Soren: New Code for Mousin’ Around & Theatre Of Magic

Soren has done it again and dropped new code for 2 more games today. Officially licensed from Planetary Pinball Supply and you can buy it here in my store!

See below for the notes from Soren of what has changed in the games below…Click the title to go to the listing!

Theatre of Magic v2.0 (October 12th, 2021)

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(Based on the revision 1.3X software released in 1995 by Williams Electronics Games Inc.)

Summary

A defect in the Trunk control that could cause it to stop working midgame is fixed.
Four new feature adjustments to aid fine tuning score balancing and mode difficulty.
Strategic Basement awards in competition play.
In competition play, the multiball is not started as compensation during ball search.
The revision 1.4H Tiger saw motor control is ported to this revision.
The display omits buy-in high scores when buy-in disabled.

Improvements

Better mechanical device stabillity for location as well as competition usage.
Better applicability in competition usage in all levels.
Minor bug fixes.

Detailed changes description

Reference to the revision 1.3X.

The Trunk error handling procedure has been refined to not give a false positive during normal playing conditions with a healthy Trunk mech.

With secondary function to reset the error state in case of genuine in-game Trunk error (like with a stock ball).
When tournament play selected: Opening/closing the coin door will reset the Trunk error state.

New feature adjustment A.2 21 “Spell theatre”. Options: “Easy” and “Hard”.
Easy: As rev. 1.3X. Spell theatre is lit except in the modes: Theatre, Lock multiball and Grand finale.
Hard: On THEATRE advance, the Spell theatre light will go off. Making a major shot in the game will re-light it.
Major shots considered: Trunk loop both ways, Trunk, both ramps and the right orbit. Not the left orbit nor the Tiger saw captive ball.

Adjustment “Spell theatre” defaults.
Ex. easy, easy and medium pre-sets: Easy.
Hard and ex. hard pre-sets: Hard.

New feature adjustment A.2 22 “Combo max value”. Options: 8M – 80M in 4M steps. Default: “20M”.
On combo value build-up, when it reaches this value, it will stop incrementing.
Combo scoring will proceed at this value.

New feature adjustment A.2 23 “Bonus-x adv”. Options: “1” and “2”. Default: “1”.
Bonus-x increment for each top lane completion. 1 or 2. With 2 being 1x->2x on first completion.

New feature adjustment A.2 24 “Hocus 2nd saver”. Options: “No” and “Yes”. Default: “Yes”.
In single ball play only!
If the Hocus pocus outlane saver magnet fails, a compensation one shot ball saver will serve the ball to the plunger lane.
The feature only saves balls going to an outlane, that should have been saved to an inlane.

When tournament play selected: Basement awards.
A catch-up choice that will award progress on Illusions or Clock. Which ever is lacking behind the other.
Generally:
If the clock is 10 or 11 am, Madness is awarded.
If the clock progress is less than the Illusions progress, Adv. clock is awarded.
Else Illusion is awarded.
Special cases:
Illusion is not awarded if achieved for this Grand finale, if already lit, if one is currently running or when other states where an Illusion cannot be started at the Trunk.
Adv. clock/Madness is not awarded if achieved for this Grand finale.
If Illusion is not available, Adv. Clock is awarded if not achieved for this Grand finale.
If neither is available, 20 Million is awarded.

When tournament play selected: Limited ball search. No compensation locked balls release or free multiball.

The Tiger saw motor control has been ported from the rev. 1.4H software. And slightly improved.
It runs for a solid two seconds on a captive ball hit. Instead of the very short pulse in the rev. 1.4H implementation.
In a Tiger saw mode and multiball stack, it stops when both modes are finished. And not when just the first of them finishes.
Tiger saw motor added to the solenoid test.

Feature adjustment A.2 12 “Trunk ball save” now has three options.
“No”: Trunk ball saver is disabled. This is default.
“Yes”: Rev 1.2 behaviour. Trunk ball saver is enabled for more Trunk hits.
“Once”: Rev 1.3X behaviour. Trunk ball saver is enabled for the first hit to the Trunk only.

The buy-in high scores are removed from attract mode DMD presentation and status report, when the buy-in feature is disabled.

The max bonus-x 5M is awarding 5M points.

Midnight is corrected to be at 12 AM. Not 12 PM.

Adjustment A.1 28 “Min. vol override” defaults to “Yes”.

Adjustment A.1 21 “Language” is limited to to “English”.

Note

The false positive Trunk error trap was to start choiced Illusions by hitting the Trunk while rotating. Just before it reaches the open position.
The fix does not change the way the Trunk operates. Registering shots, the movement, timing etc.

Coin door error reset is designed for competition play, where a stock ball has caused the Trunk error.
Provided that the bottom coin door interlock switch is not fixed in the closed position.
Upon closing the coin door, allow a ball search to reset the Trunk to its correct position.

Spell theatre is always lit at start-of-ball.
Spell theatre is always lit when Theatre mode, Lock multiball and Grand finale finishes.

The Hocus pocus saver compensation works when the saver mechanism is broken (proximity switch or magnet).
But, requires inlane, outlane, trough and shooter lane switches to be in shape.

The Advance clock Basement award is +3.

The Tiger saw motor runs continuously in the Tiger saw mode and multiball.
And it is pulsed on a captive ball hit.
The motor is controlled by solenoid driver no. 19 (at J125-3 or J126-3).
Do not connect a motor directly. It must be connected via the proper EMI filter.

The Trunk ball saver is generally only active in non-mode play and with the Trunk at its passive position.

Max bonus-x is 8.

Mousin’ Around v5.0 (October 12th, 2021)

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(Based on the revision LA-4 software released in 1989 by Williams Electronics Games Inc.)

Summary

New feature adjustment adding runmodes to the target bank and center ramp.
Bug fixes.

Improvements

Limits the repeat shot play of the center ramp returning to same flipper.
Reward for controlling a streak of shots to same ramp without hitting other shots.

Detailed changes description

Reference to the LA-4 revision.
Some of the description is not a change as such. But features present in the LA-4 revision too.
Withtaken to give a complete overview of how the target bank and center ramp works.

Adjustment 33, Motor bank, has been given the two additional options. Cheese and Streak.

Cheese:
1-2-3 targets made carry cross-balls, player individual.
If CHEESE is completed, a center ramp shot will close it.
If CHEESE is completed on a center ramp shot, it will close right away.
Locks made and multiball will not close the center ramp.
Collecting jackpot will not close the center ramp.

Streak:
Same as “Cheese” option in addition to.
If CHEESE spell out was completed only on the center ramp, from when the center ramp was opened,
a “Streak bonus” of 100K for each letter collected on center ramp is given.
Like this.
”CHEESE” on center ramp = 600K Streak bonus.
”HEESE” on center ramp = 500K Streak bonus.
”EESE” on center ramp = 400K Streak bonus.
”ESE” on center ramp = 300K Streak bonus.
”SE” on center ramp = 200K Streak bonus.
Last “E” on center ramp = no Streak bonus.

The Streak option is default on hard and extra hard pre-sets.

New “Streak run” display on center ramp shots, when a streak run is active.
New “Streak bonus” display (with “Go for the hole” sound call) on collect.

Center ramp display was incorrectly “Trap lane bonus”.
Now changed to “Ramp loop”, on shots out of a streak run (any configuration).

For the light kickback rule (3 center ramp shots), the counter is now reset at start-of-ball.
In Cheese/Streak modes: A center ramp shot closing the ramp will always light kickback.

A bug where the Increase score lamp would stay lit on next ball-in-play, fixed.
A bug where the Double scoring countdown display would stay active on next ball-in-play, fixed.
A bug where the MILLION and Build jackpot light show would stay active on next ball-in-play, fixed.

Note

Adjustment 33 has the following five options, per rev. LA-4, which are kept unchanged.
Ex. easy: 3-bank stays down rest of game.
Easy: 3-bank resets at start-of-ball. 1-2-3 targets made are preserved cross-balls, player individual.
Medium: 3-bank resets at start-of-ball.
Hard: 3-bank resets on Cheezy bonus collected. 1-2-3 targets made are preserved cross-balls, player individual.
Ex. hard: 3-bank resets on Cheezy bonus collected.

And the new settings for comparison.
Cheese: 3-bank resets on Cheezy bonus collected and on center ramp made when CHEESE. 1-2-3 targets made are preserved cross-balls, player individual.
Streak: 3-bank resets on Cheezy bonus collected and on center ramp made when CHEESE. 1-2-3 targets made are preserved cross-balls, player individual.

Every center ramp made still pays 100K on its own. The Streak bonus is extra.
A maxed Streak bonus sequence is 1.4M, all told, on 9 shots.

In rev. LA-4, the 3 center ramp shots to light kickback counter was shared between players. Considered a bug.
The counter is now reset each start-of-ball, and not reset when the center ramp is closed per collection of Cheesy bonus.

The European ROM defaults to the hard pre-set. This revision, based on the US ROM, defaults to the medium pre-set.
The hard pre-set is recommended.

Legal:

The software is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. In no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.

Credits:

Changes designed and implemented by Soren Worre.

The author would like to thank the designers of this pinball machine. Special thanks to Ian Hawkesworth, Lars Kuemmerling and Steve Bowden.

Soren: New Code for Mousin’ Around & Theatre Of Magic