Whirlwind Software Rewrite - The Journey

Hi, As a few people know i'm working on a couple of software game rewrites. This thread is to share the progress of my Whirlwind software rewrite. I am using the p-roc board, procgame framework as before with Indiana Jones, but this time i am interfacing to the system 11 design and alphanumeric display. I wanted to do one of each (that being 1 DMD game and 1 alphanumeric)

When i started this project (about 18 months ago) Mark (snux) was working on the driver board support for system 11 games, but there wasn't really anyway for the p-roc board to drive an exsiting alphanumeric display, so i took it upon myself to build and interface board.

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I later worked with Mark to add a type of daughter card connection to his driver board so my board could be attached and save space /hassle trying to mount it separately. Mark also amended pinmame so that with the interface board you could keep the original alphanumeric display whilst runing the emulation via p-roc board. Pretty neat.

So the software rewrite has been going pretty well and i have almost gotten the full set of original rules working. I have also added some new things to it. The project is being done in the same way as my other, as in recreate then add on to. I have spent quite abit of time trying to match exactly the flasher effects etc. With this type of game more time is spent here and less time on the display control. The alphanumeric display makes life much easier than with the dmd option.

I have written an open source score display module that can be added to p-roc games

http:/github.com/mypinballs/scoredisplay

This helps make the display even easier as it controls all the transitions etc.

The list of additions on top of the original rules so far is:

- Upper and Lower Super Jets. Independently progressed
- Expanded compass target sequences for lighting lock
- Re-light main mulitball jackpot via skyway ramp option
- Expanded Combos shots, 2 way and 3 way
- Cellar Hurry Up
- Ball Save
- Auto launcher option
- Black Knight WAR Multiball secret homage
- Moonlight Madness Mode

I have some more videos over on my blog. Check out the moonlight madness mode!

http://mypinballs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/latest-videos-for-custom-whirlwind.html

I also have a child board over on the p-roc controller here:

http://www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum/index.php?board=36.0

The source code is here:

http://github.com/mypinballs/whirlwind

Yes I need to shoot a few new longer full game play vids now things have moved forward and the auto launcher with ball save is working

With the glass on to!

I really like whirlwind as a game, and with my rewrites i tend to pick games that are my favs from the specific era i'm looking at. (indy being my dmd fav). I always wished that there was an auto launcher and ball save on whirlwind so that's what got me started on the path. I also thought there was room to expand the rules alittle with more combos, hurry ups, super jets etc and I like adding hidden modes from other games into these projects to. The bk2k alternative quick multi-ball i'm really pleased with.

Added to the list

Update: Code has been progressing nicely and i did a big update back in october for the Play Expo UK event. Had some really great feedback from players. Now working on more updates, fixing bugs adding in new effects. Will try and shoot a new game play video soon to.

This project is about recreating the whirlwind game software from scratch and then adding on to it in a similar way that i have and am doing for Indiana Jones. I wanted to tackle a rewrite project that kept the original alphanumeric display so that the rewrite was less graphic heavy. Partly because i am already doing a dmd rewrite and partly because i think late alphanumeric games are great and don't always need fancier graphics to make them better. This project also enabled Scott to start something similar with his EarthShaker rewrite, Mark with his F14 rewrite project and some others

I have been rewriting the rules over the last few years to make the game play exactly as original, but have been adding new things in to as described above like autolaunch, ball save, secret homages to other system 11 games - black knight 2000, moonlight madness modes, cellar hurry up, super jets etc etc

This is a special mode that starts before the main game play when you start a game close to 12am. It is usually a frantic multiball round where all switches count for a certain value and there are other shots to increase that value or score jackpots. It usually ends when only 1 ball is in play. The normal game then resumes

The auto launcher is optional and will be configurable via settings. Ball save will also be configurable by settings and whether the auto launcher is installed

Yes, totally agree

Update: Ironed out some trough bugs relating to ball save and the out hole kick timing. amazing what can happen in the trough when things are real. Also worked out that system 11 games with p-roc boards work best using 12v for the switch matrix feed not 5v.

And then you plug the output into a custom amp (usually a 2 channel car one). same setup as with CCC.
or you can feed the input into the existing sound board and use its amp output side.

Sorry for the delay on replying here. I missed your question! You can use an amp such as this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231521746902

They are 2.1 so you can have a nice 3 speaker arrangement, though most music and sound is not recorded as stereo. It is best to use a separate 12v source though as the pins own 12v outputs aren't powerful enough to support this alongside what else its doing.

Update: Working on the service mode now. Based on my indy one, but a major rewrite to be useful on a 16x2 alphanumeric screen. Includes coin door open mode, tests, audits and settings adjustments.

Some screen shots so far:

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Some new videos of the service mode in action.

Audits

Settings Adjustment

Lamp Test

Switch Test

Early version and needs refining as some bugs in it, along with needing to sort out some of the special characters, but wanted to share to show the functionality that i've added. I think its quite a lot better than the original with much more info shown. I also have it working from the original 3 switches & the coin door switch:

I connect the direct switch cable to the proc interface as shown here:

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