Are Sega and Mills mechs interchangeable ????

[cheeky]

I have a Sega Mad Money type slot machine on old 6D play. Will this mech fit in a Hi-Top?

Just wondering as I have heard that Sega and Mills mechs are interchangeable. Your thoughts please!

[margamatix]

I have a Mills Hi-Top and a Sega Diamond & Star and they have interchangeable mechanisms. There are some differences in the way in which some parts are cast and machined, and so it is possible to tell the two mechanisms apart by inspection, but either mechanism will fit either machine and work correctly. I have been told that this is the case for all same-size Mills and Sega bandits.

Incidentally, if you buy a Mills bandit, you should not pay top price for it if the mechanism has been replaced with a Sega mechanism.

[pennymachines]

Richard Bueschel explains the origin of Sega Hightops on page 228 of Lemons Cherries and Bell Fruit Gum.

Service Games of Nevada, an exclusive Mills distributor...Setting up in 1957 ... Taking Mills engineering drawings and samples...set up production in two contries that had no prior exposure to the coin machine industry ... (but) low manufacturing and labour costs... picked Japan and Spain, and proceeded to produce the Mills "Hightop" for American service bases throughout the world.

SE-GAs (the first two letters of Service Games) were about half the price of Mills.

He also points out that some "Hightop" clones came from Europe such as the German H R Volbracht DEUTSCHE BELL and post war TURA BELLS from Automatenbau Rhein-Ruhr and from Australia in the form of Apex Amusement Company "Hitops" and the APEX DELUXE.

Traditionally Mills command slightly higher values in Britain (presumably because they tend to be a bit earlier and are regarded as the "Real McCoy") but I'm not convinced that Mills are better made than Segas.

[margamatix]

I think Mills machines have the same street-cred which a Gottlieb pinball has and a Zaccharia doesn't. They are from the 40's and 50's US of A and have the smell of the Chevrolet and the soda fountain about them. They are pukka Americana.

As for the quality of the mechanisms, the Sega is at least as well made as the Mills, and dare I say it, possibly better.