th birthday which was a blast and will be in a story soon and I know I was managing the development team (not software) having been transferred from Customer Service to take that problem area.

FANTASTIC line up you got there phil Very nice indeed Been many a year from the last time I seen A lite a light. Great find phil 👍👍

Very nice phil .they look is ok condition too

Thanks for the compliment frank but I am just one of many on here with a decent knowledge of various machines(it’s just that JPM was my favourite brand so to speak). when you get the the project management of the SWP you will have myself and dave’s(cannonman)full attention. just a note I left high school in 1982(time has flown for all of us)😀

Of course as well as the progress made in gaming machine technology by the manufacturers themselves there were also huge developments in the components that were purchased to go in them. One of the more obvious products to receive such progress was the coin acceptor. Traditionally the coin acceptor was a metal mechanism dedicated to measuring the circumference, width and solidity of a coin. It also had a small magnet to detect Ferrous fakes. One of the new players in the marketplace was Mars, I believe an American company, that introduced their Injection molded Mars mechanism, or Mech. Obviously it was in their interest to make sure the technicians from the various manufacturers could repair or recognise problems with their product. So 40 years ago I was invited to Mars in Winnersh triangle in Reading for an introduction to the product. What I saw there blew my mind. Although JPM by this time were ensconced in a new building and the materials we used were modern, we still employed the more traditional manufacturing procedures of stores stock holding, stock issue, and handling and transportation of materials to the staff. Not at Mars. If you asked the store's manager at Mars exactly where a component was in the stores, he didn't know. If you were to ask him to get a component he couldn't. No Bin cards here! The stock holding area was a series of racks, and these were, as I recall some 20 or perhaps even 30 ft high, around 2 ft wide each, with perhaps a 3 foot gap between them and around 100 feet long. Negotiating and populating this area were a series of computer-controlled robotic stock controllers, a sort of very small telescopic forklift on rails. As stock arrived it was entered into the computer and then loaded onto plastic bins designed to fit perfectly within the racks. Not all components in the same bin, it really didn't matter because the computer knew where they were. Once the stock was loaded the computer decided where a suitable space was and took it to its destination, not necessarily next to similar items that we're still in stock. Similarly to issue stock you simply typed in what you wanted and the controller would go off and bring you your item, after which you would update the quantity and send the remainder back. It didn't stop there. Buried beneath the carpet tiles around the workshops were metal tapes and these formed a route that branched off to individual workspaces. Stock for an individual worker was loaded onto to a battery powered flatbed truck the size of a pallet truck with a flashing light and sensors all around. The guy loading the truck would choose a destination press the button and off would go this little truck, quite slowly, less than walking pace, and often in convoy with other similar trucks. Once at their destination they would politely chirp to be unloaded and once commanded to return, they made their way back to the stores. There were other aspects of modern technology their regarding staff access and time keeping etc, but honestly I don't remember them, however the store and stock control stuck in my mind and I thought you guys might be interested. Don't forget this was 40 years ago!

Yes I knew, but what a lot of people don't know is that Robert and i grew up next door (literally) to each other!

They did. One of the plans for The Fun Ship was an amusements arcade covering an entire deck. So when it closed over 50 arcade machines "from the golden era" were sealed shut inside the ship. That bit was true, but they were all hoovered up in a mass raid years ago. There are some class photo's of the raid. I believe that everything was taken.