WMS Dotmation Game Change Docs & How To

[knagl]

Moderator's note: this is a re-post from the old NLG forum, created by member StatFreak.  Big thanks to StatFreak for creating this tutorial and providing the attached documentation.

I thought it might be a good idea to get all of the information that one needs to change a dotmation game in one place.

Like all games, you will need the top glass, the belly glass, possibly a reel glass (if changing between 1-line and 5-line games). You might also need the plastic insert that goes over the DBV if the max number of coins played changes. You will also need the reel strips.

The challenge with the Dotmation games is in changing out the software.

I have attached three files that I refer to the most often. I cut the game change and the sound jumper files out of the main manual so that they would be easy to reference.

The chips that are needed to swap a game are:

1. A set/clear chip of a specific denomination. (can be purchased from our vendors)

2. Chips for the game:
On the main board. This is the bottom board in the card cage:
XU-2
XU-3
and the sound chips:
XU-17
XU-18
XU-30
XU-31
These can be either 4MB or 8MB depending on the game. A jumper must be set correctly depending on the size.

On the Dotmation board in the top box:
DOT-XU-3  (do not confuse this chip with the main XU-3 above: they are different.)
DOT-XU-4
(Depending on the size of the Dotmation EPROMs, the jumpers next to the two Dotmation chips may also need to be changed.  If you get a checksum error on the Dotmation screen after a game change, it's likely that you need to move the jumpers for each of XU3 and XU4 in the Dotmation box.)


There can be issues with the jurisdiction of the game chip. The jurisdiction is set by jumper wires that are soldered in place. The jumpers are located on the top board in the card cage. It is best to find out the correct jurisdiction from the seller or get the original boards that they were working in along with the chips. This prevents the need to redo your board every time you change games since you can simply swap the entire board (or boards). Remember that the jurisdiction board is not the same board that the chips plug into. The other option is to make sure that all of your games use the same jurisdiction (such as the standard default of all jumpers being empty). Choosing one of these options will make your swaps much easier.

If anyone has specific documents in addition to these that can help with a game change, please post them. I will try to get a set of pictures posted unless someone beats me to it..