Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) : Pascal answers!

About all the boards            About the PI-80 boards

Are there separate "dealer" rates and "public" rates? May I get a "dealer's special" price?

No, because I am NOT an ordinary seller! The FLIPPP! association is a non-profit association.
I am its president and manage it as a hobby, on top of my regular job. My only pleasure is to see games back working instead of being trashed because no suitable boards are available. All these boards are designed and programmed by myself, then assembled, soldered and tested in France by companies employing qualified people under rehabilitation programs. I don't take any money from selling the boards. This means that their price is the lowest possible just to allow me to purchase test equipment, develop new boards and purchase test games.
As such, there are no different "public" and "dealer" prices. I cannot make prices lower than that, except a small rebate if several boards of the same type are ordered at the same time. Outsourcing the production, to make cheaper boards in larger quantities, is also out of question!

Can I collect VAT? (for French or European buyers)

No, to make my life easier, the sales tax (VAT) on the association's sales is not refundable.

I would like to become a distributor/retailer for your boards, but since there is no dealer's price, I cannot make much profit on the sales. Can we talk about better prices?

If you think about selling my boards effortlessly to make the profit that (by my association's nature) I don't make myself, then think too that the end customer will quickly make his choice based on price alone. On the other hand, I have neither time nor opportunity to personally visit each of my clients to check (and possibly fix) their game and install my board in it. As such, if you propose a "set-up package" to the purchaser of the board with installation and regular maintenance, that may be the real additional service value which can make the difference and your profit margin and, everyone will benefit from this.

Do boards come up with a guarantee? I purchased a board and installed it in a 3rd party game, does the guarantee apply?

All boards are guaranteed for SIX MONTHS (parts and labour) starting from the date of purchase against all failures of the components and the manufacturing. This guarantee is intended to protect you against the kind of failures that can show up soon after starting during normal use. However, it does not apply if the board has been re-sold to a 3^rd party during the guarantee period: in that case, it applies only to the original buyer whom I will make arrangements with.

Should I get new eproms and/or use the original proms?

No need to: all supported games are built in the main processor. Selection is made by menus upon power-up or by dipswitches (sound boards). No original prom is needed anymore.

Where do I download the subscription form?

You no longer need it! I take direct orders and all boards are available throughout the year.

Is there a development kit available to develop new games or different game rules for certain games?

Alas, it is likely to never be available, especially because I use a specific cross-compiler which is not freeware and, very specific development tools. However, I gladly take suggestions, so should you have any ideas for improvements, please share them with me!

As I am not in a hurry at all, may I save on shipping costs and wait till the next pinball expo to purchase boards at your stand?

Absolutely! I always do my utmost to attend as many French pinball expos as possible throughout the year: Sorgues, Le Tréport, Vierzon, Le Fontanil, Ste Ménéhould, Pouilly en Auxois, Chailly en Bière..  My plans to attend an expo or not are displayed on the "Next shows" page.

What order should I label my payment to?

Just: Association FLIPPP!

Is it possible to update the software by means of an USB key or a simple serial port?

Theoretically yes, but it's not easily achievable. This would require me to add hardware (= additional cost) on top of additional software. I decided that it was not very useful, since a software update is simple and free of charge (except for shipping costs) by regular mail.

An idea: replace the prom that contains the software by an SD card. SD cards are cheap, easy to program & swap.

No, it is not as easy as it seems. Since the software runs embedded in the main processor, it is not loaded in RAM and does not run from an external memory as old computer systems used to run.

I would like to keep using the coin slots, is it possible?

For sure! The coin slots still behave as usual and are fully programmable by menu.

No reliability problems over time?

Not at all, except typical mistakes such as coils (= shorted coils or without a diode) not checked by the user prior to installing my board which may cause driver transistors blow; as would be the case on ANY other electronic board. Worse, the original CPU boards would also be badly damaged, which is not the case on my board. The damage, in 99.99% of the cases, is limited to a transistor.

Must the game be fully operational before installing the new board?

It is an ambiguous question: a non-working game is one of the main reasons that people purchase my boards! In the manual as well as on top of the quick installation leaflet, I remind users of the most important points to check PRIOR to any installation. It is ALWAYS dangerous to install a new board without performing some basic checks on the game! All my boards embed advanced hardware and software protections against all kinds of failures which would damage the original Gottlieb boards, but it is always wise to check for shorted coils & lamps sockets, damaged displays, blown fuses, broken connector pins, dead diode bridges etc...

To make things short: I receive the new board, I install it, I turn the game on, and it will work no matter what the game's original condition?

With each board, and in addition to the guarantee, I do my best to help people install and set up my boards by email. But I could not help the user restore his whole game from scratch from distance. I would need a 2nd life to do so! It also goes without saying that in the event that the board is damaged following its installation in a game in unknown condition without making basic checks, then the 6 month guarantee may be invalidated.

Are Bally/Williams replacement boards being considered as well?

Well, not quite. I would need a 3rd life for that! Furthermore, boards like this already exist in plenty in the USA, and in France some prototypes are being designed as well. On the other hand, all those replacement boards reuse the original, licence-free proms, which can be freely distributed; due to that, no new features are likely to be provided.

Are there documents that explain the boards' use, menus/setup, etc..?

All the documents can be downloaded for free from the "Download" section. For the PI-80 boards though, I could not find time yet to write a complete manual as for my System-1 boards (it takes a huge amount of time to write one), so only a quick installation leaflet is available for now.

Do boards drive the excellent replacement LED displays from Boston Pinball Company ?

Absolutely, although some earlier board revisions may require a minor modification. All details are available on the manufacturer's web page, or simply ask me directly.

About the PI-80 boards            About all the boards

My game is not among the current list of available games, what can I do?

Please contact me by email, I will save your email address in my tracking records and will inform you without fail when it becomes available.

Will the final board run on all games of both System-80/80A series?

Yes, the board will eventually support all the System-80/80A series.

Two playing modes exist on James Bond game (timed and bonus), will the board offer both?

Yes, once the software will be available.

I own a "Grand 8" from Christian Tabard (France), is this board fitted for it?

Yes, the "Grand 8" uses the same rules as "Panthera", and as such works perfectly with my board.

Regarding sounds, are all sounds of non-speech-capable games driven?

All games run with the exact same sounds as the original games. I drive each game's sound board in exactly the same way as the original Gottlieb CPU board.

Rather than the sole credit button, can the player enter his name in the high scores tables using the left & right flipper buttons?

Yes: a specific mode allows to reconfigure the coin slots switches to scroll thru the letters when entering a name in the table. A small hardware modification must also be made to the game itself. Please contact me to get the description of the mod.

Do I need an additional sound board or it is embedded into the board?

You must keep your existing sound board for the present time, until I release my own sound add-on board. If the sound board of your pinball game (refer to the list of available games on the 'Boards' page) does not work, you can replace it by my stand-alone PI-FX sound board. It plugs into the existing sound board connector in the front head and requires no modification to the game whatsoever.

Does the giant pinball display (that works on PI-1 and PI-1 X4 boards) also work on the PI-80 board?

Yes! I demo it at my stand at nearly every pinball expo. As a reminder, all the details (only in French for now) on my giant display can be found here.

Can we dream of a speech-capable sound board (or emulating an SC-01 chip..) ?

Yes, I plan to release one.. but when..