Techno Stuff
How They Work - Spin Cycle - Feature Unit Step-up
surf club |
| supercard disc diagram - click for big version |
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There's actually three feature discs in Surf Club. The selection feature disc is covered elsewhere. Remaining are the hold feature and the supercard feature discs. The supercard disc is the more interesting of the two, so we'll look at that one in detail, and kinda skim over the hold feature disc.
Score Disc and Mixer #2
Just for a change of pace, we'll work our way down starting at the purple circuit, which is the 50V feed coming from mixer #1 and the reflex unit (same as was feeding the score disc). Some details of this part of the circuit are in the extra balls section. The main difference is the EB trip #1 relay is flopped the other way now, so we have wire #50-10 connecting to wire #83, bypassing mixer #2 when the odds are at step 2. This changes the odds of the 50V squirting out the right side to the following:
| score unit step | payout level | # rivets | odds |
| reset/1 | 4/16/96 | 3 | 12.50% |
| 2 | 6/20/96 | n/a (bypass) | 100% |
| 3 | 8/24/100 | 13 | 54.17% |
| 4 | 12/32/100 | 13 | 54.17% |
| 5 | 18/48/150 | 9 | 37.50% |
| 6 | 36/72/150 | 9 | 37.50% |
| 7 | 48/100/192 | 5 | 20.83% |
| 8 | 64/200/300 | 5 | 20.83% |
surf club |
| feature step-up |
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Spotting Disc and the Supercard Unit
The purple circuit feeds the 50V into the spotting disc, and also guarantees that the first teaser light on supercard #1 lights regardless of where the spotting disc wipers stop. The orange circuit does the same thing for supercard #2. The way it works is three teaser lights illuminate in sequence for steps 1-3, and at step 4 the first supercard lights. step 5-7 are three more teaser lights, and at step 8 the second supercard lights.It's also possible to light both supercards during the game play by hitting one of the rollover buttons. This is handled by feeding 50V into the "run to top" circuit.
There's three that can happen on the supercard unit:
- single step - advance unit 1 step
- run-to-card #1 or #2 - enable card #1 (#2 if #1 already enabled)
- run-to-top - enable both super cards immediately
Now here's where this circuitry is interesting. Single stepping is different for cards #1 and #2. On card #1, wire #41-7 is doing it, and once card #1 is lit, then wire #43-7 takes over and does single stepping for card #2. Likewise, there are seperate circuits for "run-to-#1 supercard" and "run-to-#2 supercard". The run-to-#2 circuit is dead unless the unit has advanced to at least step 4 (supercard # is lit). Run-to-top possible available all the time.
According to the manual, you can't single step from position 3 to position 4, which means you must use the run-to-#1 circuit or the run-to-top to enable supercard #1. In other words, it's probably easy to light the first three teasers, and lots harder to enabled the first supercard. Let's find out. The numbers in parenthesis indicate adjustable odds obtained by wiring additional solder lugs on the spotting disc. Run-to-top odds are always 4% (6%)(8%).
| supercard unit step | single step wire | single step odds | run to card #1 odds | run to card #2 odds |
| 1-3 | #41-7 | 18% | 10% | n/a |
| 4 | #45-7 | 0% | 10% | n/a |
| 5 | #45-2 | 100% | n/a | 8% (12%) |
| 6-8 | #43-7 | 14% (18%)(22%) | n/a | 8% |
So your final odds of advancing the supercard unit is obtained by multiplying the values in the two tables above. For example, to assuming the supercard unit is at step 3, and the scores are at 36/72/150, the the odds of the 50V making it through mixer #2 and the spotting disc are .375 * .1 = 3.75% to step to position 4 (enable the first supercard) and .375 * .04-.08 = 1.5% - 3% for run-to-top. These numbers are sometimes further reduced by mixer #1 and the reflex unit.
Hold Feature Unit
This guy is a bit more straightforward. The odds to single step it via wire #31 bypasses the spotting disc, so the odds are determined purely by mixer #2, the score disc, mixer #1, and the reflex disc. However, the alternator cam switch 9C is enabling the circuit every other coin/credit played (the other half of the time the selection feature unit is getting the 50V instead).Run-to-hold via wire #41 happens 8% of the time, and an additional 4% can be added in via the reflex disc circuit through wire #98-2.
Run-to-double-hold is 4% (6%).
These numbers need to be multiplied by the score disc/mixer #2 values and the mixer #1/reflex factor to get the final odds. The good news is that when the scores are low and the reflex unit is pretty much reset, the hold feature enables pretty easily.
overview
cam/wiper release
drag arms and cam timing
score unit step-up
score unit step-up and feature proportioning
score unit step-up and mixer #1/reflex
feature unit step-up
trip relay activation
