51 replies to this topic

[Bencrest]

Mentioned it to dad, he has offered to drive me in the Grand Picasso. Should easily fit, even with me in the passenger seat

Will give the food a shot Ricardo, do like breakfasts

Edited by Bencrest, 21 April 2013 - 09:13 PM.

[Bencrest]

It's in really good condition and the boss at the cafe/arcade really looks after his machines. Hope it can be of use to someone and the FME as well.

Noticed in the plinth some flyers which could be useful, also £25 decals.

For that money the motherboard is worth it, be shame to break it.

The reels move, it lights up and the yellow dot matrix display goes through the usual diagnostics.

Still upset I couldn't get in the car .

Ben try the breakfast while your'e there. Brilliant.

 

Called them again a moment ago to confirm it's all good, seems like a nice chap! Sounded like they have a sack barrow and are happy to help with moving it, but I'll take mine anyway just to be safe

 

Yeah, the C4 Grand Picasso is 7 seater, must admit it drives beautifully, not van-like at all, and even manages to look pretty sleek while it's at it. First time I took it out for a drive after being put on dad's insurance I was worried about the size, since I'd only learned in a Corsa and bought a Smart Car myself, but aside from parking the damn thing it was fine

 

I need a little more sleep I think, and told the seller I'll be there about 3pm, gives me a chance to get a few more hours sleep, and get the car cleared out!

 

Will update once I've got it back here and plugged in

[Bencrest]

Sat in the back of the car with it now, about 40 miles from home. Nice little diner and lovely staff helped me load it in

Doesn't look bad at all for £35, a reel fell out about a mile back but should be easy to refit as long as the brackets are good!

Nice artwork, I like dodgy fruits pulling faces

[Bencrest]

Fits in with the hatch shut, no rope or bungees needed, just means I have to sit behind the old man on the drive back

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Edited by Bencrest, 22 April 2013 - 03:16 PM.

[Guitar]

Wow, small world.

 

I know exactly where this came from, my old local. The machines that used to be in there are the inspiration for me starting Amber, namely blues boys (note this was 15 years ago).

 

The owner is a complete idiot, he banned me for winning £150 from a fiver, because I "knew too much". It was a £500 Rainbow RIches machine, so pretty unscamable.

[Bencrest]

Reel reseated, LED dot matrix mask reseated - it's got a lovely 3 colour LED matrix setup, looks very nice when playing but might be a problem for the emulator!

 

Seems to be fully working, only small problem (which isn't really a problem on a machine I paid £35 for!) is that the belly glass graphics are buggered. Looks like the fluorescent tube in there might be too bright, most of the artwork in the centre has burned / peeled leaving lots of gaps. Not really bothered though, won't notice when it's being played!!

 

Sounds are good, theme is good, yeah it's basic as hell and really just Crazy Fruits but then... £35!! Bargain!

 

Thanks for the heads-up Ricardo. Just putting it on £25 / 30p (photocopied decals) and will get a picture or two once it's fully up and running and had a clean

[Bencrest]

Mmm i hope i'm wrong here but i'm sure i have tried roms for this in the emu a couple of years back and the bfm led display just played up and wouldn't work correct as it uses red yellow and another color for the display,i could be wrong but it was when i was on the hunt for bfm's wild bunch sound roms.

 

Yeah, the display useds Red, Yellow and Green tri-colour LEDs. Quite nice to see in action, but obviously not emulated

[vectra666]

i,ve tried loading the roms ht6 gave me into a blank scorp4.dat and it errors causing mfme to shut down.

nice one ben to get it home safe and well

[Bencrest]

Looks like it'll be a non-runner in the current version of the emulator then

 

I used the 'spare' set of ROM chips in the bottom of the machine, and have it running £25 / 25p. Not even sure what percentage it is on, but I'm happy to leave it on it's arcade setting, hopefully something like 78>86% (don't want it too high!).

 

Cleaned the reels (they were *filthy*), cleaned the chrome (also pretty filthy!), and have it all set up and ready to go.

 

Honest opinion? It's a bit annoying, it says 'Viva Mexico!' every single spin! Some of the other effects are pretty good, and as far as I can tell it's basically Casino Crazy Fruits but with a tri-colour LED matrix. If you look at the picture of the machine, the 3 arrows at the top are in 3 different colours, while on the feature the text morphs between yellow and green, and sometimes the text is red. It's quite pretty actually!

 

I've attached a photo of the belly glass too so you can see the damage, it's visible as white 'speckles' covering most of the central part of the glass - I think the fluorescent tube might be too bright, will investigate it tomorrow. Need a beer soon though, and it's getting dark so I've finished. 

 

I also need to investigate why my Bar X is broken tomorrow, it's either the PSU... or the removable Z80 CPU... or the mainboard... 

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Edited by Bencrest, 22 April 2013 - 07:30 PM.

[andy-1]

Iv'e had the roms running but there is a problem with the LED which has been pointed out

[Bencrest]

The fluorescent tube is too bright. Shame about the the peeling graphics, but a with lower power tube it might be better. Knew it had the £25 JP decals, the roms a bonus. Nice surprise there. Shame it can't be emu'd at the present time. Good clean up and it's looking good.

 

Yeah, to be honest it's not that bad and you don't see when playing

 

The £25 JP decals are photocopies - luckily reasonable ones - and the £5 decals are actually £15 decals with a piece of black tape covering the '1' of '15' - I did try setting them on £15 but no luck, so it's sticking on £25 for now

 

Couple of bulbs gone from the top glass, but all the bottom bulbs, including the reels, are fine - which is a bonus, especially on a machine of this age and price!

 

Shame it can't be emulated. SLR camera batteries dead (forgot!) - put them on charge now and will get some decent photos tomorrow so that at least they are available if needed in the future! Was quite looking forward to doing a layout as well

Edited by Bencrest, 22 April 2013 - 07:47 PM.

[vectra666]

thats a shitter to put it mildly.just an idea but won't guitar's amber run this, or isn't it capable on this tech never mind you got a cheap machine and resources for later maybe thankyou both to you for getting it and to ricardo for alerting us on this

[vectra666]

nor in the west lol

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