Viza Manufacturing

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1 Introduction

Viza Manufacturing was a short-lived manufacturing company best known for its 1978 Viza War 2-player head-to-head cocktail table. Viza Manufacturing was contracted to build games by Allied Leisure.

2 Games

2.1 Fabulous 50's

Unfortunately, not much is known about this game.

2.2 War

This game is often referred to as "Viza War", rather than just "War".

It is a 2-player head-to-head cocktail pinball machine.

The playfield artwork is taken from a portion of Frank Frazetta's painting "The Berserker"

This game appears to include both Allied Leisure and GamePlan playfield parts, as well as various game-specific parts.

It is speculated that there were around 100 games manufactured.

This game went through a few playfield and cabinet variations during production.

Early games used an EM-style system and relays to operate the game, with small PCBs for the digital displays, and also used chimes for sound. Later games used just two boards--an MPU and power supply board, as well as digital displays and electronic sounds. Both games used digit LED segment displays. It is one of the first, if not the first example of LED digit segment displays being used instead of high-voltage glass segment displays. GamePlan Used LED digit segment displays in their first game, Sharpshooter, the following year.

Paperwork, manuals, and schematics have not surfaced for either variant of this game.

3 Technical Info

3.1 Boardset

3.1.2 Solid State Games

3.1.2.1 MPU

The MPU controls the game logic, switch inputs, sound, feature lamps, solenoids (including all 8 flippers), and scoring data.

Two interesting features that weren't seen again for at least a decade were computer-controlled flippers and indicator lights for fuses.

A good portion of the PCB is used by flipper controls. The 8 large tube-shaped resistors, 16 transistors, and a dozen ICs connected in some way to driving the transistors for the flippers. There is a game feature where the opposite player's flippers can be disabled for a short period of time by hitting a specific target, which explains the need for some of the additional logic for controlling the flippers.

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  MPU (Front)

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  MPU (Back)

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  MPU Factory Modification (Back)

3.1.2.2 Power Supply

The power supply is fairly straight-forward. It takes the voltages from the transformer, rectifies them, and filters them, before being supplied to the rest of the game.

One interesting feature that wasn't seen again for at least a decade was the indicator lights for fuses.

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  Power Supply (Front)

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  Power Supply (Back)

3.1.2.3 Regulator

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  Regulator (Front)

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  Regulator (Back)

3.1.2.4 Score Display

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  Score Display (Front)

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  Score Display (Back)

3.2 Game Theory & Operation

3.2.1 Solid State Games

The solid state games were configured for 2-player head-to-head gameplay only, with player 1 (side 1) being on the side with the coin door, and player 2 (side 2) being on the opposite side.

3.2.2 EM Games

The EM games were configured for either 1-player or 2-player gameplay (selectable using a toggle switch near the coin door), and with player 1 (side 1) being on the side with the coin door, and player 2 (side 2) being on the opposite side.

5 Parts Substitutions & Replacements

5.1 Electronics

5.1.1 Chips

• 5408 chips can be replaced by 7408 chips, but it is recommended to use 7408 or 74F08 chips, not 74LS08 since the input and output voltages are too low.

7 Documentation

Paperwork, manuals, and schematics have not surfaced for either the early or later variant of this game.

Datasheets are available from a variety of sources for the active electronics components.