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The pinball machine is operational :-) (Read 1555 times)
Curious Aardvark
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The pinball machine is operational :-)
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 Smiley
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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joe_meadmaker
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #1 - Apr 26th, 2022 at 12:57pm
 
Holy heck!  That turned out awesome!  Thumbs Up

Agree 100%.  Bloody brilliant!
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Rat Man
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #2 - Apr 27th, 2022 at 8:32am
 
Sweet!
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #3 - 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 Smiley

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

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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #4 - 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 Smiley
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #5 - Apr 29th, 2022 at 8:17am
 
Whoa, great job! Makes me miss all those days at the skating rink playing pinball, yes Im old.
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #6 - 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.

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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #7 - May 1st, 2022 at 7:11am
 
Few pics of some of the different tables and screen styles.
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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joe_meadmaker
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #8 - May 1st, 2022 at 9:37am
 
Somebody needs to create a sling themed one.  Cheesy
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #9 - 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 Smiley

(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 Smiley

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 Smiley
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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perpetualstudent
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #10 - May 3rd, 2022 at 8:27am
 
it does look great and like a lot of fun!
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"Facts stand wholly outside our gates; they are what they are, and no more;they know nothing about themselves and they pass no judgement upon themselves. What is it, then, that pronounces the judgement? Our own guide and ruler, Reason."
 
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #11 - 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 Smiley
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #12 - May 7th, 2022 at 1:36pm
 
Made some new joystick heads Smiley
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #13 - May 24th, 2022 at 5:30pm
 
So the pinball machine is also a rather good retro arcade cabinet Smiley

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 Smiley

The skulls are surprisingly comfortable in use.
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Re: The pinball machine is operational :-)
Reply #14 - May 24th, 2022 at 5:33pm
 
So the pinball machine is also a rather good retro arcade cabinet Smiley

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 Smiley

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
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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