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That is the security chip ID.

 

Wayne could help you out with a more detailed description, but there is some stuff about the WPC-S.

 

From the marvin3m site ( http://www.pinrepair.com/wpc/index1.htm ) :

 

WPC-Security (WPC-S): Starting with World Cup Soccer (3/94), a security PIC chip was added to the CPU board in all WPC-S games at location U22. This PIC (Programable Integrated Circuit) chip was game specific. CPU boards can not be swapped between different models of game without changing the security PIC chip (i.e. Corvette CPU board put into a Shadow game must have the Corvette PIC changed to a Shadow PIC chip). Each security PIC chip had a special serial number encoded into the chip. This number displays on the dot matrix screen for a few seconds as the game is turned on.

 

The number displayed shows what distributor the game was shipped to from the factory. This was done by Williams because of problems in Europe with distributors selling games outside of their sales territory. Anyone could turn a game on, write down the displayed serial number, and determine if the game was "bootlegged" from another distributor. However, this was defeated by adding a dot matrix power delay board. This small board didn't power the dot matrix display until the game was turned on for about 10 seconds. This meant the game was in attract mode (and the PIC number no longer displayed), before the dot matrix display was even turned on. This was embarrassing to Williams, as they spent much time and money to develop the security PIC chip system as a distributor territory protection device, yet the system was disabled by a simple modification. As a backup, there is probably a set of "secret" flipper button codes that will display the PIC number when the game is in attract mode (hence getting around the DMD power delay).

 

Cheers

Jacob

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:023:

That is the security chip ID.

 

Wayne could help you out with a more detailed description, but there is some stuff about the WPC-S.

 

From the marvin3m site ( http://www.pinrepair.com/wpc/index1.htm ) :

 

WPC-Security (WPC-S): Starting with World Cup Soccer (3/94), a security PIC chip was added to the CPU board in all WPC-S games at location U22. This PIC (Programable Integrated Circuit) chip was game specific. CPU boards can not be swapped between different models of game without changing the security PIC chip (i.e. Corvette CPU board put into a Shadow game must have the Corvette PIC changed to a Shadow PIC chip). Each security PIC chip had a special serial number encoded into the chip. This number displays on the dot matrix screen for a few seconds as the game is turned on.

 

The number displayed shows what distributor the game was shipped to from the factory. This was done by Williams because of problems in Europe with distributors selling games outside of their sales territory. Anyone could turn a game on, write down the displayed serial number, and determine if the game was "bootlegged" from another distributor. However, this was defeated by adding a dot matrix power delay board. This small board didn't power the dot matrix display until the game was turned on for about 10 seconds. This meant the game was in attract mode (and the PIC number no longer displayed), before the dot matrix display was even turned on. This was embarrassing to Williams, as they spent much time and money to develop the security PIC chip system as a distributor territory protection device, yet the system was disabled by a simple modification. As a backup, there is probably a set of "secret" flipper button codes that will display the PIC number when the game is in attract mode (hence getting around the DMD power delay).

 

Cheers

Jacob

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