Project: Pinball MCU/ROM/RAM Emulator

Emulator board

I recently decided to re-visit a project I’d started several years ago: a board that allows for easy ROM emulation for vintage pinball machines based on the MC6800/MC6808/MC6802 and MC6809 processors.

This plugs into the processor socket on your pinball machine instead of the original processor and can either run fully self-contained (replacing the MCU, ROM, and RAM) or as a slave connected to a computer (for ROM program development or system diagnosis and repair).

I designed the board using KiCad and had some assembled by JLCPCB.

Emulator board
The Revision 2 board with cable