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You bored? I’m bored.
Let’s see how far this thing gets, probably another table I’ll never finish. The scripting would be the most disastrous thing to try. Maybe we can get a simple flippable table working? Maybe keep score? Play some animations using UltraDMD? It might be fun, I don’t really have a clue. I’m flying blind here. All I know is how to build a table. I’ve hidden behind VPM scripts for years. I’ve never claimed to even be good at scripting but I can link a switch with the ROM, I can script some moving parts, I’ve gotten by…
Story time, because I’m still bored and don’t want to just post a picture of something that may never be finished:
You know, it’s really easy, the most basic knowledge of visual basic can carry you pretty far in a table build. You can dissect any number of tables and see how they’re scripted. Anything you want to do has already been done before, it’s just a matter of changing the names of items and adapting it to work on your table, the way you want it to. I started on Sharkey’s Shootout which was basically a rebuild using destruk’s script, it was arduous but I got it done, it worked, and I even learned some things. I had been limited to VB script in things like Microsoft Excel, creating macros and stuff. I thought some of it was pretty cool, it really is a basic programming language, if this, then that… give an error if it doesn’t work, etc etc. There’s a lot of that when you first start scripting. Why didn’t this work? It’s so stupid, it’s like 3 lines it should work… but it all comes down to the same few errors. Once you nail those down you won’t be stumped. I get asked the same kinds of questions by new authors, always some variation, it’s usually timers or dims or simply not taking advantage of commandreference.txt. I didn’t either, I ignored it for a long time. I had the ability to pick the brains of some very knowledgeable VP folks early on, in the VPU chat. Rascal and oooPLAYER1ooo helped a lot. After I finished Sharkey’s Shootout, I figured I was brave enough to try a table that (to my knowledge) had not been scripted before. Easy! So I started on 24. That started me on a 2 year journey of people complaining about my dark balls. Let me tell you, 24 was a stupid table to try and script that early on with such limited knowledge. That table has more moving parts than a clock. It’s still not scripted right (the suitcase lock acts funny the first time you hit it) – I was about halfway in when I realized….everything you want to do really has already been done before. Not just snippets of script, the code that makes a slingshot move, or a drop target, or a light blink, but the fucking tables! Javier sent me his version of 24, it was like 90% complete, very nice table. Then I got ahold of who, I think it was luvthatapex’s version? It was a quick table thrown together but was playable and actually not that bad given the resources he probably had. (If I’m wrong about the author of that one, sorry. Maybe it was destruk’s too, someone made a bunch of these SAM tables early on that never got released – yes even WOF. I don’t think NBA was made that way, but it was made) and then a third version appeared in my inbox. All of them playable. Why was I working on this table? Initially because I was a fan of the show. So I figured I’d keep going, they all told me they wouldn’t release theirs so I figured someone had to do it. It’s not a great table, it’s the same 2 shots over and over, but I had fun building it. And I had a lot of good resources from zed’s FP mod when he redrew everything, so it actually looks pretty decent too. I still play that table. I’ve got a slightly updated version around here with working GI lights as well.
After 24 was done I started on Data East’s WWF Royal Rumble…I don’t remember why, all I remember early on was asking Paul over on VPF for resources to build it, and him telling me he wants to work on it himself so he won’t share the resources (odd I think… even tables I’m working on, I’ll share everything I’ve got. You want the PSD for my Star Trek redraw? You can have it – actually that’s where my story really began, I’ll talk about that later) so that kind of pissed me off and I built it out of spite. I had good redraws of the plastic from pinside, I had a good playfield redraw by ASOT, so yea resources are a big part of what makes a table easy to build and what makes me want to build it. That was a new way of building a table. icpjuggla had taken care of a lot of the post primitives and stuff on my 24 build, once I saw how that was done I figured it would be easier to work from the ground up with primitives. That table took a while to build and I learned a lot about primitives while building it. I remember when I released it I had done some stupid thing like forgot to script the ball kicker on one side of the table or something! That would be a bit of a recurring theme in my releases… I think 2 other tables I released with drain walls in place (so you can’t drain the ball) lol whoops. Don’t do that, kids.
Um oh yea this in case anyone is still reading. This is starting a bit like 24, kind of “let’s see how far I get before I give up” and then seeing if I ever actually give up. Honestly, I probably will, but I want to at least experiment a bit. I’ve got the video board in the back (it plays a short video right now), I’ve got the slammer slingshots in the upper ring working, I’ve started building the rails and ramps. I want to produce as much of this in VP as I can, sort of get away from the primitive stuff, at least until I absolutely need to, sort of JP style.
And yea I’ll write more of my story later. That’s more likely to happen than me actually finishing this table.
How about I share WIP tables for the people who want to poke around at stuff along with me? Don’t expect to play this, but you can flip around and take it apart and see how I did things if you want.
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I think I want to talk a bit more about tables that have been created but not released that are floating around out there and maybe some history if I know anything about them. This thread is going to be extremely tangential. Enjoy the ride
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Damn SPIKE.Â
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I played that Stern table lately. Somehow it was boring but maybe it was that way because I didn’t understand the rules and I’m not a big Stern fan… ;)
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It’s not my favorite new one, I like KISS more, GOT kind of sucked… Â I like the elements on it but the execution is not there. I like the slingshots at the top playfield, I like the ramps, but then the playfield feels crowded with the center pops. At least they got creative and switched up the design. That being said, it’s not the worst table I’ve decided to tackle. (Indiana Jones)
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I have not played it out in real life heck I haven’t seen it anywhere!
I will say this…
fren anything you take the time to build it goes straight to my collection and proudly straight to my collection! Even if it’s that 24 tableÂ
 I enjoy tables  even if this is just to whack a ball around with some scripting for scoring kinda like the woz table it’s cool.I will say that as bad of a table Indy is you nailed it as far as looks it’s just like the real thing! I play it and think you did a amazing job on it! I would never play a real one if I had the choice but have played your vp version many times so that’s saying something.
sharing the wip to let people poke around and look is great idea! Best way to learn vp and see how things are scripted so looking forward to this
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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********************************************************
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Not sure how I missed this thread. Great read so far, I’ll be following this one..
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I got distracted by another build, will come back to this shortly and regale all with more tales, both tall and true…
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O do tell what build man?
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 Fren – I find what you have started here in WM is simply amazing. Have you seen the thread by “Daryl” who has a video of his attempt at a Stern Kiss? He has coded it completely using UltraDMD….. I’ve offered to get photos for his PF and plastics. Please keep up your work on this table. Excellent to see it even being attempted. 
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Kiss is boring but that’s just my opinion.. I’ve aged it more than 30 plays on several diffrent occasions just to give it another shot. Each time I wish I didn’t drain my money in it.. lol
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Kiss is boring but that’s just my opinion.. I’ve aged it more than 30 plays on several diffrent occasions just to give it another shot. Each time I wish I didn’t drain my money in it.. lol
hummm…. i like the new kiss… i’ve only played it less than a dozen times… it was kind fun
I think it’s more fun then ghostbusters and way better than Game of Thrones
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I liked KISS more than GoT, haven’t played GB yet. Wrestelmania wasn’t very good either but I just thought it had some cool ideas I’d like to try in VP. I wanted to put the video board in, kind of like that Creature mod a while back it will have video that plays. Also I pulled all the DMD frames from the code, really will probably be the most basic table but it’s something new. Or I never finish it, both very real possibilities. I just don’t have the time to code the whole thing.
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Looking forward to it Fren!
I’m really curious how you script the rules and DMD, sort of original table, same as FP tables, don’t ya?
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Haven’t played GoT but it’s reputation is not good. Which is too bad. Such an epic show.
Hopefully Ghostbusters delivers.
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Looking forward to it Fren! I’m really curious how you script the rules and DMD, sort of original table, same as FP tables, don’t ya?
yea but more basic lol. No idea yet. I’ll steal a lot of the work gtxjoe and lodger did on our futurama table since it had good UltraDMD implementation and was easy for me to follow.
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Great read. Ive just gotten into the VPin hobby (maybe a few years now) and have been thinking about building my first table after having built my cab and playing a few hundred different tables over the years. Reading up on threads, walking through the scripts etc.. Having learned Basic and C++ years ago, a lot of it is straight forward, but seems over whelming. This read was refreshing… and a little scary (Hate hitting a wall, but love it when I figure out the fix). In any case, I was thinking what it would take to build a “Wrestlemania” table? After playing (and having access to one) just a few blocks from my house, I was thinking I couldl likely get the game play down and access to some decent pics. But now I’m thinking its probably not the best “1st” table to go after, especially after reading this post
. Which is funny, because I was just looking to see if anyone was working on this table yet… and here it is. In any case, just wanted to take the time to say thanks for posting…. now off to study your table.You need to login in order to like this post: click here
I just realized i bumped this year + old thread… I suppose by now you’re already playing it.Â
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I like seeing old threads pop up! I was bored
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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********************************************************
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LOL certainly not playing it. I can’t script original tables, I do things so convoluted and it takes forever….
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