Pinball Machine Reverse Engineering Kit / News: Recent posts

The new 0.58 version of the PMREK was presented and played at the 2009 Florida Linux Show [http://www.floridalinuxshow.com] in Kissimmee on Saturday, October 24, 2009. This instance is playing a 1977 Bally Strikes and Spares playfield. The post game analysis [http://pmrek.sourceforge.net/data/analyze_testbed_20091024_142310.html] and a tarball [http://pmrek.sourceforge.net/data/testbed_20091024_142310.tgz] containing the parsed log file can be examined.

The long-awaited 0.5 version of PMREK includes schematics for a new interface board that supports control of the digital displays, along with supporting code in the kernel module, a more modular configuration for rapid development of the game control program, and enhanced diagnostics.

The November 2005 issue of Linux Journal features a cover story on "Penguin-Powered Pinball" that introduces the Pinball Machine Reverse Engineering Kit to the Linux community -- see http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue/139

A developer version of the PMREK source code has been released (version 0.3). It is intended for pinball enthusiasts and educators with a knowledge of digital electronics, C programming, and Bally AS2518-x pinball machines.

Pinheads provided twenty hours of public testing of the first prototype, playing over 150 games on an Evel Knievel playfield mounted in a Mata Hari cabinet at the 6th annual Pinball At The 'Zoo in Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA, on April 15th and 16th.