Back to the Future

Partial

Data East1990DATAEASTdata-east.back-to-the-future.1990

OPDB IPDB data-east/back-to-the-future-1990.mddata-east/back-to-the-future-1990.json

Wire it up

what an authoring tool needs first
Bind this ROM
bttf_a28

5 ROM sets resolve to this machine. Clones share the definition unless a hardware difference is listed.

Controller platform
pinmame.dataeast

PinMAME already reports logical active state. Do not invert again in the table — normally-closed is a physical fact recorded per switch, not a runtime transform.

Displays

No display inventory recorded yet.

Address space
Switches
10–48 (29)
Solenoids
11–30 (6)
Lamps
10–64 (55)

Coverage

Partial

Real evidence exists, but authoring requirements are still missing or in conflict. Verify before shipping a table.

Completion19%

Progress is derived from the fixed author-readiness requirements. It helps rank unfinished work, but only a 100% author-ready definition passes the publication gate.

Catalog Identity
validated
Address Enumeration
unknown
Semantic Naming
unknown
Physical Wiring
unknown
Mechanisms
unknown
Variant Coverage
candidate
Recreation Knowledge
unknown
Still missing · 13
Driver MappingInput EnumerationInput SemanticsOutput EnumerationOutput SemanticsDisplay InventoryMechanism InventoryMechanism BehaviorPolarityVariant DifferencesRecreation NotesProvenanceSpatial Placement

Switches

The addresses PinMAME reports as closed. Numbers are the public API values, not matrix hardware pins.

29 addresses

Switch map

Sequential addresses, grouped in columns of eight.

used unused
 
+0
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
+6
+7
1–8
9–16
17–24
25–32
33–40
41–48
Hover or tap an address to identify it.
29 shown
# Name Device ID Evidence
10
Drain
switch.drain candidate
11
Creat Balls
switch.creat-balls candidate
12
Creat Balls
switch.creat-balls-12 candidate
13
Creat Balls
switch.creat-balls-13 candidate
14
Sw14
switch.sw14 candidate
17
Sw17
switch.sw17 candidate
18
Sw18
switch.sw18 candidate
19
Sw19
switch.sw19 candidate
20
Sw20
switch.sw20 candidate
21
Left Sling Shot
switch.left-sling-shot candidate
22
Right Sling Shot
switch.right-sling-shot candidate
25
Sw25
switch.sw25 candidate
26
Sw26
switch.sw26 candidate
27
Sw27
switch.sw27 candidate
28
Sw28
switch.sw28 candidate
29
Kick Ball Up
switch.kick-ball-up candidate
30
Sw30
switch.sw30 candidate
31
Sw31
switch.sw31 candidate
33
Sw33
switch.sw33 candidate
34
Sw34
switch.sw34 candidate
35
Sw35
switch.sw35 candidate
36
Sw36
switch.sw36 candidate
37
Sw37
switch.sw37 candidate
38
Sw38
switch.sw38 candidate
39
Sw39
switch.sw39 candidate
40
Sw40
switch.sw40 candidate
46
Bumper1
switch.bumper1 candidate
47
Bumper2
switch.bumper2 candidate
48
Bumper3
switch.bumper3 candidate

Controlled devices

Everything the ROM can energise, grouped the way a table author builds it.

Coils, magnets & motors

6
6 shown
# Name Device ID Evidence
11
Sol Gi
coil.sol-gi candidate
25
Kisort
coil.kisort candidate
26
Kick Ball To Lane
coil.kick-ball-to-lane candidate
27
CRBall Lock
coil.crball-lock candidate
29
Kick Ball Up
coil.kick-ball-up candidate
30
Reset Drops
coil.reset-drops candidate

Lamps

55

Lamp map

Sequential addresses, grouped in columns of eight.

used unused
 
+0
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
+6
+7
1–8
9–16
17–24
25–32
33–40
41–48
49–56
57–64
Hover or tap an address to identify it.
55 shown
# Name Device ID Evidence
10
L10
lamp.l10 candidate
11
L11
lamp.l11 candidate
12
L12
lamp.l12 candidate
13
L13
lamp.l13 candidate
14
L14
lamp.l14 candidate
15
L15
lamp.l15 candidate
16
L16
lamp.l16 candidate
17
L17
lamp.l17 candidate
18
L18
lamp.l18 candidate
19
L19
lamp.l19 candidate
20
L20
lamp.l20 candidate
21
L21
lamp.l21 candidate
22
L22
lamp.l22 candidate
23
L23
lamp.l23 candidate
24
L24
lamp.l24 candidate
25
L25d
lamp.l25d candidate
26
L26d
lamp.l26d candidate
27
L27d
lamp.l27d candidate
28
L28d
lamp.l28d candidate
29
L29d
lamp.l29d candidate
30
L30d
lamp.l30d candidate
31
L31d
lamp.l31d candidate
32
L32d
lamp.l32d candidate
33
L33
lamp.l33 candidate
34
VRL34
lamp.vrl34 candidate
35
VRL35
lamp.vrl35 candidate
36
VRL36
lamp.vrl36 candidate
37
VRL37
lamp.vrl37 candidate
38
VRL38
lamp.vrl38 candidate
39
VRL39
lamp.vrl39 candidate
40
L40
lamp.l40 candidate
41
L41
lamp.l41 candidate
42
L42
lamp.l42 candidate
43
L43
lamp.l43 candidate
44
L44
lamp.l44 candidate
45
L45
lamp.l45 candidate
46
L46
lamp.l46 candidate
47
L47
lamp.l47 candidate
48
L48
lamp.l48 candidate
49
L49
lamp.l49 candidate
50
L50
lamp.l50 candidate
51
L51
lamp.l51 candidate
52
L52
lamp.l52 candidate
53
L53
lamp.l53 candidate
54
L54
lamp.l54 candidate
55
L55
lamp.l55 candidate
56
L56
lamp.l56 candidate
57
L57
lamp.l57 candidate
58
L58
lamp.l58 candidate
59
L59
lamp.l59 candidate
60
L60
lamp.l60 candidate
61
L61
lamp.l61 candidate
62
L62
lamp.l62 candidate
63
L63
lamp.l63 candidate
64
L64
lamp.l64 candidate

Recreation notes

Working knowledge that has no schema field yet — edition differences, tuning values, pitfalls.

Coverage: partial - machine identity plus candidate-only I/O attachments. Playfield devices, wiring, mechanisms, and behavior are evidenced only as unverified candidates.

This record was promoted from the generated catalog stub stub.pinmame.bttf_a28 by the catalog-wide identity pass of 2026-08-29. The promotion resolves machine identity and carries the catalog's residual driver grouping over unchanged, the platform and device attachments below were added by the 2026-08-29/30 candidate passes and assert nothing beyond candidate provenance. Every requirement in the definition's coverage.missing is genuinely outstanding.

Identity

  • PinMAME catalog: root driver bttf_a28, description "Back to the Future (2.8)", manufacturer "Data East", catalog year "1990".
  • OPDB record GRpbW-MLXq2 (IPDB 126) names this machine "Back to the Future" (Data East, manufacture date 1990-06-01); the resolved identity rests on the agreement of the PinMAME catalog and this reviewed mapping.
  • The definition's driver list is exactly the clone tree PinMAME declares under bttf_a28; whether every listed driver really runs on this physical machine is unverified.

Drivers this record holds

  • bttf_a20 (1990, Data East, clone of bttf_a28).
  • bttf_a21 (1990, Data East, clone of bttf_a28).
  • bttf_a27 (1990, Data East, clone of bttf_a28).
  • bttf_a28 (1990, Data East).
  • bttf_g27 (199?, Data East, clone of bttf_a28).

PinMAME source contract (candidate)

  • The pinned PinMAME source declares bttf_a28 at src/wpc/degames.c:351 with machine module de_mDEAS1; the definition declares controller platform pinmame.dataeast from it.

VPX script candidates (candidate)

  • 2 retained community table script(s) declare this machine's driver; their extracted switch/lamp/solenoid/GI candidates are carried as 90 candidate devices. When curator work weighs sources, a retained script outranks emulator-derived candidates for runtime semantics, but every device here is still a candidate until a known-working table is verified against this exact physical machine.

What a curator must establish next

Full input, output, and display enumeration with semantic names; physical wiring and polarity; mechanism inventory and behavior; variant differences across the clone tree; recreation knowledge from a manual, schematic, or known-working table; runtime provenance; and a normalized spatial placement for every physical device. No manual, schematic, or runtime-harness evidence is retained for this machine yet; the candidate sections above are the only retained I/O evidence so far.

ROM sets

Every driver that resolves to this physical machine.

ROM set Description Year Parent Hardware
bttf_g27Back to the Future (2.7 German) 199?bttf_a28—
bttf_a28Back to the Future (2.8) 1990——
bttf_a27Back to the Future (2.7) 1990bttf_a28—
bttf_a21Back to the Future (2.1) 1990bttf_a28—
bttf_a20Back to the Future (2.0) 1990bttf_a28—

Parent set: bttf_a28 — clones share this definition unless a hardware difference is noted.

Pinball memory maps

External source LGPL-3.0-only2 maps

RAM layouts published by an independent project and mirrored here at a pinned commit. They are not part of this machine’s definition: nothing below was used as evidence for the definition, and none of it counts towards coverage. Check claims against the upstream project.

Upstream
tomlogic/pinball-memory-maps
Commit
d8693b9

This program makes use of content from the Pinball Memory Maps project.

bttf_a21.map.json

dataeastv5format 0.8

maps/dataeast/version3/bttf_a21.map.json

Applies to ROMs
bttf_a21
Sections
game_statehigh_scores
Map JSONMap sourcePlatform JSONPlatform source

dataeast defines the RAM layout this map’s offsets are read against — the map is not interpretable without it.

bttf_a28.map.json

dataeastv6format 0.8

maps/dataeast/version3/bttf_a28.map.json

Applies to ROMs
bttf_a27bttf_a28bttf_g27
Sections
game_statehigh_scores
Map JSONMap sourcePlatform JSONPlatform source

dataeast defines the RAM layout this map’s offsets are read against — the map is not interpretable without it.

Evidence

Every claim above traces to one of these. When they disagree: a known-working VPX script wins on controller addresses and causality, the manual wins on wiring and construction, pinned PinMAME wins on emulator routing and display layout.

  • PinMAME catalog

    BSD-3-Clause

    pinmame.catalog.8371478a7640

    PinmameGetGames

    8371478a7640
    by
    PinMAME contributors
    rev
    8371478a7640

  • PinMAME source

    BSD-3-Clause

    pinmame.core.8371478a7640

    src/wpc/degames.c:351 (machine module de_mDEAS1)

    src/wpc/degames.c
    by
    PinMAME contributors
    rev
    8371478a7640

  • VPX script

    vpx-script.937c3da6aa9b4834

    vpxtable-scripts: Back To The Future (Data East 1990) 1.3.vbs

    0c036bb61b4b
    by
    Authors credited in Back To The Future (Data East 1990) 1.3.vbs and repository contributors
    rev
    0c036bb61b4b
    sha256
    937c3da6aa9b…

  • VPX script

    vpx-script.5a34be4fac1d5f43

    vpxtable-scripts: Back To The Future - The Pinball (Data East 1990) v1.07.vbs

    0c036bb61b4b
    by
    Authors credited in Back To The Future - The Pinball (Data East 1990) v1.07.vbs and repository contributors
    rev
    0c036bb61b4b
    sha256
    5a34be4fac1d…

Something wrong or missing?

This definition still has 13 unmet requirements, listed under Coverage above. Fixes belong in the definition itself — editing on GitHub forks it for you and opens the pull request.

Cite a source for anything you change — a manual page, a line in a working VPX script, PinMAME source, or a reading from the machine's own service menu. Claims without provenance cannot be validated.

Edit the definition Edit the note Report a problem
Before you startCONTRIBUTING.mdschemas/machine.schema.jsondocs/MACHINE_DEFINITIONS_PLAN.md How to read a definition

Same platform

King KongData East · 1990Phantom of the OperaData East · 1990The SimpsonsData East · 1990BatmanData East · 1991CheckpointData East · 1991Star TrekData East · 1991