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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 UART and frequently asks it to dump 16 bytes at 0x00A0 to tell the game state and player number, and 0x0100 to get the four player scores. When it detects a new game, it offers the player a chance to scan their RFID member card and keeps track of their score:
https://pic.t0.vc/UQYK.jpg
After the game is complete, any players who have scanned in get their scores uploaded to our member portal where we can sort them by personal best:
https://pic.t0.vc/MZGY.png
We found there were sometimes read collisions and the ATmega would block the pinball machine from writing to RAM which would cause crashes or odd behavior. The latest version uses two RAM chips, one acting as a shadow copy -- similar to yours.
Eventually we'll make a PCB for it and open source everything. Currently only half the code (the ESP32) is on Github: https://github.com/Protospace/pinballwizard
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SaaSHub
SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives
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Just edited the post to have a link to the GitHub repo: https://github.com/elipsitz/internet-connected-pinball
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BallySternOS
Discontinued Arduino-based Operating System for Stern MPU-100 and Bally AS-2518-17 pinball machines. This library should be unpacked into a folder for a particular machine's implementation (Example: Stars2020).
https://github.com/BallySternOS/BallySternOS
ballysternos is a really neat arduino project that sits on the debug header of old bally and stern mpu boards. the arduino holds the 6800 in halt from the start and re-implements game code
i've seen at least two of these in the wild, one in a Bally Eight Ball running "Eight Ball Plus" code, and another in a Stern Meteor running "Meteor 2021". both add some neat super-features and game modes, the Meteor has an accompanying wav trigger board, speakers, and amp to add wav sound effects as well -- anyone who loves Meteor will appreciate (or hate) that it no longer screams your spinner value in a high pitched tones.
