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Message started by Curious Aardvark on Apr 26th, 2022 at 6:38am

Title: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on Apr 26th, 2022 at 6:38am
https://youtu.be/LfUcnApqq4Y

Still got to tidy up the wires and get the arcade side of things sorted.

And it turns out that a custom vinyl wrap costs less than £20, so that's also in the works.

But it's bloody brilliant !
Looks and plays exactly like a 'real' pinball machine.
But with the added bonus of not being limited to just the one table :-)

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by joe_meadmaker on Apr 26th, 2022 at 12:57pm
Holy heck!  That turned out awesome!  :thumb:

Agree 100%.  Bloody brilliant!

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Rat Man on Apr 27th, 2022 at 8:32am
Sweet!

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on Apr 27th, 2022 at 12:36pm
Just finished downloading a 109 GB emulator package and arcade front end and menu system.

As my internet has been playing silly buggers the last few weeks, I started downloading it halfway through the build lol

So that's next, got a free day tomorrow, so I'll tackle the arcade stuff :-)

Apparently you can get the vertical shootemups the full length of the screen.
So that's tomorrow's goal.


Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on Apr 28th, 2022 at 12:46pm
The arcade stuff is doing my head in.
Just won't recognise the controller properly. Joystick works perfectly, but not a one of the buttons is recognised.
And yet in the bog standard windows 'press a button on your controller' everything perfect.

I have a utility that emulates a xbox controller but with an arcade joystick setup - so that's probably my next move as I'm pretty sure the bloody arcade stuff is using thr crappy windows 10 xbox controller crap.

Then there is the issue with the screens lol
If I launch a consoile game (with my bluetooth keyboard) it plays in a small box on the main screen.


If I launch a mame game, the main screen goes black and it plays on the backscreen. (cos that's technically screen 1).

Pretty much the exact opposite of what I actually want it to do.
I'd settle for everything playing on the main screen.

Yet the menu works perfectly, with the videos on the main screen and the marque image on the backscreen.

I think I'll test the waters and see if anyone on ebay wants to buy the laptop base.
Looking around, it should be worth £3-400 minimum. its only 4 years old and was pretty much the best thing hp made in an ultralight at the time.
More if i throw in the usbc monitor adaptor.
With that i can buy a decent (well affordably decent - say £200, should get me a 1030ti) graphics card and use the system i originally built.

What i'll lose in processing power I'd gain in graphics performance.   

And also I'd get the 12volt power headers for the solenoids.

So I've been looking at cabinet art.

Pretty much decided on this one (see pic).

I've got to load photoshop on this machine to edit it.

It'll need sizing and shaping for my cabinet and I'd like the text Larger, and maybe some lightning bolts in there somewhere (maybe not lol).

But it should look well smart :-)
machine_art__Medium_.jpg (179 KB | 25 )

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Morphy on Apr 29th, 2022 at 8:17am
Whoa, great job! Makes me miss all those days at the skating rink playing pinball, yes Im old.

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on Apr 29th, 2022 at 3:47pm
It's surprising just how good the simulation is.

After a short while you totally forget it's not a physical pinball table.


Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on May 1st, 2022 at 7:11am
Few pics of some of the different tables and screen styles.
20220501_120243.gif (851 KB | 38 )
20220501_121020.gif (231 KB | 33 )

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by joe_meadmaker on May 1st, 2022 at 9:37am
Somebody needs to create a sling themed one.  :D

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on May 3rd, 2022 at 7:58am
You know, when I first found out about virtual pinball - that's exactly what I thought.

vpx - the 'hobbyists' virtual pinball software, not only plays virtual tables but lets you make them as well.

Watched a few how-to videos on youtube and a sling related table could definitely be made.

Once I've got all the software working properly on the cabinet, I'll sit down and have a proper attempt to design a slinging.org table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1_gxkBp_cg

And a more basic introduction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z6P6p2mRIA

Like everything else, if you build it one element at a time, it'll soon get quite interesting.

One of the things I most want to mess with is the physics and gravity settings.

Maybe a loop that accelerated the ball faster for each consequetive loop to simulate a windup, and then directed the ball at a series of targets that needed increasingly faster impacts to drop them.

I mean you can't break the glass :-)

(I've added a perspex screen protector to the table now and changed the brain back to the original system, weirdly runs smoother than the laptop, wich should have been a lot faster.)

I also quite fancy trying to make a table with no gravity at all :-)

Or at least a gravity free section, with flippers pointing every which way.

I've never seen a table with a domed section, but can't think of any reason why you couldn't have a gravity free dome section :-)

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by perpetualstudent on May 3rd, 2022 at 8:27am
it does look great and like a lot of fun!

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on May 3rd, 2022 at 8:59am
The table is every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be.

We added it all up the other day and it came in at around £465, Including the brain. Which is a cheap board, ram and cpu setup from ebay (£50) and a fairly poor £70 graphics card that 'just' about does the job.

I'm going to see if I can sell the laptop - second hand ones with screens still go for over £700 - I have no idea why. It's thin and made of aluminium, but not a patch on a modern £500 equivalent.
So if I can get £2-300 for the base, that'll buy a much more capable graphics card and give the cabinet a bit of future proofing.

Theres a few cosmetic bits that need doing.
I'll turn the back screen edges black, so it's not so obviously just a cheap monitor  and mask the gap where you can see the cables.

Not quite as good as a proper shroud, but I genuinely don;t expect this screen to last that long and I don;t want to make a shroud only to find the next screen is 16:9 and not 4:3

I've also ordered a new controller board for the buttons and joystick that's fully xbox controller compatible - as I'm having no end of problems getting the software to properly recognise the current (stupidly cheap) boards.

It was always meant to be an evolving work in progress :-)

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on May 7th, 2022 at 1:36pm
Made some new joystick heads :-)
IMG_20220507_154345_154_copy_921x691.jpg (123 KB | 55 )
1651944838473_copy_215x327.jpg (10 KB | 47 )

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on May 24th, 2022 at 5:30pm
So the pinball machine is also a rather good retro arcade cabinet :-)

My all time favourite arcade machine was called: chelnov: atomic runner

I am really bad at it, but just love it !

And I got to say, even on the big screen - I still suck :-)

The skulls are surprisingly comfortable in use.

20220524_222333.gif (392 KB | 16 )

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on May 24th, 2022 at 5:33pm
So the pinball machine is also a rather good retro arcade cabinet :-)

My all time favourite arcade machine was called: chelnov: atomic runner

I am really bad at it, but just love it !

And I got to say, even on the big screen - I still suck :-)

The skulls are surprisingly comfortable in use.

The cool thing is that I'm playing the exact same game rom I played at the arcade in Stoke, when I was at college 35 years ago

20220524_222333_001.gif (392 KB | 29 )

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on May 26th, 2022 at 6:30pm
One of the reasons for making this was to have something I could do with my dad.

So I've finally got both aspects of the cabinet working simultaneously !

It's now both a multi table pinball arcade and an arcade and games console monster :-)

My dad's favourite video game is the original space invaders.
Gotta say it looks and plays amazing on this big screen.
Better than the original :-)


20220526_231802.gif (388 KB | 25 )

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Rat Man on May 31st, 2022 at 9:08am
Good job!!

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by perpetualstudent on Jun 3rd, 2022 at 10:11am
that looks amazing

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by Curious Aardvark on Jun 3rd, 2022 at 12:43pm
One thing that is interesting, one of the pinball tables in zaccaria pinball has now developed an actual 'physical' fault.

When you start a game, the ball does not appear.
I discovered that you now have to 'nudge' the table to knock the ball out of the feed chute and in front of the plunger.

I think this is probably taking realism a little too far :-)

I restarted the program and computer, but it's still doing it.
Bloody hilarious.

I vaguely recall seeing a 'call operator' option in one of the program's menus. Clicked and nothing happened.
I guess it doesn't do anything until you have a table with an actual mechanical fault.

Some of these programmers really need to get out more !

Title: Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Post by IronGoober on Jul 1st, 2022 at 12:15pm
This is excellent! Hopefully you still have to put in a coin to operate it so it can work like a piggy bank!

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