Learning about my first modern machines

[Toyguy]

I just acquired these two last night, my first modern machines:

TDZ_Small.jpg RanMa-Small.jpg

I'm working on Thunder Dragon Z first. It's a standard machine, where the RanMa is cyclic-modified. Both use the same frame so I believe I can swap the cels if I ever want to.
Here's the lower panel on the Dragon machine:

TZPanel_Small.jpg

My first questions :-)

What do the two small buttons on the panel do and what does the joystick-like thing in the middle do? I gather from reading here that it may have some volume control functionality at least.
What is the Chance button for?
There are three pockets labeled 01 and 02 - are those just payout pockets?
There is also a pair labeled Open. Is it those that allow access to the large center area?

I assume the smaller unlabeled pockets are just small payout pockets. I don't understand the center area at all yet. I don't see any "slot machine" type displays or anything at this point.

Any and all insights are more than welcome!

Dave

[Goobie777]

Hey Dave! I’ll be able to answer most of your questions.

those two buttons on the side are meant for parlor use. When you out 1,000 yen into the machine, a digital display comes up and when you push the one on the left, balls dispense and money is withdrawn from the total on the digital display. Once it hits 0 and you want more balls, you must insert more money! The right hand side button lets you move your money that is on the digital counter to a different machine. After pressing it, you get a card and can put it in a different machine and continue buying balls to play with. you don’t have to worry about this as it’s not not hooked up for parlor play. The rig

chance button changes the music on both games I believe. Definitely on the second game as I’ve played it in parlors, but I’m not sure for thunder dragon.

those 1 and 2 pockets are key in game play. 1 makes the wings to the center area open 1 time and 2 makes them open 2 times. They usually open for less than a second. If the ball makes its way to the V hole, they will keep opening and closing to award payout balls for 3, 7, or 16 rounds. Getting the ball in the V for the bonus rounds always counts as round number 1, so you actually only get 2, 6, or 15 rounds. Each round let’s 10 balls into the center area. (If you get V again during a bonus it doesn’t do anything)

if the balls go all the way to the bottom, they are considered “out” and you loose them.

1 and 2 also pay 3 or 5 balls (I can’t remember) and the center area pays 10 for each ball that enters.

your machine isn’t a slot type pachinko. It’s called a hanemono. I’ve linked you to a buddy of mine’s video so you can see gameplay

https://youtu.be/bOTzpyJ2w2Q this is your game

https://youtu.be/BPjzdxgneXw here is a video of mine. This is a slot machine style pachinko. it shows me using the ball rent buttons, similar to what is in your game and every modern pachinko

let t me know if you have any more questions!


also, if you want a good slot machine themed pachinko, get a fever queen. It will remind you of a 3 reel game at a casino and has some awesome music, gameplay, and light shows! I believe it fits in your frame. Just make sure you get the right version

[Goobie777]

Here is a link to a video of fever queen. https://youtu.be/Rtzm9PAm-nI

[Drunkenclam]

Daverob developed a CR dongle that activates the 2 front buttons and pays you 25 balls for each press. These get taken from the back tank.
These are a must add on for modern machines.
Especially if you intend to put them in a cabinet.

[Toyguy]

Great info - thanks gents. I'll be cabinet mounting these so I'll be picking up one of those dongles. I'd really like the Thunder Dragon to play as much like it would in a parlor as I can possibly make it.

So the big joystick thing, on these games, what does that do? Is there anything on the playfield that tells you when to use it? Or maybe it's for the other styles of games?

On the Ranma machine, does the male character actually do anything besides move around? The female character occasionally grabs a ball and drops it at the back of the center feature, where it has a chance to make the V hole. On the male side, it appears that balls just come flying out from the side of the feature but they always drain without making it to V hole. I see a screw-looking mechanism behind him turning but I never see any balls in it.

When they do the cyclic mods, are those on the frame or the cel? Could I put RanMa in the TD frame and play it as a normal game?

Thanks again!

[Goobie777]

Sometimes they pass the male character and go up the spiral. There is a hole right above the V hohe that moves and has a chance to drop in the ball directly in V. Its a higher chance vs going down the girl’s path.

[Toyguy]

Thanks Goobie! I did finally see some balls pass by the male character tonight. No V scores though - kept missing it

Based on some other posts, I tried using the joystick to change volume. Didn't seem to do anything and if there's another use for it in either game, I don't see it.

The chance button seems to select one character or the other on RanMa and lights red for female and blue for male. Not sure if that does anything game-wise beyond maybe changing the music as you mentioned. Haven't noticed any effect on Thunder Dragon from pressing it.

I got the battle counter hooked up, I think correctly, but I'm not sure how to tell really. One number counts up everytime I hit the 1 or 2 pockets. Another one counts up if I hit a V, but I don't see much happening on the odds display, which I think it supposed to be the third data element. I'm going to have to get that unit's screens and text translated.

When these things are installed in the parlors, are they installed level or do they lean back slightly? I seem to see lots of balls looking like they're falling off the front of the pins.

Dave

[Goobie777]

Usually machines are level, otherwise, it would lead to sometimes scoring too many V holes on a hanemono. I once found a rizin man that was leaning a little. That caused most of the balls that made it to the 3rd clune to hit the V hole. So yes mostly level.

your little stat thing part of the battle counter is probably not rising much because it usually goes up one for every 100 games lost in a row. Example 3 bars is 300 losses. Usually your machines don’t take more than 20 to hit.

[PekoJPF]

Post a picture of your counter all switched on, and I can get to work translating for you

[Toyguy]

Usually machines are level, otherwise, it would lead to sometimes scoring too many V holes on a hanemono.

Thanks Goobie. Does the player have any control over the 2 characters in the center feature or is that all handled by the game itself? I can't see any way to control them, and the joystick seems not to make any difference. I'd sure like to get the male character moving out of the way more often but I'm guessing he lets the balls exit into the drain on purpose :-)

[lotsoballs]

Thanks Goobie. Does the player have any control over the 2 characters in the center feature or is that all handled by the game itself? I can't see any way to control them, and the joystick seems not to make any difference. I'd sure like to get the male character moving out of the way more often but I'm guessing he lets the balls exit into the drain on purpose :-)

No, you have no control of either figure. It’s all up to luck if they allow your ball to proceed through the center feature toward the V hole.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Toyguy]

Post a picture of your counter all switched on, and I can get to work translating for you

That would be awesomely helpful and nice of you! Here's what I am most in need of to start

Counter1.JPG
Sorry for the rotation - can't seem to unrotate it. Anyway, I'd love to know what the two buttons say.

Counter2.JPG
On this one above what does the yellow bar say?

Counter3.JPG

This one is what the yellow bar changes to every couple seconds. And finally,

Counter4.JPG

Upon pressing the button on the right, I get the display above.

Outside of that, any of the other small bits of text you can make out would also be very helpful. Thanks again PekoJPF!

[PekoJPF]

Lets start with the two rectangular buttons.
データ This will give you a more comprehensive look at the machine stats over the past few days. Not to be confused with 履歴 which displays information about the past BONUSES.
サービス This will call the attendant over in case there's a problem with the machine or you need another ball tray.

Second picture. Thats a cool yellow bar! Not seen a counter like it but it's a nice idea.
Both left and right sides display different information, and you use the two circular buttons to scroll back into the past and back to present, to check earlier results.

It seems your yellow bar and displays are the wrong way round, so press the square button to 'flip' them.

Left hand side helps you look at the amount of games taken for the Bonus to come in. This is your 大当たり履歴. Use the circular buttons to scroll back, and you'll be able to see how long it took in the past (displayed on the big orange 7-seg). This has more influence on players looking for a video pachi to play, as hanemonos really are a shot in the dark.

Right hand side shows the Win history by day. This is your 日前履歴. Like you say, the display changes every 2 seconds. In Picture 2, it's showing the total spins done and the overall daily average. 85 spins total, and a 1/28 average. Scrolling through should also give you the total spins on the big 7-seg at the top.

Picture 3 shows the total Bonuses achieved on the day so far (3, so fits well into our total and average) and also how many bonuses were in Kakuhen 確変 mode. As Thunder Dragon has no Kakuhen, you need not worry about this and it should stay at zero.
Sometimes, on your first scroll, it'll display the current record #1 number of Bonuses, before going onto the past results.

Last picture I am not 100% on. Might be a graph of ball total, or a long win history. Will make more sense after more play has gone through.

Others!
Big red 7-segs show the amount of Bonuses won today, down to 2 days ago. You have 3 Bonuses today, and 0 before that.
Right hand side orange 7-segs show the number of Bonuses in Kakuhen mode. As before Hanemono has no kakuhen.
Middle orange 7-seg is the current spin count. When you get a Bonus, it'll reset to zero. Also displays previous spin counts for a day's total, or between Bonuses.

[Toyguy]

サービス This will call the attendant over in case there's a problem with the machine or you need another ball tray.

It seems your yellow bar and displays are the wrong way round, so press the square button to 'flip' them.

Thanks so much, that was extremely helpful. I can now see how the data works. It does seem to not be really as useful on this style of machine as with one that "spins".

The rectangular button to the right doesn't seem to do much of anything. This unit has a separate CALL button, actually labeled that way, under the left bank of lights which are out of the picture on both sides of the display. Pressing that CALL button starts the lights flashing and puts CALL onto the display. The rectangular button doesn't do that.

The middle square button also did not seem to flip the displays on the yellow bar, but maybe there's more to it than just pressing the button. Tomorrow I'll try and capture a video of the device and post it. At least now I can see and understand the Jackpots, hits to the 1 and 2 pockets and the cumulative count of balls into the feature during the jackpot rounds. That makes this cyclic much more interesting to play.