myPinballs Computer Sound Board For Early Bally Games in Development

[myPinballs]

Hi,

Following on from the success of my Squawk & Talk Sound board redesign and improvement (See thread here - http://www.pinballinfo.com/communit...-board-gordons-alive.15923/page-2#post-102235) I am now developing a new sound board for the earlier set of electronic bally pinball games. These are the games which used a digital cpu controlled sound board before the s&t board was introduced. Namely:

• Xenon
• Future Spa
• Nitro Groundshaker
• Silverball Mania
• Space Invaders
• Rolling Stones
• Mystic
• Hot Doggin
• Viking
• Skateball
• Frontier
• Speakeasy
• BMX
• Gold Ball
• Grand Slam

As before this will be a complete 100% original redesign of the original using all the knowledge and design from my s&t board. It will be compatible with Xenon as well as the full set of earlier digital sound games. It will have my larger sound output connector so that it can also make use of the effects daughter board i am also developing for the s&t board. (Xenon, or Space invaders with reverb? )

It will feature a more powerful amp in the same way that the s&t board does and all the other enhancements the s&t board had.

Stay tuned for more info, pics and posts as i get it developed and tested. I will be offering the same 50% pre-order processing in the future for this board.


Cheers Jim

 

[myPinballs]

Ok, so first pass at the layout is done. See the pics below. I need to tweak the hole positions a little but its looking good so far.





Improvements over the original are:

• Improved and simplified reset section with reset button
• Test Led and button - Possible future modding functionality to add led flashes to roms
• Power leds for common voltages
• Improved 5v generation using dedicated voltage regular on board
• Improved pre-amp section
• More powerful main amp
• Effects processing daughter card compatibility
• Fully compatible with 'sounds plus' version for Xenon
• Optional population with speech adjustment and filtering for 'sounds plus' Xenon
• Sounds Plus 40 pin ribbon speech board connector
• Full dip switch board settings for all games and options. No soldering needed

 

[Nedreud]

Based on costs of the S&T board, can you give a ballpark price estimate on this, please?

 

[myPinballs]

Based on costs of the S&T board, can you give a ballpark price estimate on this, please?

This board should be quite abit cheaper than the S&T board, as the parts count is less and some of the harder to source chips are not used. I am aiming to sell assembled and tested boards for around the £90 inc VAT plus shipping mark

 

[myPinballs]

Update: Protos have been ordered today. Here's some pics of the final layout with the additional holes for the sounds plus /xenon mounting. Should have th blanks boac in a few weeks, then can assemble and test them Once the boards are working and any changes made for v1.0 i will open up the pre-ordering for people interested in being in for batch 1.

 

[myPinballs]

Board blanks for have arrived. Now to start the prototype assembly and testing:

 

[BigIan]

Impressive stuff Jim..

Have you ever produced a replacement for the ball AS-2518-32/ AS-2888-1 sound board ?

Missing one for my Bally Star Trek

 

[myPinballs]

Impressive stuff Jim..

Have you ever produced a replacement for the ball AS-2518-32/ AS-2888-1 sound board ?

Missing one for my Bally Star Trek

I haven't made a board that far back yet as the sounds on it were pretty basic. This board is the one after that one, with proper digital arcade sounds. It would be interesting to see what this era board would be like in a star trek as the connectors are compatible and the input pins for the sound addressing is the same. Roms from future spa or silver ball mania or even gold ball may be usable to and you would have much better sounds on your game exactly like the later games had.

 

[BigIan]

oh cool, could be in the market for one then....

 

[myPinballs]

Assembly started for the first prototype. Hoping to get some tests going later today/tomorrow. Have a space invaders and future spa (high voltage) sound roms burnt ready.

 

[myPinballs]

Prototype Assembly Pics:

 

[myPinballs]

Quick video of some sound testing:

Also, here's another pic of the fully assembled board with the speech section for xenon installed

 

[myPinballs]

Quick update. I have borrowed a speech board from a friend to test the xenon functionality and have it working on the bench nicely. Also i hooked up an effects board to it and shot a quick video of me testing a couple of sounds using my board tester program. Wanna hear what the sexy girl in Xenon sounds like with echo?

Pre-ordering for the board will available on my website shortly in the usual 50% way. Full cost of it is £90 plus shipping

 

[Nedreud]

Quick video of some sound testing:

I can't quite make out the ROM label (doesn't appear to say High Voltage or Space Invaders) but that sounds just like my GOLD BALL! Awesome work as always Jim.

 

[myPinballs]

I can't quite make out the ROM label (doesn't appear to say High Voltage or Space Invaders) but that sounds just like my GOLD BALL! Awesome work as always Jim.

Yes that was a gold ball sound rom in there. Probably the best sounds from any game using this board on it

 

[myPinballs]

Update: Couple of boards being tested before going to new owners. This one is heading to a Space Invaders. I have a small stock of the first batch (Collection possible at NLP) and am taking orders on my website for the next batch, or please contact me if interested in one. They are fully compatible with my effects board to if you want to add some cool effects to these early games as well