mikej8

This is a really interesting discussion to me because these machines have always fascinated me.

The Gambler was a movie made for TV in 1974 starring Kenny Rogers (with a sequel in '80), so I can see why it didn't show up much in NZ/AU. I wonder why Phantom Pays doesn't make a US appearance.

I have one final question I hope you can answer. I know that the pokies are hard-coded to some payout percentage (so it can't be changed with the audit access or dip switches). I'm given to understand that the reels are displayed according to the results of a random-number generator, and each symbol on each reel is identified by a unique number. I gather also that the reels are fixed too - the symbol order is as though they were physical reels with a paper strip, right?

A random number should be just that, so the only way I can figure out how one would change payoff percentages without tampering with the random-number generator is to modify the reels in some way - take away a King and replace it with a 9, for example, or make sure a tree eye will never appear in the third column as a King or something like that. Am I close in my assumption? That question's been buggging me for quite a while, and I'm going to guess that you have the answer.

Thanks again,

Mike

That's pretty much what I thought, since ALL of the roms I have of No-US MKIV and/or V (I'm not sure where the distinction comes in) games behave the same way. It does seem bass-ackwards, but that's only because I'm used to it the other way around. Annyway, you guys invented them, so who am I co complain?

A couple things I noticed in my wanderings: In all cases, instructions to initialize these games included hitting "K" and "J" for Audit and Jackpot, but in fact, I've yet to find a game in which "J" is Jackpot. It's "L" in every case I've encountered. J is to collect a jackpot or collect a win. And the ZXC key strike didn't work for me until you suggested I remap all three to a single key (Z). And that's done with the Tab key, Input (this game), and simply assigning the key you want to the function(s).

The non-US games (I have only eforest to compare, and that's hardly a representative sample), pay about half what the US rom pays for the 5-of-a-kind winners. For example, five Kings pays 200 credits per coin on the US rom, where the non-US ones pay half that. I get dragons so rarely that I'm not sure what the pay list is (US is 5, 100, 1000, 2000 for 2, 3, 4 and 5 of a kind), but I think it's 5,100, 500 and 1000 in the non-US machines.

I live in Colorado, where gambling is licensed only in historic mining towns, specifically Cripple Creek, Blackhawk and Central City (all decaying gold mining towns). The old Pokies are enormously popular here, with banks of Enchanted Forest, Thunderheart and The Gambler (Kenny Rogers) machines (all variants of the expanding-wild tree-eyes), Wild Africa (variation of Black Tiger, with 4 rows), and one amazingly generous Halloweek-themed 5-line machine. All are CRT machines, with a few Enchanted Forest consoles sporting smaller screens and rather quicker play (you can enter a bet to interrupt the credit counting and play on). These have what sounds to me like 16-bit sound. Same music, just a bit more sophisticated than the older ones.

Unfortunately, their note-acceptors are aging, and they can be really balky with our new $20.00 or $10.00 bills, and the casinos are starting to retire them because of that. You'd think that replacing a note acceptor wouldn't be a big deal.

We have "Limited-stakes" gaming in Colorado. In this case, the maximum bet one can make anywhere in our casinos is $100. Up til a year or so ago, the limit was $5.00 so the most you could bet was 5 credits (nickels) on a 9-line machine. As a result, none of the slots feature Double Up or Gamble options. It'd be really easy to exceed $100 on a bet, so they're just not on the machines. The few MKVs I've seen in Vegas do have them, though.

The only rom I haven't been able to locate (I think), is K. G Bird.

Are you familiar with the Thunderheart (Air Force theme) and Gambler games? I'd never heard of Phantom Pays, but it's a nice alternative to Tree Eyes on occasion.

Thanks for all your help and information. These things have saved me several thousand bucks, assuming that I drove "up the hill" and played them as long and often as I've been playing these.

Mike

Sorry about the delay in responding.

Man, do you know your stuff, Heihachi_73! I remapped the ZXC keys all to Z and it worked like a champ. Thanks!

I hope you don't mind a few additional questions.

The US version of enchanted forest allows one to select the number of lines played with W - Y (upper) keys, and then, you can select the number of credits per line with S - H (lower keys), which also spins the reels. So, for example, you'd hit Y to specify 9 lines, then hit "F" for 3 credits per line and spin. That's the way the games play in our casinos.

In the NZ games, the upper keys select the cr/ln value, and the lower keys the number of lines and also spins the reels. Thus, you'd hit Y for 5 credits per line, then striking "F" sets 5 pay lines and spins the reels, so you're playing 25 credits when you were hoping for 45. Are you aware of any way to make these games behave like the US enchanted forest?

I tried re-mapping the keys but it didn't work at all.

I hope that was reasonably clear.

Second, is there a document somewhere of what the dip switches do? I wondered if there was a dip switch setting for the above.

Thanks again for your help. I'm enjoying fiddling around with these things, and learning a lot.

Mike

Hello All,

I'm brand new to this forum, and to the world of emulation in general.

I got into it by finding Enchanted Forest (my favorite pokie) and randomly slapping around in MAMeUI132.143u9. I finally got it working and am now trying, with no success, to get Autumn Moon, Phantom Pays and a few others, to play.

The Enchanted Forest I'm using is a US version (12xf52890). Its meter set 1 page consists of one column, and the 4th setup screen allows changing jackpot limits etc., as you all know.

All the others I've acquired are NZ versions which boot with the game screen with a "Tilt" and "Metering Error". The first Meter Set screen consists of two columns, with the ability to change spin and credit-count rates (which do appear to work). The instructions I've encountered tell me to press the ZXC keys simultaneously to set the RF/AMT value on the page. I've tried every way from Sunday to make this work, without success. The Audit button does not exit the audit screen, though F3 does, and the screen is returned to the game display with "Call Attendant - Metering Error" message.

So, can someone tell me (us) what the difference is between that one US game and all the NZ roms (the NZ Enchanted Forest behaves the same way as Autumn Moon et al.)? MAMEUI32 lists them as working, but I'm at the end of my rope. I'm spending WAY too much time fighting this.

You folks are vastly more knowledgeable than I, and any assist you could throw my way will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.