The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

[bob]

At 84 in a couple of weeks my memory could well be at fault but I think that my Mazooma Bell only had the hopper payout which paid out the full amount of coins counting down the total amount shown on the replay meter when one decided to cash these in. The Super Treble Chance had two payout tubes, one with tokens, one with coins. A token would be paid out for every 100 shown on the replay meter and the balance would be paid out in coins. I've dug out the Mazooma Bell literature and will go through this. As well as the Bally Mazooma Bell manual it included something I have never come across before, a really handy 7 page fault finding (and remedying) manual for Bally Mazooma Bell and Cute Caddie published by phonographic Equipment(distributors) of Exmoor Street London W10, who were presumably the British distributors or operators.

[bob]

On checking the manual I find that the Mazooma Bell had a changeover adjustment plug to enable the use of token payouts or hopper payouts,

[monkeyspanner]

In the early 1980s I was working for Race Electronics which was a subsidiary of Ace Coin Equipment based in Llantrisant and supplied microprocessor control units only to Ace Coin. We were approached by Peter Simper in Bath based in Camden Mills to also supply microprocessor control units to them. Peter Simper's machines were still electromechanical at the time. A deal was struck whereby we could use their "stabilizer" idea which was patented in return for them using our microprocessor control units. Simper's "stabilizer" was a small electromechanical unit which counted the number of coins in and coins out and adjusted a limited number of game feature (e.g. holds). In our unit we replaced this by software counters stored by means of battery backed up circuits and dependant on the position of the stabilizer software counters accessed different tables of game feature percentages stored in the control unit firmware. There were also external input switches to allow operators to adjust payout percentages within the specified legal limits. This allowed easier and accurate payout percentages to be acheived on new machines rather than the extensive testing against theoretical percentage calculations and subsequent field trials we previously had to complete. From memory I believe we wrote some initial designs for PS and then trained their staff to program our control unit. I can't recall any machine names, production numbers were quite small in the 10's per week.

[operator bell]

I had an early ACE microprocessor controlled machine - perhaps you'll recognize it. It is the only piece of electronic equipment I've ever come across that used the Intel 4004, the first microprocessor ever made. Unfortunately it never worked properly so I broke it up, keeping only the rather attractive front glass -

I'm surprised Simper got a patent on the stabilizer, since it was a 1950s American invention, but if it hadn't been patented before I suppose it was fair game. In America before about 1975 you couldn't get a patent on anything to do with a gambling device, which wasn't considered a "useful" invention.