Two of a kind

[dishpan]

on the Heiwa you gotto move the sound board to with the cell, Ask dishpan the mess we had on that one.

It was kind of neat. I started playing my Thunderzone with a New Masterpiece sound board and couldn't figure out why the music didn't make sense, or why there were odd pauses. It didn't take Arbycoffee long to figure out what was going on and to correct the situation. The small sound board must be exchanged as well to match the cell.

The following cells and sound boards are regularly shuffled in and out of my Heiwa ThunderZone case, without any difficulty. Batman should work as well as it fits the same case.
- Double Wing
- Big Shooter
- Cold Wintery Wind Blows

I Cell swap my into my Sankyo Lumina and Sankyo Victory Cases all the time, but not crossed from one frame style to another. The cells will only fit the case series that it was designed for.

Cell swapping even works well with my older Taiyo cases (Gachinko, Penquin, Apollo, Giant 7 and Sore Janse).

One thing to keep in mind is that some cells have so much mechanics and electronics attached, that the main game rom board is attached separately to the rear of the machine and must also be matched and changed along with the cell.

Cell swapping may sound complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it, it literally only takes a minute or two to make the exchange. With 1 or 2 popular frames, or more, you can build a large library of cells without it taking up too much room and you will never be bored, or play any one game to death.

[azlew]

Hey Arby and Dishpan thankyou for your help on this. This really sounds like the way to go especially if you are as space limited as I am at the moment.

[slothappy144]

I thought TJ had some duplicate machines. TJ do you?

I sport bid a Bow wow pachinko, just got it yesterday, it is not really my thing. I like the red case it looks like the Garfield case. But I can't tell from the pictures. How would I go about finding out what cell or cells I can swap with the doggy theme one?
I would be willing to swap cells with someone who is a dog lover.

[dishpan]

The biggest problem with cell swapping isn't in figuring out what fits where. In my limited experience it is simply a matter of recognizing a manufacturer's case style, then simply looking at the various games released using that case. An auto manufacturer does the same thing only calling it a "platform" and then releasing a variety of cars built upon that platform.

Having said this, I would still be careful as a manufacturer could always alter something during a production cycle, or do something different as Heiwa did by locating the audio electrics outboard of the cell and onto the rear frame of the machine.

Instead, the most difficult thing is to locate a source of supply of the cells and perhaps the game's rom board (basis) which have been separated from the games frame and sold individually. Arbycoffee does this and cells are sold on Yahoo Japan Auctions (YJA). One alternative would be to buy 2 games from the same frame series, mount one into a cabinet and then remove and swap the other cell into the mounted game, keeping the second frame as spare parts.

No North American vendor that I've spoken to is aware of the practice of swapping cells and is interested in selling you just a cell. On the other hand, the Star Wars in a Red Bisty case or the Batman sold with cases of varying colors is a product of cell swapping. Although to be fair, the cell swapping was likely performed in Japan before the product was shipped.

[slothappy144]

I was looking online and the doggy one is the same as the pink panther, now to find a pink panther cell!!