Batman Forever Pinball (SEGA) – ROM Upgrade chip set

This version is to correct a bug that was in previous OEM versions, even before AND after v 5.00.

If you have already upgraded to CPU and Display v5.00, you do NOT need the 5.0 display roms.  If you are running 4.X or below, you need both CPU and Display roms. (Display rom v5.01, and v5.0 are exactly the same data, but will label them as 5.01 so they all match.)

-Fixed: Brain Drain mode doesn’t actually add anything to the score. It would show you getting 10M, 20M, etc… but those points are not actually being added.

Update 12/29/2025:

A new bug has just been discovered that has been present since the original 1995 versions, and still exists in version 5.0.  Chad is currently working on a v5.01 to fix this bug and hoping to release in the next few weeks.

In the “Brain Drain” mode, It shows you getting 10M, 20M, etc… but those points are not actually being added to the score.

New v5.00 released from Chad at pinballcode.com 8/3/2024!

Revisions from previous versions are not known, but you can shoot him a donation at Pinballcode.com!

Here is the list of changes from his notes for v5.00:

ATTRACT MODE, HIGH SCORES, and PORTALS (MENU)

-Allow Adjustment 13 “Tilt Warnings” set to be 0,1,2,3 instead of just 0,1,3. New default is 2.

-Changed Portals (Menu) navigation sound.

-Changed sound when scrolling through initials during “Enter Initials”.

-Added “6 Can Play” display screen to Attract Mode.

-Removed Batarang High Score reset after 9 game power ups. Batarang High Score will now reset only when the regular High Scores are reset.

-Added missing “Batarang High Score” display effect to “Attract Mode”. Batarang High Score will be shown after the regular 1-6 High Scores.

-Changed default “Batarang High Score” to 2.

-Tweaked Attract Mode timer logic. The timer will now get reset at the start of the Match animation instead of at the end. This timer determines if the game will play the Long or Short game intro animation. Long intro will be played only if Attract Mode has been running for 1 minute.

-Added music to previously silent “Enter Initials” for Regular and Batarang High Scores.

-Added music to the previously silent “Buy-In” screen.

-Prevented the game from showing Sega phone number in Portals>Diag>Serv.

-Adjustment 52 “Novice Game Available” now defaults to “No”.

-Fixed some difficulty Adjustments which were accidentally reversed in the original Sega software.
For Example if it stated Extra-Easy it was basically Extra-Hard and vice versa.
Adjustment 49 Double Jackpot Criterion and Adjustment 50 Arm Batwing Difficulty was affected.

-Opening the coin door will now play an alert sound instead of a voice call.

-Added a pause at the game power up so the voice call “Suppose we flip for it” won’t get cut off.

-Disabled Audit 10 “Total Earnings” functionality. It can still be seen but will always show “Undefined Coinage”. This was done to free up more space, to allow more changes within this update.

GAME START and SKILL SHOT

-Increased the time the Start button needs to be held down to restart a game.

-Added a sound effect to when the “Skill Shot” selection changes.

BONUS, BONUS COUNT, and BONUS MULTIPLIER

-Reduced speed of Bonus Count to be able to see the “Bonus Total” screen longer.

-Aborting the Bonus Count no longer awards 5M.

MAIN MODES (GOTHAM EVENTS)

-Increased difficulty to start a Gotham Event(Mode). If a Mode was started with a Skill Shot and has then been completed, the next Mode was immediately ready to start at the Right Orbit. Made it so that the player is now required to re-lite the Gotham Events shot at the Right Orbit by hitting all 5 “?” targets before another mode can be started.

-For non-tournament game start the game now picks between 5 random modes instead of just 2.
Original: “Face Two Face” or “Crime Spree”
New: “Face Two Face”, “Crime Spree”, “Too Many Question Marks”, “Brain Drain”, or “Safe Trap”

-Prevent “Light Extra Ball” Mode to be locked in with the Bat Gun(Ball Launch). Instead, the voice call “I don’t think so” is played if the player tries to lock that mode in.

Rooftop Chase

-Fixed an issue where the Batmobile would not crash properly when hitting some of the obstacles.

-GI is now off during this video mode.

-Added sound effect for passing obstacles.

-Changed sound effect for hitting a 10M sign and added a flasher effect.

-Changed sound effect for crashing the Batmobile.

-Added a longer pause at the beginning of the Mode to be able to read instructions better.

-Readjusted speed of the mode. First half of the video mode is played at reduced speed. To help new players get a better understanding of how the mode works.

-Added a “Flawless” bonus of 50M to the Mode total score if the player reaches the end without crashing and also collected all 10M signs. If this happens, voice call “Fortune smiles on you, my friend” will be played.

Too Many Question Marks

-Added voice call “Say Please” at the start of the mode.

-Added progressive scoring. Target value starts with 20M and increases (all targets) by 3M with each hit. 20M, 23M, 26M, etc…

-Mode total display effect now states “Event Total” instead of “Event Completed” because it’s impossible to “complete” a time based mode.

Face Two-Face

-Changed voice call at the start of the mode from “The Bat wants to play, fine we’ll play” to “Hi, we’re Two-Face”

-Fixed a display issue, where the value shown on the display didn’t match the value the game actually awarded.

-Increased the initial target value from 10M to 12M.

-Increased mode completion bonus from 30M to 60M to be similar to all other modes.

-Fixed an issue, where the “bing” and “face punch” sound for hitting a coin target could be missing or were delayed.

Crime Spree

-Changed sound for collecting a Jackpot at the Right Ramp.

-Slingshot switches will now also award the current target hit value.

-The target hit value, which initially starts at 250k and raises by 250k after 10 switch hits, will now raise after 8 instead of 10 switch hits.

-Fixed an issue, where the “face punch” sound for hitting a switch was delayed.

-Reduced mode start bonus from 15M to 10M to be the same as all other modes.

-Mode total display effect now states “Event Total” instead of “Event Completed” because it’s impossible to “complete” a time based mode.

Brain Drain

-Fixed an issue where the music sometimes did not start properly at the beginning of the mode.

-Reduced mode start bonus from 15M to 10M to be the same as all other modes.

-Increased the value for spelling(hitting) a C-A-V-E target in the CORRECT order.
Original: C=10M, A=20M, V=30M, E=40M
New: C=20M, A=40M, V=60M, E=80M

-Increased the value for spelling(hitting) a C-A-V-E target in the WRONG order from 5M to 10M.

-Added previously missing 50M mode completion bonus.

-Changed sound for spelling(hitting) a C-A-V-E target in the correct order.

-Added new previously unused music to the Extra Ball Hurry Up.

-Added “bell” sound effect for the Extra Ball Hurry Up timer expiring.

-Extra Ball Hurry Up timer will now get paused as other timers do when the ball is in VUK>Lock sequence.

Safe Trap

-Increased ramp value from 25M to 35M.

Forever

-Added flashing “The Bat Lives”(Shoot Again) light during the first 60 seconds of Forever to signal the player having unlimited balls.

-Added unused “Horn” sound effect at the end of the 60 seconds Forever timer to notify the player about the expiring unlimited ball saver.

-Added new previously unused sound effect for Forever Jackpot

-Return back to regular game music after Forever has ended.

BALL LOCK and MULTIBALL

-Reworked “Multiball Ready” lightshow. The GI no longer flashes. Also removed some unnecessary flashers from the show.

-Reduced GI Flashing after collecting a Jackpot.

-Removed U-Turn Mini Ramp and Top Left Eject from Multiball Restart. Multiball now needs to be restarted at the Lock VUK.

-Increased the pause after the Lock VUK has been hit for Multiball Restart so the Multiball restart display video is not cut off.

-Return back to regular game music after Multiball has ended.

-Fixed ball release logic from physical ball lock at Multiball start. Under some circumstances balls were released too quickly and could overlap each other.

-Added logic to the CAVE Drop Targets during Multiball so they no longer just reset after a single hit. Completing the CAVE target bank will now increase both Chase and Robin (Left and Right Ramp Jackpots) by 5M each. This also greatly reduces stress on the Drop Target coil.

-Added Ball Lock 2 sound effect to be the same as Ball Lock 1 sound effect along with the “Lock Two!” voice call.

-Increased Super Jackpot value from 250M to 300M.

-Added new previously unused sound effect for Super Jackpot. (Same as new Forever Jackpot)

MISCELLANEOUS

-Added current Bonus X value to Instant Info.

-Fixed an issue where Instant Info would not start over properly after all pages were shown.

-Fixed an issue where the Batarang shots were not properly reset to zero at game start.

-Fixed an issue where shooting the Left Orbit would falsely count as 2 hits for Batboat Cruising.

-Fixed an issue where the Batboat Cruising(Combo) shot value could go up to 33M instead of 30M.

-Increased Batboat Cruising(Combo) timer slightly to prevent expiring due to slow ramp shots.

-Reduced GI flashing when a Pop Bumper is hit while Super Pops is active.

-Added new sound effect for hitting a Pop Bumper while Super Pops is active.

-Added 4-Way Combo display screen.

-Fixed Bat Equipment counter. The game now properly starts with zero collected items at game start.

-Amount of Bat Equipment required to be collected for Super Laser Kick has been reduced from 10 to 5. This reduces the chance that a Display reset bug will activate.

-Fixed an issue where the “Super Laser Kick” animation was shown before the Bat Computer animation showed the item being collected.

-Rebalanced Mr. E awards. Especially “20X Bonus” is now less likely to get awarded.

-Tweaked sounds for hitting unlit/lit “?” targets during Mainplay.

-Added “You Betcha” voice call when shooting the Mini U-Turn ramp qualifying for “X out of X Mini-Ramps for Mr. E”

-Fixed an issue where various mode and game logic timers could get messed up when the coin door was opened.

-Left ramp enter switch will now flash actual (under playfield)ramp flasher instead of blue pop bumper flasher dome.

-All game timers will now pause briefly when the ball is in the top left eject. Since it can sometimes take multiple tries to get the ball back out on the playfield area.

—–

I would like to thank Maximilian Spiegel for his outstanding assistance with this update. Maximilian’s deep knowledge of pinball rules is truly remarkable. Soon after we finished working on X-Files, we started working on Batman Forever together. Maximilian’s meticulous analysis of the smallest details is incredible. His suggestions, feedback, and testing were invaluable. A huge “THANK YOU” to Maximilian Spiegel for his exceptional contributions!

Also, a special thanks to Tom Lucht for lending me his Batman Forever pinball machine so I could do this update.  Thanks Tom!

Disclaimer:
There is no charge or cost assessed for the software itself contained on the chips. Software remains property of the respective author / manufacturer / copyright holder, who has made the software freely available to the pubic for the purpose of repairing your own machine. We do not sell or claim ownership to ANY software. This listing is ONLY for the cost of the chips themselves, and the service of programming them for you in a format that can be installed in your machine.