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Bally / Stern SS's get into the 21st Century - Introducing "ColourClassic" Score Displays

After a mammoth effort spanning a couple of weeks, i’ve finally got the software working fully.

The bally game software does some really weird stuff to display scores on the 7 segment score displays. Different games present different issues as they put out different data!!!! Then I have a suspicion that different mpu boards do things differently (eg clock speed, display interrupt speed etc). Then due to timing differences, the data is presented differently between the player 1 and the player 4 score displays!!! What started as the easy part of this project has become the most time consuming!!! I’ve been pulling my hair out. Anyhow, got there eventually.

Still waiting on loads of parts before I can offer these out.

I’ve test built a few units using the new pcbs and the new base controller boards. all working 100%

Here’s a quick demo of updating the displays as fast as i can

 
Self build kits ready to ship.

£170 for a full set of 6 digit displays. 5 units.

£180 for a full set of 7 digit displays. 5 units (4x7 digit plus 1x6 digit)

does not include micro sd cards - can provide at £2.50 each if required.
does not include double sided tape to stick the displays to the pcb. (you can tape or glue them)

Prices include UK shipping.

Note you may need to uprate fuse F3 from 4A to 5A as these draw current from the 5v supply.

I have tested in my bally games: Fathom, paragon, medusa, elektra, centaur, 8 ball deluxe le, lost world.

should work in other bally games.

7 digit stern games. will need you to bridge pins 11&12 on the pcb.

Any issues in other games, I’ll attempt to provide firmware upgrades to address, but not guaranteed.

PM me if you want a kit.

I’ll be offering on pinside soon. ltd stock of 15 sets.
 
AlanJ said:
7 digit stern games. will need you to bridge pins 11&12 on the pcb
Click to expand...

That brings back memories of assisting Bob Thomson with a feature in the POA magazine. He didn't have a 7-digit Stern game handy, so I tried what he was listing with a Bally 7-digit display in my Seawitch. I don't recollect which pins it involved, but it was moving the line for the Million digit, the difference between the two boards in terms of the connecting header.
 
The common trick on the led displays you can buy is to connect pins 11 and 12 together to suit both bally and stern games. BUT this causes a problem with mr and mrs pac-man game which is wired differently. I’ll add a little jumper in on the next production run of boards to support stern 7 digit games. (mind you, bridging pins 11&12 is an easy task!)
 
I recall when I tried it, the display harness had crimped terminals, so I depressed the retaining barb and moved the wire between the two channels in the housing, rather than actually soldering anything. The final feature even went to the extent of mentioning how to disable the comma segments, which Bally used but Stern didn't.
 
Last edited:
Quick update. Introductory special price £150 incl sd cards. one set per customer only. I want to get people using these and as much feedback as possible.
 
I've written a User Guide and a set of Build Instructions.

@carl lawrence
 

Attachments

Can we have a set (7 digit) like to give it a go in our Seawitch resto….

Complete - Minty Stern Seawitch...now on site at SWL Salisbury 🤓

Yea I know , I am always banging on about classic sterns and how awesome they are, how I played them in my youth etc... yawn yawn. But it’s a fact they are awesome! And Seawitch is no exception. In fact it’s my favourite classic s.s. Period. And anyone who knows me knows I am a classics addict...
www.pinballinfo.com www.pinballinfo.com

Very excited Alan. Looks great 😎👊🏼
Cheers Keef…….
 
new forest pinball said:
Can we have a set (7 digit) like to give it a go in our Seawitch resto….

Complete - Minty Stern Seawitch...now on site at SWL Salisbury 🤓

Yea I know , I am always banging on about classic sterns and how awesome they are, how I played them in my youth etc... yawn yawn. But it’s a fact they are awesome! And Seawitch is no exception. In fact it’s my favourite classic s.s. Period. And anyone who knows me knows I am a classics addict...
www.pinballinfo.com www.pinballinfo.com

Very excited Alan. Looks great 😎👊🏼
Cheers Keef…….
Click to expand...
Not tested in any stern games. they may well handle display data differently. but you are welcome to try. I can lend you a set to try first, once youve got the game up and running?
 
AlanJ said:
Quick update. Introductory special price £150 incl sd cards. one set per customer only. I want to get people using these and as much feedback as possible.
Click to expand...
All the initial ones have been sold now. UK and EU orders have been packed and shipped. Today I’m packing up loads of kits for shipping to USA.

Will be taking new orders in the new year.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JT.
my wife just made me laugh,she was sitting next to me when I watched your video and said "is that supposed to be Dick Van Dyke throwing a ball on that backglass":rofl:
 
Excellent. well done.

I tend to set each of the 4 player displays to be “receivers” on a single starting font, then i set the credit match display to be a sender and either rotate the fonts every X seconds or pick one at random.

Note: a planned enhancement i’m working on is to allow it to cycle a subset list of fonts.
 
Jay Walker said:
Is the spelling mistake intentional, to avoid attention from the 'grievance hunters'? A nice counterpoint, to show such high-tech (as I see it, anyway) with a Gottlieb e/m schematic
Click to expand...
I wish I was that clever ! But no I am just a dum - dum 😂
 
I'll be doing another run of these soon,

on pinside - someone has made a 3d-printed lineup guide to help fit the screens to the board - thread here:

Bally/Stern SS's - Introducing "ColourClassic" Score Displays | Tech: Early solid state | Pinside.com

| Forum Topic by AlanJ
pinside.com pinside.com

Im also going to offer a limited supply of fully built sets - £250 UK posted, if anyone wants a set. Kits £170 (full set of 5 score displays)

Splash screens for tons of games now, and again someone on pinside has made a nice Star Trek numbers font:
0.jpg1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg7.jpg8.jpg9.jpg

Splash screens for these games (more being added):
1673985482673.png
 
New software released :

Release V4.15 19/1/2023
-----------------------------
A number of changes in this release, it incorporates the changes in the V4.14C test release earlier this week.

1. BSOS compatibility. Now works with BSOS operating system - however the scrolling feature whereby BSOS scrolls a 7 digit
score across a 6 digit screen may not work fully, there may be a glitch or two.
2. Remove the splash screen flash on start up - this doesn't look good especially when each display boots at a different rate,
so the flashes were not synchronised anyway. It looks better that the splash screen stays on until the display starts to get
data from the game itself.
3. The Setup screen no longer flickers (The right most display was flickering as it was constantly being cleared and redrawn).
Now it only redraws if it needs to.
4. The config json file stored on the SD card is now stored in a format that is easier to read. The File now holds some additional info that will be used in a future release.
5. Fixed an issue where the "Sender" display was sending it's initial font out too early, and receivers didn't have time to boot
and receive the message. The send now happens after the "sender" starts to receive data from the game. this is after the
splash screen has been displayed.
6. Added support for image font files that contain a comma. At startup the system looks on the SD card and if it finds comma
version of the image files, it will use these. Normal font files are 0.jpg, 1.jpeg ...9.jpg etc. the comma files are named
with a "c" appending the number - e.g. 0c.jpg -> 9c.jpg. I have made a rather crude set of comma files for the first font,
font 0. These files are available to download from the SD card images folder. (Edit: Fonts 0,1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10, 17,18,19 & 20 all now have comma versions)

I'm posting more frequent updates over on pinside:

Bally/Stern SS's - Introducing "ColourClassic" Score Displays | Tech: Early solid state | Pinside.com

| Forum Topic by AlanJ
pinside.com pinside.com
 
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