Unless I missed it there doesn't seem to be a club for the 1977 Bally Black Jack machine. So it seems like a good time to start one!

I recently picked up a non-working Black Jack project machine that had obviously been sitting for years. Although the playfield was extremely dirty I think the machine will clean up well. I've started cleaning the playfield and after getting it running 100% will tear down the top of the playfield for a proper cleaning and shop job. I'm in the process of rebuilding the original MPU board but a friend let me borrow his spare and I was able to get the machine to come up. Got some parts in today and will replace the two burned up chime coils and check all the appropriate drivers. Other than that the only other problems is a switch that won't register and one lamp I can't get to work. I suspect the connectors are going to be the issues with those. Also two displays had missing digits and if I'm lucky I will be able to get those running too.

So for those that have had this game working for a while what do you like best about it and what are your strategies for high scores?

I think this game would be a great candidate for some updated code. When the dealer wins a hand I think it should subtract points. That would make it more interesting!

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BJ_2 (resized).jpg

Presently the game still has the traditional lamps installed on the playfield. For the backglass I installed warm white LED's to save power on the GI and reduce heat. The computer controlled lamps were changed to #47 bulbs.

I ordered a use Bally Knocker coil since the one in my machine was gone. Just two wires hanging in the back box. Does anyone have a picture of the original one installed to make sure I can get it installed the right way?

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Thanks for the picture! I was able to find the whole knocker assembly on eBay. It even includes the screws. I'll clean it up first but it should be an easy install. Two screws and two wires to solder. Probably a fresh diode on it too.

The EM machines are great too. I actually have an old Duotron EM which In other threads.

From what I've read there weren't too many of the EM Black Jack games made. If someone has one and wants to talk about game play and how it compares to the solid state version that's fine with me.

This explains the issue with the chimes. There were two bad coils. One was disconnected and the other had a bad driver transistor. Installed a new TIP102, 1N4004 Diode, two new coils (w/diodes), new sleeves, and cleaned up the plungers. Now all the chimes are working and sound good. Also finsihed rebuilding the MPU board with new DIP sockets, new .100" connectors, two new tantalum caps, and now an NVRAM module. The original 5101 that was on board tested bad. Also replaced a couple traces with wire wrap wire on the top of the board. It is back in and working.

Need to replace pins in the connectors in the harness (there is some green slime in a couple pins) and then clean all the switches.

Next block of time will strip down the top of the playfield for a proper cleaning, polish, wax, and fresh rubber rings.

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The replacement knocker assembly arrived today. Got it installed and works great. It's nice that all the wires are connected again. No more hanging wires!

Now that the game is running well I have been looking at ways to improve it. The changes I think would be really improve the game and fix a complaint I heard about the rules:

- Instead of randomizing the hand at the beginning of each ball for each player just do it for player 1 at the beginning of each ball and save that value so that player 2, 3, and 4 also start out with the same hand. That would even the playing field if the game is used in a tournament. The changes for that would entail saving that hand value in a couple unallocated bytes of RAM that the remaining players would pull the hand value from instead of generating another random number.

- When the ball falls into the saucer if the dealer beats the player then whatever value would be gained it should be subtracted from the players score. If that would fall below zero then just make the score zero.

- As a stretch maybe used the 4 chimes to play the dirge tune like the 1975 Midway Gunfight game when the player uses. Or three low chimes with a pause between. Have to thing about that since it could be annoying.

Does anyone else have any suggestions? I think the ones above are obtainable. Not sure of other enhancements like timed skill shots, etc (too much for now) but if there are any other simple changes that may help let me know.

I'm not sure yet but I'm going to give it a try. Not winning anything would be a good start but in reality if you are betting against the dealer the more you are likely to win then the more you can lose. I think it may be good to think about factoring in the bonus factor. Will have to give that some consideration.

I just tore down the playfield to clean everything and noticed one of the tips was missing for the slingshots. I need to order a pair of those and some lamp sockets. While I'm waiting I can poke around in the ROM's

Robert

I'd also check all the connectors at the CPU and look for cold solder joints and broken solder connections. I ran into several when I replaced the connectors on the boards.

Termites? That sucks. I wonder how often that happens. Is it just in the cabinet or the playfield too? If it's truly gone that at least I hope it can help save other games.

Changed the title so that all the Bally Black Jack owners can participate.....

Thanks to some help and encouragement from Quench I am making progress on some updated code for Black Jack. Instead of gaining 5000 points and any bonus when the ball lands in the dealer saucer when the dealer is winning it now does:

- Any pending points are lost.
- No point are awarded since you lost and should gain anything.
- Plays a different tune - could use ideas for a good tune.

What is yet to be done.

- If you lose besides the loss of pending points you will also lose the 5000 points you would have gained. If the score is less than zero then you'll end up with zero points.
- Create a better more appropriate pair of losing tunes:
- One short one for losing and your score is above zero.
- One slightly longer one (funeral dirage) if your score goes down to zero.

As a stretch goal I may try to have the random hand just be referenced from the first player so that all players in a game start out with the same dealer hand.

I think these changes will make the game a lot more interesting.

What I could use help on is with the tunes. I am not a musical person and could use a hand figuring out what chimes should be used, the sequence, and the timing. There are four chimes that can be used. One byte (two hex digits) are used to define each one.

First digit is the duration. The large the value the longer the duration. Ones used in the game are 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. This is the time before the next chime will fire. The second digit is the chime coil. These are 1, 2, 3, or 4.

For reference the coin inserted tune goes like:
34 31 32 53 32 73

Replay chime is:
35

Power up tune is:
32 32 53 31 31 52 34 34 51 31 31 71

Start up tune is:
54 51 52 63 33 33 43 62 32 32 42 51 52 51 74

Does anyone want to try putting together some tunes to try?

In the meantime I will work on the other code changes.

Robert

I didn't need to worry about the subtraction routine. I just leveraged the existing addition code. Adding the 10's complement of 1000 to the score rolls it over less 1000 points. The code seems to work the way I hoped it would. If you win everything it normal. If you lose then you lose any pending points and also the 5000 you would have gained bu landing in the saucer. If you don't watch how you play you could get back down to 00. Chimes are used in a different way when you lose and if you hit 00. It needs some more testing but it should make the game a lot more interesting.

Well I am pleased to report that the updated ROM code works! I think it definitely improves the game play. If the player wins when landing in the dealer saucer all is normal. However, if the ball lands in there when the dealer is winning:

- And pending points are lost
- Short lost tune played (Thanks @Quench)
- Player score decreases by 5000 in 1000 decrements (and chimes)
- If player score reaches 0 or lower then the score is reset to 0 and another dirge tune is played.

It is really an odd thing to watch you score go down as the extra chime sounds.....

The checksum was recalculated so just the game ROM is changed. Since the board is setup for 9316 ROM types I didn't want to hack it so I just lifted a couple leads on the new 2716 EPROM and added a jumper from the EPROM to a lead on U17. Easily reversible.

I'm happy with the way this turned out and learned a lot. Now back to a few remaining issues (adjust a switch, fix some lamp sockets, and clean cabinet) and then enjoy the game,

Robert

That's the plan. I just thought the game deserved it and it was a fun way to use some of my old programming skills. While I wrote the updated code I couldn't have done it so fast without the collaboration of Quench to help figure out some of the original code and decipher memory usage, etc.

I want to get some more play time on the machine to make sure it is solid. Then need to figure out the best way to share the changes. Someone mentioned that there could be an issue posting custom versions on the IPDB so I'm not sure if it can go up there. I can put them on 2716's but since most boards are probably setup for the original 9316 ROM's either the board needs to be modified for the 2716 chip or the chip legs lifted and a single jumper soldered to the board as I did. This seemed a good approach since just that one wire can be unsoldered and the original ROM plugged back in if you want to go back.

Does anyone know the correct year for Black Jack? Pinside shows the SS version as 1977 but IPDB shows a project date of 1976 and a production date of 1978. Anyone have any insight as to which one is right?

Then I guess it would be good to get the Pinside entry updated. Thanks for the clarification.