Lightning

Partial

Stern1981STERN-MPU200stern.lightning.1981

Wire it up

what an authoring tool needs first
Bind this ROM
lightnin

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

Controller platform
pinmame.stern-mpu200

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
5–32 (19)
Lamps
10–62 (35)

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.

19 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
Hover or tap an address to identify it.
19 shown
# Name Device ID Evidence
5
Spinner1
switch.spinner1 candidate
8
Sw8
switch.sw8 candidate
10
W10
switch.w10 candidate
11
W11
switch.w11 candidate
12
W12
switch.w12 candidate
13
Left Sling Shot
switch.left-sling-shot candidate
14
Left Sling Shot1
switch.left-sling-shot1 candidate
15
Right Sling Shot
switch.right-sling-shot candidate
16
Right Sling Shot1
switch.right-sling-shot1 candidate
17
W17
switch.w17 candidate
18
W18
switch.w18 candidate
25
Sw25
switch.sw25 candidate
26
Sw26
switch.sw26 candidate
27
Sw27
switch.sw27 candidate
28
Sw28
switch.sw28 candidate
29
Sw29
switch.sw29 candidate
30
Sw30
switch.sw30 candidate
31
Sw31
switch.sw31 candidate
32
Sw32
switch.sw32 candidate

Controlled devices

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

Lamps

35

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.
35 shown
# Name Device ID Evidence
10
L10
lamp.l10 candidate
11
L11
lamp.l11 candidate
12
L12
lamp.l12 candidate
14
L14
lamp.l14 candidate
20
L20
lamp.l20 candidate
22
L22
lamp.l22 candidate
23
L23
lamp.l23 candidate
24
L24
lamp.l24 candidate
25
L25
lamp.l25 candidate
26
L26
lamp.l26 candidate
27
L27
lamp.l27 candidate
28
L28
lamp.l28 candidate
29
L29
lamp.l29 candidate
30
L30
lamp.l30 candidate
36
L36
lamp.l36 candidate
38
L38
lamp.l38 candidate
39
L39
lamp.l39 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
46
L46
lamp.l46 candidate
47
L47
lamp.l47 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
62
L62
lamp.l62 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.lightnin 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 lightnin, description "Lightning", manufacturer "Stern", catalog year "1981".
  • OPDB record G5pQ8-Mq14e (IPDB 1441) names this machine "Lightning" (Stern Electronics, manufacture date 1981-03-01); 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 lightnin; whether every listed driver really runs on this physical machine is unverified.

Drivers this record holds

  • lightnfp (1981, Stern, clone of lightnin).
  • lightnib (2021, Stern / Idleman, clone of lightnin).
  • lightnic (2022, Stern / Idleman, clone of lightnin).
  • lightnid (2024, Stern / Idleman, clone of lightnin).
  • lightnin (1981, Stern).

PinMAME source contract (candidate)

  • The pinned PinMAME source declares lightnin at src/wpc/stgames.c:1067 with machine module by35_mST200v; the definition declares controller platform pinmame.stern-mpu200 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 54 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
lightnidLightning (Free Play & MOD rev. 27) 2024lightnin
lightnicLightning (Free Play & MOD rev. 25) 2022lightnin
lightnibLightning (Free Play & MOD rev. 19) 2021lightnin
lightninLightning 1981
lightnfpLightning (Free Play) 1981lightnin

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

Pinball memory maps

External source LGPL-3.0-only1 map

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.

Commit
d8693b9

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

m200-7digit-B.map.json

stern-m200v3format 0.8

maps/stern/m200/m200-7digit-B.map.json

Applies to ROMs
lightnin
Also covers
freefalldragfistironmaidsplitsecviper
Sections
adjustmentsauditsgame_statehigh_scores

stern-m200 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

    by
    PinMAME contributors
    rev
    8371478a7640
  • PinMAME source

    BSD-3-Clause

    pinmame.core.8371478a7640

    src/wpc/stgames.c:1067 (machine module by35_mST200v)

    by
    PinMAME contributors
    rev
    8371478a7640
  • VPX script

    vpx-script.3137943a1aeb26dc

    vpxtable-scripts: Lightning (Stern 1981) v600.vbs

    by
    Authors credited in Lightning (Stern 1981) v600.vbs and repository contributors
    rev
    0c036bb61b4b
    sha256
    3137943a1aeb…
  • VPX script

    vpx-script.fcb2609a02db51dd

    vpxtable-scripts: Lightning v1.0.0.vbs

    by
    Authors credited in Lightning v1.0.0.vbs and repository contributors
    rev
    0c036bb61b4b
    sha256
    fcb2609a02db…

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.

Same platform