(Topic ID: 265921)

EM Ball bowler converted to SS

By jdjdt1

4 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 8 posts
  • 5 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 4 years ago by jdjdt1
  • Topic is favorited by 2 Pinsiders

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    #1 4 years ago

    Picked up a old ball bowler project in Ohio last fall that my son and I have been working on. It was an old EM bowler that was converted to SS using Bally MPU35 with a couple 2k Eproms that are not labeled other than U2 and U6. Looking for any info on these since I think a number of folks did these back in the day. Mine has a business card on it DON'T FUSS, CALL GUS for repair work. Name at bottom of card is A. Bergfeld with a phone number which does not work.
    If you have any info on these type conversions would love to hear from you

    Thanks,

    JT

    #2 4 years ago

    I have worked on a lot of these. There were two versions. One with bally boards, the most common. And another with older SS Stern boards that came with a unique backglass. Basically identical in design as bally and Stern boards were interchangeable of that vintage.

    I don’t think I have much documentation. But they work exactly like an old bally pinball. You can swap boards and displays with anything old bally. Power supply, displays, driver board, and CPU are right out of a pinball l.

    Some of these even used a sound board. I always thought it was weird to put a sound board on a bowler like this.
    I am attaching a picture of one I worked on that used bally -17 CPU and had the backglass with the kit.
    I have a Stern version over in storage. Will get into it one of these days.

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    #3 4 years ago

    We have one on location here that has bally boards, but a williams sound board

    #4 4 years ago

    "Don't Fuss Call Gus" is a CHOICE slogan!

    #5 4 years ago

    ATHENS95'S Well I think I have something very close to your pic. Mine has Bally MPU and Stern driver board. Made repairs to MPU and rebuilt power supplies on drive board so it appears game is working but have some more testing to do. Mine is unique in that is has home made back glass upper and lower and now that I have tested flash the scoring does not line up with my lower back glass the lower and upper strike values are not correct and the spare values are like your solid state bowl going 110 220 etc. The home made lower glass i have goes 100 200 etc. Not sure what I am going to do with this. I have found ROM files on line for monroe bowl but not sure they will work and not sure I need them as the game appears to be working other than to make a copy just in case. Unless someone knows where the scoring values are in the EPROM I may look for a lower back glass that lines up with the game. been a long time since I have messed with 6800 assemble language so not sure i want to spend the time trying to figure that out.
    Thanks for the response I found the switch layout on the lane to be very interesting but if it works I'm ok

    #6 4 years ago

    Is this it?

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    #7 4 years ago
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    #8 4 years ago

    Yep looks like the numbers on the lower glass for flash and dual flash appear to be how my bowler is scoring. But as I said both the upper and lower look homemade.

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