So I'm looking for some more information on how Williams handled Add-A-Ball in their later EMs, in the mid-70's.
I have a Big Ben, which had been hacked for free-play when I picked it up. However, I'm getting mixed clues as to whether the game was set up for Add-A-Ball, or all of this was hacked. Things I have noticed -
- The game came with an original (maybe not to this game, but to Big Ben in general), document packet that was stamped "AAB".
- Somehow the game was altered for free-play. (At this time, I do not remember how they did it.)
- There was an extra switch stack on one of the motor cam switch-stacks, factory-installed.
- There was a wiring hack to the Extra Ball relay (which connected to the aforementioned switch).
- From the wiring modification to the extra ball relay, there was *lamp cord* that ran up to the credit unit in the backbox. This lamp-cord was that brown, plastic-wrapped brown stranded stuff.
- The extra ball socket had no lamp installed. (Socket, no lamp. Not necessarily important, but mentioning it.)
- The backglass had a metallic sticker over the window, to hide the credit wheel.
- The credit mech, instead of having a credit wheel had three spacer washers:
So I WANT to say that this game left the factory as AAB configured. A lot of it appears to be factory - from the switch stack, to the missing credit wheel and the stamp on the document folder. However, the wiring was so UN-FACTORY that I can't really say it was intentional.
The schematics are for normal game operation, not add-a-ball.
So I'm curious if there are any documents on how games were converted over, and whether this was intentional or not. For example, I'm not sure if the lamp cord was used for the free-play hack, or the add-a-ball.
At the moment, I undid the changes, so the game is normal, NOT AAB, but I'm still curious!