Planetary Pinball, the sole licensee for Williams Electronics Games, Inc is proud to announce that we will start to release software upgrades for Williams™ and Bally™ pinball machines.

Ever since WMS closed the pinball division in 1999, the games developed and manufactured by them have been in high regard with players and collectors of pinball machines. And games are continuously being restored to like-new condition. Thanks to a steady supply of new and improved parts, from small mechanical and electrical units, to circuit boards and playfields. Parts made available by Planetary Pinball and domestic and international collaborators. Recent years have also given us a number of new innovations. Bringing the games of yesteryears into a more contemporary look and feel.

Software is the heart and soul of a pinball machine. While a lot of effort went into making software for games, the framework, rules design and special effects, on some games the time has shown a few shortcomings. These might be bugs, like incorrect scoring, game progression being lost, modes being messed up etc. Or rooted in the fact that games were developed with coin drop play on locations in mind. In some cases making them less than ideal for the more contemporary use of home play and high level competition play.

The goal of software upgrades is not to make fundamental changes or redesigns. Neither to upgrade display graphics or sound. The goal is to make minor tweaks and fixes, while keeping the spirit of the game intact. And to strive for having rule changes under the users control via new and expanded feature adjustments.

The premier release is new software for the four games Red & Ted's Road Show™, Creature From The Black Lagoon™, Junk Yard™ and Radical™. Please see individual release notes for details. They are designed and implemented by Søren Worre. A professional software engineer and pinball enthusiast who has obtained the knowledge and the craft to make software upgrades to Williams and Bally pinball machines. They are now available for purchase from our authorized distributers.

Please note that these upgrades are limited to English language only.

This Pinside thread will serve as the official social media platform for these upgrades.

https://www.planetarypinball.com/

Please buy official ROM chips from authorized resellsers.

Action Pinball, UT, USA
Astill Entertainment, ON, Canada
Classic Arcades Inc., PA, USA
Dots and Loops, Denmark, Europe
Matts Basement Arcade, VA, USA (has ceased operation for the time being)
Mr. Pinball, Australia
Pinsound, France, Europe
Planetary Pinball, NV, USA

Thanks for the kind responses. I read everything and contributions are appreciated. I will try to keep up with commenting too.

A short comment to the post about ColorDMD. Of course the goal is to work seamlessly with ColorDMD.

I do not wish to speak for them or how robust their system is. But I will say this. I have both removed and changed text on the DMD in various games. And those particular DMD sequences have still been colourised correctly. One example of this is the right ramp "x ramp shot" advertisement in Creature where an incorrect Snack attack one is now removed.

No. Only menu adjustments as the game will Fac default.

And please be super careful to not damage the circuit board when picking out the ROM chip. AND to orientate the new ROM correctly. Always use the indent mark as reference. Never the sticker.

Regarding the MikeD mod for Creature. A quick read up shows that it takes input from the lamp matrix. I will assume this is why it is acting different with rev. 5.0 now this is update to the "LED friendly" procedure 2.

I will be back later with an analysis of this and documentation for how it works now. And I have to say, that it should not be a problem to build devices that can interpret the lamp signals correnctly regardless if the game software is running procedure 1 or 2. So I hope my documentation will make it straight forward for somebody to update the MikeD mod to run stable on all games. If I have understood it correctly, the original designer of the mod has abandon the project. But it is now maintained by somebody else in the community.

PS. @wiredoug, thank you.

You cannot have ball saver in multiball on a game with no auto plunger.

The concept in games before auto plunger was common was multiball re-start rather. Which I in many ways like a lot better than ball saver. And TAF has that.

Theatre of Magic with different rule to the THEATRE objective. Basement awards in competition to help on modes and Midnight. 100% outlane ball save. No false Trunk error. And a bit more.

...and TOTAN.

Not quite multiballs (like TAF). Those examples are more like timed modes with infinite ball saver. Where a ball at rest in the shooter lane is acceptable players choice.

It is not worth a larger debate for me. But I'll say, that to me there is a different between a timed mode that runs with an infinite ball saver, if you will, or we can call it: keeps (re-)serving balls to the plunger lane or the playfield. And then the traditional (lock) multiball. Where multiple balls are served and the mode ends when you are back on single ball play.

Home ROM / Free play only was a defined status they made as an option for releases they did not want in commercial use. So, they a pointless, yeah that is the point.

As a company Williams wanted their product to be stable on location and not cause any trouble for the operator or the owners of the places the machines were put. So "home" status was a way for the developers to make revs. that were not fully tested for street use. Or were made for adult ears or with custom audio, that was not suitable for street use.

No. There is no plan to release anything with Free play only restriction.

I am sorry to hear this. I cannot explain what causes this. And I have not seen similar. Is it all of the map - and the start city?

If you were having the L-6 ROM in the game before the upgrade there is no change to the lamp refresh procedure. Stating this was a mistake in the release note.

This is odd stuff. Sound like a short to the lamp board - but, the map is matrix lights over three columns and the perimitter lamps are GI. So not likely.

Make sure you have not accidently half detached any connectors.

Do testing to see if there af GI test / lamp tests that will provoke this.

The lamps in question are

GI test

General illumination 2 Playfield/Inserts 2

Single lamp test

Lamps 11-18 and 21-28 and 31-32

Do they work?

Do they light up with they are not supposed to (meaning when other stuff is tested)?

I say you are both right. When mist ball is started the game is per definition in multilball state. And it should never start a video mode.

Funhouse is the perfect pinball machine.

IJ is reported to have a number of bugs.

People also complain about the multiball being an easy repeate. Now there is a couple of ways you can go about this. Like...

1) You need to make other shots besides hitting the drop down to light lock. Like both ramps as someone have suggested to me.

2) The drop targets will pop-up again the first time hit. Second time it will stay down to make the lock.

3) You simply need to make the lock sequence (drops down, lock) more times than three.

So you see, sometimes it is not obvious what modifications to make. And I'll tell you, what looks to work on paper is not always working too well. 1) might be too difficult. It might look fair. But the right ramp on IJ can be tough to make.

The is also the consideration of does it come obvious to the player what to do. And does it feel fair and not as a rip off. Like 3), where you will expect to have made the lock. But it is not. It was only Lock 0 or Lock -1. Conceptually speaking. 1) is also hard to explain with no "Light lock" indicators for the ramps. One of the great challanges designing new rules around excisting playfields. It will have to fit. And I have a rule, that the playfield must always be correct. With no redundencies.

"You have to play a mode first" I've also heard suggestions for, for the 1). But think a little further on that one. It will be start mode, trap up, time out playbook. Not exactly the best solution.

From my experience, I say 2) is the best solution. I might seem buggy, the drop popping up again. But if you add a new sound effect and maybe some DMD work, it will become obvious that, ok, now I need to hit the drop twice to light the lock. The drop is a shot putting the ball in the wild. An additional round around that one it will add significant risk of draining. Maybe just enough to balance the game out. Selfexplanatory and you do not need to make the logic of transporting balls through the subway and Idol lock mech without "locks made" status. Which could be buggy. And will take an efford to test properly.

Hmm. As I wrote earlier in the Shadow club...

There is a cap at 30M in effect for the combo value in The Shadow, but a when-equal test only. And by 10M + 3M times x being a 25, 28, 31,... series, with no 30M, I assume it was originally designed with +1M or +2M in mind. And not +3M.

When changing it to +3M the cap should have been changed to 40M to suit the upgrade. And so it worked(!). Had they done that, we would not have this talk now.

It is my assumption. If someone can get hold of Mr. Eddy, please ask if he remembers how this came about.

The per player aspect if the JP can be tough for space reasons. But from a design point it is more and less the same for all games. And should be applied to an update for competition play reasons.

Alternatively, the fixed value approach. Which is of course easily done.

The repeat ramp shot monster payoff in this game is another story. I do not have an answer for a good redesign to that as of now.

The backboard lamps and the "Ride Cyclone three times for JP" is another challange. I have a rule of those type of information/lamp'ed values must be true and in use.

This is only two flaws in Funhouse.

1. The mirror award says "Light Superdog". Where it should be just "Superdog".

2. The second problem is the entire backbox translate (!).

Bonus flaw. Strictly, sausage bonus should be disabled in tournament play.

Otherwise it is the perfect pinball machine.

I am not totally opposed to adding ball saver on older games. But I am not super keen on the idea either. It will not be added per default that is for sure. A case by case thing. There is a bit of a hazard to it. You roll back game state and you have to make sure it expires (buggy infinite ball saver is kind of a game breaker). Including a soft expire bug like the lamp continue to blink.

Funhouse is only in warning level two in terms of the lack of ball saver. As the game offers a safe plunge to a flipper. Which is actually secured through a choiced ball saver.

Pat Lawlor is known for being opposed to ball saver in general.

I don't think so, sorry.

System 11 implementation for refreshing the lamps do not have either of the two "mishabs" that the first generation WPC procedure has. Meaning that the problem should not be as apparent on S11s. Also, the hardware design is completely different. A whole side story of it all.

That being said, of course there exists LED lamps so poor they will flicker from anything. A badly appearing pinball machine may be caused in various components. And I am sure proper quality LEDs will help a lot.

Likely. All in good time.

Next gen is NOTORIOUS for ball tracking issues from the complicated design; excessive use of opto switches and four playfield (three of these under playfield) lock troughs. I would be careful throwing the software under for mishabs. Unless you expect 100% solid error compensation of course. Which is not possible.

I shall be happy to recieve report of reproducable problems across several games that can conclude a core software logic issues. And look into a solution to this.

Thanks a lot for this comprehensive run through. It has surprised me how much interest there is for Judge Dredd.

Spinner millions gets a lot of heat. But to me that element in Johnny is not much of an issue. For two reasons.

1. Spinner millions are not immediately available and neither immediately restartable on every ball. So it not quite the mindless "from start of ball 1 till end of ball 3" play, that you may find on other games.

2. Not only do you have to execute when the mode is running. To really pull it off, you have to balance playing it with bonus x, hold bonus and collect bonus. Highly skill based play. Wth the risk of playing for something that pays zilch (like a mistimed collect bonus).

Besides. A payoff of a spinner is actually high adjustable mechanically. It it is too juicy, then un-juice it.

* I know hold bonus is buggy and open for exploit. But that is a seperate issue to the mode Spinner million itself.

Unfortunetly, there is a bunch of more issues with Getaway. You can get stuch in a gear. Meaning that pulling the lever do not advance to the next gear.

You can also drain with RLM lit. And then it is unlit on next ball.

These are seldom seen problems. That I cannot reproduce at will. And, as with anything else, it can be rooted in faulty switches (as triggering when they should not) and RAM corruption. Problems local to a specific machine. Not general software bugs.

Further field reports are much appreciated.

I have not experienced this myself. Hence fishing for at true bug or not?

Hmmm. I am not so sure. And that is because I see video mode in a larger perspective. What does it bring to the gameplay. Does it work well in the flow and for the time it takes to play and how difficult it is to understand. How does it work strategically for points.

STTNG video mode works a bit like IJ. With the latter being random. And considerably more difficult. And the IJ one does not even have the bombs.

I still stand on the STTNG one suffers mainly for being too easily restartable. To me that is death to a video mode element because video mode is safe points.

It means, that the options for that adjustment is of no function. It is simply taken out of the design at some point. You see that in other games as well. Feature adjustments that was later scrapped but are still in. And some that do not work.

BTW. You cannot have a general "Multiball" random awards on a game without auto plunger. For CFTBL at most it could mean multilball ready to start.

Of course. You are absolutely right.

Pinball machines are historically made under hugh workload and time pressure. Not in production for very long. And once off the line, more or less abandoned by the company in terms of support and bug fixes.

We are lucky, that pingames are build to the quality they have all matters considered. And for that we can thank the truly passionate developers and designers.

So, bugs and unwise design and messy stuff slipped through. And especially when deviating from the primary design goal. Which was standard configuration for public coin play. Simply because this was the most tested and the basis of the most field reports. Novelty mode is for regions where awarding credits and extra ball was considered illegal gambling.

Oh I agree. It is not a hugh deal to refine scoring in terms of implementing it in the code. Which is also why say, that I believe, that stuff like points for extra ball and special etc. is uneven or even absent on some games is because it was simply not in the main thought process. Some of it might have been the case of "we set it to x and figure it out later". And then never got around to it again.

Some games even award 0 points for extra ball when off or exceeded the max. Why? Why not just mask off lighting the EB lamp in the first place. Like some other games do. Well, it might exactly be a case of ... we do it later.

I am reluctant to promise such. But I can promise that there will be more stuff coming. Much more.

I'd hoped for having something ready by now. But current events causes a delay. And are in general trouble for going places to test new stuff.

I do not think Pat Lawlor hated ball saver as such. But I like to believe there was a clan in Williams developement, who disregarded ball saver (early on) because they believed their customers did not want it. Maybe one short sighted halfwit operator told them to forget about that stuff prolonging the game time and deducting his cashbox. Other designers might have seen it as a design element in the toolbox to make insteresting games. Maybe a way to make a design work. A design brilliant in one way, but too drainy to start with (F14, T2,...). And ultimately the concept won.

The short game time argument I always find cute. I say value for money wins in the long run.

I also find the "too confusing" argument just as cute. You are giving the player the ball back after all.

I am not arguing that ball saver comes as a surprise to newbies. And they wall off the game prematurely in multiplayer games. I have witnessed this myself numerous times. But, ball saver is a quality to a game. And these people are early on the learning curve. And there is so much games could do to assist this.

The "ball saver" you reference to is a lower level stage in the state machine of the pinball machine logic.

New ball (/new player) -> shooter lane -> ball in play -> drain.

With draining during shooter lane state reserving ball and staying in shooter lane state.

On Williams games (traditionally): Shooter lane state, the score is blinking. Ball in play state, the score is slowly rolling.

In order to determain the advancement to ball in play, the game logic needs to see the ball in action on the playfield. This is traditionally a switch hit out of trough/shooter lane. And was later in the 90's on Williams change to three different switches (same for Stern/JJP now a days). But is highly individual per game. On some games some switches are still a one hit one. On some games a ball saver can trigger the advancement. It is just a mess.

All this to make sure that a player is not drained prematurely. Because if this happens, the player will walk away never playing the game again. Possibly vandalising the game or, even worse, complaining to the staff demanding a refund.

With the introduction of ball saver (circa T2), the path is...

New ball (/new player) -> shooter lane -> ball in play -> ball saver -> drain.

With draining during ball saver state reserving the ball and, where available, auto plunging it. And staying in ball saver state with the timer not reset.

So, after this long explaination. A ball saver is a new feature to make on game lacking it. It is timed, ball in play logic is not. And, should be backed up by lights (shoot again), DMD, sound effects and speech. With DMD being hard (for something that looks half decent) and sound not possible.

I understand the requests for updates to more games. Please be patient. More stuff is under developement. And more stuff will be released.

I guess you can imagine the difficulty sources games for testing these times.

Agreed. I have looked into T2. The 255 hits problem is not found yet. The other one is. Though there might be additional issues to deal with.

I have a sneaking suspicion, that the 255 hits one is on older software revs only. Any confirmation on software revisions and, even better, ways to trigger this is MUCH welcome.

There has been various games with ball saver of sorts, timed play etc. Sinbad comes to mind.

When I say it started with T2 I refer to the generalised form we came to know it for. And which became a standard. Each start-of-ball (and multiball too on some games), indicator flashing while active, callout and display support.

Looks good KoP. Will take it into consideration.

Is the Virtual lock the same as was default behaviour in the L-7?

My policy is that the basis for any new version of software is ALWAYS the latest official release. And then broken/removed features from previous revs are ported back in. Or reenabled with fixes.

For a number of reasons, it has been quite lately. I know. Sorry for that.

Things are being worked on and releases are planned. Thanks for the support.

First of all, the new version runs with the rev 1.3X security chip.

Tiger saw is same output. So fully compatible.

It runs with the Trunk board installed. But the limited functionality of the board takes precedence. Meaning the Trunk not registering while rotating.

One of the problems of a T2 fix is that the game is known for a bug that I cannot reproduce. And have never seen happen myself. That the cannon hits to start multiball takes an underflow to 255. I may hang on an earlier revision. So already fixed. I don't know. Any information is much appreciated.

The rev. 2.0 runs with the original security chip. For those who have upgraded to 1.4H and who have since lost the original security chip, they will have to source a new one before the game will run with this new version.

I cannot speak for the specifics of a mod that someone has made back in the day. But the rev. 2.0 Tiger saw motor control is using the same outputs (connector/pin) as the Williams 1.4H version. Which leads me to believe that it should be compatilble with excisting upgrades.

Booting up a game with an incorrect or missing security chip will not do harm to anything. Not even clearing the RAM (factory default). The game just will not go into attract and neither start any game.

You could say I am. Williams was updating the (WPC system) lamp refresh procedure sometime in 1995. And that procedure no. 2 works better with LED lamps. Though you might find some types of LED that are so bad they look poor regardless. The new ROM releases for games that were using the old procedure will be have it upgraded to the new one. TOM was originally released with the new procedure. No upgrade necessary.

Thanks That verifies connector J125-3.

I cannot speak for any modified ROM that may be installed out there. But I know that some of the "ghost free" versions circulating was done using a tool that does the same thing. Replacing the procedure in the earlier games with the one Williams started using in 1995. In other words. If you are using one of these ROMs, the lamp performance on ROMs from my hand should be the same.

And speaking for WPC games only on this.

So, what is the preference when a ball save is rewarded?

The message is

"BALL SAVE"

or

"BALL SAVED"

There is no harm in using this rom. But it only offered a small adjustment to how ball saver is working. And the game as LOADS of bugs that is not addressed. I pulled it again.

Regarding the problem you appear to have. All switches might seem to register in switch test. But if one or more are so sensitive it registers from tapping the flippers or bumping the game, the game might go to ball-in-play before ball launch.

You can identify ball-in-play state from the score display. Blinking or rolling.

Honestly I would love to do an overhaul of BSD, but it is just too much stuff. So many bugs. And not too great mechs. Ball dropping out of the mist for instance. Castle lock release releasing two balls. Starting video mode with two balls in play.

Believe me, I have spend hours on this game already. That IFPA final final game has been studied frame by frame. But never was able to reproduce that one. And that is including sessions where certain game states was purposely messed up to see if the behaviour could be provoked to show itself. Never was. One of the ones where you start to see phantoms and convince yourself that the game must have had bad RAM just to escape.

Hew. Thanks for letting me know. Of course there are always more isn't there.

An awkward situation, as seen on this DMD. Not only lock you out of that first extra ball. But all KISS completion tier awards for that game.

Never say never. I might make an 5.1 with this one done.

I should mention that this problem is not gonna happen in 5.0 when set to tournament play. Because of how the snack bar awards now work. You will get your 5Ms from KISSes.

pasted_image (resized).png

Police Force is a case where Ive never really bumped into one. Have ever played one game of Police Force - at Pinburgh.

Hmmmm. That IJ need work done to the kickout / tipout mech. Only the fewest IJs Ive played are not making a clean kickout.

I do not think it is double the power, but 50% more. And that is a common thing on WPC era games. For ball dropping back in. The ones I have looked into is 50%. The Shadow plunger comes to mind. Though it might be east and west game to game and mech to mech.

On a side note - I do think it is what you are seeing - WPC games without a manual plunger will plunge a ball in shooter lane on a tilt warning. This was done as a fail safe against idiots pushing the game around before figuring out how to plunge the ball.

I would love to work on T2. But I must have evidence of the "255 hits to start multiball" bug. I have yet to find a smoking gun for this on the latest rev. I am sure it has truly been happening to players. But I fear it is due an ealier software rev. and therefore actually fixed already. Please report details if observed.

On the drop target. No, you cannot prevent a drop target to go down. And a ball might even be able to knock it down and still finds it way to the vuk behind it. What you can do is reset it as fast as possible. And then also make sure software deals with two balls in vuk the best way possible. With fair and the least harm to player(s).

Demoman is coming soon.

Maybe. But no promise. I have a plan for ball saver added to another game, so lets see the strength of that one.

Funhouse has somewhat of a problem though. Some games will need a hardware modification. A jumper moved on the CPU board. And that will cause trouble. I is impossible to foresee which. Some of those out there not running the L-9 might already be changed for larger eproms. Maybe later production run. Maybe fitted with a refurbished CPU board. Etc. So it will be a mess to provide proper guidance for this. People installing it without being aware and blame the ROM chip and demand a return. A mess.

What do you want for The Shadow?

Ha. As I have described earlier in this thread. The loop combo value being open ended is a bug. There is a procedure in place to cap it at 30M. But it does not work. I have a theory to what went wrong. But will not go into that one here and now.

I actually believe a proper fix to No Fear is a playfield modification. That'll be the day.

So lets talk TOTAN. You cannot have a pinball machine where trapping up on the right flipper 50% of the play time is a valid strategy. So, what should be the rules for lighting Harem on the left orbit? It cannot be repeat shots to orbits, because this is the timed Tiger loop objective. Let take that out of the equation.

What rules should light Harem on the left orbit? And when should this rule apply? Meaning, should Harem MB be ruled out of modes, ligtning lamp etc.

PS. Not talking about the Harem stack into Genie battle. That is a bug. (Fun to execute non the less)

This will very likely never happen, I am sorry. This is a sensitive part of the software (the real-time system). Not messing around.

It is unfortunet that this mod is not being developed anymore. Now there are Creature owners out there who would like to use this with the new software. I would much rather develope a hardware mod to the MikeD mod to make it complient with rev. 5.0. I would honestly have a go at it if I had it in my possesion. I believe it is a matter of delaying the lamp column signal(s) going in 3us. Two digital inverters and an RC-network. Done.

So the inspiration to make this is hearby put forward. Though I must stress that this solution is a best guess on my part. No guarantee.

Please go easy on the suppliers. I am sure they will have ROMs in stock shortly.

I was not aware that Matt has ceased operation (for the time being). All the best, Matt.

The ever great and highly entertaining Ron Hallett is giving the new (vulgar) version a spin here...

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1414421029

Thanks for the rundown. I shall keep it in mind.

No. It will not have any influence on whether an upgrade to original software is developed or not.

I gotta say... I truly HATE that these re-design kits are named 2.0. Stop that please and stick with a subtitle for the kit. For TOTAN it is The Forgotten Tales, I believe. Yeah, The Forgotten Tales 1.0. These kits are not a software upgrade. They are a new product. I guess we can "thank" Dutch for starting this trend. A TOTAN upgrade from my hand, if and when it is released, will be revision 2.0.

I can see that, but there is only one little problem. If that add-a-ball shot is the one up the middle, what if you prefered to start the lock multiball? It it is mode start, what if you prefered to start the next mode? It is the ramp/rings, what if you prefered to start Vengence?

Adding features is also sometimes re-writing other features. Especially since the playfield is a constraint of remaining unchanged.

DemoMan was a sole release this time around. Thanks.

Ahhhh. Thank you. This was news to me and a fun little exercise. The best hour spend today - so far.

Creature has five main themes and maintains an index for which one to play for ball 1 across all players. Ball 2 is the next theme and so on. The index for start song is incremented when game detects that the date-day value has changed according to a reference. This check is at start-of-ball. So it can actually update on a same game, if played through midnight.

Theme index and date reference survives a power cycle. Extra balls replay same theme.

The new ROMs are developed from the latest Williams releases like this...

L-4 -> Rev. 7.0

H-6 -> Rev. 7.0 (Vulgar Speech)

Update is the U6 game ROM only. The sound ROMs, respectively, are the same. So, order then upgrade that match the sound ROMs.

WPC games go to game over after 10 mins of inactivity. Except when configured for tournament play.

Not tested on all games (for obvious reasons). But feel free.

I will have to hold back that statement. Apologies. I am sure I have observed this. But I cannot poke it this evening. Might exclude to certain setup or game era.

The real time clock is not used for game features with exception of "midnight" themed stuff. Or for my own safety. I have not seen it used for anything else as of yet at least.

You can even "cheat" the credit dot by setting the date/time on a non-battery/nvram equiped game. No credit dot eventhough real time clock reset at each game power on.

Thanks for the extensive points added.

No sure I understand. Do you want short plunging to bumpers to be safe as a strategy? Way I see it, this would constitute a (another) plunge over and over exploit.

I do not understand. You may plunge over and over. If ball moonwalks to INLANE, you lit Steps is lost. Fine by me.

Why not.

Care to explain this?

Frustrating I agree. Espcially in tournament where you do not know if you can trust the game. But this is a mechanical fix.

I am tempted at putting out a bounty for anyone who can document this. From my analysis, this cannot happen on the L-8 software. For that logic that is responsible for handling this value that is.

Cute. And much easier to make than the player individual accounting. This will keep the tournament player awake at night figuring out the strategic options.

Somebody making CV wizard mode will likely win the game regardless. Two (or more) players making it, will just battle on who can get to it/play that MB the best. People also mention the Ringmaster battle being to powerful. To me this is risk/reward putting all into playing though all those Ringmaster hits.

That is news to me. Obviously a bug which I wish I would've fixed.

Eventhough the standard menu adj for extra balls where really "standard", meaning the same for all games 1990-99, it might have different interpretation game to game per the individual programmer. And if you told me I would also believe, that there are games out there where certain EB awards are given eventhough some max limit is reached. Simply because it was coded without checking.

Generally EB on mystery and semi random awards are less likely, if not prevented, for games where EBs have been earned already. They made algorithms for this even back in the earlier 1980s games. Other times EBs per some feature progression is once per game. Like TOM 6 o'clock. It is points after the first one EB. So you can say that EBs are self limiting.

I agree that EB limitation should be total per game and that is it. And I like to set the limit at 2. EBs per ball-in-play and stacked limit are weird, really. I like to see a game of pinball being progression through all balls to play. Apart from obvious things like timed modes, which ends with current ball.

EBs are a sweetspot between hooking players to come back a play again. And the ever so importent game-time. Which operators tend to see black/white as: the lower game-time the higher the earning. Meeeh, I dont think so. So I am going out on a limb saying, maybe lavish adjustments to limit EBs was introduced to have the operator dude pick your product.

Thanks Davi for the comprehensive rundown of JD issues. Good reference.

The WPC platform actually supports per switch definition for if their statistics should be used as basis for the credit dot / operator alert. As well as the infamous 3-switch ball-in-play logic. Where they alternatively could be configured for instant ball-in-play. Or passive (like trough switches are). So it was actually possible for programmers to optimise the game towards a trustworthy "somthing is broken" credit dot. And to not motivate deliberate drain and plunging over and over and over. For free game progression or skill shots.

However, the programmers of these games had ENOUGH to do getting the core game ready in time. So I guess the games were not always fine tuned in matters less important. Plus that software updates were seen by management at the time as waste of time and necessary evil at best. Legend has it, that some, if not a lot of, the software bug fixes we luckly have today are thanks to the programmers own pride and desire to perfect their game. Putting in their own time and pushing for a release.