While the emulator is unbelievably cool (and might save my rear in the event of hardware failure), I'm in the camp that wants to try to build a new playfield and accompanying game logic from scratch. Since I have little desire to use XINA for development, my question involves the availability of a NuCore Linux device driver/API for the driver boards in the pinball2000 (e.g., http://www.pinrepair.com/pin2000/makep2k.htm). I assume you must have one (or some programmatic interface) that is
decoupled from the emu, given your MP3 jukebox demo that is controlled by the flippers. Will the API/driver be made available too?

My other concern is the potential fire hazard -- what happens if the machine hangs while a coil is powered, will it burn or does the pinball 2000 driver board have some protection for this scenario?

Finally I'm not sure what your legal arrangements are with the Williams folks, but I would tone down the "sell your Prism cards!" angle, since I imagine to make everything on the up and up, those running the emulator must also own the ROMs that were in those prism cards. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to sell off my pinball2000 hardware but (like many others here, I'm sure) won't do so until I have a NuCore in hand.

Thanks very much,
- Michael

Thanks for the compliment.

1) Device driver - We would like to provide an API to the system. This won't be a day-one feature it would be one of the post launch features. Our goal now is to get a working product out first and foremost. After that there are a few things we would like to add.

2) Fire hazard - Williams already provides a solution for this, the watchdog circuit on the driver board. They knew there would be a possibility of the computer hanging so they created a watchdog circuit that shuts the driver board down if communications are lost. There is a red led on the driver board for this.

3) Legal arrangements - As I have said before and will say again people do need to own the roms for the game. We will not provide them. I merely suggested that people sell their spare parts now since they may fall in value when nucore is released. Maybe I forgot to say "spare" parts By all means you should keep the original hardware. Just remove it and store it safely.

Good questions.