Gladiator

[cmk8895]

Ok, I just can't hardly stand it. My first modern pachinko (the Gladiator discussed last week) is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I'm already steeling myself for damage to the glass, though it was packed by one of those professional shipping companies, so we'll see....

Anyway, since I've never been around a modern one.... Since these have speakers are they really loud like pachislos? Will I need to add a volume control? Is there one built into this model?

I know I could just wait and see, but I'm FAR too excited to just wait for the machine.

cmk

[Tony Junior]

My Fever Big Powerful doesn't need volume controls, but the PumpKinng sure does!

I guess it's kinda like Pachislos, some need 'em, some don't.

Big help, huh? :burnout:

[arbycoffee]

Remember to put on depends before you open the box, just in case you get over excited. You know like a new puppie

[luckydog]

do you have a power strip for your new toy?

read the generic instructions before you play it.

check your connections.

put some balls in and enjoy

if you wind up with balls all over the floor, don't feel bad, we have all done that at one time.

[arbycoffee]

or like me many times, get a big magnut on a stick. It will save on your back picking up balls.

[cmk8895]

My favorite store, Harbor Frieght Tools, has 'professional grade' big magnets on sticks. It's like a foot long, inch wide magnet on a handle that you use to clean up all the screws and stuff off the garage floor. About $3 if I recall. Maybe I'll have to pick one up. After all, the tumbler is working so nicely from there.

HEY, I may be able to tumble my new balls!

That sounds kinda painful doesn't it? lol

cmk

[Lazarus]

Just do what I do. Put a big hanging basket under the machine so when your two year old opened up the ball return door it will catch them for you! Just don't use a succulent plant. The plant will pretty much be toast!

[cmk8895]

It has arrived!!! I would have posted about the Gladiator last night, but I was busy playing.

First off, shipping. It came UPS in a BIG box. I was terrified when he threw the box on the porch and the corner was all crunched and stuff was falling out (peanuts! ick!). I open the box to a welcoming spray of pachinko balls mixed with stryofoam peanuts. Turns out that 800 pachinko balls were put into an off brand ziploc bag and thrown in the box with the peanuts. Obviously it came open. That was an experience. Imagine a box twice the size of the pachinko machine in each direction, filled with peanuts with pachinko balls mixed in. Luckily a few shakes and the balls headed right toward the bottom, but it was still annoying to go through all those peanuts to dig out the balls.

And then there's the machine.... I have never seen peanuts stuffed into so many places. And DEEP in the ball tracks. Another 30min got all of them out, but I still get little styrofoam pieces during play sometimes.

I was worried that the glass would be broken. No worries, there is no glass. Just a single piece of lexan. I'm assuming that the slot in front of the plexi is for a 'real' piece of glass?

On to the setup. I've never seen such a short cord on something. It passes away from the transformer by a whopping 3". I can barely get a power strip close enough to plug the thing in. But I managed. Balls kept falling out until I figured out the release mechanism. It works exactly backwards from the flip down type on the vintage machines, so I was terribly confused for a while.

Game play is odd. I've never seen so many pachinko balls on the playfield at one. It actually got kinda boring quick. Turn the knob to a good spot and watch balls go all over the place and wait for something good to happen. Somebody has bent the hell out of some of these nails, so the pockets were VERY easy to hit.

Now for the questions for the other Gladiator owners.... On the playfield around the upper left corner of the reels is a red lens with two 7's and two x's. It's less than an inch diameter. During play it seems that the four LEDs (one behind each character) just flash back and forth. Does this mean something?

On the right upper corner is another lens, but no characters. The four LEDs in there seem to rack up a count of how many times you pass through a certain set of gates on the playfield. Every once in a blue moon the start gate will open wider and one of those LEDs will go out. However, there are so many balls flying around the playfield that those LEDs are pretty much always on.

There is yet another set of 4 LEDs across the area under the reels. This keeps track of how many start gate balls you have that haven't had their reel spin yet. I quickly learned that when all four are lit and another ball goes through the start gate, you just get your 5 ball payout, not another reel spin. That kinda sucked.

So far the lights baffle me. I found the 'balls out' light, but I haven't figured out what the other lights mean yet. (i.e., when they come on)

I also haven't hit a bonus round yet. The computer lady says 'reach' all the time and the lights are going nuts, but I never get the appropriate combination on the reels. So I may have more questions on that later.

Thanks for everyone's help leading up to my purchase and reading this extremely long post. But you didn't have anything else to do anyway since you're here instead of playing with your pachis like you should be.

cmk

[luckydog]

you would think a porfessional packing company would have put a bag over the machine and taped the bag of balls up better.

glad it arrived safely and in one piece.

a lot of the machines only come with one piece of glass.

bonus rounds don't come very often, but when they do they are a lot of fun and work trying to keep up with the ball supply.

[zoneacgamer]

/quote on

On the playfield around the upper left corner of the reels is a red lens with two 7's and two x's. It's less than an inch diameter. During play it seems that the four LEDs (one behind each character) just flash back and forth. Does this mean something?


/quote off

I have a similar type display on my Yellow Cab, arby told me this means a ball is dropping in the secret chamber.....is there a spot on the playboard where balls can (not sure how to put this) "spin around" a chute, and it eventually drops into a chute? if so like mine there is a wheel behind chute, after ball drops the numbers will stop flashing. Not sure which I need to win something but it is part of the ball dropping somewhere I think.

//sheesh that was prolly no help at all, I'm just guessing.

but, I thinking based on arby's answer to me about that there is a ball dropping somewhere

[photos8484]

I'm still in need of tearing mine apart (there are some balls jammed somewhere & I can still hear that 'whirrr- pause-whirr-pause' sound that I mentioned when I first got my machine). I need to use the procedure posted elsewhere under " removing the cell" to take it all apart, clean it all & put it all back together. So I haven't played it in several months. Hopefully, over the next week or two, I'll have some time to try to fix mine. Till then, I can't really comment on the play, but what little I did play, I enjoyed, especially when the lights flashed, the music crashed, the colors flashed & changed & the reels lined up.

[cmk8895]

photos: I now understand the 'whir/pause/whir/pause' you mention. Hopefully this isn't a stupid answer....

It is the little motors that control balls dropping for payout. I've noticed after I shoot a few hundred, winning bunches of payouts, then stop and let the machine go quiet, I can hear the same thing. It always is that one of the ball tracks that pays the 5 ball payouts is out of balls. The motor is running just in case more have been added. Now, I don't know why but the 'out of balls' light never comes on during this time.

So maybe it's something like that? If you have bunches of balls in the upper hopper, then maybe there is one stuck along the path leading down to the motors. If you look closely you can see through the plastic at most places to see if all three ball tracks from the hopper have balls in them.

If you want to chat more about this just let me know. I'm all about fixing problems like this.

cmk

[Tazman]

Are both Reward Hopper motors suppose to run. The top one is disabled it looks like. the one right below it is the Main Ball motor at it runs every 3 seconds on mine.

I don't see any balls stuck anywhere and I opened the Main Ball motor and nothing stuck inside. I still can't get payouts on Fever or anything else.

[owennewton]

I do know this much, the other motor is only used by the ball loan system on this frame so in a home setting it will not run unless you have a daverob dongle on it.

[Tazman]

Well thanks. I also got it working great now. It just needed to catch up on all the payouts.

It is now paying out on all gates, Fevers, etc.

Now I need to buy about 1000 new balls to go with the 600 it came with.

I'll keep looking for other Pachinkos/Pachislos for sale now... hahaa

[Drunkenclam]

Glad its all working now. Balls are always the key Either not enough or too many in the wrong play