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(Topic ID: 246935)

RPi, PINMAME and P-ROC?

By Priam

4 years ago

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11 posts
8 Pinsiders participating
Latest reply 3 years ago by matiou
Topic is favorited by 4 Pinsiders

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#1 4 years ago

MFW

Priam

Inactive member

Salt Lake City, UT

4y 19,650 44 1

Hello folks.

This is my first post on this forum. I just picked up my first pinball machine (TAF) two weeks ago.

By profession I'm a technical person and I'm already thinking about tinkering with this machine.

I've been reading quite a bit, and there's so much information out there it's a bit difficult to put it all together so far. I was fortunate in that my machine came with an operations manual and schematic manual. I've done a fair amount of reading up on the WPC89 system and piecing together how it works.

What I'm wondering is, besides for fun, how I can also use this machine as a development platform? (just for the learning experience, no project yet)

I ran across P-ROC which seems to be a board designed for development using existing WPC hardware and using a PC connected via USB. This seems promising.

I also discovered PinMAME which will emulate a WPC system, which got me thinking and running into a few questions...

The documentation I've found on PinMAME seems to be geared primarily for virtual pinball on Windows. Is there any lower-level documentation on PinMAME? I'd be interested to get it to run on Linux (for example, Raspbian on a RPi) without the "virtual" aspect...simply emulating the WPC architecture. It would seem the P-ROC libpinproc C API could be used within PinMAME to read existing ROM files and interface with the P-ROC board, perhaps providing the same experience as using the original WPC MPU with hardware ROMs?

Has anyone tried this? If so, any information to be found on such an endeavor?

If I could get that to work it would seem I could develop using FreeWPC, test my ROM images, as well as continue to use the existing ROM images for recreational use.

Thanks!

-Mike

#2 4 years ago

MVP

Grizlyrig

Pinside+ Frequent

9y 111K 3,360 1

If you take a look at these two new manufactured machines you will see a Raspberry Pi in the head. So I would think there is tons of possibilities.

https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/mafia

https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/suncoast-cosmic-carnival

-Mike

#3 4 years ago

AXE

YeOldPinPlayer

Inactive member

Unknown

8y 111K 6,454 4 12

gstellenberg is active here, he developed the P-ROC. He talks about PinMAME a little in his interview on For Amusement Only. https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/multimorphic-p3-club/page/8#post-5082544
Consider the Multimorphic P3 system for future development.

#4 4 years ago

ZAC

zacaj

RPC

Rochester, NY

11y 158K 10,385 85 122 1

I think FAST makes a drop in replacement WPC MPU that can be controlled from a computer.

the Lisy boards do what you're talking about with pinmame, but for older machines.

FreeWPC is an open source implementation of the WPC operating system to allow writing new games directly on the original hardware. I'm not sure why you'd want to use pinmame+proc if you're already using freewpc. just load freewpc up in pinmame for development, and burn a rom when you're ready to test in game.

#5 4 years ago

FPG

luvthatapex2

Pinside member

North Wales, PA

11y 129K 5,768 7 100

If I recall way back when Compy wrote a pyprocgame version of TAF which controlled all the lamps, switches and solenoids and had the original rules set. You could take this code and embellish it. You'd need a p-roc board and a small pc or rpi running pyprocgame and the libraries (since this is pyprocgame the rpi3 or 4 would work fine).

OP
Quoted from Priam:
Hello folks.
This is my first post on this forum. I just picked up my first pinball machine (TAF) two weeks ago.
By profession I'm a technical person and I'm already thinking about tinkering with this machine.
I've been reading quite a bit, and there's so much information out there it's a bit difficult to put it all together so far. I was fortunate in that my machine came with an operations manual and schematic manual. I've done a fair amount of reading up on the WPC89 system and piecing together how it works.
What I'm wondering is, besides for fun, how I can also use this machine as a development platform? (just for the learning experience, no project yet)
I ran across P-ROC which seems to be a board designed for development using existing WPC hardware and using a PC connected via USB. This seems promising.
I also discovered PinMAME which will emulate a WPC system, which got me thinking and running into a few questions...
The documentation I've found on PinMAME seems to be geared primarily for virtual pinball on Windows. Is there any lower-level documentation on PinMAME? I'd be interested to get it to run on Linux (for example, Raspbian on a RPi) without the "virtual" aspect...simply emulating the WPC architecture. It would seem the P-ROC libpinproc C API could be used within PinMAME to read existing ROM files and interface with the P-ROC board, perhaps providing the same experience as using the original WPC MPU with hardware ROMs?
Has anyone tried this? If so, any information to be found on such an endeavor?
If I could get that to work it would seem I could develop using FreeWPC, test my ROM images, as well as continue to use the existing ROM images for recreational use.
Thanks!
-Mike

#6 4 years ago

MJS

Snux

Pinside member

Maidstone

11y 58,300 703 3

There is a pinmame build that will control the P-ROC. So you could install the P-ROC then play the original game code via a PC. That would in theory also allow you to play a ROM you'd developed with FreeWPC.

Couple of other things to chew on...

Pinmame controlling the P-ROC can sometimes be a little clunky if very precise timing of something is needed. I have a feeling that "Thing Flips" might not be very reliable, but I don't think anyone has tried it. I think the other devices on TAF should be fine.

If you're going to connect a P-ROC then instead of using FreeWPC I'd suggest using one of the bigger frameworks that are supported there. Take a look here

https://www.multimorphic.com/software-development/

If you want to use the existing DMD then MPF is probably the way to go. If you're looking to replace with a screen of some kind, then SkeletonGame comes into the option list too.

#7 4 years ago

DAD

uncivil_engineer

Pinside member

9y 91,550 2,012

My personal preference would be for Proc. I have worked with both MPF and the old PyProcGame framework. If you just want to tinker, this an easy way to get setup and running.

#8 4 years ago

MFW

Priam

Inactive member

Salt Lake City, UT

4y 19,650 44 1

Thanks everyone for your help and advice, this gives me a lot to chew on.

#9 4 years ago

MJS

Snux

Pinside member

Maidstone

11y 58,300 703 3

I don't think Jimmy ever replicated the full ruleset, but found this video from way back where he talks about it and demos. Software frameworks (and the power of the Pi) have moved on since then....

1 month later

#10 4 years ago

MFW

Priam

Inactive member

Salt Lake City, UT

4y 19,650 44 1

His work on that code is available here:

https://github.com/compy/TAF

I had a look through it, not the full ruleset, but a good start and very helpful.

1 year later

#11 3 years ago

MAT

matiou

Pinside member

5y 67,150 478

I'm looking for examples of P-ROC projects, especially code rewrites for existing machines, like TAF by @compy, or Cactus Canyon by @epthegeek... Is there any list or dedicated forum somewhere ?

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