A few folks have seen some posts from me on the pinballcontrollers forum about my F14 custom development "Second Sortie". As I have hit a natural pause at the moment (waiting for the new F14 playfields to be released), I thought I'd start a thread here on pinside with some background, current status, ideas and other information for anyone who is interested to follow along.

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I discovered that it was possible to write new software for your pinball machine using P-ROC for the very first time around 3 years ago. I'd bought a Bride of Pinbot and was searching for more information on Williams ROM versions when I discovered that the Dutch Pinball guys had started to experiment with a P-ROC and were thinking about extending the software. So I bought a P-ROC and a DMD display and followed along.

I soon decided though that I wanted to develop something myself. Although natively designed to work with WPC and Stern SAM, on the P-ROC forum Steven had come up with a way to interface the P-ROC to older System 11 machines. I replicated this design and got my F14 Tomcat under P-ROC control. Trying to spread the “P-ROC Sys11 love”, I then designed a driver board which can replace the existing Sys11 MPU and allow a much simpler P-ROC connection.

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With the WPC and Stern setup, one of the great things is that Gerry and Eli did a lot of work with pinmame to allow it to control the P-ROC. That means that while you develop your custom code, you can still run the original Williams code via pinmame, meaning you don't need to be without a game when you want. So I picked up the pinmame source and extended it to also allow control of System 11 machines. That means I can play a regular game of Tomcat without needing to put the original MPU back in again. I did write some basic new code for Tomcat, but events in life overtook and it all went on the backburner. A couple of older videos here, showing pinmame control and then some basic custom code....

I should explain why I chose to work with an older System 11 machine, and why the F-14 Tomcat in particular. With more modern machines, the software is generally already very complex, with display animations, video modes and so on and coming up with improvements to those is not an easy task.

The System 11 platform is a great generation of machines, but had some limitations in terms of how much software code could be squeezed in and of course only used alphanumeric displays. So coming up with new ideas for game play, rules and putting in a DMD seemed the way to go.

I got hooked on pinball at university back in the late 1980s. The university bar had a games room, with a bunch of pool tables and a line of 7 or 8 pinball machines. I remember when F-14 Tomcat turned up and I don't want to even try and think about how much money I put in the coin slot while it was there for a year or so.

The gameplay on a Tomcat is fast and furious, a real adrenalin rush when you want a game. Game times are often quite short, but when you manage to get to the jackpot it's really impressive. I want to keep the speed of the original game and in some ways make it faster (read on later about game ideas and hardware), but give it a deeper ruleset and add a dot matrix display.

When I heard that new playfields are in the pipeline, I decided that while waiting for that I'd get the cabinet restored and made into a one-off. Both inside and outside were in poor condition and Jady had offered on the P-ROC forum to do me a special. This was the result - you can see the yellow in the original design has been replaced by a blue colour-matched to the playfield plastics. Also some of the orange from the playfield has been added to the backbox sides. The "Second Sortie" game name is also included.

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I had the new design printed up on laminated vinyl by a local pinhead that has a print shop. As mentioned in a previous post, this design is a one-off, please don't ask for a copy as I'm intending on staying the right side of PPS (please don't make this an IP-Flame-Fest-Thread!).

For the metalwork I decided to get some powdercoating done. It was the first time my local powder shop had done candy work (they've not been open long) and they made me promise never to bring any more! But I'm pleased with how it turned out. Had the legs, rails, apron, shooter housing and the habit rails done..

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When it came to restoring the cab, I don't have the skills, tools, time or space to do a proper job. I'm happy working electronics, programming, mechanical repairs and so on but woodwork is just not my thing. So I sent this off to Manny at Woodtech (I'm in the UK). Here are a few pictures of how it looked when it left here :

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And this is how it came back......

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The picture of the cab front shows a different door, I've actually fixed up the original and put it back on since the picture was taken.

Here is a close-up of the head decal.

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Manny also did a lot of work to strengthen the cab. Here's a shot of underneath..

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While he was doing that, I did some work on the speaker panel. The LEDs in the speakers I will be able to switch on and off under software control. Think "Afterburner" :

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So, now you can see why I want to wait with the refurb until the new playfields are available; anything other than a new one wouldn't look right in this "new" cab. So now while I'm waiting for those, in the next post or two I'll outline what I'm thinking about in terms of software. I'm not so far with that yet, so once I've explained where I'm at any other suggestions are welcome!!!

The metalwork is powdercoated, not painted, so is really tough although I'm sure if you put your mind to it a good hard scrape with a screwdriver would make a mess. I've seen a few other folks powder coat F14 habit rails so I'm hoping they hold up. Time will tell once it's all back together and being played!

Actually I just sold the Black Knight 2000. I can squeeze 3 machines into my game room, but 2 is a lot more comfortable. Even with the F14 out of action, the BK2K wasn't getting any use so it's being replaced with a machine that'll get played a lot more - LOTR is in the house from the end of this week!

I agree that BK2K would be an interesting project (with or without DMD) - it would be good to try and stop it being a one-shot game (if you can perfect that right flipper to left ramp to upper playfield shot you can play almost forever) and make some objectives on the lower playfield compulsory before the locks can be made. Maybe even disable the upper playfield flipper until you've "earned" it somehow. But I'll leave that for someone else

I'm planning on making a couple of (reversible) modifications to the games hardware once I've got the new playfield. The main one will be adding an auto launch to the ball shooter, so the ball can be launched automatically by the game in addition to being shot manually by the standard plunger.

With the F14, the thing that interrupts the flow most (in my opinion, yours may vary) is that the game has to stop any time a new ball needs launching into play. That is particularly noticeable when playing a multiplayer game - if you've locked 3 balls before draining and the next player gets a multiball and leaves the locks empty, you have to manually plunge 3 balls back into the locks before you get to play again properly. With an autolaunch we can get that done without manual intervention or maybe even relock the balls during the bonus sequence for the previous player.

The other thing I'd like to use the autolaunch for is to keep multiball running for longer if we want to - if a ball drains we can kick it right back into play. We can also start a multiball without needing to actually lock all the balls first, maybe something like a "Scramble all Jets" instant multiball kind of thing.

Another thing I'm planning to add is the ability to switch off the standard white general illumination (GI) and light the playfield red instead. For that I'm intending to use some of this flexible LED strip, some hidden under existing playfield plastics/features, some a bit more visible.

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By switching the GI off and the red lighting on, I'm hoping to kind of get a "Stealth" or "Nightflight" mode going. Take a look at this and you'll get the idea :

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The other thing I want to do is cosmetic too. That boring "radar" insert in the middle of the playfield?

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At the moment, on a standard machine, it just has some green lighting behind it which is always on, plus some flashers. I'm planning to put an RGB LED ring behind it. It can either just glow green so it'll look like the game normally does, or I can switch it to red for the above-mentioned "Stealth" mode, or I can have it actually sweep like a radar. I have it controlled by a little Arduino device, which in turn is controlled by the P-ROC. Here's a short video of it working on the bench. Since this video was shot I've got the "sweep" action a lot smoother and looking better, I'll catch that in another post sometime.

I was originally thinking about trying to add a divertor at the top right of the playfield, to make shots destined for the upkicker divert left and into the bonus multiplier loop. The idea being that game play would have no interruptions at all when the divertor didn't want balls to get kicked up onto the ramps. But I can't see a nice way to do that without drilling a bunch of holes, so I think I'll leave that alone for now.

That's all the hardware changes I'm thinking of at the moment on the playfield, but maybe some other ideas will come as we go forward.

I should include a short shameless plug for the P-ROC at this point

If you're interested in writing new software for your existing WPC/Stern SAM/Sys11 (and Data East, but we didn't test much yet) pinball machine, or you're thinking about building your own custom pinball machine from scratch, head on over to the pinballcontrollers site.

www.pinballcontrollers.com

We also have a fairly active forum with a lot more details on what folks are doing and where you can post ideas, ask for help or just generally chit-chat.

www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum

If you're specifically interested in System 11 with the P-ROC, there is a summary thread here :

http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?topic=542.0

A number of folks also have a sub-forum for their own work, they're here :

http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?board=17.0

Within that is a section for my Tomcat, although at the moment a lot of that is related to some older work. I'll be posting more technical details there as coding gets under way again.

I forgot the other hardware modification I'm planning to make. At the bottom of the playfield are 7 white "Kill" inserts. Alpha, Bravo etc. I'm planning to put RGB lights behind those and maybe turn them into modes. Maybe have an insert light up blue when it's available but not played yet, green when in play and red when completed. Or something like that. I know how I want to get that working but haven't tested it out yet. More pics and details when I get that far..

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I have toyed with the idea, let's see how that goes. It should be easy enough to add near the end of development, if there are some good places to tie it in. Pulling Gs is good though!

That's one thing that won't happen unfortunately - I really am no artist, so I'll be taking the stock new playfield when they finally get done. I also quite like the yellow on the playfield, as it happens.

My ideas for how the gameplay will work are still very much on the drawing board. I'll be posting my ideas soon, but one of the main reasons for starting this thread is so that anyone that has an idea can throw it into the mix. I'm sure that not all the ideas will make it in, but there are a lot of creative thinkers out there that I'd love to tap into. More about that later!

Having the autolaunch will make staging balls while other things are going on easier for sure. I can see where filling the locks during single ball play would be a good thing to do (or even the objectives of a mode - hit the spinner a certain number of times to launch and lock a ball, then hit something to get a multiball underway).

Lots of ideas, keep them coming please! Rick - need that playfield

I'm dying to see it too, but until the new repro playfields are made I don't have one to put it on! My old playfield has been stripped of parts ready for the swap.....

JoelOmatic - some great ideas there, thanks! I'm going to be starting over with the software, so initially will be looking to get the base game code and rules in place with just placeholders for sounds/music/graphics which can be improved later. Last time around I spent a long time on the "frills" and the gameplay never got far as a result. Want to reverse that approach this time!

Thanks Robert. Wish I could claim the credit for the cabinet but it's all other folks work. Jady (Swinks) with the decal design, Jim printed the vinyl and Manny did the magic to the cabinet itself. I'll be doing the playfield swap myself though, so I won't feel so bad.

I had thought about this too but will probably give it a miss although it would be cool to see. The pop bumper isn't great up there, but it does make mean the hitting of the targets up there is more skill based which lends itself better to what I want to do with the software. If the slingshot and pop bumper got crazy up there then the targets would get hit too easy. Although having a sling which could be enabled/disabled under software control might be interesting. Something for another day though!

Jady - awesome work on the graphics - if you ever decide to dip your toes in the P-ROC world and need one of my Sys11 driver boards, give me a shout. I owe you

It's only the coin door that changed, not the decal. Manny put in a spare coin door just to take that photo. The machine now has the original Sys11 door installed but I don't have a photo at the moment. The only other thing on the front of the machine that's different to 'stock' is the illuminated start button. Those white plastic buttons on Sys11 machines are just ugly!

I'm not intending to have any Williams IP in this work, so I don't think Rick needs to be involved especially as the cab decals are only intended for my machine. I have a proper day job so this is just a hobby; selling kits and getting involved in all the support of that just doesn't appeal. However, everything that I'm doing (the P-ROC setup, software, auto launcher, DMD etc) will be written up here and on the pinballcontrollers site and be freely available if someone else want to copy it at their own risk. I'd suggest waiting though until my F14 looks even partly done software-wise as this might be quite a long term project.

Me too, although like a lot of folks I'm fitting this in around work, wife, kids. I also need the new playfields to come out

I did consider that briefly, but as LongJohns says that's a lot of extra wiring and new sockets. With the red LED strip I should be able to daisy-chain them all together and just have them on or off (although I might need to have the brightness software adjustable, but that can be later). The strips are easy to mount and I think can be hidden up nicely. If I wanted to be able to make the GI all kinds of different colours that would be one thing, but I only want to switch to red. LED strip is cheap too.

Well the old playfield is all in pieces and stripped so I can't use it. However a couple of folks (thanks Michael and Dave) are working on adapting an F14 Visual Pinball table to interface with the P-ROC pyprocgame framework, so I might be able to get started on a virtual Tomcat. If that works out I'll post details of it here......

This is going to speed things up....... it's not 100% working yet, but MOcean has been working on the bridge from pyprocgame to Visual Pinball. This means that you can develop your custom machine that will eventually be running on a physical machine via a P-ROC but using a virtual environment instead. So I can work on the game code without needing to actually sit in front of the machine.

Still a few things to fix yet (and the auto plunger/launcher to add) but wanted to post this video so you can see what I'm talking about. This is Visual Pinball displaying an old version of my custom code running in attract mode. Lamps working, DMD display running. My screen capture software isn't great so the video looks a bit 'lumpy' and the capture of the DMD isn't very good, but in reality it's nice and smooth just like the real game. I'll try and get a better video tomorrow, but you get the idea.....

A million million thanks to MOcean for working on this, I wouldn't have had a clue where to start with VP!

Ah, now I understand! Sven = Steven. I didn't know that was your name on pinside!!!!! Your name will be in the attract mode for the new code too

It kind of is already, but I don't pretend to understand much about it. I think it only works without much tweaking for WPC machines, Sys11 ones need some work. It can also require some rework to the .vbs code behind the VP table.

The pinballcontrollers forum has some threads on the technical side of it : http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?board=23.0

And the wiki has a page on setting it up : http://pinballcontrollers.com/wiki/Pyprocgame_vp

I know MOcean is planning (some day, among his zillion other projects) to get the whole process better documented, but in essence the answer is "yes, the bridge is available".

Yeah, it does look good. Only thing wrong is that the 2 siderails are somewhat different shades, but with the lighting in my game room you don't notice it. The powder shop I used (here in the UK) is a fairly new operation and they hadn't done candy before, and I didn't notice the difference until I got it home. It took them weeks to get it done in the first place and I can't be sending it back for weeks again to colour match better. I'm happy with how it looks!!

A better video capture, with some limited gameplay from the old code I wrote. Still a couple of glitches in the VP table to work out, like the shooter lane filling up when the VUK is hit, but the possibility of custom coding in a virtual setup is almost here !!

Nope, no launch button, just a regular plunger on the front of the machine. The launch is one of those that allow manual and automatic, like on Junkyard and others.. Coil 19 is currently unused on F14, the autolaunch will be wired to that.

Certainly does

So.... I think this virtual development environment is up and running! MOcean added the autolauncher to the table and it's connected to the currently unused coil driver 19. I made a small change to the code to fire the autolauncher when the ball lands in the shooter lane, so basically it autolaunches right away.

In this video (best viewed fullscreen) you can see the autolauncher working, plus I'm showing the window which shows logged events which makes debugging easier for sure. I've since dialled the autolauncher back a bit though, as one of the balls actually falls off the rail at the top! The framerate on the video isn't perfect by any means as my poor laptop struggles to record it fast enough, but in reality the game plays nice and smooth on the screen.

Now I need to spend some time looking around some other folks code and deciding which one I like the structure of most so I can borrow it. Then some time with pen and paper thinking through the ruleset. I'll post the ruleset as it develops to this thread, comments and suggestions as we go along for the ride will be welcome!!

Also a quick re-post for anyone that didn't see the F14 tech chart I did a while back. Need to find a good size to print it and attach inside the cab.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f-14-tomcat-technical-chart-attached#post-1424128

Cool idea. Just been having a poke around under the F14 playfield but I don't think there is enough space to mount a magnet under there. A magnet big enough to drag a ball a good distance across the playfield might also make all my screwdrivers fly across the room With the autolaunch though I can make the ball "lock-on" to one of the 3 locks on the playfield. Thanks for posting, keep the ideas coming!

Should do as far as I know. I'll let MOcean answer this though as he's the clever one in that department!

I'm already intending to have a radar "sweep" option in that insert, I hadn't considered actually trying to control it more than that. Should be possible though, maybe have it track a moving lit target or something like that. Nice idea.

Cool too. With the autolaunch a variety of ball save options become available.

thanks for the suggestions!

Oooh. I was about to post the basic ruleset I'd come up with to start getting input from folks, now you've gone and given me some more ideas - thanks!!!

As for video mode, I'm no graphics guru so I'll probably leave that for the moment and maybe come back to it later. The other ideas are cool for sure and I'll put them into my draft ruleset.

As for playing the original game, absolutely. When the F14 is powered on it'll boot into a game selection screen on the DMD. Choose either the new "Second Sortie", or choose to run the original game via pinmame (and select whichever ROM version you want too). If you run an original via pinmame, the autolaunch won't come into play and the game will play just like normal. The alphanumeric displays get emulated on the DMD, it looks like this :

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I'll try and get a draft ruleset up in the next day or so...

Wowser. That's certainly not on my list short term (or even mid term!) but in theory it should be possible. Maybe someone else will take this on - all my code and hardware changes are going to be documented so it can be further adapted and changed.

Nope. As mentioned a bit further up, this is 100% just a hobby thing (I have a full time "real" job too!). I'm documenting it here as I know a bunch of people like to read along about this kind of thing.

That said, all of the code I'm writing will be available to anyone that wants it, and the hardware mods (DMD, autolaunch, a few RGB LEDs) will all be documented here too. So if the project gets to a point (that will take a while) where someone wants to convert their F14 then they should be able to do so (at their own risk!). It won't be using any original Williams IP so it can be freely done.

Mark

OK, time to throw on here my ideas for rules/gameplay. When I attacked the software first time around (almost 2 years back) I just waded in without any structure and quickly got into a mess. It was a good way to learn the framework, but a lousy way to code. As any programmer knows, having a half-reasonable specification at the start of coding is essential, even if it changes once you're underway.

I know some folks here have a great imagination (some cool ideas already on this thread), so if you have some thoughts on what I'm listing here please let me know (positive and negative), and if you have other ideas please do so. No promises to adopt any particular idea, but if I do your name will go in the credits

First some groundwork. Initially I want to get the game up and running, before adding the bells and whistles later. So fancy light shows, DMD animations and so on can have a placeholder and then I can come back and make them better later. Same goes for fancy menus for options and settings (difficulty level and so on). I'll code some things to be configurable, but the menu system to actually set things will come later.

From a hardware perspective it's a regular F14, with the following changes :
- Autolauncher/plunger in addition to the regular manual plunge.
- DMD display instead of the alphanumeric
- 'Hidden' red GI from LED strips, can be switched on and off under control
- The radar insert in the centre can be white, green, red or a 'radar' green sweep.
- The 7 'KILL' inserts at the bottom of the playfield can be red, green, blue or white.

I'm planning to implement a ball-save feature, so if you drain within a certain number of seconds a replacement ball will be autolaunched. The flight insurance lamp can flash while it's active.

I think that while non of the modes themselves are running, the standard build towards a multiball more or less like now can run. Collect T-O-M-C-A-T, lock the ball. Do that 3 times, get multiball etc.

So then to extend the game with modes. 7 of them, one for each of the 'KILL' inserts. Maybe consider each KILL as a mission. First a mode needs to be earned, then it needs to be started. I'm thinking that lighting the 1 thru 3 and 4 thru 6 lamps in the middle of the playfield. Difficulty setting could mean they need to be got in sequence. Once all 6 lamps are lit, a random one of the 7 modes (KILLS) starts to flash. To start a mode you need to shoot the bonus loop and then lock the ball top left within a couple of seconds. That then starts the mode. Or something like that. Or a different idea

Here's then my first ideas for what the modes do.... (thanks to LongJohns and Pinpatch for some of this already!). Some of these are not really very well thought through yet....

ALPHA – Shoot multiple Bonus X loops to evade incoming missiles. Need to evade missile within small number of seconds otherwise you're hit and the mode ends. Each time you evade a missile, you get a little less time to evade the next one, up to a maximum number of evades before you 'win' the mode.

BRAVO – 2 ball multiball. Score jackpot by locking one ball in the VUK and then getting Yagov with the other ball within 2 seconds or so. After 2 seconds the VUK ejects and you have to try again. Each successive Yagov hit increases jackpot.

CHARLIE – Precision shooting. Trying to work out something with this. We have the 6 lamps on the divertor section top left (3 red, 3 blue). Thinking of having them cycle around. Also having the 2 divertors opening and closing. Pressing both flippers launches the ball from the VUK lock. Got to have the ball end up in the lit diverter or something.

DELTA - Evade mode (on your 6): 2 ball timed continuous multi-ball. Controlled lamps all off except ones for this mode. Use TOM CAT (just the top ones) lights for 'evades' - have them on/flashing until target are hit - using the TOM CAT targets. xx amounts of hits (skill level dependent) light hole drop lane for Escape. Hit hole drop to complete mission/mode or time runs out. Amount of time to complete can also be skill level dependent.

ECHO – Avoid missile mode - 'missile' is launched at plane at random times and you have to make shots to avoid it hitting you on the dmd. Ramps could be hard turns,stand up targets drop flares/ chaff all of which is shown as animations on dmd. If you avoid missile you get a mini jackpot/score. Would be timed. Nothing to stop multiple missiles at once to really focus hitting shots.

FOX – Moving target shot. One of the 12 TOMCAT lamps comes on, and then starts to randomly move to the left or right to simulate an enemy trying to evade you. I might be able to get the centre radar insert to track the moving lamp too, but that will be later I think. The lamp can switch from bottom right T target to the bottom left T, so effectively the lit lamps can circle around the playfield. You have to hit the flashing target. It can get quicker as you get better.

GOLF - Pursue mode (or some better cool name): 2 ball timed continuous multi-ball. Controlled lamps all off except ones for this mode. Use kill lights for 'hits' - have them on/flashing until target are hit. Using the rescue and kill targets - hitting a random lit one marks as hit. xx amounts of hits (skill level dependent) light Jagov lane for kill. Hit Jagov kicker to complete mission/mode or time runs out. Amount of time to complete can also be skill level dependent.

WIZARD mode – if all the above modes are completed, the wizard mode comes up. Four ball multiball, GI switches over to red. Something like the current F14 multiball but timed – a ball only gets locked towards the jackpot for a certain period of time before it's ejected and you need to lock it again. Or something.

I like LongJohns idea of doing something else with the VUK lock. It could be lit sometimes for a random award of some kind.

Also the KILL lights at the bottom during general play...
- Lamp flashing white – mode available but not played yet
- Lamp flashing blue – mode in play (if the mode doesn't need the lamps)
- Lamp steady red – mode played but not completed
- Lamp steady green – mode played to completion.

Running all modes to completion could give some extra mode or something.

That's it for the moment. Comments and ideas all welcome

Mark

I'm wanting to have some of the modes have a time element to them, like a number of machines do. Rather than just have something on the DMD counting it down, I'm going to mount something like this on the apron. At the moment I've only got 7-seg numeric displays, but I'll get some alphanumeric ones. Gives some other options for interacting with the player too - could shows number of bombs still left, fuel, enemies etc. Controlled via a small Arduino microcontroller, which is also going to control the central radar "sweep" lighting and the RGB "Kill" inserts.

The video has some strange artefacts in, my camera doesn't seem to like filming the displays for some reason. I have the numbers start to flash when the level gets below 1000, I'll tie up some kind of klaxon warning sound with it probably. Using the LED display in the apron also gives the machine a little bit of a retro look too which will be cool.

Also just wanted to check that this little Arduino would handle the 7 seg displays and the 7 RGB insert lights, so I threw together a little attract mode to check it can keep up. Runs absolutely no issues at all, I had to slow it down some

Those little Adafruit Neopixels I'm using for the inserts are really bright. In this clip they are dialled down to half brightness!

Yeah, I saw those. The numeric displays in the video are Adafruit with I2C. The 2 distributors for Adafruit in the UK don't stock the alpha displays but I've asked if they can get them. Ordering just a couple of displays from the US is kinda cost prohibitive...

So, the start-over is underway. The code I wrote a couple of years back was useful for learning as I'd never used Python before, but terribly structured and difficult to build on. So in starting over I decided to look around at what other folks had written and see which "clicked" best with me.

I ended up stealing the code that Scott Danesi has written for his "Earthshaker Aftershock" project. I like the way it's put together and it's also for a Sys11 machine which means he's coded for the A/C select relay. The other advantage for me is that Scott's code (although it does a heck of a lot) is still fairly early on in it's development, meaning I don't have to hack too much of it out to get it working for F14.

So after a fair bit of chopping and some VP help from MOcean again, I now have the new framework for Second Sortie in place and can start building properly, while using Visual Pinball to test it out. Having the base framework in place is really important, it basically means you have the shell of a game in place (DMD, lamps, switches, coils all working) and can then start to code up the nice stuff. I've also used some code that Koen published to make the DMD display on the screen look more like the real thing.

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More to come....

Hi Bikko,

The code will be up on Github fairly soon, once I've ironed some wrinkles out of the base structure. In terms of having other folks actually contribute on the coding side it's something I hadn't considered yet. Let me first get the game to a point where it plays, scores and has a couple of 'kill' modes running including a multiball of some kind. That should give the base framework a good stress test and get me to the point where adding the other modes and features gets easier. Then I'll have a noodle on if/how the coding load might get shared around. Once the code is on github though you'll be free to copy it as you please, although I'm not planning to put any the game assets (dmd shows, sounds etc) up there yet.

If I do get to the point of making this a wider base, requirements are fairly basic. To run this virtually I use Win7, VP9, a customized F14 VPT table and a special pyprocgame to VP bridge. So then you code the pyprocgame program (python based) and run it. The bridge takes care of connecting it up to VP instead of a physical P-ROC in a physical F14. That physical part will come later.

I've managed to get the RGB insert control working which will be cool. Specifically those 7 'KILL' inserts at the bottom of the playfield, but it can be easily extended. I wrote an Arduino sketch that replicates the way that regular lamps are handled in pyprocgame, then with a small code change the RGB lamps can be controlled just like any other. I can also control the 7 segment displays from the game code. The Arduino is connected to the game computer over USB.

Here is a short video of the attract mode, on the breadboard the 7 leds at the bottom are RGB Neopixels (on low brightness) to represent the 7 playfield inserts. Just using red in this example, but it'll do the other colours too.

For anyone interested in seeing the code behind this, I've got it available on Github now. There is a lot of commented out code lying around in there from the Earthshaker base I stole, it'll get tidied up soon. As I get new things working I'll keep this github updated.

https://github.com/Snux/F14SecondSortie

This includes the python code for the game and also the Arduino sketch for controlling the RGB leds and the 7 seg displays.

I picked up some of the alphanumeric displays too, now that one of the UK suppliers has them. So I now have 4 alphanumeric and 2 numeric connected to this little Arduino and they can all be controlled from the Second Sortie software. Not sure quite what I'm going to do with them yet, I can get 4 of them (2 x 2) on the apron for example.

Maybe have the fuel slowly count down and the flippers die if it reaches zero. Earn extra fuel by completing some task or other.

Looks pretty though :

20140704_153457.jpg

Me too

Made some progress over the last few days, got the basic mission mode handler in place which spawns all the individual "Kill" missions. Lighting all the 1-6 lamps in the centre of the playfield makes another mission become available to play. Shoot the kicker at the top right of the playfield to start the next available mission.

The Alpha mission lights one of the 12 T-O-M-C-A-T targets at random, then starts to move it randomly one target to the left or right every second. You have to hit the lit one. It's a timed mode, you only have a certain amount of fuel available before the mode ends (fuel counts down on the alphanumeric display). If you hit the lit target you score extra points and the target starts to move more quickly.

20140712_172459.jpg

Probably, I was thinking the bonus spinner might add some.

I'm about as artistic as the average sock, so at the moment I'm focused on the rules. Coming back later and adding better displays, lighting and sounds will be easier then. But what you're describing is the kind of thing this will become.

It will need some voice quotes, although I'm not convinced it'll be my voice. An F-14 pilot with a British accent wouldn't sound too good

I've used Xara3D in the past to create simple effects with text. I like it because it's simple to use (as mentioned before I'm no artist). I'm using a few fonts in the game, mainly some simple to read small fonts, the standard score fonts and then the F14 stuff uses a font which can be downloaded from the internet called "Beware".

If I take that font into Xara3D and create a spinning 'Alpha Mission', I can then export it from there as .avi which I then use another utility to create a sequence of .png files from. Last step is to create a pyprocgame dmd animation file from that sequence. Only takes a couple of mins from start to end then I can do something like this while the mission is playing. Just started playing around with this, but you get the idea...

So it's been a while since the last update, so here is a video of where I am at the moment. I've put together a few extra animations to be used instead of text when awarding bonus multipliers, shooting Yagov and a few other things. Ball save is working as it should, as is the bonus at the end of the ball. The end of ball bonus will eventually have more than just the regular playfield bonus - there will be extra for things like number of Yagov shots, missions started and so on.

Making a mission available requires you to hit the 1-6 targets. For the purposes of the video I cheated and used some keyboard presses to simulate the targets being hit, you can see them lighting up while the second ball is sitting in the shooter lane.

A few things to fix at the moment, I noticed that during the Alpha Mission (which is still very unfinished), the other TOMCAT lamps do not switch off so it's trickier to tell which one to aim for. Also after the mission completes and there are no others waiting to be played, the Release lamp should stop flashing, so I guess I'll go fix that now.

And I changed the music (shooter lane and main), there is only so much Kenny Loggins you can hear before going crazy

Next up is getting the original Tomcat multiball working (light TOMCAT, lock a ball. Lock 3 balls and shoot another into the kicker to start the multiball. Lock 3 balls again for the jackpot). After that carry on working through the missions and get some basics in for each. Oh, and get the kickback working. And a bunch of other stuff

Yeah, that font (it's called "Beware") doesn't scale down small very well and as you say the numbers are not great. I'll have it on the list....

So, it's been a while since the last update and things have been moving on quite well. The largest piece of work in the background was reworking the code behind the divertors and the locks. They are so dependant on each other that I moved the handling for these into a single code module rather than have different modes do their own thing and trip over each other. The code which handles general ball tracking (part of the trough code) was also extended to better handle the automatic launcher.

So, what's working at the moment?

-- Virtual Locks
The game remembers which balls a player had locked. So in a multiplayer game, if I had 2 balls locked and another player removes them all - 'stealing' - then when my turn comes round again the game will autolaunch and re-lock the missing balls before it allows me to play my next ball. The display reads "Restaging Locks - Please Wait'.

-- Ball Save
If the ball drains during the first 15 seconds (this will be configurable) of play, it'll get saved and a new ball will get autolaunched for you.

-- Rescue Kickback
This works in the same way as the original F14 code. The 2 orange rescue lights in the centre of the field blink alternately. Hit the target which is lit and the kickback on the left outlane is enabled. Once the ball has been kicked back from the left outlane, there is a 2 second grace period during which the kickback lamp blinks fast and the kickback will fire again if the ball drains within that 2 seconds.

-- Yagov Shots
Each shot to the Yagov kicker is counted and displayed on screen. Every 5 hits (at the moment, that might change to some sliding scale) an award is given (lighting the Extra Ball lamp or spotting a TOMCAT target for example).

-- Instant Info
Holding either flipper button in for 3 seconds (might make that longer) display scrolling information about the game. That's shown in the video below. I'll expand the information shown as development continues

-- Tomcat Multiball
This is a copy of the original rules. Light all the TOMCAT targets to light the lock. Shoot the VUK to lock the ball. Lock 3 balls and shoot the VUK to start multiball. Shoot balls into the VUK again to have them 'land safely' and score big points. In a small change to the original, after you've scored multiball once the upper and lower TOMCAT targets are no longer linked. Normally if you hit the lower left 'T' target for example, the upper left 'T' will also light. After the first multiball you'll need to hit each one separately. I need to see in the real game (rather than virtual) if that just gets too hard though.

-- Bonus
Works similar to the original game, increase the multiplier by shooting loops at the top. At the moment the bonus and the multiplier is holding over between balls but I'll be changing that so that it only holds over if you win some kind of award.

-- Missions
Hit all 1-6 targets and a mission (Alpha, Bravo etc) will flash to show it's available. Shoot the VUK to start the mission. Only Alpha mission is in place at the moment (shoot the moving flashing TOMCAT target). Adding the other missions will be the focus for the next work.

-- Mystery Award
I have the code for this more or less written, but not sure how to trigger it yet or make the player aware that it's available. This should be in place soon though.

This new video shows most of the game. I did get the multiball running but shot the VUK just before it ended, so you don't see a ball 'landing' which is a shame as there is nice animation when that happens. But I think it shows the current state of things. The scoring needs some work, most things just award 100 or 1000. I have some more sounds to plumb into the code and need to make some more fancy light effects ('lampshows' in P-ROC speak).

Comments and ideas are all very welcome. For anyone following, the code updates are getting into Github every few days: https://github.com/Snux/F14SecondSortie

_{Post edited by Snux: Fixing html}

Thanks for the comments!

Yup, there are only a few sound effects in there at the moment and they're fairly basic and really just placeholders so the game isn't completely silent. I'll work on those some more later on. Each sound is just a separate .wav or .mp3 file, and it's a single line of code in the appropriate place in the game to actually play it. Like this in the Yagov code:

https://github.com/Snux/F14SecondSortie/blob/master/base.py#L422

There are a lot of websites that host sound files that are free to use, I just need to find time to find appropriate ones and get the downloaded. Like here for example:

http://www.freesound.org/search/?q=missile

Speech is also on my list, I won't record my own as a Brit voice would sound wrong. So I have a few choices :
- find a reasonable text to speech convertor and record some clips with that if I can find a 'good' voice.
- persuade one of the US folks I know to record some for me
- wade through the Top Gun movie and rip some clips from that.

Speech works just like sound from the game side, just a .wav or .mp3 called at the appropriate time.

As for the background music, as you say, easily changeable. Again just a bunch of mp3 files. I put the current music in because I couldn't stand listening to Kenny Loggins any more! Maybe I might add a choice of music at game start, before the first ball gets launched. Like the old Outrun video game used to do. I'm an 80's "big hair" rock nut, so maybe some music from that era would fit seeing as how it's the same age as the pin and movie. Def Leppard, Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, Poison, Saxon and Iron Maiden could all provide some useful tracks / excerpts I think.

Nice choice

I have in mind to make that a game setting, when I get around to writing the service menu. So you can choose "Steal Locks" as Yes/No.

I think a big part of that is the fairly crappy video capture I'm managing with this virtual setup. On a full size proper DMD they are sharper. But as a font it is pretty "curvy" which doesn't translate so well down to 128x32 dots. All the animations where text zooms in or rotates is pre-rendered. I use Xara3D to create a 128x32 .avi file which is then converted into a format that pyprocgame can use. So changing the font across the board will be a fairly time consuming process which I'll leave for later. I did experiment with a USAF font and put the result here (crap video again). The top 2 are the USAF font, the bottom 2 are the current font. Watch it full screen and actually both fonts look pretty good. We'll see

I can use pretty much any font, it's just the process of re-rendering the animations with Xara3D and getting them to dmd format that's a bit time consuming. I'll wait and see how it looks in the physical game and then decide..

Started to integrate the service mode into the game, based on the code that Jim is using in his IJ rewrite. Nice to have a more readable set of tests plus this mode will also allow the setting of various game options (multiball steal, balls per game etc etc). Screenshot shows lamp test in progress, with the colour of the wires (Red/Purple Row, Yellow/Red Column). I need to edit that grid and trim the bottom row off

lamp test.png

Yes. Actually they're universal across all the System 11 machine I think. In fact the switch matrix colours are the same as WPC, so Williams did keep some things pretty constant.

I also added the lock steal option in the game settings menu, although the coding isn't using it yet....

lock_steal.png

The coil test code has now been re-worked to handle the odd System 11 setup. In this screen print of the DMD you can see testing the Outhole solenoid. It shows the drive transistor as Q33 and the connector on the driver board as Connector 11 Pin 1.

coil_test.png

Hadn't thought of that. The install is somewhat fiddly, as you need to install the pyprocgame framework with python, and then the bridge between it and VP, but it's "do-able" for sure.

You're only asking because you already know I'm excited about this !!

Just this week I paid Ron Kruzman for a NOS F-14 playfield he has. It's been cleared at some point in the past but needs a little more TLC (the clear is a bit "orange peely" in places). Then it'll head over the water to UK and get installed in my machine.PA103971_zpsb54e4a1e.jpg

I'm kind of at the point now where I need a real machine - testing the new stuff is getting hard on VP as getting the shots all in sequence isn't so easy. On a physical machine I can run this all with the glass off to keep testing moving forward, but I as I get some more code done I'll post updates here.

Sure. Wanna buy me an iPad?

Seriously though, I can configure my laptop keyboard to trip the VP switches without needing anything external, I've already done that quite a bit. So for example my keyboard 1 thru 6 trigger the 1-6 targets on the playfield. The main problem with testing is that the ball is in the wrong place. So it's all very well tripping the VUK switch, but the ball isn't actually there to be kicked over to the locks (for example). If I could pick the ball up somehow in VP with my mouse and move it around that would be cool, but unfortunately that doesn't work!!

The software though is actually in a pretty good state - adding in new modes/missions/etc is fairly straightforward now.

So, a big box arrived today

IMG_20141028_154600.jpg

A few minutes later after working through some layers.... can you tell what it is yet?

IMG_20141028_155153.jpg

Smooth, shiny, NOS..... just needs drilling and dimpling (gulp).....

IMG_20141028_155443.jpg

Bought one already

As this playfield doesn't have holes drilled for posts etc, Ron advised me to mark the spots where the holes need to be, then use a dremel bit like this to remove the clear at the location before drilling through. Avoids the risk of the clear tearing or pulling when the drill goes through.

P5242185-1.jpg

Some time back, before I thought I'd get a new playfield, I bought one of those full playfield protectors for the F14. I'm not intending to fit it, but I just realised it's going to make an awesome template to mark where all the holes need to be drilled. So long as I don't remove the protective film from the protector I can sell it afterwards to try and recoup some of my cost!

I've also got a completely trashed playfield which I bought for parts, so I can make a template from the back of that for the dimples I'll need on the new one. Hopefully everything will line up just fine.....

So, the new playfield needs a lot of holes drilling for posts, wire guides and a bunch of other stuff. A lot of the NOS F14 ones seem to be like that from what I can find out, not sure why they were only half completed. Anyway, with the advice from Ron in mind I've made a start. I couldn't find any other guide out there, so I thought I'd shoot a few pictures on how I went about it in one area.

Nice shiny playfield, no holes...

DSCN4651-1.jpg

I have a junk playfield that I bought for parts some years ago. Here's a shot of the same area on that playfield, you can see the holes I need to make.

DSCN4652-1.jpg

So using some tracing paper, mark the positions of the holes along with some of the playfield features (pre-existing holes, artwork etc) so that you can realign it on the new playfield.

DSCN4653-1.jpg

Take the paper over to the new field, line it up and then gently mark the position of the holes using a centrepunch. Don't hit the punch, given how sharp the point is a gentle push is enough to mark the clear so you can see it.

DSCN4655-1.jpg

You can see the mark left by the punch...

DSCN4657-1.jpg

I then used a pointed dremel bit (normally used for engraving and such, I think) to just make the initial cut through the clear...

DSCN4658-1.jpg

Leaving it looking like this

DSCN4659-1.jpg

Then use the carbide bit which Ron suggests, to remove the clear. If the hole you need is larger than the diameter of the bit, you can carefully use it around the edge of the hole to widen it a little.

DSCN4660-1.jpg

So the top of the playfield is prepped for the hole :

DSCN4661-1.jpg

Make sure the size of the clear you've removed is a tick larger than the size of the drill you're about to use, otherwise the drill will rip the clear which is what you're trying to avoid in the first place. I proved this with a small test hole down under the apron which will be covered later by the ball trough!

Now time to just drill the hole. Make sure it's really sharp (I bought some new ones just for this job) and drill through. I have a sheet of scrap board underneath the playfield to drill into, stops the holes from breaking out as the drill comes through the bottom.

After the drill, job done.

DSCN4662-1.jpg

Big enough for the screw which is going to go here....

DSCN4663-1.jpg

That's about it really. Rinse and repeat, taking care to check what sizes the various holes should be, bearing in mind that a number are really just small shallow pilot holes for self-tapping screws.

If I had enough patience to wait for the new repro PPS playfields to come out then I wouldn't be needing to do all this scary drilling. But I've been waiting now for nearly a year, so enough was enough. Knowing my luck, once all the drilling and dimpling is done the repro ones will come out (and be cheaper than this one!)

Anywho, I put the rear pivots and the front brackets on to the playfield for a quick test fit, to make sure both it and the refurbished cabinet are square. Needed to slacken off and reposition the front ones a little, then it dropped in nice.....

DSCN4667.jpg

A small piece of card cut at 90 degrees, a careful eye, and mentally crossing my fingers when I press the button. I don't have a drill stand, but then even if I did there is no way to reach some of the holes that need to go through. I'm sure there is probably some other gadget I could use but I couldn't find one that was practical. So far the cardboard-and-eye technique seems to be holding up!

Thanks Aurich! I still need to work out where to mount those displays, probably on the apron although there may be some places on the playfield they could go if I can find a suitable housing.

Yup! The original is fairly trashed anyway, the other one I stripped more or less completely a while back which is why I've been able to help some other pinsiders with odd parts requests over the last 12 months or so I was planning to use the second one to practise my touchup and clearcoating skills, but after a little while I realised I didn't have any of either, so I kept it for a reference.

Yeah, that could have worked nicely. I'm about 80% done now, so will finish it by hand but if I'm ever crazy enough to do this again I'll do something like that. Thanks!

Koen at DP is aware of my project, although I've never spoken specifically to him about it. No plans to do anything in that direction though - this is my hobby item and I'm writing about it for folks that want to follow along. I'm publishing all the source code etc, so if anyone chooses to copy it and/or change it for themselves they can do so.

So, more or less done with drilling and dimpling. The few that are remaining I'll do as I go in order to make sure everything lines up properly. So, pinball machines gotta have flippers, right?

DSCN4824.jpg

The base plates are the cleaned up original ones and modified per Vid to use the WPC style return springs. Original coils too although with new coil wrappers fresh off my laser printer (look a bit blurry in the photo for some reason, but they're crispy crisp in the flesh). Switches and caps all new though, the old ones were not worth trying to save. You can also see the reflection of one of the end stops on the playfield. I put down a couple of coats of satin varnish just so I can wipe it easily if need be in the future.

I just use regular coloured paper. There was a thread discussing options a while back, here -

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/how-do-you-make-your-coil-wrappers

Good question, it would have been whatever was in my "box o' bits" and I probably didn't look too close since 95% of my spares are for Sys11. I'll keep an eye on Vid's reply as I may end up having the same issue once I get as far as actually fitting flippers....

As well as flippers, we need lamps. The lamp holders on the original playfield are all kinda cruddy, and seeing as how this project already cost me a small fortune I've got all new ones (and new targets too). Nice and shiny. At least the screws are original

lamps.jpg

In addition to regular lamp holders, I'm fitting all the clear inserts with RGB lamps, not just the KILL ones. I'm giving the ones from FAST pinball a try, they're the same chip as the Neopixels I've been experimenting with so should be controllable just fine from the Arduino I'm using.

https://squareup.com/market/fast-pinball-llc/fast-rgb-led-insert

There is some debate about how well these kind of RGB LEDs (not specifically the FAST ones, but this type of chip in general) will tolerate the pinball environment and whether the data signals they use will be susceptible to interference etc from all the high power solenoids etc. I guess we'll find out

Next up is to get the GI wiring done as it'll be almost impossible once anything else gets mounted. I'm not planning on using bare wire though, less chance in shorting something if I use insulated. Then I'll see if I can separate the lamp matrix loom from the old playfield, clean it up and get it connected to this new playfield....

Purists won't like the non-original GI wiring, but then they won't like the LEDs or Arduino either. Using the bare wire would certainly save a ton of time, but this must reduce the chances of shorting something...

gi.jpg

I keep thinking how clean it all looks, then I go back to the old playfield and look at all the stuff that needs moving over. Won't be long before it looks like a rats nest I think...

Still working through the major mechanisms. From a scrap playfield ages back I pulled all the under playfield mechs, cleaned them up and put them away for a day like today.

So the lower sling shots, upper centre kickers and upper flippers are in, plus the mounting bracket for the pop bumper. That leaves 2 more kickers, ball eject, VUK and the rest of the pop bumper before moving on with fitting the new target switches and then looking to bring over the first wiring...

mechs.jpg

So, had a couple of hours spare this afternoon, so fitted 20 new standup targets, a handful more GI sockets and made a start on wiring up those LEDs......
led.jpg

The +5v and GND lines are daisy chaining serially through the line of boards (in the same way the data line does). However I'm going to connect the +5v and GND lines from the last LED in the chain back to the first to reduce the overall voltage drop. I might connect them together in another couple of places in the chain too, will see how it looks.

As for power, I have a small separate power supply for the LEDs. The Arduino can supply up to around 500mA. One of these LEDs on full power output (bright white) is around 60mA, so I've got more than the Arduino can power. I've also got some plain red and plain white LED strip for augmenting GI in certain modes and the RGB "radar insert ring" to power, so having a separate supply made sense.

So finished wiring up the LEDs this morning.

LED2.jpg

Double checked all the continuity was OK, then needed to test that these are working properly before the wiring starts to get difficult to reach as the rest of the playfield gets populated.

Works a treat! This is just a really simple piece of control code that changes the lamps between red, green and blue. Small delay between each lamp so it kind of wipes the colours in. There is a very short video here. Couple of things to mention - I'm no cameraman, so it's not great quality. Yes, I know the targets aren't straight, I didn't fix them down fully yet! Thirdly the image makes it look like the insert is lit with a very bright spot of light from the LED. In reality the light is well diffused and looks really nice. I'll take a better video once I get this all back together and in the cabinet...

Now installed the "radar effect" ring of LEDs. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. May need to adjust the speed and amount of the ring lit at any time, but that's just software so no biggy..

All the standup targets are only loosely screwed in at the moment as I was doing them all from underneath. I want to see each from the top of the playfield when I tighten it up, so I can get it positioned accurately and I didn't get around to that yet.

Physically they are controlled by an Arduino Nano microcontroller. I'd never used any kind of microcontroller before this F14 project, but they're not as scary as they sound and if you have some programming skills then you're set. The RGBs themselves use an interface which has some standard code libraries, so the physical control is quite easy.

I use the P-ROC in my F-14, so use the pyprocgame (python based) framework to program the game rules and so on. I've made a small tweak to the framework so that if in the game code I refer to a lamp that's actually got an RGB in it now, then the command gets sent to the Arduino (over USB from my PC) instead of to the regular lamp matrix.

The Arduino is also controlling those alphanumeric LED displays you can see and the radar ring. The code on the Arduino is basically sitting and waiting for "commands" to be passed to it over the USB link. So for example, if I pass the string "A1FUEL" to the Arduino, the initial 'A' is the command for writing to one of the alphanumeric displays, the next "1" means display number 1 and the "FUEL" is the text to display on it.

For the inserts in the RGBs, a command might look something like "G41". That would be G for green, 4 for RGB number 4 and 1 meaning switch it on. In reality it's a little more complex than that as you actually send a lamp "schedule", but that will only mean something if you've been using pyprocgame.

All of my code (python pyprocgame and the Arduino sketch) are freely viewable/downloadable from my github site here, if you want to nose around. Not been updated for a few weeks as I'm working on the playfield at the moment, but coding will pick up again soon.

Code is all here:

https://github.com/Snux/F14SecondSortie

So, onwards....

The wiring for the matrix and GI lighting is on a single loom, so with some fiddling it's possible to remove it whole. So I labelled each socket with a sharpie to make repositioning easier (doesn't matter that they're written on as they old and nasty and getting replaced anyway). Desoldered and labelled the GI connections. With some gentle persuasion (and cutting of a couple of matrix lines between bulbs that had got wired *through* the switch matrix cabling) it came out.

Let the loom be free

l1.jpg

The loom, like all the other wiring, is completely filthy and leaves black marks on anything it touches. Didn't want that on my new playfield, so decided to have a go at cleaning it up. I removed each of the little plastic cable ties and replaced with new ones, but left them quite loose so that I could clean inside the bundles....

l2.jpg

Put it in the bathtub with hot water and detergent, gave it a good scrub and left it to soak. While it was in there, I removed all the cable guides from the old playfield, they cleaned up and transferred over quite nicely..

l3.jpg

Took the loom out of the bathtub, let it drip for a while, then blasted it with my wife's hairdryer. It looks much better now and you don't get filthy handling it any more. Brought it down and laid it back on the new playfield, lining up the sockets roughly with their new counterparts....

l4.jpg

I was going to start soldering, but then I realised I didn't have enough diodes. All the new targets I bought already have a diode on, I wonder why the lamp sockets don't? Anyway, ordered some which will be here tomorrow. So more progress in the morning clipping off the old sockets and soldering to the new ones. I also need to do something to tidy up the wiring for the lamps that are now RGB ones. The wiring to the sockets isn't needed, but I need to keep the continuity of the matrix so will have a ponder on the best way to do it. I also want to make sure that if this machine ever gets converted back to stock that I can replace the RGBs with standard sockets, so I'll need the wiring somewhere.

Sure, no problem. Getting data from Python to the Arduino is easy. Drop me an email if you want to know more, or start a thread on pinballcontrollers...

The "schedule" concept is something that's used in pyprocgame, so I used it for the Arduino code too to keep things consistent. The idea is that a time period of one second consists of 32 "ticks". Each tick the lamp can either be on or off. So when sending a command from the PC to the Arduino for a lamp you actually send a 4 byte (32 bit) value which represents what the lamp should be doing each second. The schedule gets repeated every second until you change it. Assuming you're familiar with hex, a value of 0xFFFFFFFF would mean the lamp is on all the time. 0xFFFF0000 would flash it on for half a second, off for half a second, rinse and repeat. 0xFF00FF00 is a faster flash, 0x00000000 would switch it off and so on.

I'm only using Red, Green or Blue for my inserts as that's all I need in my game code, so I'm not playing around with fancy fading or anything.

If you look in my Arduino code at the github above, it's fairly well commented so you can probably pick out the code handling the scheduling....

So, started to get busy with the soldering iron today, at least until I ran out of diodes as my order didn't arrive as planned.

I have a number of lamps in the matrix that are no longer required, because they've been replaced by those RGB LEDs. However, the matrix wiring that loops in and out of each lamp needs to stay continuous so that others on the same row/column continue working. I decided the best way to remove the lamps was to cut them out, then solder together the 2 wires that would have met at the socket together and cover with heat shrink tubing. Then it'll tuck away into the wiring loom quite nicely, but means I can put the sockets back in again someday if I ever need to.

So this picture shows all that's left after I removed 3 unwanted lamp sockets.

l7.jpg

And here's a section of the playfield all done from a lamps perspective....

l8.jpg

I did discover that I've got the wrong height sockets for some of my GI (the ones between the TOMCAT targets mainly), so I've ordered some more of those too. Unfortunately I discovered this after I'd soldered in 2 banks of lights, so will need to redo those but no problem.

The extra diodes arrived today, so all the lamp wiring is done now except for the GI which is still waiting on the correct sockets.

l9.jpg

They are connected in series. The green and red wires are just GND and +5v. The blue wire is the data wire. Each LED has a "Data In" and a "Data Out" connection. You connect them in a chain, each LEDs "Data Out" goes to the next LEDs "Data In".

In the Arduino code, you define how many pixels are in the chain (along with some other things, like which Arduino output pin provides the input to the first LED). Then you call something like this :

chain.setPixelColor(LED,RED,GREEN,BLUE)

The LED parameter is which LED in the chain this is, the color values specify the amount of red, green and blue. So

chain.setPixelColor(1,0,255,0) would set the first LED in the chain to red. When you've set all the colors you want, then

chain.show()

will update all the LEDs physically to the state you want.

I know, I've been reading your posts on the BOP 2.0 thread. Cool stuff

Maybe some day, but getting a good display with cool graphics is very time consuming and I really want to focus on the game rules first. I can always do more with the display later, but for now it'll stay a regular DMD. Plus I don't want to make it look "too" modern. BOP 2.0 always looked like it should have had more than just the alphanumeric display, so for DP it was worth the effort.

Got the switch matrix loom off the old playfield with all the switches attached. Unlike the lamp sockets where I put all new ones in, I'm planning to reuse the switches as much as possible. The whole thing though is as filthy as the lamp wiring was, I'm just thinking about the best way to clean it up. I think I'll desolder the 3 or 4 microswitches that are there then do the bathtub trick again. The other switches are all leaf ones and probably won't mind getting wet.

I've laid it out on this plastic sheet in more or less the same shape it occupies underneath the playfield. I've removed all the old target switches as I have new ones, and taken a stack of pictures of which wiring goes where (the manual will help too here if there is any confusion).

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Got the switch wiring all connected up on the new playfield and finished off the GI wiring too. Only mechs still to fit are the ramp divertor base which is up next, then the trough eject. The latter I'll leave a little as I need to juggle that around with the autolauncher to make it all fit, space is at a premium down in that corner.

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Next up is transferring over the coil / flasher wiring along with all the snubber boards and that monster flasher diode board.... onwards...

The second part is correct

I have 2 boys, they're 11 and 13. As for finding the time for the F14, we had a pretty hectic year at work in 2014 and I'm owed a bunch of time, so I took last week off plus a day or two this week. I also have a very understanding wife. That said I need to have the playfield done a couple of days before Christmas as I'm using our main dining table for the workshop. We have a dozen guests on Christmas Day that need to sit around it.....

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The underside of the playfield is complete Just the ball eject to sort out once I've got time to sort it into place along with the autolaunch and the manual plunger.

Loaded the playfield back into the cabinet.

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Now it's time to tidy up the bomb site that our main table has been for the last week or two.

I finished work for the holidays yesterday, so I'm hoping to get this back up and running over the next few days. Got the ball trough sorted out and the outhole kicker back on, along with the kickback and some of the ball guides. Tomorrow I'm going to do the topside soldering (coils, flashers) while I can still get to them, then hopefully the rest will go back together quite quickly...

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I might well do the same, I'll see how it feels. I put a red one on because it matches the powdercoat (Actually not true, it was the only one in my box of spares).

Flasher sockets and solenoids all wired up. All the ball guides and rails are also back on now, and I've been testing the GI with an external power supply just to check the wiring. With a bit of luck the playfield might be all done tomorrow.....

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Didn't do anything with the playfield topside today, but I have reconnected the playfield wiring and worked through the backbox wiring. I've removed the wiring for the alphanumeric displays and the sound, that decluttered things a bit - the looms were separate so no cutting involved and I can always put them back one day if need be. Still need to tidy up the wiring a little, but it's up and running.

So with the boards installed, crossed fingers and power on. GI lit up as expected, no bangs or flashes or blown fuses.

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Inside the backbox, only one original board On the left is the P-ROC, next to which is the Sys11 / P-ROC driver board. Top right is a Rottendog power supply (the original was toasty). Bottom right is one of Inkochnito's (Peter Koch) bridge boards. In my F-14 the bridge rectifiers and huge smoothing capacitor for the controlled lamps were the original 1987 vintage ones, and I'd never installed the extra 2 fuses that Williams forgot. Peters board takes care of replacing the rectifiers, capacitor and putting the 2 fuses in. So the only original board is the flipper power supply! I also fitted a new fuse block to replace the somewhat corroded ones that were in there.

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More details on the bridge board are here if you missed Peter's original thread..

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bridge-board-available-for-williams-games

Cut the 12v red LED strip to some suitable lengths, soldered wires to them and put some heat shrink on to insulate them. These will be used in "stealth mode" or something similar - the GI will switch off and some or all of these strips will be lit instead. It should be a bit like the "Condition Green" effect on Space Station.

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Installed all the LED strips and connected them up for a test. The effect isn't as red as this photo makes out, and once the plastics are all fitted it should be a little more subtle. That said when this happens in the game I'll probably switch the radar "ring" to red and all the RGBs too....

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I also found a little time to start putting some more back on the playfield. We have a slingshot! The plastics are a new set that I bought from CPR some long time back and was keeping for a day like today! I'll hang on to the old ones as spares as they're in pretty good condition.

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Anyone know how to get the riveted parts out of the plastics and refitted to the new ones without breaking anything? Hmmm......

I am excited, but I'm English, so I'm supposed to be a little more "reserved", right?

I guess it's just been a long multi-month slog to get this far which is enough to sap the energy a little. I've had enough of screws, wires, drilling, more wires, skinned knuckles, more wires etc This is only my second playfield swap (I did a Funhouse before) and this was *way* harder especially with all the drilling. I also keep losing stuff - I bought a ton of parts over the last couple of years and put them "somewhere safe" where I will easily find them later. We all know how that works, right? Took me an hour to find those new plastics, and I gave up trying to find the new blue star posts and bought some more. Of course I then found the others in the box with my gas soldering iron. How on earth did they end up in there?

I just want it to be back together now and running, so I can play the original game via pinmame and get moving forward with the new Second Sortie code. I've got a bunch of ideas to try out in the code, but don't want to try it out in the virtual machine any more, I want the real one!!

So no worries, I'm really looking forward to getting this working and can't wait to post the first videos of the current SS software running on this beauty!!!!!! Not long now

Now you can see why I left the trough eject and the shooter lane switch until last. F-14 has auto-launch!!

It's kinda cosy getting it all into place, and I had to reverse the little bracket that the shooter lane switch is on, but it's all looking good. I might need to remove a few windings from the coil if it's not strong enough (or connect it to the flipper power instead of regular solenoid voltage) as the ball has to be plunged a long way, but we'll see how that works once the game is up and running. I'm sure this and a few other things will need some fine-tuning.

So that's all the mechanicals done!! Now back to the playfield topside....

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I'm not sure which machine had the first autolaunch, I guess sometime late 1980s. I'm really looking forward to using mine - ball save is one obvious item, and then being able to start a multiball at any time will be the real kicker (so to speak).

I have mine connected to the one spare driver on the F-14. The P-ROC interface board has another 8 drivers of which I'll use some for the LED strips, leaving a few others in case I think of something..

This is likely my last update for the year, got prep for Christmas Day to get done tomorrow, then on Saturday we're off to Germany to visit the in-laws until the New Year. Not much left to do though, at least from the machine point of view. Here's a cracker of a photo, those new plastics look really cool.... (and yes, I know the playfield needs a wipe below the flippers!)

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