(Topic ID: 228994)

four million bc

By PhCor6

5 years ago


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  • 13 posts
  • 9 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 5 years ago by u2sean
  • Topic is favorited by 1 Pinsider

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Four_Million_B_C_Bally_1971_Instruction_Screenshot (resized).png

#1 5 years ago

Hello,
I bought a 4 Million BC last week and it is now working well.
The only problem it seems to have is when the game is over and you still have a ball in the tar pit (and or) volcano and put your coin in for another game the game resets fine but the balls stay in the tar pit and volcano. They work fine when you hit the targets to eject them but never release when you start a new game. Any ideas?

Thank you.
Phil.

#2 5 years ago

Is it supposed to clear the tar pit at the start of a game? The schematic shows that the mushroom bumper is the only thing that fires the Advance Ball relay which I think is what moves the ball through the tar pit.

/Mark

#3 5 years ago

This page from the manual seems to indicate both should be cleared at the end of a game but I'm not sure...

Four_Million_B_C_Bally_1971_Instruction_Screenshot (resized).pngFour_Million_B_C_Bally_1971_Instruction_Screenshot (resized).png
#4 5 years ago

Generally multi-ball games of this era can be "stolen" from player to player & also game to game.

The Solid State Fireball Classic has a dip-switch setting at end of game to either release captive ball or keep them locked. The original Fireball keeps the ball locked at end of game.

#5 5 years ago

If I recall accurately, on my 4MBC and Capersville any balls in the stepped ball traps just stay there at game over, tilt, advance to next player and/or ball in play and game start. You could only release them during a game. But 'twas a loooong time ago.

#6 5 years ago

That's how it should work. Locked balls are left for the next game.

#7 5 years ago
Quoted from PhCor6:

Hello,
I bought a 4 Million BC last week and it is now working well.
The only problem it seems to have is when the game is over and you still have a ball in the tar pit (and or) volcano and put your coin in for another game the game resets fine but the balls stay in the tar pit and volcano. They work fine when you hit the targets to eject them but never release when you start a new game. Any ideas?
Thank you.
Phil.

The idea is: that is normal operation for Four Million BC. And Fireball too. This encourages repeat play.

#8 5 years ago

Especially the Tar Pit, it has no switches in it to 'tell' the game where a ball is in the trap. Would have taken extra logic and/or switches to fire the trap release three times to release any ball that might be in there when a game ended, started, tilted etc. Not worth the cost for an EM. Besides, the balls staying there as carryover are a good attract for players.

#9 5 years ago

Nip-It is the same way, the ball says in the hole until it is released for multi-bal, and stays there between balls and games until it's released by starting multi-ball.

#10 5 years ago

When weird stuff happens on these older games, and you find out it's normal, it's always a relief at least to find out there's nothing wrong at least!

#11 5 years ago
Quoted from frenchmarky:

Especially the Tar Pit, it has no switches in it to 'tell' the game where a ball is in the trap. Would have taken extra logic and/or switches to fire the trap release three times to release any ball that might be in there when a game ended, started, tilted etc. Not worth the cost for an EM. Besides, the balls staying there as carryover are a good attract for players.

It actually contains a latching relay which 'remembers' if there's a ball in the pit or not. If it couldn't remember it'd be bad after a power cycle. No way to know how many balls should be in the trough.

#12 5 years ago

Right, it would know one was in there but not where, so it would have to fire the release three times. Wonder if anybody ever modded theirs to clear it out just for the heck of it.

#13 5 years ago

As others have mentioned, this is proper behavior - all balls are retained wherever they're at.

NOTE! If you ever have a ball in the Tar Pit and manually remove that ball (say...to move the game or simply put the ball back in the shooter lane), the game will still think it's there because the relays are still locked in. This will cause 2 balls to go into the shooter lane. So....don't do that.

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