Total newbie with a Wild Ones II machine in need of help !

[markoneswift]

Hey all - I recently acquired an Aristocrat Wild Ones II game unit which has issues. I have previous experience converting Jamma cabinets for MAME and such like, but no experience with poker machines.

My unit will light up when powered on, but I get no screen (CRT) display at all. I have taken out the hopper, in order to see the wiring for the power supply more clearly. The screen should still do something, even with the hopper pulled out, shouldn't it?\

All my lights work - belly, tower etc - but no sign of a display. Inside the cabinet, I can see buttons related to the hopper on a slot-in board. This board is in a white slot. There are red slots underneath this board with nothing plugged in - am I correct to assume that I'm missing the game board and / or video driver board?

If the game (logic?) board is missing, what are the chances of obtaining one? I did think about popping a low spec PC inside, a small LCD screen, and run emulated poker instead - would this be an option if the logic board is indeed missing?

Thanks in advance for any help / advice.

[markoneswift]

My manufacturer plate is missing, but I'm thinking I might have a 540 or a Mk 2.5 - would that sound about right?

[Heihachi_73]

Sounds right to me - if it's a small board it's a MK2.5, if it's a big board it's MK4 in MK2.5 compatibility mode. Does it use the same chips as Wild One e.g. 4VXEC5357? I'm assuming the program chips are generic NZ joker poker ones as they were also used in Guns & Roses (not the band!) but with different graphics chips.

[markoneswift]

It looks like this - see attached. I'm going to gut it and install MAME slot machine emulation I think, Far easier than tracking down what may or may not be missing!!

[Heihachi_73]

If you're planning on converting it to a MAME multigame you'll be 2 buttons short for most Aristocrat games, as they usually need 14 (or even 16) buttons rather than 12.