Description: Midway Wall Games, 1972. Midway made four wall games that were basically the same game, with different themes and art work (Table Tennis being the exception.) The EM guts are essentially the same (with some minor differences.) These included Midway Bulls Eye (the most common wall game), Dart Champ, Golf Champ and Table Tennis (though Midway Table Tennis was slightly different in scoring, and had a motor speed control.) Note these game were also available with a stand, if the location did not want to mount the game on the wall. And the Midway Bullseye game depicted Hank and Iggy as the dart players - these were nicknames for the company's co-founders!

Dimensions: each games' wall box is slightly different in size, with Bulls Eye being the largest, and Dart Champ being the smallest. Golf Champ and Table Tennis are in the middle size-wise, and have identical sized wall boxes.
Bullseye: 53" x 32" x 8" thick.
Dart Champ: 39" x 26" x 6" thick.
Golf Champ: 46" x 30" x 6" thick.
Table Tennis: 46" x 30" x 6" thick.

All four of these Midway wall game models are two player games *only*. There is no option to play as a single player - though I guess a single player could play themselves, holding both of the remote controls. The length of the game is determined by the score. Basically the first player past 50/60/70/80/90 points ends the game (operator selectable with a Jones plug change.) The exception is Table Tennis, where missed volleys are counted as a point for the opposing player (just like ping pong.) In this case, the game ends at operator adjustable score (5 to 9), with highest won volleys being the winner.

Stock format for these games was *wired* remotes. If you paid extra, you could get the wireless remotes. The wireless setup had two remote control boxes (often missing or damaged) for each of the two players. They used RF (radio frequency) to communicate with the wall box. This board is easy to identify, as it has the exact same circuit on both sides of the board, which includes a round antenna choke. There is also a DC power supply with two diodes (half wave rectified) and a large blue capacitor. Some games (like Bullseye) have a third circuit board, where for example Golf Champ does not have that third board. On games that had wireless remotes, there are two plugs (one for each player) for the wired remote set up. Midway provided these connectors for both players if you wish to use hard wired controls, instead of using the RF wireless controls. Using old curly telephone or guitar cords for the wired, direct connecting momentary hand switches, works very well. Some folks have used inexpensive Amazon sold remote car starters, and wired this into the game for remote wireless control units (more info on that below.)

Also the coin box was also separate, but that was wired directly to the wall box. Again the coin box can be abandoned too, and replaced with a credit and start button (mounted on the bottom or side of the wall box.) Again, like the wired remotes, there's a plug connector for the coin box with four wires. A black 12v wire, a common ground wire, and a credit wire and a start game wire. The 12v black wire was used for a coin lock out coil.

The light bulbs for these games are 12v #1895 bulbs at .27amps each. Note #1891 (14v at .24amps) and #1893 (14v at .33amps) can also be used - there's no 6.3v #44 bulbs anywhere in this game. Also the game uses 70 to 80 of these bulbs! Converting to LED is not as easy as it sounds. Pinball LEDs have bridge rectifiers installed, so LEDs can be inserted either way (non-polorized.) But pinball LED makers don't make 12v LEDs with a Ba9s bayonette base... so you have to buy automotive LEDs. Which is fine, but these do not have bridge rectifiers installed, meaning they are polorized. So figure half of the lamp sockets Midway installed will be reversed, and your new LEDs won't work (unless you reverse the socket wiring.)

Finally the score reels for these games used the 120v Midway motorized reels, as used in Midway games during this period. I highly suggest installing a Thermal switch onto the winding of the forward score reel motor. These are Klixon Thermal Temperature Switches 160f degrees #7AM020B5. They can be attached with electrical tape directly to the motor's windings. If the game is left in the middle of a game, and the motor heats, this device will turn off the motor. Or you can install a timer mech on the Lock relay, which kind of does the same thing.

The relays in these games are all 12vdc. There's a small center tap 12v transformer and a rectifier board, converting the 12vac to 12vdc for all the relays using two large diodes (half wave rectified) and a 2000mfd capacitor. It's a good idea to replace that cap as it is 50 years old.

Note there's some minor differences in the four wall games. For example, Bullseye had two distinct players (Hank and Iggy), with different graphics on the backglass. Where Golf Champ and Dart Champ had one player on the glass (though it was only available to play with two players.) Table Tennis is a bit different, and frankly, the most interesting of the four games. The left and right players hit the ping pong ball back and forth, and as they hit the ball accurately, the speed increases, making it more difficult to hit. A missed ball hit scores a point for the other player. Also there's a knocker coil that sounds for every successful table tennis ball hit. Golf Champ also had sound, ringing a bell if a ten point green shot was made. Dart Champ also had a bell, if a bullseye was made. Midway Bullseye had no sound at all. Misses on all games except Table Tennis were indicated with a "too soon" or "too late" graphic on the backglass. The Table Tennis game also had a Midway motor speed control circuit board. This made the flasher motor speed up as the players would volley the ping pong ball for longer times.

Schematic for the Midway Bullseye is available here. Manual for the Midway Bullseye is available here. Schematic for the Midway Golf Champ is available here.

Adding an MP3 Player.
Because the games are without sound (except for perhaps a bell), adding a background sound MP3 player seems like a good idea. I did this using the Electronics123.com four button MP3 player. To use this on my Golf Champ game, I powered the board from the 12vdc banded diode lug of the Lockout coil for the +12 vots. For the negative side I used the other side of the Lockout coil. The Lockout coil only energizes while the game is playing, so this is an ideal power tap for the MP3 board. On the MP3 board I permanently wired button P1 to ground, and the Read.cfg file contains "1". This way when the board powers on, it will play my custom 001.mp3 file - I contructed this sound file from a movie clip of Happy Gilmore. Note the MP3 board has 4meg of built-in RAM, so this MP3 file fits with room to spare. The added sound is a good thing, as it makes the game a bit harder. Good players can time their shots using the sound of the Midway score motor. So the background sound makes that a bit difficult, and players must time their shots based on the moving lights of the game (as was intended.)

Free Play.
At least on Midway Golf Champ, the bottom most switch (the switch closest to the back wood of the game) on the credit score reel can be set permanently closed (either bent or with an alligator clip wire.) This switch has two wires: brown/white (plastic pvc insulator) and red/black (cloth insulator, where the red is usually faded to almost white.) The game will now be on free play if the "Games" reel switch with these two wires are permanently closed.

Replacing the Remote Controls.
These games often come up for sale, but are nearly always missing the two remote controls. Also sometimes inside the game the RF receiver board that reads the original remotes is missing or damaged. But no worries, for about $30 you can make a new set of remotes.

Amazon sells 12 volt Relay Wireless RF Remote Control Module with two 433Mhz Transmitter key fobs here. With some wiring this can be used, and it works well. There's a small 3 pin jumper on the remote receiver board - remove that and discard. Then wire the "A" N.O. relay switch for player1, and the "B" N.O. relay switch for player2 in the game (I used the diode terminal strip in the game, it's easy to tap into the player controls there.) The 12 volt power can be gotten from the Lock relay power (same power source used for the MP3 player mod.)

The remote boxes can also be purchased on Amazon here. Drill a hole for a momentary switch in the face of the box. Take the remotes apart, remove the metal button film from the remote circuit board, Then solder two wires to the "A" contacts (for player1), and the "B" contacts (for player2.) Mount the remote boards in their respective boxes and you now have two new player remote controls for the game. I have also created some Photoshop graphics for the Golf Champ box here.

There is one other option which can be deployed with this remote: have the game start function on one of the remotes. There are four relays on the remote receiver board, and we are already using two of them for the player 1&2 functions. Hence using the "C" relay and its N.O. contacts, you could start a game wireless on the remote. Of course you'll have to add another momentary switch to one of the remotes...

The problem with this is the remote receiver board's power has to be on all the time. So using the Lock relay power setup (as used with the MP3 board) will not work. Instead you'll need to power the remote board with the Black wire (+12v) and the Yellow wire (-12v.) On Golf Champ the slam switch has the yellow wire, and the black wire is pretty much the power wire to nearly all relays (I used the Credit relay's black wire, as it's closest to the slam switch.) This will power the remote receiver board as soon as the game is turned on. Additionally two wires can be connected from the remote receiver board's N.O. "C" relay terminal switch A&B, to the start button. This of course assumes you have a press button on one of the remotes connected to the "C" button terminals. With this the game will start up using the remote. If you do this, I would recommend having the game on Free Play (see above.)

The big issue with having a remote start button comes during game play... a user could accidentally (or purposely) press the game start button in the middle of a game, and restart the game. For that reason it may be prefered to have the start game function separate from the handheld remotes.

Adding a Timer.
One of the problems with these Midway games is if someone starts a game, and walks away, the game keeps running forever, and the score reel motor keeps spinning. With non-Midway games or pinball games, that's generally not a problem. But on these Midway games, the score motor will continue to run. And it could get hot and burn. Replacing/rebuilding a burnt motor is time consuming and frankly a lot of work. Above I talked about installing a thermal switch on the motor, which is a good idea. But there is another solution that is more elegant... Adding a timer board.

I bought a timer board off Ebay for less than $10 and found it works quite well. It powers at 12 volts (like the MP3 and Remote boards.) For the timer board use the power stream that the MP3 board is using (the Lock relay power.) This way, the timer board turns on right when a game is started, and counts down. After the set time, it Slam tilts the games, turning off power to the timer board (and the MP3 player, if you are using that), and of course ends the current game.

I tried a couple different timer boards, and they both worked well. One was set to two minutes maximum, which is probably a bit short. The other was more programmable and had a nifty countdown LED, so went with 180 seconds on that board. Then after the set time (be it two or three minutes), or players get to 50 points (which would end the game anyway), the game automatically ends. The timer relay's Normally Open switch is connected to the Vibration Slam switch. After 120 or 180 seconds, the timer board's Normally Open relay switch closes and slam tilts the Vibration switch, which ends the game. It works really well!

I have found that two minutes is a bit short, but that's plenty of time for two half drunk players to get through a game. Now admittedly, if they only get 2 points each for *every* shot, their game is more like four mintues. Hence I used the other timer board with the LED countdown, and set it to a three minute game. This timer addition is a great way to avoid risk for 50+ year old motors. Because someone starts a game and walks away, these Midway games can self destruct.