The Pinball 2000 system was developed in the late 1990s by Williams Pinball to address the waning popularity of pinball in arcades. It combined a pinball playfield with reflected video images that created a holographic effect on the playfield, giving players "virtual" targets. The cabinet design, which at 42" was slightly smaller than a standard pinball machine, was the only pinball cabinet designed to have replaceable playfields. While arcade operators had been able to convert existing cabinets from one game to another by replacing boards (thanks largely to the JAMMA system), pinball machines were all built to individual specs, making them impossible to convert. Pinball 2000 was supposed to standardize the platform, allowing operators to purchase inexpensive conversion kits for existing games. Unfortunately, Williams ceased production of the system after releasing only two games, Revenge from Mars and Star Wars Episode 1. Kits to convert RFM to Star Wars were released, but future projects for the pinball 2000 system were never completed. Rumored projects included a sequel to Theatre of Magic, Playboy, and Wizard Blocks.
Nucore
Like most pinball machines, the Pinball 2000 system used proprietary hardware to drive the game rules and display. Unfortunately, as these components began to fail, replacement parts became difficult to find. The Nucore project is a community developed platform to replace the hardware with a standard PC. This also adds mew features to the machine, such as an mp3 jukebox.
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