Replacing the 8-track player in Midway Haunted House with a sound card

Absolute Genius!!!!!!!

You have opened the doors to any EM having sounds including Pinball.

Sound effects, Call outs, Music, etc. This is the Color DMD for EMs!!!!!!!!!!

Now any switch can have a sound including score reel switches and Tilt mechs.

The possibilities for EM sounds are limitless with this.

You can even add sounds to a Gameroom itself this is really clever your the man.

Yea, my Abra Cadabra will get a sound track very neat!

Or imagine an interactive door bell

Brilliant! Awesome idea HisboyElroy....I have a few even older (60's) EM rifle games that had no or very primitive sounds. Was thinking of doing something like this to add some life to them...

That sound board seems more than adequate to do the job

Super smart!

Looking at the schematic you should be able to use the existing 8 track harness to trigger the sounds.

hh.png

Am I correct in assuming you can only trigger 14 different sounds with this device? Or is that 14 simultaneously from a palette of many more sounds?

Awesome! Thanks for posting!

That is awesome! Nice job thinking outside the "8 track box"!

Wow. Good work! Will save a lot of games.

Really cool project here.

I can see this working for many games. I wanted to do custom sounds on Miss World, and this is probably the way i'm going to be able to do it.

yes you would want to measure the voltage to see what is on that line.

Bump because this is so cool.

Robertsonics here. The trigger inputs can be configured for contact closures - basically a switch or button to ground, or for logic level activation, which means 3.3V or 5V signals. Anything over 5V will likely damage the GPIO pin of the processor.

Tracks can be looped using the serial control port, and I'm testing new firmware that supports looping from a trigger input. Keep an eye on my website (robertsonics.com) because I'm regularly pushing out new firmware.

Let me know if you have questions about the WAV Trigger and I'll do my best to answer.

based upon the above schematic for the old 8 track player what do you think would be the best way to wire in the wav trigger. I believe the voltage line for each sound on the old 8 tracker player is either 12v or 24v. Don't have easy access to the game at the moment so hopefully the thread author can post the actual voltage.

I can send the complete schematic if necessary.

Well, once you know the voltage, you could use a voltage divider to convert to 3.3V. Or you could use a relay to create a contact-closure. Try googling "12V to 5V input" or similar.

If you're ordering the sound board from Sparkfun you can just grab a level converter at the same time for an extra $3. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12009

Keep in mind that if you set a trigger to "level" type, instead of the default "edge" type, then a track will loop as long as the trigger is held active. This works in the existing firmware. If you also set the trigger function to "Next", then holding the trigger active should continuously cycle through the selected track range, which I believe is what you are asking for.

Cool thread. Would be great if you could make kits that are ready to drop
In.

you know, an awesome product for someone to produce would be a little self contained switch that can just piggy back on regular leaf switches and make this board easy to implement on any pinball machine. So EM's and Early SS games can easily be customized for sounds.

yes, that would be rather cool...

it would be cool to make "royal guard" (for example) play a few bars of "god save the queen" when you hit a special...

and so on... i can think of lots of things to do with something like this that will really annoy my em brethren...

Sounds good to me!

Ken

you know me altogether TOO well...

Damn - I gotta find the guts for the head of my Royal guard!

Hello. Is this something that can be purchased? My HH is running perfect except sound gets cutoff, like most machines.

great idea. Most HH gun games sounds are missing. Would be great to add sounds to a lot of EM machines or even to newer DMD games. The possibilities are endless.

We are currently programming a raspberry pi for my Captain Kidd. We are programming switches on the game like if you hit a pirate he says"argghh" and a parrot says "squak". This game did not come with sounds. I will keep you posted. For more info. email zapdbf.com.

If I can find a cheap, counter-top pre-flipper this might be a cool little art project. I could wire basic switches into the scoring holes. I was thinking I could take some music that matches the theme and era and then split it out into its individual parts (drums, bass, horns, etc). Then you create a unique song every time you play.

Elroy,

Any progress with this? I have a Haunted House coming to me soon and even though it's fully working, I am always on the lookout for solutions when one day it *isn't*.

I understand why purists dislike meddling with original pins because the vast majority of custom mods, painted cabs, goofy rainbow LED's, etc. just look like ass. It's depressing to see a piece of classic art fall victim to a poorly executed plan.

However, that being said, I'm a huge proponent of upgrades "done in the spirit of the original vision". Color DMD's, mirror blades, stealth LED's, even some custom rethemes improve upon the original formula. Always exciting to see that happen. The creative spirit is what gave us pinball in the first place, yanno?

I like the "God Save The Queen" idea. The key is to make it a short ditty and use a vintage instrument for the sound samples. Or, if you are really serious, install a small xylophone or mariamba to play the notes!

I am working on a plug and play solution designed for haunted house but should work for others which use same pinout.

Stayed tuned for details

Thanks to HisboyElroy for sending me the converted audio files!

Got a friend that will be happy to see this. mp3 triggered?

mp3 trigger is not polyphonic (multiple tracks at same time) so likely wav trigger.

AWESOME!!! would love to install something like this in my haunted house or wild kingdom.. mabey add some real animal sounds instead of electronic noises...

Has anyone already install this and have it running???

Any updates on this project yet?

soon still putting my game back together had issues with the horizontal witch motor but got that sorted now.

Sounds good thanks!

Finally a update for everyone!

Please check out the following thread.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/midway-em-rifle-modern-audio-replacement

Hello everyone- sorry to highjack a thread but I really need some help to get my Haunted House gun game up and running. I think I've located all the parts I was missing except for a part of the witch target assembly. It is listed in the parts list and diagram as part #538-160 washer-drive. Its just a plastic washer the sits atop part #538-723 drive wheel. Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated!

IMG_5001_(resized).JPG

IMG_5004_(resized).JPG

Has anyone replaced the 8-track unit and installed a solid state sound board in these midway games? I have a Gangbusters I would like to replace the 8-track unit.

have you checked with William Stillwell? he has made a plug and play like you inquired, for the HH rifle and also i believe, could be used for other games. He has put me on the list for one, if interested i can get you his email address?

I did the WAV Trigger in my 1956 Williams Crossfire.
It was a lot of work.
I had to add a relay bank to interface with the 50 volt signals to each target.
I was very pleased with the results though I was never able to completely eliminate the ghost trips.

I set up my game to run either the bells that it came with or digital sound via the WAV-Trigger.
It is cool that you can choose your own sounds when you set it up.

Sure, I'll take it. Thanks

If possible can you provide me with William Stillwells email as well? I also have a Gangbusters with no 8 track. Does anyone know if the 8 track went into the front of the machine where the coin box is? I have an unused wiring harness there. I also appear to have a piece missing from the back below where the robber slide cutout is, but I have no idea what may have gone there. There are 2 screws attaching nothing and a metal plate with what appears to be a wear mark...any ideas or does anyone have a picture of the machine with the back bottom panel off?

ki4swy@gmail.com

Yes on mine the 8 Track player sits just behind the coin box , I can take a pic of the inside of mine if you need one , and here's a link on the game ... http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/gangbus.htm