Been a while since I posted something here, which means I'm busy with a lot of things;
First made some changes to the website. Dropped a few categories from the homepage and other index pages, decided I will not maintain these anymore. These are pinball in Belgium, the agenda of shows and the things I learned (which was updated bi-weekly).
I'm busy shopping my Attack From Mars pinball machine. Playfield has been removed from the game, everything on top is removed. Now have to remove the bottom assemblies and clean everything.
Cabinet has been sanded, ready to put new cabinet decals on.
I had shopped this machine when I bought it (7 to 8 years ago) and it's amazing how dirty it is and even how worn some rubbers were. The slingshot rubbers almost broke, theywere so thin !
I'm also busy on making a new Whitewater missing mountain mod.
If you've ever seen the whitewater pinball machine, you know there are mountain shaped plastics in different places. There's a large ramp that's on the left side of the playfield which has a U-shaped turn on the top left of the playfield. Underneath there's nothing, it's completely open, showing the back/side black wood of the machine and an exposed microswitch. Not a nice look.
Someone else had made a mod for this years ago, he had made a new mountain plastic that fit inside this hole.
It made the machine look so much better, it really belonged there;
The mod isn't for sale anymore, so I decided to make my own mountain plastic.
Last week made the base shape using modeling clay. Now it was dried out enough, so yesterday evening I finalized it, build up onto this shape adding the details. I tried to make it look like the other mountai plastics, although that was not easy to do, I'm not a sculptor. Now it has to dry again for a few days.
Then I will make a silicone mold out of it and cast a mountain.
That one I can paint and then I'll see how good it is.. (the model now is in white clay so it's not easy to see it shape correct and predict how it will look painted, as the dark brown paint will stay into the deeper parts).
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
FreeWPC installation
Been busy a few hours this week installing FreeWPC.
The P-ROC system got a lot of attention last year as the way to make new rules for existing pinball machines, but you have to buy special hardware for it.
The FreeWPC project exists longer but is less known. It's a way to create your own rom and make new rules for a WPC pinball machine (and soon maybe other brands and models too..) but no extra hardware is needed.. what is created is a valid wpc rom file that you can burn on an eprom and install in your WPC cpu.
Unfortunately it's not easy to do.. I've been following this project for 2 to 3 years now, was interested but never put any real time in it. Once I've tried to install it, but didn't succeed. I did read some manuals/some lines of code, but didn't continue.
Last year someone took the time to create a good installation manualn documenting all the steps needed to setup the whole system. I'm almost finished, then I'll validate this setup by trying to compile a new rom and test it in pinmame/visual pinball.
If that works well, I'll try to program new rules myself. Already have one game in mind for which I've spent time what new and improved rules it should have.
If anyone has experience with assembly, C, programming embedded systems, .. and wants to create new gamerules for WPC games, please join the google discussion group about freewpc and have a look..
Update: managed to get everything installed this weekend. Was able to compile the Corvette rom and test this in pinmame / visual pinball.
Next step is to declare the machine layout of the new game. Then just compile an 'empty' rom for it, without any rules defined. Just try to compile and get it working. Then develop further, try to learn the freewpc instructions and try to add things.. little steps, one by one..
My goal is to always create a new rom with just one part in it, ie light a few lamps. Then shoot a pinball, do 1 effect when it hits a specific target, .. and when all simple parts are done then try to put it all together.
We'll see how far I get..
The P-ROC system got a lot of attention last year as the way to make new rules for existing pinball machines, but you have to buy special hardware for it.
The FreeWPC project exists longer but is less known. It's a way to create your own rom and make new rules for a WPC pinball machine (and soon maybe other brands and models too..) but no extra hardware is needed.. what is created is a valid wpc rom file that you can burn on an eprom and install in your WPC cpu.
Unfortunately it's not easy to do.. I've been following this project for 2 to 3 years now, was interested but never put any real time in it. Once I've tried to install it, but didn't succeed. I did read some manuals/some lines of code, but didn't continue.
Last year someone took the time to create a good installation manualn documenting all the steps needed to setup the whole system. I'm almost finished, then I'll validate this setup by trying to compile a new rom and test it in pinmame/visual pinball.
If that works well, I'll try to program new rules myself. Already have one game in mind for which I've spent time what new and improved rules it should have.
If anyone has experience with assembly, C, programming embedded systems, .. and wants to create new gamerules for WPC games, please join the google discussion group about freewpc and have a look..
Update: managed to get everything installed this weekend. Was able to compile the Corvette rom and test this in pinmame / visual pinball.
Next step is to declare the machine layout of the new game. Then just compile an 'empty' rom for it, without any rules defined. Just try to compile and get it working. Then develop further, try to learn the freewpc instructions and try to add things.. little steps, one by one..
My goal is to always create a new rom with just one part in it, ie light a few lamps. Then shoot a pinball, do 1 effect when it hits a specific target, .. and when all simple parts are done then try to put it all together.
We'll see how far I get..
Friday, June 22, 2012
pinball machine dimensions
New article with all dimensions, length and height and width of a pinball machine.
Also showing off how strong tempered playfield glass is :-)
Also showing off how strong tempered playfield glass is :-)
Monday, May 14, 2012
RIP Leon Borré
Can't find the words to describe how sad I am. Leon Borré of www.flipper-pinball-fan.be passed away this weekend.
Probably everyone in the pinball community knows him or has at least heard of him or his work. He was always happy with a positive attitude towards life, always making the best of it. It was always a pleasure seeing him at a show. He was very helpful and put many hours in helping everyone that emailed him, came to his house for repairs, ..
Since a few years we knew this day would come but tried not to think about it..
I remember the first day I came to his house with a broken Lectronamo cpu to repair. Was amazed by his collection of machines, his knowledge and ingenuity.
He taught me the basics of pinball repair, I explained him about homepages and translated the first articles he put online.
Just a few months ago I had to repair a Bally solenoid driver board and took out test-pcb I had made back then, like he had described on his site. Was amazed by the date I had printed the documentation about it - back in 2000.
12 years have passed so fast.
RIP Leon, thanks for all you have done and the good memories.
We miss you.
Probably everyone in the pinball community knows him or has at least heard of him or his work. He was always happy with a positive attitude towards life, always making the best of it. It was always a pleasure seeing him at a show. He was very helpful and put many hours in helping everyone that emailed him, came to his house for repairs, ..
Since a few years we knew this day would come but tried not to think about it..
I remember the first day I came to his house with a broken Lectronamo cpu to repair. Was amazed by his collection of machines, his knowledge and ingenuity.
He taught me the basics of pinball repair, I explained him about homepages and translated the first articles he put online.
Just a few months ago I had to repair a Bally solenoid driver board and took out test-pcb I had made back then, like he had described on his site. Was amazed by the date I had printed the documentation about it - back in 2000.
12 years have passed so fast.
RIP Leon, thanks for all you have done and the good memories.
We miss you.
Friday, March 16, 2012
About the price of the Medieval Madness pinball machine
New article published yesterday:
http://www.flippers.be/basics/101_medieval_madness_prices.html
Some people always ask what makes Medieval Madness so special and why its price seems so high compared to other games. Here's the background history about MM prices and how it evolved over the years.
Just published the article, will probably add some things to it the next days, add some nice pictures, ..
http://www.flippers.be/basics/101_medieval_madness_prices.html
Some people always ask what makes Medieval Madness so special and why its price seems so high compared to other games. Here's the background history about MM prices and how it evolved over the years.
Just published the article, will probably add some things to it the next days, add some nice pictures, ..
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