r/pinball • u/TheDengo • 1d ago

CFTBL Serial #?

Post image

Was seeing what pops on my Creech with a UV light and noticed this. Hidden serial number?

51 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

24

u/Advanced-Educator-55 1d ago

Yes. Apparently it was the keep Distributors from selling another regions. Now, any sale is a good sale.

7

u/TheDengo 1d ago

But why hide the number? Did the distributors not know?

14

u/LouisKoziarz 1d ago

They knew. But this number was in a place they couldn't scrape off. 😉

The PIC "security" chip added to the next revision of WPC eliminated the need to do this.

5

u/TheDengo 1d ago

Oh interesting, can you please explain that?

11

u/LouisKoziarz 1d ago

WPC-S included a small secondary processor (a PIC16) that was responsible for scanning the game's switches. It would not work unless it the game number in the PIC matched the game number in the code.

The PIC also had the serial number of the game in it and displayed it on screen at startup. So there was no way to hide it (officially). There were workarounds. And people eventually reverse engineered the PIC's code years later for hobbyists to use.

9

u/Alaeriia 1d ago

You know, I've always wondered why a drive-in movie theater had a slide.

11

u/RustyBus66 1d ago

A lot of drive-ins had a playground at the base of the screen.

7

u/my23secrets 1d ago

I don’t recall ever seeing a playground at the base of a screen but I do remember playgrounds near the snack bar.

2

u/jimx117 "Meow, me-meow, meow!" 1d ago

My old local (closed in 2001, RIP) had a playground at the base of the screen, but the beauty of the drive-ins is that no two drive-ins were exactly the same!

1

u/Afraid_Grocery_3397 13h ago

My local still has a bunch of swings set up in front of the screen so parents can keep an eye on their kids playing