PinKadia: Pinball, MAME, and PC games in a combined Pinball and Arcade cabinet!

Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 129 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #18560
    TerryRed
    Moderator
      @terryred
      MemberContributorModerator

      Back in November / December of 2015, it took me about 2 months to build a combination of a Pinball and Arcade cabinet.

       

      I present… PinKadia!

       

      Here is the first video tour after I finished most of it right before Christmas.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EpEymOD6j0

       

      Here are video demonstrations of the different systems I have running on it via Pinball X:

      MAME: Horizontal and Vertical games on the playfied screen with marquees on the backglass screen):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c11Vhd-136k

       

      PC Games (only horizontal games on the backglass screen for now, vertical games on the playfield screen soon to come):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9VSUpkBt5s

       

      Future Pinball (my favorite pinball simulator, best sound and graphics, and its free! I customized most tables to make use of my unique extended backglass on the 3rd screen):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0siU0B9IC0

       

      BAM – 3D head tracking for Future Pinball demonstration (really cool):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfz82-EaOQA

       

      Pinball FX2 (with animated backglass and marquee / logo):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02yOiHutEO0

       

      The Pinball Arcade (with animated backglass, and running a mod for use in a cabinet):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZJub0Z1Emg

       

      Visual Pinball (makes use of the two different sized DMD areas on the third screen):

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

      #18564
      randr
      Keymaster
        @randr
        ModeratorMember

        I’ve seen this on pbx forum I think and love the double “dmd” hats off to you for configuring all that and very nice build! Glad to see you share the project here! Very cool cab!

        ********************************************************
        Messing with the VPinball app and push notifications.
        So if you haven't downloaded app yet what are you waiting for!?
        for IOS and Android

        ********************************************************

        1 user thanked author for this post.
        #18565
        TerryRed
        Moderator
          @terryred
          MemberContributorModerator

          The back story:

          I’m a 42 year old guy who grew up in arcades in the 80’s and 90’s. I love arcade games and pinball, and video games in general. I’ve also been an electronics technician for 20 years. (15 as a civvie, 5 in the military)

          This WAS my mancave a while ago. It housed my custom simpit that I made for racing and flight sim games. It had three 42 inch TVs for surround view, as well as 12 transducers combined with SimVibe software to give vibrational feeback from telemetry data from the racing games I played. The console on the right rotates around to switch between a shifter and flightstick. The dash has two tablets that act as tachometer / speedometer, and a button box / control panel. I love it!

          That being said, I always thought the 3 screens (that spanned almost 10 feet!) were a bit much. So when I got myself a 55 inch UHD 4K curved TV, for my normal PC gaming, I found I loved playing my racing games on it much better. I would get 2/3 of the same visible screen field of view that I had with 3 screens using a custom 21:9 resolution of 3840×1640, with much nicer colour and resolution. Also, with VR headsets coming out, I wouldn’t be using those screens as much when I (someday) get one.

          So I decided to ditch the 3 screens setup and use them to make a combination Pinball and Arcade cabinet that would also play PC games! (I can move the simpit in front of my UHD TV’s new location easily when I want to use it).

          Commence the start of the creation of PinKadia!

          After reading ALOT of posts of other projects, here is where my priorities were, and what I wanted:

          -I wanted something that would play Future Pinball, Pinball FX2, The Pinball Arcade, Visual Pinball, MAME Arcade games, and PC games (ie fighting and action games)
          -I wanted two player controls with actual (PC / Xbox 360 / One) hardware for maximum compatibility and ease for all games
          -it had to be made using many of the components I already had (I already had most of the electronics needed)
          -it had to be made as cheaply as possible to keep me from becoming single (my wife is not a big gamer)

          Things that will come later on down the line and were not a priority:

          -DOF, LED controlled lighting, feedback, etc
          -printed artwork
          – or otherwords… anything really costly that I didn’t already have.

          So I came up with this mock-up to tide me over and help me figure exactly what I wanted.

           

          What a beauty…. boy my wife just “LOVED” seeing this in my mancave for weeks on end…. but it really helped me tinker with different ideas instead of rushing into things. What I found was that I wanted to have a 3 screen setup, and I wanted to make use of the ENTIRE 3rd screen. Not just for the DMD like everyone else, but also to extend the backglass (only possible with Future Pinball) to make use of the excellent movie clips / colour DMDs / gadgets and other things you could see in Future Pinball. I HATE trying to “squish” a square backglass into a wide rectangular screen. This would allow me to make use of that space in a good way!

          Both Pinball FX2 and The Pinball Arcade can now support DMD / displays on the third screen (TPA uses a mod, PBFX2 has native support now). So with the extra space left over on the 3rd screen, I can put nice animated logos or whatever I want there using Pinball X as a frontend, as well as having animated videos for the backglass.

          By having arcade controls on the cabinet this would also allow me to play MAME vertical games on the playfield, and MAME horizontal games on the backglass or playfield. I could also play almost any PC action game on the backglass as well (since they are 16×9 games).

          I also wanted to make use of my 5.1 speakers in the cabinet.

           

          So on with the build… I began with de-bezeling one of my 42 inch TVs, only to find that the main support for the framing of the TV came for the plastic housing itself. (This is because this TV is not an edge-lit LED TV, its a back-lit LED TV) So I had to keep the TV housing fastened together.

          I cut off the plastic for the IR / Power LED, and control PCB. I just taped the PCB on the bottom of the TV where it won’t be seen.

          For the size of the cabinet itself, I used the standard Williams Widebody plans that you can find all over the Internet. I then adjusted to sizes to work with my 3 screens. 42 inch TV for playfield, 27 inch monitor for backglass, 19 inch 4:3 monitor for DMD / extended backglass. I had found a place here in Canada that had Pinball legs and bolts for a decent price. The Canadian dollar is horrible right now, so getting anything from the States can be expensive.

          I was able to get the following built in a day.

          This was a mock up for the arcade controls…I tried a couple of different layouts to see how I would like it.

          Three buttons on the side. Main flipper, 2nd flipper / special, and nudge. I personally can do without a “real” nudge control for now. A plunger was also not a priority either. That may come later. So I just have a normal button for now until i get a big dome type Launch button. The coin door is not for functionality, but just for looks and simple access. Maybe i’ll get it working later on.

           

          Now comes the sucky part…. taking it apart for mudding. All open cut parts of the MDF were sealed with dry wall compound. Other areas were covered with wood filler.

          Then all the sanding which made a lovely dusty mess in the mancave.

          Finally, i got to put on the oil-based (no-scent) primer to help seal the MDF for painting. Then I painted the inside and back of the cabinet black. the outside was painted with “amazing” red.

           

          Now I could put everything back together. I installed chrome T-molding for the backglass. Then I installed the “front” speakers, backlgass 27 inch monitor, and 19 inch DMD / extension monitor. The 19 inch monitor sits only a little bit inside the lower cabinet.

           

           

          The back of the cabinet has two small fans and a door for the backglass screens, and two large fans and a door for the lower cabinet. I also made some extra vent / access holes for cabling that may be needed in the future. the fans draw air out of the cabinet.

           

          The back door allows access to the PC and cabling. The PC is mounted on a shelf on rails, so it can just slide out of the back for access if needed.

           

          For the PC I used some mounting hardware from an old server case. I originally had on old i5 dual core CPU and server motherboard, but that got replaced with an i5 2500K later on. Dual core cpu worked fine for mostly everything, except when it came to playing 3 videos at once through Pinball X. Quad core cpu was needed for that. PC specs are:

          i5 2500K quad core cpu
          8 gigs ddr3 1600 ram
          nvidia gtx 960 video card (all 3 screens connected to this one video card, via HDMI, DVI, display port)
          750 watt power supply
          250 gig ssd
          500 gig hard drive
          sound blaster audigy 2 sound card for 5.1 sound (that was removed when the motherboard was changed).
          logitech 5.1 speaker system (older set i’ve had for years)

           

           

          Here’s the subwoofer and air-intake fan that brings fresh cool air into the cabinet.

           

          This is where the rear speakers are mounted. I actually swapped the front and rear speakers so I could reach under the cabinet and adjust the volume if need be. (I had to swap the audio cables on the sound card for this to work) The center speaker will go in the middle hole.

          Now for the controls! I decided to use two Logitech F310 gamepads for two players and for pinball controls:

          -they are really cheap
          -they provide both direct-input and x-input compatibility
          -they are completely xbox 360 compatible (which works with ALL games / emulators). No need for xpadder-like software.
          -they have a button that allows the functions of the d-pad and left analogue stick to swap. VERY important as some games won’t allow some functions to work with the d-pad. The d-pad is what I will be using for the arcade stick. This allows me to have d-pad and “left analogue stick” functionality at anytime on the arcade joystick at the push of a button. you can’t get this with a normal xbox 360 gamepad.

          Now the un-fun part. I had to do some reverse engineering to find out how this sucker is wired. I wanted to have all the normal buttons and the “triggers” for buttons as well. You need to replace to potentiometers for the triggers with correct resistor values and hope it works. Unfortunately, getting the triggers to work this way would also mess up the resistance for the analogue sticks. So I eventually had to give up the trigger buttons and use the left and right stick buttons. As a result, I had to make my two center buttons (red/green) the “home” button (for player one and two) which would just open STEAM Big Picture Mode, which I wasn’t going to use.

          Normally, you only need one common ground when wiring buttons to most gamepads… not this one! It had FIVE different grounds, working with diodes in a matrix encoder. A pain to figure out, but I got ‘er done! So I mounted the gamepad to a board and had all the wires I soldered to it goto terminal strips. Then I can have the cabinet’s arcade buttons AND the pinball button wires use the same controls off of the player one gamepad.

          Unfortunately, I was unable to get the old-school parallel / printer cables (DB-25) I needed to allow the control panel to just “plug-in” to the gamepad board. I was building this part during Christmas holidays, and the very few shops we have around here didn’t have any. So I just mounted it anyway with the shorter wires (which I got from a couple of JAMMA harnesses) connected directly. As a result, the player one gamepad and pinball controls all look like this mess. Keep in mind…. most pinball cabinets only have around 10 buttons / controls to wire up…. I have OVER 40, with multiple separate grounds, and LEDS on each button (except the flipper buttons). When I get the cables I need and I’m ambitious this will be mostly gone and all tidied up….either way I won’t see it!

          As you can see…. the player two gamepad is much tidier.

           

          For the control panel, the insides of the playfield walls, backglass walls, and DMD bezel, I decided to use carbon fibre vinyl wrap. I had some left over from the simpit, and liked to way it looked with chrome trim. I’m a sucker for chrome and shiny car stuff. (I used to have a 1971 Chevelle with a custom 415 horsepower engine, but that was another life!) This is one of the few things I could buy around here. (at Walmart or Canadian Tire)

          This is how my Layout looks for my screens for Future Pinball. This is required in order to use my extended backglass. Screen 1 is the playfield, screen 2 is the backgass, and screen 3 is the DMD / extended backglass.

          Setup Future Pinball the way you normally would for your playfield and backglass. Exit Future Pinball. Then you then MUST configure Future Pinball’s backglass resolution MANUALLY through the windows registry… NOT through Future Pinball itself. I have my backglass set to 1920×1600. What this does is, it “extends” the backglass from the 2nd screen down onto the 3rd screen. It can be larger than this, but anything past the bottom of the “translite” in Future Pinball is useless. I also use Future DMD on the bottom of the 3rd screen anyway, because you can’t adjust the physical size of the DMD in Future Pinball itself (Future DMD can be ANY size). Overlays (which are used for movie clips, custom colour DMDs, gadgets,etc) can be made to ANY size!

           

          This picture below shows my Future Pinball displays across the 3 screens. The black areas are the unused parts of the windows “desktop”. The blue background on screen 3 is the desktop background. (I normally have it black but changed it to blue just for illustration purposes) This is the pinball table with no modification or custom overlays.

           

          This picture shows a custom overlay I made with a simple castle wall picture with extra stats for the game showing (which were normally shown in desktop mode on this particular version of the table). This area can be used for anything you want in Future Pinball!

           

          Here you can see it displayed on my 3rd screen.

           

          For my DMD / Extended backglass bezel, I just made it from thin backboard used for book shelves. I then covered it with carbon fibre vinyl, and covered the edges with automotive chrome trim. I covered the speaker holes with speaker cloth from Fabricland.

           

          Now you can see how the bezel makes it look like I have a 4th screen that is separate from the backglass and dmd.

           

          Now I just had to fasten the aluminum trim and throw the playfield TV in…

           

          ….and it’s ALIVE! PinKadia lives!!!!

           

           

           

          This is my BAM IR Led tracking hat. I made this for Freetrak / Track IR on my simpit with a ps3 eye camera, and they both work great with BAM Freetrack tracking through FaceTrackNoIR. It looks totally cool!

           

          I replaced my fans because they were used in a server, and were very loud! These new fans are cheap, quiet, and have red leds in them.

           

          Finally I added cheap LED colour-changing lighting that plugs into a molex connector from my cpu power supply. (The sub woofer on the floor is from my home theatre, not the pincab)

           

          Things to do still:

          -add glass to the playfield
          -controlled lighting, DOF, feedback,etc..
          -big Launch button
          -“maybe” a plunger and tilt
          – possibly a spinner
          – 4 way gated joystick in the top center
          – bat tops for the joysticks

          #18566
          randr
          Keymaster
            @randr
            ModeratorMember

            Truly a unique build. Looks great. Awesome story! What’s your favorite vp tables?

            ********************************************************
            Messing with the VPinball app and push notifications.
            So if you haven't downloaded app yet what are you waiting for!?
            for IOS and Android

            ********************************************************

            #18567
            Jesperpark
            Participant
              @jesperpark
              Member

              Love the different build designs, i saw this on arcade controls literally today and got me thinking about the “next” project.

              Great job!

              1 user thanked author for this post.
              #18570
              TerryRed
              Moderator
                @terryred
                MemberContributorModerator

                I’ve seen this on pbx forum I think and love the double “dmd” hats off to you for configuring all that and very nice build! Glad to see you share the project here! Very cool cab!

                Thank you very much. Watched all of your Youtube videos before building my cabinet, and they were very helpful.

                Now I’m in the middle of figuring out what direction I want to go with controlled lighting. (and eventually feedback)

                It’s gotta be cheap (being a tech for 20 years with a wife who doesn’t relate to this stuff is frustrating!) If all I cared about was DOF and Visual Pinball, the choice would be very easy…. go with the addressable LED lighting you and swisslizard and the others have been playing with which makes total sense…

                …but I also want to have controlled lighting for MAME for the buttons / sticks (I have “CP Wizard created” control panels pics show up for each game on the top DMD screen now, with the MAME marquee in the lower half. It shows while browsing Pinball X and while playing)…

                …and I still want to be able to use what I can for LED lighting / feedback for Future Pinball. I know I have to edit the scripts in the tables to do this, but I want to be able to use what I can, and make my own effects if I can figure it out.

                The first priority is lighting…. then feedback in the future.   If I go with the addressable LED matrix instead of CREE leds, then I have no way of making use of them with Future Pinball, correct? Future Pinball is a priority for me. Also, I don’t know if I use a PACLED64 for buttons / pinball lighting instead of LEDWIZ, will I be able to use that with Future Pinball tables via FP’s “LED-Wiz” capabilities, or is “feedback / controlled lighting” only possible with an LEDWIZ with Future Pinball?

                Perhaps this is the best course of action:

                PACLED64 for all of my lighting (if it can work with FP):

                -for buttons (assuming I dont go RGB for buttons) and sticks, as well as cree RGB flashers, and a normal RGB led strip on the sides of playfield, and at the back of the playfield (at the bottom).

                -in the future I can then install a second strip of addressable RGB leds above the normal strips beside the playfield, relocate the cree flashers as a topper, and install led matrix above the normal led strip at the back of the playfield.  This would give me the capability of the new DOF matrix lighting for VP, and still have the old lighting for FP.

                If PACLED64 wont work for FP, then I have to use LEDWIZ no matter what….

                ….so then I guess I’m stuck with LED Wiz for FP, VP, initially. Not enough ports for MAME buttons/ sticks afterward… so I guess I will have to go with a PACLED 64 (or smaller) for just that.

                I do however want to install one of ZEBs Opto Flipper / Relay boards so I can at least have flipper feedback for ALL pinball games for the cheap no matter what.

                 

                Any ideas or suggestions… having all this stuff in one cabinet makes for a non-typical setup. I don’t want to buy something just to find it was a waste for my purposes, etc..

                 

                #18572
                TerryRed
                Moderator
                  @terryred
                  MemberContributorModerator

                  Truly a unique build. Looks great. Awesome story! What’s your favorite vp tables?

                  I’ll be honest…. I’ve been so busy just getting all the different systems setup (FP, PFX2, TPA, VP, d2bs, MAME, Pinball X) with all the many tables and games….not to mention all of the media for those systems (recording video manually for 3 screens for around 500 tables, and now starting with MAME videos), that I’ve barely been able to just sit and “PLAY” VP tables.

                  I have tried every table I have for VP of course, and have sorted through the more popular ones. The ones that stood out to me so far are TOTAN, Circus Voltaire, America’s Most Haunted, Addams Family, Theater of Magic.   However I haven’t had a chance to appreciate the gameplay, toys and rules as much. If I had full DOF and toys, I’d be liking alot of other tables.

                  What surprised me was how quickly I had all of the VP systems up and running without much fuss with the all in one installer, and how quickly I got all the tables setup for d2bs, etc.

                  I’ve been watching ALOT of TNT Amusements videos on Youtube since I built my cabinet. Todd’s a great resource for classic games and Pinball. I’m learning alot about these great pinball games that I never knew about. Great channel.

                  I also see that you’re a classic muscle car lover RandR… oh how I miss my old 71 Chevelle ( 2 door with a custom small block 415 hspwr engine) that I had waaaay back in my youth.  That’s why I have my racing simpit now I guess…

                  #18930
                  Jodannar
                  Participant
                    @jodannar
                    Member

                    Absolutely fantastic build. Ive used the automotive trim on my cabinet also, DMD and speaker panel edges, backbone front edge. How did you make the parts around your speaker/dmd so seamless in the joins? I have a small visible seam/ doesn’t adhere to the tight corners as well as yours

                    #18982
                    TerryRed
                    Moderator
                      @terryred
                      MemberContributorModerator

                      Absolutely fantastic build. Ive used the automotive trim on my cabinet also, DMD and speaker panel edges, backbone front edge. How did you make the parts around your speaker/dmd so seamless in the joins? I have a small visible seam/ doesn’t adhere to the tight corners as well as yours

                      I have only one chrome trim piece for each speaker and dmd hole.  If you look closely you can see where my “seam” is as the bottom / middle of each opening.  As for the rounded corners…. I found that you had to make sure that the trim had to be long enough so that when you put that last part of it on at the “seam”, you had a little bit more than what you needed so that it would push back the rest of the trim and force it to keep the corners pushed in. You couldn’t rely on it sticking on without some force to hold it on. A bit of a pain at first to do, but easy once you figure it out.

                      #23328
                      TerryRed
                      Moderator
                        @terryred
                        MemberContributorModerator

                        Well, now it is time for more upgrades…. as a result this is what happens in the middle of a project upgrade… total mess everywhere which makes my wife sooooo happy!

                         

                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFvVJGNi0gM

                        I always wanted to add in a plunger and a big LAUNCH button. Can’t easily find either in Canada, and buying from the US is costly with our crappy CDN dollar and costly shipping.

                        So, I found a place in Ottawa that does repairs and sells parts called Pinball Medics.

                        https://pinballmedics.ca/%5B/url%5D

                        Since I was taking my daughter to Ottawa Comi-Con, I was able to stop by his place and buy what I needed from him. He had everything except for the mounting plate for the plunger, which I didn’t need anyway. He’s a great guy and had a fantastic Pinball collection which I sadly didn’t have time to check out…. :(

                        Here’s a video demonstration of my plunger setup:

                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM7a84cmRTU

                         

                        Hopefully I can maybe make a couple of custom tilt-bobs to work as a digital nudge type of setup. Then, I’m off to update the control panel with a different button layout, a third 4-way joystick, and all three joysticks will have BAT tops instead of BALL tops.

                        After all this is done, its just a waiting game for all my parts to arrive from China, so I can install feedback via 10 solenoids. I’ll also be installing led strip lighting to act as 5 rgb flashers, addressable led strip lighting / matrix for animation, white strobes, and red / blue beacons (LED strobe versions).

                        Lots of work to do!

                        #26985
                        TerryRed
                        Moderator
                          @terryred
                          MemberContributorModerator

                          While waiting for my parts to arrive from China for feedback (solenoids, lighting, etc), I figured I would get some other upgrades done to the cabinet, now that the plunger is working.

                          After using the cabinet for a while, I really wanted to have a dedicated 4-way joystick for alot of the classic arcade games that really do need it. (Pac-man, Q-bert, Dig-Dug, and many more). I also wasn’t really happy with the “ergonomic” button layout. Yah, it was nicer for fighting games, but not for anything else for me personally. Also, in order for me to fit a third joystick on the control panel I would have to rearrange the buttons in order to have enough space. I also didn’t like the ball tops, and the LED joysticks don’t allow for easily changing the tops without reaching inside the cabinet.

                          Another thing I wanted was to eventually put in a spinner, but I needed to have a hole pre-drilled for it. So I have two extra buttons above the right joystick that can be swapped out with a spinner later on. I also put in a central “FIRE” button for those pinball games that use it (Star Trek, AC/DC, Alien Legacy, etc). I also labelled every button with transparent labels from a cheap label maker. It worked surprisingly well, and you can’t see the label unless you look real close at the buttons.

                           

                          I decided to use a spare XBOX 360 gamepad (instead of the Logitech gamepad) for player one and the pinball controls. The main reason was that I wanted to have force-feedback outputs from the gamepad to use to create possible feedback options (solenoids, lighting) for Pinball FX2 and The Pinball Arcade in the future. I also setup this controller so that the x / y potentiometer was completely accessible for the plunger in the cabinet. This gamepad was MUCH easier to wire up as it had only one common ground for all buttons, and the pads were larger and easier to work with.

                          Here you can see that I now have the entire control panel connected to two old school parallel db-25 cables for player one and player two, with a molex connector for the LED lighting. MUCH nicer than having all wires directly goto the gamepads. Yes, this involved soldering over 125 wires…. but now if I ever need to get access to the control panel or change / replace anything, I just unplug three easy to access cables. Yes, its alot of work, and I could have used some other solutions instead of gamepads, but that would not have given absolute complete compatibility with ALL PC Games and emulators / pinball games without some hassles. I will NEVER have any problems with any game running properly on this cabinet using this.

                           

                          Here you can see the extra trim I put around the side and front buttons. I found that the LED lighting was too bright at 12V for the LED buttons on the arcade panel, so I used 5V instead. Combined with the non-lit BAT tops, I found this to be much nicer on the eyes while playing. My white LEDS for the bottom white buttons have died out, and I didn’t have any spares. So I put in similar colour LEDS as the A B X Y buttons to match for now. They look almost the same in person and much nicer as opposed to the picture.

                           

                          With the undercab and speaker lighting, it makes for quite the colorful display at night time…. can’t wait for my addressable led strips!

                           

                          #27075
                          TerryRed
                          Moderator
                            @terryred
                            MemberContributorModerator

                            I always try to find new ways to make use of the “4th display” area on my middle screen.

                            For MAME, I knew there were some cool programs out there that would let you see your control panel layout and other info for each game, either by pausing, etc..

                            I just wanted a way to show what the controls were for each game in MAME since there are so many different layouts. When someone else is using the cabinet, it would be nice not having to explain to them the controls for each game….but when I found CP-Wizard, I found exactly what I had wanted.

                            I am basically trying to setup as standard control panel layout for each control type for each game in CP-Wizard. I just made a background pic the size of my middle screen with the MAME logo at the bottom. Then I made the layouts I wanted and saved them as separate layouts. Then I had CP-Wizard configured to use whatever layout for each control scheme as required.

                            I didn’t need to have CP Wizard running in the background. I just had CP-Wizard do an Export-batch, creating control panel images for each game automatically with the correct naming of the files. These pics work with Pinball X as my DMD screen images for MAME. They display while browsing through each game and stay displayed while playing. Simple and easy to see to see while playing at any time. I may just use this for PC Games and other emulators too.

                            Here’s some pics of my current layout. Its simple, and probably not final, but works quite well.

                             

                             

                            #27084
                            randr
                            Keymaster
                              @randr
                              ModeratorMember

                              @terryrd good use of 4th screen. i use ledblinky and color rgb’s to say and color code buttons on my mame cab :) your build is very cool and i will say you got a lot packed on that cab without looking over funked up but be careful adding anymore or you may need a swappable control panel to play pinball getting a lot of arcade on the lock area :) BUT I LIKE IT :) :good:

                              ********************************************************
                              Messing with the VPinball app and push notifications.
                              So if you haven't downloaded app yet what are you waiting for!?
                              for IOS and Android

                              ********************************************************

                              1 user thanked author for this post.
                              #27090
                              CarnyPriest
                              Participant
                                @carnypriest
                                Member

                                CP Wizard is great!

                                #27093
                                TerryRed
                                Moderator
                                  @terryred
                                  MemberContributorModerator

                                  @terryrd good use of 4th screen. i use ledblinky and color rgb’s to say and color code buttons on my mame cab :) your build is very cool and i will say you got a lot packed on that cab without looking over funked up but be careful adding anymore or you may need a swappable control panel to play pinball getting a lot of arcade on the lock area :) BUT I LIKE IT :) :good:

                                  Haha.. don’t worry. This is as far as it goes. A spinner might replace one of those buttons, but that’s it. I originally only wanted one player with a second stick for dual stick games (robotron, crazy climber, etc), but I figured I might as well just add the extra buttons for full two player just in case, and have no regrets. PC Games need those 8 buttons beside each stick.

                                  Even with all the buttons lit up, I honestly don’t even notice the arcade controls at all when playing pinball. There’s plenty of pinball space for my hands and nothing gets in the way. I will eventually probably go with either a PAC-LED (if using RGB leds) for the arcade buttons to turn on / off for each game as needed, or another LED-Wiz. Either way, right now I can turn off the arcade panel lights with a switch if I don’t want to see them, while still leaving all the pinball lights alone.

                                  I was considering a changable panel, and its still possible (now because of the plug-in cables)… but I hate the idea of having to swap out controls all the time. (A buddy of mine did this with a MAME cabinet many years ago)

                                  I was also considering making another arcade only cabinet, but being in the military, I could get posted to some place where housing is VERY expensive to purchase, and I might not have as big a space as I do now. This was part of the reason why I down-sized my simpit which spanned almost 10 feet across with three 42 inch TVs!  :)

                                  It’s been 1 month in waiting for my DOF, and addressable lighting parts… ahhh the waiting….

                                  #27096
                                  TerryRed
                                  Moderator
                                    @terryred
                                    MemberContributorModerator

                                    CP Wizard is great!

                                    It is! I wish I would have found it before doing my backglass marquee images manually….  :(

                                    #32441
                                    TerryRed
                                    Moderator
                                      @terryred
                                      MemberContributorModerator

                                       

                                      Here’s a video showing the new control panel, as well as an update to what parts I have so far for controlled LED lighting and feedback.

                                       

                                       
                                      #32451
                                      TerryRed
                                      Moderator
                                        @terryred
                                        MemberContributorModerator

                                         

                                         

                                        PC Vertical / Portrait Games

                                         

                                        There are some PC games out there that actually do support a vertical / portrait layout.

                                        Some are basically arcade ports and some are original. they are either Steam games or normal PC Games such as:

                                        -Crimson Clover

                                        -Ikaruga

                                        -Mushihimesama

                                        -Raiden III

                                        -Raiden IV Overkill

                                        -Ice Cold Beer

                                        -Zeke’s Peak

                                        Ice Cold Beer / Zeke’s Peak required me using Pinnacle Game Profiler for my P1 joystick and XPadder for my P2 Joystick… but it works perfect together. the others just worked normally and gave you rotate options for your screen.

                                         

                                        Then there are the Windows 10 Store Games. These are originally tablet / phone type games that work with keyboard / mouse or gamepad controls. I basically had my P2 joystick and buttons act like a mouse for these games in case it was needed.

                                         

                                        Since these don’t have a normal .EXE file to reference, in order to get these to run with Pinnacle Game Profiler for mapped controls….  I had to run this command:

                                         

                                        %windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{4234d49b-0245-4df3-b780-3893943456e1}

                                         

                                        Then create a shorcut for the games from the window that opens.

                                        Create a .BAT file that “Starts” the Pinnacle Game Profile (persistent) manually for your game via command line… then it opens the *.lnk shorcut you created for your game.

                                        Use this .BAT file with Rocketlauncher via Pinball X  (I open all my PC games with Pinball X using RocketLauncher)

                                        Have your “Launch After” run another .BAT file that “Stops” your Pinnacle Game Profiler manually.

                                         

                                        These games look and play great when setup correctly. Games such as:

                                         

                                        Crossy Road

                                        Despicable Me

                                        Sonic Dash

                                         

                                        Like MAME, I added control panel pics in the middle screen where possible.

                                         

                                        Here’s a video showing some of these games in action in Pinball X.

                                         

                                        Since I have arcade sticks and many buttons, its not a problem for me to get alot of these games to run. I know I can also run Android games through Blue Stacks and other programs (I have done so on my normal PC), but that may come at a later time.

                                         

                                         

                                        #32454
                                        randr
                                        Keymaster
                                          @randr
                                          ModeratorMember

                                          Nice video very well done. You will love feedback!

                                          ********************************************************
                                          Messing with the VPinball app and push notifications.
                                          So if you haven't downloaded app yet what are you waiting for!?
                                          for IOS and Android

                                          ********************************************************

                                          1 user thanked author for this post.
                                          #32455
                                          TerryRed
                                          Moderator
                                            @terryred
                                            MemberContributorModerator

                                            Unfortunately…knowing my luck, our national postal service (which my parts from China use) will most likely go on strike by the end of the week.

                                            If I don’t get the rest of my stuff by then….god knows when it will get here.  :(

                                          Viewing 20 posts - 1 through 20 (of 129 total)

                                          Forums are currently locked.

                                          ©2024 VPinBall.com

                                          Log in with your credentials

                                          Forgot your details?