Alien Star

Partial

Gottlieb1984gottlieb.alien-star.1984

OPDB IPDB gottlieb/alien-star-1984.mdgottlieb/alien-star-1984.json

Wire it up

what an authoring tool needs first
Bind this ROM
alienstr

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

Controller platform
Not determined
Displays

No display inventory recorded yet.

Address space
Switches
1–55 (23)
Solenoids
1–11 (5)

Coverage

Partial

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

Completion13%

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 · 14
Driver MappingController PlatformInput 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.

23 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
49–56
Hover or tap an address to identify it.
23 shown
# Name Device ID Evidence
1
Sw01
switch.sw01 candidate
2
Sw02
switch.sw02 candidate
3
Sw03
switch.sw03 candidate
4
Sw4
switch.sw4 candidate
10
W10
switch.w10 candidate
11
Sw11
switch.sw11 candidate
12
W12
switch.w12 candidate
13
W13
switch.w13 candidate
14
Sw14
switch.sw14 candidate
21
Sol LFlipper
switch.sol-lflipper-21 candidate
40
W40
switch.w40 candidate
41
Sw41
switch.sw41 candidate
42
W42
switch.w42 candidate
43
W43
switch.w43 candidate
44
Sw44
switch.sw44 candidate
45
Bumper1
switch.bumper1 candidate
46
Sol RFlipper
switch.sol-rflipper candidate
48
Sol LFlipper
switch.sol-lflipper candidate
50
W50
switch.w50 candidate
51
Sw51
switch.sw51 candidate
52
Sw52
switch.sw52 candidate
53
Sw53
switch.sw53 candidate
55
Left Sling Shot
switch.left-sling-shot candidate

Controlled devices

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

Coils, magnets & motors

5
5 shown
# Name Device ID Evidence
1
Sol LLock
coil.sol-llock candidate
8
Solknocker
coil.solknocker candidate
9
Solballrelease
coil.solballrelease candidate
10
Sol Game Over
coil.sol-game-over candidate
11
Sol GI
coil.sol-gi 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.alienstr 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 alienstr, description "Alien Star", manufacturer "Gottlieb", catalog year "1984".
  • OPDB record G4xwQ-MQpVO (IPDB 49) names this machine "Alien Star" (Gottlieb, manufacture date 1984-06-01); 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 alienstr; whether every listed driver really runs on this physical machine is unverified.

Drivers this record holds

  • alienstr (1984, Gottlieb, clone of gts80as).

VPX script candidates (candidate)

  • 3 retained community table script(s) declare this machine's driver; their extracted switch/lamp/solenoid/GI candidates are carried as 28 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

Controller platform from the pinned PinMAME driver source; 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
alienstrAlien Star 1984gts80as—

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

  • VPX script

    vpx-script.20bde3d117e71352

    vpxtable-scripts: Alien Star (Gottlieb 1984) 2.0_Thal.vbs

    0c036bb61b4b
    by
    Authors credited in Alien Star (Gottlieb 1984) 2.0_Thal.vbs and repository contributors
    rev
    0c036bb61b4b
    sha256
    20bde3d117e7…

  • VPX script

    vpx-script.86a8c85e03e40d63

    vpxtable-scripts: Alien Star (Gottlieb 1984) v2.0.2.vbs

    0c036bb61b4b
    by
    Authors credited in Alien Star (Gottlieb 1984) v2.0.2.vbs and repository contributors
    rev
    0c036bb61b4b
    sha256
    86a8c85e03e4…

  • VPX script

    vpx-script.8512fb6a8637d3a9

    vpxtable-scripts: Alien Star (Gottlieb 1984) v3.0.1.vbs

    0c036bb61b4b
    by
    Authors credited in Alien Star (Gottlieb 1984) v3.0.1.vbs and repository contributors
    rev
    0c036bb61b4b
    sha256
    8512fb6a8637…

Something wrong or missing?

This definition still has 14 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
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