Dick Hamill custom code for Solid State games

Pintastic New England·video·13m 2s·analyzed·Dec 9, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Dick Hamill demonstrates $20 Arduino-based custom code retrofit system for classic solid-state pinball machines with free open-source designs.

Summary

Dick Hamill, a custom code developer from Maine, discusses his Arduino-based circuit board system that enables retrofitting late-1970s solid-state pinball machines (Sam Stern and early Bally games) with completely new custom rule sets. His non-destructive approach costs under $20 in parts, uses open-source C code on GitHub, and has been applied to Stars (multiple versions), Blackjack, Meteor, Trident, Silverball Mania, Stellar Wars, and others. He explains the technical architecture, safety considerations for solenoid actuation, and future plans to integrate with Mission Pinball Framework for non-programmers.

Key Claims

Dick Hamill has created a circuit board that plugs into the J5 connector of solid-state pinball MPUs, costing roughly 50 cents for the board plus $3-4 for an Arduino, enabling complete rule rewrites for under $20 total
high confidence · Dick Hamill explaining his board design and cost breakdown directly to interviewer
Hamill has completed custom code versions for Stars (2020, 2021), Blackjack, Meteor, Trident, Silverball Mania, Stellar Wars, and is currently working on Middle Earth
high confidence · Dick Hamill's direct enumeration of completed projects
All plans and source code are free and open source, available on Hamill's website, Pinside, and GitHub
high confidence · Dick Hamill explicitly stating source availability
Hamill's solenoid actuation methodology matches original Bally code architecture, using immediate actuation on switch sense followed by valid closure for full actuation, verified against oscilloscope readings
high confidence · Dick Hamill explaining technical approach and verification methodology
Kits are available from multiple vendors ranging from $40 for solder-it-yourself options to approximately $150 for fully assembled turnkey boards
medium confidence · Dick Hamill's estimate of current kit pricing on Pinside
Writing custom rules from scratch in C for Arduino requires approximately 3-4 weeks for an experienced programmer working with the actual machine
medium confidence · Dick Hamill's estimate of development time for first custom rules project
Hamill plans to create an interface for Mission Pinball Framework, allowing non-programmers to write rules using configuration files instead of C code
medium confidence · Dick Hamill describing future development plans
The board design is non-destructive and includes a switch to toggle between original code and new custom code without hardware modifications beyond plugging into J5
high confidence · Dick Hamill emphasizing non-destructive design philosophy

Notable Quotes

“So it's just this little board that allows you to plug an Arduino into the MPU board of a solid state pinball machine. This board you can get for 50 cents roughly. You can get an Arduino for three or four bucks. You can do a whole conversion for less than 20 bucks.”
Dick Hamill@ 1:22 — Core value proposition: extremely low-cost hardware enabler for custom code retrofits
“Everything's free and open source, so all the source code is on GitHub. If you search for Dick Hamill, you'll find the plans to build your own board.”
Dick Hamill@ 2:14 — Emphasizes open-source philosophy and accessibility of implementation
“I wanted to make it so it was super non-destructive to your machine. It doesn't require you to do lots of stuff.”
Dick Hamill@ 9:21 — Core design philosophy: preservation of original machine integrity
“And on top of that I've done a switch on my board that allows you to flip a switch. You can boot up old code at any time, flip the switch back, boot up new code. So you basically can play your machine in two different ways.”
Dick Hamill@ 9:27 — Demonstrates reversibility and dual-mode operation capability
“All of my stuff works exactly the same way as the original Bally code did. In fact, on my website I've done screenshots of all the oscilloscope readings of all the actuations, old code, new code, just to show everybody that nothing hidden.”
Dick Hamill@ 7:05 — Addresses safety/reliability concerns with empirical verification approach
“So I took away that grind and gave you reason to want to hit it back up to the top because you can also get bonus multiplier by completing the top lanes. And you have to get up there for your Cameron Silver letters.”

Entities

Dick HamillpersonZak FrypersonMystic CreworganizationSlowcarpersonKevin O'Connorperson PinsideorganizationGitHuborganizationMission Pinball Frameworkproduct

Signals

?
community_signal: Open-source development model with active Pinside community discussion, multiple independent kit vendors, and emerging developer group fostering broad participation in custom code creation
high · Hamill emphasizing free/open-source approach, mention of Mystic Crew developer group, multiple kit vendors at varying price points, and tournament participation
?
design_philosophy: Hamill's Silverball Mania redesign demonstrates philosophy of expanding playfield engagement by removing grinding mechanics and forcing use of multiple shot sequences and lane work
high · Detailed explanation of Silverball Mania changes: removal of powerful horseshoe spot, introduction of skill shots and combo requirements, repositioning of bonus multiplier triggers
$
market_signal: Emergence of affordable custom code retrofit market potentially disrupting aftermarket modification landscape for classic pinball machines, with sub-$20 hardware enabling community-driven game enhancements
medium · Multiple kit vendors now offering varying price points ($40-$150), growing Pinside discussion community, tournament participation by custom code versions
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product_strategy: Custom code versions implementing multi-level progression, wizard modes, and skill shot systems bring significant rule depth expansion to simple classic game designs
high · Dick Hamill describing Stars level system, Silverball Mania skill shots and combo mechanics, and consistent pattern across multiple games
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technology_signal: Community skepticism about solenoid safety with custom code addressed through Hamill's engineering approach matching original Bally methodology with empirical oscilloscope verification

Topics

Custom code retrofits for classic solid-state pinball machinesprimaryOpen-source hardware and software design for pinballprimaryArduino-based circuit board design and implementationprimaryGame rule design and playfield optimization for classic gamesprimarySolenoid actuation safety and technical implementationsecondaryIntegration with Mission Pinball Framework for accessibilitysecondaryTournament viability of custom code versionssecondaryNon-destructive machine modifications and reversibilitysecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Dick Hamill presents his work with clear enthusiasm and technical confidence. The interviewer is supportive and encouraging throughout. Discussion emphasizes accessibility, safety, and community benefit. No significant criticism or controversy evident, though some online skeptics are mentioned humorously.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.039

I heard a few things just sort of at the rumor level, like this guy Dick Dick Hamill up in Maine, He's working on new code for games of the late 70s era, Stern Electronics, early Bally's. I wanted to find out more. Dick, let's talk about it. Tell me just briefly, what is a typical conversion of a game that you've done? How do you enhance a game? So I discovered when I got into solid state machines last year, I discovered the commonality of most of the architectures there with the Valiant Stern. And I was trying to repair a board, so I came up with a little circuit board I could plug into the J5 connector, which is like the little test board on the top of the MPU. And once I repaired the boards, I realized I could just rewrite all the rules. Hold that in front of the white so that people can get an idea of the size there. So it's just this little board that allows you to plug an Arduino into the MPU board of a solid state pinball machine. This board you can get for 50 cents roughly. You can get an Arduino for three or four bucks. You can do a whole conversion for less than 20 bucks. So I rewrote all the rules in the operating system for these old MPUs and I did a new version of, I've done two new versions of stars. I've got stars 2020 and 2021. I did Blackjack, Meteor, Trident, Silver Ball Mania, Stellar Wars, and I'm working on Middle Earth now. So I've branched out from just the Ballystern architectures to do the Williams architectures now too. It requires a slightly different board to do Williams because you got to take over the processor slot. But again, simple to build. All the plans are up on my website or on Pinside. If you search for Dick Dick Hamill, you'll find the plans to build your own board. Everything's free and open source, so all the source code is on GitHub. And it makes it so that, like for instance with Stars, when I first got that machine, I loved the layout of the machine and the shots were great, but you basically just wanted to get your five stars and then hit that spinner. That was all you were going to do all day long. So to make it more interesting, I created three different levels of stars. So you get level one of stars, then you have a roving lock-in shot you have to do to lock in level one. Then you have to get level two, level three. If you get all your stars, you get all your drop targets up to build up to the bonus drop targets and a certain number of pop bumpers, et cetera, then you can get into wizard mode. So I've got all different levels. And once I got to the point where with that game I had done everything I thought I could do with Chime I put an interface on these boards for a wave trigger which is a little digital sound card So if you buy a wave trigger that the most expensive part You can spend on a wave trigger board But you put your own sounds. I've got sound packages for these games as well. Put your own sounds on there. Digital sounds, flashy lights, all new rules. So it brings new life to these games that are 40-plus years old. All right, so if I'm a little intimidated by making my own board, can I get a board, and what would I have as options for writing my own set of rules for a game? How would that work? So right now, there's a couple people making kits for this, as you can get on Pinside. There's some kits where you solder it yourself, and then some kits that come just turnkey. You just plug them into J5, and you're all done. and they run between I think 40 bucks for the solder yourself to like maybe 150 with the for a kit that has everything all done for you as far as writing rules there are a number of people out there writing rules already somebody just did a paragon there's a really good flash gordon out now that's been a couple shows and if you wanted to write your own from scratch if you had experience in c everything I do is written in c on the arduino it's all the source code is out there and instructions are out there. It probably takes an experienced programmer a good three, four weeks back and forth with the machine figuring stuff out to do the first one. After you do that, it gets simpler. In the future, I might make an interface for the Mission Pinball framework so that people can just plug into a laptop or whatever. And the Mission Pinball framework is more like just configuration files to do your rules. You don't have to have a whole lot of in-depth the programming knowledge to do it that way. Configuration files as in writing something that's kind of passive based on a switch or something like that? So you basically list out all the interactions. This switch causes this state, that kind of stuff. It's not really code-based, although I think you can do code with Python, with MPF. But I think you can get away with lesser knowledge of programming for MPF as opposed to with my stuff. I give you a library so that you can just tell it what lights you want, what sounds you want, and the solenoids, that kind of stuff. A lot of the interactions with the hardware are handled for you with my library, but you still have to write all the rules yourself in code. And when you say the solenoids, that would mean you're doing a safe actuation of the solenoid so we're not worried about what some of the professionals working for the manufacturers would like to scare us by saying, oh, but you might burn out hundreds of coils if you program the solenoid driver wrong. I mean, if you want to, you can burn out hundreds of coils. But I got the early service manuals when I started, you know, the Bally theory of pinball. I started from that and reworked the way that they did their solenoid actuation which is they have an immediate actuation on the sense of a switch and then they have a valid closure which they do the full actuation So then I worked with a guy that if you program machines you may know I don know how to pronounce it, but his name is Zakaj, Z-A-K-A-J. Oh, Zak Fry. Yeah. He was here yesterday on the panel. Yeah, so he had done some work with the PIAs and his own OS, I think for maybe a Dracula or something back in the day. So he clued me into some of the inner workings of the source code, and then a guy named Slowcar had disassembled a lot of the source code. So all of my stuff works exactly the same way as the original Bally code did. In fact, on my website I've got screenshots of all the oscilloscope readings of all the actuations, old code, new code, just to show everybody that nothing hidden. and I'm doing everything the same way that they did. You can always burn out stuff by having a bad connection or a short somewhere. So there's no way I can guarantee that you're not going to mess up your machine, but you're not going to mess up your machine more than you would running the original code. Okay, that's great. So people should just search for you online? Is there going to be a group, a cabal? that... There's a developers group out there. I don't know if it's open to the... I didn't set it up. It was set up by Mystic Crew. They're some of the people working down in New Orleans on some of the ports. I don't know if that's open to the general public. I think that most of the discussion happens on Pinside right now around this. We don't have any space dedicated to just this. So all the more open in that respect. Yeah, you can find everything on Pinside including all the people who tell me that it's not possible to do it. Well, yeah, and there is an interesting corporate and legal story about how the Stern Electronics and the Valley Games of the era had the same system, but that's for another time. I'm benefiting from that because the architecture was the same, yeah. Yeah. So just to wrap up, since we have Kevin O'Connor coming at 11 o'clock and since one of my favorites is silver ball mania, could you give a quick rundown of what's better about silver ball mania now? It's the same play field, right? Was it the same exact... Yeah, so... Bottom drain kicker and the big loop and four bumpers at the top. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and if it's not clear, when you plug in one of my boards to your machine, you're using the machine exactly as it was, but I've just taken control of the rule set, so that It requires no additional hardware, no modifications to your machine, aside from just plugging a board into J5. I wanted to make it so it was super non-destructive to your machine. It doesn't require you to do lots of stuff. And in fact, I've got a switch on my board that allows you to flip a switch. You can boot up to old code at any time, flip the switch back, boot up to new code. So you basically can play your machine in two different ways. So with Silverball Mania it had a decent sound card on there already I implemented my rules for that sound card And then on top of that what I did was I gave it a skill shot So there will be a top lane skill shot that will get you extra points if you get the flashy light. You can't change the, there's no flip or actuation of lights with the Super Bowl Mania, so you just have to get it. There's another skill shot where if you soft plunge through the right spinner, then if you get the horseshoe first, that's a skill shot if you get horseshoe followed by the center end. That's an even better skill shot. And then on top of that, it took away the spotting of a letter, which a lot of people have done with retro code for Silver Ball Mania because the spotting of a letter was way too powerful. So the horseshoe is not going to spot you a letter. The only way to spot a letter is to get the skill shot on the top lanes. If you want to get a bonus multiplier, you used to just do the horseshoe. Now you have to do the horseshoe followed by the center end within a couple of seconds. So it's a real tight combo that you have to do to get your bonus multiplier. And then on top of that, you're going to spell Silver Ball Mania just the way that you did before, which is hitting the individual stand-up targets. The second time, you have to spell Silver first, then you have to spell Ball, then you have to spell Mania. The third time, you have to spell them in order, and if you get a letter out of order, you have to backfill letters up to that letter within a certain number of seconds or else it will disappear. So you only get credit if you get them in order. And the horseshoe kicker always has a timer on it. I mean, not the horseshoe, the center kicker in the bottom. Between the flippers. Always has a timer on it now, so you'll still get it from getting the skill shot, top lanes, or getting the horseshoe, but they'll only come on for a certain number of seconds. The exception to that is you get it for a decent amount of time if you get an out lane and you need it to get that letter, like the M and the A are both on outlanes. So if you get one of those and then you get it to the center kicker, you'll get that kicked back into play. But basically I took away, it was just a grind on, you know, horseshoe, horseshoe, horseshoe. Yep. So I took away that grind and gave you reason to want to hit it back up to the top because you can also get bonus multiplier by completing the top lanes. And you have to get up there for your silver letters. So there's reasons to go up top. there's reasons to exercise the rest of the play field. It just expands the game back out to the rest of the play field. Instead of just, you know, people would play just within, you know, 10 square inches of the game, just horseshoe flipper, horseshoe flipper. And so it makes it expand back out. All right. Well, sounds great. And I hope the tournament players, you know, enter it as a separate game, you know, different challenge unto itself. Yeah. Yeah, and it has been in a tournament in Canada. I haven't seen it in any of my machines in the US, but a new version of STARS has been in a Canadian tournament. Yeah. Well, we should have you back in future years to talk more about this and encourage people to ... If they're intimidated by the art and they want to change rules, this seems like the way to go. Yeah. All right, thank you.