fA friend of mine has a Baracorra that I’ve been working on occasionally for a few months and something I thought initially was a CPU problem seems like something that is happening consistently and repeatably enough that it feels on purpose (or on purpose by accident). I was wondering if anyone else has seen this before…
The gate blocking the upper saucer will not open to allow a ball lock but will open by completing the top lanes. Once the top lanes have completed, the gate will work normally for ball locks on the current game and any new games played. Once power cycled, the gate needs to be opened via the lanes again, and then will work normally until the game has been shut off.
Unless you’re talking about the gate not allowing the ball into the upper saucer when the ball is plunged from the shooter lane (i.e., after a lock or drain), I have not seen this behavior. And you do not have to complete the top lanes to get the gate open – just hitting any switch will do it.
The gate opens once the “Bonus Value When Lit” insert lights, which I think happens after completing both 123 and 456. The gate will then close and open as expected (after a switch hit post plunge) for the remainder of the game and any future games before power cycling.
If you have access to the machine, can you confirm that it’s not working like I described above?
Yes, you qualify Bonus Value When Lit via a set of 123 and a set of 456, but the light should go out only when the ball is in the shooter lane because of a lock or drain. Then the light should go back on after any playfield switch hit. I looked at the operator’s manual to see if there’s a setting that might make it behave differently, and I’m not seeing anything.
99% sure it works as you describe above, once the bonus light has been activated in a game. The next time I’ll be back to that spot is sunday, maybe I’ll make a video.
This is interesting… I don’t think the shooter lane switch itself is bad since it will always repeat the cycle after a reboot but a matrix problem could potentially cause some weirdness here I bet.
I’m pretty sure the normal behavior is the saucer opens as soon as any switch is hit after a ball launch. You should be able to shoot the scoop at any time for points or collect bonus when lit. Mine does something similar though. It wont open the top gate until the game recognizes the last A in ACORA is down.
Well, I replaced the battery holder with an outboard one last night and the game is working fine now. No other change was made. It either fixed itself or this problem has something to do with the game not storing settings appropriately.
