a couple of years ago I needed to make something in order to set old games in free play. In fact some games don't support free play mode and some others haven't attract mode if free play is set.
I used an Arduino to do that. Pressing START1 arduino first of all inserts a coin and then press START1. THe same for START2, inserting 2 coins instead of one. I used Arduino Nano and a relay board. Cost of the kit less than 5 euros.
But now this project evolved.
Now this Arduino implements a Bluetooth protocol and using a smartphone you can
- activate/deactivate free play mode.
- power on/off the game
- reset the game
- insert coins / press start buttons
- activate test mode
- press service buttons
- modify delays between coins or buttons
- activate/deactivate coins (stop playing)
- control the status of several counters (supports counters for free play mode and for coin mode, save separately single games and double games
- activate/deactivate sound
Setup is saved on its EEPROM so Arduino remembers the last status.
Is it useful? Actually I don't know.
It can be useful during arcade events so you can interact with the game without opening it but actually this is only an experiment.
The smartphone app doesn't exist yet (next step), I'm using a BlueTooth terminal application now.
Am I wasting my time? Any suggestion?
For instance: internal temperature monitor? voltage control?