Hey guys,
Another boredom project here to avoid burnout on other projects. So I decided to bust out the schematics on Pinball 2000 and try to reverse engineer the underlying control system with the hopes of taking control of the machine with modern PC hardware.
I am at the point where I can poll the switch matrix and control both lamp matrices in the machine. The goal here is to turn my SWE1 into a players game while also working toward a NuCore replacement. Using modern day game frameworks and systems, it should not be difficult to replicate the RFM/SWE1 experience on modern hardware to extend the life of these machines.
One consideration is obviously the parallel port... since the parallel port is direct signal IO, it'd be easy to fabricate a bridge piece of hardware based on an Arduino that can accept USB serial commands, but I had no problem finding a board with a parallel port on it when I purchased the PC.
The software runs a C++ base framework I wrote for communicating with the Pinball 2000 driver board. It polls the switch matrix every 2ms (each column is strobed every 16ms), the lamp matrix is updated every 2ms as well. Timing is very important as the lamp matrix runs at 18VDC, and the pulsing of the matrix cuts the overall power down to about 6.3VDC to prevent you from frying bulbs (yep, I went through quite a few when I was figuring that out).
Either way, here's a video of the progress so far!
More updates as they come!
Keep flippin', pinsiders! 
I'll be more than happy to answer any questions.
Richmond, VA
When I blow some ICs or something, my boards may be making their way to you. Thanks a bunch, I might also get with you about testing down the road 
(then I could use your 
Unknown
Brisbane City
Maudheim
