Following!! Can’t wait to get this code!!

Wow that looks wild. Already had Lightning in my wishlist, guess now I REALLY want one.

I just picked one up for this reason.

Assuming it hasn't been sold, I had one lined up previously. Timing is awful but I already hit him up about it. Fingers crossed.

Goodluck!! Hope you can score one.

Well, I was gonna work on my Cirqus next, but looks like I may want to move up tackling that lightning playfield.

Following!

Great video, sethbenjamin !
Rules / settings / code here:
https://www.pinballrefresh.com/blog/storm23

DickHamill thanks so much for creating this!

This is great to hear! If anyone needs a kit, let me know.

https://troxelrepair.com/product/arduino/

Lovely stuff! Seems like I'm looking out for my 3rd Lightning.

Only thing I don't get is the grace period for multiball. I don't think that works for games without an auto kicker. It seems like an exploitable feature:
1. Drain a ball during multiball
2. Leave the returned ball in the shooter lane
3. Play multiball rules with 1 ball
4. Use the ball in the shooter lane as an extra ball

At least that's the way I used to rack up crazy multiball points back in the arcade days on games with a broken autoplunger

...Or has this been taken care of in Lightning's new software?

Do you ship to Canada? I have the BSOS/new code for METEOR but would like to buy this for Lightning as well

All thanks go to sethbenjamin (who arranged to get the machine to my shop for as long as I needed it), and Mark (don't know Mark's pinside handle) who owns the machine!
I love working on new versions, and I couldn't be happier that sethbenjamin has now brought me two machines to mess with.

Yes, if you send me your email address and what you want, I can get an invoice sent to you.

MB Ball save defaults to off, but it's on a setting if anyone wants it. You do have to listen to a disclaimer whenever you turn it on:
"Warning: because this machine lacks auto-plunge, multiball ball save will serve a ball into the shooter lane during the ball save period and the player will have no incentive to put that ball into play until they've drained the remaining balls."

When sethbenjamin gets around to adding an auto-plunger, I'll make sure the software supports it. That's a pretty easy mod for early Sterns.

Thanks for this! Good to hear it has been thought of. I definitely understand the need for some friendliness in the game. Lightning's gameplay is brutal.

However personally, I'd leave this type of ball save during multiball off. In the end there might be more people that leave the ball in the shooter lane than you think. Even with that warning Dick speaks about. Real newbies will not know it's there. Jerks (but also people you really really like, especially when nobody is watching, you'll be surprised) will leave it there on purpose. For me personally, adding an auto shooter would be too much physical alteration of the machine.

Have you thought about the possibility for an instant re-lock to add that much needed friendliness? Like this:
1. You drain one of the two balls (or two of the three) during the grace period (or before you've scored a jackpot or whatever).
2. The machine starts a countdown in which you can re-lock the remaining ball on the playfield (in either of the holes).
3. You re-lock the ball within the countdown time.
3. A new ball is served into the shooter lane.
4. Multiball restarts immediately once that new ball hits a switch on the playfield.

Banzai Run, TAF and more games without auto plungers do it like this. For me it totally works.

Waiting on some bug fixes for the code. Ordered setup up from Trenton. Can’t wait to install it and play the new code.

I tried this out in my Lightning today and I hope someone can help me. The game doesn't give me any beeps, it immediately says something along the lines of 'selecting switches' or 'selecting switch off' (it's hard to tell) and another robot sounding voice is also playing below it at the same time. The playfield lights flash, 99000 or 90000 flashes on the playfield display. When I start a game all the lights go dead and nothing scores, the drop targets/standups are dead. Flippers work. When the ball drains nothing happens. I have original boards. Any idea what might be wrong here? Thank you!

Looks like you're very close. The voice at the beginning is telling you what code it's going to run and why.
It will begin with "Selector switch off" or "Selector switch on". This is the state of the switch jumper on the board.
Then (if your hardware supports it) it will tell if you if it detected the Credit/Reset button at powerup. This can be used to select original or new code.
Finally, it will tell you if it's "Starting original code" or "Starting new code" based on the select switch and C/R button.

What board rev are you running?
Did you build it yourself or purchase it from someone?
I would guess that perhaps your software is not compiled for the proper board rev (or options), but that's a guess.

I got it from someone who frequents this forum (known to sell these pre-assembled) and who's name I'd like to keep private as it's most likely not his fault, and if so, it's likely an innocent error. I grabbed another BSOS kit from him in the past for another game without issue so he knows what he's doing.

I wasn't aware I had to pick original or new code upon startup. I'll read up on this and see if it helps.

When I add credits I can hear the cool new sound effect and the attract mode is ok in terms of the playfield lights. When the game starts I can hear the thunder and background effects, the slingshots work, scoring displays work, flippers work and that's it. Every playfield light goes off as soon as I hit start. I appreciate the quick response and all the work you do for us. I will try to see if I can figure it out now that I know I need to select code. I will also take a quick video as you might be able to distinguish what it's saying, but my gut feeling is that it's saying 'Selector Switch Off'. There's also another faint voice behind it, but not the same voice. The board is the latest I think, rev 3. The other stern classic game I own with custom code by you starts with the same 6 beeps (I think it's 6) you'd expect when turning on a Stern game. In this case the voice comes on the second the power does, is this expected?

In short, here's what happens;

1 - Turn on Power & immediately hear 'Selector Switch On'.
While it is saying the above, there is a robotic sounding voice underneath but much quieter saying something I can't distinguish. The playfield lights are flashing in a pattern and the displays work fine with I believe 2023 on the top left display. There is a 99000 in the playfield display
2 - I then add a credit so I can start a game. When I do (insert coin) I can hear the coin dropping sound effect that is new. The playfield is still in attract mode
3 - I then hit start and the lights go off. Everything else seems to be working the same, but now I get sounds of thunder
4 - I launch ball and play, no targets or lights work but everything else seems ok (flippers, slingshots, displays, background sounds are all ok)
5 - ball drains, background thunder keeps playing in a loop

At this point I have no choice but to turn off machine. Next time I turn it on, exact same.

I think a video would probably help quite a bit.
When you hit the start button and the thunder begins, it should be cycling through the upper arrows for a skill shot.
I think you must have a Rev 3 board. The Rev 3 plugs into the J5 connector and only uses half the pins on the Arduino MEGA. Rev 3 is not able to do conditional boot based on Credit/Reset, so the selector switch is the only way to choose original versus new code.
The voice in the background at startup is the SB300 saying, "Thor."

Here's a video of the machine off, turned on, and up until the ball drains. I really appreciate the help!

I'm still struggling to come up with an answer for this.
Can you go into switch test (using the coin door switch) and tell me what shows on the displays if all of the drop targets are up and all 3 balls are in the trough?
I'm expecting 32 33 34 on player 1-3 displays.

Thanks for following up. I'll try tonight and let you know what happens

I have 32 on player 1, 33 on player 2, 34 on player 3

The first time I tried I had different results but I realized the middle drop bank didn't reset properly. Now that it has the numbers seem to be correct

I set up an Alltek with a Rev 3 board and spent a while debugging some issues. There was a problem with the logic to run original code (fixed), and a timing issue with the hardware (fixed). I wasn't able to reproduce the behavior you're seeing, but based on the bugs I fixed maybe you'll have better luck?
The code is here:
https://github.com/RetroPinUpgrade/Storm23
Are you able to update the Arduino and give it a shot?

I think I can pull it off, I'll give it a shot and let you know. Thanks again for the help!

The game is working now! Thanks so much for the help and support, and really great job on the code.

One small note, just to share info, I think I've found a minor bug. When I get the ball in the top right kickout before I can lock, it kicks the ball out as expected, but once in a while the ball bounces off the post and goes right back into the kickout. When that happens the game idles as it doesn't try to kickout a second time and it's not locking the ball. When I manually remove the ball with my hands it says "multiball!". Anyhow, not sure if it's just my machine but outside of that this code is fantastic. Thank's for everything you're doing for the early solid state's which happen to be my favourite.

I see in the config file there is a setting for Williams games. I never had to look at that file before so this was interesting to me. Are you working on any of those?

Glad it's working. I'll look into that behavior -- thx!

For Williams, there's a game for Stellar Wars, one for Scorpion, and the original Black Knight is about 90%. More coming.

So when this is finalized, I'd like to try it. I have the latest Weebly mpu in mine with the option for Arduino but I've never done anything with Arduinos before. What would I need to buy and what is necessary to set the whole thing up including loading the code onto chip(s)? I have a cheap little chip burner that I've used to put in Slochar's code on a chip but that's it.

Thanks for this terrific effort!

Is there still a plan to add flasher triggers? I'm repainting my cab with UV active blue and yellow, and was thinking about adding some UV bulbs hidden under the backbox overhang on each side to make it pop...would be suuuuper silly 80s cool to do that on flasher triggers...

I've been meaning to do a write up about the arduino on the replacement MPU.

You need an arduino mega pro 2560 and a special USB cable to program it via a computer.

On the MPU board... remove the U9 CPU chip (6802). Change the jumper shunts near the Arduino socket from '6802' to 'Arduino'. Plug your programmed arduino into the provided dedicated arduino socket on the MPU board (NOT MPU J5, that adapter won't work). Should be it.

Because we can't Z state out the 6802 processor, there is no easy dual boot capability as of now. You would have to plug the CPU back in and change the jumpers back to 6802 to go back to normal MPU software.

You can get an arduino mega pro 2560 from ebay/aliexpress for like $10. I ordered from a bunch of different places to see what I would get and about half of the ones i've ordered didnt work, so beware about those sources. I could tell the atmega chip on some of the bad ones looked sketchy. I am not sure what the best srouce for those things are. The design files are posted so I think about anyone can have them manufactured.

I'm trying this project with an aliexpress arduino (mega 2560pro) and the Rev3 board. The game has an original working Stern m-200 mpu. When turn the game on with the arduino assembly plugged into J5, I get a flicker on the mpu LED and then it comes on and stays locked on. '

If I take the board/arduino off and replace the J5 cables the game boots and plays normally.

I don't have a ton of experience with arduino, but I think I have the Storm 23 code installed correctly.(in the IDE it says 'done compiling' and then 'done uploading'). I was able to upload the 'blink' example as a test and that worked. Not sure what to try next. I ordered a couple arduinos, maybe I should try a different one?

Hoping that someone with more experience can help this noob out. The game looks so much better with this code, I would love to get it working!

A couple of questions might help narrow down the potential issue(s)...
What happens if you boot with the Rev 3 board connected but the SB300's ribbon cable is not?
Does the Arduino's power LED come on when you have it plugged into the MPU?
What happens if you plug in the Rev 3 but without the Arduino plugged into it?
Is the switch jumper on your Rev 3 board open or closed?
Is your RPU_config.h set up for Rev 3?

Thank you Dick! The game is working now. I didn't have Rev 3 selected in the RPU_config.h (and the jumper was open).

So, now it works and plays, but I have no sound at all other that something it says at start-up(can't quite make it out). Do I need to get a Wav trigger board to make the audio work or can I just use the SB300 sound board for the time being?

Thanks for taking the time to get back to me and huge thanks for making this code available

It says, "Thor" when you start it up. I didn't implement sounds for the SB300. That's a bunch of effort and I don't find it fun or rewarding. WAV trigger & speakers is the best way to go unless you want to dive into adding SB300 sounds!
The SB300 has two square wave generators, a volume ramp, and a white noise generator. Somewhere out there, there are composers who love to go back and write music / sound effects for old synthesizers. I see them porting their compositions over to things like the original NES sound commands. I suppose it could be fun, but I think it might take me months to get up to speed and get something sounding good...

Thanks again. Ordered the Wav trigger board. Adding the SB300 sounds seems cool, but way over my skill level. I appreciate your help.

Thanks!

Hello Dick, I got the game working and playing sounds(background music and switch sounds), but none of the speech/call-outs are working. The WAV trigger board is temporarily going to my bluetooth speaker through the headphone jack if that matters. Even without the speech it's sweet! Do you have any idea where I should start looking to get the speech working? Thanks again.

First thing I would check is the coin door settings -- these are the ones that deal with sound:
18 - Sound Selector
19 - Music Volume
20 - Sound Effects Volume
21 - Callouts Volume
There should be voice prompts that lead you through the various options for 18, but I think that "6" is WAV trigger sounds, music, and callouts.
Then check 21 to make sure it's not set to 0.

What Rev board do you have?

That was it! Sound selector was set to 0. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me sort this out. Big upgrade for Lightning!

Some other minor issues:
There is static in the speaker at times, I'm wondering if that is because I wasn't able to update the firmware for the WAV trigger. The static seems to change with the lights during attract mode. I'll see if I can get that updated, my computer isn't communicating with the WAV trigger board for some reason.

Also, it did start a game on its own from attract mode, which isn't a big deal for me, just documenting it. Last thing, when I flip the switch to boot the original code it doesn't boot up at all.

FYI, I'm using the Rev 3 board.

The static isn't likely from the WAV trigger. It's likely from the SB300. If the switch isn't allowing the original code to boot and you have static, I would make sure that the ribbon cable to the SB300 is plugged in correctly into your Rev3.

You are right again, the static I was hearing was the cabinet speaker. Thank you.

It still doesn't boot to original code with the switch for some reason. I can hear it say 'original code' when I turn it on. I double checked the ribbon cables to the SB300, they seem to be hooked up correctly. If I remove the interface board completely and plug the ribbon cables back in at J5 it will boot up normally to the old code. any ideas?

Seems like a cool feature but not really a big deal if I can' t get this part to work since I like the new code way better anyway. Thanks for your time.

Hi Again,
So my machine is randomly starting a game from attract like others have noted, but it also acts like the credit button gets pushed sometimes when you are playing. My buddy and I were playing a 2-player game and on ball 1 the game reset(scores erased) started a single player game. Kind of a buzz kill when you are having a fun game. Any ideas where I could look for this problem?
Also, I didn't think I cared about the switch for original code not working on my machine, but it would be kind of neat to switch back to original code to show people the difference. Any ideas where else to look for that problem? I verified the ribbon cables are installed correctly. I even tried a different BSOS interface/arduino which I made for a friend with the same result. It does say 'original code' when you turn the machine on but that's it, it just sits there(the flippers are working even though it doesn't boot up) I'm using the Rev3 board.
Thanks for all your time and help!

The random starts/restarts with the Rev3 board are unacceptable. I'm trying to find a way to reproduce that behavior here. I've tried a variety of boards / MPUs and I haven't been able to make it happen.

As for the original code not working - what revision of the code is running (ie what are the numbers in the player displays when you first boot)?

Here's what comes up when I boot:

Player 1 2023
Player 2 01
Player 3 05
Player 4 04

How are you sampling the switches? Maybe it's transients on the start button that the original software ignores but BSOS reacts to. I'd make if you can the switches that don't need the fast response do some extra samples and make sure they are all 'closed, closed, closed, closed, etc' before reacting.