Tommy, The Who's  (Data East, 1994) VP9

VP9 Data East SS Recreation Tommy, The Who's (Data East, 1994) VP9 v1.2 Sun9 MOD

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Solid State Machines

SunWizard

Pinball Nudger
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I have been working on improvements to Tommy (Data East 1994) since its a table (and band, and movie) I like that hasn't been updated in a long time (since 2004). I have PMed Kristian and got the OK. There are others who worked on this table too, so I am posting it here first to get feedback. Its my first table mod, so I kept most of the layout and code the same since its been well playtested. Here are the changes I have made so far:

New pics used for better resolution on almost all of the graphics, moved every light and decal to match the new playfield.
Changed inclination and POV for a wider view like jpsalas great pins.
Made the mirror look like a mirror.
Moved parts to match a factory drawing (used as background in VP editor), making it work more like the real table:
Upper left flipper higher
Upper right jet bumper lower and to the right.
Lower jet bumper to the right.
Union Jack collect hole narrower.

Added the Genius light in the center chute, and made the chute much more visible.
Added many missing flashers: left scoop red light, genius chute 2 blue lights, upper left, parachute hole & center top.
Changed backside graphics on spinners.
Added a Credit light to the backbox.
Fixed the blinders by splitting each in 2 so they work with changes in inclination and FOV, preventing ball inside the flipper.
Fixed a bug where a ball would get trapped below the top center kicker sometimes.
Changed all ramps and wire rails to use the VP graphics instead of decals on top, which looks better as the ball goes on them, and provides more visibility of the ball near the top, like the real table.

Cleaned up the code to comment out unused sections, like emreel1,2,3
Changed to an IMplunger so there is more resolution to make the skill shot, fixed the bug in that code: was switch 18, should be 16, and adjusted the settings to work best.
Made the plunger visually accurate to show the amount of pull.
Put round targets on the lower 3 banks & holiday camp & more time.
Put graphics on the right ramp target.
Added Vpinmame controller.pause and unpause so it stops when you pause the table (with Esc key, so now sounds and other action stops too).

Changed the skill shot and mirror troughs to output right of Collect hole, like the real machine, avoiding clogging the VUK during multiball.
Changed to ballstacks which gives better performance for Collect VUK, skillshot, and mirror hole troughs.
Fixed a bug from v3.3 when you get the ball in the rarely hit secret passage right of Collect hole, it would vanish and your game is over in a bad way.
Increased the width of the backbox and the lockdown bar.

There is now a VP9 version, and this isn't it.
Improved resolution graphic for playfield.
Captive ball broken since v1.1
Blinders improved, thanks to destruk.
Plane decal redesigned from backdrop to playfield.
Added a ball drop sound when it drops from ramps.

Here is the table file if you want to try it: http://www.xyzworks.com/Tommy_1.2_Sun.zip
 

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Thanks this is great work! :)
 
Wonderful mod to this great table. Thank you SunWizard! Now, if only someone could do this for Cirqus Voltaire 1.4 by PacDude / Fuseball / Others, that would be close to pinball nivana for me. (Big hint.) :)

I shall truly be in pinball nivana the day JP Salas releases a Cirqus Voltaire table of his own. (Another big hint.) ;)
 
Wonderful mod to this great table. Thank you SunWizard! Now, if only someone could do this for Cirqus Voltaire 1.4 by PacDude / Fuseball / Others, that would be close to pinball nivana for me. (Big hint.) :)

I shall truly be in pinball nivana the day JP Salas releases a Cirqus Voltaire table of his own. (Another big hint.) ;)

You must've missed Scapino's great version of CV - http://www.scapinosvpins.com/CirqusVoltaire.htm.
 
You must've missed Scapino's great version of CV.

Scapino's CV is very good. It looks great but doesn't play as well as Pac Dude's version. IMHO only. ;) JP has a way of getting the right balance of graphics and playability. again, IMHO.
 
Fantastic new table by SunWizard!

Good music, awesome multiball!!
When the flippers are hidden during the play, very original!
I'd never played this table before, but it went straight into my 'favorites'!

I was under the impression that my score wasn't too bad either .. at least I could enter my initials.. :)
597,636,760.

Well done to the author!
 

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I just updated the table, after I played it on my other computer with a 43" monitor 16:9 aspect. I run tables in a window there so they don't stretch so wide horizontally, and this made lights above the ramps move up and out of position, so I got rid of more decals and built those 2 lights right into the table. This should work better no matter the resolution or aspect you run at.
 
Nice one! SunWizard.

This was one of the first tables I worked on and contributed to, especially 'the blinders' that cover the flippers from time to time.

Good to see it being updated.

PK :joy:
 
Looks pretty darn sweet there. I just so happen to have the fitting ROM for Tommy on the computer I'm on right now - might as well give this bad boy a spin.

The McD

EDIT: Kay, gave it two plays. Right off the bat, I'm psyched that Tommy is getting revamped, but I hope you're not stopping here. There are some problems with the layout. Everytime I hit the left ramp and the ball goes into the left inlane, it looks as if the ball was to go into the slingshot, but still stays out. This messes with the ball flow and really screws with your flow of play too. Same goes for a slower shot into the left loop. It bounces around and comes out awkwardly.

Also, I would say that if more wideness is possible, I say go for it. Put the credit button at the top and stretch the table out a bit more.
 
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Not stopping here if I can make it better, thats why I put it here in WIP section and asked for input, and thanks for your ideas.

I agree that the wider the better, and I tried many options. I couldn't get more wideness and still keep some of the original features I liked of the backbox at the top where you can put the DMD and the Tommy letters with flashers on the backdrop.

I will see what I can do about the flow in spots you mentioned.

Edit: OK fixed the flow in those 2 areas. New table uploaded to the same link above. Some slow shots still get diverted a little by the collect union jack kicker, but I think the real table does that too. The key is so that a loop shot from the right flipper returns smoothly to the right flipper so if you are skilled enough, can do another loop combo!
 
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SunWizard, may be the use of some more high quality pics?
 
I used the highest quality I could get (760x1600 for playfield), do you have some better?
 
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Thanks for the pics. For a playfield they need to be straight from above, by the time I did all the transforms and editing work on those they would be worse resolution that what I already have.
 
Superb! Great table, love it. Plays smooth as butter with a nice full view. Graphics are pretty good as well. Thanks for the update!
 
Thanks for this neat update! I'm enjoying playing it, especially when multiball kicked in.
 
Feel free to mod it as much as you want....practice makes perfect....and getting new authors is only a positive thing....but please set the lockdown bar & backbox at correct length...and either remove the slingshot plastics or align them properly....the table looks real sloppy when they're all fucked up like that (due to your view angle change)...!!

They are in the background image as decals...!!
 
Feel free to mod it as much as you want....practice makes perfect....and getting new authors is only a positive thing....but please set the lockdown bar & backbox at correct length...and either remove the slingshot plastics or align them properly....the table looks real sloppy when they're all fucked up like that (due to your view angle change)...!!
Thanks for the ideas. I widened the lockdown bar, it was so dark on my screen I couldn't tell. I moved and rotated the slingshot front decals a few pixels.

I widened the backbox, although I like it less since it covers the 'Wizard', which is why I had kept it narrower. New version at the link on the 1st post.
 
Good thing you keep working on this. I'll give the new version some spins and will report back tomorrow.

The McD
 
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