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Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

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Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#21

Post by tannercollin »

Rolpa wrote: post #19
tannercollin wrote: post #13

Amazing, we are currently doing something very similar at our makerspace on a 1987 Road Kings pinball machine. We first replaced the original RAM chip with a IDT 7132 SA100P dual-port RAM that sits on a breadboard: https://pic.t0.vc/WPUO.jpg The other port is accessed by an ATmega 1284 to the left of it. Its code responds to simple serial commands and can read and write to the RAM. An ESP32 talks to the ATmega over U…

Can this be used on any System 11 game? And can it be used to read the current state of the alphanumeric display?

Yes, it should. As long as you can figure out the correct memory addresses to look at, you can tell the ATmega to send you the data.

Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#22

Post by sfbrian »

elipsitz wrote: post #11
808nrlnd303 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a pinhead! Actually on my way to a tournament right now. So yaaas please more info on this : ). Is the. Openpinball framework involved in this?

Nope, I actually hadn't even heard of Open Pinball before. Looks cool though! It'd be nice if there were an open standard for pinball machines talking to score servers. For this project I had to do everything custom. If people started putting ESP32s on their pinball controllers there might be some actual demand for something like that.

We actually have an open API for anybody that wants to contribute live score data. https://wiki.scorbit.io/ Give me a ping at brian [at] scorbit . io and I can hook you up with a license and a dev token.

Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#24

Post by vikingerik »

elipsitz wrote: post #17
tannercollin wrote: post #13

Amazing, we are currently doing something very similar at our makerspace on a 1987 Road Kings pinball machine. We first replaced the original RAM chip with a IDT 7132 SA100P dual-port RAM that sits on a breadboard: https://pic.t0.vc/WPUO.jpg The other port is accessed by an ATmega 1284 to the left of it. Its code responds to simple serial commands and can read and write to the RAM. An ESP32 talks to the ATmega over U…

Awesome! I really like the idea of scanning an RFID card to identify players.

Modern pinball machines already do this (not RFID, it's an optical reader for a QR code), implemented by the major manufacturer Stern Pinball. They have internet connectivity to log scores and achievements and tournament challenges and leaderboards. It adds a pretty cool dimension to the pinball scene.

Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#25

Post by vikingerik »

shanebellone wrote: post #23

This is very cool. I wonder if niche arcades could make a comeback with something like this. Imagine global competitions between clubs competing for rank, recognition, and reward.

They already have, for pinball in particular. Stern Pinball implemented a connectivity system for new machines (it reads your QR code), and there are many arcade locations that use that to track and display scores and achievements and leaderboards. Most mid-sized cities in the US now have at least one brewery or arcade with this running now. It's mostly particular to each location, but some organizers use it for global competitions as well.

https://insider.sternpinball.com/

Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#27

Post by shove »

I interfaced an ESP8266 with the switch matrix to do much less impressive things on more modern pins so I’m kindof blown away. It’s tricky piggybacking the signal lines and I feel a little better hearing I wasn’t the only one who got it 99% working and started wondering if maybe my microcontroller was underpowered for the job.

Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#28

Post by pathartl »

mulmen wrote: post #20
soupfordummies wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pinball community as a whole has been doing really cool things like this for years. Custom soundtracks for older games and now more recently we're seeing total rewrites of the rules/coding flashed onto chips or new PCBs like this. Super cool stuff.

I have a "reset board" for WPC games that is many years old at this point. It piggybacks on the power connector from the power board to the system board and steps down the unregulated 12v supply to power the 5v rail, bypassing the power board's 5v which can become unreliable as voltage regulators age and fail, triggering a watchdog on the system board that causes a reset. It is a plug-in mod that is reversible (I act…

Yep, friends with the guy from Pinball Basement who makes the System 11 boards. It was actually done by licensing the designs from Williams, so that's cool. They're still quite expensive, but it's great from a preservation perspective.

Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#29

Post by mulmen »

pathartl wrote: post #28
mulmen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a "reset board" for WPC games that is many years old at this point. It piggybacks on the power connector from the power board to the system board and steps down the unregulated 12v supply to power the 5v rail, bypassing the power board's 5v which can become unreliable as voltage regulators age and fail, triggering a watchdog on the system board that causes a reset. It is a plug-in mod that is reversible (I act…

Yep, friends with the guy from Pinball Basement who makes the System 11 boards. It was actually done by licensing the designs from Williams, so that's cool. They're still quite expensive, but it's great from a preservation perspective.

I was talking about the DumbAss boards: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dumbass-test-and-rep.... Are those the same as Pinbal Basement?

Re: Connecting a 1980s Pinball Machine to the Internet

#30

Post by mulmen »

shanebellone wrote: post #23

This is very cool. I wonder if niche arcades could make a comeback with something like this. Imagine global competitions between clubs competing for rank, recognition, and reward.

TBH I'm not a fan of comparing scores on different physical machines. Every pin is different. It is still fun to see scoreboards on local machines or to find the really out-there scores some people put up, but it's not like a video game where everyone is on equal footing.

To me that is part of the appeal of pinball. It is a local, physical, tangible thing.

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