WMS BlueBird Slot Machines - Everything you ever wanted to know for beginners

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sideslope:
Hi all,

I have been a member for a couple of years over on the I-Game forum. Now I'm going to jump in to a BB1, or BB2 slot machine. BUT, BAMM, I have the same problem I had starting out with I-Game. There's not a thread that helps kick start people that are new to the platform.

So, probably like everyone in this group, you did what I did. I spent the entire night reading posts and posts and posts and I still don't know anything about these slot machines. Here is what I have gleaned so far:

BB1 is the first version and refers to the CPU

* Has a Blue board or a Green board (No idea which is newer or better)

BB1.5 - I have no idea what changed from BB1

BB2 - new cpu and a hard drive inside the cabinet

These machines take FLASH cards (big ones that I haven't seen before) to hold the games.

These machines need a specific O/S to go along with the game card (they have to be matched in order for it to work)

Some machines have dual screens (One top/One bottom) but it looks like both BB1 and BB2 can come this way.

TITO (Ticket In Ticket Out) - You can add a board to these machines so it will accept tickets back in so you can reduce your use of cash BUT there is no reference to a good place to buy these boards

You can write games to FLASH cards and OS's if you get a good (FLASH Writer/ROM burner/Something) but there is no reference or recommendations for such a unit

Also, there is no good info on where you can find the games/OS files to put on these FLASH cards.

The last thing I found out in my travels is that there is no game list around. I found some partial lists here and there but that's about it. They also weren't clear on if they worked with BB1, BB1.5, BB2.

There was also a post talking about firmware versions, some games have been updated to work on BB2 that were made for BB1, etc...

The big take away from this is that we need a sticky beginners guide. Something that explains the CPU's, differences, and answers most of these basic questions that I listed above. That way folks like me don't need to spend all night going through posts trying to piece together enough info to ruin our first machine we buy. So as I go through this painful process I will put it all in to a post like the title says above and then see if an admin can sticky it. We'll save a lot of questions and help many entering the slot hobby.

Here's the ask. If you have any information on the following, please post here or let me know and I'm going to start adding it to the top of this thread, and sometime soon hopefully it will be a sticky and life will be easier:

1. Write up between BB1, BB1.5 and BB2.
2. The type of flash cards used in these machines
3. OS/Game Matrix (what OS goes with which games)
4. TITO Information - where can you buy these boards, which machines they work with, installation videos/guides
5.Game list with the machine it will run on (BB1, BB2). As much as possible at least.
6. Resources to find the game files/OS files (as much as possible without breaking any rules/laws)
7. Flash Card Burner recommendations

Lastly just usable info about these machines like years BB1 was around, when BB2 came out or any other useful information you can think of.

Thanks for any help you provide.

rickhunter:
I think we had a thread like this on the old site, but not sure anymore. Here on a nutshell is what you requested.

1. BB1, BB1.5, BB2 and Blade are the cabinet types.
a. BB1 was the first bluebird cabinet, it came with single and dual screens. The single and dual screens have a main processing unit (MPU) called CPUNXT. There are two variants: Green older and was actively cooled, used a 700mhz pentium III processor. Blue is newer, is passively cooled (no cpu fan) and runs at 650Mhz (yes it is slower, but it doesn't make a lick of difference). Max memory is 512MB. The dual screen version has an additional cpu that controls the top monitor and has it's flash card inside it. The CPUNXT MPU will only drive 1 monitor.

b. BB1.5 was a cabinet used in the transition between BB1 and BB2. It is basically a dual screen BB1 (although the top screen is not controlled by an independent cpu like the original dual screen bb1), the top box is not as tall since they basically squeezed the second monitor on a standard 16" topbox, the original bb1 dual screens were about 4 inches taller. The big difference is that it has the MPU used on a BB2 called CPUNXT2. One of the benefits is that the top screen will display the topbox graphic on the monitor, thus eliminating the need for the glass kits. The CPUNXT2 (Pentium 4 1.5Ghz based, Max Memory 2GB) mpu will drive 2 monitors. Uses a Hard Drive or SSD to pre-load the game for faster load and gameplay.

c. BB2 is a full fledged bluebird 2 cabinet. Standard cabinets have dual 22 inch wide screens and use OLED button panels.

d. Blade is the last generation cabinet manufactured under the WMS name (now the company is called Scientific Games). It is an all new cabinet style with dual 23inch screens and uses the next generation MPU CPUNXT3.x (there are various versions, commonly 3.0, 3.2 and 3.5 the latter having a newer video card but all use a core i5 at 2.4ghz, Max memory 4GB). This MPU will drive 2 monitors. Uses SSD (DOM module) for faster load and gameplay.

All cabinet types have variants with a vertically mounted 32 inch screen and some with a "Meta" screen, basically 32 inch screen mounted horizontally. The latter two were usually for licensed games like monopoly, price is right, etc. Some don't have a top screen, instead having special top boxes with lights, etc. Again these were specialized cabinets to run a specific game. Some had both, the lightboxes and the screens, again for specialized games. All cabinet types also have stepper versions.

All these cabinets and MPU's use software stored on Compact Flash cards. These are the same cards used in digital cameras, although nowadays they are only used on higher end Dslr's as the point and shoots have moved to SD cards in general.

The OS/Game matrix is too extensive to post, but in a nutshell if you buy a game, it will detail the OS Family required to run it and then you get an OS that matches that.

BB1 games will ONLY run on CPUNXT MPU's
BB2 games will run on CPUNXT2 MPU's although some games will also run on CPUNXT MPU's depending on the game. Basically older BB2 games will run fine on BB1 cabinets with CPUNXT mpu's.
BB3 games will ONLY run on a CPUNXT3.x mpu.

Bettor Slots sells a TITO board which will work with any of the cabinets above. It will also work with IGT and Bally. The only difference is the serial cable used to interface the TITO board with the cabinet.

A discussion regarding sources for game files, copying games, etc is in violation of the TOS and is not tolerated. The manufacturers are always monitoring this forum and cease and desist letters have been received in prior years, and that is why it is now part of the TOS, we don't want NLG to get shut down.

sideslope:
What a great reply!

This is the kickstart I needed!

Thank you so much for posting all of this information. Definitely a Sticky post for new folks.

:)

Delma:
Well looky here. Wish I found this months ago......... :banghead:

Mortal_One:

How do you turn off the game counters, the clicking is crazy loud. For WMS BB2?

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