Ali

Identity and evidence precedence

This definition is the one physical Stern Ali family (IPDB 43). PinMAME ali is the stock root and alifp is its stock free-play clone; both use the six-digit dispst6 layout and are physically identical. PinMAME alib revision 76 and alic revision 85 are independent-root conversion ROMs. Their catalog years identify conversion software releases, not separately manufactured games. They remain compatible with the Ali playfield, Stern MPU-200 I/O, left-flipper configuration, and ST300 sound board, but their seven-digit display hardware makes them display-hardware variants rather than physically identical stock machines.

The stock known-working Ali-v1.0.1.vbs script and the Ali technical chart are ground truth for stock physical playfield semantics. The script is ground truth for stock controller-facing semantics and mechanism behavior; the chart is authoritative for physical inventory, board connectors, wire colors, driver transistors, coil types, and diagnostic numbers. Pinned PinMAME source is authoritative for all driver identities, clone relationships, controller topology, and display layouts. The repeatable ROM harness ran only the available stock ali image, so it validates the stock MPU-200 public-address translation only and must not be used to infer conversion-only display rules.

Controller address translations

The 19 physical service solenoids do not line up numerically with PinMAME callbacks. The stock service sweep proves this physical-to-public sequence: 1->2, 2->1, 3->6, 4->7, 5->3, 6->4, 7->5, 8->8, 9->11, 10->12, 11->14, 12->13, 13->9, 14->10, 15->19, 16->15, 17->17, 18->20, 19->18. Public output 16 is an unaddressable decoder slot. Lower flippers are generic callbacks 46 right and 48 left, gated by public output 19.

The LDA-100 has sixty discrete SCR outputs, not a lamp matrix. The JSON maps each public address to its physical Q-number, connector, wire, and SCR type. Public 16, 32, 48, and 64 are unaddressable decoder slots and therefore are not devices. The stock ROM lamp test exercised every other address, including unused Q01, Q20, Q24, Q25, Q54, and Q58. The manual leaves Q15 unnamed, but the working stock script identifies its public address 29 as Ball in Play; script semantics win.

Switches and shared contacts

The switch matrix is five strobes by eight returns, public addresses 1-40. Addresses 4, 10, 17, 18, and 40 are physically unused. Two separate middle rollover buttons share address 11 and must be wired in parallel. The technical chart calls address 9 a top-left rollover button, while the proven stock recreation pulses it from the spinner; build the spinner shown by the working table and bind it to 9. Service controls are -7 self-test, -6 CPU diagnostic, and -5 sound diagnostic. Cabinet flipper inputs are 82 right and 84 left; 81/83 are unused upper positions. All 32 MPU option switches are retained as configuration inputs.

Ball lifecycle and saucers

Ali is a single-ball game with no trough stack. Initialize one ball in the outhole on switch 33. Public output 11/service solenoid 9 sends it toward the shooter lane at 115 degrees with nominal force 3; launching from the shooter lane is manual.

Top saucer switches 30, 31, and 32 share one physical eject output: public 7/service solenoid 4. The working stock table fires every occupied top cup toward 180 degrees at force 10 with force and angle variation 3, and resets its visual cup state after 200 ms. The middle-right cup holds on switch 38 and ejects through public 10/service solenoid 14 with the same vector and variation. The physical chart names switch 39 Middle Left Saucer, but the working table gives it no kicker or capture stack; model the known passive geometry and do not invent an output.

Drop targets, bumpers, and slings

The top bank holds switches 19-21 while down and resets all three from public 8/service solenoid 8. The left bank holds switches 22-24 and resets from public 9/service solenoid 13. Stand-ups 25-29 spell GREAT and pulse individually.

The public callback mapping for direct playfield coils is intentionally non-obvious. Left slingshot switch 16 uses public output 1/service solenoid 2; right switch 15 uses public 2/service 1. Left thumper switch 13 uses public 3/service 5, middle switch 14 uses public 4/service 6, and right switch 12 uses public 5/service 7. Preserve the JSON public addresses in the controller integration and the service numbers only as physical aliases.

Flippers, relays, and illumination

Output 19 drives the 48 V flipper-enabling relay. The two J-25-450/34-4500 assemblies are hard-wired dual-winding circuits: public 48 represents the left coil and public 46 the right, with local normally-closed EOS contacts transferring from power to hold windings. The manual preserves power, coil, and button wire colors and connectors in the JSON.

Public 14/service 11 is the physical general-illumination relay. The working stock VPX table turns GI on whenever a ball exists and off when none exists rather than subscribing to that callback. Build the relay-controlled GI circuit from the physical chart; treat the script's ball-count behavior as a compatibility fallback, not extra ROM I/O. Public 18/service 19 is the coin-lockout coil. Public 12, 13, 15, 17, and 20 are wired diagnostic positions with no installed device and remain explicitly unused.

Displays and sound

The canonical display inventory is stock Ali: four generic Player N six-digit score displays at controller layout indices 0-3 and segment-memory starts 2, 10, 18, and 26; the two-digit credits display is layout 4/start 35; and the two-digit ball/match display is layout 5/start 38. This is PinMAME dispst6. Only alib and alic apply explicit display overrides: their Player 1-4 displays remain at layout indices 0-3 but become seven digits with segment-memory starts 1, 9, 17, and 25, matching dispst7. The stock VPX/manual evidence does not validate those conversion-only rules. Sound is Stern ST300; sound-command behavior belongs to PinMAME and does not add playfield devices.

Recreation checklist

• Build the stock Ali base: every JSON input and output, including unused wired positions, both physical EOS contacts, shared switch 11, all sixty valid SCR lamp outputs, and the six-digit stock display inventory.
• Initialize one ball at switch 33; initialize both drop banks raised and every saucer empty.
• Use PinMAME public bindings for runtime callbacks and retain physical service numbers/Q-numbers as diagnostic aliases.
• Reproduce shared top-saucer actuation, passive switch-39 geometry, manual shooter launch, hard-wired dual-winding flippers, GI relay, and coin lockout.
• Apply the explicit Player 1-4 display overrides only for alib or alic; do not promote stock VPX/manual or ali runtime results into conversion-only rules.
• Treat the working stock VPX force, angle, variance, and 200 ms visual reset values as validated authoring starting points; refine only geometry-dependent tuning without changing controller causality.

Sources

• manual.ali.tech-chart: organized external Stern_Ali_Tech_Chart.pdf, SHA-256 455ea85f99eff031ffcca75489ab4dfea0a587a864522fb2fa30a4bfd160d78b; one-page switch, lamp, coil, flipper, board, and fuse chart.
• vpx.ali.jp-salas.1.0.1: pinned stock known-working script, SHA-256 6dbde0131a367c643ae87fe511052d28d83ed0cb6b74b87ba731a900678f1849.
• vpx-table.ali.jp-salas.1.0.1: locally available working stock VPX used only for embedded playfield art/object-position confirmation, SHA-256 14137b288aee843e834f509b467dd288fcf0e3269afcbd397e2276d31c24533f.
• runtime.ali.service-lamp-test and runtime.ali.service-solenoid-test: isolated stock harness captures from exact ali.zip SHA-256 bf0edc82cdfcfbcc354faff3b2cf668a11f0aac53e7affd915e44136e3325a4b; ROM bytes and raw mutable NVRAM remain outside the repository.
• pinmame.core.4ec52ff0ac13: pinned driver declarations, MPU-200 implementation, public-address conversion, and display layouts.