Save real Pinball. Please.

[pinballgeek]

In late 1999 the Williams Pinball manufacturing company decided stop production. Higher profits were generated from the slot machine manufacturing division. This decision may have been encouraged by (evil) market analysts stating the pinball division was dead weight. They had just launched the most advanced pinball machine ever and it was a success. Williams was making a profit but it was to little to late. The two Pin2K games made have simple software loaded on to a "Prism" card that acts as the hard drive. Prism cards were used for speed and reliability. These games are Revenge from Mars (RFM) and Star Wars Episode 1 (SWE1). The pins use a standard off the shelf motherboard. Williams used a Cyrix 5520 chipset and all systems must have this specific set. No other versions made before or after will work. The motherboard interfaces with the power driver board (operates all lights and solenoids) by a standard parallel port

I restore pinball machines but this is over my head. Is there a way to transfer the software to a standard PC or laptop and operate the pins from it?

Thank you,

[Nick Evan]

If you say that it only works on one revision of a specific MOBO, the change is that they integrated some sort of copy-protection. I think your best shot would be asking Williams for more detail or maybe even the sourcecode (allthough I doubt that they'll give it)

[pinballgeek]

Episode 1 is controlled by an operating system called XINA. XINA is unique in it's command structure (ordinary UNIX / DOS commands do not work). A total of 99 XINA commands are available to view, alter, and execute the parameters surrounding the game.
XINA is actually an application layer on top of PC-XINU, a multithreaded operating system originally created by Douglas Comer. The legal guys at Williams felt that this was the better choice over Linux because they didn't have to share. More info is available http://www.pinrepair.com/pin2000/xina.htm. The license was purchased by some awad ausie that is keeping a tight lid on most of the Williams products he holds the rights to. He has promised the reproduction of some of the standard parts but asks an arm and a leg. If and when he ever comes up with a "Prism card" he wants 1400 bucks for it. Enough said.

[JobMatchNow]

Pinball is a classic,never gets old!

[pinballgeek]

Amen Brother! Thank Gary Stern for manufacturing the only new pinball machines left in the World. Gary, I know you had your problems with Bally but maybe you could take a look at what they did with Pin2k and make it better.

[pinballgeek]

There is hope with an emulator in the works by some hard core pinball enthusiasts at http://www.bigguyspinball.com/nucore.shtml . The system is tagged NuCore and has been displayed at a few exclusive shows to prove it's not just hype. Running on the Linux platform and operating on a standard PC. It is also shown at YouTube. YeeHa! Thank you for your contributions and comments.