Williams System 7

Matrix conversion

src/wpc/s7.c MACHINE_DRIVER_START(s7) imports PinMAME and installs no switch or lamp converter of its own, so System 7 inherits PinMAME's sequential core_swSeq2m/core_m2swSeq (src/wpc/core.c). Public switches are sequential matrix positions addressed column-major, not column-times-ten notation:

Column 1 is public 1-8 and column 8 is public 57-64. The ROM strobes one column at a time through PIA 4 port B (pia4b_w) and reads the eight rows back through port A (pia4a_r, which returns core_getSwCol unchanged).

Column 1 and the diagnostic column

Column 1 (public 1-8) is an ordinary matrix column that carries the cabinet switches. When PinMAME's own keyboard handling is enabled, SWITCH_UPDATE(s7) overwrites it every frame from the S7_COMPORTS port (src/wpc/s7.h): tilt 1, ball tilt 2, start 3, coin 1-3 4-6, slam tilt 7, high-score reset 8. With keyboard handling off, as under LibPinMAME and VPinMAME, the consumer writes these addresses directly.

The five negative addresses are internal matrix column 0 through the same n+7 formula and come from the upper byte of the same port:

They are service controls in the coin door or on the boards, never playfield positions.

Flipper buttons

System 7 flippers are not CPU-driven: the cabinet buttons switch the coils directly and the ROM only enables them through the game-on line. PinMAME still keeps its generic flipper column at internal column 11, which the sequential converter publishes at 81-88; CORE_SWLRFLIPBUTBIT is public 82 and CORE_SWLLFLIPBUTBIT is public 84 (src/wpc/core.h). s7_vblank calls core_updateSw(s7locals.ssEn), which copies those two bits into the matrix addresses a game names with FLIP_SWNO(left,right) (a zero argument means no copy) and fabricates the synthetic flipper outputs 45-48 from them while the game-on enable is set (see the solenoid group). No System 7 driver declares FLIP_SOL or an FLIP_EOS bit, so the end-of-stroke positions 81, 83, 85 and 87 and the upper-flipper buttons 86 and 88 carry nothing; a game with upper flippers wires them to the same cabinet buttons.

Polarity

core_setSw writes each switch into the matrix through the per-game inverted-switch mask (coreGlobals.invSw, copied from core_gameData->wpc.invSw), and pia4a_r hands the ROM that matrix byte unchanged through core_getSwCol. INITGAMEFULL in src/wpc/s7games.c aggregate-initializes the mask as {{0}}, so for every game declared through it PinMAME normalizes nothing and the public level is the raw closed-equals-1 level of the switch. Some drivers declare their own core_tGameData instead: Hyperball, Spellbinder, Defender and Rat Race in src/wpc/s7games.c (Hyperball, Spellbinder and Rat Race with a nonzero mask), and Black Knight and Time Fantasy in their simulator files under src/wpc/sims/s7/full/. Read each game's own game data for its mask before relying on this.

Addressing

MDRV_DIPS(8+16) declares twenty-four DIP bits. A public DIP address is bank * 8 + bit + 1, where bank is the PinmameSetDIP bank and bit the bit within that bank's byte (core_getDip, src/wpc/core.c).

Bank 0 bits 2-7 are not declared. s7RR (Rat Race) declares MDRV_DIPS(8) only.

How the ROM reads the CPU-board banks

s7_dips_r returns a four-bit nibble on PIA 3 port A selected by the low two bits of the display strobe position, and only while Master Command Enter (-3) is held; the value is inverted because the ROM expects on=0. Strobe positions 0-1 return the low and high nibble of bank 1 and positions 2-3 those of bank 2. Which physical switch and function each bit carries, and which bits a ROM actually samples, is game documentation; a definition must cite its own manual rather than this profile.

Address map

s7RR (Rat Race) differs from this map. It has no PIA 1: its ROM writes solenoids 1-8 as one byte at $2200 (rr_sol_w), so nothing writes 9-16 or the pia1cb2_w enable. MACHINE_INIT(rr) sets ssEn = 1 at reset, so s7_vblank publishes 25 from reset on, and setSSSol publishes its special solenoids non-inverted and without the enable.

Addresses 49-50 belong to PinMAME's built-in simulator (sim_getSol), which reports only its own shooter-release state while the keyboard-driven simulator runs and is never driven under LibPinMAME.

Special solenoids 17-24

The special solenoids are driven from the CA2/CB2 lines of the PIAs and gated by the game-on enable (setSSSol). Unlike System 6, the PIA lines map to slots through a fixed permutation, and slot n is published at CORE_FIRSTSSSOL + n, that is public 17 + n:

Which PIA line drives which board driver, and so which printed special-solenoid number a public address carries, is board and game documentation: prove it per game, for example with the ROM's own solenoid test, which displays each step's number as it pulses the address. Each slot is also published while the switch named in the game's sxx.ssSw[n] is closed and the enable is set (s7_vblank), which models the hardware in which that playfield switch fires the coil itself. sxx.ssSw is per-game data; INITGAMEFULL fills the first six entries, a driver with its own core_tGameData may fill fewer, and a zero entry means the slot is not switch-driven. Rat Race (s7RR) bypasses the enable and publishes its special solenoids non-inverted.

Synthetic flipper outputs 45-48

No System 7 driver declares FLIP_SOL, so core_updateSw fabricates flipper state in coreGlobals.solenoids2 from the synthetic flipper buttons at switch 82 (right) and 84 (left) whenever the game-on enable is set. 45/46 follow the right button and 47/48 the left. There is no driver-board output behind any of them: the physical flipper coils are switched by the cabinet buttons through the flipper relay.

Matrix addressing

PIA 2 port B selects lamp columns and port A drives the rows active-low: pia2b_w stores the column byte as written, and pia2a_w stores the row byte inverted (~data). core_setLamp places column bit c at lampMatrix[c], and the public lamp number read back through vp_getLamp is lamp2m(n) - 8 = n - 1. So public lamp = (column - 1) * 8 + row, with column 1 at 1-8 and column 8 at 57-64.

Hyperball and Spellbinder declare four extra lamp columns (hw.lampCol = 4), which pia1a_w fills from the solenoid port while the lamp strobe selects them; they are published at 65-96. No other System 7 driver uses them.

General illumination

System 7 has no general-illumination controller channel. s7.c never writes coreGlobals.gi[], so no System 7 driver publishes a GI channel. A game that switches its general illumination does so through one of its own solenoid drivers and a relay.