My first Pachislo exeperience

[ruckage]

Hi everyone.

I took delivery of my 2 Pachislos yesterday so I am now the proud owner of a 'Neo Pharaoh Zetz 'and a 'Shin Mogu mogu'. Now firstly I have to say I love both the machines and I'm sure I'll get many hours of entertainment from them. Now I'm going to vent a little as not everything went according to plan... (get ready for a long post )

I fired up the Zetz first as it happened to be the first I opened and first impressions were stunning, the el vision was much better than I imagined (and I imagined it was damned good ). The next thing I noticed was the volume and boy was it loud, but no problem I thought as the seller said they would fit volume controls. I hunted high and low but couldn't find the volume control that was supposedly going to be installed, I did find the onboard volume though so thought that I would just use that for now and contact the seller later to find out where it was (sure that I had just missed it.) The low setting wasn't too bad - that is until you hit the credit out button and the noise is far beyond loud, I'm sure other zetz owners will testify to this .

Next I checked the Shin Mogu, Again I was at first impressed but then noticed a few flaws. Now I wasn't expecting perfection as I know these are second hand but I wasn't expecting a badly corroded speed loader which was almost unuasble (one coin at a time and a good push needed) a messed up Max bid button and again a missing volume control. This machine also has onboard volume which is okay but has fixed settings and unfortunately a constant hiss (I believe it's common with Net machine, I've seen Super Black jack mentioned before.) I've also heard that with a volume control much of this hiss can be eliminated.

I contacted the seller explaining the problems and in particular the Volume controls and guess what - they didn't fit them because they had onboard sound - even though they had said before I paid for the machines that they would fit volume controls. Now I feel really annoyed about that and the other problems I had but the seller apparently doesn't care, in fact when I said that I felt I had been given a bit of a raw deal I just got told rather rudely that I was insulting them with a list of their expenses, no apology and no attempt to rectify the problems. I even replied and stated it wasn't my intention to insult (not that I should need to) and asked for advice on how to sort out the corrosion etc but no help offered. Later they offered a refund as the only thing they would do but at my expense as I would have to cover postage both ways which would have left me out of pocket by £120, but I never wanted or asked for a refund anyway, at least they offered I suppose.

I've managed to clean up the corrosion on the speedloader quite a bit, I removed it from the machine (that was an adventure as I had no idea what I was doing) and filed away the worst of it before giving it a polish, it's not perfect but it works fairly well now. I also dimantled the max bet button, it turned out it was full of gunk which was what made it look so bad. So now I'm happy with the condition of the shin Mogu. I can't help feeling though that it shouldn't have been left to me to sort out. And I still have no volume controls for which I can't help feeling a bit cheated. The seller knocked off about £25 because I bought 2 machines and 1000 tokens but as the volume controls weren't fitted I didn't really save anything, if I buy the controls from ebay they will cost £10 each plus shipping and I then have to fit them which I would have no idea how to do. I know they have onboard volume but it's not the point, and besides it would be worth having to make this hiss on the mogu less noticeable and to stop the Zetz screaming at me quite so loudly if I credit out - I just know that when my nephews visit that button will be like a magnet, prepare for some upset neighbours.

Okay, i've finished venting now. I do absolutely love the machines despite the problems and lackluster aftersales support. I haven't had chance to play them much yet but have had bonusses on each, I love the big bonus on Shin Mogu - it sings , it made me smile. I will get some videos of both at a later date, particularly the shin mogu as there seems to be very little info about that machine. For now, heres a picture of my 2 new babies . Bye for now.

[luckydog]

you can clean the outside token slot with a disposalbe ladies cardboard nail file.

no dissassemby needed

[ruckage]

Thanks, it's already done and I did use one of those files (emery board). I removed the slot though as I didn't think it would be good for all the bits to just fall into the mechanism. It was full of grease and dirt as well so needed a good clean anyway.

[TikiTim]

Not sure if RADIO SHACK is "international"...
but you can find a variety of volume controls there.
It's as simple as splicing the wires & soldering the control (sometimes with an extra length of wiring) in between.

Although I found my Pharoah Zets to be rather reasonable in volume & had no need to install, I have installed volume controls on others.

[ruckage]

Not sure if RADIO SHACK is "international"...
but you can find a variety of volume controls there.
It's as simple as splicing the wires & soldering the control (sometimes with an extra length of wiring) in between.

Although I found my Pharoah Zets to be rather reasonable in volume & had no need to install, I have installed volume controls on others.

Thanks for the advice, I will maybe have a go then. The sound level isn't bad on Zetz on low and is of suerb quality. If it controlled all the sounds I would be happy as it is but the volume is at max when cashing out regardless of the volume setting. The other alternative I suppose is to disconnect the credit out button but I might want use it sometimes. The volume on Mogu is mostly ok, it could be a little quieter though especially on the bonus and it would be nice to reduce the hiss if possible as that really is quite annoyingly loud. I found a post on reducing hiss for Super Blackjack so I will look into that as I think it will apply to this machine also.

[ruckage]

I've uploaded a couple of videos of 'Neo pharaoh zetz' to youtube. The video quality isn't brilliant but not too bad, my camera isn't particularly good for video.

Attract mode: YouTube - Neo Pharaoh Zetz attract mode
Gameplay Footage: YouTube - Neo Pharaoh Zetz gameplay 1

I'll try and get a video of the funky bonus mode on Shin Mogu Mogu later, the music is brilliant .

[ruckage]

Shin Mogu mogu, Big Bonus YouTube - Shin Mogu Mogu Pachislo - Big bonus

[derek1960]

Volume controlers from maplin's 70p each they are the same one's that came fitted in one of my machines for 10 pounds. Part number JM71N ( Miniature Potentiometers ) easy to fit .
I will send some pics as soon as i can.
Derek.

[ruckage]

Thanks very much Derek, that's really helpful. I can definately stretch to 70p each.