Thanks for posting this... I've got a Strange Science and the first thing I did after watching this video is go look it the sound board still had C30 (at around 7:30 in the video) and yes C30 was still there!

So that was my Sunday afternoon, take out the sound board, unsolder C30 and reinstall. I suppose you could just snip it out but I wanted it to look neat. Anyway the board back in now and everything still works.

Potentially you've saved me quite a bit of money if C30 had failed and took out the speech chip. So thanks again.

Also great work with the videos, the banter might be an acquired taste but the information shared is invaluable and your enthusiasm for all things pinball shines through in every video.

Edit: See what happened to U7 in the before and after pics. The little label fell off as I was unsoldering C30 exposing the EPROM erase window. Not sure if the 100W light bulb in the back box could have erased the memory over an extended period of time but put a small piece of electrical tape over anyway then re-glued on the label. Also noted that one of the labels was about to fall off on a MPU EPROM so did the same there just in case.

IMG_1368 (resized).JPGIMG_1369 (resized).JPGIMG_1370 (resized).JPGIMG_1375 (resized).JPG

just picked one of these up

I quite enjoy playing SS, make sure the leaf switches in the 3 pop-bumpers are not too wide, so that it's not impossible to progress the voltage and thus the pace of the game, bright coloured LED's, get the topper working and you're on to a winner.

It may not the the most sophisticated game around, and the build quality is not as high on some other manufacturers of that time, but when it gets going SS is quite a fast game and a massive amount of fun.

Hope you enjoy it.

I am trying to modify the sound ROM for Strange Science, made by Bob Libbe in 1986 (written for the General Instrument AY-3-8910 / Yamaha YM2149 PSG - Programmable Sound Generator chip, typical for arcade games of that era).

The sound board on this Bally/Midway game is the Turbo Cheap Squeak - A080-91855-E000.

Files can be opened as .fxm or .zxay ("zx" is from Spectrum-ZX, "ay") with tracker software by Sergey Bulba, but the sound is not parsed correctly.

My goal is to mute the 9 constantly-repeating background sounds, or to set them at least to "play once" (instead of "constant repeat").
They are linked to the 9 voltage levels (from 100 to 900) of the volt meter, that makes a "U" in the upper central playfield: levels get higher by hitting 13 times the 3 pop bumpers, then background sound change, and lights on the playfield cycle faster.

Those sounds are annoying and gloomy, and scare our two children while playing.
If you deactivate the background sounds in settings, you loose many other good sounds that are linked to other interactions (mainly the 5-balls multiball preamble and "strange science" speeches in various forms of pitch and velocity, and those are by far the best sounds for this game).

Any help in getting the correct software, the modified ROM file, or straight a new ROM chip will be much appreciated.

Domitilla from Italy