Would really like to hear your experience using MPF with Data East games.

I've been debating whether to try and use the original boards vs. just skipping the DE board +P-ROC +needed SNUX board and rewiring from scratch with ONLY the P-ROC. One option is a daisy-chain of crossed fingers and potential limitations perhaps made tenable by the time-savings, the other option is a lot more soldering but more freedom. I think! My first homebrew, so I don't even know if my binary choice is that.

Here are my overall restomod objectives in order of gnarly-ness:
- change playfield art, less cartoony (gritty reboot)
- change some geometry, maybe add an additional ramp shot or two (with added or reused switches from a deleted shot)
- rules rewrite (nerd out with me if you want to talk existing or future Robocop rules, but in short, the rule card doesn't seem to match how ANYONE, including Bowen, plays the game which almost seems like the 7 standups and one captive ball are broken on every machine/at min are pointless)
- addressable RGBs for updated light shows
- replace standing targets with drops
- maybe, maybe add a DMD for fun

Here are some concerns:
- existing lighting is off sub-boards, which in general I'm wondering if that makes the already complicated SNUX setup moreso (IDK, getting out of my depth here already)
- Changing out stand-ups for drops, is this harder or easier or indifferent if I keep the DE board?
- This era Data East has solid state flippers (no EOS switch)... IDK if that means anything other than just a potential quirk/timesuck that could be negated BY rewiring from scratch with, say WPC flipper mechs OR if that would mean, no definitely try to keep the DE board and therefore get less ambitious in other areas
- I just put in a cool XPin display, which already requires a separate board off the P-ROC via "Jim at mypinballs.com," which, again, is just something I'm debating in where my ambitions should go/how do I meet most of my objectives with the least hassle

I'm in the tank for homebrew work, super pumped, but also just wondering if I should — like I said — plan to start 100% from scratch, use what's already here, or even pick a different title and start with existing wiring, there.

TY

I guess here's a simpler hypothetical:

DE board + P-ROC + SNUX: if I wanted to ADD a MECH (i.e. drop targets) am I wiring that to the P-ROC (or SNUX) directly whereas EVERY OTHER MECH is attached to the DE board?

Or if you keep your game's original boardset and use a P-ROC, are you then only using MPF to rewrite rules and lights and sound and scoring, not necessarily new switches?

Does 1 new switch = rip out the old guts and start from scratch?

I did not, so Robocop went away.

Related, hypothetical alternative that I was also curious about: FAST also does not have a timeline for releasing their SYS11 board to the public, and they also can't confirm that it does work with DE games (but it might).

In any case, a few dead ends still leading me to planning out what I will do and which titles to choose.

Oh wow, that's super cool, but no RE: travel.