that node board honestly doesnt look to scary. standard outline surface mount chips.

if something goes out in my iron maiden I will try and fix it. I havent even had to life the playfield up yet tho.

You can turn down the backbox GI brightness. I set Iron Miaden to 50% idle brightness and 75% brightness during game play.

If people really wanted to bootleg a current stern board it could be done without the schematics.

Take a dead board.

Note all the components with good pictures and etc.

Shave the board clean top and back.

Scan both sides (if its 4 layer the internal ones are probably power).

Trace all the tracks and recreate the board layout.

from there you can reverse engineer and rebuild the schematics.

if there is a will there is a way. the node boards get "programmed" by the main cpu board. If you need some kind of boot software for the node board perhaps you could pull a still good chip and read it back and then program that to the new chip.

Pretty sure the board gets destroyed. They would have to remove all the parts to see the tracks under chips. Shave / sand it flat and then there is probably automated tools to help convert a scan of that board the scan to pcb layout computer file. Then from that the schematic can be recreated.

so in 10-20 years from now when all these boards are NLA perhaps aftermarkets could be created much like circuit boards for games from the 70-90s.

https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/LPC111X.pdf

Quick flip through the datasheet show the micro has (up to) 64kB of flash memory and may be fully programmed by the CPU board and does not need any base firmware programming. There is "Code Read Protection" talked about, but since the CPU board I programming new node boards I am not sure if it is being used or matter.

NXP even offers the micro in a DIP28 through hole package =D.

could the bootloader be generic and comes programmed from the factory?

26.3.1 Bootloader
The bootloader controls initial operation after reset and also provides the means to
accomplish programming of the flash memory via UART or C_CAN. This could be initial
programming of a blank device, erasure and re-programming of a previously programmed
device, or programming of the flash memory by the application program in a running
system.
The bootloader code is executed every time the part is powered on or reset. The loader
can execute the ISP command handler or the user application code. A LOW level after
reset at the PIO0_1 pin is considered as an external hardware request to start the ISP
command handler either via UART or C_CAN, if present.

user manual
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/user-guide/UM10398.pdf
600 pages =O

NXP says they will make that chip for a while longer now. If the next generation is called Spunk, then Spike boards go obsolete and people really need the boards made someone will find a way. I don't like the situation with circuit boards either but I don't think it is a deal breaker.