Quoted from Zitt:

I found the serial cable update to be the easiest. It doesn't really require special hardware... I had a Null serial cable in my cable box.
That said; I understand why PUB cards are considered easier because you don't have to setup a WinXP box.

Quoted from Ahoernchen:

What I forgot to say, it isn't possible to add complete new images + animations! The RFM prism space is nearly 99,5% full.
Big changes can't be proceded because of missing rom/flash space.
Because of that the languages french and spain are deleted in 1.9

Quoted from bobwiley:

Ahh, so would Nuocore and pinbox machines be able to have an expanded game with new animations and sounds added on to the existing code?
And just to clarify, 1.8 and 1.9 do have additional animations and callouts that version 1.6 does not contain?

Quoted from Giulio:

Can anyone show images or better a vid of 1.9 added/changed graphics and attract mode? Any way to add them to existing nucore, just the updated 1.9 roms? Thanks.

Quoted from PhillyArcade:

Tech Question: If I power up my RFM the PC kicks on, I get the menu on the monitor, and about 2 seconds after it boots the table, boom goes dead. I turn the power supply switch off on the PC, wait a few seconds and turn it on and I get the same thing again. It will do this maybe 4 or 5 times and then it will boot and stay booted. I took the PC out and powered it on it's own and it will come on and run no issues. I replaced the monitor and reseated all connectors. Anyone run into this issue? Next up I'm going to cap the main board in the bottom of the machine as it sure seems like a cap issue. I'm not sure on the date for the PC power supply but it literally looks brand new. Thanks!

Quoted from cabuford:

I don't think Pin2K uses the computer sound card. There is an audio amplifier board in the computer case, to the right if I recall correctly and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a headphone jack.

Quoted from gearheaddropping:

Cool....this sounds promising now. What cable did you use? I am using a Window's Surface and hope the following works as a connection: amazon.com link »

Quoted from Crrispy:

Interesting point, would be great if it ran fine with 4MB...

Quoted from wayout440:

What? Plenty of video modes...some would argue there is actually too many, thus "interrupts flow".

Quoted from Sonic:

Would be cool if you could put a "pause" feature ala twilight zone... For those that never have seen it... You cradle the ball with a flipper... Hit start or maybe the extra ball button.... And it holds the ball there until you release.... Always thought that was an awesome feature for home use

Quoted from rennervision:

With my machine almost 20 years old I knew it was time to replace the batteries inside, but I had been putting this off because I was dreading having to separate the PRISM sandwich card to replace the BR2325 button cell. I don't have a divider tool, can't find a divider tool, and have no idea how to separate the card with a toothbrush like some people suggest. (I'm going to assume it's a secret like how people in the future use three seashells in the restroom.) Even if I did have a tool, that thing is sealed tight so I know it's not going to survive my accident-prone self from mangling it somehow.
So I figured out a way to do this in minutes without ever worrying about taking apart the PRISM card and breaking it. All you need is a small flat head screwdriver, needle nose pliers, some electrical tape and a pick tool like the one below...
https://imgur.com/dGBbWxx
First, take your small flat head screwdriver, direct it into the card (in the direction indicated below towards the battery) and stick it under the battery.
https://imgur.com/3QQmFCH
Leave the screwdriver there, then take some needle nose pliers and pull the battery out a bit so it's no longer fully in its socket. Remove the pliers for a moment so you can pull out the screwdriver. Now use the needle nose pliers again and this time pull the battery completely out of the sandwich card.
Next, I recommend wrapping electrical tape around the grips of the pliers for the next step of reinserting a replacement battery. (You don’t want to scratch and scuff up your new battery and – as I quickly learned while experimenting with the old battery – you WILL scratch and scuff it up if you don’t do this.)
But first you have to figure out a way to lift up the clip in the battery holder and keep it up. Enter the sandwich board from the opposite side with your pick tool (as depicted by the arrow in the below photo)...
https://imgur.com/UNyeGXa
Slip the prong of the pick tool underneath the clip from behind and gently lift it up. Then (with the electrical tape already applied to your needle nose pliers), enter the board from the opposite side and start to place your new battery under the raised clip (entering from the same direction as the first time you inserted the pliers). Once it has started to get under the clip, remove both tools to inspect. Then reinsert the needle nose pliers and continue gently sliding it in until its completely snug inside the battery holder. Super easy.
By the way, I was actually surprised after replacing both the BR2325 and the CR2032 (on the PC motherboard) that you do not lose your game’s ROM version, any settings, or high scores. The date/time resumes from when you removed the old CR2032 battery so the only inconvenience is you will now need to update the time after you power on the machine.
(EDIT: Sorry about the links. I can't figure out how to post photos in between the text in my tutorial!)

Quoted from applejuice:

Another update on the new updater program.
Here is a screen shot of the first successful packet transmission between my mac and my test original pin2k computer. Possibly the first ever native (see below) packet transmission that isnt windows based.
The program has its own completely rewritten packet transmission system internally so that cross compiling the program will be easier. I am not using the fupdate program at all. Mainly this is because recompiling that for multiple systems seems a waste of time and secondly i want to be more independent than including old wms tools even though that program was released with the source freely available. It should be stated though the the fupdate source is an invaluable resource in terms of working out how this stuff works!! Thanks to williams yet again.
Still some hurdles to overcome, but to get a successful acknowledgement form the pin2k computer is a good step.
Another bonus for writing this tool is i have learnt a lot more (again) about the pin2k system and have some more ideas on how to possibly save valuable flash ram space for old machines on future updates.
[quoted image]

Quoted from applejuice:

Another update on the new updater program
Bingo! Fathomed it. Deliberately bricked an update to make it unusable and so forced the game to boot from roms, then ran my updater.
This is the first native update from a mac i think and also the first update ever not to use fupdate.exe
[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]

Quoted from pinballfan2000:

Hello everybody,
Does anybody know where can I download music from RFM pinball? I'd like to replace some Elvira's house of horrors musics with musics from Revenge from mars when I free more memory on my disk D (For example, to replace Gappa Angry track with Attack mars track).
I actually don't have Elvira's house of horrors pinball machine, I'm just practicing modifying sounds with PB.
I tried to extract music from RFM by using Audacity, but it didn't work
Is there any other method to download or extract music from Revenge from Mars?
Thanks in advance!

Quoted from applejuice:

Time is running out for update processes locked in to old crappy windows laptops ha ha

Quoted from tjc02002:

Hello everyone. Im hoping someone can just verify my thoughs are correct before I try to update my RFM to 2.21.
Ive got a very stock RFM Machine(original computer and all). I have previously updated the code on this machine using an old computer and null modem db9 cable and the existing pb2k update program(I think I got it off planetary pinballs website). Can I just download the latest 2.21 code from mypinballs.com and using the same computer and cable setup as before, update my game to 2.21?
Thank you for the help,
-Tom

Quoted from Asure:

I joined the club!
Not my first pin: I owned a TZ and ToM years ago before they went up in price, and sold them back in the day as well which i regret.
I'm kind of a sad panda as after moving the machine to my place, the pc does not seem to boot up properly, and as such the playfield does not come on.
A bit of background, i've been in pc hardware since the 90's so i know my stuff, but reseating the RAM and Prism card did not seem to help.
It still has the original PSU but voltages are good and it makes no noise, i know i need to check the caps, and replace the PSU as a safety measure soon.
Mainboard looks pristine, no bulging caps in sight. All cables seem to be connected properly as well.
I guess i need to re-check everything, but just a quick question, does the PC boot from Prism if the LPT cable is not connected?
Must the lpt cable be connected in order to boot up from Prism? What lights should i see on a working card and/or power board?

Quoted from PoMC:

A friend picked of a RFM yesterday and dropped it off at my house this. I have a SWE1 so I offered to have him drop it off for me to check out - was sitting in storage and couldn't power it on. Needs to have the PC motherboard caps replaced, the green ones are all swelled or leaking except one. Likely need a new CPU as well since the CPU fan doesn't work, so the chip is likely toast.
I swapped in my SWE1 PC and installed the RFM prism card and booted up just fine. Gave us a chance to do switch testing - needs a few microswitches replaced and 3 sets of optos.
But check out this .1 software version. January 26, 1999. Anyone know if this is the very first version? I haven't been able to find a reference earlier than .9 when searching. But anyway, now to research software updating process.
[quoted image]

Quoted from applejuice:

Right then. Tech lesson time. The game update Is stored in the flash ram of the prism and overrides 2 roms for the original game code only. The other roms are graphics and sound which are always used as is. (The flash ram also has alittle space for extra graphics and sounds so the developers could add assets after the roms were imaged but this is in addition not replacing rom addresses)
If you have a checksum error for all roms then this is the cause of the graphics issue. I would try a remove and reseat of the roms and the card sandwich . Carefully

Quoted from applejuice:

network crossover lead.

Quoted from TazDevl:

I would strongly recommend to not use the computer w/o havng replaced the CPU fan! At the same time you could check / replace the fan in the computer power supply (or replace the power supply).