How to make the game free play
By Jeffrey Lawton, Cincinnati, Ohio
Games affected: all games after Hi-fi
see also another freeplay technique
It's really fun to use coins for your Bingo game at home. It makes you feel like you are young again and out in that arcade or candy store where you played pinball as a youngster. But sometimes you just want to play and not be bothered pulling the coins out of the cash box after you've spent them all (for the second, third or fourth time). Well, here's the way to do it without destroying your game or limiting your ability to use coins when you want to.
The trick is to make the game think there are free plays on the meter when there really aren't AND, when you turn the game on, not trying to reset the free play counter when it is already at zero.
Now the bad news, for all the games before Hi-Fi, this option won't work because of the Extra Ball Relay circuitry. The good news, for all other Bingo games a simple toggle switch wired across two wires will allow free play using the normal Red & Yellow Buttons on the front door.
That's right, simply press the Red Button (with zero free plays) and the game starts up as if you had dropped in a coin. Now here's the good part, because you are not using the normal switch on the free play unit, the game will not lock into "replay reset" mode like it does when there are free plays left on the meter. Oh yes, if there happen to be free plays on the meter, they DO reset to zero. Now you just push the Red Button and away you go.
typical game |
| coin switch and start relay |
|---|
OK, how do I do this? Simply identify the wire that places voltage to the Coin Switch (48-2, Green Black on most games) and the wire that feeds voltage to the Red Button (Wire 50, White on this example). Your schematic will show these wires just as my examples do.
Now, unplug the Front Door Plug and identify these wires to their location on the Plug. Solder your toggle switch leads to the door plug leads that match the wires (In this example, wire 48-2 & wire 50-2). Once the toggle switch is soldered in, whenever the toggle switch is turned ON, your game will play for free. When the toggle switch is turned OFF, the game will require coins.
"Hey Jeff", "I tried this option as you suggested on my Sea Island and it doesn't work!"
Yes, I know; I'm not finished.Any game manufactured after Sea Island has the "Coin Switch Tilt" anti-cheat circuit. They also have an "Anti-Free Play" switch added. This switch has to be bypassed (wired "closed" all the time) to allow the Red Button to be active when the game has zero replays.
Simply go to the back of the free play register unit and find the two
switches. One is a single poll, double throw and one is a single
poll-normally open. Simply strap the single poll-normally open switch
so it is closed all the time. Now your game will play free when the
toggle switch is turned on. By the way, the anti-cheat tilt circuit
still works, the replay reset circuit still works and the coin lockout
circuit still works. What a neat option.
