It is available to download on the Big Guys Pinball website and, like Pinbox, it is totally free. Version 2.25 fixes a number of bugs in the core code, adds some performance enhancements and extra features, and makes it ready for future Linux system updates. Nucore hadn’t returned in the nearly five years since it was withdrawn, until August this year when Big Guys Pinball announced its comeback with the release of a new version of the software. It was made available to download, install and use for free.Īlthough the website providing the download was shut down fairly quickly, Pinbox was now out in the public domain and continued to be freely-available on various file-sharing sites. Pinbox was the name given to an unauthorised distribution of Nucore with the copy-protection removed. Shortly before Planetary Pinball Supply became the sole Williams pinball licensor, Big Guys Pinball stopped selling Nucore while negotiations began to continue the licensing agreement.īut everything came to a sudden halt with the release of Pinbox. The $400 package included the software installation CD, a USB in/out module and a USB cable, with the option to purchase an amplifier board to drive the game’s speakers, a metal case and a VGA adapter to connect to the original CRT monitor.Īlthough it was arguable whether the Nucore system violated any Williams’ patents in emulating the original operating system, Big Guys Pinball worked with the two Williams Pinball licence-holders at the time – Wayne Gillard and Gene Cunningham – to ensure Nucore would be both legal and an officially-licensed product. The Nucore enhanced emulation software used the original Pinball 2000 game code and media assets, and went on sale in 2009. Nucore‘s jukebox feature on a Star Wars Episode 1 pinball Running on a standard PC using an open-source Linux operating system and displaying its output on an off-the-shelf LCD monitor, Nucore ran faster than the original Pinball 2000 system, providing better screen rendering, smoother animations, and the opportunity to add multiple feature enhancements. Nucore was created by Steve Ellenoff, Chuck Hess, and Don Weingarden who formed Big Guys Pinball to develop and eventually market the product. Anyone wanting to keep these Pinball 2000 games running needed a modern replacement solution, and that’s what Nucore provided. It also needed a custom PCB called a PRISM card to hold the eight game EPROMs, with the system driving a 19-inch cathode-ray tube monitor.īack in the late ’90s when the system was developed these might have been commonly-available parts, but technology moves at a rapid pace and while many systems are still in regular use, Cyrix is no more while EPROMs and CRTs are fast becoming the stuff of history. The two production machines in the Pinball 2000 range – Revenge from Mars and Star Wars Episode 1 – ran on a very specific PC motherboard which used a Cyrix MediaGX processor and a proprietary operating system. After nearly five years of unavailability, Nucore – the enhanced replacement Pinball 2000 operating system – is back.
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