Who can help me build WWFRR mod concept?

[Dinsdale]

Hi everyone

I'd like to introduce a design concept for a mod for WWF Royal Rumble to the pinball community. This mod is to act as a video wall that was used on WWF television in the era that this pinball game was released.

As a huge WWF fan of the era, I am a stickler for accuracy and being faithful to the timeline represented.

Concept
I am aware that a similar mod exists, which effectively loops set video but it has no link to any actions within the game. The aim of this new mod is to improve on this concept in the following ways:

- Introduce the 4x4 sectional grid style screen used on WWF TV at the time on a 4:3 aspect ratio screen
- Transition wrestler logos from one to the other using various sectional transitions (GIF containing two examples below)
- Code this mod so that the current logo displayed (example Bret Hart) plays the transition video to another wrestler
- Introduce a screen accurate countdown clock from the era that will be displayed during multiball as the game counts down to when the next ball is to be released (example below)




Video Matrix
I have put together a video matrix showing every possibility of transition that I can think of. This comes to a total of 132 videos (only short in length and not counting the countdown clock). I do need to sit down and work out what is and isn't possible though, so this may be trimmed down somewhat.


Next Steps
While I will be able to provide all the necessary assets to be displayed, I feel this would need external coding, and a physical design for mounting and installation. I am aware I am simpifying this greatly at this point - so I am looking for recommendations for someone who I can work with on this project to code it, and build it, and who may actually wish to produce and sell this mod.

 

[David retro]

We have a prototype tv mod in the works
We are also happy to help with mod building from parts to assembly if that’s any help

 

[Dinsdale]

We have a prototype tv mod in the works
We are also happy to help with mod building from parts to assembly if that’s any help

That will definitely help. I think I need to get the assets sorted and videos sorted first. What does the TV look like?

Whatever I need needs to be invisibly mounted, with no "frame" as such.

 

[Arv]

I have to ask why? You're playing pinball not watching a tiny TV.

Just wire up a pi with some video shorts on loop job done.

 

[Dinsdale]

I have to ask why? You're playing pinball not watching a tiny TV.

Just wire up a pi with some video shorts on loop job done.

Each time you get a wrestler by hitting the switches, the wrestlers entrance music plays. The idea is that the display transitions to that wrestlers logo, from whatever is currently displayed. You're not supposed to watch it per se, it's a visual feature to go with the audible feature and it's accurate to how it looked on WWF TV at the time (see gif).

Wiring up an Pi looping footage is pointless in my view - which is actually the way the existing mod does it.

 

[Arv]

Quite a bit of work needed to reverse engineer how which particular wrestler is up next.

 

[Dinsdale]

Quite a bit of work needed to reverse engineer how which particular wrestler is up next.

Well, the collections of wrestlers is done in order... 3 sets of 3.

That's why I have used that matrix, and I can probably get the number if needed videos down. Only 5 seconds each.

 

[dave]

What's out there that can jack up to events like the dmd frames? Also memory address changes maybe could do it..

 

[Dinsdale]

What's out there that can jack up to events like the dmd frames? Also memory address changes maybe could do it..

The Ultimate Hunter Killer Mod for T2 uses its own board connected to the CPU to carry out an action when a particular event is triggered. It's quite clever. That one physically moves, I just want it to play a certain video.

 

[dave]

First hurdle is a bit more complicated than that. You want to get an event for any wrestler that comes in then trigger your screen.

So unless there's anything out there that can hook on to get the dmd or mem address then pretty difficult.

A hack would be getting a camera on the DMD and capturing, image match then trigger video.

 

[Arv]

How much are you paying to do this work?

 

[Dinsdale]

First hurdle is a bit more complicated than that. You want to get an event for any wrestler that comes in then trigger your screen.

So unless there's anything out there that can hook on to get the dmd or mem address then pretty difficult.

A hack would be getting a camera on the DMD and capturing, image match then trigger video.

I don't think the DMD is a factor. I need a mini PCB that will look into the CPU. You're right though that it is most likely quite complex.

This this:

How much are you paying to do this work?

Different elements will bring different costs so it varies. I need to get all of the assets ready first and then put it out there. It won't be cheap, I'm sure.

 

[Arv]

You'll need something like an Arduino for this project.

@AlanJ Could be your man.

 

[dave]

I don't think the DMD is a factor. I need a mini PCB that will look into the CPU. You're right though that it is most likely quite complex.

With dmd capture and a frame match you would get event for every wrestler. How a colourdmd would work or drpinball.

Changes in memory for wrestlers isn't a given, couldn't tell you without watching what the roms doing but I do similar hacks with VP and nvram mapping.

Once you know address for whatever it is then you can act on changes there, like the score, end of ball, new games.

 

[Dinsdale]

Just recreated the GIF using Superstars to Bret logo (just as a concept). Slight tweaks needed.


EDIT: Not animating on the forum unfortunately.

 

[AlanJ]

there is no commercial merit to a mod for a game that isn’t that popular. So best to homebrew your own. it’s easy enough to get an arduino etc to display some images on a screen. many of us can help you do that. the tricky bit is figuring out what’s going on in the game. @stumblor has done that sort of stuff, so maybe better to comment on feasibility of that.

 

[Dinsdale]

First video done. Bret is the first wrestler you collect on the centre ramp. The starting graphic is the Royal Rumble. Then, you can get any other wrestlers (depending on whether you've collected them). So the Bret logo will transition to another logo, with a different animation path.

 

[stumblor]

there is no commercial merit to a mod for a game that isn’t that popular. So best to homebrew your own. it’s easy enough to get an arduino etc to display some images on a screen. many of us can help you do that. the tricky bit is figuring out what’s going on in the game. @stumblor has done that sort of stuff, so maybe better to comment on feasibility of that.

Two ways to do it that I can think of.

The first is to use a Tilt Audio board (or my Pinpoint board) to pickup on when certain sounds are played in game (two byte hex code), and then trigger an event over i2c or similar to whatever your controller is. Both those boards mentioned earlier have the ability to do that, and support DE audio bus. Wwf sound hex codes can be found here

132.03 MB file on MEGA

mega.nz

The second is to use a pin2dmd to do it. All colour 'scenes' have unique IDs that are sent out on the tx serial line of the board, which you can then pickup again using an external controller and do what you need to do. More info on how to do that here.

(Edit - Sorry wrong video - see Mikes below!)

Gotta agree with Alan though, you'll be doing this one for fun only. Treat any investment as hobby money.

 

[MadNat]

Two ways to do it that I can think of.

The first is to use a Tilt Audio board (or my Pinpoint board) to pickup on when certain sounds are played in game (two byte hex code), and then trigger an event over i2c or similar to whatever your controller is. Both those boards mentioned earlier have the ability to do that, and support DE audio bus. Wwf sound hex codes can be found here

132.03 MB file on MEGA

mega.nz

The second is to use a pin2dmd to do it. All colour 'scenes' have unique IDs that are sent out on the tx serial line of the board, which you can then pickup again using an external controller and do what you need to do. More info on how to do that here.

Gotta agree with Alan though, you'll be doing this one for fun only. Treat any investment as hobby money.

That vid didnt work for me - but I did find one that Davey describes his idea very thoroughly here:

 

[stumblor]

Whoops! Yeah that one.

 

[Dinsdale]

Two ways to do it that I can think of.

The first is to use a Tilt Audio board (or my Pinpoint board) to pickup on when certain sounds are played in game (two byte hex code), and then trigger an event over i2c or similar to whatever your controller is. Both those boards mentioned earlier have the ability to do that, and support DE audio bus. Wwf sound hex codes can be found here

132.03 MB file on MEGA

mega.nz

The second is to use a pin2dmd to do it. All colour 'scenes' have unique IDs that are sent out on the tx serial line of the board, which you can then pickup again using an external controller and do what you need to do. More info on how to do that here.

(Edit - Sorry wrong video - see Mikes below!)

Gotta agree with Alan though, you'll be doing this one for fun only. Treat any investment as hobby money.

Thanks for this. I know cost will be somewhat prohibitive, especially initially. I'd happy for this to just be a one off mod at this point.

I watched the video. Couple of questions.

I have a ColorDMD. In that case, could I use the Lolipop board on its own but connected to the CPU? I see what you mean about connecting to the DMD and listening out for an event but I need to listen out for the current event AND the event triggered to then display the correct transition video.

Example if Bret Hart's just been collected and his music is playing, and then I hit the ramp to collect Shawn Michaels, I'll want the video of the Bret Hart logo transitioning to Shawn Michaels.

 

[stumblor]

Lollypops doesn't have that capability on it's own I'm afraid, it's something that has been built specifically into the pin2dmd firmware. Having said that, you could use the pin2dmd board without the screens (or a modified version of it) to achieve the same result, and still have your colorDMD doing the actual graphics. Writing your own interpreter for that DMD bus line (what you refer to as the CPU) is achieveable, but difficult. Better to leverage existing projects if you can.

The Lollypops was what I was using to interpret the DMD events, and trigger some result - but I wouldn't envision using one for this project. Instead, you'd use your own controller (arduino or similar) connected to the serial line of the pin2dmd, and then trigger video based on the data coming in. This way, you could keep a record of what is going on (Bret awarded, Shawn awarded etc) and do your videos based on that. When you pickup the 'match' scene (ie end of game) you would then reset everything.

So essentially this kind of architecture



Bear in mind that you would need to pay for a pin2dmd activation code, and also the colour files for this to work I think. Also I would shoot Lucky1 (Joerg) an email to make sure he's cool with you butchering his board design (but he probably will be)

 

[Dinsdale]

Thanks. I'm going to keep all this in mind, and get the graphics nailed down first, then look at what the LCD will look like (I need something frameless, small enough to fit, and then work out where to mount it).

Once I have that, then the hard stuff begins Love that architecture diagram, by the way.