Games which tend to false "Credit Dots"

[Jay Walker]

Some games have a tendency to report inactive switches (often by displaying a so-called 'Credit Dot'), even if they're working perfectly. While I was a repairman I used to see the following ones, but are there others?

Road Kings; 'Right (lifting) Ramp E.O.S' (end-of-stroke) and 'Mega Score' (the roll-under switch it conceals).
Millionaire; Random roulette wheel switches. (Difficult to clear, too)
Fire; The coin switches weren't ruled out of the reporting software.
Earthshaker; 'On-ramp Bypass'. (The dot only shows with Credits at zero)
Rollergames; with software LU-1, an un-used switch (only actually fitted to prototypes/early production) was reported.
Getaway H/Speed II; 'Top (and sometimes 'Middle') Lock'. The latter can be added by the software trying to compensate, starting M/ball from the random award. Maybe 'Shift Down' too, if players only ever nudge the lever upwards with their knee.
Judge Dredd; Early editions of software reported a non-existent 'Left Ramp Enter' switch. And trough opto switches, as below, if Super Game isn't used much.
White Water; 'BigFoot Cave'.
Bram Stoker's Dracula; L/side holding area for the 'Mist' ball, when expert players always hit it 1st time.
Popeye; Trough optos, if/when no one ever reached the final 'Rescue Olive' 6-ball mode.
Star Trek Next Gen; 'Borg Lock'.

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

Judge Dredd; Early editions of software reported a non-existent 'Left Ramp Enter' switch.

Ahhhhhh ...that explains one I looked at the other day. Thought it a bit odd. Cheers !

 

[DrPinball]

I think the software reports switch errors if they don't get triggered every few games. The machine assumes that if a switch isn't used very often it may be faulty. In most cases it's because a feature isn't getting hit very often.

 

[Jay Walker]

That's right (I think it's 60 balls played), but it was annoying to be called out on the basis of a false switch report. Besides which, I didn't (and still don't) like the appearance of a dot - especially when a competing op would blithely say of a dot on his m/c "That means there's a half credit on it".

Sgt. GrizZ - I nearly didn't mention Judge Dredd, since I didn't imagine there'd still be any with early software. But that one was a nuisance. We'd been playing it at the workshop when this report appeared, but when in switch test a ball sent up the ramp registered the correct switch name. It was only when it was still there afterwards that we realised there were two switches named 'L/Ramp Enter', and I had to clear the report with a jumper wire. And make a site visit to install the next available edition, which turned out to have problems of its own.

 

[Sgt GrizZ]

That's right, but it was annoying to be called out on the basis of a false switch report. Besides which, I didn't (and still don't) like the appearance of a dot - especially when a competing op would blithely say of a dot on his m/c "That means there's a half credit on it".

Sgt. GrizZ - I nearly didn't mention Judge Dredd, since I didn't imagine there'd still be any with early software. But that one was a nuisance. We'd been playing it at the workshop when this report appeared, but when in switch test a ball sent up the ramp registered the correct switch name. It was only when it was still there afterwards that we realised there were two switches named 'L/Ramp Enter', and I had to clear the report with a jumper wire. And make a site visit to install the next available edition, which turned out to have problems of its own.

This Dredd was an import from Europe - clearly never been updated on site.

 

[johnwhitfield]

My SST comes up with the error warning of "Not enough replays awarded". Not an error but a way of the bloody machine taking the **** out of my crap playing abiliuty

 

[Onze]

My Dredd is reporting Trough 1 and 2. Is it because I've not reached the Ultimate Challenge 6 ball mode yet? They seem to test out fine in Switch Test mode.

 

[Jay Walker]

If they seem alright in the tests, then probably yes. Do you play 'Super Game', which releases all 6 balls if the centre targets are completed? As I recall, 'Ultimate Challenge' is a little disappointing - I don't remember it being 6 ball play.

 

[Onze]

Yes super game clears the credit dot when completing the targets and all the balls are released. I've only just got the game within the last week and I've just been playing the normal mode. I wish I would have tried the super game before taking out the trough etc to give all the opto LEDs and receivers a clean. Oh we'll, at least now I know for the future.