Dotmation Game Change

[TVB2868]

Ok, I've done a game change before and everything went fine, UNTIL this time. I'm installing a Winning Streak kit and I'm getting a jurisdiction tilt code. First question: I know I have to solder a jumper onto the corresponding terminals on the board, but, is there a way to know what jurisdiction the chips need to see or is it a trial and error excercise? Second question: If you had access to an eprom programmer is there a way to "adjust" the jurisdiction needed in the chips or is this programmed in the software and can't be edited?
PS. I'm not an electronics guy so be gentle.

[rickhunter]

You typically cannot change anything on the chips, they will fail the checksum validation that happens as the game boots, otherwise you'd have all kinds of potential issues with cheating and whatnot in the casinos.  I've never changed a dotmation kit, but if you post what you have, others might be able to tell you what jurisdiction and which way to set the jumpers.

[rokgpsman]

Ok, I've done a game change before and everything went fine, UNTIL this time. I'm installing a Winning Streak kit and I'm getting a jurisdiction tilt code. First question: I know I have to solder a jumper onto the corresponding terminals on the board, but, is there a way to know what jurisdiction the chips need to see or is it a trial and error excercise? Second question: If you had access to an eprom programmer is there a way to "adjust" the jurisdiction needed in the chips or is this programmed in the software and can't be edited?
PS. I'm not an electronics guy so be gentle.

I think below is what's going on for this question but if anyone sees something wrong or something that needs to be expanded please post your comment.

It sounds like the new game software you installed was for a different jurisdiction than the previous game software you were using, so the I/O board jurisdiction straps (jumpers) now don't match. WMS made the same game software available to a variety of gaming jurisdictions and some of them required minor changes to how the game played so each version of the game had a jurisdiction check when running. So if your previous game that ran fine was for a jurisdiction such as Nevada and the new game software you just installed was created for the Missouri jurisdiction then the I/O board jumpers do not match and you get the error. This was covered pretty well a few years ago on the old NLG site, Clay, StatFreak and others posted a lot of good info about it. Some people even installed a dipswitch in place of the jumpers so they could change the jurisdiction easier than soldering or removing a jumper wire. I've seen a jurisdiction chart that Williams used, some of the locations were Nevada, New Jersey, Missouri, France, and a basic Standard/generic jurisdiction, plus several more. Even though there are 8 jumper positions giving up to 256 different jurisdiction codes only jumper positions 5-8 were used so that limits the number of jurisdictions to 16. If you visit the old NLG site and can search keyword "jurisdiction",  then read the threads pertaining to Williams you'll see lots of info about this.

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=805.msg5553#msg5553

As you alluded to there is a row of jumper positions on the I/O card that set what jurisdiction the machine is set for. These jumpers are read by the cpu board on powerup and have to match what the game software expects. These jumpers are a set of 8 positions that can have a jumper wire or they can be empty, this sets the 8 bit code for the jurisdiction. The chart I have seen shows that jumpers 1-4 are not used. Jumper positions 5-8 either have a jumper wire connected or they are empty (open) and this forms the code for a particular jurisdiction. These jurisdiction jumpers are located on the I/O board a little behind the red FAIL LED near the corner handle.

I believe there is a way thru the game diagnostics to display the jurisdiction that the software expects. If you can enter the game diagnostics and get to the Series 6 step the machine will display the jurisdiction that the game software uses. Then you can set the jumpers on the I/O board to match. At this diagnostic step the jurisdiction code for the installed software chips is shown on the Credit Display and the Win Meter Display.

If you are not familiar with the WMS dotmation diagnostics you may want to get the Service & Owners Manual and take a look starting at page 2-18. The manual is in the library on the old NLG site but I've heard that not everyone can access it. I'll attach a copy below, it should have all the details for you to follow, take a look at pages 2-18 thru 2-22 in Section 1.

Alternately you could install the jurisdiction jumper combinations one at a time until you got one that didn't give the error, but that would be cumbersome and take time, unless you had a dipswitch installed and could easily flip them on and off.

Did the game software eproms you installed have a label on them that tells you what jurisdiction it is for? Or maybe the person you got them from can tell you.

It is theoretically possible to alter the game software chips to change the jurisdiction to one that you prefer to avoid having to change the I/O board jumpers each time you make a game change, but you'd have to know were in the software code this jurisdiction code number is stored, then change it and recalculate the new checksum for the eprom. Then that new checksum would have to be stored in place of the old checksum so the machine would power up without an error. To do this someone would need a very good understanding of the software code.

[TVB2868]

Rokgpsman,
Thank you for all the info. I do have the manual you attached, but, thanks anyway. I contacted the seller to see if he knew the jurisdiction, but didn't get a response. I did end up going through all the jumper settings in the manual and I still could not get it to work. After a little while scratching my head and looking through some posts on the old site it hit me! They do not list the Nevada jumper settings in the manual I have and I didn't see them in the manual you attached either!!!! Maybe I'm just missing it, but guess what jurisdiction my kit ended up being? Nevada!!


Soooo, I set the I/O for Nevada and I did not get the bad jurr message on the led's any longer. I get the normal boot up single bong and the "dot init" comes up on the led's and the Williams symbol comes up on the dotmation screen just like in a normal boot up sequence. Then, just about when the reels would normally spin to signify the end of the boot up sequence mine do not. I get a message on the leds that reads "dot FAni    0"and the dotmation screen reads "Bad Frame Anim Index!     0x001B" Looks like I need more help.

Just when I thought I had it, now this, whatever this is!! Boy, why do we like these things so much when you know they're gonna aggravate you like this some day?

[rokgpsman]

Nice job, good that you figured out the jurisdiction jumper problem. It looks like the manual omitted Nevada jumper settings for some crazy reason. The old NLG website is a treasure of info. What I/O board jumpers did it turn out to be for Nevada jurisdiction?

Since the machine including the dotmation display was working fine before you did the game change that just about has to mean that there is something wrong related to the game change process, like the way the new eproms are plugged into the dotmation controller board or cpu board or maybe a jumper that needs to be moved due to a different type of eprom such as 4mb vs 8mb or something like that??  Got an eprom into the wrong socket or maybe a bent pin on a chip when it was inserted?

I would try this first-
There are a couple of jumpers on the dotmation controller board that may need to be moved, they are located near the dotmation game eproms XU3 and XU4. You can try changing them to the other position to see if that fixes the error you are now getting. These jumpers tell the dot controller what size the game eproms are, and they can vary with different games.

[There is also a jumper J2 on the cpu board that is set according to the style/size of the game sound eproms but I can't see how that would cause this dot problem]

Also check that the ribbon communications cable is connected firmly to the dotmation controller card. There are 2 different comm connectors, I believe you can use either one of them. If it wasn't disturbed during the game change and everything was working before then this shouldn't be the problem but would be thorough to double-check it.

If you are worried that a hardware failure has happened you can always put the original game chips back in to prove that the boards and dotmation circuits are all ok.

[rokgpsman]

Rokgpsman,
Thank you for all the info. I do have the manual you attached, but, thanks anyway. I contacted the seller to see if he knew the jurisdiction, but didn't get a response. I did end up going through all the jumper settings in the manual and I still could not get it to work. After a little while scratching my head and looking through some posts on the old site it hit me! They do not list the Nevada jumper settings in the manual I have and I didn't see them in the manual you attached either!!!! Maybe I'm just missing it, but guess what jurisdiction my kit ended up being? Nevada!!

TVB2868- Look what I found. In the WMS 40X manual they have another table of jurisdiction jumper settings near the first part of the manual and it does include the Nevada settings. Check the table at the bottom of page 1-2, it has the Nevada jumper setting. Don't know why they didn't list this same table in the jurisdiction table shown on page 2-22. I also found an expanded list of Williams jumper settings, it is also attached below.

[TVB2868]

You're absolutely right. I can not believe it's actually on the second page of the manual and I didn't see it. Hold on a minute....yes I can believe it, this is me we're talkin' about.

[rokgpsman]

..... Then, just about when the reels would normally spin to signify the end of the boot up sequence mine do not. I get a message on the leds that reads "dot FAni    0"and the dotmation screen reads "Bad Frame Anim Index!     0x001B" Looks like I need more help.

Just when I thought I had it, now this, whatever this is!! Boy, why do we like these things so much when you know they're gonna aggravate you like this some day?

What did you figure out on this second problem with your machine?

[TVB2868]

Funny you should ask. Just last night I got back to it again. I couldn't get the machine to do anything with the Bad Anime message so I had to do a game clear. Once I did that the game ran fine......until I went into the settings and activated the high score option (where you can put your initials in for the highest winning streak). The game will play fine, but, when you get a winning streak that would let you enter your initials for, the game locks up with the Bad Anime message. I'm assuming there is some bad data on the chip??? So, I did a game reset again and didn't activate the high score feature and it seems to be okay.

[rokgpsman]

Funny you should ask. Just last night I got back to it again. I couldn't get the machine to do anything with the Bad Anime message so I had to do a game clear. Once I did that the game ran fine......until I went into the settings and activated the high score option (where you can put your initials in for the highest winning streak). The game will play fine, but, when you get a winning streak that would let you enter your initials for, the game locks up with the Bad Anime message. I'm assuming there is some bad data on the chip??? So, I did a game reset again and didn't activate the high score feature and it seems to be okay.

I haven't played that game so am not familiar with it. Maybe the Bad Anime msg has to do with the data communication between the dotmation controller card and the main CPU board. Or the ribbon cable that connects the back of the dot matrix screen to the dotmation controller board. You might inspect both ends of the cable to see that it is ok, although you'd think if there was a problem it wouldn't work for the other dot matrix animation. Curious.

In this game how do you enter your initials, is it by pressing the spin and bet buttons on the front panel to select the alphabet letters on the dot matrix screen? I wonder where in memory your initials are stored? That would be a place to start. Also, this may have been covered before, NLG has a long history, there may be info on this on the old NLG archive website. Have you checked over there?

[TVB2868]

I'm assuming that's how you would enter them, but it would always lock up before I got a chance to put my initials in. I have searched the old site. I found a post from Clay(cfh) that actually told me how to turn that feature on. I've re-seated the dot chips and checked/swapped the cables, but, no change.

[rokgpsman]

I'm assuming that's how you would enter them, but it would always lock up before I got a chance to put my initials in. I have searched the old site. I found a post from Clay(cfh) that actually told me how to turn that feature on. I've re-seated the dot chips and checked/swapped the cables, but, no change.

I found what I think is the same post from Clay you just mentioned. But did you see this thread, it is interesting, several people comment that the high score feature is just a tease and not actually operational. But even if so I don't think you should be getting that Bad Anime error message. Maybe some of the others here that are familiar with that game will know more about this.

http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=1114.0