How I built my own MFME machine and a little tale…
I’ve always had a soft spot for fruit machines, hence my presence on here for the last 16 years lol. My favourite type of machines being from the 90’s and the token era, for example; early MayGay machines, Gladiators, Coronation Street. JPM; Casino Crazy, Roller Coaster etc. Barcrest; Winner Takes All and of course ROAD HOG 
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The above list is not inclusive, I also like the 80’s machines such as Reel Crazy, quite a few where still around in my child hood which I used to play.
I personally think after the Jackpots became £10 the machines became a pile of poo and somewhat stopped playing them, there might have been the odd one but I can’t remember the names. These days I stay clear, especially at £1/£2 per spin, I’ve seen people put £4,000 in one machine, these machines are evil and should only be played in an emulator. Although I do have the odd fiver in my local, more so for the coffee and a catch up with the owner and I only play the 10p machines. Generally I do well off the fiver, often come out £30-40 up. If I lose well, it was a fiver and not £4,000.
My visit to the arcade somewhat relaxes me, call it a form of drug if you like.
In my early 20’s and the dawn of the new £500 machines I did have a dabble (like all of us), and genuinely did win masses amounts of money, £40 in one arcade and came out with nearly £5,000 (my wallet wouldn’t close). I bought a new car the next day, great times! And not such bad loses, i.e. a £200 loss. Being single and earning around £700 a week it didn’t really bother me losing, although I may have been lucky and won more than I lost. As mentioned, these days, I stay well clear (being married, having children, a house and cars etc. makes you think twice).
In my early 20’s I had a spare room in a house and I decided to fill it with early 90’s machines, the machines I had where; Andy Capp, Chase Invaders, Viva Las Vegas 6, Chase Invaders, Viva Espana, Luxor, Indiana Jones, Coronation Street, a 90’s clubber (club connect or something?) and a few modern machines. The machines I had I never paid more than £50 for and after a good tidy up looked mint! I had regular casino night’s J.
This was prior to any issues with battery leaks on boards (it obviously happened but I was unaware of it), the machines eventually got sold on and I wish I had have kept them.
Married life, kids happened and machines went on the back burner. Years go by and after setting up the house the way we wanted it, we decided to get a shed and a fair sized one ‘10ft by 10ft.’ Then the idea of owning another machine dawned on me and I recently bought a Hyper Viper for around £100 (I’d obviously had been in the wife’s good books as she didn’t bother), the machine fitted nicely in the shed and after a few casino nights the machine paid for itself. The machine had its issues, battery leakage and over the MECCA, FRUIT 58 helped me out with a board repair. Still to this day I can honestly say that he did a fantastic job and I would highly recommend him to anyone who needs a board repair (just slip some beer tokens in for him). I had the coin mech reprogrammed by BF74 from the MECCA too, what a fantastic job he did, again if you need a coin mech updating (the MARS126 type, he is your man). Thank you to the two of them once again, and not just for repairing things but for general chat, guidance and advice. Every little helps! No pun for Tesco there.
The BUG gets me again, I think, hmmm… I can get two more machines in here (what was I thinking?) I must have had loads of gold stars off the wife as she didn’t moan once. So… I sit back and wait for the machines to come along. A Cops N Robbers turns up for £25, off I trot to pick it up, a board repair and coin mech update later for around £30 and the machine runs great.
Then a friend sends me a picture of a Casino Crazy in a Salvation Army shop, £50 ono, off I pop to pick that up, the same repairs and it works great! Two machines for £75 excluding the repair cost, what a bargain, and all within 30 miles of home.
The novelty of the machines soon wears off and I discuss with the wife the possibility of selling them, she somewhat backs me up and says I will miss them when they have gone. Hmmm… but I’m not a child and it’s only a fruit machine, but I can escape to the shed, my mates enjoy them, they are great money boxes, what shall I do? I decide to sell them, this fella who owns a retro arcade down south offers me £700 for the two, I can’t refuse, I feel like I am robbing him but he is adamant he wants to own them. He sends me £350 that and £350 upon collection. Happy Days! Plus they will be enjoyed by punters down south.
She gets her spends, £50 and I keep the rest, lol, only joking, I give her £350 and keep the other ½.
I come across the thread of home built machines and I think what a great Idea, I can have 100+ machines on one machine. The bug gets me again, I delve straight in to it.
I look around for empty fruit machine cabinets, the thought of actually building my own is a bit daunting but doable. I come up with the idea of using an old quiz touch screen machine, £70 second hand (the screens probably worth that by itself). I strip that out and am just left with a working touch screen. The other parts I list on eBay for spares or repairs to get some cash back.
I obtain an i5 PC off eBay for £50 after discussing with Wizard what type of machine to get, I think that this is the best option and not a bad price. I strip out the contents of the new PC and install it in the quiz machine, I do this to save space as a quiz machine is smaller than a regular machine. Thinking about it now I could have probably left it in its original casing, but it’s not such a big deal. The machine now runs a bent copy of Windows 10 and is just a big touch screen PC, I load the emulator on it and some games and it works a treat.
The costs start mounting up now… I begin speaking with No1Stoney who has built his own machine and has wiring diagrams, brilliant I think, being a bit slow like I am and have only ever wired plugs, this guy is my saviour. He tells me what I need, first I source a MARS126 coin mech from MABBY2000 which has one that has been reprogrammed for £1 coins. I have bought a few things off MABBY2000 and have not had any issues so I recommend him for any parts he may has for sale.
The coin mech arrives, I wire this up as per the diagram supplied by No1Stoney and it works a treat! I will upload the wiring diagram, please pass the thanks on to him and not me. I have further talks with him and he informs me of the type of hoppers I need, I purchase 2 universal hoppers from eBay (£80) and they arrive, I follow the wiring diagrams sent to me again from No1Stoney and they work a treat. I had to purchase two pac drivers roughly £60 for the two, 1. A normal pac drive and 2. An always off one. I will supply links to these.
I speak with Wizard and he advises me of how the setup the pac-drive within the emulator, this is unchartered territory for me so a bit hit and miss (I got there in the end). Within the emulator under configuration it says pac drive, my set up was £1 coins on no. 16 and 20p coins on 15, because the machines you select triac hopper 1 for £1 and triac hopper for 20p (yours maybe different, you may use 10ps instead of 20ps) You basically have to tell the machine (we’ll use Bar X for example as its easier) what to pay out. Upon a win coming in it would pay out actual money, if it didn’t payout anything you would change the triac number until you got the correct one. This had to be done for each machine you loaded, some machines have a test mode which make it easier.
Maybe someone can do a how to on this?
After setting up around 65 games up to now everything works as it should, some machines I have had issues with, i.e. when you win it constantly paying out and emptying the hopper, I have put some on the back burner, maybe I’m doing it wrong?! But up to now the current games I have work a treat and I can only suggest those interested try it out. You will need patience, make sure you plan it, I planned it in my head and you do come across hurdles and have to do work a round’s.
My mate who is a computer programmer is writing some front end software for me as my machine will be fully touch screen, I will make this available when he has wrote it, he does it in his spare time so when it arrives is anyone’s guess. This will only be suitable for people with a fully touch screen system, I have asked him to leave the programme open so that it can modified. I chose touch screen as I wouldn’t have to wire buttons up and it somewhat reduced my costs.
I will upload the photos of my machine and wiring diagrams, please pass your thanks on to those people. If I have not mentioned someone in this thread my apologies (politely remind me, I’m getting old)
And a huge thank you to those who have helped me, along with the scene for being there and Wizard for making this possible.
Have I created the first front opening home-made fruit machine?
If at any stage you require help with making your own, feel free to drop me a PM or ask questions within this one.
I'll keep an eye on this 
