Is the jam/stop bar missing?
Bally part #S-739-273 [2-REQ'D]

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I'll take a look tonight at this if I can, if not I should be able to tomorrow.

However, can someone post photos of how their say it again board is connected? Mine looks goofy. First of all the bottom connector is missing and someone soldered the wires onto the board. But of the few photos I've found, my wiring looks to be incorrect. I'm not in front of my computer to look up the schematics at the moment.

My replacement board came today and I don't know if I need to install it if mine is just miswired.

Here's what I have:20221126_184809 (resized).jpg20221126_184752 (resized).jpg

"Say it Again" uses +43 volts as power input. The big resistor/isolation diodes are to cut down the
high voltage... The voltage gets cut down again to a +12 volts regulator.
All IC's get some form of the +12 volts.. some ICs use additional resistors to cut the voltage
down even more to a more manageable +5 volts.
OpAmp are known to go bad... I had to de-solder some ICs because the +12 volts
was collapsing... Found the bad OpAmp and once replaced all was finally good.
Note: Output /input from sound board to "SayitAgain" uses ground shielded cable.
----- one cable has ground shielding that is free from/not attached to the "say it Again" board.

The lower connector in my photo above, those 3 wires are spliced to a shielded cable. It's a little hokey, but looks to be correct. I'll have to look into getting some cable and a proper connector for the board.

I temporarily connected the new board in the same fashion because I'm impatient and wanted to hear the reverb. At first there was too much distortion for the sound effects, but turning down the dial on the Squalk and Talk board fixed that. I think I have the reverb at a decent level. I'll post a video eventually to see what you guys think.

One other thing I noticed is that big resistor gets really hot to the touch, is that normal?

I'll research the correct parts and connectors so I can connect this board properly. After I get something to eat, I'll be on to the drop targets next.

I appreciate everyone's input!

I would say no. If your MPU is good, no point spending a few hundred just for free play setting. You can adjust the game's replay score threshhold to a low value like 10k, that way it will coin itself up with every game you play (unless you are world-record-awful and can't score 10k in a game ).

Following up on a post I made a few weeks ago asking about the right flipper strength. I finally figured out that my flipper WAS underpowered. I measured resistance across it and found it to be about 2 ohm, instead of the spec 3.3. Replaced the coil and it's at the strength I would expect - I can now hit queen's chamber drops from a cradled stop, and even score the queen's chamber standup target (when I can shoot straight enough).

Yes, remember 43+ voltage is being reduced... I remounted the resistor and drilled holes in
the pcb board to let heat escape and allow the air to circulate around the resistor.

Can someone with their centaur open grab a photo of this GI socket near the magnet? I have a GI issue with *most* gi. And I think this looks wired wrong, I think the braid should only go to one tab and the red wire to the other, but I'm not 100 % sure. Thanks!

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this shot good?

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Remember, Orange & Red GI wires can be together... White & Green GI wires can be together.

Your wiring on that socket is correct.

Ah, Monkfe has already got a pic up - you can be doubly sure it's correct now!
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Ok, thanks guys. I was sure that would be the issue as the socket is wired differently than others, but that's not it. Back to the drawing board!

Hmm. Is this to the braided side? I have a few wires that connect to the braid, an orange, a green, and a white. To the non-braided side, I have greens and reds. (The short red with textured cover is just a jumper because I damaged the braid digging around just now).

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Looks fine...Orange & Red wires are the 6.5 ac+ voltages /// White & Green wires are the return ground.

I know the home ROMs add Centaur's laugh into gameplay, but does it also add it to adding credits? When I played in league, there was a Centaur II and when you added a quarter he would laugh and then say, "Energize me." My game just says, "Energize me" without the laugh when I add a credit.

Oliver's home rom does not require adding any credits; the start button is always active. I think he described it as "credits never less than 1" or something like that.

So I wonder why mine doesn't laugh with a credit?

Where to get this version? I don't see it on IPDB...

http://www.pinball4you.ch/okaegi/pro_soft.html

Possibly pinball universe as well

Does anyone's game laugh when you put in a credit?

No, you only get the laugh when the orbs are hit out of sequence with Oliver's custom ROMs.

Stings when it happens too.

I know for sure the Centaur II they had a couple of years ago where I played in a league would laugh when you put in a coin and then said Energize me. It's one of the things that stood out to me. Unless the home ROM allows you to not be on free play, then that would make sense.

The home rom can be coin play iirc. Maybe it laughs when you have it set to require multiple coins?
Flash Gordon laughs are you thinking of that?

No, 100% it was Centaur II and not Flash Gordon. My game came with a push button wired to add credits. I'll check on setting it for more than one coin to see if that makes a difference. But if the home ROM can be coin play, I'll bet that's what was in the machine. It's not up there anymore and I'm sure the operator wouldn't remember at this point.

You're right. On Centaur, if set to "2 coins / 1 credit" for example, the first coin drop produces a laugh, the second coin drop it says energize me and adds the credit.

Wow, certainly didn't know that! great, just changed my settings. I always assumed the laugh was unused speech with stock ROMS like with some of the unused speech with Fathom stock ROMS that were then implemented in the home ROMS.

Now it has me wondering if Fathom has other speech calls depending on the coin combinations?

Edit: Fathom plays a sound for any extra coins added for 1 credit, then the usual speech phrase on the last coin for the credit.

I can map out all the speech on the sound boards for both games if you want - a late night project.

The home ROM is worth it to me for 3 improvements besides free play 1 reset bonus after a ball to 1K…. when it was on location the hardest option would reset to the next lowest number 20K 40K or 60k so once you hit 60 you would play for the multiplier only.

2 Next is double target hits in ORBS always counts them in order which was up to random luck before

3 But the biggest one is that you cannot stay in eternal multi ball which killed this game when good players walked up

It’s been a long time since Oliver explained what he was doing and getting feedback on RGP But here is a good discussion of the changes before the thread devolved into IP rights

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.pinball/c/MquU2q6OwDc/m/UYAgTABAuRUJ

Thanks for checking!

I'd be interested. Heck I just learned that Centaur was voiced by a real person, I always thought it was a computer voice.

All of those sound good, but does the code only consider actual multi-ball as multi-ball? How about when you get a ball from the Guardian feature? Or knocking ORBS in order? I like the latter two to help increase multipliers and capturing orbs and would not like if capturing orbs was turned off then also.

That would be great, if time permits.

I remember some discussion a few years ago about trying to determine who's voice was actually used for Centaur.

I know who: this centaur!

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Looks like No Good Gophers voice Centaur.

Fathom speech will be posted in the Fathom club thread

The following is the list of the sound commands (in HEX) sent to the S&T board that produce speech on Centaur: Comms between the MPU board and S&T are 4 bits wide so commands are sent as two nibbles - lower nibble first then upper nibble.

The sound board test button plays these speech phrases in backwards order:

30= 2X completed
31= 3X completed
32= 4X completed
33= 5X completed
34= Completed
35= Power Orbs
36= Begin Orbion Attack
37= Energize Me
38= Energize Power Orb
39= Activate Power Orb
3A= Power Orb
3B= Guardian Releases Power Orb
3C= Release Power Orbs
3D= Energize
3E= Bad Move Human
3F= Slow Aren't You

40= Sequence Activates
41= Release Target Activated
42= Sequence
43= Only Single Value
44= Side Awards Double
45= Try
46= Doubles Queens Chamber
47= No Class Human
48= Challenge Me
49= Orb Feature
4A= Sequence Feature
4B= Chamber Feature
4C= Guardian Feature
4D= Bonus Feature
4E= Destroy Centaur
4F= Human

50= Centaur
51= Powerlane
52= Ha Ha Haa (laugh)
53= Activated
54= Maximum Orbion Strength Achieved

Sure beats the 7 word vocabulary of Gorgar. Amazing how things progressed in a couple of years.

I wish Flash Gordon was a bit more wordy frankly, the capability is there.

The speech is generated by the TI voice chip is it not? Not the same setup as Xenon where they actually used voice samples.

Still samples but way smaller in size and thus quality afaik. Gottlieb and stern speech boards are synthesis.

Thanks Quench for taking the time to document & post all this info.

I asked BigAl56 about who did the voice for Centaur since he used to work for Bally back then, and this is what he said, "With the exception of Xenon and the French version of Flash Gordon, all the Bally S&T games of that era used the same house voice talent. At one time I knew the name but I have forgotten. The advertising agency we used furnished one of their voice guys to record the speech. I would have done it for free but was not asked. "

A thread from a couple of years ago gave 2 names of who they thought had done the voice: John Doremus and Ken Nordine.

I dont know the answer, but from YouTube videos, it sounds more like Ken to me. There has to be someone around who knows for sure.

I'm gonna have to disagree here: I really like being able to stack MB upon MB upon MB -- with all the ensuing crazy action -- and in a follow-on post you will see why. If you wanted to make the game harder, IMO all you'd need to do is to set it as a 3 Ball Game. Mine has been left set to 5 for almost the entire time I've had it.

Finally, a sterling achievement . . . but I'm left kinda ticked:

Ever since Centaur got here, I've been haunted by the previous owner's GC score of ~ 6.52 Mil. Got to right around 6 once, but otherwise it was a mirage off in the desert somewhere, continually out of reach. Until today. I actually rolled the dang thing ! Will try to attach a couple pix here. I also recorded a short video on this, but can't seem to figure out how to retrieve it from the phone. (I'm not much good with smartphones.)

So, has anyone else managed to roll their game ? Along the way, 1 standard Special + ! QC Special. This was on a 5-ball game, so inherently not as impressive as it would be on a 3. There were NO EBs, but there were MBs aplenty, one leading into another, almost to the point of not being able to keep up with them.

The reason any joy from this achievement is limited: because the score got rolled, the PREVIOUS OWNER'S GC Score REMAINS On Display ! Now that's annoying !

@KJL, in Post # 1979, point 3:

I NEVER particularly counted myself among the ranks of "good players", so I'm not sure how this would relate to your point.

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[That came out with the pix in a reverse order, but never mind . . . . ]

That's pretty funny!

But, you'll get that score, if you can do it once, you can do it again!

Situational awareness: Tilt it next time when you’re close!

Good game

One of my peeves about playing Blackout. Every once in awhile I get a truly outstanding game and roll it and there is no indication on the HSTD

Putting things in perspective, I see here
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/centaur/scores
that a Pinside member reached 21 Mil., and that was *on a 3-ball game* !

This also tells me that there must be an 8-digit display part option for this game. Might want to consider that, depending on what it would cost. (But does that also require any board changes ?) Then I could replace that previous owner's GC score.

You can do a /10 romset to make it effectively 8 digit scoring.

I’m not familiar with the operating system on Centaur as I haven’t got my machine yet. But isn’t there a reset you can do to get rid of this high score?

Yes but many take it as a point of pride to beat former owners score.

I have a Xenon that the high score is 3.2 million, gotten close but still no dice beating it yet.

Yeah I can see that. If I buy a used game and the person didn’t reset the scores before I received it I always do it myself. To each their own. But if there wasn’t a high score rest, it would drive me crazy lol so good to know I can rest it.

On a side note:
I sold a Doctor who to a guy who just wanted to flip it. He posted the game on pinside and I had to laugh. Some of the photos had my high score and initials on it.