Incredible work as always mate 
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Complete BALLY FUTURE SPA - Now sold.
- Thread starter new forest pinball
- Start date
Amazing work Keith! Great to see the game brought back to life so superbly
OP
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Now you all thought the transformer wiring was hacked we’ll take a look at the cabinet harness!
So many hacks it’s unbelievable!
Where do we start? Ok so crazy counters hack! Extra wiring on the tilt wiring, knocker coil and flipper switches. Taped cables on the line in cord. Crappy plug. What the #*£&!
Here are some pictures of the hacks, we need to get this back to Bally original or else.......
Cut cables, taped cables, additional cables see how many bodges / hacks you can spot in the pictures above!
Check out the state of the flipper switches, completely knackered! No chances what so ever of ripping a spinner with these guys.......
Here is the cabinet loom after a good clean and all the hacks removed. Also the tilt board has been connected....
Counter hack removed....
Nice new plug and loom.
New flipper switches. A must for full flipper power!....
Loom cleaned and de-hacked...
Nice freshly painted tilt mount board, fully populated....
That’s much better, maybe now I can get some sleep tonight.
So many hacks it’s unbelievable!
Where do we start? Ok so crazy counters hack! Extra wiring on the tilt wiring, knocker coil and flipper switches. Taped cables on the line in cord. Crappy plug. What the #*£&!
Here are some pictures of the hacks, we need to get this back to Bally original or else.......
Cut cables, taped cables, additional cables see how many bodges / hacks you can spot in the pictures above!
Check out the state of the flipper switches, completely knackered! No chances what so ever of ripping a spinner with these guys.......
Here is the cabinet loom after a good clean and all the hacks removed. Also the tilt board has been connected....
Counter hack removed....
Nice new plug and loom.
New flipper switches. A must for full flipper power!....
Loom cleaned and de-hacked...
Nice freshly painted tilt mount board, fully populated....
That’s much better, maybe now I can get some sleep tonight.
Attachments
Mmm. Electric spaghetti... 
OP
OP
Yes I thought the same thing. So I did some simple calculations since the coin counters were installed. So one counter. (The counter on the right) was connected to coin chute 2 set up for 50p for six games. (This we could tell from the original cpu dip switch settings). Unusual as normally set to 7 plays for 50p.
The other counter is for chute one, 10p per play.
Counter left reads 8690. Counter right reads 7219.
Simple maths gives us the following information. (Since counter installation).
Total plays. 52,004
Total takings £4,478.50.
Geektastic
Yes I thought the same thing. So I did some simple calculations since the coin counters were installed. So one counter. (The counter on the right) was connected to coin chute 2 set up for 50p for six games. (This we could tell from the original cpu dip switch settings). Unusual as normally set to 7 plays for 50p.
The other counter is for chute one, 10p per play.
Counter left reads 8690. Counter right reads 7219.
Simple maths gives us the following information. (Since counter installation).
Total plays. 52,004
Total takings £4,478.50.
Geektastic
So assuming a 50/50 split between site and operator it made approx £2200 for the op. Any idea what a future spa cost new? I love this kind of stuff
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Hey Chris, @ronsplooterSo assuming a 50/50 split between site and operator it made approx £2200 for the op. Any idea what a future spa cost new? I love this kind of stuff
Yeah me too! @stevebm1
So after a little bit of research the only archived pricing I could find for the same year as future spa was the following,these are distributors prices in USD.
KISS $1500.00 Time warp. $1334.00.
The Dollar was worth a whopping 45p in 1979. So......
Assuming a Bally widebody was a similar price to a licensed Bally the machine would of cost new in 1979 in U.K. pounds..
£675.00. So the machine since the installation of the counter had pretty much earned 4 times it’s purchased price. And it’s not taken a single penny in the last 25 plus years! Fabulous!
Anyway...back to business. Future spa is up in the workshops. If we can remember where we put all the parts progress could be rapid!
well come on! It’s a start!..............
Also since we are on The geeky tip. I spoke with Matt @Matt Vince this week and he shed a bit of light on the more recent history of the machine. And I quote (with Matt’s permission) the following....
“There were three friends that had a pact to share their machines if one of them died. The guy I-got it from was the last survivor and wanted to sell up, as he was just sitting on them all folded up in his classic car restoration garage.”
Now there’s a wonderful thing. Classic cars and pinball. Fantastico!..........
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The cabinet reconstruction is moving along well. Will post some pictures tomorrow.
Meanwhile our attention has turned to the backbox illumination/score board. Two main reasons.
1). It has been hacked!
2). We are converting this game to seven digit scoring.
The hacks on this are a complete mystery. No obvious reasons for them at all. So first we need to remove the hacks, then fit connectors where necessary. Here is the hack....
Hopefully we will have this sorted tomorrow as well.
Now many of you may wonder why go to the trouble of a seven digit score conversion?
Well one of the reasons many feel they have “beaten/completed “ an older Bally SS game is because they have clocked it.
(Scoring over 999,000 points) this creates some what of a mental block to continuing to play the game. So by overcoming this psychological block if you like adding seven digits renews the one more game/got to beat this scenario, thus adding to the games longevity and player appeal.
Also adding to the appeal is colour displays, red for scores blue for ball in play and match. (Or perhaps vice versa Depends on how it looks) courtesy of big Al @AlanJ . First time we have used these, so look out for a review here.
Will continue this post tomorrow........
Meanwhile our attention has turned to the backbox illumination/score board. Two main reasons.
1). It has been hacked!
2). We are converting this game to seven digit scoring.
The hacks on this are a complete mystery. No obvious reasons for them at all. So first we need to remove the hacks, then fit connectors where necessary. Here is the hack....
Hopefully we will have this sorted tomorrow as well.
Now many of you may wonder why go to the trouble of a seven digit score conversion?
Well one of the reasons many feel they have “beaten/completed “ an older Bally SS game is because they have clocked it.
(Scoring over 999,000 points) this creates some what of a mental block to continuing to play the game. So by overcoming this psychological block if you like adding seven digits renews the one more game/got to beat this scenario, thus adding to the games longevity and player appeal.
Also adding to the appeal is colour displays, red for scores blue for ball in play and match. (Or perhaps vice versa Depends on how it looks) courtesy of big Al @AlanJ . First time we have used these, so look out for a review here.
Will continue this post tomorrow........
OP
OP
Some progress today, which was surprising as one of my neighbours invited me round for some lunch in her garden which was very pleasant. Being Spanish the food was scrumptious.
First let’s concentrate on the seven digit conversion. With @AlanJ 5v displays. For initial set up we used v2. In blue.
The first job is to populate pin 12 on each of the seven digit displays. Start at the furthest display (player 3) run a cable to pin 12 of player 4 display then player 2 display pin12 then finish at player 1 and leave enough cable to reach top left of the backbox like this. The green cable is the one linking all pin12 together. See picture below....
Then using a four pin 0.100" Housing. Molex 22-01-2047 or equivalent fit your cable from pin12 on the seven digit displays to pin4 on the new Molex. For digit drive 7.
Move MPU J1 Pin 5 to the new added connector MPU J6 Pin 1. This is a typically a white wire with no stripe for digit drive five. You may need to extend the length of this wire if it will not comfortably reach MPU J6.
Move MPU J1 Pin 6 to the new added connector MPU J6 Pin 3, This is typically a white wire with a black stripe for digit drive six. You may need to extend the length of this wire if it will not comfortably reach MPU J6.
The best mpu to use for this is the weebly board. It already has the seven digit software by Oliver Okaegi installed, and J6 on the mpu . Just switch dip21 to on, swap the six digit jumpers to seven and that’s it. Real easy.....
Here’s the Molex with all cables in.
Here it is connected to j6 on the weebly mpu.
A picture of Alan’s superb colour displays in situ....
And here they are working! A seven digit Future Spa.....fabulous.....
Here’s the repair on that mega hack.......
The game is now assembled and ready to test ...I wanted to upload pictures of the game back together but I cannot access my pictures currently........ahh it’s back.
Decided to use an original solenoid driver board as we have no need for the high voltage section due to using 5volt displays. We carried out the usual earth mods to it. (See our Skateball log for more details).... here’s a picture.....
The mods are the blue wires. Here’s The populated back box, with a real mix of pcbs. Aux lamp Weebly. Audio board Weebly.solenoid driver Bally. Lamp driver board Alltek.(not yet modded for leds). Mpu weebly.
Hers a few pictures of the cabinet assembled...
Notice the rgb led flipper buttons, awesome............
First let’s concentrate on the seven digit conversion. With @AlanJ 5v displays. For initial set up we used v2. In blue.
The first job is to populate pin 12 on each of the seven digit displays. Start at the furthest display (player 3) run a cable to pin 12 of player 4 display then player 2 display pin12 then finish at player 1 and leave enough cable to reach top left of the backbox like this. The green cable is the one linking all pin12 together. See picture below....
Then using a four pin 0.100" Housing. Molex 22-01-2047 or equivalent fit your cable from pin12 on the seven digit displays to pin4 on the new Molex. For digit drive 7.
Move MPU J1 Pin 5 to the new added connector MPU J6 Pin 1. This is a typically a white wire with no stripe for digit drive five. You may need to extend the length of this wire if it will not comfortably reach MPU J6.
Move MPU J1 Pin 6 to the new added connector MPU J6 Pin 3, This is typically a white wire with a black stripe for digit drive six. You may need to extend the length of this wire if it will not comfortably reach MPU J6.
The best mpu to use for this is the weebly board. It already has the seven digit software by Oliver Okaegi installed, and J6 on the mpu . Just switch dip21 to on, swap the six digit jumpers to seven and that’s it. Real easy.....
Here’s the Molex with all cables in.
Here it is connected to j6 on the weebly mpu.
A picture of Alan’s superb colour displays in situ....
And here they are working! A seven digit Future Spa.....fabulous.....
Here’s the repair on that mega hack.......
The game is now assembled and ready to test ...I wanted to upload pictures of the game back together but I cannot access my pictures currently........ahh it’s back.
Decided to use an original solenoid driver board as we have no need for the high voltage section due to using 5volt displays. We carried out the usual earth mods to it. (See our Skateball log for more details).... here’s a picture.....
The mods are the blue wires. Here’s The populated back box, with a real mix of pcbs. Aux lamp Weebly. Audio board Weebly.solenoid driver Bally. Lamp driver board Alltek.(not yet modded for leds). Mpu weebly.
Hers a few pictures of the cabinet assembled...
Notice the rgb led flipper buttons, awesome............
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Well the future spa is now fully operational and dialled in!
It looks very pretty! Love the backbox “future spa” feature in the top right. It gets faster as you spell more letters!
Also it has a seventies style 3d effect film over it that gives a good effect like a disco ball. Called a prism effect holographic sheet. Very smart.....
In the end we went for @AlanJ blue displays with a red for ball in play/credits. They are fantastic. Highly recommended by us! So easy to fit and swap in/out. Great value to. Look fabulous! Put slow changing rgb leds in the playfield “FUTURE SPA”
That look real cool. Also the ultimate mod for Bally ss classics the rgb led clear flipper buttons......gooorgeous......
Now back to future spa. This game is very challenging indeed, a pretty basic rulesheet I guess but not to simple. Real drain monster though. Hopefully sometime soon I will make some use of that seventh digit!
Twin spinners is nice. The sound is super annoying and a bit hypnotic. Great fun game really enjoying it, will post a high score if I get one. Currently set on 5 balls no extra ball. Here’s some pictures of it finished. I will post some more tomorrow.
It looks very pretty! Love the backbox “future spa” feature in the top right. It gets faster as you spell more letters!
Also it has a seventies style 3d effect film over it that gives a good effect like a disco ball. Called a prism effect holographic sheet. Very smart.....
In the end we went for @AlanJ blue displays with a red for ball in play/credits. They are fantastic. Highly recommended by us! So easy to fit and swap in/out. Great value to. Look fabulous! Put slow changing rgb leds in the playfield “FUTURE SPA”
That look real cool. Also the ultimate mod for Bally ss classics the rgb led clear flipper buttons......gooorgeous......
Now back to future spa. This game is very challenging indeed, a pretty basic rulesheet I guess but not to simple. Real drain monster though. Hopefully sometime soon I will make some use of that seventh digit!
Twin spinners is nice. The sound is super annoying and a bit hypnotic. Great fun game really enjoying it, will post a high score if I get one. Currently set on 5 balls no extra ball. Here’s some pictures of it finished. I will post some more tomorrow.
Cabinet looks awesome & the light up buttons. What a beautiful beastie
Are the blue score displays a replacement over older orange ones?
Are the blue score displays a replacement over older orange ones?
Yes these are LED replacements, I can do them in amber, red, yellow, green, blue, white (£29) . 6 or 7 digit. £27 to forum members + postage
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A few more pictures........
And a plug for the SWL Festive Classics tournament on the 4th December. At SWL pinball club Salisbury.
Future spa will be making a guest appearance for your playing pleasure. Some great classic games at the club. Come along and have some fun! (For more details and to register visit :
Or d.m. Peter @Moonraker .
And a plug for the SWL Festive Classics tournament on the 4th December. At SWL pinball club Salisbury.
Future spa will be making a guest appearance for your playing pleasure. Some great classic games at the club. Come along and have some fun! (For more details and to register visit :
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Been spending some time testing this today.....
What a challenging game to play some interesting rules. Love on occasion how you can get both spinners going at once!?
Anyone that gets over a million on this and uses the seventh digit, that I am beginning to wonder why I bothered with doing
.......highest score so far is 545,240. I know not great but a slight improvement.....
K.
What a challenging game to play some interesting rules. Love on occasion how you can get both spinners going at once!?
Anyone that gets over a million on this and uses the seventh digit, that I am beginning to wonder why I bothered with doing
.......highest score so far is 545,240. I know not great but a slight improvement.....K.
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Never marked this as complete. It was played and enjoyed in the swl @Moonraker classics competition last December. Then sold to a customer in a nearby seaside village here in the new forest. A few final pictures before it left us…..K.
Satisfyin' spinner rips & I remember fun to nudge for the rollover lanes at the top. Those out-lanes were very dangerous. Thanks for bringin' it to SWL - it was very glam!
Nice job. Originally this game was to be Logan's Run.
! That backglass makes much more sense now … I was just thinking ‘who runs to a spa?’
I'd run away from a Spa, OK, maybe just a walk....! That backglass makes much more sense now … I was just thinking ‘who runs to a spa?’
Your Futura Spa turned out lovely, nice job @new forest pinball!
Cracking job Keith!
That is wicked. Love it.
Just read through this thread with a Sunday am cup of tea, I’m new to pinball machines but so far this has got to be the best restoration I’ve seen so far. Quality of work looks top drawer stuff to say the least
. Well done what a beautiful thing you bought back to life must be very satisfying.
It’s a game I remember playing as a kid on holiday at caister beach the art work always stuck in my mind, like many others.
. Well done what a beautiful thing you bought back to life must be very satisfying.It’s a game I remember playing as a kid on holiday at caister beach the art work always stuck in my mind, like many others.
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A big thank you for all your positive comments. We all need encouragement to keep our spirits high. It’s good to see how the love for Bally machines of this era has grown. And rightly so.
But what gives me the greatest pleasure is to see folks playing our games and enjoying them when finished.
@Dotteddown if you think this was a basket case take alook here:
Our Bally Dolly Parton. Currently on tour at lukes. @GezTheHealer then stopping off at Kris @Gonzo
Take care all. We are currently doing a Bally Xenon
All the best……. Keef.
But what gives me the greatest pleasure is to see folks playing our games and enjoying them when finished.
@Dotteddown if you think this was a basket case take alook here:
Complete - BALLY DOLLY PARTON - TORMENTED BY CPR!.......
Wow ! Looks brilliant keep the photos coming
www.pinballinfo.com
Take care all. We are currently doing a Bally Xenon
All the best……. Keef.
I just received my stencils today and was checking out CaptNRetro doing one, considering the theme I thought the purple stencil looked a bit dodgy
Anyone else see it or is just my perverted mind.
Anyone else see it or is just my perverted mind.
Cowgirl?I just received my stencils today and was checking out CaptNRetro doing one, considering the theme I thought the purple stencil looked a bit dodgy
Anyone else see it or is just my perverted mind.
View attachment 176247
There’s a lot going on
