We always seem to give Stern a hard time, But I know many B/W games also shipped with incomplete code, anyone know which ones for sure.
(Topic ID: 31554)
Brentwood, TN
If any, they were probably the pre-P2k games like Cactus Canyon and other short production run titles.
Even in the late 90's, there was no way to upgrade the game code, short of buying a new ROM set. So manufacturers insisted on shipping only a finished product.
With Stern's method of upgrading the code via USB stick, they can ship the game whenever they want. All the operator has to do is get on Stern's website and download the newest code if bugs are discovered or a new feature is added. Plus it cut costs on having to hire game testers. The pinball community serves as beta testers, so to speak.
Guess it depends on your definition of incomplete code. If Road Kings had five different ROM versions was it incomplete? If Twilight Zone had four different ROM versions was it just buggy? Did a later revision of Funhouse ROMs pull out a poorly implemented feature from an earlier one? You could argue an improperly implemented feature is an incomplete one. Lots of B/W games have multiple ROM versions and almost no documented revision history to know what each revision did. I'd love to know the history behind each revision but the reality is for most games that would be hard to come by.
viperrwk
Quoted from viperrwk:Guess it depends on your definition of incomplete code.
Exactly, as each has many different ROM sets. CC not done. CV was made 100% better after B/W went out of business. NGG has bugs still.
Some ROMS did minor stuff, some did more than others.
Quoted from viperrwk:Guess it depends on your definition of incomplete code. If Road Kings had five different ROM versions was it incomplete? If Twilight Zone had four different ROM versions was it just buggy? Did a later revision of Funhouse ROMs pull out a poorly implemented feature from an earlier one? You could argue an improperly implemented feature is an incomplete one. Lots of B/W games have multiple ROM versions and almost no documented revision history to know what each revision did. I'd love to know the history behind each revision but the reality is for most games that would be hard to come by.
viperrwk
TZ history:
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/Williams/tech/roms/twilight.html
TZ and FH played like they had complete code when they were first on location. No major later changes like we see with so many Stern games.
Sana'a
The only Bally pin I remember having to replace ROMS on was MotorDome and it had to do with the issue of the flash lamps taking out the driver transistors. Can't say I've heard of any other updates from back in the day for other Ball, William or Bally/Williams pins.
I do remember the stories about Sterns Nine Ball having an outrageous number of reversion though.
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