Mid 70's Arisocrat "Wonder Wheels" One Arm Bandit

[strayanbloke]

Hi there,


I've been on the hunt for a while now in relation to my first one arm bandit and it has finally been delivered. It's had a rough life on the outside, but the inside is in surprisingly good condition.


After a few hours or repair and cleaning, I've managed to get the coin acceptor, reels and end play working but haven't plugged it in to power just yet in fear of frying a board or three.


If anyone can shed some light on the model/year and if anyone has a manual floating around, I'd be forever grateful. I realise they may not be digitised, but I work with high speed scanners all day at work, so I'd be more than happy to scan and share online somewhere. 


I've searched the old forum and this one also, but because I can't register as a new user on the old forum, I can't see any download links or images. Catch 22!


Are there any instant "gotcha's" that I should be aware of?


This is a machine I've found online, the closest to mine, just a different game:







This one is mine:



























Cheers,


Craig.

[Op-Bell]

It's a Regal Mark 2, EPH (Electronic Payout Hopper) model, made between 1973 and 1976. Basically a mechanical slot of the Arcadian/Kingsway family with the tube and slides replaced by switch contacts and a hopper. I don't have a complete manual for it, unfortunately. I have the part that covers the mechanical slot mechanism but not the EPH version. You may find one online now you know what search terms to use.

[strayanbloke]

Thank you very much for the info.


I have plugged it in and found some blown caps and relays not working which I've replaced.


The machine lights up and the EPH pays out - sort of. The reels don't correspond to the payout amount and when I set the max prize of $100 (or 7777), the payout of $10 (AAA-) comes out instead. I'm honestly not sure whether this relates to a malfunctioning board or that someone has taken the reels apart at some point and put them back together incorrectly.


The issue is, I'm not sure what pin combination is the max prize...hence the manual.


I'll have a hunt around the interwebs.


Cheers for the info again.


Craig.

[Op-Bell]

.... when I set the max prize of $100 (or 7777), the payout of $10 (AAA-) comes out instead.

That may be correct! The max prize is 1000 coins, but very seldom does a machine pay more than 200 coins from its own hopper. Normally the top payouts are paid by an attendant. So it wouldn't surprise me if the jackpots all pay the same, the maximum of the "small" wins, and the balance is hand paid. On my all-mechanical Regal, the jackpots are printed on the glass ($20, $50) but the machine pays 27 coins regardless.

[strayanbloke]

Thanks for the reply.


Ah, OK that would make sense - I still think that there may be an issue though, as if I set the reels to be KKK- (should pay 25 coins) for arguments sake, nothing is paid, yet QKJQ pays 25 coins.


Is it just trial and error to get the reels aligned again or is there method in the madness and a cheap shortcut?


Cheers,


Craig.

[Op-Bell]

You align the reels by first lining up a payout on the disks to the right so that a finger drops in and goes through all four. Use the biggest paying symbol that isn't a scatter pay, it probably corresponds to the frontmost finger or the one next to it. Then either slide the strips round, or (better) loosen the clamps at the reel hubs and turn them into place. Chances are there's only one of those symbols on each reel so you may be done. To check, set up some other 4-reel winning combinations and check that one of the fingers goes right through all the disks. Check it for several different winners. If one or more of them doesn't let a finger through, you either have more than one of the JP symbols on a reel and picked the wrong one, or the symbol you chose didn't correspond with the finger. Either way there will not be very many combinations to check