Mini-Match!!

New project!!!!  Say hello to the Mini-Match, a nifty little American  no, British no, German machine by... Kadeco?  Jamiesons?  NSM?  Let's take a quick step back, and then see what is needed.

OK so in 1967 Super-Match was released by NSM-Löwen in Germany

For the record, FREISPEL means "free play" and SIEG means "victory".

NSM was mostly known for their slot machines (Rotamint, in particular) and their jukeboxes, but they did produce an assortment of novelty games in that "allwin style" where you flick a ball up through some pins.  We call them novelty games because they don't pay anything out, but you can win a free game.

I'm not sure if they were licensed or copied (LOL come on they were probably copied) but Jamiesons took the design and brought it to the British market under multiple guises:

Cuptie

Mini-Golf

Mini-Match

I don't know the dates of any of these later machines, but best assume 1970-1973.

Then at some point a company called Kadeco (5 Old Orchard Road, West Paterson NJ, 07424, which is now the home an architectural firm) tried to sell these machines in North America.

North American flyer

These machines were made in Britain by Jamiesons', but would require a North American transformer (120V, 60 Hz, versus Britain's 240V, 50 hz) and a coin acceptor for American and Canadian dimes (they are cross-compatible).  The Mini-Match machines are very common in the UK, and this is the first time I've ever encountered one of the North American versions, so I  assume they did not do very well.

Oh but wait, there were more variants!  Let's not forget this Russian version:

And... a gumball machine version??

and some kind of shitty knock-off?  Really, I'd rather play the gumball version.

Football: this variant added 2021-09-17

Added 2022-01-11:

Japan produced 2 versions of this too!

1976 Big Hit - from the flyer

Hit & Run

Anyways, on to my machine!

First thing to note was that the machine was missing one of the 5 solenoid assemblies that control the bottom game board pins.

view of the solenoid assembly on the inside

the solenoid's metal bracket was tied to the back of the cabinet, onto some cut wires.

The leftmost solenoid was all fried and melted but the remaining 3 looked good.  The rightmost was missing, presumably after melting.

I was able to find what looks to be an exact replacement for the solenoid online.

So those are now on their way, and they seem to come with the solenoid chassis.  I only needed 2, but order 4 just to have spares.

data sheet measurements all line up!

Next up was finding a replacement solenoid plunger/pin.  This is what it looks like, against a keyboard for scale.

approx 67mm long, 6mm at its thickest, 2.45mm at it's thinnest before it tapers to a point.
a washer goes around the center, 9.8mm outer diameter, 5mm inner diameter

These are not readily available parts, as the far more common German Super-Match machines didn't use solenoids like this.  This format was all British, and it seems like this is a particular solenoid that was more commonly used in Britain and pretty much nowhere else, so it makes sense they shifted to locally available products in their design.  But that does mean I am stuck getting these things fabricated.

I put out a call for help and found Capital Printing Services has the machinery and skills to reproduce things like this.  (they work on repairing printing presses, of all things, so this is nothing for them)  This piece is now with them for work.

The main defect with this machine was that somehow the central channel was warped and balls no longer cleanly fell through.  Even when I bought it you could see the balls trapped at the goal, not falling:

ooops

Small problem, right?  Well there's a switch there and when it's hit it activates the chime and two of the playboard solenoids.  But the ball is supposed to activate the switch only momentarily, and so the 2 solenoids and the chime solenoid locked on.

you can see the melted plastic around the chime coil.

thankfully this chime was readily replaceable, and one has been ordered

One thing I'm worried about is the score counter.  The goals are counted by this adorably tiny stepper, and I am worried it might be fried too, but I'm unsure.  This part might be a major favour to ask of my friend pindude152 to inspect.

at a glance it doesn't LOOK melty...

so cute!

Another friend of mine has taken the machine on to his work bench to test some of the electronic components and has sent in a DigiKey order to get most of these components replaced.  The machine also needs a new power cable (the old one was CUT and missing) so that's coming too.

these are getting replaced

One of the last parts I'll have to take care of is finding a replacement for the solenoid spring...  That will probably have to wait until the pandemic lockdown ends.  I'm told Ottawa Fastener Supply will be able to assist me in the spring hunt, once they're open for business post-lockdown.