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HomerRamone

HomerRamone

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HomerRamone
So, i'm still wresting the idea of getting another pin as a project.

I can decide wether or not do that, or build a Virtual Pin. A Vpin wont be as good of course, but I already have an Addams so im not desperate. Also I would like make the VPin smaller to see how it pans out..

However, im still curious to know what sort of price I should expect to pay for a project machine. Obviously its going to depend on the state of it an all.. but ball park I mean.

Theres the 8 ball sitting on flea bay (currently around the 260 mark)... quite like this kind of price.. just wondering if thats about what should be paid ... ?
 
VPins are great, I can't knock them as it's how I got into owning real machines. But, before you spend serious money to build one make sure you are happy with how they play. For me the physics are still poor and flipper lag can be an issue on certain displays. Even on the latest emulators like VPX with 4K graphics, real DMD, LEDs and contactors/shaker in the cab, etc. - all of which are amazing, yet the physics are still off and vary massively between tables dependiong on how physics are set up for the various table objects used.

I used to help table builders tweak the physics in the old VP9, spending hours to get them to play right. I've spent some time on this in VPX and can't get anywhere close. The latest Funhouse plays decent as the guy was trying something different, but that's an exception. EMs seem to play worse for some reason.
 
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Aye. Im not expecting it to be as good for sure. But its as much about making the thing as playing it. I have an I5 PC that ive been going to sell for a wee while and havent gotten around to it.. So the PC H/W is no problem. I have a w/s and a 4:3 monitor too, (Albeit quite small ones) so I think I will try with those first...

But the idea of refurbing a pin is tempting. (Done a few before and its quite satisfying :) )
 
It will be interesting to see where that EBD ends up with effectively no backglass and whatever state the PCBs are in. The Powerplay and Six Million Dollar Man appear to be genuine projects and are up to £400/£510 already.
 
Aye. Saw SMDM but know nothing about it...
As mentioned in another post the 8B slightly interests me because I know where theres a backglass. The playfield dont look too bad but the PCBs is another matter. Theres a generic replacement solution for the old bally games though isnt there ?
 
If you do build a cab, put Timeshock! on it, it's amazing. Unfortunately they seemed to have stopped development and are not answering any questions but the game is perfectly playable as it is. I think the only way to buy it now is through Steam, which might also be a pain but I don't mind because I'm quite partial to a bit of PinballFX too.
 
insx said:
If you do build a cab, put Timeshock! on it, it's amazing. Unfortunately they seemed to have stopped development and are not answering any questions but the game is perfectly playable as it is. I think the only way to buy it now is through Steam, which might also be a pain but I don't mind because I'm quite partial to a bit of PinballFX too.
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I do have Pinball Arcade for PS4 and a whole bunch of tables. Dont much fancy stumping up for them all over for PC though. (And also given than at the end of the month they wont be able to get ANY revenue from the Williams/Bally tables I dont quite understand why they dont mark down the prices of them now whilst they can !)
 
I have pinballx running VP9/VPX/Pinball fx2 in my cabs.
In fact - I have one that is currently for sale on this very group for under £2k. If it isnt sold soon I am going to up the spec on it by adding a load more stuff!

Personally - I would say going 4K adds an awful lot to the budget. 1080 does me fine with up to a 40 inch screen. If I was going larger - I would go 4K - but then you need a better GPU in the PC and more RAM in the PC too. Adds a few hundred onto the build.

The coils and extra flashers can be added to any cab - as I do not think there is such a thing as 'a finished vpin cab' - you are always adding and tweaking.

PINBALL ARCADE IS AWFUL - dont even look at it on a pin cab.
 
insx said:
Timeshock Ultra
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I actually only tend to play 'real' pinballs on it, I have played pro-pinball. I will only play the odd Pinball FX2 table as in my mind you can not beat the proper games (made by Data East/Stern/Williams/Bally etc).

I make visual pinball tables as it is the only way most of us will play things like Big Bang Bar and Cactus Canyon. Well - actually most games these days due to pinflation.
 
Pick Holder said:
@BigIan - I wouldnt touch Pinball arcade stuff. If you want them - I think I have every table on a hard drive somewhere......
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I have bought a few of them, they are ok but nothing like the real thing.

I think I might have the pc ones myself somewhere (might be Mac ones actually) but I only ever play them on my iPad

Cheers
 
Pick Holder said:
I have pinballx running VP9/VPX/Pinball fx2 in my cabs.
In fact - I have one that is currently for sale on this very group for under £2k. If it isnt sold soon I am going to up the spec on it by adding a load more stuff!

Personally - I would say going 4K adds an awful lot to the budget. 1080 does me fine with up to a 40 inch screen. If I was going larger - I would go 4K - but then you need a better GPU in the PC and more RAM in the PC too. Adds a few hundred onto the build.

The coils and extra flashers can be added to any cab - as I do not think there is such a thing as 'a finished vpin cab' - you are always adding and tweaking.

PINBALL ARCADE IS AWFUL - dont even look at it on a pin cab.
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Yeah - I wasn't planning on getting a 4K display. Deffo going to try it with monitors I already have first. (I forget what video card is in the PC - possibly a 680. believe the CPU is a 3.4ghz one)

I quite like PA. Its certainly not flawless and the prices are pretty steep. But its convenient. I have a PFX2 (and 3) also and its OK too. I prefer recreated tables though.
I did briefly try finding the frontend but only site I could find it on wanted me to pay for a site sub before I could download it which seemed a bit off. (I dont mind paying for this kind of thing, but I was just looking at options at this point)
 
BigIan said:
They are not allowed to, apparently it’s specified in the license agreement that they are not allowed to offer them in package deals or sales etc
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Thats pretty shabby. These folks that have scooped up the Bally/Williams license are clearly not sane. Im not sure about the the logic of any of these decisions.
 
Pick Holder said:
I actually only tend to play 'real' pinballs on it, I have played pro-pinball. I will only play the odd Pinball FX2 table as in my mind you can not beat the proper games (made by Data East/Stern/Williams/Bally etc).
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Each to his own, I suppose. Personally, I find Timeshock to be better than any real game I've played (in terms of design, obviously real life pinball is better).
 
Oh yeah. I certainly see the attraction of the Pinball FX tables. I dont dislike them but I prefer recreations.

With a VPin of course you can have both :)
 
HomerRamone said:
Oh yeah. I certainly see the attraction of the Pinball FX tables. I dont dislike them but I prefer recreations.

With a VPin of course you can have both :)
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Timeshock is Pro Pinball. The only thing I don't like about Pinball FX is that they still don't have a proper cabinet view (at least they didn't last time I fired it up).
 
So, ive now abandonded hope of a super cheap pinball project involving a real table and im going to see how far I get making a virtual one. (I can make it small first and take it from there - which is a plus)

Do I nave to manually download all of the various assets I need for it one by one... or is there a nice neat version of whats required somewhere. I mean ive gotten it working.. But it seems quite long winded adding each table, checking it works correctly and such, adding to the frontend.. Maybe im just being lazy and I should be grateful all the assets are available.... just seems longwinded having to get em all one by one :) )
 
Will worry about when the need arises. (If I was looking to do this I would likely copy the relevant folders VPX etc, reinstall the relevant bits of s/w on the new machine then use beyond compare or something to update the new install with the addition files.. if that makes any sense).

Ive got a few tables on there now and have grabbed a bunch more tables and such. Will likely install them all one at a time to make sure they work :)

Progress anyway

Irritatingly the monitor I had spare as the 2nd monitor isnt well.. It works enough for me to get it running but theres a very yellow tinge. Do I actually need a 3rd monitor for displays or can you get those appearing on the 2nd monitor also ? (I should probably start another thread for this :) )
 
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