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In Progress Jim vs Barcrest

myPinballs

myPinballs

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Nov 19, 2011
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Not pinball but hopefully ok here.

This is coming here soon, so we will have a nice little trip down memory lane and fix it up, get it running and play it alittle. Try and work out the codes lol, then probably move it on.

Love old school games from late 90s era. £10-25 jackpot stuff, mainly £15 jackpot was when i was playing them i think.

Nice project to get into some tech stuff to.

IMG_8100.webp
 
One interesting thing about the different prize value increments is the £15 jackpot list is the same as this £25 one, except for the top one. So on the £25 version theres quite a jump at the end. I thought they altered more than this. I wonder if the £25 update was just the top decals not the full strips.
 
myPinballs said:
One interesting thing about the different prize value increments is the £15 jackpot list is the same as this £25 one, except for the top one. So on the £25 version theres quite a jump at the end. I thought they altered more than this. I wonder if the £25 update was just the top decals not the full strips.
Click to expand...

The machine would've been built ready for a change in the law allowing for higher jackpots. What's the date on the glass?

Some machines did change the entire win plan structure, especially if it has been built for the 'under 18's' £5jp too. This therefore needed a set of interchangeable decals. Not all games did this though, opting to change just smaller number of them - like the jackpot and the top feature. Instead they could 're-glass' them with updated ROMS for the lower stake prize market (we've spoken about this before, with JPM and Crystal, I'm sure!).

This pic shows the changes in Law over time:

1752765361289.webp

In my opinion, changes that made jackpots higher were the nail in the coffin for these types of machines. They made the stake to prize ratio progressively worse over time. By that I mean 20p play @ £15jp was roughly 75:1 ratio. The same machine with a £10jp would've been a 50:1 ratio. Early 90's games were 20p £4.80jp, so 24:1. A higher ratio made a big difference to the game play. Long stretches of stale and uneventful gameplay. Lower ratio and you can easily pump in a jackpot's worth in 24spins, so it should be ready to pay at least something back! My favourite was 20p-30p with £6-£8jp.

There's a guy on YT who makes good content about Fruit Machine emulation, old emptiers and just general history, from his perspective living in the NorthWest in the 90's and now the Isle of Man.
There's one about the changes to Jackpots over time (where I nicked this screenshot from):
And another about Temple of Treasure!

Also, MPU5 is regarded as being "bulletproof" tech, so I'm surprised it's not working to be honest. You can get replacement parts fairly cheaply and easily too.

Good luck!
 
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Monkeyboypaul said:
The machine would've been built ready for a change in the law allowing for higher jackpots. What's the date on the glass?

Some machines did change the entire win plan structure, especially if it has been built for the 'under 18's' £5jp too. This therefore needed a set of interchangeable decals. Not all games did this though, opting to change just smaller number of them - like the jackpot and the top feature. Instead they could 're-glass' them with updated ROMS for the lower stake prize market (we've spoken about this before, with JPM and Crystal, I'm sure!).

This pic shows the changes in Law over time:

View attachment 283827

In my opinion, changes that made jackpots higher were the nail in the coffin for these types of machines. They made the stake:prize ratio progressively worse over time. By that I mean 20p play @ £15jp was roughly 75:1 ratio. The same machine with a £10jp would've been a 50:1 ratio. Early 90's games we 20p £4.80jp, so 24:1. A higher ratio made a big difference to the game play. Long stretches of stale and uneventful gameplay. Lower ratio and you can easily pump in a jackpot's worth in 24spins, so it should be ready to pay at least something back!

There's a guy on YT who makes good content about Fruit Machine emulation, old emptiers and just general history, from his perspective living in the NorthWest in the 90's and now the Isle of Man.
There's one about the changes to Jackpots over time (where I nicked this screenshot from):
And another about Temple of Treasure!

Also, MPU5 is regarded as being "bulletproof" tech, so I'm surprised it's not working to be honest. You can get replacement parts fairly cheaply and easily too.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Good info!. I must be a tight yorkshire man or something, because the sentence '£1 play with £100 jackpot' fills me with dread and a cold sweat... hahaha I guess i'm not a gambler.. A £1 a go jeez!!! Imagine what you can get on pinball enjoyment wise for that !!

Weirdly back in the day, 25p a go and £10 jackpot didn't seem that bad, 4 spins for a £1. They should have kept them down at £25 max and kept the effort in the designs. Might have helped in other ways to

Looking forward to getting stuck into this one and learning some stuff. I'll check the glass year when It arrives. i am guessing at 2001 ish
 
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'A wealth of hidden features..' and the phrase 'enter codes' mentioned more than once. Sounding good. And i always liked the 'red' features. That was a great idea back in the day
 
Miss this era of fruities so much :(

Same with arcades they used to have all sorts of fun games now all lcd screens and rainbow LEDs :(

Miss all the coin games :(

Amusement future is looking ****e.

Only hope for future is they get virtual reality so perfect we can just go back in time and recreate the old arcades :D
 
russdx1 said:
Miss this era of fruities so much :(

Same with arcades they used to have all sorts of fun games now all lcd screens and rainbow LEDs :(

Miss all the coin games :(

Amusement future is looking ****e.

Only hope for future is they get virtual reality so perfect we can just go back in time and recreate the old arcades :D
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Arcade wise, there's a few games becoming collectable now from the early 2000s to 2010 era so all is not lost. Quite a few gun games, a fair amount of the sega stuff, naomi/ lindbergh etc. Plus some global vr and raw thrills stuff. The stuff out right now though i guess we will have to see if some things become collectable for the younger generation later. I guess it depends if they remember going and playing x game at the bowling alley/cinema/seaside etc Might be like with other collecting though and its tied to a certain generation pretty much.
 
Arrived yesterday. In good condition. pretty dusty and in need of a full strip down and clean, but everything looks pretty straight. Metal button strip at front has seen better days, but will be easy to restore and get that re powercoated /recoated etc.



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First job was to give it a full quick clean outside and then move in to its new home to be worked on. Looked alot better jsut for a quick clean to get all the dust and grime off

IMG_0270 2.webp
 
Ok, next up can we get it to boot up? When first tried (before getting inside) nothing happened, no lights, no reels, but a faint burning smell , Nice!!!

Started by taking a look at the power supply and giving it a clean up and bench test.

Tested all voltages and all was good

IMG_0296.webpIMG_0300.webpIMG_0301.webp

Replugged in and switched on this time with door open. Some lights on the mpu board but not all and some smoke, nice!!

Had a spare mpu board so swapped dthe program card over and turned back on

And behold, it's alive!! haaha

IMG_0321.webpIMG_0323.webpIMG_0346.webp

been playing a few games on it and all seems to be working ok.

Lots of lights out to sort out. also we'll dig in to what went wrong on the original mpu later to
 
Wish pinball was as economic. At one point you couldn't give mpu5 parts away as so reliable. The motherboards corrode but are easy to pick up.
Barcrest produced great games at this time but its the JPM that are most collectable

Mpu6 rubbish sank them. Now it all screen rubbish
 
steve brum said:
Wish pinball was as economic. At one point you couldn't give mpu5 parts away as so reliable. The motherboards corrode but are easy to pick up.
Barcrest produced great games at this time but its the JPM that are most collectable

Mpu6 rubbish sank them. Now it all screen rubbish
Click to expand...

Yeah mpu5 seems a really nice system. Bulb out checking just like pinball 2000. and with a better test where it flashes the bulbs either side to show you the dead one.

Really nice easy to remove plug in program cards and main cpu boards.

High quality main power supply.

Interesting that jpm are more collectable as ace were ****ed they got better licences than them when both owned by sega. The sonic licence was a no brainer and went to jpm and ace employees were annoyed as they'd been banging on about it for ages.

When you say mpu6 rubbish, you mean bad games or bad hardware??
 
Now onto restoring some of the cabinet. Main problem with this is the bad rusty front bezel, so it was time to strip it down and inspect.

Not too hard to take apart as it engineered pretty well, though you have to be careful with the glasses

Dismantle picsIMG_0396.webpIMG_0397.webpIMG_0399.webpIMG_0400.webpIMG_0401.webpIMG_0405.webpIMG_0406.webpIMG_0407.webpIMG_0408.webpIMG_0409.webpIMG_0410.webpIMG_0434.webpIMG_0435.webpIMG_0436.webp

Now as we can see the front metal is pretty rusty and it's the usual thing, that i see on arcade cabinet all the time. the metal starts to rust underneath the powercoat and makes a right mess. However al is not lost. Yes the obvious thing is to just give it to a powder coated to redo, but my experience with bad condition pieces to start with has not been good with them. Fine for new parts that arent rusty, but if its in bad way you really need to spend some time to get it back to raw metal and smooth no pitting etc.

I find these days that hard wearing outdoor graffiti paints and etch/ainti corrosion primers produce better results.

I will post the results when its done and we can assess :)
 
My goto restoration method for rusty metal is :

1) acetone paint removal with stanley blade and soak
2) evaporust (24-48 hours)
3) wet and dry
4) primer (anti corrosion)
5) back to 3 and repeat until smooth
6) montana black graphiti spray paint (colour of choice)
7) wet & dry( 600)
8) back to 6 until happy

if gloss finish needed, continue otherwise stop

9) clear lacquer /vanish
10) very fine wet & dry (+1500)
11) polish

Copyright mypinballs 2025 all rights reserved, trademarked, patents pending, PPS does not own the rights to this... hahaahahhahaa
 
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