Preferred setup for home use

[phurst]

Hello all!

With the help of this site and its members, I've gotten my machine up and running (it just occurred to me I have no idea if it's a Game King or I-Game, don't know the difference). Now I need some advice on how best to set it up for home use. It's got an 044 board, and is running GK003372. I have a keychip 28 for it. It's currently set up for nickels. So, I guess some of the things I need to know are:

Is there a general consensus on how the games should be distributed across the various denominations? I believe I saw references to spreadsheets some people had made to help with setup.

My preference is to use tokens for this machine. Many of the other games in my game room use stainless pachislo tokens, so preferable this machine would as well. I put a token in the coin comparitor, and it successfully credits up when I deposit a token. Good first step. However, the hopper appears to be set up for nickels. It will not dispense my tokens. If I put nickels in the hopper instead, it works as expected. Do you have to change the whole hopper for it to work with other denominations?

Depositing a token results in a credit, but the token itself is directed into the slot with the hole in the bottom of the machine instead of into the hopper. Is there some way to have them go into the hopper instead?

What's the best way to set up the credit system? If I deposit a token, I get a $.05 credit. Fine, but considering some of the games are likely to end up costing several dollars a play, that's an awful lot of tokens to have to deposit for one or two plays of whatever games end up on those higher denomination pages.

As you may have gathered, my preference is for the machine to use tokens so people get that authentic experience of loading coins in a machine and cashing them out when they're done, I'm just not sure how best to accomplish this, or if it can be accomplished at all. The machine does have a bill accepter and a printer (both untested), so I guess TITO is a possibility, but I'd rather stick with tokens if possible.

Any advice anyone has to offer will be greatly appreciated, and will hopefully save me quite a bit of trial and error.

[phurst]

Ok, I guess maybe let's take this a question or two at a time. Hopper questions.

1) My hopper seems to be set up for nickels. Is there a way to change this, or does one need a whole different hopper? IME, anything set up to work with quarters will work with pachislo tokens, so how what would I do to make my hopper quarter friendly.

2) coins deposited in the machine are bypassing the hopper. How can I make them go to the hopper instead of out the hole in the bottom of the machine.

Thanks for any guidance anyone can provide.

[Tilt]

Yes, you can change it from nickels to quarters.  You'll need to change the shelf wheel inside the hopper and probably the pinwheel as too.  Contact Jim at Midwest slots, he may have the parts you need for it.  Then you'll have to readjust the coin knife too that rides on top of the shelf well and guides the coins through the optics. 

On the hopper there's brass screws with wires attached to them.  When the coins reach a level where it touches the screw it will energize a diverter on the coin mechanism that diverts the coin from the hopper to the overflow.  If your coins aren't at that level, but it's still doing it make sure the diverter isn't stuck in the wrong position. 

Probably nobody answered the other questions because it's really a personal thing and you'll get a bunch of different answers.  Do whatever makes you happy.  Myself, I use TITO, but just to put a bunch of credits on the machine at one time and leave them there.  Most of the Tickets I have are for $75k so I put one of those in and forget about adding credits for a long time.  I have my printers and hoppers disabled so when I cash out to key it or some other reason it just goes to handpay.  I have coin in/out in most of my machines, but rarely use them except for one nickel and quarter machine I use for a piggy bank.  That works for me, do what works for you.

[phurst]

Ok, thanks for the hopper info, very useful!

Do you have any recommended reading for TITO? Maybe that would be the easiest option. Signage on the machine indicates it takes bills or tickets, so is it just a matter of finding a ticket somewhere that just has loads of credits on it?

[Tilt]

There's a forum here for TITO you can browse through.  I like Brian Hinkley's TITO@home products.  Small, pretty cheap, and reliable.  Yes, you can use a $100 bill or so and cycle it through the validator a few times, print a ticket, then cycle the ticket through a few times, print another till you get where you want, then insert and print a few of them.  Kinda like the doubling penny thing.  1,2,4,8,16,32,64....