The Rise of Bigshot
written my MAGIK


OK, thats the drooling over, its in my house and the hard work begins... within 20 seconds I realised theres no keys for the couple of locks that are left on- o matter- these 92500 locks are secure enough when the machines in an arcade, but a couple of sharp taps with a hammer and flathead screwdriver and the tumblers give in- only to be done as a last resort though- it means you need new locks.
front door off, and the back door and a quick clean of the glass and we have this-



I doesnt boot though- and thats because theres no mpu3 board. Disaster? hell no Ive got a niiice, shiny mod6 mpu3, courtesy of MDS- these things really are idiot proof, despite the hassle these connectors cause, they really are a good design as they are rugged and cant accidentaly be dislodged- they lock in place.


BBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Flicked the switch, reels twitched- then the power supply caught fire and thats with the 34v and 50v fuses out!!

with the swap psu in, tried again to boot and this time I can hear the 12v fuse pop- they make a dull crack sound when the go- fast blow fuses in these things. Ok so now I go into troubleshoot mode, all non vital plugs disconnected, all power heavy parts unplugged- including the reels- Now that seems daft to people, unplugging the one thing that could indicate signs of life, but you dont need reels to get the machine to boot. It wont set up, yes, but you will get an alarm, and thats enough to tell you the cpu and rom/ram are working.

Reels out, meters out and lamps unplugged got me the critical fail alarm (beepbeepbeepbeepbeep)
Now can get back into the nitty gritty of it all- first thing that seemed strange to me was the light tube just stting on top of the reel assy- it should be clipped below the alpha. Noticed also that the alpha isnt sitting right. I couldnt at first see any way to get the alpha out though, no mounting screws anywhere. Then I make my next big discovery about early cabinet design. There was a big sliding bar on the left hand side of the cab, secured to the cab by a single screw. That taken out, the bottom glass and surround seemed to be loose-  and then I realised the whole thing was on a hinge, A bit like the bonnet of an e-type jag (no dont have one, seen it in action tho!). There was two latches at the top of the surround, and after a bit of fiddling the panel swung out and I had access. 


You can see from the pic why the tube was sitting in such a weird position, its completely the wrong size- should be a 4w there as its only purpose is to light the decals under the alpha-the bottom 8w tube is the reel lamp. Only the bottom one lights also, so I guessed the lighting board needed looking at. a few spectators appeared while I had the panel open- the machine home to a family of spiders- aggh!

anyways now I can see the two screws that secure the alpha display- the frame it was mounted in was hellish bent, and the brackets for the tube were bust. I decided to take it out and sort the brackets- once i had the alpha off, i needed to remove the loom for it- would you beleive that when I unplugged it I found the short circuit! the connector for the alpha display was melted, the power pins shorted together- that would be enough to blow it, and thats why the 12v fuse was blowing out. I couldnt see it when I unplugged it at first because all the damage was inside the connector, the plastics were discoloured but looked ok at a glance- close up they were anything but. alpha dead mabye? the thing does contain an HV inverter , so It could do a bit of msicheif if it was faulty. Had a spare one, fitted it and then fired the machine up again
VOILA!
Reels in, connected, and now the machine boots! played a few credits with it in darkness, oooh those gamble tunes!

A close up look at the alpha showed a hint of burning at the pcb, looks like the seals gone on the tube too!You can see from the pic why the tube was sitting in such a weird position, its completely the wrong size- should be a 4w there as its only purpose is to light the decals under the alpha-the bottom 8w tube is the reel lamp. Only the bottom one lights also, so I guessed the lighting board needed looking at. a few spectators appeared while I had the panel open- the machine home to a family of spiders- aggh!

anyways now I can see the two screws that secure the alpha display- the frame it was mounted in was hellish bent, and the brackets for the tube were bust. I decided to take it out and sort the brackets- once i had the alpha off, i needed to remove the loom for it- would you beleive that when I unplugged it I found the short circuit! the connector for the alpha display was melted, the power pins shorted together- that would be enough to blow it, and thats why the 12v fuse was blowing out. I couldnt see it when I unplugged it at first because all the damage was inside the connector, the plastics were discoloured but looked ok at a glance- close up they were anything but. alpha dead mabye? the thing does contain an HV inverter , so It could do a bit of msicheif if it was faulty. Had a spare one, fitted it and then fired the machine up again
VOILA!
Reels in, connected, and now the machine boots! played a few credits with it in darkness, oooh those gamble tunes!

A close up look at the alpha showed a hint of burning at the pcb, looks like the seals gone on the tube too!



OK, now weve got a booting machine- dark one though. Not to worry, the lamps worked fine after I put a 5 amp fuse back in. Nearly there now, as far as getting the thing working in attract (not trying coins yet till I get a spare mars unit, loom in current one looks, erm, dodgy!)
Just the tubes to look at now, wife ran out for 8w and a 4w tube, and I had starters. The light box was already unscrewed from the machine as you need to get at the mains connector underneath to change the psu. flipped the unit over to look at the chokes- there are three chokes in bigshot, basically just a bunch of light fittings all layed out in the one tray. The lightbox in an mpu3 machine is the one thing there will always be spares for! changed the tubes, 4w one on top fitting snugly under the alpha frame, and new one on bottom- top one was duff too, so was its starter. luckily tho, the small flu tubes dont always need starters, sometimes they just fire instantly due to grounding against the surface they are mounted to, in this case the machine frame through the clips. thanks to that I could swap round the starters, and get the top tube on.


Only a case after that of screwing everything back in- but in a little over 1 hour a classic mpu3 game is revived- lamps and all!


OK, so couple of bulbs out, and the reels still a bit dark, but not bad for a mornings work- now just one thing to do, wheres my toolbox.


2 hours into my hyperactive son playing this we started getting reel errors- This is why Ill always run a machine in test for several hours before I declare it working- Minor issue though, its just age and dust etc on the reel backboard- nicked the board off the wacky racer reels and its all fine.
Quick look at the backboard shows what the problem is- the IC on the board has duffed itself- easy fix.
im away to finish this now- change locks and those couple of dodgy bulbs and this is done.

Now it really is finished.......and it coins up too- I worked out the loom was ok, plugged it in and wayhay!


better picture here guys- wasnt happy wth the finish of it so got out the wet wipes and windowlene and the hoover. Here she is after a damn good cleaning out. looks good now!