Identity and evidence precedence
This is the Capcom widebody physical product from 1996, one of the last three games Capcom Coin-Op released before exiting pinball. It covers the two-driver bbb_* clone tree: bbb109 (Beta 1.9 US, the pinned catalog's parent, built with Fast Flips support) and bbb108 (Beta 1.8 US, an earlier firmware revision without Fast Flips). Both are game-ROM revisions for the same physical machine and share identical switch/lamp/solenoid boards (u2l/u2h ROMs and CAPCOMS sound ROMs are byte-identical across both drivers; only the u1l/u1h program ROMs differ).
Evidence precedence for this definition: the retained known-working VPW v1.0 script is runtime and mechanism-causality ground truth; the Capcom operators manual and its companion schematic set control physical construction, part numbers, wiring, polarity, quantities, and device presence -- within the manual, the per-assembly parts lists outrank the one-line location tables whenever they disagree (the Tube Dancer construction below is the working example); the schematic's own sheet 7 "DEVICE # & DESCRIPTION" table is the most authoritative per-solenoid wiring source; pinned PinMAME controls controller generation, public address topology, and per-game hardware metadata; the retained VPW v1.0 table supplies primary geometry, and an earlier retained community recreation (kept under the corroboration tree) supplies corroborating geometry and runtime bindings, always cited together with a manual fact because the two tables share object-naming ancestry and are not treated as independent consensus sources. The retained manual PDF is an Adobe Paper Capture OCR'd scan whose text layer is unreliable on dense multi-column tables, so every printed table used here was read from rendered pages and transcribed into external:pinmame-review-artifacts/big-bang-bar/manual-transcription.md and its companion solenoid/schematic document; the OCR text is a search index only and never an authority.
Capcom hardware has no PINMAME_HARDWARE_GEN bit at all -- core_tGameData.gen is the literal 0 in every cc-family INITGAME/INITGAMEFF macro expansion (src/wpc/capgames.c), confirmed by the constant's total absence from src/libpinmame/libpinmame.h's PINMAME_HARDWARE_GEN enum. This is the first Capcom-platform game curated in this project; it introduced controllers/pinmame/capcom.json, derived entirely from src/wpc/capcom.c/capcom.h/capgames.c rather than by analogy with any WPC/System-11/Whitestar profile already in this repository. None of those platforms' rules (printed-flipper translation, LPDC 37-40/41-44 duplication, Fliptronic columns, CORE_FIRSTCUSTSOL-relative custom-solenoid counting from a WPC-style base, or column-times-ten switch/lamp notation) carry over -- Capcom's own cc_sw2m/cc_m2sw conversion functions and fixed two-matrix lamp scheme are a completely independent addressing scheme documented in the controller profile with exact source citations.
- Switches: 16 dedicated cabinet positions (1-8 from
CC_COMPORTS "switch column 9" -- Coin 1-4, Start, Coin Door; 9-16 from "switch column 0" -- Slam Tilt, Tilt, and five generically-labeled "Unused" positions this game repurposes for a Token/Ticket dispenser at 15/16), an 8x8 playfield switch board at 17-80 (the C1-01 switch test walks both boards, A and B), PinMAME's synthetic flipper button/EOS column at 81-88 (real content depends entirely on hw.flippers), and an always-unused platform column at 89-96 (CORE_STDSWCOLS fixes every generation at 12 columns regardless of what a driver uses).
- Solenoids: 32 physical driver-board outputs (1-32); four Fliptronic-shaped synthetic mirror addresses (33, 35, 45, 47) that duplicate physical 11/12/9/10 respectively for legacy DOF compatibility, per the driver's own source comment admitting the mapping "does not correspond to manuals or any other reference"; a completely unused WPC-style LPDC range (37-44, never written by the Capcom driver at all); and one custom diagnostic address (51) published only by the Fast-Flips-capable
bbb109 driver.
- Lamps: two full 8x8 CPU-strobed matrices (1-64 "A", 65-128 "B") -- there is no general-illumination channel anywhere on this platform; every playfield bulb, including ones the manual labels "G.I.", is an individually addressed lamp-matrix position, not a continuously-driven GI circuit. A ninth diagnostic column (129-136) carries two PWM-integrated status LEDs and six permanently unused positions. Bulb quantities: the schematic's lamp-matrix sheets mark exactly four addresses X2 (two parallel bulbs) -- matrix-A coin-door lamps 1 and 2, and matrix-B addresses 87 (Free Shot, Outlane Left) and 125 (Dance Floor).
Two platform facts are easy to get backwards. First, PinMAME's capInvSw10 mask (shared by both bbb108 and bbb109, since both pass gameno=10 to their INITGAME/INITGAMEFF macro call) normalizes exactly six switch addresses -- 25, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 57 -- and this definition's exhaustive re-derivation of the mask in code (never by hand) agrees with the manual's own construction evidence for all six: 36-39 carry the trough opto board's receiver/transmitter part numbers (A0015604-4R / A0015702-4R) on the switch-locations page, switch 25 is "the opto spinner" in the manufacturer's own Playfield Features scoring text, and switch 57 reads the MT00501 encoder disc through the A0020000 slotted-opto PCB named by the Alien Mech Assembly parts list (printed page 105) and again by the C2-02 diagnostic's "the opto (which reads the encoder wheel)" failure text. The location table's Opto Receiver/Xmtr P/N columns are a uniform scan defect for every other row -- that is a scan defect, not a construction question. Second, the four Fliptronic-shaped mirror addresses are not WPC-style real public addresses the way they are on every WPC generation curated in this project; only two of the four (45, 47) ever receive live data from the emulator at all, and even those two carry PinMAME's own admitted left/right naming defect -- see the flippers section.
Trough, drain, and shooter
A drained ball settles on switch 35 (Outhole, SW00113, mechanical, the largest normalized y of the five trough-area switches -- closest to the apron). Sub SolTrough (solenoid 1) kicks it into the four-position ball trough at switch 39 (Trough 4 Balls, nearest the drain entry), sensed onward by opto switches 36-39 (Trough 1-4 Balls). UpdateTroughTimer cascades balls toward the exit one position at a time (sw37.kick into 36 if 36 is empty, sw38.kick into 37, sw39.kick into 38), so switch 36 (the smallest normalized y of the four, closest to the release mechanism) is the front of the queue. Solenoid 2 (SolRelease, labeled "Trough" on both the manual and schematic device table) kicks the ball resting on switch 36 out to the shooter lane (switch 43, Shooter Lane), and the cabinet Plunger key fires it into play. There is no cabinet Launch Button switch address on this machine's cabinet-switch table.
Alien mechanism: one motor, two figures, twin lock posts
The Alien Mech Assembly parts list (printed page 105; exploded drawing on printed page 104) documents one DC gearmotor (MR00108, item 8) driving two gears (item 17, two required) on two independent shafts (items 18/19), each carrying one alien figure (items 23/24), with the position sensed by an MT00501 encoder disc (item 2) read through an A0020000 slotted-opto PCB assembly (item 5) -- the same single-opto board the Opto Boards page documents (SW00148 "SWITCH, OPTO, SLOTTED, .375, PIN-IN"), drawn on the exploded drawing directly beside the motor. PinMAME's public solenoids 31/32 ("Aliens Forward"/"Aliens Reverse") are this single motor's two drive-direction outputs, not two independent motors -- independently corroborated by the manual's own dedicated "C2-02: ALIEN MOTOR" diagnostic calibration test (printed pages 41-42), which calibrates one motor at two power levels and whose "Can't Find Home Position" failure mode names "the opto (which reads the encoder wheel)".
That opto is switch 57: the retained script's ALockTimer_timer drives a 32-step position counter (OldPos/NewPos, 0-31) and toggles switch 57 through a repeating home/quarter-turn/half-turn/three-quarter-turn notch pattern as the counter advances, animating both alien figures' rotation angles together from the same counter. There is no fixed playfield sensor object behind this switch; it is a documented projection onto the mechanism's own rotating-figure anchor.
Solenoid 16 (Alien Lock Post) is a separate mechanism: it raises and lowers a ball-lock post, sensed independently by switches 61/62 (Alien Lock Left/Right, SW00146). The retained script's sw61_Hit/sw62_Hit handlers set independent AlienLBall/AlienRBall lock-state flags with no dependency on the rotating figures' own position counter.
The Tube Lady Assembly's own parts list (printed page 109) and exploded drawing (printed page 108) prove a purely motorized mechanism: sub-assembly 1 (A-00649, "ASSEMBLY, MOTOR, TUBE LADY") is the 1F MR00108 motor (12 VDC, 65 RPM -- the same part number the solenoid table prints for the Ref. 30/31/32 motors) driving through the 1A SM00221 shaft coupling (the cylindrical part an earlier curation misread off the drawing as a coil) and the 1G motor shaft; sub-assembly 2 (A-00650, "ASSEMBLY, TUBE LADY") is the 2G clear tube, 2D base, 2B insert shaft, 2C wireform, and the 2E belt assembly carrying the 2F figure. No coil, solenoid, or plunger assembly exists anywhere in either parts list. The assembly stands on the playfield at the rear-left circle the printed page-82 diagram marks with callouts 22/30 -- confirmed by the retained IPDB photograph showing the figure in its clear tube beside the ADD-A-BALL / 10 MILL / TOP UP JACKPOT tube-sign rollover buttons, with no coil visible.
Solenoid 30 is the motor's single drive output: the retained script's solDancer enables a continuous wobble-rotation timer while energized. Address 22 drives the feature's flasher effect at the tube plus the Backbox Right flasher in parallel -- two bulb symbols on schematic sheet 7, SolCallback(22)="Flash2" bound to Lampz.state(162)/Light F22 in the retained table and "setlamp 162," in the earlier recreation. The location table's CL00109 coil part number printed for Ref. 22 is a manual-internal error against its own parts list; it is recorded on the device, not resolved by inventing a second device.
Drop-target banks
Three independent banks, each resetting off one shared coil per the mechanism parts pages' own "TYPICAL (N REQUIRED)" callouts for the target sub-assemblies:
- 4-Bank (Mercury/Venus/Pythos/Mars, switches 17-20): solenoid 7,
sol4Bank (DTRaise 17,18,19,20 in one pulse).
- 3-Bank (Uranus/Neptune/Pluto, switches 49-51): solenoid 17,
sol3Bank.
- 1-Bank (switch 58): solenoid 29,
sol1Bank.
Note the printed switch Ref. numbers 17/18 for the first two 4-Bank targets appear on the manual's cabinet-switch page layout (Ref. 1-18 share one page block) purely as a column-split artifact of the page's typesetting, not a hardware distinction -- both are genuine playfield switch-matrix positions in cc_m2sw's column-1 range (public 17-24), confirmed by the retained script's own sol4Bank handler resetting all four targets (17-20) as one bank.
Ramp and Island diverters
Three independent diverter solenoids (13 Island Diverter, 14 Ramp Diverter 1, 15 Ramp Diverter 2) each raise/lower a wall or rotate a gate arm to route a ball between the tube/island area and the ramp system; the Left and Right Diverter Assembly parts page (printed page 102) documents one coil per diverter. The physical halves are drop-wall panels at the playfield's rear: the manual's printed page-82 diagram marks callout 14 at the rear-left edge and callout 15 at the top-centre-left ramp (balloon measurements committed with the diagram excerpt), the VPW v1.0 table models diverter 1's two panels there (Wall.DivTube and Wall.DivTube1), and the earlier recreation's Wall.DivTube2 agrees with callout 15's position for diverter 2. The VPW v1.0 table's own same-named DivTube2 wall sits roughly 0.17 normalized units to the right of both the manual's callout and the earlier recreation; that divergence is disclosed on the solenoid-15 placement rather than resolved by picking a side silently. The tables' Flipper-type DivTubef/DivTube2f gate-arm objects are is_visible=false rotation-animation helpers parked at the front apron in both recreations -- table artifacts used by the scripts' SolRDivert1/SolRDivert2 handlers, never physical device locations.
Flippers: three positions, one emulator naming defect, and a consumed-table script defect
Big Bang Bar is a widebody "Superpin" with three flipper positions: Left, Right, and Upper Right (S9/S10/S11 on the schematic's device table; there is no upper-left flipper anywhere in the S1-S32 space). hw.flippers (FLIP_SWNO(5,6)+FLIP_SOL(FLIP_LL|FLIP_LR|FLIP_UR|FLIP_UL), src/wpc/capgames.c) declares all four Fliptronic-style flipper-solenoid bits even though only three physical flipper coils and two physical flipper buttons exist -- normal for this platform's shared FLIP macro, not a Big Bang Bar peculiarity.
Two precisely-scoped defects are worth recording, neither of which is a machine fact.
First, PinMAME's mirror constant names are misleading on this platform: src/wpc/capcom.c's io_w mirrors physical solenoid 9 (S9, "L. Flipper") into sLRFlipPow=45 and physical solenoid 10 (S10, "R. Flipper") into sLLFlipPow=47 -- the opposite left/right sense from PinMAME's own constant names. The driver's own source comment admits this outright. This definition binds the mirrors to their physical correspondence (45 mirrors S9/Left; 47 mirrors S10/Right; 33 mirrors S11/Upper-Right; 35 mirrors S12/Eject Hole) per the source-code mirror logic.
Second, the retained table's own flipper callbacks are dead code under the script library it requires: the symbolic SolCallback(sLRFlipper)="SolRFlipper" / SolCallback(sLLFlipper)="SolLFlipper" bindings resolve against the VPinMAME script library the table loads (Capcom.VBS executes core.vbs), whose flipper constants are sLRFlipper = 46, sLLFlipper = 48, sURFlipper = 34, sULFlipper = 36 -- the hold-side synthetic addresses, which capcom.c never writes (its mirror writes only the power halves 45/47/33/35, from a single io_w write site). Under that library revision the two callbacks receive no emulator data at all; the table's lower flippers animate from its own key handlers (FlipperActivate/FlipperDeActivate EOS-torque handling plus VPX native flipper physics) while the ROM drives its physical coils 9/10 directly. A recreation should drive its visual flippers from the physical addresses (9/10/11) or the two live mirrors (45/47), not from the table's symbolic bindings. The retained library files are pinned under external:pinmame-review-artifacts/big-bang-bar/vpm-script-libs/ and the constants are transcribed in the definition's excerpts; if a future library changes them, the affected device notes must be revisited.
A related structural fact: the mirror code unconditionally treats physical addresses 9/10/11/12 as "the four flipper circuits" and mirrors address 12 into sULFlipPow=35 under the generic name "Upper Left Flip Power" -- but Big Bang Bar wires physical address 12 to Eject Hole (confirmed identically by the manual and the schematic), not a flipper. Address 35 therefore repeats the Eject Hole coil's state and nothing else; the single write site makes that mirror relation structural.
Star bumpers
Three Star Bumpers (Left/Middle/Right, switches 54/56/55 -- note the manual's own switch numbering is not left-to-right sequential) are wired to solenoids 18/19/20. The identity is the manual's own printed page-82 playfield diagram, which marks callout 18 leftmost, 20 upper-right, and 19 lower-centre -- matching this definition's switch/lamp geometry for the same three rings (lamps 122/123/124 from per-address-named Light objects) and both retained recreations' bumper-ring positions (the earlier recreation's Bumper2_Hit/Bumper3_Hit/Bumper1_Hit pulse switches 54/55/56 over the same three positions). Which Bumper1/Bumper2/Bumper3 VPX object each solenoid callback would have animated is a retained-table detail only: the script comments all three callbacks out and the bumpers fire their own coils in the ROM.
PinMAME's shared CC_COMPORTS keyboard-simulation macro (src/wpc/capcoms.h, used identically by every cc-family game) generically labels address 11 "Buy In" and addresses 12-16 "Unused #1-5". Big Bang Bar's own manual proves otherwise for this specific machine: Ref. 11-14 print "UNUSED" (no Buy In switch fitted at all), while Ref. 15/16 -- two of the platform's generically-labeled "Unused" positions -- are wired to real Token Dispense and Ticket Dispense sensors, consistent with this being a title Capcom also sold in a redemption configuration. Treat every CC_COMPORTS label as a generic keyboard-simulation placeholder that a specific game's own manual can override, never as a confirmed physical device by itself.
Lamps a recreation should not guess at
- No GI channel exists. Every "G.I."-labeled row in the lamp table is an ordinary CPU-strobed lamp-matrix address.
- Lamps 1, 2 (coin door, two bulbs each) and 3 (START) are cabinet hardware, not playfield inserts. The START lamp illuminates the cabinet start button: the retained script binds
Lampz.Callback(03) to the PinCab_Start_Button object ("For VR StartButton Lighting"), the manual's lamp table lists it directly beside the two coin-door lamp rows, and neither retained recreation models a playfield START insert nor does any retained photograph show one.
- Lamps 87 (Free Shot, Outlane Left) and 125 (Dance Floor) each drive two #44 bulbs in parallel (the schematic matrix-B sheet's only two playfield X2 marks; the sheet set's own legend draws the two-bulb parallel circuit). The retained tables model one socket each, so light the modelled socket from the recorded position and treat the second parallel bulb's socket as unsurveyed rather than inventing a second coordinate; the definition records
quantity: 2 on both addresses. (The repository's Kiss record is the precedent: seven addresses light both a backglass socket and a playfield insert, and only the socket with a retained coordinate carries the placement.)
- Lamp 62, "(ELECTRO) BLACK LIGHT" (#44, LP00109 -- a distinct part from the ordinary LP00104 socket), illuminates the (Electro) Ramp feature from below/behind; the exact tube position is not surveyed, and the definition records a documented projection onto the feature's three modeled ramp lamps rather than a surveyed socket.
- Lamp 111, "FLUORESCENT IN BACKBOX" (T8, LP00105, wire WHT/WHT-BLK) is direct-wired outside the CPU lamp matrix entirely; it has no PinMAME address and is not an addressable device.
Author construction checklist
- Build the four-ball trough with the drain at the Outhole, the Plunger-fired shooter lane, the 4-Bank/3-Bank/1-Bank drop-target banks, three Star Bumpers, two slingshot coils (solenoids 4/5 -- real coils even though the retained table models passive walls), the Kickback ball-saver, the Lower Lock post and its three-position lock (switches 46-48), the Eject Hole kicker, the Island/Ramp diverters, the two Orbit one-way gates, the rotating twin-Alien mechanism with its encoder opto and own lock post, and the motorized Tube Lady figure on the playfield.
- Build three flippers (Left, Right, Upper Right) from the manual/schematic evidence (S9/S10/S11, EOS switches 33/34/68); the retained table exercises none of the three flipper circuits through the emulator.
- Preserve opto polarity for switches 25, 36-39, and 57 (PinMAME's
capInvSw10 mask normalizes all six; do not invert what the emulator already normalizes).
- Do not model a general-illumination channel; every "G.I."-labeled bulb in the lamp-locations table is an ordinary CPU-strobed lamp-matrix address.
- Bind cabinet switches 1-16 (with 11-14 genuinely unfitted, and 15/16 wired to Token/Ticket Dispense on this game specifically), matrix 17-80, the eight-bit synthetic flipper column 81-88, solenoids 1-32 plus the two live mirror addresses 45/47 and the diagnostic-only 51 (present only on
bbb109), and both 64-position lamp matrices plus the two populated diagnostic LEDs at 129/130.
- Treat address 22 as a flasher output with two bulb locations (playfield tube dancer + backbox right), not a coil.
- Add the four X2 lamp sockets (1, 2, 87, 125) as doubled bulbs.
- The backbox fluorescent tube (lamp-table row 111) is direct-wired T8 hardware outside the CPU-multiplexed lamp matrix; it has no PinMAME address.
Sources
manual.capcom.big-bang-bar.1996: Capcom Big Bang Bar operators manual (PM00131), SHA-256 5fc11391e3092298e31775fdff5944554fc78db2bdb9240aa39fa9eab5dabca5; its per-assembly parts lists (Alien Mech, printed page 104; Tube Lady, printed page 109) outrank the one-line location tables wherever the two disagree.manual-schematic.capcom.big-bang-bar.1996: companion 12-sheet schematic set, SHA-256 fab546ea34874af8d721e8a9bc514a6ab64fa6835001dc4401d3c741b948d603; sheets 9/10 carry the only bulb-quantity (X2) annotations in the document set.manual-support.capcom.big-bang-bar.1996: retained human transcription (switches/lamps), SHA-256 3e503420d32c307f409edaa57c80d6f4bfa9f01d90cd0e47dbc6ddc755188994, and its companion solenoid/schematic transcription, SHA-256 b996714bd9cd3811481ab0eb0ccce071c3d019819844eaffffaf5318e28c4bd5.vpx-script.bbb-vpw-1-0: retained known-working VPW v1.0 embedded script, SHA-256 db632ce7611ad625053c1bfcc6f035b95338c49449b5e78fa5fe2a4f38cfabf7, binding bbb109.vpx-table.bbb-vpw-1-0: retained table, SHA-256 7fd6c3a4ada4ae9c8b253a2123e64c8b546ced4e9c4211edff29f01e6647f3d5, bounds left=0 top=0 right=952 bottom=2162.vpx-table.bbb-archive-2013 / vpx-script.bbb-archive-2013: the earlier retained community recreation and its embedded script (SHA-256 ba5d1384397b8a1a9115b089e4a281634acb9bfb760fe096a320774a8fa2ba46 / cefa47a25952eb96fef752e2c0e718c00f9ce9d0e733aaa86f92ced7c18c5a84), corroboration only and always paired with a manual citation.vpm-script-library.core-vbs: the VPinMAME script library the retained table loads, SHA-256 d380c476c555cdcc4c13e160841211a6aefb5bcb271d807fc04ec42a6945bd72, with Capcom.VBS at SHA-256 03323ded224c5e67b0f7703978529889339e1fd7f73ebdd15002a4a6b794a95e.ipdb-photo.capcom.big-bang-bar.1996.tube-lady / .overhead: IPDB machine-4001 photographs retained for physical corroboration.pinmame.core.4ec52ff0ac13: src/wpc/capcom.c, src/wpc/capcom.h, src/wpc/capgames.c at the pinned revision.
Recreation knowledge is source-reconciled and complete: every address, mechanism, and quantity claim above traces to the cited sources, the four conflicts the 2026-08-07 curation carried are resolved on the record (see the curator's conflicts() documentation and the affected device notes), and a table author can rebuild the machine from this note plus the definition without guessing.