Bally Future Spa Pinball MPU Repair, Burning Roms... Sound Board Spaz And More

[@LyonsArcade]

These are the crimpers we use when we repin the connectors to fix these Bally games! amzn.to/3aLST7Y Atari ANYTHING! you buy on Amazon after clicking that link doesn't raise your prices but gives us a referral tip, thank you!

[@buckstarchaser2376]

HA! That's the classic Hollywood sound impression of a busy computer room. I don't think it was ever supposed to sound good... Just busy. :P

[@LyonsArcade]

That's a good point :)

[@strayblackcatsmeow]

That start up sound was typical in many 70 sci-fi movies when they ask computers questions and the computer was calculating an answer.

[@LyonsArcade]

That makes sense now that you mention it....

[@Patchuchan]

There's often an example program that makes a similar sound in the instruction manuals for many 1980s computers.

[@rogermoody2660]

Logan’s run!

[@chukzombi]

There is either an old atari or nintendo video game which starts up in a very similar way. Sounded like 70s era sciency to me.

[@samuelcolvin4994]

Sounds like late 60s cartoon computers🤣

[@Discretesignals]

That startup sound is the same sound that comes from my stomach after eating at Taco Bell.

[@LyonsArcade]

Me too! It's the sauce.

[@melanatedprose9134]

Ron, you seem pretty darn organized to me with your boards and parts. I dig that silver mirrored look on sections of the backglass! That is a crazy sound, I agree. This is such a captivating technivisional journey to witness.

[@LyonsArcade]

I love these games like this that most people have never heard of, but were a whole thing at some point in time, LOL They're just weird enough to be really cool....

[@KDaverGraphics]

Love these videos.. reminds me of my time working on them. I did a lot of restoration. so instead of chasing pins to replace I found it a lot faster and easier to replace all the pins at one time in a connector. Specially if I didnt want the game coming back into the shop. I owned god knows how many machines at one time. and restored many more. almost all from the *78 top about '85 era. with some of the older Electro-mechanicals. wish I had a place to even take in one game at a time to restore them again. thanks for bringing back the memories.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you for watching KDaver, usually I get lucky and I don't have to repin most connectors but yup from time to time it's better to just do the whole connector and be done with it. Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it!

[@DreBourbon]

I'm currently fixing up a Future Spa and these videos are GOLD

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Dre you can do it!

[@mikepellecchia73]

Dude you debugging that starting sound had me rolling. I have one of these and I can confirm the startup sound on this thing is nuts. Since its the only machine Ive ever owned I assumed this was some sort of debug/sound test that all machines did.

[@EsotericArctos]

That startup sound isn't quite as bad as the Windows 98 start sound lol. It's the sound they thought computers should make back then. Matches the "Future Spa" theme. Seriously wish I had this particular machine. The wide body and the amount of features packed in make it look like a lot of fun.

[@LyonsArcade]

I had forgot about that Windows start up sound!

[@wexsetter]

I have Future Spa & put those same boards in it. It was my favorite game at the skating rink. In fact it IS the one at the skating rink I played. I bought many games from that same novelty company. I became friends with the family.

[@robj7481]

I used to have a bunch of arcade games at home from my repairing days. I only have a Funhouse pin now and no videos anymore. I had a Paragon, Hyperball, Pac-Man, Joust, Star Wars, Solar Quest, Scramble, Rastan, Space Fury, and Gorf back in the day. I had a garage full of games when route operators brought me their games for repair. I’d fix them and play them until they were picked up. My friends loved coming over to my house (for some reason).

[@LyonsArcade]

Man what a collection! And you can fix some pretty tough stuff, Solar Quest? Very tough to fix the cinematronics stuff!

[@robj7481]

Joe's Classic Video Games, I built a Pac-Man machine from scratch when I was 17 (1982). That was my start in video games. It also helped that I sat next to a kid in highschool who’s dad owned an arcade route. By the time I was 25, I was doing contract repair for just about every route operator in Southern California, from Family Amusements in Hollywood to Pinball Warehouse in Northridge, to the arcades on Catalina Island. C.A. Robinson (the game distributor) started giving my name out as a repair guy. I was a busy lad. I did consulting work for Bill Faith (Hollywood Crane) and I taught electronics to repair techs (I have a Master’s Degree) I also designed arcade games and now, casino games. Needless to say, it’s been an overwhelming 30 years for me. But I loved every minute

[@lascheque]

I absolutely LOVE those electronic sounds of that era (pinball and video games), thats why I can't wait to get our Silverball Mania up and running. The bootup sound of Future Spa reminds me a little of the "tune" that Missile Command plays when you get a bonus city, sounds similarily silly :) As always, great entertaining video, thanks, man.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you Lascheque, I love those early sounds too. We're working on a Tri-Zone right now with Williams' first sound board in it, very cool stuff. Thanks for watching!

[@lascheque]

@@LyonsArcade Looking forward to it!

[@Croccydile]

We called the background sound on this game the "angry bees". I believe it was Ballys answer to Williams Flash being the first game having background sound.

[@LyonsArcade]

I like it :)

[@saskia6750]

hey joe,great video,and yeah the start up sound of future spa was very abstract to say the least...you have done an amzing job so far bringing her back from the dark side !! space invades-future spa-hot doggin-embryon..all great games in wide body format..have played and enjoyed them all ! ;) x

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Hope, we appreciate you watching!

[@martywolfman]

You made me chuckle with the sound 'glitch '. I've heard it before from playing digital version, so the whole time you were saying what you'd done to try to fix it, I was expecting there to be nothing wrong haha. Good to see it up and running now though. Looking forward to seeing ut finished and a play video :)

[@LyonsArcade]

I'm more used to the earlier Bally cards where they play a little tune, when I heard that one I was like "What in the world?????"

[@martywolfman]

Yeah, I totally get it, it's definitely odd. sounds more like connecting to the internet on dial up than a tune. On the plus side, the sound board should be pretty bulletproof for a while :D

[@applecorc]

Sounds fine to me. The start up goes through each of the different voices on the sound chip.

[@InMyHead]

When you said "Jiggle It" i said "just a little bit" before you did. it might be scary or wonderful that our minds think alike. Great video. i am loving the progress on this machine. thanks for taking the time to make these.

[@LyonsArcade]

hahaha! Thanks for watching man we'll have the rest of it pretty soon!

[@bill53uk]

the noise is normal. you done great

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Bill, I appreciate you watching and the nice comment, see you on the next video!

[@jamesm90]

I love the sound at the boot up. Really made me laugh!

[@LyonsArcade]

Pretty wild, huh?

[@808zhu]

Trying to get my Spy Hunter pin working... Love the videos.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks for watching!

[@douro20]

The AY-3-8910 was used on most of their second-generation solid-state pinballs. You'll also find that chip on the "Squawk & Talk" board.

[@1959blantz]

I remember playing Future Spa back in the late 70s or very early 80s at a local arcade called "Funway Freeway" and I remember the machine making all sorts of strange sounds. It was a very popular machine back then and someone was always playing it. I'm sure it paid for itself pretty quick a quarter at a time. Friday and Saturday nights they were always packed. I miss those days.

[@eaglefan1018]

Salem Mall Funway Freeway?

[@1959blantz]

@@eaglefan1018 No, the Funway Freeway I remember was in Columbus, Ohio. I do think they were a chain though.

[@eaglefan1018]

@@1959blantz MIne was in Trotwood, Ohio near Dayton. Cool to know, thanks for the reply. Was a great place!

[@jt1731]

Damn. I wasn't even born in 79, yet I regret not getting into board repair back in 1979 when schematics were given, and you could actually fix your own stuff, and a human could solder the stuff.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah it's pretty cool man, they used to provide schematics for everything. On the early Atari stuff, they actually told you what EACH PIN of each chip does. So it would describe, completely, how the image is created on the screen, etc. Really cool.

[@kmart0017]

The sticker on the first lamp driver board has the s/n from a Silverball Mania (1980).

[@LyonsArcade]

That's pretty cool to figure out which one it went in :) I try to match them up if I can...

[@kmart0017]

Joe's Classic Video Games Those stickers are great help, but they’re often missing.

[@Skeemaster]

Keep those vids coming .. having a blast on this journey with you guys. Hopefully I can get to play one of these some day , looks great.

[@LyonsArcade]

More coming soon, thanks for watching :)

[@DeadKoby]

I bet the startup sound is a collection of all the sounds back to back. Retro-weirdness.

[@LyonsArcade]

Likely!

[@emprsnm9903]

A possible longevity hack for those VFD display's resistors; When replacing them, you could change the orientation of R3 & R9 (the center ones). So that the middle resistor stands straight up on one end from the pcb, with the other lead arching @45 degrees to the other solder hole. The new resistor's leads are long enough to reach. (a verticle mounting orientation). The idea I've got is to lessen the combined heat of them all side by side cooking each other, by physically seperating the man in the middle without compromising anything. (the resistor still couldn't fold over to short oriented vertically) Also by freeing up some PCB realestate by mounting the middleman that way, you could even upgrade the resistors to the next wattage up. (1/8watt to 1/4watt) Even though the resistors are cheap, could save time and effort replacing them down the line. Great Vid!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Chris, that's a good idea I think it would probably cut down the heat a bit. I did put 1/2 watters in there (the originals were 1/4watt) but you're right with them right next to each other they probably heat each other up!

[@GeorgeGeorge-xj2bc]

The electrolytic capacitors is the first thing to check despite the fact that the specific quality of the capacitor's that made in these years was to last forever.

[@Sunsetdrivein]

A lot of the smaller electrolytic capacitors on the sound board go bad from the heat. For sound problems, I start with replacing the electrolytics first.

[@vhm14u2c]

Hi Ron, Around @17:00 , you had a webpage up that shown jumper settings for different EPROMs for the MPU board. Can you give link to that page? Thanks for sharing!

[@travisknable7883]

Always like a good pin vid. F.U. crusty old lamp sockets😂

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks for watching Travis!

[@mercuryvapoury]

That audible "glitch" sounds like an audible version of the Williams Rug Pattern...

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah, it really does. I was working on a Joust last night, after you mess with them awhile you can tell if the rug looks right :)

[@PlumGurly]

Yeah, if the one is an AY-3 or similar, that is a General Instruments PSG chip. I don't know why I thought Yamaha made it, but they did make some near-compatible chips.

[@DrScientistSounds]

Haha that's great, love that startup sound

[@LyonsArcade]

I now call it the Startup Spaz!

[@TheRealScooterGuy]

The startup sound from this pinball machine reminds me of the sound from the WOPR computer in the movie, "Wargames" (1983, I think).

[@gorillaau]

Would you like a game of chess? Oh hell no, take my quarter!

[@TheRealScooterGuy]

@@gorillaau Hopefully, it gets to tic-tac-toe fairly quickly.

[@wildatom669]

Reminds me of Flash and that neverending tone.

[@LyonsArcade]

Yes, basically the same thing. I think Flash did it first, actually, another Steve Ritchie concoction.

[@billwilliams6338]

JOES CLASSIC, the circuit board jumpers are changing the ROM size. Are the jumpers "shorting out" the ROM's data lines or address lines? I'm not sure what the jumpers are really doing to tell the microcontroller what size the ROM chip is.

[@LyonsArcade]

The bigger the rom chip is, the more address lines it has, so basically the jumpers are sending the address line signals from the microcontroller to the correct pin on whichever rom is installed.

[@billwilliams6338]

@@LyonsArcade oh ok thanks for the help, so the jumpers are shorting out to ground the address lines when using a smaller ROM chip

[@senilyDeluxe]

Remember, in 1979 chiptune probably wasn't invented yet and if it was, the folks at Bally haven't heard from it.

[@LyonsArcade]

That's true :)

[@JimFortune]

42:30 Sounds about right. lol

[@LyonsArcade]

It sounds like what a robot sounds like when it dies!

[@danijelcar5184]

🖒 game is working lights are on now only selenoids are left to fix 😆

[@LyonsArcade]

Won't be long now :)

[@memyopinionsche6610]

I wonder if a future spa would have a hot tub time machine.

[@LyonsArcade]

it's right there on the backglass!

[@memyopinionsche6610]

Dose it.. So Bally's predicted a future movie. So it's cannon.

[@CRSolarice]

You seem to have a lot of experience with electronics and are pretty much self taught? That would be fairly amazing. So, has anyone ever mentioned the topic of touching electronic components with your bare hands and the possibility of leaving salts and greases behind, causing hotspots and shortening IC lifespans or premature failures (for ic's that may get hot)? What are your thoughts?

[@LyonsArcade]

Yes we're self taught, i'm not too worried about the hotspots though, possibly that's a thing, not sure. Thanks for watching as always!

[@lunquewill]

After programming an EPROM don't forget to cover the transparent part of the chip with a piece of tape.

[@LyonsArcade]

Definitely!

[@vhm14u2c]

@43:00 giving the ay3-8910 sound effects processor a workout ;-)

[@Allthough]

Yeah, the early electronic machines were okay, with their sound boards and high voltage score displays... but then they went to the do-nothing back glass with the matrix display at the bottom... Watching this video, I had a horrible thought. I googled "virtual pinball cabinet"... OMG what a travesty! It's a slippery slope I tell you! Give me solenoids, chimes, and score reels!

[@gregoryschmidt1233]

I'm curious as to why there was a plastic padlock security seal on one of the caps on the soundboard.

[@LyonsArcade]

Back in the day when you took them in for repair, the repair place would put one of those on the board to prove it was the same one they worked on if you tried to bring it back and say it failed again (under warranty).

[@gregoryschmidt1233]

@@LyonsArcade Interesting. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.

[@robertlipsett2535]

what does the 90 mean on player one when you first start up

[@LyonsArcade]

That's the high score! When you replace the batteries the memory has basically garbage stored in it, so it thinks the high score is 90 points, if you go into the test menu you can reset all that stuff.

[@mavos1211]

Have you ever come across a pinball game called “bad cat” Used to play it in the early 90’s and never seen it since.

[@LyonsArcade]

Mavos if you look on our past videos about a year ago we filmed one.... great game!

[@mavos1211]

Joe's Classic Video Games fantastic!! Thank you for the reply.

[@altpraize6708]

That is the normal sound for a 70s music chip

[@LyonsArcade]

Apparently so :)

[@SwedishEmpire1700]

Hmm, say, switch matrix problems on the stand-up targets on a Gottlieb sys 80b (Goldwings) what would you say could be the problem, chip or connection? this problem have had me stumped for some weeks now.

[@LyonsArcade]

On a system 80b, I'd say the problem is likely a broke diode on one of the switches. Look at the matrix and see if you can figure out which switches are screwed up, and if it's a certain row or column on the matrix, then look at every switch on that row or column and check the diode with a diode test on your multimeter, one of them will likely be shorted or touching something or whatever. I'd check that first at least....

[@SamuliTuomola_stt]

22:15 have you tried TL866II+? haven't had any problem with 2732s even with the old model and the new supposedly delivers more power. good sw too (though windows only, osx/linux has simpler commandline app), supports crazy amount of ROMs, tests 74- and SRAM chips, comes with all kinds of socket adapters and best of all it's cheap. (unaffiliated endorsement)

[@LyonsArcade]

I don't know what my deal is, it might be my PC but people tell me the tl866II+ does them, mine does not. People tell me the GX4 whatever does them, mine does not. I've got about 5 programmers, can't get any of them without external power to burn 2732's, 2532's, or 2716's.

[@SamuliTuomola_stt]

oh that's odd. USB hub with external power didn't help? "USB Charger Doctor" would show how much it's pulling, should have enough though, if it's desktop machine and all

[@troyhill4270]

Haha, that start up sound wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, but not good choice. Does that background sound go for entire duration of game? It sounded annoying to me. Good job, I learn new things every video, looking forward to the new one that came out today. Curious if the inserts have any 'cupping' (as does my Gorgar from '79) and what if anything you'll do. Thanks Joe

[@LyonsArcade]

Yes they do have cupping on all of them, we just left them how they are. They can be fixed but it takes forever and not worth it in my opinion for the slight improvement in gameplay.

[@troyhill4270]

@@LyonsArcade that's what I was thinking too, just leave them be. I do have one on an inlane that can trap the ball if it goes back up it very slowly, thinking to just carefully filing edge off. Thanks Joe!

[@LyonsArcade]

Troy if you very carefully clean the wax off that area, and drip SUPER GLUE on the insert, it will puddle up and dry level, you might want to practice on something first though. Take the bottom of a pop can or something and drop some super glue in it and watch what it does. You can do the same thing on a playfield then wax over it. For us though it just isn't worth all the trouble unless it's just a certain spot that really needs it.... on our firepower we just did (just like your Gorgar) it traps a ball from time to time at the top but we just got the slope up so high it pops out pretty easy :)

[@troyhill4270]

@@LyonsArcade thanks! That sounds safer then filing but afraid it might drip through. Unsure of how to set slope too, raised the back up to increase speed but manual has no recommendations on setting. Have a good weekend dude!

[@WILDGEESE399]

Gday from australia love your work, i was wondering how much was the new cpu board .

[@LyonsArcade]

Gday down under! They're about $200. A little steep, but once you buy it you don't have to worry about the MPU ever again. In my personal opinion, the MPU is worth the price, and new LED displays are worth the price. The solenoid board, rectifier board, sound board, and lamp board are all pretty reliable if you rebuild the original ones in the Bally games.

[@vhm14u2c]

Not sure why the code was changed in EPROM for burning instead of just doing DIP sw setting 🤔

[@scottthatcher9086]

Adjust the POT on the board to change the sound

[@samheijmans1082]

Got a question; Can you help me where I can find the file to reprogram the U4 sound EEprom of future Spa Greets Sam

[@1976aztec]

They could have use a better sound but it is what it is great game, cool back glass.

[@crapcbm]

sounds really screwed up, but like you say, the 70 ... still in the 80s they made crazy sounds to simulate some thing from or playing in the future ... haha I would turn it off ... the in play is enough hehe

[@LyonsArcade]

Yeah, LOL good point....

[@backslash_iii]

That sound test 100% sounds screwed up, but it also sounds almost exactly like computers did in 50s and 60s movies or something. Reminds me of a game show or something lol

[@backslash_iii]

Man replacing connectors is the worst, cause you spend all that time getting them nice, then you may use that shiny new plug you just made Once before it goes back to the customer haha. I feel your pain

[@LyonsArcade]

You get it :) Yeah it's a lot of work for something you never really see the benefit of, oh well it's the nature of the business!

[@douglasRbrown]

LOL, 70's robot sounds...

[@LyonsArcade]

Gotta love it!

[@alakani]

21:10 Cold solder joint on TP E29. Sorry I'm that guy :p

[@LyonsArcade]

The only trace is on the back where it had a better solder joint :)

[@vhm14u2c]

@39:34 8 ohm impotence? Lol (impedance). ;-)

[@memyopinionsche6610]

It's the Bally's classic ah fuck it sound. Everyone knows that.

[@LyonsArcade]

Basically, LOL

[@wilder9777]

Baby pinball like

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Wilder!

[@asdfasdfasdfasdeff]

Speaker is definitely 'impotent'.

[@LyonsArcade]

I'll try harder Pete

[@asdfasdfasdfasdeff]

@@LyonsArcade Don't change anything!

[@asdfasdfasdfasdeff]

@@LyonsArcade I just realized you may be thinking I was talking about you as the speaker no, I was just poking fun at the speaker in the game where you said "check it's impotence".

[@Pa55ion]

all screwed up